please pray

Hello all! I have a prayer request. A friend of mine (Beth) found out last week that she has cancer. Please keep her and her family in your prayers. They begin a long journey this week.

If you're interested in more details, you can read a little more on their CaringBridge Site.

a new frying pan

I bought a new frying pan (or skillet if you prefer) the other day. Matt complimented me on picking one out that was "food safe". Yep. I did good.

showing

So. Apparently I'm showing enough for somebody to notice. Somebody at church (who has known that I was pregnant for weeks) told me that her mom asked if I was pregnant. I guess that settles it. I'm starting to show. I actually haven't started wearing my maternity clothes yet, but I'm ready to get them out and start converting. My pants are starting to be uncomfortable when I am sitting. It's much worse if I've just eaten a decent amount. So, I expect that the maternity clothes will be washed and ready to wear soon (just as soon as we find them, that is).

a quilt for Caroline

Did I ever tell you that I'm not very creative? I'm just no good at design. I can make things if I know what I'm going for, but figuring out what I'm going for is not so easy. This is where I am on designing a quilt for Caroline. I want to make her one for her "big girl bed" (which we don't own yet, haven't shopped for, and aren't planning to move her to for months). Anyway, this was my original idea:


I wanted to have a good bit of white (which I later decided would be slightly off-white) and I loved the butterfly fabric. I thought that I would use different red fabrics for the center squares. But once I started looking at fabrics to go with the butterfly fabric, I decided that I might not like that idea so much. So, I changed my idea to this:


To give this a little more interest, it would be quilted in some design. The butterfly section would probably be quilted around the butterflies and the borders would have some sort of little design. But the more that I looked at it, I wasn't sure how it would look on the bed. So, I played around with my picture and tried to get a representation of what the bed would actually look like with this quilt on it. Here is that attempt:


As you can see, the butterfly section would hang over the sides and the bottom just a bit. I'm not sure what I think about that. Matt thinks that maybe it needs to be smaller. I'm also not sure if I should break up the expanse of butterfly fabric with something. So, here is where you all come in. What should I do? I know there is creativity out there. Help! Oh yeah, I am good with completely changing the design. I just want the butterfly fabric to have some bit of prominence. So, what ideas do you have?

goodbye, old friend

As a step toward purchasing a vehicle (minivan) that will fit three kiddos, we sold MY car last week. I'm very thankful that we didn't have trouble selling it, but it's sad to let it go. It certainly helps that I haven't driven it regularly for 4.5 years. In fact, Nathan called it "Daddy's car". So, I leave you with this last picture of MY car.

pregnancy update

Here is a quick pregnancy update:

- I'm feeling better, but still not great.
- I'm still pretty tired a lot of the time (partially because I'm not sleeping the greatest).
- My clothes are starting to be uncomfortable, but I'm still in that strange in between place where you just mainly look fat.
- I'm going with March 13th as my due date - as "picked" by my doctor.

a tidbit

I have just started a Bible study at church. It is the new version of Beth Moore's "A Woman's Heart: God's Dwelling Place". I've done a couple of her Bible studies, and I always find some interesting insight. I wanted to share with you one sentence from what I read tonight.

"The very heart of the gospel is realizing that God did not simply provide a sacrifice for us but instead of us.