The Life of the Lindsays

Oh Baby!

2009-04-26T20:07:00.000-07:00

What a perfect little angel! I love her so much:-)...

Moving right along...

2009-01-19T09:18:00.000-08:00

I hope this picture isn't too scandalous for anyone, this was my belly last month. I'll get an updated one up soon...the doctor says its all baby, which is just what I was afraid of, he's big!

Today I had my 7 month doctors appointment. I am actually about 29 weeks but they won't change the due date, oh well. I guess he'll come when he comes anyway and it doesn't really matter, except I know I have been pregnant all these weeks and its been a tad difficult. I weigh 141 pounds! Yikes, I have never been close to that in my life, no wonder my back hurts like crazy. Three more months sounds like an eternity.

Anyway, everything is normal, my weight, my belly size, my pee:-), my blood pressure. I got a Rho Gam shot in my butt so now that's sore too, but I am glad to know my pain has nothing to do with an unhealthy baby. God has really blessed us. Even despite the car problems and my work schedule and Chris not getting enough part time hours, its not for me to worry about. I can only do what is right in front of me and I let God handle the rest.

In February we have a trip to Atlanta planned and then an anniversary trip at the end of the month. March-I have my sister's birthday, mine and two baby showers apparently. And then April comes and so does little squirt, so I am not going to sit around waiting for the big day, I have stuff to look forward to in the meantime.

I have been studying html, I am working on my portfolio, I have been cleaning, organizing and rearranging. Speaking of which, I have plenty more of it to do today. Its been good to make my brain work and give it a challenge. I have needed some mental stimulation for a while now. Let's just hope it pays off in the right ways:-).

I guess other than that I am unsure of everything, its a very weird time in my life, knowing everything will change and not knowing how God is going to work in all of it. Yesterday at church Essen preached on Pro-Life, Pro-Justice, Pro-Gospel, Pro-Love....I can't explain it all but foster parenting was basically put on my heart in a big way. I am not sure about it, it may not be the right thing at all for us but we are trying to be open to God's calling to us and the scarier it is the more I try to perk up and pay attention, the more I try to be faithful and see where God is leading. I know He has some awesome things and He keeps telling me its going to take a while and I need to be patient. So I am. I am being patient and diligent and my little mind is going wild with possibilities. I wish I had more to talk about but really God is keeping things way low key, and I am just going with it.

a new year

2009-01-06T06:26:00.000-08:00

The last time I posted anything blogspot froze up and erased my post. I have been aprehensive about posting since. I hope I have more luck with this one. I am officially 6 and a half months along in my pregnancy. I am excited I am not very very big although my belly is. I have been watching what I eat and I exercise a lot. Its not so hard to do that part. I have found that the last months have gone by insanely fast and now they seem to be dragging a bit. Its a tad worrisome considering my back in the very center aches no matter what I do. I find that when I have the worst posture it feels the best, but what good does that do? So 3 more months of this back pain:-(. I know I think it'll be worth it in the end but its a bit daunting when I live it day to day. I cannot complain anymore though, some people really have it way worse.

Chris and I are also getting over colds. Mine has lasted 3 weeks. Its been a little scary trying to get rid of it, praying it won't turn into a sinus infection or bronchitis like it did last year. I do not want to be on any medication while being pregnant. Anyway, I missed a couple days of work but I made up for it last week and this week is pretty full. God still provides.

Chris and I also started a devotional book this year that I bought him for Christmas. So far we have only missed one day(and we've read it since Christmas). Its been really good. I like having a topic or an idea on my mind that I can think about throughout the day and discuss with him later. We are also on a diet! Haha...ok he is on a diet and I am reevaluating my calorie intake. I crave meat and cheese but I am trying to eat leaner with the same calories. So after a failed attempt at lean we ended up eating pork chops, noodles with butter and a salad(yay). Atleast our portions were more appropriate. This week will be better! I am going to start making a menu, which will help me think better when it comes time to cook. I somehow manage to have no trouble actually making things. Chris told me jokingly in the store last night that when we get divorced he's taking all my recipes, which is cute because they are all in my head:-). For someone who has never really liked to cook I have sure fattened my man up.

So slowly but surely this year has worked some of the kinks out of adjusting to married life. We were both on our own for years before living together and its a challenge meshing me (popsicle for dinner eater) with Mr. Bachelor(who eats out whenever he feels like it). We've managed to keep the house clean and have organized and reorganized and still have more to go. We've got three more months to get ourselves and the house ready for our little wild child and for our own sanity.

