The "Saturday" 7

1. Last Sunday our church had a 150th anniversary celebration. We usually have two services, but for the special anniversary, we combined into one. It was so cool to have almost 1,000 people crammed into the sanctuary singing praises at the top of their lungs. Our fabulous worship pastor planned an entire hour's worth of songs from the past 150 years. We sang hymns with just the piano, then the "organ", and finally a praise band. It was so nostalgic to sing the songs that were popular in the 90s and early 00s. It's amazing how evocative music can be. Certain songs reminded me of my few years at Sparta Baptist, then others bring back memories of the old church building, some made me think of chapels at our Christian school. They were all great and I wouldn't mind singing them every week!

2. After the service, we had a luncheon on the lawn (catered - not potluck, can you believe it? Are we really even Baptists if we don't mark every occasion with a potluck?) and baptisms at the cross (huge, outdoor cross). In between the lunch and baptisms, though, Justin and I booked it to an open house for a house we were interested in. We've been living with my parents for over 5 years and have really been feeling like it's time to get out on our own (not because of anything my parents have said or implied!). Of course, this is the worst possible market to be buying a house. There is nothing in our price range that isn't a major fixer-upper. But this one popped up that looked very promising in a perfect location. Unfortunately, the pictures online were somewhat deceiving about the condition of the house . . . and pictures can't convey smells. Ugh. We finally figured out that the previous owners were dog breeders. There were 6 huge kennels in one of the bedrooms, pictures of dogs on every wall, and other . . . evidence . . . of animals throughout the entire house. Suffice it to say every piece of flooring would have to be replaced and every wall repainted with Kilz. It was already at the top of our budget. We don't have extra cash for many extras. So discouraging. (Although it was listed as "pending sale" the day after the the open house, so it's unlikely we could've gotten it anyway.)

3. Lena and Levi both gave up on sleeping through the night this week. It's been brutal. Levi has a cough that wakes him up and then he starts calling for me. One night he was ready to get up for the day at 2:00 am. He kept calling, "Mommy! Levi get up!" And if I ignored him and let him cry, he coughed until he puked! Of course all of his calling woke up Lena. She's suddenly coming up with all these new fears that prevent her from sleeping. After sleeping with a fan her entire life, and having the window AC unit on every night for the past 3 months, she decided she's terrified of the sound the AC makes. She wants to sleep in complete silence, but then every little noise wakes either her or Levi up. Ugh! It is so frustrating!! I only slept through the night once this week - and that's because Justin dealt with Levi in the middle of the night on Friday!

4. Despite the lack of sleep, we had some fun with homeschool this week. Lucy's curriculum is based on geography, so we learn about a different country every couple of weeks. And Lena has a different theme every week. This week we were finishing up the US and learning about the moon. Sometimes it's all I can do to get to everything that's in the curriculum. But sometimes we add in some fun stuff:

Oreo moon phases

Spaghetti art! I boiled some spaghetti and gave the girls laminated pictures of the US. They made the outline as I suggested.

And then it turned into creative sensory play - which is not my favorite, but this was actually fairly mess-free and I know it's good for them!

Making hair.

We were supposed to make both a cake and a pie for each of their separate curricula, but I had planned it for Friday afternoon, and they totally lost interest when they realized Grandpa was outside pressing cider. That's probably way more educational anyway. Haha.

5. Yesterday, the girls had their pictures taken by a friend since they won't have school pictures this year. We went to Long Lake park which is notorious for mosquitoes every year. This year, it was an absolute massacre. I coated us all in bugspray, and we were literally only outside for 15 minutes, but we got absolutely swarmed and eaten alive. Poor Kelly was there all day doing pictures! We did our pics and ran. Lena is the wooooooorst when she has bug bites. I actually stopped at Meijer and bought some expensive anti-itch cream with lidocaine in it, so I could numb those bites instead of listening to her cry about them. She's actually doing much better with them than I expected. And the couple of sneak peeks I've seen of the pictures are adorable, so I think it was worth it!

6. After the pictures, the girls and I met Justin at another house for a viewing. I've had my eye on this one for a while, but they dropped the price $10,000 this week, so we decided to go check it out. It is really . . . really . . . really . . . small. Like 912 square feet small. But it has three bedrooms, a decent bathroom, and appeared to be in nice shape. The good news is that it didn't smell like dogs! The bad news is that it's really really small. Haha. I could almost handle the 912 square feet, but the ceilings are only 7 feet high! Justin didn't even have to extend his arm all the way to touch the ceiling! It was so claustrophobic! The biggest deal breaker, however, is that not only does it not have a dishwasher, there is no room for one!

There were also some questionable structural issues in the basement and garage, plus the siding and roof would need to be replaced. $$$$$$ We debated for a long time about making a low ball offer, but ultimately decided that even if we were able to make the needed repairs, I'm not sure I could live there with 3 kids 24/7 without going crazy. Lol. So we're stillllll waiting and looking and praying and waiting.

7. And finally . . . the reason I'm a day late . . . throughout the day on Saturday, my pregnant sister kept texting my other sister and me things like, "Is this a contraction? I think they're coming every 10 minutes. Ok maybe 7. Do you think this might be it? Am I going to have contractions like this for days?" Eventually her texts turned into, "These things are really starting to hurt. I think they're more like 5 minutes apart now. I think we might go in." She was due today, but at her appointment on Friday the doctor didn't seem hopeful about her delivering anytime soon and scheduled an induction for next Sunday. We were all so pleasantly surprised that she went into labor on her own! Actually, pleasantly surprised might be an understatement.

Some of us were more excited than others . . .

Niki, my mom and I headed down to the hospital before we even got official confirmation that she was being admitted because the frequency and intensity of her contractions had us convinced this was it. Poor Libby is way tougher than I ever was and didn't get the epidural the second she was admitted like I did. It was terrible sitting there watching her writhe in pain. If my girls ever want me in the delivery room with them, I'm going to tell them I can't watch unless they have an epi. Haha. Libby did eventually get the magical needle in the spine and we were able to enjoy hanging out together waiting for Little Man to make his appearance. Everything actually went very quickly for a first baby, but it's so different to be the one in the waiting room instead of the one doing the birthing. Haha. Even after he was born, we had to wait 2 hours to see him! Fortunately, Libby's husband Braden had pity on us and sent us a few pictures:

Lol!

Braden also shared the name we've all been waiting anxiously to hear: Nash Jay arrived at 10:10 pm. I love the name!! And I actually take full credit for it since I was the one who suggested it months ago. Haha.

In the hours that we all waited to meet little Nash, more and more of Libby and Braden's friends and family started appearing. By the time we were able to see him, there were 12 of us standing outside her door waiting to be let in! Lol. I can see some of you shuddering at the thought. But Libby's a good sport and let us all in at the same time to get our hands on this guy: