Time for a geeky post..

So, I bit the bullet a few weeks ago and got myself the iPhone. I must say, it's pretty impressive. There are a lot of really cool things that have already made my life a little easier. Perhaps the best part is just having internet access wherever I go. If I'm away from the house and need to look something up - bam! There it is. But, there are definitely a few bugs that still need to be worked out.

One of the most annoying ones is the add on installed apps. I run into this problem almost daily. I'll go to launch one of the apps and it just flashes and returns to the home screen. The only solution I've found is to delete the app and reinstall it by going back to the App Store or synching the phone. This is particularly annoying when I'm trying to scramble out of the house to go running and I try to launch my app to track my run and it crashes. Arrgh! Does it not realize I only have a few minutes before I need to get back and cook dinner?! Apparently this is a widely known issue. Most blog posts I read reported it would be taken care of with the new OS release. But, that came out a couple days ago and the problem almost seems worse now.

The next one isn't a bug as something I'm stumped over. I'm struggling to find a good way to stream live radio from local stations. You'd think I could just go to the stations site and listen, but Safari doesn't support the formats. There are various apps you can install for some of the most popular stations on the country. But, some of the stations I want to listen to don't end up on those apps. In particular, I want to listen to the Dave Ramsey show live (I normally do this on AM 1530 if I'm home) and Air1 (a national station that brodcasts locally on FM 89.5). If anyone has a solution to this - PLEASE let me know.

Yuck!

With kids, some days are better than others. Today has been one of those not so good days. I've literally been cleaning up bodily fluids since this morning. It started with Amy Jo. She has had poop go up her entire back and all over clothes twice today. And the day isn't over yet! But, I'm used to that.. so no big deal.

But, then Micah started throwing up. And throwing up. And throwing up some more. It started this morning when we went to get in the van. Just as he got in, he spewed all over the seat and the floor. He quickly jumped out (smart boy!) and continued to throw up all over the concrete. Bleh! When he finished he was so exhausted he could hardly keep his eyes open. So, I put him in the bed and went outside to wash out the van. Just as I was finishing up, he came running outside crying saying he had thrown up all over his bed. Ahhh! So, I cleaned up him up, sat him on the couch and went to clean up the bedroom. Not two minutes after I finished that, he threw up on the couch. We cleaned that up and now we've been laying on the couch for a few hours. We've got our system down. He will motion to me to pick up the garbage can, he'll spew, and we'll keep watching movies. It seems to have slowed down, so I'm hoping the worst might be over. But, I feel totally gross. Hopefully Chris will be home soon and I can shower up. I'm hoping it's just some sort of food poisoning since he doesn't have a fever.

Katie seems to thrive off of the opportunities to show compassion. She keeps checking on Micah and rubbing his head and says "Are you okay, buddy?" Cute stuff.

Okay, back to watching Cars with Micah...

Hi-yah!

So, it's a new day with a new president. Not quite the outcome I had hoped for, but it is what it is. I'm thankful I have a God who is ultimately in control. He knew long before today that Barak Obama would be president and I'm glad He knows better than me what is best for His people. I was encouraged this morning as I got together with a group of friends and we studied some of the Psalms. Particularly, Psalm 8 helps put some perspective on all of this..


When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
If God cares for us individually that much, this little thing called the election just doesn't seem like that big of a deal.

Annywhooo... Enough about politics. Moving on.

Micah started taking Karate last week. Let's just say.. that didn't last long. He told me last night he didn't want to do it anymore. In his words "All that running makes me tired". (The instructor makes the kids run about 1/4 of a mile each class). Hmm. Normally I don't think I'd let my kid quit that easily. But, considering it was going to cost about $700 for 6 months worth of classes (that was the cheapest I could find), I think I'm gonna let my kid be a quitter. :)

And I promised some pics... Here we go!

No, the sky is not falling...

I went up to the Town Center this afternoon and saw something very interesting. Lots and LOTS of people. People everywhere, walking around with their shopping bags and their lattes from Starbucks. If it weren't for the news telling me otherwise, I would never have known we were in the midst of "the worst time since the Great Depression". Seeing that today leaves me with two possible explanations - either people are in denial OR maybe things really aren't that bad. Hmm.

Lest I sound insenstive, I know there are a lot of people out there struggling right now. Just last week, several people we know lost their jobs and I'm sure we'll see more in the weeks to come. I'm not suggesting that things are peachy keen. It's just that I think a lot of what we're hearing is a little blown out of proportion. Yes, the stock market it had it's worst one month decline in it's history (14% loss). But, it's ONE MONTH people! It's not the end of the world! The news has a difficult time reporting anything but the hear and now. They fail to put things into perspective most of the time. So, here's one nuggest for some perspective - Did you know that since 1994, the stock market is up nearly 57%? And that's as of the close of our "worst month ever".

All this to say... Based on what I saw today at the mall and the basic numbers I mentioned above, I don't think we're anywhere close to being able to compare this to the Great Depression. But, hey, it makes for some great political soap box's for our Presidential candidates.

Anywhoooo... I doubt anyone cares about my rants on the economy. So, I promise -next post will be back to "A Day in the Life of a Mom" and some new family pics!

Quick, let's get out of here!

News Flash: My kids have very different personalities!

