Best day eeeveerrrrr!

So the day seemed to start off perfectly. Kids woke up about when we expected them to. We hopped out of bed and started our day off right with scripture study and prayer as a family. Then we all worked together to get everything packed up, cleaned up, and ready to go, for our trip to NJ for the next week. Our goal was to be out the door by 9:30, and I was feeling quite satisfied with us, when I noted the clock said 9:25 as we pulled out of our parking lot. After a few errands and grabbing some breakfast we were officially on the road by 10:00. Oh, but not until after my ankle decided to stop existing, causing me to fall to my near death experience. Okay it wasn't that dramatic at all, but seriously. I don't know what happened but stepping out the door of my friend's house, my ankle suddenly lacked the ability to support my leg. It twisted all funky and hurt a lot. I laid on the ground and cried, with Aaron watching from the van. Apparently he didn't see the fall, just me laying there. He thought I was tying my shoes. Then he realized I was almost dead and came and rescued me.

The Kids were so pumped to be going to Nana's house and couldn't wait to see Ziggy and Bhodi (the dogs). They were  happy with our CD's, snacks, and movies. Then it was 1:00 and time for lunch. My ankle was still hurting, not to mention other discomforts that come along with traveling while 34 weeks pregnant. So we get Wendy's for lunch and it's a nice stop. The next hour is not so nice. Kids were almost asleep when we stopped for lunch, but after eating and playing they had no interest in sleep. They were pretty cranky. No one wanted anything. Much wailing and gnashing of teeth occurred the next hour or so. With a few, "I have to go pootttyyyy" and some "But you just went!"... After an hour of this craziness we decided to stop at a gas station and potty, and fill up since we were at about half tank anyway. We loaded the car back up and announced - "Next stop, Nana's house!!"

Or so we thought.

As we pull away from the gas station we hear a noise. The harder I step on the gas, the louder the noise. Hmm... Well the kids are finally happy. We don't want to stop. So we get back on the freeway. Nothing seems to FEEL wrong with the car... but it sure sounds terrible every time we accelerate. Maybe if I put it on cruise control... nope still sounds terrible. But the kids are so happy and quiet... we can't stop yet!! But after driving about 10 miles we both feel like we should probably stop and at least look and see if we see something stuck somewhere or something.

We get off at the next exit. We are in the middle of nowhere. Literally... we pulled into a gas station, and watched a horse & buggy go by. We looked under the hood and didn't see anything obvious to us. We look around and wonder what the heck are we going to do. Just a little ways up the road there is a tow and repair shop. We wonder if we should chance it. I mean, we are literally in the middle of nowhere. These people will know they are our only help. And we figured they would pretty much rip us off. We have a lot of hope in humanity, don't we?  So we said a quick prayer and drove down the road to the shop, feeling like it was our only option.

As we pulled in the lady behind the desk told us it sounded like our exhaust broke off. Or something like that. (I make no promises about correct car part vocabulary for the rest of this post). A few minutes later a mechanic came and looked at it. And confirmed our exhaust was completely rusted and had broken. There was no way we could keep driving like that - and were lucky nothing worse had happened so far. They most likely didn't have the part we needed, but could possibly take it off, weld it and put it back together. They had some master welder dude who would be there soon. So we waited.

The welder guy was there quickly, and so then we waited for them to get the part off. And we waited. And waited. And waited. The longer we waited the more Aaron saw dollar signs rolling around in his eye balls. After almost 3 hours of sitting in this tiny little repair shop office, we were finally told it was done. I loaded the kids up and Aaron went in to take care of the bill. We were shocked at how fair these people dealt with us. For one thing it was a Friday afternoon. They usually closed at 4, but they stayed until after 5 working on our van. Plus, big trucks are their bread and butter. They said they deal with a situation like ours once or twice a year or something like that. All in all, they ended up charging us about a 1/3 of what we were expecting to pay. We drove away with our normal sounding car feeling extremely blessed.

We were three hours behind schedule. Our kids were exhausted. My ankle hurt. And just about everything else on my body. But we knew Heavenly Father was aware of us. It amazed us that we just happened to break down right by this particular repair shop. That I had some extra cash from my birthday that we were able to use to pay for everything. We drove the last 4 hours feeling so grateful for the way everything worked out.

I need to start carrying a camera around with me...

It's been a picture worth few days... and I don't have a picture to show for it. But I can still write about it, right? So my birthday was wonderful. Woke up to sunshine and healthy, happy children. Can't ask for much more than that! And then since it was sunny I decided to take the kids to Port Farms, even though Aaron wouldn't be able to come with me. That may have been a mistake. It was just exhausting running around all over with my two kids. But it was so much fun. Abigail even said, "dank oo mommy. best."  Which translates to "Thank you Mommy. You are the best!" Nothing beats hearing that from a little 1 year old mouth. So cute. And then we picked up our van! Which was also exhausting and crazy. But we still had fun, and we have a van! I am in heaven. Then we went to Outback. It was delicious. The kids were semi-well behaved. Minus the playing with the blinds because the moon was out (Abigail) and breaking a glass (Olivia). Oh and the head trauma right before we left was also fun (Abigail).

