Merry Christmas 2009!

Our fall harvest has kept both Scott and I very busy. Thankfully we were able to finally put harvest 2009 in the books during the week of Thanksgiving. If you would like to see and read all about it, you can check out my other blog and there you'll find some great pictures and even get to take a ride along in the combine! Challenging is exactly what this past season has been for us, due to weather and some problems with our grain system which dumped out over 1000 bushels of corn on the ground and had our lines that runs under the drive way to the silo's plugged up. Some may ask, um, well, how do you pick up all of that corn? One word says it all, which is SHOVEL! Yes, I said shovel. My FIL and myself shoveled it into the front end loader and then he dumped it back into the semi truck. Yep, thought we would never get to the end of it!!! But, with the good Lord's help, we did and harvest successfully was finished. My husband worked very long hours, in fact for the whole entire time during September, October and November, he was averaging about 90 hours a week and then trying to come home and farm too! The one week, I will admit, I was ready to scream because he put in 104 hours! Prayerfully we got through these months and are now looking forward to some more down time and the holidays coming.

I want to take this special moment and let those of you who have had miracles come into your life in 2009 how happy I am for you and much congratulations. It seems like this has certainly been the year not only for the blogging world, but Scott and I's friends as well. So many babies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For Scott and I, it just seems like we are still struggling. This past summer has been the last time that we have gone to the rec center to work out and to be quite honest with you, I have been grieving over my diagnosis with diabetes. It has been painful to say the least. In the last several months, I have not been truly doing what I should and have gotten away from the good routine that I was on. There have been so many emotions surrounding this diagnosis for me. The one thing is, I just can't believe that at my age I have had to suffer all of the health problems that I have had. And, as much as I know it to be true that there is a reason why for everything, is still hurts. There are days that I feel like I have lost my life and that I am so tired of the continual complications arising for us.

Our journey through infertility keeps getting longer and longer. Time is flying by and I can't believe that we have already been married a year and a half, which means that we have been actively trying for a year and a half. It is with the grace of God that I have gotten this far. The great news is, I have really managed to give our infertility to God and for the most part have had peace in doing so. However, honestly there have been times that I have fallen flat on my face and been dropped to my knees. Although I can say that they have been few and far between and much better since last year, they still do happen for me. I know that we all fall short of the Glory of God and that with His grace we are able to stand again. It may sound crazy to you, but I have even gone through puppy fever because I want a baby so much.

My next OBGYN appointment is in May and I am praying that by then I can lose the needed weight to get down to what she would have me to. It would be great to be able to do that and even lose a little more. Thankfully I have kept some of the weight off that I lost last winter, however, Scott tells me that he has gained his back. Which of course scares me in more ways than one. There is some reason as to why we have taken to food in our lives and have now ended up as we are. The show Biggest Loser makes me want to figure out what really drives me to my addiction and I would like for Scott to figure his out as well. And so, as I remember this beautiful Christmas season and how our Lord came to be with us, I hope that he comes and is able to stay with Scott and I daily and really gives us the focus that we need to answer some of the questions that are out there.

I am praying for all of you on a daily basis. It is my prayer that as Christ is born this season that he continues to be a part of your lives and that his birth is the renewal of faith that He wants us to have in Him. May all of your wishes come true and that the light of Christ be ever present now and always guiding you. I truly hope that this Christmas is a blessing for each and every one of you and that you and your families share in many blessings together.

I would love to share a picture with you of a very sweet little miracle named Cameron, who just so happens to be part of my family. His precious parents waited on him to come into their lives and since then he has certainly been a light for not only them but our family as well, including Scott and I. If you would like to follow the beautiful little miracle, you can check out Lisa's blog. To Shawn and Lisa, your love and support means the world to me and Scott. It is impossible to tell you in words just what you mean to us. Before we were ever born, Christ knew of the special bond that we would have as family and so I have already gotten one of the most precious gifts in life, YOU! We love you so much!!! Thank you for all you do and the awesome Christians that the world sees in you.

From our home to your home, Merry Christmas! May it be as magical and as blessed as the day our Lord came to Earth! We'll be thinking about you and praying for you all!

Hugs and Blessings,

A Busy Fall Weekend

As always is seems like the weekend just flies by, doesn't it. This past weekend was filled with a special activity everyday, which helped the weekend move along rather quickly as it does when one is busy. Well after coming home from school on Friday, Scott and I had a 50th Wedding Anniversary party to go to. Wow~50 years! That is so amazing and beautiful. Anyway, I ended up going with one of Scott's aunts because he had to work and did not get home until around 10pm. Now mind you, he went to work at around 4:00 am! Needless to say my hardworking husband put in 84 hours last week and was supposed to work on Sunday, but made a choice not to. Yep, money is great, but my husband being home or at least not at work until the late hours is more important sometimes.