This was made very apparent today in a situation we encountered at Chick-fil-a when I took Katie and Micah to the bathroom. As Katie was in the midst of doing her business, the electronic sensored paper towel dispenser suddenly started dispensing all by itself. Katie's reaction was "wow, cool!" and she laughed very excitedly. Micah's reaction was complete opposite. He got very nervous and tried to get Katie to hurry up so we could get out. I tried to tell him it was okay as I got Katie's pants pulled up, but I looked over to find his lip quivering. I asked him why he was getting upset and he hesitantly asked me "Is the whole bathroom going to fill up??". It was kind of funny, but I knew it was very distressing for him. I couldn't help but hurry us all out of the bathroom to relieve his fears.

My friend recently lent me a book called Nurture by Nature which goes through the Myers-Briggs personality types and helps you identify the personality type of your kids. I'm finding this extremely helpful in parenting them. I hate to say it this way, but Micah has been much easier for me to interact with than Katie so far. After reading the personaility profiles, I now realize that it's because we are very close to the same personality types. Micah is ISTJ and I'm INTJ, but I think the N is boarderline S for me. It's always easy to understand someone who is just like you! :) Katie on the other hand... I've had a hard time figuring out what makes her tick. But, after reading the book, I've determined her to be INFP. INFP's can be pretty emotional - An emotional INFP doesn't always fit well with a level headed INTJ. But, there are SO many positive things in her personality profile as well. Now that I know what to be looking for, it has been so fun to focus on her strengths and see how it makes her light up with delight when she gets that praise. She is certainly very loving and concerned for other people's well being. And I think slowly but surely, she will teach me how to lighten up a bit and enjoy the little things as much as she does.

So, 2 kids down. 1 to go! And, after today, I doubt Micah will want to use the Chick-fil-a bathroom anymroe.

Everyone has their opinion.

I know everyone has an opinion on this topic, but hey.. it's my blog, so I get to write what I want, right? :)

Since high school, one of my passions has been Economics. So much so that I minored in it in college and have considered many times going back to get a Master's degree in it. So, the last few weeks in the US economy has certainly peaked my interest. This past week in particular has been pretty fascinating. Banks failing, goverment bailing company's out, huge gains and losses in the stock market, and a $700 billion plan announced by the government on Friday to try to salvage the economy. Even the most level headed of us have got to be at least wondering what in the world is going on.

The root cause of all of this chaos is basically debt. The definition of debt is: "something owed, the state of owing". Beginning about 5-7 years ago, people became delirious with the notion of owning a home. And lenders became delirious with the notion of big time profits. Not having the cash on hand to purchase these homes, people took out mortgages. Prior to this big housing boom, banks were typically careful about who they lent to by doing a lot of research on their income, their outflow, and their debts, many times done by what's called manual underwriting of a loan. But, banks and Wall Street began seeing an opportunity to make big time money by making these loans to basically anyone who walked in off the street regardless of their income. Most of these now failed loans were Adjustable Rate Mortgages, Interest only, and Sub Prime (high interest rate) for a period of 3-5 years. To increase the profit, banks began packaging and reselling these mortgages to other companies for a profit basically causing more and more layers of institutions to become caked onto these mortgages. About 1-2 years ago, a lot of these sub prime loans came up for intrest rate adjustments. And the people who were lent more money than they could afford began defaulting. And the rest has been a domino effect throughout many of the layers of financial institions entangled in these loans.

In the end, we'll all get through this. A basic economic principal is "what goes up, must come down". We experienced a huge "up" over the past several 5-7 years, which means we should have been expecting a big "down" as well. I'm still not sure how I feel about the govenment taking part in trying to soften the blow of the "down", but that may be a post for another day. But, if America hasn't seen the basic lesson in all of this yet, I hope this past week has been a wake up call - "Debt is dumb, cash is king."

Mommy, it smells like delicious eggs!

This was Micah's comment today as we drove with the windows down through a rather soggy area of town. The things kids say are just too hilarious sometimes.

Tough decisions.

I'm starting to find that as kids get older, the tougher the decisions get. I'm so thankful that God already knows their lives from start to finish and has a plan much bigger than me. But, I at least feel a duty to make wise, well thought out, and prayerful decisions about the things in their lives.

Micah turns 4 next month, and the need to make a decision about school is staring us right in the face. There are so many choices - public school, private school, montissory education, classical education, co-ops, home schooling, unschooling, etc. It makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

Meanwhile, Micah is so super eager to learn things. And Katie is a little sponge right now, too. To take advantage of this fertile time, I've tried to start being delibrate in our plans each day. Here are some of the things we're trying (key word being trying)...

• Each morning we go for a walk. I try to plan something for the walk such as counting how many houses their are in our neighborhood or naming all the animals/insects we can find. The other morning, we got into a discussion about leaves falling from the tree. Micah wanted to know why they turned brown once they fell off. I explained how the leaf needs the tree for food and life.
• We're trying a book series called "The Code" by Nancy Hall. She has a book for preschoolers called "Get Ready for the Code" that helps learn letter sounds and how to write them.
• Target has these incredible $1 bargin bins that have flash cards and books for learning numbers and letters. I even found a Spiderman number book the other day. Micah thinks it's the coolest thing ever.

This education thing is a whole new world for me. So, I'm open to any suggestions for those of you who have been through this already! And I'm sure there will be plenty of posts in the coming years that reflect my many failures and few successes in the realm of education.

If you'd like to see one of our other learning adventures, check out Chris' You Tube video. This happened in our front yard on Friday:

Back to "normal".

