God and Dog

Love this!!!!

http://www.irememberlove.com/video/god-and-dog-by-wj-francisco

Two Fish, Five Loaves

We had some excitement last weekend...

My husband left Thursday evening for a weekend fishing trip at a state park located 2-3 hours south of our home... Nothing special... he goes camping about once a month when it's nice out so this was nothing out of the ordinary for him....

Friday night about 11 pm I get a collect call from him... his cell didn't get service where he was.... he had gotten into it with the group of people he was with and had grabbed his stuff and walked off the camp site and headed to the main lodge... he needed a ride...

For those of you who don't know my husband, he can really lose his temper when provoked... I guess this was a different group of people that he knew but had never camped with before... and he got into it with one of the guys and was greatly out numbered... he figured it was better for him to grab his stuff and go than to hit the guy and then either get mauled by the rest of the group or tossed in jail...

So, he gave me some rough directions and I headed out about 11:30 pm... I was doing okay on gas and figured I would try to stop once a little over half-way down there to use the restroom and get gas so we could drive straight thru on the way back.... little did I know that the route I was taking had nothing after the last town 45 min from our house...

There were plenty of gas stations along the route but being so rural and the middle of the night, they were all closed. When my husband called to give me more specific directions, he told me to stop and try a pump anyway... of course it didn't work...

By the time I got to him, I had about 1/8 tank of gas. I told him I thought we should head to the next town and hope for an open pump but he refused and we headed back toward home... me knowing there was no hope for gas for at least 50 miles or more...

Now, being a guy, my husband set out to prove me wrong. We stopped at one station and although it accepted his card, the pumps were off so all we could get was what was left in the line... and it only dripped it's way into my tank, so empty at this point that we could hear it as the drops echoed in the tank...

Lather, rinse, repeat...

We did this 3-4 more times along the route for a grand total of just under 1/2 gallon... he kept asking how far to the next town by my map and I kept praying that he would agree to just sleep at the next pump until it opened in a few hours... I also prayed that the fumes would get us where we needed to go so he wouldn't have to walk to the next town...

We finally made it to a larger town that actually had a Walmart with gas pumps... which of course were off, but the store was open so I could use the restroom and ask what time the pumps opened... the lady working there told us about the one 24 hour pump in town which happened to be less than 2 miles away... so if we did die, my husband could walk back to the Walmart to buy a gas can then to the pump and back to the car with ease if need be...

We made it to the station, which was, of course, dark and deserted, with the exception of the one brightly lit pump...

My husband put his card in...

"Please see attendant" flashed across the screen... (of course... he just made 3-4 purchases for about 25-50 cents each and the card was flagged...)

I laughed so hard tears were rolling down my face... he was trying not to lose his temper while digging in his bag for another card... which he found and successfully used to fill up my starving tank.

Now this whole trip I prayed... that I stay awake... that I find him without too much trouble... that the gas in tank got us to where we needed to be... that no one had to walk anywhere... that we make it home safe. And as I began to realize that running out of gas was a very real possibility, the Bible story about a small amount of food feeding a large amount of people with more left over than they started with kept running through my mind... God would make my car go farther than it should on what was left in the tank... I knew it... and I prayed for it... for 4 hours I prayed for it....

That night in the rural midwest, God made a car that only gets 27-29 mpg get close to 35 mpg... the proof was in the distance of the trip divided by the amount of gas we put in at the pumps...

We pulled safely into our driveway at 5:30 am Saturday morning.

Never think that God doesn't answer ALL prayers... sometimes His answer is "no" or "not yet" but He does answer them ALL...

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35 weeks today... 5 weeks to go... OB says the baby is doing fabulously... BP meds increased to twice a day but the dose is still so small that I am not too concerned...

Patience & Wisdom

Thanks to Nancy for this one:

Two of the greatest qualities in life are patience and wisdom...

Oh, Baby!

I have a friend who works in a local OB's office where they do 3D/4D ultrasounds... guess what her gift to us was :-)

The tech measured the baby to see how we are growing... the last time we were measured everything was right on target... except for the arms and legs which measured a week ahead of everything else... long legs, just like momma...

This time, the head was still on track but the legs were 3 weeks ahead of our dates... freakishly long legs, again, just like momma... we are on track to be 8-9 lbs and 23+ inches long...

Guess I better invest in some onesie extenders...

Avoiding Bed Rest

I was diagnosed with high blood pressure (BP) in October of 2007. It was successfully managed with meds until April of this year... as it turns out, I am healthier pregnant than I am when I am not... I was taken off the meds and have monitored my BP weekly since then and all has been well.

Until last week...

