Here are some pictures and a quick update! Time has been flying by here...hard to believe its already September!
Like I mentioned in the last post, Emma and I went to the QC to see Heather, Jon and baby Nolan as they were moving back to Indiana after their 1 year stay in Lincoln. Heather's mom, Vanessa, was also with them. We met at Starbucks and enjoyed the beautiful weather outside. The time was short, but very much a blessing!
Emma loved holding baby Nolan, when asked if she was done, she said 'no' and tightened her grip around him! I don't think she is going to have any problems liking her baby brother or sister when we bring him/her home from the hospital.
Me, Emma, Heather and Nolan
We are still loving the Odyssey. Emma talks about it quite a bit! One afternoon after she woke up from her nap, I heard her saying 'minivan, minivan' on her monitor. When I went to get her out of her crib, she smiled at me and said 'minivan', so I asked her if she wanted to go for a ride in the minivan...she said 'yes, to park'! So how do you say no to that! Now every day when she wakes up from her nap she tells me 'minivan go to park'! We have gone a few times in the last week! She has told her daddy that he drives a car, mommy drives a minivan, and Emma drives a minivan! She also makes the cutest 'vvvrrrooommmm' sound when telling us what the minivan sounds like! We will be taking our first road trip in the new Odyssey for Labor Day. We leave today after Shane gets off work and will stay the night in Omaha. Thursday morning, we will go to Lincoln and stop to meet our newest niece, Londyn Macy, who was born on Monday to Shane's sister Janice and husband, Stacy. Then we will continue on home to Roscoe. We have LOTS going on. All of my family will be at my mom's for the weekend, and Shane has family coming home as well. We head home on Tuesday and will drive all the way. I have been extremely tired lately and am just hoping to be able to relax some and enjoy our time, as it will more than likely be our last visit home until next July when we go back for Shane's brother, Tanner's wedding.
Lookin' cute in the do-rag!
On Sunday, Emma wanted to wear a skirt and shirt like mommy to church.
I can't believe how big Emma is getting...where did the last 2 years go?!?!
Emma and Daddy playing, like always!
And now for the latest belly pic:
26 weeks
26 weeks
We had an OB appointment today. My latest stats are: Weight: 123 (up 3 lbs!) Baby's Heartbeat: 156 We go back in 4 weeks, which I will be 30 weeks at that time, and we get to have our 3D ultrasound. We are going to take Emma so she can see whats in mommy's tummy. She knows there is a baby, and loves to hug, pat and kiss it, but I think she will get a kick out of seeing it too! We will start going every 2 weeks after that...hard to believe its that time already!
The baby definitely grew ALOT in this last month, no wonder I finally gained some weight! My body is definitely starting to feel the physical toll of being pregnant...and carrying around a 25+ pound toddler! Everyone always asks how I am feeling, my response is...pregnant! I've been having morning sickness again, and I am just tired and drained! But even with all that, I still very much love being pregnant! And this pregnancy seems to keep flying by!
Also, since I don't seem to have enough on my plate as it is...I think I found the craft show that I want to do before the baby comes (my goal was to do at least 2 this year). I will elaborate more once I know for sure that I am doing it!
Well, the hunt is over! We have been humbly blessed with a 2007 Honda Odyssey EX-L that is Nimbus Gray w/ Olive interior. It has heated leather seats, sunroof, DVD player and has the back up sensors!
I wanted to share our journey of the process of buying the minivan, in hopes that it will encourage others of God's faithfulness and answered prayers.