A couple weeks ago, Katie was crawling up onto my lap on the couch and accidentally pushed my laptop crashing onto the floor. I tried to recusitate it, but it breathed it's last. It was a tough couple weeks, but after some diligent e-bay-ing, I'm back in business! :)

Micah and Katie have both had some pretty big milestones these past few weeks. Micah took his training wheels off two weeks ago. Go Micah! It was a rainy afternoon and we were on our way inside when Chris came walking out and non-challantly said, "Hey, Micah.. Wanna take your training wheels off?". He immediately said "No way, daddy!" Chris gently prodded him "What, are you a scardey cat??" And that's all it took. He immediately decided he had something to prove. Now, I'm not so sure that's the best way to get your kids to do something, so I'm certainly not condoning that approach. But, once Micah decided he wanted to do it, he was certainly determined. Within minutes, he was riding all by himself with little or no help. And for the past two weeks, he has been riding circles around the girls and I as we go for our morning walk.

And Katie has certainly made us proud these past few weeks. Having gone through this with two kids now, I think I'm beginning to realize that potty training is as much of a training for the kids as it is for the parents. I was personally a little scared of potty training a girl. Boys are easy; they can pretty much go anywhere. But, girls can't exactly do that and with my personal aversion to public restrooms, the thought of needing Katie to sit on one of those seats was beyond me. My other issue is that I'm always hesitant to draw that line in the sand and say "we are done with diapers". I try to dilly dally with not wearing diapers at home, but then putting them on if we go out, or putting them on when they go to bed. And it just doesn't work. It's too confusing for them. Once we quit trying to change the rules on Katie and we solved my aversion to public restrooms by bringing a toilet chair in the van, she easily took the reins and finished up the training. And now we're going on 4 weeks now with no diapers. She has been so proud of herself - she is officially a big girl! :)

In between bike riding and going potty, I've been busy doing some web design work. One for the infamous Rae Davies (http://www.thebirthcompany.com) and one for Med-Equip Solutions (this one will be online at http://www.med-equipsolutions.com next week).

Chris for President?

Who'd of thunk I might be First Lady one day. Check out his campaign: http://chrisandjudy.blogspot.com/

In other news, Katie is officially potty trained! That's a relief, and an extra $50 bucks in our pockets each month. Hooray for Katie!

My worst nightmare.

Around 2am last night, I woke up in a cold sweat with my heart pounding out of my chest. That had to be one of the worst nightmares I've ever had. Here's how it went down..

I guess the whole fam was getting in the van to go somewhere. We were all in and ready except for Katie. She was dragging her feet and getting distracted by toys walking out of the garage to the van. Chris, being his usual self, decided to tease her a bit by acting like we were going to leave without her. I decided to hop out of the van to go grab her and put her in the van. When I got out, I didn't see her anywhere. I guess Chris assumed she was still playing so he continued to back up like he was leaving us. Next thing I know I hear her screaming. I look down and see her underneath the van. Before I had time to react, I watched the front tire roll over her entire body. When the van came to a stop, her torso was completely separated from her lower half. As I was running to her, I was jolted out of my sleep.

Needless to say, it shook me up pretty good and it took me quite a while to fall back to sleep. I have no idea what prompted that, but I'm certainly thankful it was only a dream!

Intersting days.

Bill Gates officially retired from Microsoft this week. That's a pretty major event - if it had not been for that man, chances are I would not be sitting here writing this blog on my laptop and you probably wouldn't be reading it. And while I have the upmost respect for that man, it's probably a good thing he is retiring. There is no doubt that Microsoft still dominates the market, but it's obvious that the market is shifting. Have you walked into an Apple store lately? There's hardly breathing room. Apple, Mozilla, Google, etc, all making products that are increasingly infringing on Microsoft's space. Why? Because they're better, faster, cheaper (free in a lot of cases). Microsoft needs to make some serious changes soon or else.

Starbucks announced this week they would be closing 300 stores. Who would have ever thought we'd be hearing that announcement!

Two words: Google StreetView. If you haven't seen it yet, you're missing out! Chances are, a street level view of your house with your parked car in the driveway is on there.

Gen Y/Millenials - people born from 1980 - 1996. These are the kids who are going to completely change the way we do work in America. Very intriguing. Even though I'm Gen X, I think there is a lot that's true about our generation in this group as well. No more 9-5 work like we know it. There is a great editorial on this at: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/60minutes/main3475200.shtml

Rock groups replacing lead singers from internet videos? Who'd of thunk. This year alone, the legendary rock group Boston replaced their lead singer when they stumbled across a Home Depot manager's MySpace page. Journey did a similar thing finding their new lead singer on YouTube. http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4975645

Sacred Marriage - a great book that Chris and I are reading right now. This doesn't have much to do with current events except that it's probably a portrait of marriage that is becoming increasingly hard to find in our day and age.

And these are just a few things that have been topics of discussion in the Andrews' household as of late. :)

Whew, that's a relief!

So, Micah went for his first "real" dentist appointment a few weeks ago and my little buddy had two cavities on his back molars. Ugh. And to make matters worse, the dentist wanted to put Micah to sleep to fill them! As a parent, you want to make the best decisions for your kids. And it doesn't help that I like to make informed decisions. Putting my kid to sleep and paying around $1200 out of pocket seemed like a big deal to me, so I had a lot of questions. I could tell the dentist was a little perturbed by all my inquiries. The dentist felt that because of Micah's age, this would be the only way to get him to sit still long enough to fill them. In his words, "I've done this a long time and I don't think Micah will be able to do this. You might ruin his perception of dentistry for life and he will never want to come back." Naturally, I came home feeling beat down and began doing a lot of reading and talking to other parents about what their experience has been with pediatric dentistry.

