Been a LONG TIME!

Wow...there were many times I've thought about writing in here but things have been SO busy lately, I haven't had the chance! So let's see how well I can update without rambling or boring anyone to tears.

1. We got a new car last weekend!!! It might sounds stupid cause it's the furthest thing from economical, but as upside down as we were w/ Jason's going out, we got an AMAZING deal on a great car that gets crappy gas mileage. But we have the Camry we take everywhere and Jason only drives this around town...take a look:

2. We also rescued a puppy last week. He doesn't have a name b/c I don't want to get attached to the little guy. It's not smart to keep a puppy when you already have 2 dogs and a baby on the way in the next couple of months, right? I keep trying to tell myself that, but look at his face?! He is even more precious than what he looks like! I wish he had an annoying personality or was mean or something, but he's perfect! He was left for dead on the highway, skin and bones, and now he's as lively as ever and loving his change of luck in life! But he needs a GOOD HOME (preferably w/ someone we already know) so let me know if you're interested.

3. As of tomorrow I'm 8 months pregnant! Can you believe it?!!!!

4. Michelle got married this weekend...it was beautiful and they were gorgeous!! Congrats to them!

5. Jason's parents and brother came in for the first Razorback game...it was fun to see them and show them what we have for the baby's room and how we're getting ready for baby Lincoln's arrival!

6. Work has sucked lately. :( It's been SO stressful b/c they're making us use a system that DOESN'T WORK and thus I have been putting in 12-hour days some nights! I broke down and started crying in my office on Thursday and said I've had enough. So from now one, until it's fixed, I'm using the old system regardless of what they say. I'm not going to keep torturing myself w/ crazy, unnecessary hours that go unpaid for.

7. This morning church was great! I helped lead worship and I always love getting the opportunity to do that...

8. Jason's gone to OKC for today and tomorrow for none other than the traditional Fantasy Football Draft - apparently it's a BIG deal????

So I guess that kind of sums up what's been going on the past couple of weeks...not much, but SO busy and limited sleep. Oh well. He have another doc appointment Thursday - I always love those to see how our little boy is growing! I'll let ya know how it goes.

30 Weeks Doc Appointment

It's been about a month and a half since we've gotten to see baby Lincoln, so I was excited to see his little body today! Everything looks great - great heartbeat, lots of movement, and LONG legs! I guess what did I expect w/ a husband who's 6'5''? The funny thing is that I was looking at the monitor and saw the date "10-13-08"...which is 2 weeks before our due date! Doc said that according to the size of Lincoln right now, that's when he would normally be due. But he said that his due date still remains the same...I just could have an 8+ pound baby at this rate! ouch.


But it was all good news today and I have gained a total of 19 pounds with a couple of months left to go!! My hope is to stay around 25 lbs weight gain, but not more than 30...so I think I'm on track for that. Walking at my fast pace is getting a lot harder these days...we went tonight and where i usually go about 4 miles, I was able to go only 2. But that's fine - I have a big baby holding me down! :)


We do have a significant prayer request - the childcare we had lined up doesn't look like it's going to work out like we thought which was very upsetting and highly unfortunate, but I know God will provide. So keep that in your prayers for us and if you know anyone in the area who keeps just a couple of kids or would like to start doing it in January - let me know!!!!

Been a While...

Wow...it's been a while before I've had a chance to write on this thing! Last week was insanely busy...I worked an average of 10 hours a day (that's an average which means there were a couple of 12-hour days in there!). But the good news is that next week while everyone's starting school, I am not going to be working much. :) I love the flexibility in my job!
Our car situation still isn't fixed...we're still a one-car family! But we're making headway on some potential cars...the whole situation just stinks. But I know God will provide!

Baby Lincoln is doing good!! We have an appointment this Tuesday and I'm so excited because I haven't gotten to see him in a while! We finished up our childbirth classes this past Saturday. Now I have the breastfeeding class to go to...but I told Jason he doesn't have to sit through that one. :)

So as you can tell, there's a reason I haven't written in a while - nothing too exciting going on! I'll be happy when things slow down next week. And how about the Olympics?!!! This is the first time in many years I have been crazy into watching them - it's been fun.

Modern-day Hero :)

Thank Goodness For the RAIN!!

