So last week Jeff and I spent the week at Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. It was close to one of the most stressful weeks of my life. Jeff had a full schedule of tests and exams from CT scans to a biopsy of his liver. He went with the idea that he was going to give a piece of life to our dear friends. Half way through the week the reality of the journey we were on hit us both pretty hard. We now saw it as a choice we were going to have to make when as before we just thought we were going to do this thing. Well now that I know my husband very very well inside and out, I love him just as much or more. He has a huge heart for people and is truly a sacrificial giver.

So I began to talk to God. We need this decision to be clear. I wanted some kind of sign or a clear answer to a door open or a door closed. Well God moves fast. Wednesday Morning Dr. Potaruchia called Jeff. He told him that He had too much "fat" in his liver to be a safe donor. When you have fat in your liver it has a hard time regenerating. We wanted to know that if Jeff worked on his cholesterol if he could be a viable donor in a year or so if our friend was still in need. She said no, the percentage was too high that some people who have a little more fat need a liver themselves. This was quite the journey but Jeff now has become serious about his health at last! Oh yeah, and, God slammed that door.

And now some pictures of my kids because I can't go to sleep . . . enjoy!

My Family.

My Kids.

This one's just so funny.

My "Cheeser" and his birthday cheesecake.

Go Lakeshore!

My Girly Dancing beauty.

My future rock-star/comedian.

Do you remember when you were a kid and you got a new toy? Maybe you had saved up your allowance for months, maybe it was christmas or your birthday, no matter what it was exciting! Well tonight Jeff and I got a new toy. I love to figure out new technology or at least new to me. When I get my new cell phone every two years (or sometimes sooner) I spend days just holding it and reading the manual until I know just how everything on that sucker works. When I don't understand something I'm one of the people who call the help line and find out, even if I have to speak with 3 different people who are "americans" with very strong indian accents.

Well Jeff and I are now proud owners of a Garmin nuvi 1300. We did quite a bit of research to pick the right GPS. There are tons of different brands and each of those have many models with lots of different "bell and whistles". The price differences are CRAZY. You can get one for $79.99 or pay $600.00 for a gps for your car. We just wanted the basics plus we found out from some friends that "free map updates" were cool because you pay 30$ when you want to update your maps otherwise. I set our "home" and played around with the settings. I found a really funny yetty voice which cracks me up when ever it "speaks" but you can't understand it, but it was good for a laugh.

After playing with it for a short while (it was pretty easy to set up) I put in some of Jeff and

my trip locations for next week. We will be traveling to Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN. Jeff is

going to get all of the testing that he needs to become our friends liver donor. Putting in those

locations to the gps was just one more step towards the reality of this. And my joy and

distraction of my new toy has now faded and now I am frazzled and tired feeling. Childhood

toys were so much less stressful.

So how do you update a blog that hasn't been used in two and a half years? Well first you have to figure out how to get on it to edit. Wait no first you have to remember what it was called. So I did a google search to find my blog, stop laughing! Once I found it I had to log on and because I must have made my password and whatnot very random it was very difficult. Once I remembered my user name I had my password changed and sent to my email which was put in the junk folder because . . . I don't know why! But anyhow here I am again I figured it out. Believe it or not I am rather technology savvy again stop laughing.

Wow March 2008, So much has happened since then first of all we have 4 kids now. Natalie was born August 27 2008. Since there are too many things to write about from the past 2 years I will make a list so here goes:

1. Hali is in 3rd grade, loves art and soccer, hates cheerleading even though she was SO darn cute, and just got glasses last week.

2. Ethan is in 1st grade, loves soccer, baseball, nintendo, computer games & playing with his friends. He is very good in school and copes pretty well for having 3 sisters.

3. Sophia is in preschool, she loves ballet and babies. She is a girly girl who all she wanted for her birthday was "earrings" and babies.

4. Natalie is 2 she repeats everything you say in her own language. She is funny and love being the center of attention, dancing and singing or playing music on her dora guitar or her princess piano.

5. Jeff and I have now made it beyond the years together. It might sound sappy but I think it has been our best year yet.

6. I am turning 30 in a month.

7. My sister had a baby 4 days before Natalie. Her name is Lydia and she is adorable.

8. For a brief time at the end of 2008 and early 2009 I made and sold these cakes made out of diapers with a friend.

9. Dan Sommer because the youth paster that year too and started to make changes in the ministry that would dynamically change us over the next year. He taught a series called the truth and sex. This lead a teen who's family was prominent in the church and in youth ministry to come forward with her sexual abuse to me in a letter. I turned this "man" and family into dhs in march of 2009.