I have been wanting a Honda Odyssey for awhile (as most of you know), and we have been saving cash for it. Once we found out in April that we were expecting baby #2, the hunt went from just internet researching to looking and test driving. We looked at several (I will spare you the details of all those) but had decided we may need to make a trip to Chicago in order to get exactly what I wanted (which had to be in the color Nimbus Gray) for the best price (and I say what 'I' wanted b/c my loving husband let me choose what we got). We have prayed diligently, seeking God's wisdom and guidance about this purchase. This past Thursday night, after going over my list of Odyssey's I found to possibly look at (yes, I made an excel spreadsheet!) and discussing whether or not to go to Chicago, we didn't feel God's leading to go for the 2nd weekend in a row. I was beginning to feel discouraged, because I couldn't find exactly what I wanted for the price I was willing to pay. Well, after Shane went to bed at midnight Thursday night, I just lifted the whole thing up to God. I actually prayed according to Colossians 4:12, that God would make know to me His will for the minivan and make me fully confident in it. I then remembered a minivan I had come across in Des Moines . We were actually going to go look at it a few weeks prior, but then Tanner (Shane's brother) got a job in Iowa and we went to 'welcome' him to the state instead. We didn't make a point to go a different weekend cuz we kinda crossed it off the list due to it had 73,000+ miles and thought we could find something with less miles around Chicago...the only thing was, the prices for them were so much more. So I looked up the website were the minivan was and it was still listed. I got a huge sense of peace and excitement that this was the one that God had intended for us. So before I went to bed, I pulled the autocheck and carFAX on it, and everything checked out. They showed that it was 1 owner, and had all the suggested maintenance done on it at the appropriate mileage, and no accidents. I then looked up the KBB value and Edmunds TMW on it, I then ran those numbers in my budget and was loving the bottom line.
I am gonna pause here and explain the kind of deal we were looking for...we didn't want to pay over 'private party value' for the minivan, and we wanted 'private party value' for our car if we were gonna trade, since we knew what we could sell our car for.
So Friday morning, I told Shane that I found the one and that we needed to head to Des Moines and asked him to pray about it. We discussed why we should be against higher mileage, and came up with no reason to be if the minivan checks out ok and the price is right. You seem to get a better value with a little higher miles, because most people have a 'mental block' in their head about mileage, so if you are willing to go with a a little higher miles, you are gonna get the better deal. We thought the minivan was definitely worth looking at since it was the color I wanted and had the heated leather seats, sunroof and DVD player (my wish list).
I prayed Friday morning, that if this was God's will, He would make it known to us without a doubt. Everything began to fall into place. First I called to verify the minivan was still for sale and had NOT been smoked in. Next, I was able to get us a cheap hotel 1/2 mile from the car lot (during state fair weekend...when I looked up the hotel online, it said it was completely booked, so I thought I would at least try by calling them, and they had a room!) Next, I was able to find a mechanic to do a pre-purchase inspection for us Saturday morning (which isn't the easiest to do) and they were located only a mile from the car lot. Our neighbors were an answer to prayer when they said they would be able to let Bella out for us while we were gone. It then came down to the weather...we had storms rolling in Friday evening, and the radar didn't look good at all. Shane came home from work, we loaded the car and stopped at Subway to eat supper before heading out. It was storming while we ate and as we headed out of town. But we soon drove out of it and it turned out to be an beautiful drive watching the sun go down. Des Moines is only a 2 hour drive, so got there around 9pm. We just relaxed and went to bed.
Saturday morning, we got up and ate some breakfast and headed to the car lot. We looked over the van inside and out, and it was one of the cleanest we had seen, and the leather was in probably the best condition out of all the minivans we had test drove. We discovered it had back up sensors (that feature wasn't listed in the details on the website) and was a pleasant surprise. (That has been my only concern driving something so big...backing into something!)
The salesman was actually quite pleasant (another thing you don't experience very often). He wasn't pushy and didn't just talk to be talking. He gave us the keys and said take it for as long as you like. When we got in the van and pulled off the lot the mileage read 73,703 miles...now for those that know me well, know that 7's and 3's are my lucky numbers so to speak and a way that God often brings comfort to a situation for me (I don't know how else to explain it, strange I know, but I have countless examples of it in my life). So we hit the interstate with it and it drove great. So we headed back to the car lot and told our salesman we were taking it to have a pre-purchase inspection done and would be back later. We also picked up our car, so we could go somewhere while the inspection was being done. The inspection report was good and the mechanic said there was nothing he could see that would prevent him from buying the minivan. We left and went to the car wash across the street. I really wanted to wash the Camry if we were going to be getting rid of it, because its been such a blessing from God and I wanted to leave it in the best condition. After we were done washing the Camry we headed back to the car lot.