On Saturday, a dear friend of mine surprised me and came up for a small visit. She just got married over this past summer and so she and her husband came to spend some time with me and Scott, but it ended up being with just me because my dear hubby was working. They were headed to family of her husband's because he has a cousin that is leaving soon to go to Iraq for 3 months and then when she comes back, her husband (his cousin's husband) leaves a month later for a year's stay in Iraq! Talk about tears wanting to fall! I absolutely love anyone who gives their time and serves in the military for our country. What a blessing and it makes my heart feel proud and so humbled by them. So, here is a picture from their wedding over the summer, it was a beautiful day and a perfect couple!

On Sunday, the Christian Education committee sponsored a Fall Harvest party at church. Since I am a Sunday school teacher, I am on that committee and love, love, love it because not only do I get to teach but we get to do some awesome things like we did yesterday. There was about 70 of us there and well, I must say that everyone had a great time. The games were a big hit and the kids loved playing them. We played a team race to see who could dress the adult like a scarecrow faster ~ oh yeah that was so funny! One group had their team's scarecrow's bibs on backwards! hahahaha Another game was where the kids had to have their hands behind their backs and see who could eat the powdered donut off of the string first. Many came back over and over and over for this one. Besides these games and football, basketball and volleyball, we played drop the clothes pin in the jar and toss the ping pong ball in the plastic pumpkin. Oh and yes, not to forget, pick a tootsie pop out of the straw to see who got the one with the black end. Sounds like fun huh! Well, that wasn't all either, we had a scavenger hunt, potluck supper and then hayride and bonfire with smores made from Hershey's, Reese peanut butter cups and Snickers! MMMMMMM!!! Alright now that you are all hungry, I will share some pictures with you.

Hope y'all had a great weekend too! Thanks for all of the info on clomid in my last post. It has eased my concerns a lot. Stay warm, cause I know certainly that I am tryin' to. Our temps here in NW Ohio are below normal! Yucky! Oh well, until next time...

Blessings and hugs,

Just Curious

I know that many of the ladies here in blogland have taken or are currently taking clomid and I was just thinking about it today for when I get started on it in a few months. Yes, I know, I know, just as my wonderful hubby Scott tells me, it is a scary thing when I get to thinking. With thinking then comes curiosity and worry, and as I have mentioned before I totally worry about everything. Scott is always telling me that I worry waaaaaaay too much. So, my question is, how bad is it really? What experiences have you had if this has been a treatment that you have used? It is my understanding that it can affectionately be called the "devil drug." My reasons for asking are because of my concern for Scott and his ability to handle me being on it. After all, I do want a husband still around when prayerfully God places a miracle in our lives, just don't want to be a single mom with a husband that has tossed me to the other side of the US. (hahahaha) As a woman, with PCOS, depression and imbalances in my body, I pray that we can make it through with me on it. Believe me, I can go from being happy to being really ticked off in less than say 10 seconds already, and I can not imagine how my body is going to react to it. Go ahead, please feel free to be as honest as you like. With my high hopes, I can get off the needed extra 15 to 20 pounds the doctor would like for me to before we start clomid. My next GYN appointment is in May. It would be great to be able to start before then and even get off a little more than what has been asked of me. Oh how I wish I was going through this a few years ago, before I bloomed to the biggest size I had ever been. Thanks in advance for all of your support and knowledge. The things that we as women are willing to put our bodies through in order to have precious children always amazes me. It makes me think of the song that I have at the bottom in my song list called The Pants by Brad Paisley. Oh how true this is girls!!!!!!!

Blessings and prayers always,

WHERE ARE YOU?

In the words of one of my dear followers Becky, WHERE ARE YOU? Um, well, all I have to answer that question is by saying that I have been very busy. I know, I know, we are all busy right. However, when I get busy, the computer seems to be one of the last things on my priority list. Yes, I have been a terrible blogger and did not think that time would go by like this in between my last post and now. But really for me, time has flown by so quickly that over the summer I feel like I blinked three times and it was back to school time once again. Whew ~ they say as you get older time goes by faster, and at this rate, if it goes by any quicker the days will be gone like a NHRA dragster speeding down the track!!! So really, just how busy have you been? To answer that question, I am just going to have to do what I used to do in college and bullet each month or subject and give you a little blip about them. Okay, are you ready? I promise, I won't post too long.

MAY/JUNE ~ At the end of May and the first part of June, I finished up a long term sub position in Kindergarten. That was what I was doing the last time I posted. My time spent in this Kindergarten classroom was awesome and I do believe that God intended for me to be there and have the most blessed experiences that I did. What a way to connect with the principal, wink, wink. I mean after all if there are any job openings, she and I have bonded quite well. :)

LAST OF JUNE ~ During the middle and end of June I spent many hours trying to get prepared for the Preschool that I was hopefully going to get started at church. In the answer to all of my work, no it did not happen. So, that tells me pretty clearly that God has other windows opened for me to climb through. :) And yes, I am very excited about that.

