Moo-ving Along

The title will make more sense when you see this picture:

Cattle on the loose!

A couple weeks ago the neighbor's cattle got out. Zach called me on my way home from work and said to be careful when I turned onto our road because the cattle were out and a van might have hit one. I drove VERY slowly - 1. because I didn't want to hit a cow and 2. because the road was so icy - and sure enough I saw two of them off to the left side of the road against the fence where the other group of cattle were. I honked and chased them onto the road and slowly drove behind them as they limped down the road. Poor fellas were the ones who got hit --- and to think the van didn't even stop!!! There were pieces of their vehicle laying in the road; you'd think they'd stop to assess damage and try to find their owners. Anyway, you can see Zach's truck and more neighbor's vehicles in the road with hazard lights flashing! Then there was me, cattle ranching in my Vibe... After a little while, they were all back in the pasture and everybody went home.

In other news, we have a crib and carseat! Funny story about the carseat is how we got it. One of Zach's customers from work gave him a hard time about having kids and offering to pick up baby gear: "Zach, I saw carseats on sale at Wal-Mart. Want me to get you one?" and comments of the same sort. Zach always said no. Until the day came where we were actually having a baby and when his customer asked Zach if he wanted him to pick up a carseat, Zach said yes! Needless to say, the guy was a little surprised and then congratulated him and said he would really get the carseat for us! :)

The other funny thing about the carseat was that when we looked at it in the store, we couldn't figure out how to get the gosh-darned thing off the base! Zach said, "I hope we get this thing soon so I can read the user's manual!" Oh my. My husband and I are SOOOO different in personalities! I would have just kept tugging and pulling until I got mad and figured it out or broke it --- and he wants the user's manual. At least one of us is logical. :) And once we got it, we did figure out how to get it off the base. I have a picture of Zach reading the user's manual when we opened it up but he threatened many bad things if I posted it anywhere. Ha- ha!

I suppose the little lady can make her appearance any time now because we've got a way to transport her home and a place for her to sleep.

We also have a SWEET changing table/dresser that Zach refinished! Here's the before and after photos:

Before

After

It used to be Zach's when he was a kid and I'm really glad with how it turned out! He did all the sanding and painting the past few days (even with a sore back and two nights of fire department training!). The only things are the knobs. They used to be wooden drawer knobs painted red to match the rest of the dresser and these are white ceramic. Slap a changing pad on top and we're good to go! Cute table and ensemble for such an unglamorous job of changing dirty diapers!

The Little Cookie - she's getting quite big! She's been getting the hiccups almost every night for the past couple of weeks. It is the weirdest and coolest feeling all at once! She's still as active as ever: wiggling, kicking, elbowing, scraping my ribs with her little knobby knees and feet, and I'm pretty sure I've felt her little fingers tapping away too. Only five weeks left to go - give or take - and I'm hoping (well, my ribs are hoping) that she slows down a bit soon because things are starting to get uncomfortable!

And it's making my job of teaching 20 six-year-olds quite difficult! Mrs. Cook doesn't tie shoes or pick things up off the floor anymore. :) Good thing I don't sit down much during the day because that's when she's all crammed up in the ribcage! Standing up, reclined, or laying down seem to be the most comfortable lately.

Anyway, I suppose it all comes with the territory. I'm still doing okay. No bad swelling in my feet, ankles, or hands and I'm hoping it stays that way! It's starting to get more uncomfortable now though. She pokes and jabs harder against my ribs - ouch! There's no more "just suck it in" to get through or around somewhere because my belly is permanently out. :) Also, doing the dishes is a bit rough because the counter & sink are right at belly height. So I either have to bend over funny or stand on my tiptoes so my belly goes over the counter. But you know what? I'm still glad she's in there. She's healthy and growing and has a strong heartbeat at each appointment. She's active and wiggly and gets hiccups. And I can't wait to hold her on the OUTSIDE.

Here's the last few weeks of belly photos I haven't posted:

32 weeks

Somehow I missed 33 weeks in there. Oh well.

34 weeks

35 weeks - with a fresh haircut & color! 

 35 out of 40 weeks. Whoa. Time is a flying past! She'll be here before we know it!


Cheers to the last bit of good sleep for awhile,

Sarah

Injuries: here, there & everywhere!

Thursday afternoon, I smashed my right ring finger in the back door. Now, I did not do this on purpose and I'm still trying to figure out how I crunched the ring finger and not the middle one seeing as how the middle one is longer, but whatev. It hurt regardless of which finger it was. I almost passed out because it hurt SO BAD! I had to go lay down on the floor in our master bedroom because it was cooler and I wanted the room to stop spinning. Oh yes! And I was home alone when this happened.