Also coming soon...my web site and business and Chris' as well. We are both excited to get the ball rolling with our ideas. And Chris has done some amazing work on the websites. Hopefully this year will be more forward progress and less figuring things out:-).

wiggly worm

2008-12-02T09:15:00.000-08:00

So here is the little wiggly worm that kicks me all day and all night long. His kicks are getting really strong, so much so that some of them really freak me out and Chris too! I have also felt one of his appendages poking one particular spot in my belly and it sticks out and is hard in the spot. When you touch it, it slowly moves away...weird, but nice!

He also prefers to sleep on his belly, lucky duck! I don't get to anymore and I miss it terribly. I am finally getting more excited about actually having a baby around here. Its something that has taken a lot of time for me to grasp and try to understand it enough to enjoy the idea. I guess I am really happy about being able to care for a little creature that looks a bit like Chris and I and see it grow up. Time is flying by, before I know it he'll be here...

And I don't know that he is a he or a she, I just really don't like calling him "it" even though I did:-(.

Hiking

2008-11-19T06:40:00.001-08:00

I don't look 5 months pregnant in this jacket...
Buck near Big Meadows...
Us at the top of Bear Fence...
Not much color was left up there...
Chris...
Leaving the park...sunset was gorgeous!

From October

2008-11-19T06:37:00.001-08:00

This is the state of my belly in the beginning of October...more pics to come...

I'm one of those people...

2008-10-27T10:16:00.000-07:00

...who posts a fuzzy ultrasound picture and no one knows what they are looking at! Haha...the doctor told me to use my imagination but the head is the top lump and its sort of a profile. Next month I get the real deal and its gonna be in 4D! They did this one just to check the dates and according to the size of the baby they were a week off, he's big enough to be a week older. I guess they will still keep the original April 12 due date, but Chris was excited that the baby is so big. I was kind of hoping he'd be tiny;-). I'll be hoping that when I give birth...haha!

Confessions

2008-10-12T15:44:00.000-07:00

Fall is officially here, and all it took was for Chris and I to leave for a week to the Outer Banks. We stayed in Rodanthe with some of Chris' family in a giant beach house. It was a little chilly for swimming but great for sunbathing and playing a little foot ball on the beach. Yes I did!

There was a pool at the house which I got into twice as it was heated, but still a bit too chilly for me. The jacuzzi was more my thing , however, not so much considering I am pregnant. I sat on the ledge where the water just covered my legs. I can't wait to have this baby, if for no other reason than to dip my body in a hot tub. I haven't even taken a bath in months, atleast 9 or 10months. (Yes I shower;-))I can't wait to finish the bathroom remodeling come to think of it!

Anyway, I do not like being pregnant. I know the outcome is what everybody is supposed to look forward to anyway, but I saw an ad for a TV show called 17 kids and counting. I am sorry, I think they are crazy. I guess if they can support and love all 17 kids then who am I to judge, but dag gone! I somehow think that it turns into some sort of production and there isn't time to possibly give each child the love and attention they may need or crave. I think having kids can even be somewhat selfish. Women wanting to be mothers(or girls for that matter) so they have some sort of fulfillment is what I see more than mothers actually giving kids the attention they actually require. I am somewhat generalizing, believe me, I know plenty of great mothers.

I just think about when I was so young and depressed about things and so irritated my parents brought me into the world. I guess some people might find that to be ungrateful or whatever, but during those times I had no choice but to deal with my situation wondering how I got to this earth in the first place. I guess that's the whole miracle of birth. That God planned me first and it didn't matter really about the choices my parents made. I was born for God's glory and not for my parents or my own. In that I thought, well shoot, that isn't so bad.

This past week at the beach I felt really good, then really weak and sort of queasy. Sometimes I was awake and perky and sometimes I was sleepy and irritated and I thought so will my kid be. I don't know whether it is a girl or boy, that'll be a surprise, but they are going to have bad days and hate me for bringing them here. Then other days they are going to smell the grass or the ocean and feel the air in their lungs and realize that life can be an enormous blessing.

I am not a natural "mother." I am nurturing and compassionate yes, I empathize with almost everyone. I can be selfless and aware. I love deeply, but I didn't like dolls and they never were my "babies" when I was young, they were my friends or in my theatrical plays! I preferred GI Joes, but one could argue those are dolls too. I never wished to go through labor or breastfeed(although I will), I got the creeps looking at baby clothes because they reminded me of trolls. Everyone I ever babysat for said their kids adored me, I guess because I didn't treat them like kids but like equals. I let them draw on me or climb on me, I did all the things I liked to do with them, played in the mud, throw water balloons and spit watermelon seeds. Stuff I generally do now at 26 years old.