Enter Dr. Love. A friend from church, Bill Love is a a pediatric dentist who's been in practice for a long time. I didn't initially take Micah and Katie there because he isn't in network with our insurance. But, Chris urged me to talk to him anyway. We had a consultation there yesterday and all I can say is Bill is my hero! Micah did great - he sat calmly in the chair and let Dr. Love look in his mouth. After a few minutes of poking around in his mouth, Bill says - hey, Micah is doing awesome. How about we just go ahead and fill them while you're here? We can just use a little nitrous oxide and he'll be done in about 10 minutes. By the time I picked my mouth up off the ground, Micah was done! All those weeks of agonizing over this decision and just like that, it's over. Needless to say, I think we've found our new dentist for the next 18 years!

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YEA - a milestone! I posted a few months back that I was 145 lbs and that I had a goal to lose 15 pounds. But, I hit my brick wall a while ago at 140. No matter what I did, I couldn't get below 140. That was somewhat expected - as long as I'm nursing, it's usually hard to get below a certain point because my body needs the extra calories to feed the baby. But, I finally broke the barrier. I was 139.6 today! It's been over 4 years since I've seen anything below 140 on the screen. I just had to share my excitement. Only 9.6 pounds to go! Amazing what not eating out and exercising can do for you. :)

Love grows love.

Most people who know me know I'm a pretty big Caedmon's Call fan. I have always loved their folk sound, their songs have a depth that is refreshing, and I learned to play guitar off their early music. One of the songs on their latest album, Overdressed, has struck a chord with me and it's been stuck in my head the past couple days. It's called Love Grows Love and as mushy as it sounds (and I'm not a very mushy person) - I think I like it because it is reminiscent of the story of Chris and I. Dating, getting married, having kids, going through life's experiences together, and growing closer every day.

You said to put on a happy face on a high school stage
But I read what you really meant, your handwriting on a Bible page
I waited like you told me, though we knew it right away
It took eight and a half more years to finally say

I fell in love with you, and the love became something new
It keeps getting stronger than we ever could have longed
Love keeps growing more love

When we got the news we had to call our families
And start painting the room a nice bright blue
Our vows, they started breathing and they took on flesh and blood
And we held them in our arms and tasted that God was good

I fell in love with you, and the love became something new
Added a name and we added a smile, keeps getting bigger ever further mile
There on your bended knee, we sowed the seeds of our history
Coming up stronger than we ever could have longed
Love keeps growing more love

If love is an echo of the heart, the heart is a canyon
It stretches wild and free without an end
It breaks through every wall that holds us in

I’m on the other side of the world to see what changed you so
My heart breaks with the broken and it dances with the hope
You told me I would find here what I could not understand
‘Til I’m walking here beside you hand in hand

I fell in love with you, and the love became something new
Added a name and we added a smile, keeps getting bigger ever further mile
There on your bended knee, we sowed the seeds of our history
Coming up stronger than we ever could have longed
Love keeps growing more love

It's just who I am.

I think I've finally realized something about myself - I'm a slow adopter. You'll never find me waiting at a store all night for the release of the next greatest (insert item here) . I think I even have a tendency to resist change. I need time to process, see if it's effective or worthwhile, read reviews, get opinions, etc before I'll even consider accepting something. It's kind of ironic since I work in the fast paced, always changing IT industry.

Just some recent experiences with that - Buying up houses to fix up and sell during the housing boom (now I'm super thankful we didn't do that!), Windows Vista (although, my reluctance was well merited), Blackberries (I still think they're evil), Blogging (now look at me), Facebook (now I think it's great!), Organic Foods (now I buy quite a bit of Organic foods - have you ever tried Organic milk? Yuuuumm!), and the list goes on.

And it only took me 29 years to figure this out.

Mommy, I want one more.

What am I to say when Micah is cuddling with me after waking up from his nap today and looks up at me and says, "Mommy, I want one more baby." ?

Sometimes I wonder if it is bothersome to him having to be the big brother, getting less attention than he used to get, and having to help with the other two all the time. But, it is becoming increasingly apparent that he absolutely loves his little sisters. And he enthusiastically continues to tell me he wants another brother or sister. It is so much fun to see the way he dotes over Amy Jo. I think she has captured his heart even more than Katie did just because he was old enough to understand what it meant for me to be pregnant and what it meant to have a new sister.

So, at least he has made up his mind on that topic. Now if Chris and I could make up our minds, we'd be good to go. :)

Victory!

I'm not much for sewing, but when it comes to my kids waking up earlier and earlier, I'll do just about anything. I like my sleep too much!

Over the past couple months, it has continued to get brighter and brighter earlier and earlier. Micah and Katie used to sleep consistently until 7am, if not 7:30am. But, since it was getting brighter earlier, their internal clock seemed to be adjusting. First it was waking up at 6:45am, then 6:30, and lately it's been more like 6:15am. I usually wake up an hour before them so I can have some perosnal time, but waking up at 5:15am every morning was not sounding too attractive. Amy Jo seems unphased by the daylight - she still consistently sleeps until 8am. But, now that she has become mobile over the past week, she has decided to wake up once a night for an extra feeding - I assume for the extra calories she's burning. I know some moms deal with their infants waking up several times a night until they are a year old or older, so I really have nothing to be complaining about. But, I've been sleepy and grumpy lately, so I figured I owed it to others around me to try to do something about this waking up early deal.

So, yesterday, I borrowed a sewing machine and put together some black out shades for their room. Let's just say... the extra hour of sleep this morning was heavenly!

What's in a name?

When I was a kid, I wasn't super crazy about my name - Judith Michelle. They called me Michelle for a while, but when I got to kindergarten there was a girl named Michelle that I didn't like. So, when I found out my first name was actually Judith (Judy), I made up my mind that I wanted to change it. I wasn't super crazy about that name either, but at least it was after my dad's mother - or so I was told. There were still a lot of people who called me Michelle, but over time eventually everyone switched.