We told the salesman we would be interested in buying the Odyssey and so we sat down and started the negotiations. He shot us a number and it was reasonable. I then told him that we may want to trade our car (he didn't like hearing that! Car buying tip - negotiate the price of the vehicle before you talk trade...dealers hate this, but it puts you in the best position). He told us he couldn't do the price he just said with a trade. I told him to just give us what he would do, because we had a cash number + trade that we were only willing to do. So he gave us his 'bottom line' and Shane and I asked him to give us some time to talk. The number was more than we were willing to do, but I got out my notebook and calculator and Shane and I calculated the only deal we were willing to do. It was quite a bit less and at this time I was beginning to doubt that this was the 'one' God had for us, because I was sure the salesman would never do it. But God place a number on my heart and it was what Shane was thinking too, so I knew that was all we should do.
Shane walked out of the room and offered the number to the guy, and he said there was no way he could come close to doing that. He said he even just called his boss and he was upset that he even gave us the price he did. Shane said thanks for your time and came back to get Emma and I in the office. As I was packing up the diaper bag, the salesman asked if he could get my number in case he would get anything else in. I gave him my number and said only call if he got something exactly like the Odyssey he had. We then headed out the door. I had the strangest feeling of confusion (b/c I was for sure this was the one, I even told Shane that when we first drove it) but also a great sense of peace. As we pulled out of the lot, Shane and I discussed how that must not have been the 'one', but so worth the trip b/c we gained a great bit of knowledge from it...just how below book a dealer will go.
3 minutes later my phone rings......and its the salesman! I answered it and he said that if we wanted to turn around and come back, he would do the deal we offered him!!! I said we would turn around. I hang up the phone and tell Shane to go back, they will do the deal! At this point, I can't stop laughing because I was in shock, I never thought they would take the deal. The entire process was exactly how Dave Ramsey describes to get the best deal to a 't'...you gotta walk away to show them thats all you are gonna do!
Upon arriving back to the car lot, Shane says to the salesman 'so you had a change of heart'. He said 'yeah, that it was nearing the end of the month and they actually had a good month so far, and he knew since we were from out of town that we weren't coming back, so now was his chance.'
So we sit down again and start the paperwork. The salesman begins to go thru the contract with purchase price, trade-in, taxes, license and registration...and then there is a $199 'documentation fee', I immediately ask where that goes (I had my notebook in my lap with every expense that it was going to cost me to buy this vehicle down to the last cent and I ain't never heard of no 'documentation fee'). The salesman said it was a fee that just goes to the 'house' and its been around since he started working there 14 years ago. Shane pipes up and says 'that isn't the deal we agreed to'...the salesman replies that he has to leave it on there, and we said we weren't paying it (we seriously would have walked over this $199 bogus fee), the salesman could see this on our faces and said he would drop the purchase price by the $199, since he did really have to leave it on as a documentation fee. We said that was fine, just as long as we weren't paying the additional $199. So he reprinted the contract and now it matched up to what I had figured.
(FYI-if you are buying a car, never ever pay these additional fees, they will call them all sorts of things, and they are bogus...they are just to add to the dealer's bottom line. If you are unsure of all the costs involved in purchasing a car, then call your county treasurer).
All that was left to do was sign over the title to our Camry and write the check. I was a little nervous when writing the check, 'pregnancy brain' these days causes many errors and it is the largest check I ever wrote, I was sure I would screw up, but I didn't ;)
Next, we went out to clean out the Camry and load up our new Honda Odyssey! I had pretty much cleaned the Camry out a few weeks ago, so there wasn't much left. I sat in the drivers seat one last time and said goodbye and asked God to have it be as much of a blessing as it was to us to the next owner.
