Going away...

I am so excited for this weekend. Terry and I are getting away for a weekend to ourselves! My wonderful Mother in Law is here for the weekend to care for the kids and our dog. Terry and I are heading out early morning (and yes, I am STILL UP). We will be gone all weekend and come home Sunday night. We are heading out for a huge, two day train show. Terry loves model trains, if you weren't aware of that, and we are in the process of starting a hobby store (carrying mostly model trains and accessories for now). So, this was a great opportunity for us to go to the show, get a weekend away before baby comes, and get some good quality time together~ alone! Can you tell I am excited? Terry and I really need this time away. We have been running around so busy lately, that time together is dwindling. It is so crucial to have quality time together! I am so thankful that we can do this. I am SO VERY THANKFUL that my Mother in law is willing and able to watch the kids. She loves our kids, and they adore her! I will be sure to post a lot of pictures and updates when I return. I won't have too much added this weekend with being away...but, no worries...I will catch up.

Updates:
I am still in pain with my neck/shoulder/arm. I went to the Chiropractor on Wednesday. He adjusted me and did treatments. I felt good for about 10 minutes. Now it is just consistant pain, especially in my shoulder joints. I have a hard time picking things up with my left hand, and my strength is minimized. Thursday I had a terrible time raising my hand up in the air to wash my hair, or get something up higher. It is a pain in the booty, but I just got to deal with it. The Chiropractor said he would refer me to see a Neurologist if it keeps up. So, I am icing, and doing very little lifting. I have another Chiropractic appointment on Monday morning. I hope the weekend is fun, regardless of my pains. I suppose I will have to bring some Tylenol with.

My mom had surgery on her eye socket on Wednesday morning. She was in really rough shape Thursday morning. She was very sick. Please pray that she will heal quickly and that her swelling will go down. Her one eyelid is so swollen that it doesn't shut all the way. She will have another appoinment on Friday morning. Her Birthday. Happy Birthday MOM! She is 70 years old today! I am so thankful for my mom! I would post a picture of her on here, but I just took all of our photos off of here and put them on CD. It would take quite awhile to find the picture. Anyway...I am blessed for who God gave me as my Mom. She is the best!

Have a super weekend everyone!

Getting up-to-date on things...

I have officially signed up with facebook. I think it is a lot of fun already! I thought blogging was addictive, now I am searching for friends from my youth, high school, and college! It is so fun and I highly recommend it! It is fun to see how people have changed over the last 10-18 years! I hope to find more of my friends!

Friday night, I went to Ladies Night Out. It was so much fun! I so much look forward to going once a month! We did have such serious talking this time, so we did have to bust out the Quelf game to get the giggles rolling. I read a card wrong~ I simply blame the pregnancy~ but the word was abracadabara! It was in all caps, so because I am pregnant and I was extremely tired for some reason I read it as Barrak-a-bra! I had to say this word, while twirling my hands above my head, every time someone picked up a new card. So, my friends thouroughly enjoyed laughing hysterical at me we got some laughs from that error. We were out so late this time, and I think we hit a record. We left the church at 2:15 AM. My sweet hubby let me sleep in on Saturday, so that was a huge blessing!

Saturday, Terry was going to go work on a model layout for trains for an upcoming train show, and I got to go see my dear friend! I was so excited to see her! We haven't seen each other since July, and that is too long! It was so great to reconnect again! Our kids had a great time playing together, too. Another great thing is, she is the mom to two of my nieces, so I got to see them, too! They are growing up so much! The oldest is a senior this year (hard to believe) and the other one is in 10th grade. It is exciting to see them grow up, but I am sad, too. I used to change their diapers. :)

Today, we went to church. Terry was going to go into work, but he decided he would rather stay home. He got a lot of work done here, though....so he was really happy he chose to be home. He switched out one of our garage doors, and he insulated more in our store. We had a yummy supper with steaks, baked potatoes and gazed baby carrots. It was a great day, and we had a ton of rain! Plus, I got hooked on facebook, and I am reconnecting with friends! :)

M.I.A.~

Sorry I have been "away from" the computer for a few days. We have been busy in our household!! Wednesday night, my Mother-in-Law came down for an extended weekend visit. It was great to see her, spend time with her, and watch her enjoying her grand kids. The kids just love their Grandma! On Thursday, she went with Nathaniel to his "Picnic Day" at school. They had outside games, and a big inflatable toy to play in. She surprised Nathaniel with Dairy Queen for lunch. He had forgotten his lunch at home, so she said she wanted to pick up D.Q. for him and Caleb. I had to bring Maddie to the Dr. appointment, so it worked out great! Caleb had fun being at the school too, until I came to pick him up. He wanted to stay there all day. Friday, I got to have a day with Nathaniel. It was his last day of school, and we went to a big Community Center. We got to go swimming and there was a big slide there. Nathaniel and I had a great time. There was another boy with us that I was chaperone of. He was very quiet, and looked at me funny when I tried to spark up a conversation with him. Kids like that kind of intimidate me. I really tried to get him to converse with me, and maybe squeeze a smile out of him. But to no avail, he with held. Oh well. At least Nathaniel and I had a really fun time. I didn't go down the slide, just because I am prego and I really don't want to do anything that may hurt the baby. I am not sure if it really would have done anything, but I would rather be safe than sorry. I did get into a game of tossing the ball with some boys. It started out with just Nathaniel and 2 of his friends. I threw it to one of them, and they threw it back to me. It was fun to watch them try to be the one to catch it. Pretty soon more boys came. I think there was about 10 boys playing after awhile. What was really funny was a couple of girls tried to get in the game, and if they got the ball...they started swimming away. All the boys went after her to get the ball back. It was quite comical. It was great to have one on one time with Nathaniel. We don't get that time enough, so I really appreciated my day out with him. Thanks Cheryl! You rock!!