Yesterday I went downtown to pick up a death certificate for my father (he died 13 years ago). You can imagine the irony when I saw his mother's name listed on the certificate as Vivienne Jean. Where was the Judy?? I could only laugh. I called my mom right away to let her know. She laughed, too. She said she wasn't crazy about the name Judy, but my dad talked her into it because he told her it was his mother's name. Seems he pulled one over on both of us! What's even more ironic is that my maiden name "Shane" wasn't a real name either. My dad changed his last name when he went into showbusiness (long before I was born). Consequently, I ended up with that last name when I was born. But, no one else in his family has that name except for me. Now that's a story I can't wait to tell the kids one day!

There's a first...

For the past several weeks, Chris' mom has been staying with us one night a week to attend a class down the street from our house. So, she keeps her makeup bag in one of the drawers in the guest bathroom. Yesterday, Katie decided to sneak in there, close the bathroom door, and play with Grannie's makeup. Of course it only makes sense that she would then need to climb on the toilet and onto the counter to see in the mirror to put the makeup on. When she realized she couldn't get off the counter, she began calling us. When Chris went to open the door - denied! Due to a poor cabinet design in the bathroom, the drawer that Katie left opened before she climbed on the counter completely blocks the door from being opened. And since Katie couldn't get off the counter to close it, we couldn't get her out. Sooooo.. we had no choice but to bust the door down. Chris got a crow bar and began beating a hole through it so we could reach in and close the drawer. Needless to say, Katie was pretty shaken up. I don't think she'll be getting playing in the makeup anymore. I can only imagine what the garbage men thought when the picked up the door this morning. :)

Katie turns 2!

Katie's birthday was Monday; our little girl turned 2! I can still vividly remember the morning I went into labor with her. Chris was getting ready to go to work and he didn't believe me. 3 hours later, Katie made her debut!

We had a small birthday party for her this past weekend - a princess party! She proudly adorned her princess garb throughout the day. I think she was a little overwhelmed by the whole thing. With two siblings, she's not used to that much undivided attention. :) But, she was adorable and she is definitely a princess in our eyes.

We also received an incredible blessing this weekend - my sister Cathy surprised us with the purchase of a swing set for the kids! And it was no small task putting that gigantic thing together. Cathy, her boyfriend Don, and Chris spent several hours Friday night and all day Saturday putting it together. It was at least a solid 12 hours worth of work. In the end, the kids have had an absolute blast on it. The first thing they want to do when they wake up in the morning is go in the backyard to play on it. Our house is definitely the place to be right now for all the neighborhood kids. A huge thanks to Cat for that one! She has always been one of the most giving people I've ever known, and once again we were humbled by her graciousness. I can only hope God will shape my heart to be even half as giving as hers one day.

Love, boats, and piercings.

What do they have in common? Not much, but it probably got your attention.

Two weeks ago, Chris and I had the pleasure of attended a marrage conference at our church. We've been married almost 9 years now and I still find myself amazed that God has blessed me with this incredible man. It was great to spend some dedicated time together (no kids!) and reflect on the bigger purpose God put us together for - to share His love with others. And.. we even got some dance lessons!

Would you believe my mom bought a boat? Yeah, me neither! And it's not a little boat... It's pretty darn big. We spent this past Saturday taking it out for her maiden voyage. The kids had a blast, but I think Chris had even more fun getting to be the captain.

While we were out boating, Chris' parents kept Amy Jo for us. They took her to get her ears pierced! She looks adorable! I'm so glad it's done and that I didn't have to be there. I almost passed out when Katie got hers done.

This week we're making preparations for Katie's birthday party. I can't believe she's about to be 2!

Painted nails, lemoNsines, and Jon Jon.

It's been tough for me to post regularly lately. I guess having 3 kids is taking up more time than I had anticipated. :) Here is a quick update on the latest in our household.

Katie got her first nail painting this weekend. Chris painted her toenails and fingernails and now she thinks she is hot stuff. She walks around saying "Ooohh, look at my toes. They're preeettty." I've started planning for her birthday party. I can't believe she'll be 2 at the end of this month!

Micah is turning into more of a comedian every day. He definitely gets those genes from Chris' family. The other day we were eating at Bono's (surprise, surprise). He started putting all our lemons from our drinks on one of the cardboard advertisements sitting on the table. Once he had them all meticulously arranged, he looked up with a big grin and said "Look everyone, it's a lemonsine!" He also had one of the most exciting moments of his life this week at our favorite Japanese restaurant. Over the years, we've become friends one one of the cooks there named Jon Jon. Micah thinks he is a super hero or something. So much so that he pretends to cook like him on our coffee table at home and he has been saving up money for the past few months so he can buy a spatula like Jon Jon's. What 3 year old has the diligence to save money to buy something like that over toys? Micah told Jon Jon about how he was going to get one of those as soon as he had enough money. So, when the meal was over, Jon Jon graciously gave him his spatula. Micah was so excited. He has even been taking the spatula to bed with him at night.

Amy Jo has been so much fun. She is smiling and coo'ing up a storm right now. She is such an easy going baby. I can't wait to see how her personality develops over the next several months. She seems like she is going to be such a delight.

I've had so much fun being home with the kids for the past 10 weeks! It's kind of bitter sweet that I have to begin going back into the office next. I enjoy my job, but I enjoy being a mom even more!

Spring is in the air!