I guess I never wanted kids for so long was because I saw mothers lose their children(death), or kids misbehave very very badly, or even a kid I knew murdered someone. And it can happen to a loving mother, a good mother, a Christian mother. No one is exempt from the weight of the world. I guess I thought life too would be much easier for me if I wasn't responsible for any child, life is already difficult enough.

Then I met Chris who told me that having a family was the biggest thing on his heart. The biggest thing on my heart was avoiding that...haha. But I love Chris. I guess because he has never judged me. He sees me as a human and loves me despite it:-). I loved Chris as a friend first and then realized that life would be so empty without him. I never even thought I could have kids. I won't go into all the reasons why I thought that or felt that but it scared me when I thought that Chris might never get to be a father. Because if anyone in my mind was ever worthy of being a father it is him. He is the epitome of love. And just when I thought that pregnancy wasn't going to happen I knew in my heart that I was. I felt it even before the test told me so. Before my body even surged with hormones.

So here I am past my first trimester, annoyed as heck that my belly is stretching and that I don't like to sleep on my side, or that I have to eat atleast 20 minutes before I have to do anything, or that my boobs feel like someone punched them, or that when I read anything pregnancy related I get light headed and irritated. I am annoyed that I changed my mind, no amount of sex is worth having a kid with Chris' head pass through me;-). I wink but I mean it sometimes, he has the biggest head I have ever encountered. I have days when I watch little kids and now I feel somewhat drawn to them or teary eyed at work. Like when a kid ran to me, out of all the people around, crying she couldn't find her daddy. I was like, "why me, do I look like a safe person, one who could comfort her or help?" Why did she pick me, for goodness sake, there were mothers around and people who don't walk around with an unintentional scowl on their face like me sometimes.

I guess this is all part of being pregnant and my life changing completely to prepare for another human being. Just like pregnancy itself the feelings I have are uncomfortable and hurt sometimes, sometimes they are humorous and happy, most of the time I am just trying to get used to the idea that I will never be able to go through life again selfish, which is a good thing. But a hard thing. I think some people don't realize the little ways they are selfish until faced with the possiblity of a kid. I think about the words I will most likely hear the most over the next years of my life, "Mom! Hon!" I am not my own anymore at all.

As much as I may sound negative or whatever, I am excited this little kid is coming. I can't wait to see Chris in him(or her). Maybe they will be able to sing(unlike me), maybe they will be tall and have dark hair and be athletic(unlike me), maybe they will have my chin and Chris' hot legs! Maybe they will look funny and awkward and I will definitely love them anyway. Maybe they will be pregnant someday and say, "Mom, you were crazy!" Just like I tell my mom with more than a touch of irony, because she was crazy to love us that much. We are so imperfect and so weak and she gave up herself for us knowing we would be that way. So is it worth it for the mother who loses her child, or the mother whose child murders someone elses, or the mother who has a kid who misbehaves....definitely. I loved my child the moment he was conceived. I love him more than my comfort and I'll love him even more when I see him at my ultrasound in two weeks. He won't just be a twisty little bugger in my belly, I'll see his face:-).

I may feel incapable as a mother, but I hope I never get to be so puffed up with myself to think that I know it all. Children more than anyone else see right through that. I hope more than anything my kid knows I love him.

Labor Day Camping!

2008-09-03T12:32:00.001-07:00

Chris and I joined our friends Josh and Kim up at Todd Lake to do some camping, fishing and swimming...

Bundled up like its winter time...brrr! The cook getting his grill ready, I am cold in the background. I think I am the only cold pregnant person alive... Someone is enjoying his long weekend:-), waiting for those burgers and brats... Night fishing...Josh caught a perch... And Kim caught Josh! You should have seen the look on his face when it happened! This is the way to camp when you are pregnant, trust me! We look like a bunch of gypsies... Chiclet was trying to escape, she was so funny tugging on the cable, its hard to see through the smoke, but if you click on the pic its quite hilarious:-). Breakfast time! Josh made some really amazing french toast, bacon, and OJ....yummy! Someone else was hungry too! Chris took Chiclet for a swim, she loved the cold water!

It was good to get away after all we've been through lately. It was fun to camp with Chris, I can't believe this is our first camping expedition together that didn't involve a reenactment! I have more belly pics coming, I am getting pudgy!

Dunes at Kill Devil Hills

2008-09-03T12:21:00.000-07:00

This is part of our trip to North Carolina with the Pearsons. The dunes are the largest on the East Coast. The pictures do not do them justice, they are massive. We had a blast!

The River

2008-08-08T13:01:00.001-07:00

This is another adventure in Goshen....so pretty:-)

With our wonderful friends Josh and Kim...

Boys will be boys....

RARRRRR!!!
Love birds:-)

Virginia is beautiful!

Uh oh...

2008-08-07T11:17:00.001-07:00

There goes my waistline:-)
I guess little junior is the size of a lady bug....

Or its just some incredible gas...haha

Almost

2008-07-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

I think I am almost going crazy. The workers have been here several weeks now. They finally finished the siding on the front of the house. I am going to spray paint the shutters so they can hang them up. Then maybe I can start on the plants in the front. I hate looking out in the front yard and seeing smashed soda cans, cigarette butts and shards of siding and gutters everywhere. I am trying to be patient, but I don't feel like it. I feel like I am stuck in a fishbowl when they are here and I feel awkward about taking the dog out as much as she would like when they are around. I guess I'll have to wait another week or more. They would have been done if they weren't working 5 hour days...must be nice...grrr!

Haha...ok I am really not THAT annoyed, but close to it. Its been a hard week, all 3 days since we got back from the beach. I think that is the way life goes and right now we are just going to have to live through the things have been so difficult and keep looking towards the things to come. Believe me the house is the least of those problems, I guess its the only thing I am willing to share my frustration about.

Next week my friend Christina is coming from California to see me. I am looking forward to seeing her as I have not in over 3 years now. I find it interesting too that we were not very close friends at all until I left California. Its amazing how email connects people more than in person these days. I am grateful for it though. The neighbors invited us for dinner tonight. I am not feeling too well. Its funny, the other neighbors invited us a few weeks ago and I was sick and here we are again, me not feeling well the day of the invite. I think I am going to take a tylenol and get my butt over there. I am tired of things not going my way!

Projects

2008-06-22T23:04:00.000-07:00

Check out my concrete urns. These are cast-offs from the previous home owners and are hideous and white. I think that it was a bad choice to put white potters next to a white house with a light gray roof surrounded by a white fence, (one of the obvious bad choices the previous owners seemed to make). Its so unappealing, I thought about dumping them somewhere, but when the siding blew off the house and we had the prospect of new pale yellow siding my first thought was to warm them up.

I found terra cotta spray paint at a craft store but noticed it was about 3-4 dollars cheaper at Lowes. Since there were plants in the potters already I wrapped them in paper and sprayed both the urns. The can barely covered two medium sized urns but then again the surface was awfully porous and it was windy the day I painted them. All in all I think they turned out nice, despite the fact they aren't exactly my style. With brighter flowers in them and better placement I think they may just brighten and cheer up the front of the house. The siding should be done this week. I'll post a better picture in front of the house when its looking pretty!

Whisp

2008-06-18T10:20:00.001-07:00

Our new kitten...Whisper...aka Whisp

Some things get better with age....

2008-06-14T23:58:00.000-07:00

...and somethings definitely do not get better with age. For example here is a list:

Things that get better with age(usually):
*wine
*cheese
*decision making skills
*cars(vintage, classics, need I say more?)
*sour dough
*roller coaster rides(well you can go on more exciting ones when you grow up)
*retirement
*CDs, not the kind you listen to, the kind that accrue interest and make you some moola!
*leather items
*growing gray hair(this list is pathetic, I know)

Here are some things that do not get better with age:
*cheese left outside of the fridge
*decision making skills(I know! It's ironic! It does and its doesn't)
*cars(Fords, VW Golfs, Pintos and Nova's)
*roller coaster rides...again, its ironic!
*Keeping your natural haircolor
*Slip'n'Slides

Slip'n'Slides???? That's right, I have the bruises to prove it. As fun as they are and as much as I love it, the older you get the further from the ground you realize you are, the less padding you have and more aches and pains it exacerbates, its still worth it. Check out this kid trying it out:

She seems to spring back from it better than Chris and I!

Time

2008-06-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

I think its sort of crazy when you are young time creeps by so slowly and you can't wait for things. Then you get a little older and time goes by a little quicker. Still not quickly enough though, you can't wait for the next step in your life and you can't wait to get past the mistakes and the awkward years. And then you get a little older and you realize you still have the same amount of hours in the day but they are flying by at a pace that you can't quite comprehend until you get just slightly older and you realize its warp speed...and that's where I am right now.

I find it strange as well that Chris and I do the exact same things we did before we got married and we have less time to do those same things. It makes no sense...marriage=time zapper. I feel like more than ever I have a certain amount of time and I am not a very good manager of it. I think it has something to do with my attention span which is shorter than Chiclet's on a good day, but also I think I have too many things and not enough focus.

I suppose this next year will be full of a lot of things I have to do. This year its things that the house requires of me. Chris doesn't require much at all. In fact I think he still feels like a bachelor. He comes home and has a dinner I make...usually...and does what he does. I think he thinks of me as a bonus. Haha, what a lousy bonus! I guess sometimes I am a bonus, but I work on my little projects too. We combine forces when the house gets out of hand, or when there is a project we both want to work on, like the yard for example. Or sometimes we realize we don't know what the other is doing and we go investigate and it leads to something fun like a trip to Klines on the motorcycle, or to blockbuster or to the park, or just for a walk. But rarely do we just sit together for hours at a time to do what who knows what people do together...haha.

I guess from time to time I need him to hammer something I can't reach and he needs input on a logo he is designing, but I am wondering what powers we will unearth when we actually work together. He is working on a web site for Tim and Sasha right now and for Jodi too. And I suppose when he's done with those he'll dust mine off and get cracking on that. I want to help him get some part time work with his web design etc. I think that would make him feel more satisfied creatively...but all this makes me wonder, where is all the time going?

I am posting this thing at 1:40am(approx.) and I am about to go upstairs and clean the guest bedroom even more and finish setting it up. And I have to be up very early tomorrow and I have four projects I have to finish tomorrow. I am swamped but I am not seeing results. I wonder when things will slow down a bit and I can get caught up. I feel like this warp speed has put me in a time warp and I am unable to get out of it. I guess I'll let you know when I am caught up.

Summer Has Begun

2008-06-08T18:44:00.000-07:00

So after a lot of work, things are starting to look like they are coming together. Chris replaced outlets, switches and light fixtures, as well as the kitchen faucet. Here he is hard at work...

We both painted, although I painted more, because that's what you do if you don't know anything about electrical work. Here is me painting, I mean, goofing off...

Here is the old living room color...

here is the new...

Here is our bedroom color...I don't have a before picture because the previous color would have broken the camera for sure...it was hideous!

Here is part of the guest bedroom. I think this looks way better in real life. I chose green and pink since I have so many items that are green, pink or both and no where else to put them. The other half of the bedroom is my studio. I am painting that a darker pink....more photos of that will come.

The green fabric draped over the chair is what I am reupholstering it with, also I am making a little skirt to hide my shoes under Corrie's old futon. And the trim needs to be painted white and the blinds changed out to white...all in good time:-).

Here is the kitchen, note the pan rack/light fixture Chris installed, we also added an Ikea counter/shelf thing, fits great, low price, we happy:-).
Also notice the amber lights above the sink...that's Chris' handy work as well!
Also, the island was 3 bucks...Dad finds good deals too apparently!

This is the best though! Here is a picture of a rug I found on the side of the road.

It smelled like cat pee and was wet. I spent 7 dollars on cat pee remover and now have a several hundred dollar persian style rug! I rather work for the things in my house than just buy them. If I can find a piece of junk and fix it up and make it cool I am much happier. I love having a cheap outlet for my creativity. I want to start a business doing it sometime, although I'll want to keep everything I find...haha.
(Bad light)
This is our sweet little house, before long it'll be pale yellow with white trim...I can't wait! And to think the insurance company is paying for it:-)...that's a deal.

I hope you enjoy the pictures of all our hard work...they aren't the best pictures, because I took them, but I think you'll get the idea. After all that work, I think I'll do this and work on my double chin:-)...
Except it'll be on a lawn chair back here...

Beginnings

2008-06-03T18:38:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to do this for a while, and with deadlines looming, I figured now would be the perfect time. Chris has been working on another site for us, ever since before the wedding. However, I am antsy and want something up now to keep the rest of the world up to date as we are so far removed from the rest of society(aka Harrisonburg).

The wedding was great, just what we hoped for. Better than I had planned for. It was more than I expected. The honeymoon...amazing. One word actually does sum it up. It really was great to spend the time with him and see some places we had never been before, and get breakfast served to us in bed every morning, I needed that!

Then life back in Staunton, in our sweet little home with a white picket fence. It was rough, I won't lie. My job was painful to say the least and I was exhausted from having to plan a wedding on a tight budget, work a job over night and one all day, one that was excrutiatingly painful. I don't know how to spell excrutiatingly apparently.

So I quit! Yikes...and Chris' mom hasn't been well, and there is lots of work on the house, and then one of Chris' friends died. Its been stressful. But you know what? We are happy. We know that life will always be difficult and sometimes, yes, sometimes its wonderfully easy. God has been good to us and never ceases to provide or love us.

Also what we learned about marriage is that it takes the both of us to raise our sweet little Chiclet!