10. Because of the bravery and honesty of the two oldest girls of this family the predator should spend the next 70ish years of his life in prison. The mother also spent time in jail but has now decided that she made the whole thing up and is trying to "appeal" losing her parental rights to her three daughters.

11. I spent a lot of time in court that spring and summer. (2009)

12. Hali went to Disney World with her Grandma and the Penns. (June 2009)

13. We got "kicked" out of Roosevelt Elementary and sent back to our "home school" which is Hollywood. Hali was upset at first and so was I but I LOVE Hollywood now and couldn't imagine us anywhere else.

14. We got a cat "Bella".

15. We went to Silver Lake for a couple weeks as our summer camping trip.

16. We remodeled the bathroom

17. Hali got her own room.

18. I went to the International Quilt Expo in Chicago 2 years in a row.

19. I finished 4 quilts.

20. I canned 40 quarts of peaches in 2009 and 80 quarts plus some pints in 2010.

21. Hali and Ethan both had art in the Box factory district Art show.

22. I went to Superchick and Barlow Girl it some of my favorite students.

23. I got seniors as my iron group on sunday nights.

24. I went on an awesome youth retreat to Spring Hill camp in January 2010. Man was that COLD!

25. Natalie and Sophia got their first haircuts in March.

26. What am I leaving out OH! Jeff and I went to the Bahamas for ten days in February. We stayed on our neighbors boat, snorkeled, shopped, ate yummy fresh lobster, relaxed and recharged our marriage.

27. Hali went to summer camp for the first time Camp Geneva in Holland.

28. We spent a week and a half at Yogi Bear in northern Indiana, for family summer vacation. Sophia, Ethan and Hali all went down water slides for the first times.

29. Liz (my sister) Had her second baby, a boy, Nathan in May. He was born with giant congenital nevi. Which means really big moles. He is heathy and adorable but has this condition which may require surgeries later on in the next couple years.

30. Our friends the Husmanns came back from Mayo and let us and some others know that Galen was going to pursue a "living donor" for his liver disease. Jeff turned to me and whispered, that doesn't sound like that big of a deal, "I could do that"

And so thats where I am going to leave you tonight. If I write anymore what then will encourage me to come back later hopefully in the near future to fill you all in?

Does anyone else out there watch TLC's "What not to wear?" I have been watching that show for quite a few years. Back in the day (like 4 years ago) I really did care about the way that I looked when I left the house. Well sadly, the people they have on that show are starting to look pretty familiar. Uh, kinda like me. They had a chick on there last week that was wearing her PJ pants when she took the kids to school, and maybe here and there for some quick morning shopping. There she was in all her glory running around town in her fancy pj pants a tee shirt and tennis shoes, with funky socks to add to all the beauty. Wow, I think I wore the same outfit last week a couple times. . . Well there is hope for me a guess, just like her I just need to go on that show and let "Stacy and Clinton" pick on me for a while so I can have my $5000.00 and a free trip to NYC. Shoot, I will even let them cut my hair and do my makeup! Of course I gotta wait until after this last baby so I will at least be wearing normal sizes again.

Ok, so I really am not a 2 posts per day kinda girl. I have a hard enough time with one. But today, just now actually I got a phone call from my cell phone. I was perplexed. "Umm, hi. I have your cell phone. I found it outside of Joann's a couple minuets ago." I didn't even know I had lost it. After the initial shock, I stumbled over the words, "So if you are calling me on it I am guessing that your gonna give it back?" "Uh, of course, I will be at the taco bell eating lunch for the next 30 minuets or so. . ." "Oh well I will come and get it there if you leave it with the manager, later cause I just laid my kids down for there naps." "Well where are you at cause maybe I could drop it by there on my way home." "Man I am way over here in Stevensville, pretty far from there I wouldn't ask you to do that." "Hey, its no problem, really. . ."
So I gave this chick my address, and directions to my house. And 10 minuets ago she knocks on my door. She was like, "I didn't want to ring the bell and wake the kids. . " All I could say was, "You are Awesome! God Bless you REALLY!"
She left, I don't know her name, where she lives, and probably will never see her again. It all reminds me of one of those EBay or car insurance commercials, were people just do nice and good things. . . just because. I am in awe. I didn't even know it was missing. Wow.