I love this time of year. The temperature is perfect, the days are longer, everyone is outside. We took advantage of it today by going to the zoo with our neighbor and her kids. 70 degrees, a slight breeze, blue skies, and some stinky animal poop. It doesn't get much better than that!

2008 is beginning to look like a year of a lot of "firsts" for me. I had my first ever ER and hospital stay last month. And this week I got stitches for the first time. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration - I should say I got my first stitch (not plural). I had to get a mole removed and they put a little stitch in it afterwards. For a girl who hates needles, I sure am getting poked an awful lot this year. Next week I have to go to the dentist. With the year I've had so far, I'm sure you can understand my apprehension. :)

Remember. Never Forget.

This weekend I had the great pleasure of attending the annual women's retreat with my church. It was a great time to fellowship with some great friends, make new ones, and gave me some much needed time away from the busyness of life to spend with the Lord.

One of the themes of the retreat was remembering what God has done. I spent a good deal of time reflecting on all the amazing ways He has worked troughout my life. The people, events, and timing of things seems so intricately placed. From the events that transpired that resulted in me hearing the Gospel and accepting it into my heart, to the way I met Chris, to the death of my Dad, to the friends I made while working in highschool who challenged me which consequently resulted in Chris accepting Christ, to my attendance at UF and my "random" placement with roommates which led to my involvement in Campus Crusade, to our first professional jobs which ultimately led to the jobs we have today. Our marriage, the ministries we're involved in and support, the friends we have, the people we've seen grow or accept Christ, the people who have discipled us and the people we've discipled, the births we've had, the jobs we're in, the church we attend. Good times, bad times, the list goes on and on. All are a direct consequence of the way God began a series of events from the time I was a small child and arguably long before my life even began. It's as if He wanted me to be able to look back on them and be left utterly speechless at the undenyablity of His hand in all of it.

I think the words of this song sum it up better than I ever could...

How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He would send His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

Grooming a gentleman begins early.

One of the things that I've always loved about Chris is what a gentleman he is. Even when we were young teenagers, he was always quick to do things like open the door for me and let me walk in first. He was always super polite to his elders. He told me that these were things his mom required of him from a young age. You don't see that a lot anymore, but it is something we definitely wanted to instill in any boys we had. So, it was great to see Micah put those lessons to use the other morning at Chick fil A with a little girl his age on the playground. It was so sweet to watch him be so polite. He always let her go down the slide first. He helped her get up the steps. He opened the door to and from the playground for her. I hope him learning these things now makes his future wife feel honored!

In other news - I had my 6 week checkup today. I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight! Yippie! That's the quickest I've bounced back after a having a baby - it normally takes me 6 months or so. I think my illness after having Amy is the biggest reason for that. I guess something good came out of that whole experience. Even though I'm happy about that, my pre-pregnancy weight isn't much to brag about (145). I would love to loose about 15 more pounds. So, that's my goal. I've started bike riding again and plan to hit the exercise pretty hard (kids permitting). You all can hold me accountable. I guess trips to Melting Pot like we did this past Monday night probably aren't going to help me too much in that quest. :)

It's a little dusty around here.

Never a dull moment at the Andrews household. Today's agenda - insulate the attic.

We've been wanting to add additional insulation in our attic for several years, but each year winter comes and goes before we find time to do it. With our electric bills continuing to increase, we were bound and determined to do it this year. But, yet again, winter has almost slipped past us. I guess we were a little preoccupied with the arrival of little Amy this winter. So, we knew this was probably the last weekend of reasonably cool weather and if we didn't do it now, it would be another year before it was done.

Little did I know how much work it would be. Chris spent about 5 hours in the attic blowing recycled paper product while his dad and I were down on the ground loading the hopper. I thought we were getting incredibly dusty loading the hopper, but Chris was 10 times worse. When Chris emerged from the attic, he looked like Pigpen from the Peanuts. Like he had rubbed a year's worth of lint from the dryer all over his body and then run a marathon. He was covered in head to toe with dust and all sweaty. Bleh!

All that and we're only half way done! Tomorrow after church we'll be attempting to finish the rest. Needless to say, the neti pot came in handy today. And I think Chris wants to do a sprinkler system next weekend. No rest for the weary! If anyone is bored and wants to help, come on by.

In the meantime, at least half the house is nice and cool!

I'm such a crummy friend.

I have a friend who has gone through a very trying few months. The day of "reckoning" finally came yesterday and the result wasn't what was hoped for. I can only imagine what it felt like for her. And I know there isn't much I can say to make it any better. How can I even begin to know what she feels like? I know neither one of us chose our situations, but I can't help but feel guilty that this has been so difficult for her while the same situation for me has been so easy. I know God has a plan (Romans 8:28), but I'm not sure me telling her that is going to make her feel much better right now. So, I'm left without much to say. Maybe that's a good thing. Some people probably think I talk too much anyway. :) I hope she knows I'll be here to listen if she needs it!

Abbey, doooo that?!

I think things are starting to get back to normal around here. I'm feeling almost 100% again and the kids have pretty much adjusted to their new little sister.

Katie is really into her baby dolls now that Amy is here. When I'm nursing Amy, she'll go grab one of her dolls, put it under her shirt and pretend to nurse it as well. Or sometimes she'll go put the doll in her bed and come out and say "Shhh. Baby night night". If Amy cries in the car, Katie will yell out "Amy, it's okay! Shhh!". It's too cute.