When I got home on Friday afternoon, Caleb had to show me what he got. Caleb, Maddie and Grandma went to garage sales during the day. Caleb is a garage sale'aholic! He would go everyday if he could. He was so excited! He got a huge collection of Thomas the Train sets, cars, and track. He also got a Thomas the train bag/suitcase. Grandma hit the jackpot with this sale! She got such a great deal! Thomas stuff is so expensive! She got this huge box of items for $20! Terry and I couldn't believe it! She is such a bargain shopper and finds the best deals at garage sales! Thanks so much for your generosity, Cheryl! Thanks for all the maternity clothes, too! :)

Friday night, Terry and I brought Nathaniel to meet his Dad. Afterward, we went to watch trains. This is a highlight most times with our traveling to bring Nathaniel to meet his Dad. This time we went, we went up on a bridge and looked down on the trains and train yard. It was really neat to see the new views. Those cars are huge and really look so different from the top angle. While we were gone, Cheryl and Caleb took out all our tiles in our kitchen and dining room. Caleb had a great time taking out the tiles. He told Grandma that Dad will be really happy when he gets home. He wanted to start in on putting down the new flooring. I will see if I can get the pictures Grandma took of him uploaded on here.
When we got home, we tried out our new Mario Kart game for the Wii. It was super fun! I really love this new game! There are so many games and things to learn on it! It will really be a big hit this fall/winter when we are indoors more.

Saturday morning, we started our floors in our kitchen/dining room. We worked on them Sunday, too! We decided to get new flooring because our tiles were really bad. So, we put in real hardwood flooring. It isn't done quite yet, but it is so beautiful! I really love the new look! We really want to start painting, too, so we did buy one gallon of paint to start with behind the refrigerator, since it is pulled out. I hope we have enough paint to get the parts painted that we want that color. I was talking to my sister on the phone Sunday night, and she told me they are doing the same colors we are for their kitchen/dining rooms. I guess great minds think alike!!

Sunday afternoon, Caleb went to his friend's birthday party. It was a great party. The invitation said to come and dig in dirt! Be prepared to get dirty, and if you must, throw your clothes away. It was super! Caleb got really dirty. I will post pictures on here soon for that, too. There were 6 little kids there to dig in the big pile of dirt, and they really had a blast!

So, there is my long weekend. Sorry my blog has been mute for a bit. I will try to be good about posting a lot this week. This pregnancy is making me so tired. I am happy to say Maddie and Caleb are healthy. I am glad we are on vitamins, too.

Wordless Wednesday: Train Ride

Only in Minne"Snow"ta! ~and other chatting.

Well, it is suppose to be spring. Really, it is April 26th. Yet, we woke up to about an inch of snow! I can't believe it! I don't have a picture to post, but you can see what I mean by checking over at my friend's blog: Our Seven Qtpies, because she caught it on camera! I just want Spring to be here. It was only Wednesday that I had shorts on me and the kiddos with sandals...it was almost 80 degrees that day! Now, 3 days later it is freezing with snow. By this afternoon, a lot of it was melted away. It looks so weird because the grass is super green from all the rain, and we have the coating of snow. To me, it looks like frosting spilt all over our grass and hills.

Today, Terry went to go meet up with a train club. They are working on building a layout. If you are unfamiliar with model trains, a "layout" is a big board with scenery and track. A train travels around on the track. It is quite fun to watch, because some people really work hard at putting a lot of detail into their layouts. Last year we went to a train show in Menomonie, WI. They had so many layouts! If I took a guess, there were about 150 layouts! Some of them are not small either. I saw some that had little playgrounds with kids riding on teeter totters and swing sets. The equipment moved, too! Very cool! Lights, sound, people moving, a train guard going down...very inventive and creative! It is my husband's love hobby, and I have really grown to love it too. As a family, we go and watch real trains at the train yard every other weekend. We stand about 5 feet from a moving train. It is a rush. Caleb is really loving it! Maddie does the sign for train when we go now. It is cute. All day today Caleb has been asking to go watch trains.

While Terry went to work on the train set, Caleb, Madelyn and I went to see my Aunt and Uncle. It has been awhile since I have seen them. It was great to visit and see pictures from their trip out west. I really love spending time with my relatives! I wish I could see them more often. I feel lucky to get to see them today. I usually only see them once or twice a year. It was fun to catch up with them.

Caleb has had a fever most of the day. Last night he complained of a head ache, and he didn't get a fever until 10:00ish. He did great most of the day, except for around 4:00. He was whiny, complained of his head hurting and a head ache, and he was hot. I really should have stayed home with him today. He did mention his ears hurting on the way home. So, I wonder if it may be an ear infection, or double ear infection. Yeah...so, on to another round of sickness. I am a little concern about him. It seems like he complains of a head ache once a week or every other week lately. He has his yearly check up the beginning of June...but I may have to get him in sooner. We will see how tomorrow goes. I may have to bring him in Monday morning.

I am anxious to go get Nathaniel tomorrow. He is with his dad this weekend. It is good for him to have time with his dad, but I sure miss him when he is gone.

Old Fashioned Christmas

Here is our table that we decorated for the "Old Fashioned Christmas" at our church. You can read about this event here.