JULY ~ Wheat harvest time! Straw bales need to be made! Equipment needs to be cared for! Enough said, I suppose. (lol)

AUGUST ~ Vacation Bible school at church took up the first week and of course I had to be the Bible Story Leader for all age groups. I really did love doing it and my suspicions are that they wanted me to because I am a teacher not only in real life but in Sunday school as well. :) Then, Scott and I took off on vacation for OUR FIRST ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!! We took his parent's 5th wheel camper and away we went south. We stopped to see my aunt in the southern part of Ohio, which was a real treat and then on to Virginia to spend the week at a gorgeous state park, near Scott's brother in Smithfield. Smithfield is part of the historic area in Virginia and very close to Williamsburg, which I had never been to and loved every minute of it because I truly love American history. We had a great time. Yes, I did not want to come back, at least for another week, but just one week there and time to head home.

END OF AUGUST ~ Our county fair is at the end of August and the Monday in which we returned home, we had tickets bought for the Craig Morgan show. Our tickets were bought back in May for this show and there was no way we were going to miss it. Craig Morgan is a country music singer and is most famous for his International Harvester song. I think it may be on my play list, not sure. I will check that out and see. By this time it is the week before school starts and I am getting ready to prepare to get back in the routine again. Let's see we got home on Monday, went to the concert and Tuesday morning bright and early, the substitute caller phoned me and told me that I was going to be teaching 5th and 6th grade long term, because the teacher went skydiving and had a terrible accident, if I wanted it, of course. Um, 5th and 6th grade? Yikes I start this Thursday! So, needless to say I took the challenge and taught 5th and 6th grade up until a week ago. Kind of scary you know, because I am not very tall and these children are as tall, if not taller than myself. However, it was a most blessed experience. At this particular school, in the same school district as I had taught Kindergarten in, had gotten a new principal. Perfect! We have developed a great relationship and hopefully has helped me gain another few inches in the door for when a job opens up! Not to mention that the other teachers had a party for me on my last Friday and brought me gifts! Totally was not expecting that, but so humbled.

Oh yes, let us not forget the 4 graduation parties, 4 weddings and bridal showers, 2 funerals and a baby shower that helped to sprinkle in some activity into our schedule. O let me not forget all of the canning that I have done as well! 60 pounds of beef, 6 long rows of sweet corn both frozen and canned, and green beans! Anyone ever canned before, yep, it's a chore in August, but so good in the winter time! :) Oh yeah!

TTC ~ So sorry to disappoint you, but nothing has happened for us. Since I have decided to go into denial about my diabetes and not take care of myself the way that I should, I have not been able to lose any more weight and yep, my glucose levels have not been where they were or should be. For anyone who has unbalanced glucose levels, it pretty much tells your body that there is no way you should be pregnant and puts a pretty good stop to it. :( With that being said, it is my goal to get back into an exercise routine again and get off the needed 15 pounds so that I can start Clomid in May when I see my GYN. The good news is that I have not gained much weight back, only a couple of pounds and Scott has kept his mostly off too. :) Praise be to God!

I know, you are all probably wondering what in the world am I doing posting now. I mean it has been this long, why bother. Well, I got up at my normal time and decided that today this was going to be my top priority since I had the day off from subbing. Oh how I have missed you all and have gotten caught up on some of the happenings going on out there in blogland. I would like to congratulate Becky on the birth of her handsome son Nicholas as well as congratulate Becky B., Mary and Emily on their pregnancies as well. :) God's blessings to you, especially to any of you great ladies who have awesome news as well that I may not have mentioned or did not know about. My prayers, as always, are with each and everyone of us and I know that in my strong faith all of our wombs will be opened up to have our precious miracles.

Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. Now that I am back to subbing again and on a routine, I will make my best effort to blog as much as I can. :) Today I had the day off and it feels really good to be able to take care of things that have been neglected around the house due to my busy school schedule. :)

Hugs and blessings y'all,

Holiday Weekend Here I Come!

I am sure that you are all just as excited as I am about this holiday weekend. Who wouldn't be with the great weather we are supposed to have. My to do list is long and I am really excited about getting the chance to work on it and quite possibly have Scott home to get the garden planted. If we keep our fingers crossed, the remainder of the 125 acres of corn will be planted and finished up by Friday evening, that is provided all of the machinery does not break down. Breaking things is so common when you farm, one simple little project could take you a day or more because you just never know what is going to happen. Having all 1500 acres planted and finished up would be so wonderful, and getting to enjoy the weekend with out all of the rush would just be an added bonus for us! :)

Speaking of to do list, I am going out tomorrow to some Mennonite greenhouses and get some flowers to work with this weekend after school tomorrow. I can hardly wait! I just hope that they are not all sold out by now. My friend and I are venturing out together and are excited about getting together to go and flower shop. :) She is a real blessing in so many ways. Not to forget, she has three of the most handsome boys in the world! I will have to post pictures of my purchases tomorrow for all of you to see.

