Cousins!

It has been a hectic 2-3 days! To make a very long story very short, Wednesday I met my mom halfway and picked up M (my sister) and Emily! They are at my house with me now, and we don't really know what the next step will be but we are keeping it in lots of prayers. M already found a full time job here in Kansas, so she's going to be here for at least a few weeks. If she decides to stay stay, she'll find an apartment nearby and I'll babysit Emily while she works. That's what I'll be doing now, for $35 a week until M makes up her mind about where to go, etc.


Levi is doing great!! He loves Emily, he just smiles and smiles at her, tries to touch her, etc. And she is a precious, precious baby!! She is soooo sweet, good and cute. The 2 of them are 6 months apart, to the day. :-)

"I Love your Blog"

My sweet friend Nicole nominated me for a "I Love your Blog" award! Awww, thanks Nicole!! :-)

Now, I'm supposed to nominate 7 other people whose blogs I love reading. Here's my list--I hope you all will also nominate some blogs you love.

Nicole--right back at ya! ;-) Nicole is a great online friend, and a really sweet lady. I love how she is such a cheerful happy person, and she is so friendly to everyone. Her blog keeps me laughing with all her silly pets (she loves animals as much as I do! And has a lot more of them lol) and she also takes really, really cool pictures.

Sandy usually has some cute pictures of her kids, silly stories about them, or some deep thoughts that can make me think. I admire her because she is so honest about her struggles, etc.

Crystal never fails to make me laugh with some of her wild stories. She has also been very open about many of her struggles and has taught me a thing or two about being more sensitive to others and what they may be going through. Crystal makes the most BEAUTIFUL jewelry. Seriously, she is so talented!!

Jessica is another sweet person. She has 2 adorable boys who are featured on her blog often, and she also shares lots of really yummy recipes, some great tips on saving money, and lots of other fun stuff.

Lois is my SIL. She has 5 really cool kids and they are just a neat family. I enjoy reading about their adventures, school, etc. Hers is another blog that can make me think with the occasional devotionals, etc. I admire how well she handles homeschooling, extracurricular activities, etc.

Nate Lawrenson is someone I don't really know, but I enjoy his blog. His wife Tricia has Cystic Fybrosis. One year ago they found out Tricia was pregnant and had to put off a double lung transplant she desperately needed. Gwyneth was born at 24 weeks weighing a little over 1 lb! God's hand was on all of them as Tricia finally got her lung transplant, and Gwyneth grew and grew and finally got to go home (at 5 months old, I think?). This family has a very strong faith and it's been neat to follow their journey.

My husband Jeremy doesn't blog a whole lot, but it's fun to see what he does come up with. It's usually something about the delicious food he makes on his grill! :-)

CAKE!

Today is Jeremy's birthday---he's 30! That makes ME feel old....I'm married to a 30 year old? LOL
Jeremy looooves Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, so I googled "Reese's Chocolate Cake" and found a recipe to try out. It's just 2 round chocolate cakes layered with a sweet (very rich!) peanut butter frosting. (peanut butter, powdered sugar, milk....) I will find out tonight if he likes it. It looks yummy! As you can see, there's also chopped Reese's on top of the cake. I intended to chop some up and put some in the batter before baking, as well, but I forgot. *rolls eyes* Oh well!
The only problem I have is the recipe made twice as much frosting as I need. Anyone know if you can freeze powdered sugar-based frosting? Or, how long it will keep in the fridge? I think it would be yummy to make chocolate cupcakes and frost with that frosting for our next church meal.....2 weeks from tomorrow.

Randomness

I don't know what to blog about, so I'll just post some random newsy facts. :-)

-Levi had a checkup today. He'll be 9 months old tomorrow. (Friday) He now weighs 17 lbs, and he's 26.5 inches long. Just a little bitty guy; only in the 3rd percentile for weight and height!

-Levi has picked up a few signs, like "milk", "more", "eat", and "all done" with very little effort on my part. He's a smartie! He's also started giving me kisses when I ask for one, or when I say "I love you". Toooooo cute!

-Our abandoned kittens are doing well. After I gave one away and brought 2 in the house, mama kitty started nursing the remaining 3. Now all 5 are back outside, nursing some, and eating regular dry cat food.

-Things are still a bit of a mess with my sister M. Mom paid her bail Sunday so she could get out of jail and go back to work. Yesterday and today she's been calling my mom crying....I called M today and she just bawled hysterically in the phone and told me she wished she was gone, she just wants to be gone. Then she hung up on me. :-p This afternoon has been a mess--I've been crying, worrying about M and Emily, my mom's been fretting, wondering what, if anything, she should do. So far this afternoon, M has told her husband they're through and she's leaving him, my mom went and picked up Emily and M, and they're going to stay with her a couple days until M decides what to do. Who knows what's next. I've told M she can come stay with me for a few days if she needs to but I don't know that that's going to happen....I don't think she wants to be this far away from home.

