Praying for patience.

As most of you know we are closing in the delivery date. 17 more days to go after today. I must admit however that I am growing impatient. I think I am losing my patience as I get older. I don't remember being like this with the other two. I got very excited two weeks ago when I went in for my appointment and was told I was dilated to one, but last Friday when I went in it was the same. No more progress. It does not help that the swelling kicked in out of nowhere last week with a vengeance. I am trying to keep it under control by pushing fluids and putting my feet up as much as possible. My wonderful husband has been very tolerant. He rubs my feet when I request it. This might not sound like a big deal, but every winter Matt's hands get incredibly dry and cracked and working in the basement has only made it worse. Not only do his hands hurt already, but the lotion he rubs on my feet burns his hands where they are cracked. He is such a good man. He has also been very tolerant of my grumpiness. I will admit that I have been grumpy and less tolerant the last few days. I am not making excuses but it is not much fun to have your feet and hands feel and look like sausages. He just points out to me every so often that I am moody and goes about his business. Supposedly, I have also been snoring like crazy from about 3 a.m. til morning and keeping him up. Usually, I only do this on my back, but I can't sleep on my back anymore because it is uncomfortable. I guess I am snoring on my side now also. I, of course, can only go by what he tells me in the morning or the once a night he tries to wake me up to get me to stop, only to have me fall back asleep and start right up again. Good practice for those long nights we have coming I suppose.

Anyway, we are both looking forward to meeting our new child. Matt keeps telling me to massage my ankles. I read somewhere that you should make sure when you get a pedicure that they know you are pregnant because there is a spot on the back of the ankles that can start contractions. I am not sure about this but the last few times Matt has given me a foot massage he has rubbed my ankles just for good measure! Everything is ready. Clothes and Blankets are washed. Feeding supplies are sterilized. Diapers, wipes, and diaper pail are bought. My bag and the baby's bag are packed. Bassinet is here with clean sheets and blankets. Swing and bouncer are set up. We are ready to rock and roll. Now we wait. Pray for patience for me please! Some extra's prayers for my health these last few weeks would be wonderful too. My blood pressure has been holding steady in the good numbers even this last week with the increased swelling. I am praying it does good up until the end. Cross your fingers!

Rockin' Out!

Most of you know that Shelby has been playing guitar for about a year. Jake has been talking about getting a guitar since Shelby started playing. After Christmas Best Buy had a great sale on a Fender Electric Guitar Starter Kit. Jake decided to use some money he had saved up to go and buy it. The starter kit came with everything he needed. Guitar, Amp, Case, etc.. He started lessons two weeks ago and is really excited to be learning. Even Matt seems to be getting interested. Jake came home from lessons tonight and Matt was asking Jake to show him what he learned. Next thing I know Matt has the guitar. This is not the first time this has happened. When Jake first brought home the guitar my husband would disappear and I would find him in Jake's room with Jake's guitar watching the "How to Play Guitar" DVD that came with it.

Shelby got some bling for her guitar at Christmas. She got a pink fuzzy strap and some pretty new picks and she finally got a case to carry her guitar back and forth to lessons. She also just got something called a "Capo". Supposedly this is something Taylor Swift uses a lot and our guitar teacher recommended one because Shelby likes to learn Taylor's songs.

Here are some pics of our rockers and perhaps a future rocker (Matt).

New Stairs Done!

There was a request that I show the new stairs. Yes, we have stairs again. Matt had them rebuilt and up the next day. Here is a picture of the new stairs.

Progress

Matt has been working hard in the basement. Sometimes he feels like he has not gotten much done, but he really has done a lot. Before he could even start framing in the walls. He had to:
1. Destroy and old, useless piano with a Sawzall. Then haul it up in pieces to burn. The metal had to be hauled up also. Thanks to Shelby who assisted with this.
2. Redo the plumbing so that we could put walls and a ceiling up.
3. Redo the heating ducts so that we had vents down there for heat and air.

Once that was done he started framing. He now has Jake's room completely framed in. He is working on the "Game Room" framing right now. There will be a pocket door separating the unfinished basement from the finished part and we will also be adding in a closet somewhere to keep board games in. After the framing he will start the wiring.

Yesterday, I left to go to one of my daycare kids birthday party. When I returned home I found that there were no basement stairs! He realized when he was getting ready to frame the wall for the pocket door that he needed to deal with the stairs before that. The people who put the stairs in never intended on finishing the stairway. There was not room to drywall and finish the stairway because the stairs were to wide. So out they came yesterday afternoon. We almost had two dogs stuck in the basement however. Matt started tearing out the stairs at the bottom. He got a couple out and then realized that both dogs were hanging out downstairs with him. They like to watch him work. Don't ask me why. So he had to put the part he had tore out back and got the dogs to go up. Whew! That was close! Right now there is just a ladder. Matt came back from Menard's last night with boards and two bags of water softener salt and then realized that he had to haul that down a ladder somehow. It reminded Jake and I of the scene's in the Tom Hank's movie "The Money Pit" (one of my favorite movies, the other being "Turner and Hooch") where he has to haul water up the ladder and a mattress among other things because their stairs had collapsed. Don't worry, Matt made it safely down. I will be honest though, I did not watch!

Matt has had a helper the last two weekends. Jake spent all day last Sunday helping his Dad and is down there as I type this helping with the stairs. I think now that he can see what things are going to look like he is getting excited and wants to help. I love that they are spending time together like that. Well, I need to go deliver some coffee and hot chocolate down to the hard workers! Here are some pictures of the stairs out and Jake's room all framed up.