Baby-itis strikes back.

Recently I have been VERY happy to say that my baby-itis has been at a minimum. An occasional flare up was all that there was. Nothing to write home to ma about. I was very happy for this because my mind was able to ramble over other things in its idle moments. Things like starting my garden, and planning the fence that we want to put up this spring. Nice goals that will be obtained in the next six months. Healthy goals at that.


This weekend, hubby and I planned to go to a family reunion in WI with my fathers side of the family. I like to try to go every couple of years if possible. I really enjoy getting together with my family because its like a day has not passed since we last saw one another, even if it has been years. Also, I like trying to keep up with the massive amounts of new additions to our family each year. Thanks to my cousins Tina and Sheri, who each have just had number 6. That, however, is just the tip of the ice burg. My father would have been one in a family of 13 had all of the siblings lived. Each of them had multiple children. You can do the math. Just all of the first cousins can SERIOUSLY fill a room. When you get down to second and third cousins it gets crazy. I would venture to say that I have around 150ish living relatives on my dad's side of the family. Crazy.


Ok, back to the point. Being around SOOOOO much family that is wonderful makes you think about how ALL of that family happened. Well, we didn't just stumble into one another. It started with one lady having a TON of kids, who each had a TON of kids, who are having a TON of kids. Its great!


In order to have so many kids, many of our family members started having kids very young. Good, bad, or indifferent, that is what they did. For an example, my uncle Frank is just a few years older than my dad. He had three children. His children all together have had 12 children. That is 12 grandkids! Now, I have NO interest in beating that record but, here my dad is without ANY grandchildren. I mean, come on! That leaves my brother and I in the dust. We have some serious catching up to do!


On Saturday evening, I hung out with my cousin Sherri. She has six BEAUTIFUL, blonde haired, blue eyed, angels. They are some of the most well behaved children around. She stays at home and home schools the three girls. They even pull an "Anne of Green Gabels" once a week to have a mom taught knitting class. Mom and all three girls sit around (with their home schooling friends and moms) knitting. Quiet, peacefully, spending time together. How could I not fall in love with that idea. Long blonde haired children sitting around loving each other and their mom. My heart melts just thinking about it. Add in the fact that she cloth diapers, breast feeds until 2 or 3, has a garden, has instilled God into her children, wants to use my feminine product patterns, blah blah blah blah....you get the idea. She is many things I admire and want to be. Instant baby-itis.


Here comes the nail in the coffin...


Hubby tells me all weekend how much he loves being with my family and dislikes the fact that he doesn't have much. He admires the fact that we all love each other even though in some cases we really don't know much about one another. He said he wishes that we could have a big family. He knows that it will take time to have a big family. That we had better get busy. What are we waiting for?


(Insert half a dozen family members asking when will be be having kids here.)


I was doomed.


They were all young when they started. Why not us?


(Beating head against wall.)


Doomed I tell you.


Doomed for baby-itis forever.




(The picture at the top of this post is hubby making up some silly game to play with my second cousin Aubry. Heart melting...)

Our new wood burning stove:

My hubby grew up with a wood burning stove in his home and has always had an affinity for fire. Due to this, we were destined to have one in our home. Also, this winter has been particularly expensive for gas and has kept our family room bitterly cold. So cold, that we really don't go in there much. That is usually alright with us because we don't watch much TV and tend to sit in the living room instead. After a month or two of avoiding the room we missed being in it. A wood burning stove became a natural addition to the house.

Over the last few weeks my hubby has gathered all of the parts necessary to install the wood burning stove he recently bought. His dad came over to help him install it and make sure he had a helping hand through the process. I know my hubby was thankful. I don't exactly know a lot about stove installation so I wasn't any help. Cutting holes in my roof scares me.

I am happy to say, as I write this blog, that I am sitting next to a warm fire in the stove, enjoying my family room again. I am also super happy that we are burning some wood that we cut down from our own yard this fall. Free heat. We win!

Wordless Wednesday:

So, I thought I would become apart of the blogger phenomenon that is, "Wordless Wednesday." Today, I had to use some words to explain but, in the future it will just be pictures.


Tamsin Elizabeth, born Tuesday Jan 6, at 1:09am. 8lbs 7oz.

New Pursuits:

American Sign Language, English Sign Language, Pigeon Sign Language, call it what you will. It is beautiful.

My wonderful friend and I have been taking sign language classes at our church for the past eight weeks. We really enjoyed it when we began but, now we are totally obsessed. It is border line insane. We come home from work and stuff our already tired brains with it. The great thing about it is that we have been absorbing it like sponges and are able to keep up at the same pace as one another. It remains to be seriously enjoyable to learn with no end in sight. We have made a bunch of friends who are deaf and have even started a small group bible study that, coincidentally, has people who are hard of hearing and who sign. Weird.

My friend and I decided today that God has serious plans for us and our ASL usage. It seems to be strange perfect timing and God has woven various people into it. Matter of fact, today we got an invite to a monthly silent dinner group. This will be the perfect time to really get out into the deaf culture beyond just our deaf friends. I am soo excited about what God has in store for us! WOW!

I will definitely post more about it in the near future. Especially when we begin formal classes at Rt. Rita's school for the deaf!

Christmas Update:

I must say, I had a lot to be thankful for this Christmas. My health is getting better, my family is back in the same city, my best friend not only lives with me but also works with me, my marriage is good, I have a beautiful "new" home to live in which I can actually call my own, I have a job, I was able to buy nice presents for everyone this year, and I have finially settled into a church and officially made some friends there.

If that wasn't enough, I got to spend a couple of days celebrating Christmas with my family, and my hubbies family. All went off without a hitch, and everyone was happy and healthy. I even gained a new family member this year, Shannon, who made it that much more special. I really enjoyed seeing her appreciate my family and the way we celebrate the holiday. Some times it is easy to take for granted what we have until we can see it through the eyes of some one else.

I really hope to be able to slow down a little bit more, now that I am back into the groove of working, to post on here more regularly. I miss keeping every one updated and getting wonderful comments.

Love,
me

Who? me? Working?

I work as an independent contractor for a company called America Views Inc. They shoot aerial photography of peoples homes and homesteads and sell them via sales reps. Once ordered, the sales reps send the orders in to the office. This is where I come in. I find the files on CD's and order the files with the orders. Then I open the correct picture from files and I edit to their specifications. Crop for size, adjust the levels for color saturation etc. Then I edit out or add in what they want. On a normal day, I take out cars, trees, buildings, people, garbage, pools, neighbors houses, dead grass, etc. On a normal day, I add in, deer, cows, horses, crops, grass, water to pools, personalizations, etc. I then print them, cut the print down, laminate or canvas it or whatever. I then frame it or burn CD's of it.

Some day's I may just photoshop, or cut and laminate, or frame and ship. Most days I do a little of it all.

Check it out at:

http://www.americanviewsinc.com/

Here is quick sneak peak of my new craft site!

Please mind the dust and errors as my new site is still in the works! I plan on launching it on Etsy.com when I have ironed out the wrinkles and have made some more product. Let me know what you think!

http://thesewingapple.blogspot.com/