I have to set this up a bit or you may all think Jeff is NUTS! . . .
One of friends who is also a pastor at our church is in the midst of planting a church in Atlanta G.A. He did a sermon of updates and stuff to pray for a couple weeks ago. It was also about recognizing Gods "call". And LISTENING. . . I know He he was also plugging for some families from the church who felt led to move with them to help start this new church, this is all very cool, although it sucks that yet another good friend of mine will be leaving Michigan. Well this is a conversation that followed this sermon the next week.

Jeff: "Heidi, I have really been thinking hard about Robs message on Sunday."

Me: "Ummm, Honey, There are no Nuclear Power plants in the greater Atlanta area, I doubt we would be any help if we couldn't even afford to buy food. . ."

Jeff: "Oh, No, that isn't what I meant, or was thinking about anyway. . ."

Me: "Uhh, Ok what then?"

Jeff: "Well you know how I have been planing on going under the knife after this Baby is born. Well He (Rob) was talking about how God sometimes calls you to do things that are the opposite of what you are planing on doing or WANT to do.. . . Maybe God doesn't want me to get that snip snip because He wants us to have more kids. . ."

Me: "Did God also tell you that you would be the one of us getting pregnant again? Because if not, I think you are just gonna have to go against God this time babe."

Have you ever bought something from someone, but you are not sure who, and unfortunately you have never gotten what you bought? This has happened to me a few times. It happened to me once on e-bay. This was a really big bummer because I really wanted my 24 pack of canning jars and lids for $5.99. It was a really good deal I won, I paid that day (like I always do) and I never got my jars! . . . or any word from the person that I bought them from. Later I got a refund from paypal and then a note from EBay that said that the person I bought these from was no longer a "registered user". The big suckiest time was when I bought a comforter and sheet set for Ethan from Totalybedding.com . Who by the way has an "F" on Better business bureau. I wish I would have checked that before I bought. Well I paid them $126.00 and NEVER got my bedding. After calling them so many times they started pretending that they didn't speak English! Can you believe that!? Well any way I am over that one too, I guess. But here is the recent sticker: I bought about 8 boxes of Girl Scout cookies from someone. I don't remember who, where, or when. Oh, I know I should have been more "responsible" and written this transaction down, but I didn't. Now lately I have really wanted those cookies. I know that I didn't pay for them yet so really what I am thinking is that that darn girl scout sold My cookies to someone else. I just wish I would have had the chance to pay and get my cookies. Oh well, I guess I will have to just go and eat some Oreos but man, I could really go for a "thin Mint" right now. . . .

I thought I would write a little about how cool ultra sounds are. If you have ever been pregnant or had a wife that was how many of you have had the 3 arms and no legs dream, or the normal body but legs like a squid dream? Maybe I am just a paranoid thinker or maybe just have a bit to vivid of an imagination, but really these are two dreams that I have had. Maybe yours have not been as crazy, but I am SURE that you have had a crazy baby dream. I can still not believe that my mother had three kids and didn't get to see any of them until they came out. That was only twenty some years ago. Man when I got my first ultra sound with Hali I was so in shock and aw of that little tiny being swimming around in me, it just didn't seem real. Man, since I had Hali they have really improved the technology. My office has one of those 4D machines. I'm not really sure what that means, but it is really cool. It is kinda like looking at clay image of your kid, in your womb! Granted it's still a little blurry, and I am sure it makes WAY more since to the Doctor then to me or Jeff, but WOW. I guess as of now I am about 15 weeks or so. I had and Ultrasound at my first appointment (they do that now) at 12 weeks. What a relief, sure they don't do all the checks that come at the 22 week one, but just seeing that my baby has LEGS and no Tentacles puts my mind at ease. I took 2 pictures of the little pictures to put on the computer, THANK GOD! Because Jeff took those pictures around showing everyone and then washed them in his jean pocket. Oh well at least I have these two. Enjoy!

OK so this is really sad. Many people have these blogs and do them faithfully. HA! They are better then me a guess. What can I say there are very few things that I do "faithfully" anyway. I normally; shower, eat, dress my kids, watch Sponge Bob with Ethan, change at least one poop diaper, get dressed in real cloths myself, check my e-mail, look at facebook, take a nap (only now that I am pregnant) , remember to pick up Hali from school, say at least one meaningful prayer for someone I know, watch Survivor, Lost, House and Bones, go to sleep before 11:00pm, take my meds, tell my husband I Love Him, kiss all my kids, and well that is just about all I can think of right now. I'm sure there are more But hey Bloggen AIN'T one of them. Oh well. Stuff has been going on. I have a list of "things to blog about" so maybe I will try to enter them over the course of the next couple weeks. Mom I know you will really appreciate this. So here's to all you Blogers out there who are like me and only post consistently in . . .spurts. . . SALUTE!

