Thank God for answered prayers

I have to say first off that all of this stress is our own fault for getting our taxes in so late.

So, today I went to mail our federal tax return. I drove up to the outside mailboxes in front of the post office and dropped it into the second box. I then continued on my way and before I even got to the street I thought, "did I put a stamp on that?" followed by, "no", followed by "oh crap! what do I do?" See, if the taxes aren't post marked by tomorrow we will not qualify for that economic relief return which is a $1200 value ($1200 bucks!) to our little family (not to mention avoiding late fees). I promptly freaked out and called Brent telling him what happened and asked him to say a prayer after we hung up. I went inside the post office to find out if there was any way I could get my envelope back and they said, and I quote, "No ma'am. Sorry but we will not go through every letter in that box just to find yours". I left feeling like I was about to cry.

After buckling Jacob in I sat in the car and prayed. I asked that somehow we would get the envelope back tomorrow requesting postage and then I would be able to run it back. I then started driving away. As I turned on the street I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw a postal worker emptying the boxes. I quickly parked on the street and ran back to him. He had just emptied the second box and I asked if he could look for my envelope. He was nice enough to oblige and we quickly found my envelope, I was almost in tears by that point and I thanked him profusely. I put a stamp on the envelope and I went on my way. I said another prayer of thanks and sat there breathing deep and trying to calm down - I felt drained from the stress and rush of the past 20 minutes.

I am just so grateful that he blessed me and helped me out of my mess. I felt like such an airhead for forgetting something that important. We need that money greatly and to have lost it all simply for forgetting a stamp is so lame that I would have had a hard time forgiving myself. I had to share this with all of you because I am too grateful not to. This is something wonderful that has happened in a stress-filled busy passed few weeks. Sorry if I'm rambling.. I'll end now.

Ultrasound pictures

Today I had another ultrasound done. They were checking his growth and did an echo cardiogram on his heart. He is doing very well and is healthy and strong. I cried when I saw his little feet.. I think it is the first time I have cried about him since knowing for sure what he has. He was moving all over the place and watching his little kicks and hand waves were so much fun. He even made little sucking motions with his lips then put his fingers up to his mouth and sucked on them, so cute. I thought I would post a few pictures...

The great Easter Egg Hunt

I created a slide show using photo bucket. This is my first attempt, so I hope it turns out ok. Let me know what you all think. Brent was behind the camera fiddling with features so some of the pictures are blurry.

Belly Pictures

I've had several people request that I post pics of my growing belly (I'm 23 weeks along)... so at the Easter Breakfast last Saturday I had Brent take a few. We got some cute pictures of Jacob on his little, and very short, egg hunt, but I am going to try and figure out how to post them as a slide show instead of one by one so it may be a few days before you get to see them.

It's official...

We are moving. We have been approved to move into our top choice, a town home. We have decided that March 29th will be the big day. We will be very busy the next few weeks, so I probably will not post very often. I am so excited to be closer to Brent's work and to have him home more. Also, the doctor the baby will be seeing on a weekly basis for several months is on that side of town so I am glad we are able to move before he is born versus after.

I was told of a really cool website called freecycle.org, it is similar to craigslist except that everything posted is free. The point of the website is to share, give and recycle - helping out each other and putting less in the land fills. So I visited this site today and found a listing where this guy was giving away moving boxes and Brent picked them up on his way home from work, those added to the boxes we saved from our last move will be more than enough to get us through this move. Hurray for cool websites!

It probably isn't worth mentioning, but today at Albertsons (thanks to some awesome deals and my stack of coupons) I spent $93 and saved $68!! How cool is that. I got several items to add to my food storage and stocked my freezer up. Not bad.

In other worse news we got our water bill in the mail the other day... $188.20 !!! For water! My electric bill was $196 and I couldn't believe that my water bill was almost as much as that. The difference is that electric is billed monthly and water is billed quarterly... but still, almost 200 bucks for water?! Incredible. Our utilities up here are outrageous, we were so spoiled in Santa Clara. I am glad to know that at the town house we are not responsible for the water bill - phew.

We've been busy...

We have had a busy few days as we pound the pavement looking for housing in Tigard (where Brent works). We have already put a 30 day notice in on our current house so the pressure is on to secure a new place. We think we found "the one" so we'll see how it goes.

In other news... everybody needs to taste this ice cream... it is a little bit of heaven I tell ya!



We have the Dryer's brand here on the west coast, but this was the only picture I could find. Not only do I LOVE this girl scout cookie, but I LOVE ice cream... then they go and put the two together and ... heaven. I can only have it in small quantities to avoid feeling sick, but that might be a good thing otherwise I'd eat half the carton.

The weather yesterday and today (it looks like so far) has been sunny and gorgeous! I am going to try to hook up with another mom with a son Jacob's age and go on a walk or go to a park.. I need to get outside and soak up the sun and smell the fresh air. AHHH... life is feeling good again.

Jacob is, I think, completely better. I haven't given him his breathing treatment for the last two days because I haven't heard him cough. Brent has been better for a long time, and I am on the tail end of a cold and nasty cough. I think by this weekend we will be able to declare our household better, Hallelujah!

Big news for our little family

This has been a difficult week for us and is slowly improving. On Monday we had the ultra sound for our baby and learned that there were some problems and we were being sent to a high-risk prenatal center for more intensive testing. I also did some blood tests to test for certain potential factors as well. Today we had our round of tests and met with specialists in genetics, ultra sound and a perinatologist. The diagnosis was confirmed that our baby has bilateral club feet, but is otherwise healthy with no known other defects or problems. I was reassured that my baby, since he is otherwise normal, when treated by expert hands will have normal looking feet with normal function for all practical purposes (I was given a referral for an Orthopaedic Pediatric Specialist). I was informed that the well-treated clubfoot is no handicap and is fully compatible with a normal, active life. This is a picture (not my baby obviously but you get the idea) of what my babies feet look like, I will post the ultra sound pictures later when I can get access to a scanner.




This ultra sound was so good, and the technician so wonderful, that we were able to find out that we are having another boy, yay!. I am relieved to know exactly what is going on with my baby and what to expect later on. Brent gave me a blessing on Monday and I feel that it helped me tremendously. I don't want people to be sorry for us or treat us or the baby any differently - this is simply something that we will take and handle along with anything else that may come along.