Enjoy all of God's blessings this day and may you find peace and joy in all that you do in His name.

Hugs and blessings,

80 DEGREES!

I can't believe it, for the first time all spring we actually hit 80 degrees today. It was absolutely gorgeous here in our little part of Ohio today. The great thing is we are supposed to get to 84 tomorrow and still stay in the upper 70's the whole holiday weekend. I can hardly wait! It is going to be just perfect!! No rain is in the forecast and with the most pleasant temperatures and blue skies, who could possibly ask for more? Whew hew!!! Can you tell that I am excited? Hahahaha :)

The crops are moving right along and am really keeping my fingers crossed that by the Sunday, at the latest Monday, the rest of the beans will have been planted and that we will be finished for the spring planting season. Now we just will need a little rain to help things grow, after Monday of course.

Thanks for all of the great support with Scott and I and our weight loss. Yes, I am very proud of us both. :) Scott makes me so happy and joyful because he has been willing to go the extra mile with me and do what it takes to be able to conceive a child together. I know of some couples where that is not the case. God has certainly blessed me and I thank him everyday for the gift that he has provided for me with my wonderful and absolutely amazing husband.

Just 9 days left of school! I am so looking forward to having some of that valuable extra time on my hands. :) If you would, please pray for me about finding work for next year. It would be absolutely wonderful to get a full time job with benefits so that Scott could go full time on the farm with his dad. It is so wonderful how God has answered my prayers for this year and being able to do this long term sub position. Now, I just need some direction for next year. As I have told you all before, there are several options that I am looking at for the fall. One is doing full time in home daycare, the others are starting a preschool at church, finding a full time teaching position or continue to substitute teach.

My family could certainly use your continued prayers. We are having some rough trials right now with several different things. Prayerfully and certainly thankfully I have been able to take each day as it comes and make the most of it. Right now I am enjoying the fact that my emotions are not running wild and I am on the up and down roller coaster of TTC. Thank you dear God. What an awesome feeling it is.

Have an absolutely beautiful day and may many wonderful reminders of God's love shine on you!

Hugs and blessings,

The Count Down Is On!

Well girls, I have to tell you that the little ones that I have been having a blast teaching are actually counting down the days until summer vacation. Yes, I too am looking forward to having some time off and getting my painting, landscaping and organizing all done. :) It has been on my to do list for several months now and am so glad that the time is approaching and hope that the weather continues to get warmer and warmer. It has been kinda cold in our little corner of Ohio. :) There are 11 days left for students and 12 for teachers because the teachers alway have a work day to close down their rooms for the summer and then check out.

Praises be to God because all of our corn has been planted and some of it is actually sprouting! :) We have a few hundred acres left of beans to plant and then we will be all done with that for this year. :) We are keeping our fingers crossed that it will be done by Sunday, provided we don't have any problems with the equipment running right or breaking down on us.

It was a blessing to hear from all of you. Thank you so much for all of your words of encouragement. :) They mean a lot to me.

In our TTC news, no, we have not even come close to getting pregnant. In March I had clearly ovulated, but not since then. For this month, I don't know why, but AF decided to show up 10 days late! ugh!!!!!!! However, in good news, Scott and I continue to lose weight. We have not gone to the rec center in a couple of months due to the spring farm schedule, but will pick back up as soon as we can. Scott has lost 30 to 35 pounds and I have lost between 20 to 25 pounds. Not only have we lost weight, but Scott and I have found that we are losing inches too. He told me tonight that he needs to make another notch in his belt now! I am sooooooo proud of him.

I do believe that my prayers are being answered because, knock on wood, I have not had any major melt downs about wanting to get pregnant ASAP. For a while now I have been able to hold myself together and really in some ways put our TTC thoughts on the back burner. Maybe it is because I am focused on the weight loss, or maybe it is because I have to get the weight off before my GYN will even think of starting me on clomid. Plus, we technically are not considered infertile until 12 months of TTC, which would put us at the end of August. It's just like I have been able to relax a little and have some faith in God in knowing that my dream will come true someday. Right now it is not something that has been such a burden on me emotionally like it has been in the recent past.

Well, my pillows are calling me. It is after midnight here and I need to rise and shine and be ready for my little ones again tomorrow. Just 11 more days. The time with these precious little ones has certainly gone by fast. Thank you so much for you continued prayers, just as you are always in my thoughts and prayers too.


Hugs and blessings,