-After a couple of wonderful weeks with Jeremy being around home a lot more, farm work is back in swing. Wheat drilling is ready to start, then maybe another small break, then fall harvest.

-I am so sad that the good guys (like my sweet husband) who work their tails off, so often seem to get the "short end of the stick" in life and nothing comes easy for them, while others (one example would be my brother R) cheat and lie their way through life and never get caught and live in the lap of luxury.

-I'm going to vote for MCCAIN AND PALIN '08. :-) I had been very unenthusiastic about both candidates until Sarah Palin came along. She's very....refreshing. It's interesting to me how this challenges my feelings; I'm a firm believer that women should be home, taking care of their families.....but then Palin came along and she's so encouraging/interesting/rare (for a politician) that I don't know what to think of her position. LOL

OK, this post is getting long enough for today. Tata!

I want to cry....

My mommy heart is breaking for a little baby I've never met. Her name is Emily and she's almost 3 months old. Who is she? She's my niece. I just want to run down to her house, kidnap her and bring her home with me. If only I could get away with it! :-p
My sister, M, got pregnant with Emily at age 18, with some wild druggie guy (ok, so he's clean now, but still....he's not your poster child for goodness) after a bad breakup left her brokenhearted.
M took very poor care of herself while pregnant but thankfully Emily is healthy. However, my mom tells me Emily is left for hours at a time in her carseat or swing with little attention. Her head is actually getting mishapen from laying in one position/place all the time. They even prop her bottle up in the seat rather than hold and feed her. :-(
Anyway, today it has come to light that my sister has been "harassing" (in his words) her husband D for months on end, accusing him every day of cheating, lying etc. Today she followed him to work AND LEFT THE BABY HOME ALONE, and apparently she caused such a scene at work that D's boss called the police, who came and arrested her. She's now in jail until who knows when (until a court date I assume) and my mom has Emily. Yes, mom loves her grandbaby but she doesn't want to be a mom to a baby again! That's understandable. So hopefully soon the whole mess will get straightened out, but mom thinks M has mental problems or something so who knows.
Please pray for M, my mom Carol, and Emily.

I must be crazy!

Yep, I'm crazy. What's in my house? 2 kittens. 4 weeks old. Abandoned. That's right, I'm now a momma cat apparently. LOL.
One of our litters of kittens was all upset a few days ago. Mama Cat was missing. Then she came back, but she was basically ignoring her kittens for a day or two. Then, she started nursing them once a day. Not nearly enough, of course. So, I'm listening to all these kittens yelling in hunger and it breaks my heart. I found a nice lady who was willing to take one of them. Then I picked out my two favorites and brought them in the house. They are now getting eyedroppers of milk and softened food. Sigh. I'm such a softie when it comes to animals. :-) But aren't they cute?????

BTW, the other kittens from the litter are still with their mom. I think the problem might have been that she didn't have enough milk for 6....she's young, and small. So I think those 3 will probably be fine. Regardless, I tried feeding those 3 and they wouldn't have anything to do with either the soft food OR the milk, so there's not much I can do for them anyway.

The Incredible Shrinking.....Baby Clothes

OK, what's up with baby clothing?? If my clothes shrunk as much as Levi's do after I bought them, I'd never have a thing to wear.
This is not just happening with the "cheap" brands of clothing either, unless you count anything other than Baby Gap and Old Navy "cheap". I have bought countless clothing items at garage sales that say size 12 month, or 18 month, and Levi is wearing them now or has already outgrown them. And he is NOT by any means a large baby. He's actually small for his age.
This has happened with new items at well. I finally learned my lesson with JCPenney's. I bought some brand new outfits and had them hanging in his closet b/c they were too big. I finally decided he could wear the smaller outfit even if it was a little big, so I washed it, according to directions on tag, and it came out barely fitting him. :-p I went ahead and washed the other bigger outfits after that experience so he will luckily get to wear them more.
It just seems kind of pathetic!!

To tell the truth, I've not been impressed with the quality of *any* baby product we've owned, cheap brand OR "name brand". The Graco baby swing died, the $50 Fisher Price mobile still works, but it's made so flimsy I'm surprised it hasn't broke in half or something. You may remember my experience with the Wal-Mart stroller I blogged about a couple months ago.
The evenflo exersaucer has actually been great, other than the toys don't snap in real tight and Levi can pull them out if he tries hard enough. That's not a big deal though.

I guess that's my rant for the weekend. :-) I just want QUALITY for once!!!!!