My Cute little sweet Sophia you are in all ways very cute but also so complicated. I really have never had a hard time getting my kids to eat, especially when they were this young. Sophia is my eating challenge. Here are some examples of her weird eating habits.

• She will not eat cut green beans (canned) but she will eat Long whole green beans (canned) she also prefers them cold and will balk at them until they become cold on her plate.
• She LOVES cheese shredded, not finely shredded, not cubed need I explain more.
• She will not eat a PBJ sandwich unless the bread is toasted.
• She will not eat grilled cheese sandwich unless it is cut in long thin strips like french fries and it is cold from sitting there.
• She prefers Mott's apple sauce to all other brands.... wow it stinks when Mott's isn't on sale.

These are just a few of her funny eating habits she has all the normal ones too, like:

• Loving and laughing so hard when she drops her food to feed Toby. . .
• Throwing her cup when she is finished. . .
• Throwing her plate when she is finished . . .
• Grabbing and having to hold on to the spoon with now every bite. . .
• Loving "Meat sticks" (those NASTY smelling little smoochy hot dog things from Gerber's)
• Loving to smash meat sticks in her hair. . .

Oh the joy of feeding a one year old!

So I was cooking eggs and like I always do I cracked them open into the pan. . . then this happend .. . . .



TWINS? . . .. ..EWWWWwwww... Next time I will crack them into a bowl first.

"Why My Husband is the Bomb"

I have always heard that God uses perplexing situations to teach us silly humans lessons, humble us, grow us to be better people, and all that jazz. I guess I have been waiting for God to do this for me. A lot of things that have happened in my life I look us to Him and shout: "WHY!" Well, I am very humble to say that today God used this silly ridiculous court thing in a completely REMARKABLE way.

The whole time I was waiting for our case to he heard ( two hours give or take) I was thinking this is just SO DUMB! I have forgiven these people, the money has already been gracious given to Jeff and me, these people have NO leg to stand on WHY ARE WE HERE GOD!! Well silly little Me would have NEVER expected what would happen during this Judge Judy like fiasco. Let me just tell you a quick story. . .

We are sitting, waiting our turn, in the back of the court room, this part was very tedious because we got to listen to all these other cases that were just SO silly, it was really hard not to laugh many times. AND we were the last case. He calls us up there says a few things then has us "Swear" on nothing to tell the truth etc. (That's right; no more God in that court room for sure now. . .right?. . .) We all sit down Jeff and I had discussed that He would do the talking primarily. This was hard for me I am such a control freak but I just rolled with it. So Jeff starts talking to this Judge, My control freakisum blurts out something. I can't even remember what. The Judge said something like, " Sir do you have a problem with your wife?" uhhh.. Then he turns to me, " Mam, if I hear you out of turn once more you will be sent out and I will not hear from you period. Is that CLEAR!" WOW thank you for that one God. It takes someone that powerful I guess here on earth to bring the SMACK DOWN to Control Freak #1 Heidi. But he (the Judge) and God (the BIG Judge) DEFINITELY shook me and got my attention. But wait that isn't even the cool thing I learned. So, meanwhile, Jeff is talking, so smooth, so articulate, diplomatic, unemotional, PERFECT. It was like "who is this guy, and why am I SO lucky to have him on MY TEAM?" That's right, I really don't remember what Jeff said, or even what the other people said, in all its silliness. God just let me zoom in on my husband and show me who he is. I guess I was really not fully aware, up until today, what a catch I got when Jeff and I married. WOW. Leave it to God only to make this silliness reveal to me how much of a gift I have in the man I married. Oh yeah, and how much I need to respect him way more then I sadly have done up to this point. I can say that I am defiantly changed by this in way huger ways then I ever would have imagined. I am forever and permanently changed. Who knew, God could use this like this. Wow, I am now officially in Aw of My Husband and God.