Once I felt the dizziness and nausea subside slightly, I downed two ibuprofens and laid on the couch with my finger wrapped in a washcloth full of ice cubes. This is when I noticed the blood had dripped on my legs and the floor. Gross. I was stinkin' mad as I cleaned it up and laid there because this little incident was throwing off my schedule for the day! I was supposed to water the garden then go to a pool party & cookout with our small group from church and I this stinkin' finger was taking my pool time away! Ohhh patience, how I need more of you!

An hour later, I got up to assess the damage and bandage it up, but we had no band-aids in the house because Zach used them all up when he cut his hand on the combine on Wednesday. I told you- injuries EVERYHWERE!

Note the bandaged left hand... it's not as bad as it looks.

He cut the side of his hand - a hard place to keep a band-aid on - so he wrapped the whole thing!

So, being the resourceful person I am, I wrapped the bloody, swollen finger in a strip of paper towel and secured it in place with a strip of Scotch tape. Hey, at least it wasn't Duct tape! Then I drove over to my in-laws where Mom O-C hooked me up with some band-aids. Then it was time to water the garden... ugh. Not fun managing a hose one-handed. I tried to keep my finger elevated to stop the bleeding but it didn't help and I looked like a crazy person walking around with my hand raised as if asking perpetual questions...

Around 3:30 the garden was watered. Zach arrived at the farm with a brand new box of cloth, heavy duty, band-aids. I've never really considered myself a squeamish person but looking at my mangled finger is a bit too much for me to bear. Zach had to change the 2 band-aids I bled through because my stomach was doing somersaults. I'm officially a sissy when it comes to caring for my own wounds. Thanks to my farmerboy for doctoring me up!

FINALLY I got to the pool party around 4pm with my swimsuit, a watermelon, and smashed, bloody finger. I soaked it in the chlorine pool to clean it out then put a fresh bandage on it before dinner. Dinner was great with huge burgers on the grill, pasta salad, watermelon, and brownies & ice cream for dessert! Yum! After dinner, the adults sat around chatting when the kids came in and got out the Just Dance 2 game for the Wii. Their kids were so cute trying to do the moves. I played through one song with one of the kids then one of the other husbands tried one with his son. I don't think either one of them were doing the moves on the screen! They just danced around and made us all laugh. I love our small group! They are so much fun to be around! Plus, the couple hosting the party gave me a strip of Press&Seal wrap to keep my finger dry. :)

This is what it looks like today. Nasty.

Side view - the bottom of my nail usually isn't up that high

And the nail polish is covering a lot of the bruising. It's even bruised on the other side of my finger! Not to mention that it's leaking pus and it smells bad. Sorry. That was too much information. Maybe I should call my sister Katie. After all, she is a nurse!

On a lighter note, our garden is coming along well. The lettuce will be ready soon, the tomatoes, cucumbers, and pumpkins are flowering. My mom and I picked some jalepenos, beans, and raspberries today. There weren't quite enough beans to can so those are going to be tonight's side dish for dinner. The raspberries are going to be put into a fruit crisp and hopefully I can turn the jalepenos into an appetizer.

Jalepenos

Also on a lighter note: wheat harvest has begun. I rode in the combine with Zach for a few rounds on Wednesday night.

Zach finishing up a round

wheat

Riding in the buddy seat

The picture from inside the combine looking down at the header cracks me up because you can see my reflection in the window: athletic wear. I pretty much live in gym shorts, t-shirts, and tennis shoes and this picture just highlights how different Zach and I are. I came from playing soccer to go ride with him in the field. :) I also got some video of him unloading the combine contents into the truck to haul back to the farm. Speaking of the farm, they just put up and brand spankin' new grain bin. But when you say "bin" you have to pronounce it more like "ben." Don't ask me why. That's just how the farmers say it. I should do another post sometime with more farmer-isms...

new grain bin

Zach kept saying, "It's so big and shiny!" I thought he was going to hug it...I asked him to stand in front of it to give a little perspective. It's the biggest grain bin they have now!

Are you getting tired of reading yet?!

This is my last story. Promise.

