Rock-A-Bye Baby.

Here's a peek into our baby girl's nursery! Don't mind the random blue chair and the framed photo of Kingston when he was a baby...it's all I had :) Enjoy!

The Homestretch.

30 weeks and counting. Hopefully only 10 more weeks to go until we get to meet our baby girl. I'm really wanting a March baby and of course MY due date is March 30th. It just had to be one day shy of the end of the month. It just had to be.

Life is already getting difficult. I can't imagine having two kiddos under the age of 2. My braxton hicks are out of control. My sciatic pain is often dibilitating. I'm an insomniac. And homegirl moves entirely way too much that someone needs to tell her the floor routine is two years too early. It's the winter olympics this year, not the summer olympics. You see...the thing is...Kingston NEVER moved. I was in and out of the hospital doing stress tests because of lack of movement so to have so much kicking, flailing, twisting, turning and spasming was enough for me to think she was having some sort of conniption.

I had one of my many check-ups last Friday and boy was it a doozy. I went in gun's blazing. The morning consisted of my glucose test. Boo. Then I had my regular OB appointment in the afternoon where I oh-so-kindly let my doc know I had reason to believe my baby girl had 5 legs, 2 toes, 1 eye and a cleft lip perhaps. I needed to see her asap. Good thing my doc loves me. He overlooks my craziness and obliges to my request of an ultrasound. Phew! Don't worry, she has two eyes and her lips look great! Then he said I could have another extensive ultrasound on the 29th to do measurements and such. I feel much better about the situation and received even better news when my glucose results came back that afternoon! PASS! I don't think I ever craved dessert as much as I did in that moment in time. It's possible I may have overdid my binge on Jelly Belly's too, but that's ok. It was a celebration.

We're ready. Can't wait.

*P.S. I will post nursery photos up soon when we have finished the big stuff. I haven't even gotten the crib situated yet.

*P.P.S. I realize I'm really behind in even posting photos of our new home {I'm hearin' you Jen!} those will come eventually. We are all moved in, but there are SO MANY projects and visions I have for our home that have been put on hold until after the baby and I'm a stickler for taking photos of unfinished work. :)

For Women Only.

Ever read it? I strongly believe every woman {especially married women} in this world needs to read For Women Only by Shaunti Feldhahn. If you let it, it will change your life. In a nutshell it's "what you need to know about the inner lives of men" and it doesn't come across very softly. A lot of the surveys, studies and information provided is shocking and harsh, specifically when it comes to the common stereotype that "men are visual". {If any of you have been on Facebook lately, you may see where this is going...}. Recently, I have personally been shocked on how many women fall short in working to support and protect our men against visual temptations, me being one of them. I fall short all time and not afraid to say that I'm proud of myself when I actually do stand up for my beliefs and stand to protect my husband and disappointed when I get torn down by others because I do so.

FACT: Man was created by God. And, FACT: Our men {young, old, single, married, Christian and Non-Christian} are wired to carry around a mental rolodex of images...stored...sensual...available at anytime...lurking around waiting to make their appearance. 87% of our men actually. For some it's just annoying and they have to work hard to block them out and for others it can cause them to stumble. Especially as our young men grow up and grow into their 20's, 30's and 40's anything can trigger it. As blatant as a Victoria's Secret television commercial or as simple as an attractive colleague dressed in a business suit. It doesn't matter. Our culture is a minefield. It wouldn't be fair to say it's not a big deal or if it trigger's sensual thoughts in our men then there must be a deeper issue. I strongly believe those stances are really naive. It's true, not ALL men have a deep rooted struggle, but why even go as far as tempting them even if you think they won't fall into temptation and sin?

I'm a woman who isn't at all visual. I don't get it half of the time and I don't realize some of the things I say or do. A couple things I do know {as a wife especially} after reading this book is I have a duty to pray hard for my husband cause ultimately only the Lord can lead and guide our men...to continue to educate myself and be proactive so I don't become naive and transparent to what is ACTUALLY going on...to support and protect my husband...I need to be on his side, not against it. Why would I want to do something that would tempt him or others? And most importantly "Champion modesty" in myself. Just because one man isn't struggling, doesn't mean another isn't. Married women are called to respect our husbands, but I find it hard to believe our God wouldn't want all women to champion with all of our men to help them continue in honoring their God. I pray with all my heart that everyday when George walks into our home he can say he honored me with all his heart, mind and soul and soon when he stands before his God he can say he honored his wife. I hope this for every man.

You can't stop everything and can't control what others do, but you can listen to your heart and work hard to do your part. It's a good book. Promise.

Aloha!

Um, anyone else amazed it's 2010? I hope everyone survived the holidays! We barely did...and we were definitely in bed before midnight on New Year's Eve. Besides being pregnant tired, I had to wake up early to catch a morning flight to Honolulu with Anne. Oh yeah...I shipped off to Hawaii...Kingston shipped off to the Grandma's and George was left with the house to himself for a week. I just arrived back last Friday evening and let me tell you: It's been a whirlwind trying to get back into the swing of things. It's so hard to go from doing nothing all day or thinking about nothing to bedtimes, bathtimes, timeouts and WHINING. George also had to leave last night to spend a week down in Tacoma teaching a class for work so I went from a week of "singleness" to a single mom. Oofta. I may need another vacation come Friday. Here's some photos from the trip!