Pantyhose Pros and Compression Cons

So there are some good and bad things about having to wear these compression stockings.
Pros:

1. Obviously, my legs and veins feel better.
2. I haven't felt my lower body fat jiggle in over a month.
3. Combined with the hernia belt, these things are keeping the midsection nice and tucked in, so I don't look like I'm as fat as I am.
4. When I walk for exercise, my stockinged feet slide inside of my socks, giving my calves an extra workout.  (I'm choosing to view this as a pro, rather than the annoyance it actually is.)

Cons:

1. I'm hot.  All the time.
2. Since they are so tight, my toes are squeezed together, and I'm worried that after three months in these things, I'm going to have toe problems (similar to the problems caused by wearing high heels).
3. They put a major damper on my seduction skills.
4. I have to think twice about anything that touches my feet - whether it's a floor or a pair of shoes.
5. Whereas there are definite slimming attributes of wearing these under all your clothes, they also cause my pants to ride up and cling in unattractive ways.  I choose to pretend I don't care.
6. Have you ever tried to take a nap in pantyhose?

I'm sure there's more, but you all just don't care.  I'm at 33 weeks today, so only 7 weeks left!  Baby is 4 pounds and 17 inches.  I am so excited to meet him (her)!

Overheard:

Me, as I was turning out their lights:  You guys need to be quiet and stay in bed.  (Paul was working nights, and they really like to double-team me when they know I don't have back-up.)

Nathan:  Mom.  Me and Jacob are going to talk about Jesus.

As much as I wanted to linger outside their door and listen, I knew he was listening for me to start down the stairs before he started the conversation.

Overheard: (A Salvation Story)

"Nathan, are you happy tonight?"  Everything that came out of his mouth had been a song for the last hour.
"Yes!  I'm happy 'cause Jesus lives in my heart!"

A week ago tonight, Nathan prayed to ask Jesus into his heart.
We had gotten home late.  Jacob was already asleep (I thought), so I took him up from the car and put him in bed.  After Nathan had brushed his teeth and gotten his pjs on, Paul took him up.  He prayed with him, then as he was walking out of the room, he said Jacob sat up and said, "Me do bad things.  Mommy do bad things.  Everybody do bad things."  (We've talked with them about how "all have sinned." - Romans 3:23.)
Paul said he came back in and said something back to Jacob, who checked out of the conversation when Brutus (the cat) jumped up on his bed.  But then Nathan started talking and asking questions.
Paul said they went over all of it - how he (Nathan) had sinned - "done bad things" - and what those things were.  How you can't get into Heaven if you've done bad things.  How Jesus was perfect and died on the cross to pay for our sins so we can go to Heaven.  How we need to say we're sorry for the bad things we've done and ask Jesus to forgive us.  About how when Jesus lives inside of us, we act and want to act differently.
I wondered what was taking so long, since I couldn't hear anything and the light was off.  Then Paul came down and told me everything they'd talked about, and said the conversation ended with Nathan praying to ask Jesus to forgive him and come live in his heart.
I'm not sure my heart has ever felt such joy.  It is the most wonderful thing to realize that your child will spend eternity in heaven with you.  What makes it even better for me is the fact that I can see a difference.  He's four. He's a boy.  So there is still some "nature" that takes over sometimes, and he has a hard time controlling.  But his attitude has made some noticeable (at least to me) changes this last week.
I've always said that the measure of good parenting is not in if your child knows how to cook or do laundry when they're grown (although I do want mine to know those things, too!), but whether they believe and love  and honor Jesus as their Savior.
I'm happy to say our oldest does.  And he wants his little brother to have Jesus in his heart, too.