Ode to small claims court. What can I say I thought this was just going to go away by itself. I really never imagined to actually going in front of a judge for something so silly. For those of you who do not know what the whole situation is I am sorry but it is really not that important for me to hash it up and ramble on about it. We will just say that there are people on the earth that are very stubborn who even when they are not even a tiny bit right they are "STILL RIGHT". (By people I do not mean Jeff or Me at least not in this particular situation.) Anyhow we have done everything in our power and our Realtor has done everything in her to honer God's word and keep this thing out of court, but it is just not worked and Tomorrow is the big day. Well let me get to the point of this here Blog.
Tonight the kids got their sermon on Forgiveness. It was the whole "let you who hasn't sinned throw the first stone. . ." deal, no one threw a stone. I definitely can not throw a stone (so to speak) at this couple who has put us through all this unnecessary stress. I would love to . . . Literally. . . but THAT is exactly why I will not. I observe my own life, I think of all the stupid "little" sins I do ALL day long, constantly falling and having only the hand of God to help me back up to my feet. So for my own sake, because God has told us to love and to forgive like he has, for us I have chosen to forgive this couple. I just wanted it to be on record I guess. So I can now have some accountability to follow through with my forgiveness by choosing not to ever hold it against these people. I must say I do hope our judge tomorrow is as cool as Judge Judy, just a fun thought.

I just thought that this was so cute I had to share it. I came across it when I was putting all my pictures and video on my new computer. Hali was about two and a half. . . enjoy!

I had been thinking today about what to post. My life has been so crazy lately. I could go on and on about all the recent crazy stuff. Like our 2 trips to the E.R. in 3 days, or our crazy half finished house. I guess I was in a very thankful mood today so I have decide to make this blog in terms of things I am thankful to God for instead of crazy crap in my life.
Sophia... Sophia... Sophia... you little naughty girl. I would have never thought it would have been so easy for you to unscrew a CHILDPROOF pill container and quickly gag down a couple of mommy's pills. All while I was standing only a couple of feet away. "Dear God thank you so much for placing your hand on Sophia and keeping her little body safe during 8 oz of liquid charcoal session and a 15 hour watching period at the hospital."
Wow, I love our house. "Thank you God for our beautiful house that you are giving me the energy every day to turn into a home. Thank you also for having this coming Monday, in court in your hands. Thank you for the BEAUTIFUL fall weather. Thank your for providing us with the resources for this AWESOME new computer that I'm typing on. Thank you for Ethan, Hali, Sophia, Jeff and even Toby. Oh yeah Thank you for only letting me sprain my leg and foot when I feel. Thank you for giving me the right words to say for my sister in law. Thanks for being GOD! Amen."

October has been a hard month for me for the last 2 years. Many of you know that Hali's dad died 2 years ago on October 30th. Well today I got some terrible news from Findlay. My 11 year old nephew father died this past weekend. The circumstances are so similar to Hali's father. . . I need to call my sister-in-law. . . but I haven't a clue what to say. I could tell her it is gonna be all right, but that wouldn't be true. I could tell her it wasn't her fault, but she will have a hard time believing that right now. I could tell her Brandon (my nephew) will be just fine, but he really will not. I am so deeply saddened by this but I can not cry, because I feel like I have no tears left. Basically I am reliving my tragedy through this awful event and I just don't think I will be much help to Her. I guess when I call her I will say. . . I will pray for you guys. . . for nothing I do or say is going to reduce the pain they are feeling only God can do that. . .If you pray. . . Please pray for the family, and my nephew and sister-in-law especially.

"My baby sloth."

Before and After. . . I am so excited to have a new niece. She is so chubby and cute and sweet. I got to see her when she was only about 12 hours old. WOW it makes me want another baby, I only wish I could skip the whole pregnancy and labor parts. Well let me say Amanda you did a GREAT job with this little Laina Chicky. She was definitely well fed and loved and I am sure you guys are gonna make great parents. Congratulations to Amanda and Kyle on my new sweet little niece Laina Vea!

Swimming in Lake Michigan in October who would have thought it was possible. Not me that is for sure. I thought it would be fun to live down by the lake so that is where we rented between houses. It was a fully furnished summer rental that was "off season" so we got a pretty awesome deal. It ended up being much less then a hotel. Plus we got the benefit of really good beach weather almost the whole time we were there. I actually got more of a tan in that last six weeks then the whole summer. We walked down to silver beach park about every day to play in the morning. We also loved going to the Saint Joe library that was right up the street, and the little toy store down town. It was a little cramped and the beds were really uncomfortable, but it was really kinda like a little vacation. I have now however decided that real "on the beach" living is not from me because it is just too dirty. I think that I swept up sand about 3 times a day and it still was in our beds and the carpet no matter what. What it really all boiled down to was it just wasn't home. The kids knew that. Ethan had a lot of behavioral issues because of it and it was always really awkward and not very tranquil at bedtimes. About 3 weeks in Ethan said to me in tears one night "Mommy I don't love Mr. Owls rental house anymore! I just want our old house." (Mr. Al was our landlord) So any how it feels so good to be finally home, but at least we got to swim in warm Lake Michigan in October, something that will most likely never happen again.