This morning when Katie woke up I was right in the middle of nursing Amy. So, she went to grab her doll so she could sit next to me and feed it. All of a sudden she looked down to notice one of the feet missing on her doll. She immediately got a very concerned tone and asked where the baby's foot was. I tried so hard to contain my laughter because this was obviously very distressing for her. Apparently Abbey (our dog) got ahold of the doll last night and chewed it's foot off. How do you explain that one? While I was trying to figure out how to respond, Micah quickly chimed in the way only a man can, "Katie, Abbey ate it." Katie yells in a broken hearted tone, "Abbey, doooo that?!". In adult language that is "Abbey, why did you do that?!". Katie then took a deep breath, looks up at me with sad eyes, and asks me for some band aids for the baby. Micah proceeded to put Abbey in time out while we doctored up the stump of a leg.

Kids are so great!

I hate needles.

I've been known to nearly faint anytime I need to have blood drawn. In fact, one of the biggest reasons we began having our children at home instead of a hospital is because the thought of the possibility of getting an IV in my arm was too much for me. So, you can imagine my reaction when I had to go to the ER this week.

I thought something might be wrong when my post birth cramping was starting to get progressively worse instead of better late last week. But, being the stubborn person I am - I wrote it off as normal because it was my third kid (the cramping supposably gets worse with each kid). I noticed I had a slight fever on Saturday when Micah and Katie were playing doctor and they took my temperature. I still wrote it off as nothing and continued popping my 800mg of Motrin to dampen the cramping and fever. By Monday, there was no denying the possibility of something being wrong -- I had the shivers and my fever hit 103.2 by mid day. But, I still wasn't willing to give in. Monday night was my demise. I couldn't sleep, I was freezing to death, and by the wee hours of Tuesday morning I was beginning to hallucinate. My fever was now at 104.7. Chris called Sharon first thing Tuesday morning to let her know. Since we couldn't be certain what it was, she decided to send me to the ER to be checked out and shortly thereafter, they admitted me to the hospital.

Now, I've never been to an ER let alone a patient in a hospital. I'm hardly there 5 minutes and they're hooking me up to an IV, taking x-rays, examining my insides, drawing blood from both arms, bleh! Within 2 hours, I had been poked and prodded me in every which direction to figure out what was wrong. Let's just say - they left no stone unturned. In the end, I was diagnosed with a uterine infection. They gave me IV antibiotics and by the next day, I was feeling almost 100% better.

I've been home for a few days now and am feeling much better. I think we're starting to get into the swing of things with having 3 kids. I don't know how we would have gotten through the past 2 weeks without our families. They have been a tremendous help. It's been weird to think about what an uncomplicated pregnancy I had, an "easy" birth, and such an easy going baby and then to have such a crazy couple weeks postpartum for me personally. You just never know when things might come up. We are so blessed to have such a loving family who comes together to help each other out in times of need!

9lbs 8oz later...

Yea! Little Amy Jo is finally here. 6 days over due, but well worth the wait!

Saturday was like any other day for us. I still wasn't feeling anything prelabor like, so we went about our day as if nothing was going to happen. We did some work around the house, ran some errands, etc. We decided to go to Genghis Khan (Mongolian BBQ) one more time for dinner. It was the last meal I ate before Katie was born, so we secretly hoped it might do the trick for Amy as well. I was sure to make it plenty spicy. :) Still nothing. So, we went to bed around 9pm (yeah, we're old foggies). About 10, I woke up feeling some achiness in my back but rolled over thinking I was just uncomfortable. By 11, I couldn't sleep anymore. I still wasn't sure it was the real thing because it didn't feel like typical contractions at all. It was all in my back. I tried to wake Chris up, but he didn't seem interested in waking up until he heard me get in the shower. I guess that's been his warning sign with each birth. I figured taking a shower would make it stop if it wasn't the real thing. Chris quickly got up, scrambled to call everyone, get everything set up... and then the story kind of gets blurry for me from there because everything happened so fast.

By the time everyone got here and Sharon checked me, I was 9 1/2 cm. At 1:49am on January 27, little Amy entered the world. 9lbs 8oz. In attendence was Chris (of course!), my Mom, Chris' Mom, my sister Cathy, Sharon, Hope, and Irene. I also found out the next morning that Chris' dad was in attendence as well. He was asleep in our guest room just in case he needed to take the kids. He had no idea the baby was even born when he woke up the next morning.

The first few days have been better than anticpated as well. The kids have done great with her. Katie is so proud to tell everyone that it's her little sister. She wants to be right next to me when I feed her and is the first one there if the baby cries. Oh, and even better.. I might just have my wish of having a kid with blue eyes. It's still a little early to say for certain, but they're looking more blue by the day.

Praise God for yet another amazing blessing in our lives!

Eviction notice served.

The eviction notice has been served, but apparently the baby didn't read it. I'm a few days overdue now. Not a huge deal, but not quite what I had expected.

My sister Wendy came up to be here for the birth. When we planned her visit, we figured being here Sunday - Thursday would be plenty of time to be here for the birth and some time with the baby. But, here it Thursday and she is on her way to the airport to head back home. She tried to be here for Micah's birth as well a few years back, but he waited until shortly after she left to make his debut. I feel bad because I know it was tough for her to be here. She has not been away from her son for that long ever and she has a lot of stuff going on with the school they run back in Naples. It was great to spend time with her though. We did a lot of catching up, she taught me quite a few cleaning tricks (she is the queen of clean), she successfully bruised my legs trying to use accupressure to get labor to start, and she and Chris enjoyed trying to make me wet my pants several times by making me laugh too much. A full term pregnant woman, a cramped bladder, and laughter aren't always a good combination. Good times! Hopefully she enjoyed her visit as much as we did.