Just Two More Months

I'm two months from my due date!  Part of me feels like that's so far away, the other part says, "Holy cow, we are not ready!"
I am ready for a baby in my arms.  So ready.  Not because I'm tired of being pregnant, but because I'm just excited to meet this baby!  But have we done anything to get ready for a new baby at our house?  No.  Okay - strike that.  We have moved the boys' train tracks out of the baby's room.  But no sorting clothes, no cleaning....  Oh well.  I still have two months.  :)
The doctor says everything looks great.  I feel like I haven't gotten any bigger in the last month.  Okay - any bigger in my belly.  This baby's theme song is "Baby Got Back."  I swear, most of the weight I've gained has been in my rear end.  My maternity jeans are tight.  Not cool.
But all the contraptions I have to wear under my clothes are holding my belly in.  The compression stockings are like control top hose, and the hernia belt is like a girdle.  So that's probably why my belly doesn't seem any bigger....  And I'm not sure I've gotten any new stretch marks.  (Yes, I realize I still have two months to go.)  I feel like I've paid my due on stretch marks (teenage ones, plus two pregnancies), so I would not mind not missing out on those this time around.
I was telling Paul, with both boys, I kind of had a feeling they were boys. (Up until the last few weeks with Jacob, then I was sure that because I was sure it was a boy, it would be a girl. :) )  But with this baby I have no inclination at all.  I finally started calling him "he" just to avoid calling him "it."  Part of me is leaning toward hoping it's a boy.  I say I want a girl because I feel outnumbered, but..... By this time, I know what I'm doing with boys.  We've got everything for a boy already.  (And I was thinking about how girls go through PMS when they get older.  Not cool.)  I know - there's a 50/50 chance each time, and twice we've gotten boys, so chances are toward a girl.  But it really doesn't matter.  I am going to be so thrilled by the time I get to hold this one in my arms.
So eventually, we'll have a rainy day, where I don't want to nap, and I'll get started on the baby's room.  But until then....  Oh well, I've got two months.
:)

Overheard:

"Nathan, you need to change your underpants before bed."
"Oh yeah, I do.  There's some icky icky, tooty tooty on them.  Look!"

And this gem from a few mornings ago:
"I tooted, and I put my fingers between my tushies, and then I tooted, and they smelled like TOOT!"

It Was Love All Along!

In the midst of my completely pointless nesting project (more on that later), I found this:

(outside)

(inside)

He can say what he wants about not having any feelings for me while we were growing up, but the fact that he kept it says something. ♥
(Almost as mature as this Valentine to him.)

I vaguely remember making homemade cards for my friends one year (obviously last-minute - written in pencil on typing paper folded in four), but I have no idea how old I was.  I'm guessing this was about 5th grade? Possibly older, it may have been for our JV AWANA class.
For the record, we do not celebrate Valentine's Day now.  We think it's retarded to make a big deal about our love just because everyone else is.  We save it for OUR day, our anniversary.  Not saying we never do anything - sometimes I'll get him a card, and he's gotten me flowers before, but I don't think we've ever gone out, even when we were dating.  And I'm just fine with that.

One Year

Last week marked one year since we lost our precious baby Angel.  I don't know whether this is good or bad, but on the actual day that was the year anniversary, it didn't even cross my mind.
My best friend gave me this Willow Tree angel in September in remembrance of our baby, who would have been due that month.  She knew we'd named the baby Angel, and also that we were expecting again.  A butterfly is a symbol of new life, and I thought it was so fitting.
It is easier not to be overcome with grief when you have a new life growing inside of you.  Even though we are sad that we never got to meet Angel, we also know that we wouldn't be expecting this little one if we hadn't of lost Angel.  I don't understand what God's purpose and plans are through all of this, but I can't dwell on it.  I just look forward to the future and what He has in store for our family.

Overheard: (sort of)

(This is part of a text I sent Paul last week while he was at work.)

"......I am having an absolutely insane hair day.  Seriously.  I look like the trailer park crazy lady, complete with the no bra, old-lady sweater, and house slippers.  Except I have good teeth."

When Paul got home, he commented,
"Yeah, you do.  You just need to be holding a half-empty bottle of wine and a cigarette."



A disadvantage of short hair is not being able to wash it at night.  After last week's burning, I had to wash it at night, but wasn't willing to stay awake until it was dry.

Victoriously Terrified

Does anyone else feel victorious when they get their taxes filed?  I'm always proud of myself that I got it done - by myself! - but also a little terrified that I made a mistake.  I'm relatively certain I didn't, but when I pushed "next step" on TaxSlayer.com, where I thought it would offer to let me review and print it, it actually filed it.
But it's the second day of February.  They're already being processed.  And we don't owe anything!  Even if our return isn't as much as last year, we still didn't have to pay, so it's a good year.