And then yesterday my wonderful friends here threw me a baby shower. It was so fun, and just perfect. It's always nice to feel loved. And this baby boy already has the cutest growing wardrobe. It was funny because it was a combined shower for me and another friend who was having a girl... so of course all of her gifts are super ooooohs and aaahs and ruffles and bows and dang girl stuff is just so cute! But boy stuff is new for me. I've had my fill of bows and frills and flowers. I'm so excited for these adorable little sweater vests, and khaki pants, and all that. I really am so grateful for all of the great people here. I really am in love with Erie right now.

I also can't believe how fast time is going. How many days until my due date??? Every time I look at that little ticker I have a mini heart attack.

birthdaayyyyyyy

Tomorrow I turn 27. TWENTY-SEVEN! I have memories of telling people my mom was 27! How did I get to be as old as my mom??

I love birthdays. I wonder if I'll ever get old enough to dread my birthdays. But right now I'm excited to just have a super fun day with my little family.

And on birthday I always like to think about what I've done so far. I have a wonderful marriage based on faith, trust, friendship and love. I have two (soon to be three) amazing children. I have a BA degree in Special Education. I have my little blog that I've kept for 3+ years! And as of tomorrow I'll be the driver of a mini-van. With that I've pretty much accomplished everything I've ever wanted to do. Guess it's time to start dreaming a little bigger than driving a mini-van. Seriously that's all I've ever wanted in life. To be the owner of a mini-van. And to have enough little kiddo's to necessitate said van. Glad I'm married to a man who lives to make my dreams come true.  :)

Of course turning 27 just makes me think about how close I am to 30. That's like a biggie, right? Turning 30. So I'm going to make some long term goals. I hope by the time I'm 30 - I'm still updating this little blog. I hope we have a house. And a dog. And our mini-van. And I hope I'm in better shape physically, emotionally, and spiritually than I am today. That last one is kind of vague and immeasurable... but we'll see when we get there. Hopefully it will be obvious.

Kids and sleep

So one time I almost blogged about the three weeks my kids slept in until 8:00 every single day. But then I remembered previous times my kids slept well, and the moment I uttered a word of it to anyone it seemed to somehow anger the Sleep Gods. It is uncanny. I swear, if your child a good sleep don't utter a word to anyone or the sleep you are enjoying will come to a quick end. Yet somehow the reverse is not true. Complain until you are blue in the face about crappy sleep, and it doesn't seem to make them sleep any longer. I don't get it.

Well I can talk about those glorious weeks now because somehow I already ruined it. They started waking up at 7:30... then 7.... then 6:30... and today was a lovely 5:45. What baffles my mind is nothing has changed since the 8:00 days. So I don't know what to do to get it back.

And it's not even so much the sleep I miss. Imagine you have a job. Some days you start at 8. But then some days your boss calls you at 5:30 and tells you, you must be there right now. And no, you don't get to leave any earlier that night. And no, you don't get a longer lunch break. In fact your day will probably be harder than usual because the task you have to deal with is being extremely difficult.... it's something like that. It's like I'm adding 2 hours to my work day with no additional compensation. Plus well rested children are just so much more fun to be around than tired grumpy children.

It's 7:11AM and I've already changed a poopy diaper, fetched drinks of milk, started the dishes (that I should have started last night....) and given one time out to a very whiney 3 year old. It's going to be an awesome day.

Okay I love fall again....

Live dressed up like... giraffe? at the zoo.

Giant fuzzy caterpillar

I am so tired. I wonder how many times I've typed that sentence since I started this blog? Anyway the weather has been gorgeous and fabulous and all sorts of wonderful the past few days. Which means I get this insane compulsive urge to spend every possible minute outdoors. We went to the zoo, and the park, and ate lunch outside, went hiking at Asbury Woods. My exhaustion doesn't matter when there's SUN to be soaked up. Can I build up Vitamin D and store it for winter? That's what I'm trying to do, as futile as it may be.

Also, why have I all of a sudden found a million things to love about Erie?? Asbury Woods is amazing. It is so beautiful and I can't believe we went all of last year without ever going there. And then there's Romolo's. Oh my heavens... I can not wait to go back there on a date tonight with my hubby. It is so lovely! And Wegmans. I so love Wegmans. And the zoo. We have been loving the zoo lately. And... this weather! I know I'll be singing a different tune in a month or so, but right now it is heavenly.

As far as this pregnancy, everything's been fine. Not much to report. Which is usually a good thing as far as pregnancy goes.  I can't believe how fast the time is going. December will be here before we know it!