Shane strapped Emma in and I then asked him if I could have the privilege of driving our new Odyssey off the lot, he happily relinquished the keys! (He got to drive the Camry off the lot when we bought it 5 1/2 years ago).
We then hit the interstate and headed to Bass Pro Shop (we had decided the night before when we drove by it, we would stop on our way home so Emma could see the fish, deer and other animals). After parking at Bass Pro Shop, Emma had fell asleep, so we took some time to just praise and thank God for blessing us with wisdom, favor, and knowing without a doubt what His will was and for a great trip and the wonderful, undeserved blessing of the minivan for our family. We also prayed for our salesman...he is in his late 30's-early 40's and had suffered a 'freak' stroke in July (never would have known, as he thankfully didn't suffer any lasting paralysis. He said he was completely paralyzed for 6 minutes and could only hear the paramedics working on him, and thought for sure he was going to die). Also, when I asked him about his family photo on his desk...he has 2 kids (an 8 year old son and a daughter only a week older than Emma), and also an adopted 16 year old son (who is his wife's nephew that they adopted when his parents died 10 years ago in a car wreck...talk about heartbreaking!)
We woke up Emma and took her inside...she really enjoyed seeing the huge fish and the animals...she wasn't so sure about the huge bear tho. We then enjoyed lunch at 'the fish bowl' that is connected to the shop. We then headed home. Shane drove part way until I had to pee, then I drove the rest of the way. It was a pretty awesome feeling pulling in the driveway for the first time! We felt really blessed and amazed at how stress-free the whole process was.
God definitely answered my prayer that I have been praying for quite some time...to be able to pay cash for the minivan. Buying this minivan broke a huge mental barrier for me, one that I wasn't so sure I could achieve when I first committed it to prayer. But I want to honor God with our finances and He was faithful. Being able to achieve this, lets me know that their isn't anything that we can't save up for and pay cash for.
Now time for some pictures...
Saying good bye to my Camry
Hello Honda Odyssey!
I absolutely love having this minivan! It drives fantastic and I love the height where it puts Emma at...not to low and not too high for putting her in her carseat, and I can move her seat way forward, so its easy to hand her things from the front. The dual power sliding doors are great.
Emma and I took it on our first little adventure on Monday to the QC to go and see Heather, Jon and baby Nolan on their way thru to moving back to Indiana, and we did a little shopping (well, just Kohl's) but parking was a breeze and just getting around and going thru drive-thrus was easy. I didn't really expect it to handle so nicely! Most of all though, I love that it is paid for, praise God for that!
Just a quick post to update you on what has been going on with us and to post a few pictures.
Emma and I haven't gone out much due to the extreme heat. The heat index here has been in the 100's and I just do not do well in the heat with this pregnancy. So Emma stays entertained doing puzzles, drawing, playing with her toys and wanting to 'help' mommy with whatever I am doing. She is so much fun, talks all the time and is all girl! I think she for sure knows there is a baby in my tummy and has felt him/her kick. The other night she wanted to kiss my tummy, it was pretty cute cuz I have never said anything to her about kissing my tummy. Since then she likes to pat and kiss my tummy and talk about the baby. She tells me its a girl/sister.
Shane is busy at work...I realize I say that every time I blog, but its the truth! This weekend he sanded our clothesline poles because they were getting pretty rusty, then repainted them white. He also bought new cording for the lines and just has that left to put up. It looks great! Honestly, we don't really use our clothesline (like twice since we lived here), but our neighbors do.
I have been sewing. I always seem to have orders to work on. Am hoping to eventually get to some sewing that I have been wanting to do...dolls for Emma, a skirt for Emma and of course, 2 diaper bags for me! I still need to go thru our pictures from our family photo shoot and select what I want to print off and get them on the wall!
