I don't have a lot to say tonight.  Kind of like the last few nights as can be surmised by the quality of my posts. :)  Tonight I will iron, make another bow tie, wrap a wedding present, and watch some olympics.  Ta Da!

Maybe I'll be more inspired tomorrow.

The heat has been killing us.  Yesterday we went to a park for an hour and a half in the morning and today we just went to the playground in front of our house for 30 minutes and I felt like I was going to die.  I think temperature-wise, it's only in the high 80s, but the heat index is 112.  Yuck.  I feel so bad, because the kids really want to go out and play, but we just can't for very long.  I wish there were a mall nearby with an indoor playplace.  I have a feeling it would be very popular.  I'm learning that while most places stay indoors in the winter, here we play during the winter and hibernate during the summer.

This post is about how awesome my husband's chest is.

I asked Jeff what I should blog about tonight and that's what he said.  So that's what I'm doing. :)  

He's been working out a lot and has added quite a bit of bulk to his chest and arms.  So yeah, he's lookin' pretty awesome these days. :)

Wookie

Rebekah is at such a cute age right now.  She's so roly poly and mostly sweet, and is learning new words every day.  One of the cutest things she does is say "look!"  But it comes out "wook!" and she says it about 10 times until you acknowledge what she's pointing at.  Many times I have no idea why she's getting my attention about that specific item, but it sure is cute.  And if she gets a boo boo, same thing:

"wook! wook! wook! wook! wook! wook! wook! wook! wook! wook!"

It makes me giggle. :)

She's our little wookie.

A Little Nervous

Jeff went to see the new Batman movie last night, by himself.  I didn't have any interest in seeing that movie, even before the shooting.  We live in a small town that is pretty safe, but I still had that flicker of fear that there would be a copycat shooter that night.  I pushed the idea down, telling myself it was silly and we shouldn't let fear dictate how we live.

When he got home, he told me that just when the bad guy started being really bad, there was the sound of a chainsaw or a weed whacker coming from just outside the emergency exit door.  Eventually it did go away, and he thinks that someone was actually whacking the weeds out there.  Then later in the movie during a particularly quiet part, he said he swore he heard the sound of a 9mm being cocked in the back of the theater.  I don't know what that was all about, but he was definitely on alert, waiting, almost expecting something to happen.

I asked him what his plan would have been, had something happened.  Because of course, Jeff would have a plan.  He said his plan was to get down first, try to figure out the movements of the bad guy and come up with a way to take him down.  I wasn't surprised.  I was both proud and ... I'm not sure what the other emotion was.  I am proud to be married to someone who would try to take out the bad guy and save people.  (And Jeff really is like that, not just talk.  I've seen him react quickly to help people in crises.) But on the other hand, I would like for him to survive, and taking on a shooter doesn't give you good odds.

Then tonight we went to Chick-fil-A for dinner.  It was family night there, where a kids' meal comes free with the purchase of an adult entree.  There was also a clown.  Twice, a balloon popped, making a very loud, very sudden noise.  The first one really startled me and got me thinking about the shooting again.  The second one still startled me, just not as much.

I am so mad at this world we live in, where evil people cause terror and shatter so many lives.  I am heartbroken for people who lose loved ones to needless tragedies.  I am grateful for the gospel and the foundation it gives me.  And I am sad for people who have no foundation and flounder alone.

Not a very happy post, but definitely things that have been on my mind lately.  

Miracle Baby

I haven't really told anyone, but I kind of think of Jonathan as our miracle baby.  First, a little recap.

After Katelyn was born, my hair started really falling out and I was feeling lousy.  I talked to my mom about those and some other symptoms I was having and she recommended I get my thyroid checked.  I did and I am a little hypothyroid.  So I've been taking a little purple pill everyday since then.  Well at least I am supposed to.  


One of the symptoms of hypothyroidism is depression.  A little while after Bekah was born, I ran out of my medicine and thought that I could probably beat the depression on my own without it.  But I wasn't thinking clearly and I forgot completely the reason that I was taking it-- that my body doesn't make enough of that hormone, which in turns makes all the other hormones in the body.  So I should have been taking it.  STUPID.  


Anyways, I finally realized what I was doing and went back on it.  After my thyroid stablized, I went in for a routine blood test and got all my endocrine hormones tested, along with many other things.  Most things were fine, but my estradiol levels (estrogen) were post-menopausal low.  Let me say that again.  My estrogen levels were POST-Menopausal low.  So basically I was experiencing early ovarian failure, and with that comes early menopause.  


I was shattered.  Here I was at 27 staring menopause in the face.  I was so terrified that my stupid mistake had caused my reproductive system to shut down and I wouldn't be able to have any more kids.  I felt so stupid and broken.  


This was right before Jeff left on a short patrol.  I was worried and he was worried.  He came home and we started trying to have a baby, not knowing if it would work, but knowing that we didn't want to lose any more time.  


Amazingly, I got pregnant very fast and here we are on the other end with our beautiful baby Jonathan.  I really was terrified that I couldn't have any more children, but somehow we got our baby.  I'm not sure how, since my levels were so low.  And there was the very real fear that my body wouldn't make the hormones necessary to sustain the pregnancy to term so I was scared of miscarriage like never before.  But everything went very smoothly and I was so very relieved and grateful.


So that is the short story of why I consider Jonathan to be my mini miracle baby. I still don't know if we'll be able to have more babies in the future, but we got our Johnny here and if we can't, I think we'll be ok. 


But now I know to take my medicine every single day!!

Jeffy, Katey, and Bekah had well baby visits today.  Three at once- wahoo!  It was a lot better than individual appointments with a bunch of extra kids dragged along.  Doing it like this from now on.

Anyways, here's their weight so I can remember it:

Jeffy: 47 lbs
Katelyn: 32 lbs
Rebekah: 29 lbs

They're all looking good!  Jeffy will be going back to speech therapy soon and Bekah's probably not going to have her cyst removed anytime soon.  Another yay!

Tired. Done for today.  Back tomorrow. :)