I added to my injuries today by giving blood at an American Red Cross Blood Drive held at our church. First time donor, right here! The process is wayyyy longer than I thought because you after you sign in you have to read 57 official educational papers, then you go in the little booth and they ask you to repeat your name and address about 34 times, plus take a 92 question long quiz asking you about everything under the sun. Then they stick you with a little poker to test your blood to make sure your hemoglobin is high enough (must be 12.5 or higher and I squeaked by with a 12.6...) which hurts like heck because they squeeze it to take the blood into some little tester deal. After you jump through all those hoops, they take you to the tables and start a-pumpin' away! Apparently my blood flowed well, seeing as how it took maybe 5 minutes and I was outta there in no time to get my snacks from the snack station.

Seeing as how I almost passed out yesterday at the sight of my bloody finger, I was slightly nervous to get poked with a needle today and watch however many pints of blood flow out of my body into a bag. But it was fine. The worst part was waiting for the nurse to disconnect me from all the tubes and take out the needle. I just wanted it out of me and to sit up. It really wasn't bad overall and I think the finger print in the pre-screening booth hurt worse!

Bonus: My mom was there next to me donating blood too. :) But the nurse told her to lay off the coffee on blood donation days because it made her blood run slower. Ha ha!

Double bonus: I'm finally going to know my blood type!

Okay. I'm off to get dinner going the we are headed to a Cook family wedding in Bay City for the weekend. Tyler flew home from Kansas for it so it will be good to have everyone home.

Love,

Sarah

"Do-Nothing" Week

Last week I desperately tried to do nothing. Well, nothing as far as working, projects around the house, working out, etc. And it was much harder than I thought! Didn't even get to drive around my new wheels very much because I was determined to leave the house the least amount as possible. We drove to Alma on Monday night, signed the papers, and I got to drive it home! Woo!

I still can't believe the car is mine.... seriously. It's the nicest car I've ever driven! We had been looking for about 6 months and are so excited that God has provided. It might not have happened as soon as we would have liked, but His timing is the best. After we paid for the repairs on Zach's parents' Tracer, they were able to sell it to a friend of ours who needed it. Perfect timing. :)

Okay, so I couldn't do nothing-nothing, so I did manage to clean the house, read a few books, play some volleyball on Wednesday and softball on Friday, and actually cook some meals for Zach. My sisters came out on Tuesday night and of course we stayed up watching Harvard Sailing Team videos and laughing til our sides hurt. Then we watched "The Four Feathers," an older Heath Ledger movie, which was pretty good except I didn't pay a ton of attention because we talked through the whole thing. Ha ha! That's what sisters are for! Zach and I also went out to a bonfire with our small group on Friday night which was a lot of fun to relax and just catch up with everyone. Robin's strawberry sangria was DELICIOUS and I'm going to have to get that recipe!

Amy's surgery was Friday early afternoon. They took out 2 lymph nodes and a bunch of tissue so she's got a 6-inch incision with at least 16 stitches and another little incision that they used some dissolvable stitches and glue. She stayed with mom and Katie and Grandma & Papa Thorne's house near Detroit (the surgery was in Ann Arbor) until Sunday afternoon. For the next few weeks she's got to take it super easy and not move around or walk too much. That's going to be her biggest challenge I think! Pathology reports on the lymph nodes and tissue should be back in 7-10 days. We're praying for ZERO cancerous cells!

Saturday I had a family bridal shower in Grand Rapids so I made the most of my trip by stopping at Target afterwards and then visiting my dear friend, Carlyn! It was so nice to have a FRIEND to hang out with and chat with and wander around the mall at Pottery Barn dreaming of future purchases. :) Made my weekend! Sunday consisted of church then two father's day celebrations: dinner at the farm with the Cooks then card games and a good ol' game of wiffle ball at the Thornes. Wiffle ball was boys vs. girls and the boys seriously whooped up on us. It used to be fun to play that way because all the girls were older, bigger, faster, etc. But now that the boys are bigger PLUS they have Zach on their team too... let's just say I'm not sure us girls will be winning much more. We've been blessed with two great dads and we are so glad to spend time with them! At the farm we weeded, hoed, and watered the garden then staked up our tomato and jalepeno plants. I had to feed the pigs some dandelions too - they love the sweet taste! Here's a picture of my favorite little piggy: Spot.

Creative name, I know, I know but he has one black spot on his front leg. He's the runt of the litter so he's super cute! There are others I have named as well, such as Panda, Skunky, and Slim. But I'll post pictures of them later.

The week flew by and it's hard to believe it's already time for another one: "Do-Something" week begins! It all started with Angela's Basic Training class at PT Plus at 9:00 this morning. I can already feel my triceps getting sore! My siblings and I are planning to film another spoof of a HST video tomorrow morning! Woo!

I love summer.