Still no minivan, and after doing further research, turns out what I really want (Nimbus Gray exterior w/ Gray interior) doesn't exist! Honda just did the Olive interior in the Nimbus Gray. We went and looked at one last week, but they wanted too much and I know we can get a better deal...so the hunt continues! We are not in a hurry to buy and don't plan to make any trips after the baby comes until March, so wouldn't have to have one til then. Actually, we really don't 'have' to have one at all, space would be tight with 2 carseats in the Camry, but I feel very blessed to have 2 great, paid for cars. The minivan is more of a want and a convenience.
Well moving on to pictures. I haven't take a whole lot these past few weeks, but here are some cute shots of Emma in some doo-rags...she found my stash of them in the hall closet and likes to wear them.
Emma showing off her blue tongue from eating a blueberry sucker, she thought it was pretty cool!
Gosh, this kid is just beautiful...I can't get over what a joy and blessing she is to our lives!
Pregnancy update: I am 24 weeks today, but forgot to get a picture. I will try and remember to take one this week. I am feeling ok, still tired most of the time. I have had really bad back pain and pelvic pressure, and I am now getting an appetite...I am hungry all the time! The baby must of really grown in the last week cuz Shane even commented on how much bigger I look!
We had our monthly OB appointment today. We met with the nurse mid-wife at my doctor's practice, because my doctor is on vacation and we have yet to meet the mid-wife. They like you to meet everyone in the practice, since there is a chance they could do the delivery. She was nice and answered all our questions. Emma came with us, and had to give her just about everything out of the diaper bag! I am 22 weeks 3 days along, and when she measured me, I am measuring right on!. Weight: 120 (up 1 pound!) Baby's Heartbeat: 150's She said I was perfect and baby sounded great. She said the low weight gain is nothing to be concerned about, but that I should eat more (easier said than done, when I am just not that hungry). She also pulled up our ultrasound report and said everything looked great with the baby and placement of the placenta...Praise God! I have been having a lot of braxton hicks contractions and severe low back pain. I spent all day Monday on the couch drinking water with contractions, which I am certain were brought on by the weekend...I was in the heat too much and didn't drink enough water! Fatigue, dehydration and heat are the main cause of braxton hicks. Well, thats all the baby related news for now!
I am going to try and catch up from the last 2 weeks, hopefully I can remember that far back! I have been busy knocking out orders...and it seems that as soon as I ship one out, I get another order the next day! I am trusting that God will not give me more than I can handle! Its been really hot here, but we have been trying to enjoy the summer outdoors when we can. Here are a few pictures of us sitting outside:
Even though it is in the 80's, Emma still has to wear her hat!
Emma was trying to 'scare' her daddy!
So Shane turned around and scared her back!
She just loves it!
Lots of hugs afterwords!
Last Saturday we had our annual picnic with our Bible study group that meets once a month throughout the year. We met at Shady Creek and enjoyed grilled hot dogs, hamburgers and other yummy food. Games included bean bag toss, and a game of frisbee volleyball in which Shane and I were victorious!
Emma enjoyed getting dirty in the muddy sand!
Her little butt was covered...needless to say she rode home in just her diaper!
Just part of the Bible study group
Before we went to the picnic, I went down to a local sewing shop to 'test sew' a used sewing machine I had seen earlier in the week. I went prepared with cash in hand and Shane's blessing to buy if I thought it was what I wanted. I am looking for something that does embroidery and can still perform at the level of sewing that my machine does. Well, the sewing machine I tried out wasn't even close to what I have (even though its worth twice as much). So they had just got a different trade in, and it was a step up in machine, and even that couldn't perform what I need it to in terms of having enough needle power to sew around the top of my diaper bags. And both machines did not do a good job at feeding minky fabric. I am sure these machines are great at embroidery, but lack the ability to meet my sewing needs. I am not sure how far 'up' in model and price I will have to go to find what I need. By switching brands from what I have (a Pfaff), I am losing the IDT dual feed technology and the needle power that Pfaff has to offer. The reason why I am looking into a different brand, is because no one sells Pfaff around here and I would like a local dealer to take my sewing machine to, plus I need to be able to take classes to learn how to use my machine, etc. I am beginning to feel like I am in 'consumer research overload' between trying to find a minivan, sewing machine and am now needing a new laptop! Moving on, after we arrived home from our picnic, Emma had a package waiting for her in the mail from her cousin Zoe. It was just some fun little stuff that Zoe had that she wanted to send Emma. Emma really enjoyed opening it.