Burn, Baby, Burn

Every spring, we try to burn off our pasture/hay field.  I'm not sure what you're "supposed" to do when it comes to burning grassland - I know a lot of farmers/ranchers don't do it every year (but then again they actually work, whereas we just play) - but we like how it looks when it's all burned off and even, and then how lush and green it looks when all the new growth comes up.
It's been dry the last several months.  In fact, the last substantial rain we had was when we wrecked our truck - which was in the middle of December.  Paul wanted to burn last weekend, but when he called in (we have to have "burn permits" in our county), they told him there was a burn ban.
Today (and every day this week so far) was GORGEOUS.  Perfect spring day.  Nearly 70 degrees, no wind, bright, bright sunshine.  I could live with this weather year-round.  After Nathan got done with school, we went outside and just soaked up the vitamin D.  Paul worked last night, so he was asleep.  As I sat at the picnic table, watching the boys play and [attempting] balancing the checkbook, we heard sirens on the blacktop a mile away, and the boys asked what it was.  Since we live near the rural fire department, I assumed it was a fire truck.  A quick scan of the horizon confirmed my suspicion..... A column of smoke to the east.
Out of curiosity, I went in and called the dispatch office.  "We were wanting to get a pasture burned off soon, but I'm guessing there's a burn ban......"
"Actually, there's not.  I just need your permit number......"
SWEET!
After I put Jacob down for his nap, I went and attempted to wake up Paul.  "There's no burn ban.  It's supposed to start raining tomorrow night.  Justin [good friend and fellow fire-a-holic] is on standby."  He groaned and said, "It's too late in the day," and pretty much pushed me off the bed and rolled over.
I shrugged and went back outside and Nathan and I pruned a few trees.  (I made the executive decision that Nathan needed to be outside in the sunshine, running around, more than he needed a nap.  He's had an epic case of the ants-in-pants, bouncing-off-the-walls wiggles the last week.)  He went inside to get a drink and came back out and hollered, "Daddy waked up!"  I looked up to see Paul stumbling out of the house, boots on, and lighter in hand.  I yelled from the other side of the yard, "I thought you said it was too late!"  He yelled back, "I thought it was 4, and I'd only have an hour and a half of daylight.  Plus, I couldn't get back to sleep since you woke me up!"
:)
Did I mention it's been really dry?  Some parts of our pasture burned better than they ever have since we moved in.  (The parts that don't get mowed for hay get tall, stalky weeds that don't burn well.)  But since it was really dry, the grass on the ground went up really well, and that made those tall weeds burn pretty good.
So well, in fact, that we caught our shed on fire.
In the years we've been burning, we never could get the weeds to burn on the north side of that shed.  They're the stalky ones that don't burn, plus it's kind of a low spot there that's usually wet, so it's just never burned well.  Well, it did this time!  And the shed caught on fire.  It caught the support posts on fire, then came inside and caught the rafters on fire.  Since it's covered in tin, we were having to spray water on the inside, then go around and spray water on the support posts on the back.  Then we'd notice smoke rolling out from under the tin, and have to go back around and spray on the inside.  After Paul got out the major flames, Nathan and I (you know, the pregnant one and the 4-year-old) put out the building, while Paul and Justin went back to spreading the fire over the rest of the pasture.  It really wasn't that hard, just a lot of dragging the hose around.  Nathan felt very important, playing fireman - looking for anything that was smoking, and spraying the hose on the smouldering wood.
I had never really paid attention to the construction of that shed.  (In fact, I didn't even know it was there until after we signed on the offer to the house.  It was hidden behind some majorly tall weeds.)  I got a really good look at it today, and I'm pretty sure it's at least partially constructed out of previously-used, half-rotted lumber - probably from the large barn that used to stand on our property.  I know all of the tin siding is re-used.... You can see the nail holes from the previous construction.  After observing how water runs off the roof - into the interior - I see it's not doing much for protection from the weather.  It was really not worth saving, it's in such bad shape.  Had it not been for the stuff we store in there (some fencing and some used-but-still-useable lumber), we should have just let it go.
So now on our list of "we need this but can't really afford it" is building another shed, or a lean-to onto our current shop.  It probably doesn't cost as much as I think it would (especially since Paul could do a lot of the work himself), but when you're practically hearing sucking sounds coming from your bank account, anything seems an astronomical amount.
We'll just see what God has in plan for us.
OCD when it comes to burning, though, and I want every. square. inch. burned off.  I'm the one taking the lighter to the little clumps of grass that grow around the fenceposts and trees, and throwing matches on those isolated clumps of grass that the fire doesn't spread to.
Anyhow.  Enough about today's adventure (which I'm sure excites only me).  Paul is playing XBox online with a friend, and I'm now tired enough (the caffeine and adrenaline wore off) that I'm going to kick him off and make him go to bed.  Since I woke him up against his will this afternoon, he's only gotten 3 hours of sleep since yesterday.
PS - Doctor's appointment this morning.  29 weeks, everything looks great.  Only 11 more to go!  They say I gained 10 pounds this month, which I dispute, but have no way to prove.  I'm pretty sure I passed "X amount" last checkup, because I was frustrated that I'd crossed that threshold (don't want to say the actual number and be judged - people hear a number and choke, forgetting the fact I'm 6 feet tall).  But that's not what she wrote down, so I'll just go with it and try to avoid the PMSing elephant diet I've been on lately.