Thursday morning, my feet were pretty swollen when I first woke up... a bit unusual so I stopped at the hospital closest to me (where I will be delivering and where I work as well) to have them check my BP before I drove all the way into the city. It was a bit high but came down after I sat for several minutes so I went about my day. I was back at that same hospital for work that afternoon and checked my BP again before I went home. Again it was a bit high but nothing too horrible.

That night during my child birth class, my feet swelled enough to cause some concern so I stopped at that same hospital on my way home... 159/106... high enough for them to put me in a room, on monitors, and do a PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension) work-up. After 2 hours, my BP came down and my labs came back fine. They sent me home with orders to do a 24 hour urine...

This week, my doctor informed me that my 24 hour urine looked fine but that she wanted me back on my BP meds, off my feet as much as possible, and on my left side with my feet up for at least 2 hours each day after work. She wants to start seeing me weekly and wants a biophysical work-up on the baby each week to monitor growth, movement, heart rate, placenta health/function, and uterine fluid levels.

I had my first biophysical ultrasound (u/s) today. Things looked really good. Baby is growing well and the fluid levels were within normal limits (WNL). Movement was better than normal... very active and breathing a lot... babies get their oxygen from the placenta so breathing is a lot of unnecessary movement that they don't do unless they are doing really well... The u/s tech said if the baby keeps this up, barring any issues with my BP, we should have no problem making it til October 1st.

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34 weeks today... perfectly capable of thriving anytime we decide to enter the world... estimated 5 lbs 8 ozs at u/s today...

Guilt, Or Lack There Of

I used my child for my own personal gain this week...

I was taking my husband to dinner and on the way to the restaurant I was stopped for speeding... 53 in a 40 (in my defense, I thought it was a 45... the limit goes up and down multiple times along that road for no apparent reason...)

The cop came to my window and asked for my license and proof of insurance and if there was a reason why I was going so fast... I subtly rubbed my baby bump and said "I really have to use the restroom."

He handed my DL and insurance card back to me and told me to slow down, drive safe, and sent me on my way....

And you know, I don't feel one bit guilty for it :-)

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32 weeks today... first shower is this weekend...

The Dream

We lost my great-aunt J recently. She was 88.

She had been having health issues for a while and the last time I saw her (before my recent visit to see her in the hospital) was last year at my Nani's funeral... she was on oxygen then. When I went to visit her most recently, she did not look good, her kidney's were failing, and I knew it was the beginning of the end.

A couple days after my visit to the hospital, my dad called to tell me she probably would not make it through the night. It was 3 more days before she passed away. It made me so thankful that Nani went as fast and as peaceful she did... I could not imagine sitting by her side for that long... and my heart goes out to my cousins who had to do just that...

The strange thing was, when I got the e-mail from my mom telling me of Aunt J's passing, I already knew... the night before I had a dream:

The whole extended family was all together and Aunt J was there, although somehow I knew that she had just passed away... I was telling her to make sure to tell Nani when she saw her that if the baby was a girl that she would be named after her. About that time, Nani showed up to greet Aunt J and welcome her to her new life... and I got to tell her myself...

It had been quite a while since Nani had come to visit me in my dreams... It was a lot at first, but it has really tapered off since the beginning of this year... it was nice to see her... I feel so lucky when I do because I don't think my brothers see her like I do... and almost all of the time, even though I am helping her do mundane tasks, I am very aware that she is really gone and that it is a dream and I just soak up the moments...

Hug your loved ones and tell them you love them while they are here... I am so glad I did, but it's still nice to have the opportunity to do so again in my dreams...

Just When I Thought I Was Really Losing My Mind...

One afternoon as I was heading home, I saw a giant globe on the side of the highway...

Now I know pregnancy does things to your memory, dexterity, and balance, but I hadn't heard anything about hallucinations... so I continued on my way and tried to forget about it...

Then, a few mornings later, I saw it again further up the highway... so I took a quick pic with my phone so I would have evidence of my vision:


I could not imagine what it was or why it had traveled so much further down the highway...

As I was headed home that same afternoon, I saw it again, and again, it had traveled a ways down the highway, but this time there was a man standing next to it so I turned around so I could get the story:


Turns out, the guy, along with his dog, is walking half way across the US to raise awareness for diabetes and he is rolling the world with him. He lost his mom to complications due to the disease when he was pretty young but his uncle has been living with it for 40 years. In honor of his uncle's upcoming birthday, he is going to climb Pike's Peak, rolling the world the whole way...

I chatted with him for a bit and gave him all the cash I had (like $4 or something pitiful) then I headed on my way...

The next morning, I actually saw him walking and rolling his world right along in front of him... What an inspiration!!!!

Please check him out at www.worldguy.org (notice the pic I took shows the actual size of the globe, where the pic on his site does not do it justice...)