Sooo... now I go back to waiting. Hopefully the next post I have will have news of the baby!

Here I go again.

Here I go complaining about customer service again. I guess having been in that industry for my entire working career, it's hard for me to overlook crummy service.

So, Chris and I got new cell phones a couple weeks ago. We didn't change providers, just exchanged our old phones for new phones. After several people had inquired about my lack of response to their text messages, I realized this weekend that my text messaging had not been working since we got the new phones. No big deal, just call Verizon and have them fix it, right? Noooo. Chris spent 30 minutes on hold and talking to 2 different techs this morning as they went through several troubleshooting steps only to be told we needed to take it in to a store to have a technician look at it. We go to a store this afternoon and "sign in" using a kiosk to be queued up to see a technician. They only have one technician working, so it took almost 30 minutes for us to be called. At the counter, Chris explains the problem and the guy doesn't do much of anything. He just quickly writes a ticket saying he'd add it to a queue to have a technician look at it and we could come back after 8pm to find out the diagnosis. You can imagine our expression. We just waited in queue to wait in queue again? Huh? I quickly pipe up and let him know this is a brand new phone and it hasn't worked since I got it. He responds telling us we should go see one of the Customer Service Reps and just have them replace the phone because it would be quicker. Quicker. Right. So, he readds us to the queue so we can be seen by someone else. 20 minutes later (while we watch 3 guys not helping anyone), we're called. We hardly finish telling him the story when he tells us he can't replace the phone if we don't have the box it came in. The box? Why would we have the box with us when we thought we were just trying to get text messaging fixed? After some "polite" discussion back and forth, he ended up replacing the phone. So, 4 people, 4 queues, and an hour and half later - I have the ability to text message again. Am I crazy in thinking this is a poor way of handling customer service?

In lighter news - we were watching some of the all time most popular viral videos tonight on internet tv. Micah and Katie really got a kick out of the "Ok go - Here it goes again" video. If you haven't seen it, it's well worth a watch. Not only is it hilarious, it's quite brilliantly done. It's funny to watch two little kids enjoy it as much as us. As soon as it was over, Katie piped up and said "Again, mommy!"

It's not even noon yet!

This morning started off with a bang. Literarlly. We were sitting on the couch watching our normal episode of Curious George first thing this morning when suddenly, Katie threw up everywhere. All over me, all over the couch, all over the floor. Who knew that much stuff could come out of such a small belly.

We get cleaned up and it was pretty obvious it might be a rough morning. So, I loaded the kids and dog up in the van to go for a ride. I find that a quick drive can help with mornings like that. By the time we got home, Katie was obviously very sleepy so I laid her down for a nap.

Micah and I went in the back yard to attempt to finish raking the leaves (I hope we don't have another tick episode today!). I got tired pretty quickly, so I sat down on the porch for a break. Micah proceeded to setup his "firetruck", aka the grill. He found a broken lattice from one of my plants which is now his "ladder" for the firetruck. He was quick to inform me that this was a ladder firetruck, not a pumper truck. He got a hat from his room to act as his fire helmet, got key chain to start the firetruck, and sat underneath the grill to drive it.

After 15 minutes of that, he was getting a little bored and asked if it would be okay if he put the leaves we raked in garbage bags. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself as I sat in my chair reading my email as he busily scooped leaves into bags. He scooped over 3 full bags for almost an hour before I told him to take a break. He didn't want to stop! I had to convince him to stop by offering him some food. His response? "Sure mom, firemen have to stay strong!"

Only 1 shirt left...

It's a good thing that I'm down to around 13 days left. I have nothing left to wear. Unless of course it's okay for me to show my belly everywhere I go. I think the majority of the world would prefer I didn't do that. I hate to buy any other clothes for such a short period of time. It's too bad I can't just stay home for the next 2 weeks.

In other news, I performed my first "first aid" operation on one of my kids today. Micah got a tick on his head. What would we do without the internet and a father in law who is a pest control expert? Between the two of them, I quickly figured out how to remove the tick and treat Micah's head. Micah handled it very well, too. He thought it was pretty cool, actually.

In other, other news - cleaning help to the rescue! With baby number 3 almost here, I've succombed to the possibility that it might be a little much for me to keep up with the house cleaning for a few weeks. My mom and sister were nice enough to give me a Christmas present of some extra cash to help pay for a service. We met with some very nice ladies today who are going to start next week. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited!

Back to "normal".

The last 2 weeks have been a complete blur. Today was the first day that things were mostly back to normal. Chris went to work. I got up with the kids and watched our typical Curious George episode. We did our normal errands. Had a quiet afternoon at home. It was quite refreshing.

I had my 37 week checkup today. Only 2 1/2 weeks to go! As I left my appointment, I had a moment of overwhelming thankfulness for my situation with my births. Because of a birth class that Chris and I half heartedly took because our friends recommended it when we were pregnant with Micah 4 years ago, we crossed paths with one of the most incredible women I've ever known. Sharon has been my midwife for each of my births. We've grown to be good friends and I can't imagine going through a pregnancy and birth without having her by my side. She is more than just a care provider to me; she is like a sister. Between her, Irene, Kristin (Sharon's assistant and now good friend of mine), our Moms, and of course, Chris, I have the most incredible group of people present at the births of our kids. And to top it all off, we get to do it all in the comfort of our own home. I couldn't ask for anything better.

On another note, it's supposed to be 14 degrees tonight. In Florida? That's crazy. Maybe I'll actually get to sleep with some covers on tonight. I've been so hot at night that a little cool weather would be welcome.