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Fun Times Ahead

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For the past 6 weeks or so, Toby has been looking towards the 37-week mark as her due date.  Both Max and Lucy were born at 37 weeks, and so Toby had reason to believe that this one would be the same.  Today we hit 38 weeks completed.  This is uncharted territory for Toby. 

She is handling the reduction in mobility pretty well.  Since our bedroom is on the second floor, she plans out everything that she wants to do on the first floor so that she does not need to take any extra trips up the stairs.  We have a small refrigerator in the guest area on the second floor and she has stocked this with all the food stuffs she eats in the middle of the night.

With the baby so big inside of her, and her skin stretched so taut, it is very easy to feel all the wiggles and movements of baby #3 from the outside.  Often we can see that her abdomen has a portruding bump that distorts the usual roundness.  Since the head is down, according to Dr. Green, this must be the baby’s butt / hips that are bulging out.  After her appointment last Tuesday with Dr. Green, Toby was declared to be 85% effaced and 1 cm dialated.  She has another appoint today and I am excited to hear about the changes.

Gran and GranDon arrived in their motorhome last night.  They had driven from Portland in about 3 days.  The motorhome fits just perfectly in the back area.  We have water and power located close to the rig, but apparently the sewage clean out that I installed is too far away from motorhome to be used. 

Last time the kids were here, Gran took them for ice cream everyday.  The kids are especially looking forward to this 3-week stay.  🙂

Praise in the car

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Well I pulled up to a seemingly crowded restaurant/park today (Padaro Grill for those who are in the know), I was amazed to find a parking space right in front. I parked and said out loud (not for the first time in these situations) “Thank you God!” Max exclamed, “Thank you Lord!” Lucy chimed in, “Thank you Jesus!” Then it took off from there: Max – “Jesus, you are so beautiful!” Lucy – “Jesus, you are stronger than a barrel of monkeys!”

Old Videos

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In looking at our camera, I found some old videos that never got posted. The kids love watching themselves in these videos, but the videos are definitely ‘B’ grade, both for quality and content. Reality Church Christmas Program 2007. >> Family Card Games: >> After Max watched this video, he explained that I had laughed ‘too loud’ and that ‘was teasing’ and he didn’t like it. So, next time I use strategy against him while playing cards, I will laugh quieter.

One Step at a Time

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Actually, it took 2 steps to get into the house, and we poured 2 porches that weekend, but the title ‘4 steps at a time’ doesn’t sound as good. The weekend of 15-16 Feb 2008 had a lot of concrete being poured. Kevin S. and Pop came to work on the Friday to build a hut around the water heater. They had the frame and roof up (just an hour or so of work), and were just about to start doing the siding when the Carp City Inspector came by. He said that some neighbors had called in complaints about the hut and the exterior water heater. Since neither showed on the plans (the water heater was drawn in the garage for some crazy reason), we couldn’t keep them there. Pop said that he seemed pretty embarrassed to have to tell us this, but someone (multiple someones?) had called and complained. God has perfect timing. The work that was done is easily undo-able. If the inspector had not come out when he did, the work would have been hard to undo. We can have a tankless water heater mounted where the tanked water heater is. So, Kevin and Pop began working on the forms for the concrete porch for the back door and the office door. The office door had only a milk crate with a board screwed across the top. If you didn’t step exactly center, it wobbled like crazy. In fact, that week, I had fallen off of it twice carrying loads of garbage out of the house. Below is an old picture of the door with the milk crate step.

Kevin and Pop worked like animals, to the point that they broke the cement mixer. When I got home, they were mixing the cement in the wheel-barrel by hand. It took a long time to cure, but the final product looks great. Saturday, we rented a cement mixer and went to work on the back door porch.

Check out the video below of Max helping out. >> Here is the final products. They look great and are much more stable than a milk crate and some scrap lumber.

Most Recent Exterior Shots

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The painter has finished*. He had forgotten our main front gable highlights, so below are some pictures that show the finished* paint work. * – Ok, not quite finished. Toby wants a red front door. But it is 99% finished.