The rain has been a HUGE blessing and this pregnant lady couldn't have seen it come at a better time - well, except for maybe three weeks ago. :) Nonetheless, thank you Lord for the rain and the lowered temperatures! It's fun that at moments it already seems like the start of fall - which is my absolute favorite season. And then I realize, "Oh my gosh - I'll be having a baby this fall!" Crazy.

Speaking of baby - we had our first of two "baby classes" all day Saturday. We were one of 8 other couples and the whole day was surreal, exciting, informative, and scary as hell at some points to realize that we were going to actually be experiencing everything we were learning about in 2.5 months! Still can't believe it sometimes...this week's class was all about the actual labor/delivery part and next week focuses more on the aftermath such as medical care, bathing, and all those things after the baby is born. Funny enough, but I seemed to be the only one in the class who was more concerned with AFTER baby is born than the labor/delivery part! SURELY I'll get completely freaked out and nervous the closer it gets, but for some odd reason (my husband thinks I'm weird), I'm just not that nervous about it...maybe it's the pain I've already experienced from kidney stones? Or the comforting fact that hundreds of thousands of women give birth DAILY - surely I can do it, too, right?

One thing's for sure - we can't wait for Lincoln to be here! I've been getting sick again at night the past couple of days and that's never fun. Hopefully that won't last very much longer. especially since school's about to start and I'll have to be at work at 8:00 (summers as a school-based therapist are pretty easy!!).

The Olympics have been fun! Jason has gotten me into the spirit of them and on the Phelps train. :) Well, I guess that's enough for now...

Ich liebe Missionen

We had a bunch of people over to cookout last night...98% of them were coaches or teachers, and since I too have an office at least in the public school, I guess it could classify as a "back-to-school party"? Ha. Just when you think those are over...it was a blast though! I've really enjoyed getting to know all these people since Jason and I got married. I'm looking forward to training for a 1/2 marathon w/ some of them after Lincoln is born :)

Brandon & Bethany Cole came last night to the "party" and informed us that they got the Germany trip approved!!! *hints the title - I'm excited* Brandon is the new FCA guy for this region and he got it approved to start organizing an ongoing ministry team of basketball players to take over to Germany for a good portion of the summers to play their professional teams...so serious training would be involved, but it would also be a ministry team which would incorporate an element of spiritual development and create opportunities to spread the Word overseas in Germany. Brandon wants Jason to be one of the coaches so that means Lincoln and I would get to go in the summers! And we all know how I feel about doing missions in the summers when there's a chance :) So I'm excited about this opportunity - probably won't come to fruition until 2010, but nonetheless, I'm excited to see how God's going to work through this.

In other news, we had decided it was time to trade Jason's truck in and get him a new (well, used) car that was in better shape and newer cause we've had a bad feeling about how long his current one will actually last. So he's been doing research all week on cars all over NWA and had it narrowed down to a couple. We were going to get about $2500 on a trade in to go toward the new car. Well, literally on Wednesday he was on his way to Springdale to trade it in for what we had decided on and, no joke, his truck overheated and DIED. We jut found out it's going to cost $1500 to fix it!! NOT WORTH IT, obviously. And now instead of a $2500 trade in value, we have to roll that much into another car - and we only have one car right now! nightmare. terrible timing.
So we are praying that God provides in this area...we know He's faithful and that things will work out, but this is just not good timing in our lives right now :( But then again, who am I to say it's not good timing...we'll see what happens!

Biola

Tonight was fun and sad...Jason and I got invited to the Rakestraws for a"Biola sendoff" party for all the kids moved out to So.Cal to start college at Biola that live in the area. So we got the invite since I went there :) It's so funny b/c my first year there, out of the 5,000 students, I was the only Arkansas native until the following year when Nathan Oliver joined me. And now, there's so many kids from Siloam Springs alone going out there! It's fun to see...as my husband always says, I should be a Biola recruiter b/c I always talk about it so highly and try to get people to go there b/c it was such an AMAZING school and experience - but I'll stop now before I get into my recruiting mode. :)

Anyway, so it was fun to visit w/ all the kids going out there next year and made me sad cause I miss that area and the school so much! But I'm excited that Nate signed there for basketball cause now Jason and I will for sure be going out to watch him play! And then our youth pastor, Brian Hill, just got the youth pastor job at Rock Harbor Church - the church I went to throughout college! So weird - but evermore the reason to make some visits :)

So here's an old school Biola pic from my B-15 days w/ the girls...