Emma got new necklaces and crayons!
She spent the rest of the day filling the box up with her new stuff, carrying it around and dumping everything out again! Last Sunday, we enjoyed the day by attending church and small group, and then took Emma to the aquatic center (aka, the pool) in the afternoon. We had fun, Emma loves the water!
This past week, we all came down with summer colds! Emma got it first, then me and Shane. We felt pretty crummy the first part of the week, Shane even stayed home from work for 2 days...which says alot in how terrible he felt!. We had kinda strange symptoms...I had a horrible runny nose and went thru several boxes of kleenexes, where Shane's nose wasn't so runny, but he was stuffed up. He was always tired and really dizzy all the time. I had like insomnia...I was exhausted, but found it very hard to sleep. We both had bad sore throats. I was hot all the time, while Shane had the chills the entire time (talk about role reversal!) Even though we were sick, I did enjoy having my husband home with me.
So this weekend we headed to Humboldt to welcome my brother-in-law, Tanner to Iowa. He got a job there at the radio station and moved in this weekend. Shane's parents, sister, Lindsey and her husband, Jared all came to help, as well as, Tanner's fiance, Krista. (I don't know if I have officially congratulated Tanner and Krista on their engagement, if not, here it is...Congratulations Tanner and Krista...we look forward to welcoming you to our family, Krista). Anyway, on our way to Humboldt we stopped and looked at a few minivans. They all were Honda Odysseys in the Nimbus Gray color (which I haven't been able to look at in person), with a tan interior color. We didn't buy one, but did make some major headway in narrowing down what exactly I want...I LOVE the Nimbus Gray! I don't like the tan interior color though and would much prefer a gray interior. So the hunt continues, unfortunately most of the Nimbus Gray vans have the tan interior, but I continue to trust God with all of it! I definitely came away from this weekend feeling renewed and re-energized, and I thank God for that! After we made it to Humboldt, we checked out Tanner's new place and enjoyed dinner with everyone. We then went to our hotel and went swimming. This morning, everyone else needed to get on the road, so after saying good bye to everyone, we stayed awhile to hang out with Tanner. We all took Emma to a park (a pretty cool one at that!) and then ate lunch at pizza hut. We finally headed for home at 1:45pm. We made it home without stopping and Emma and I napped most of the way! It took us 3 1/2 hours.
Emma came in wearing a new 'shoe' she called it! She has such an imagination!
And last, but certainly not least, my 22 week belly picture:
22 weeks and growing! I have been feeling ok. Not horrible, and haven't really been throwing up. I am tired all the time though and wonder if that feeling will ever go away! ha! We have our monthly OB appointment on Wednesday, so I will update you then on my current stats!
We have a busy week ahead. Shane is super busy at work, so I pray his week won't feel too long. I need to meal plan and grocery shop. I have diaper bag orders to work on, but first have one to make for my sister-in-law, Janice! She is due at the end of the month! Emma and I also hope to get in some pool and play time, of course!
Emma loved holding baby Nolan, when asked if she was done, she said 'no' and tightened her grip around him! I don't think she is going to have any problems liking her baby brother or sister when we bring him/her home from the hospital.
Me, Emma, Heather and Nolan
Lookin' cute in the do-rag!
On Sunday, Emma wanted to wear a skirt and shirt like mommy to church.
I can't believe how big Emma is getting...where did the last 2 years go?!?!
Emma and Daddy playing, like always!
26 weeks
26 weeks
