Baby, Boots, and Boo Boo

my favorite outfit on boo boo

2010-03-03T14:41:00.000-08:00

back to work i go

2010-03-03T14:38:00.000-08:00

Ok well the dr. found nothing in the MRI that I had, and nothing in the hydascan and nothing in the sonogram and they have decided to stop trying to help me w this pain! so I am going back to work on Monday. I am excited and nervous. I do miss work somewhat but i know FOR SURE i will miss boo boo even more!!! We will just have to wait and see how it goes w me going to work and if i can the back pain.

my medical update

2010-02-26T19:24:00.000-08:00

Ok so I have had this back pain for 10 weeks now and have gone thru 3 different doctors to try and get it fixed. The back dr just took x rays and nothing was wrong and so then the family dr did 2 different gall bladder tests thinking that was what it was and just found out that it is not. So I went to the dr today to see what I need to do and she thinks that the epidural did some damage and so I have an MRI on monday to check the injection site and the tendions and ligaments that might be destroyed and then she can give me medication to take care of the ligaments and the pain. So hopefully I am close to a solution. I am so frustrated and tired of the pain. I havent gone back to work yet and so as soon as they fix me I will go because as long as I am in bed or can lay out somewhere I am ok but as soon as I go somewhere for the day I have major pain that feels like I am going to pass out. Here are pics of Anissa waiting on me at the dr office. All the nurses are in love w her. I was in my room and they took her out w them and were passing her around to all the nurses and receptionists and they were saying they were going to steal her and that she could pass as all of their babies bc their husbands were darker. It was hilarious bc I could hear them calling amber alert! ok well i was lil worried but i was right there so i could steal her back. :)

trip to the mall and first visit to the pet store

2010-02-26T19:15:00.001-08:00

Anissa and I and Anieta, her soon to be babysitter when I go back to work took a trip to the mall to check out the puppies at the pet store and to get outta the house. Anissa loved looking at the rats, birds, mice and especially the puppies. The puppies loved her and were licking her thru the glass. :) Yay I have a mini animal lover just like me! :)

first babysitting adventure- valentines day

2010-02-26T19:09:00.000-08:00

On Valentines Day, our friends Larry and Carrie agreed to take Anissa for the day so Mandrae and I could get some alone time. It was awesome but scary bc I have never left Anissa w anyone except maybe my mom and dad. They took bets that we would only be gone for one hour bc they didnt think we could go a whole day without her. O boy were they wrong :)
So that day we were gone until midnight. They took her right after church and all the way til midnight. We went to eat, a movie and then out to eat again w Mandraes cousin and his wife and then bowling w them.
When we picked her up she was asleep and did great w them. No problems at all. It was a great day!!!

my new favorite pics

2010-02-26T19:03:00.000-08:00

I love these pics, they are my faves right now. Although I have taken over 500 pics of baby girl since she was born, they are all on facebook and so I have a tad bit too many to choose from :)

anissas first maverick game

2010-02-26T18:59:00.000-08:00

we went to anissa first bball game last week and it was crazy!! the mavs were playing the heat and crazy enough it was kids night and so kids did time out shows and they had a baby race! so cute. anyway it was so so loud and anissa didnt sleep thru the game like parker did last year :(
she was so alert and hated when everyone cheered, she would toss her head back and forth til it stopped. it was sad, she is super sensative to noise! i can just say the word boo and she jumps and closes her eyes :) she is so silly.
anyway the mavs won and she watched the whole game and couldnt believe all the lights and people, she loved it and hated it at the same time.

anissas 2 month appt

2010-02-26T18:49:00.000-08:00

So anissa had her 2 month check up and she was so so good. She had to get 6 shots and took it like a pro but my heart broke the whole time!! She now weighs 12.5 lbs and is 24 1/2 inches long! Her height is off the charts and so she is taller than the average baby! and her weight is in the 80 percentile. the only thing that the dr was concerned about was her feet. The dr said that her are bent inward because when she was in my stomach she was so smashed and so tight that her feet started to turn inward. CRAZY huh? so after she eats each day she has to have physical therapy w me to start to stretch them straight. that is what the dr told us to do. looks like it is working. Anissa is doing great and is kinda sleeping better but I wish I could say that she sleeps all the way thru the nite. I have it down to only waking up one time a nite to eat, so that is good.

check it out

2010-02-10T17:29:00.001-08:00

http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?u=409955&b=127790&m=17840&afftrack=&urllink=babyandboots%2Eblogspot%2Ecom%2F

Unique Skins for cell, laptop, ect.

2010-02-10T17:12:00.000-08:00

This website is awesome for you or as a gift. You can put skins on ur cell phone, laptop, ds, ect. You can put your own pics on ur device or choose from one of theirs. It is really cool and u can change how it looks often and it is really cheap. A great price. I am a huge fan. Just click on the banner and get started. :)

boo boo update

2010-02-09T14:43:00.000-08:00

ok so i tried and tried to upload videos on here and even on you tube but i finally got the videos on facebook. so go to my facebook to see updated videos and pics of lil boo boo. it is the easiest way to upload videos and pics.

lil boo boo has been really happy lately. She is like a different baby. She just woke up one day and decided i am going to be happy. :) She is crazy. Mornings though she struggles and cries and cries and has no idea why. I realized that now she throws temper tantrums when she is sleepy and wants to go to bed. She fights her sleep. o well at least she can be awake for a long time and not cry, which is a change.
she is happiest when she gets to walk around with us and see things. she is so so nosy. :)

ok funny story:
so we would bathe her and bathe her and she still stunk and i couldnt figure it out. Then I realized she had milk stuck in her neck rolls and it was stinky. So I cleaned all of it out and she was much better. Well the other day I cleaned her off and she still stunk and I couldnt figure it out. I then found the problem. She had milk stuck in her double chin roll. :) haha it was hilarious!
shes so silly.

all of nissa's new pics

2010-02-05T17:01:00.000-08:00

go to this site and u can see all of her new pics

http://photo2.walgreens.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=6063859006/a=3115271006_3115271006/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walgreens/

hmmm........

2010-01-25T14:12:00.000-08:00

im going to make a head brace for babies that holds a soothie in their mouth!!!! im so tired of her knocking it out and screaming. :)

Sunday fun

2010-01-24T13:49:00.000-08:00

Ok today church was awesome!! The pastor preached about generosity. He said that if we dont give to God when we are broke then how can God expect us to give when we are rich? Therefore we will not see a blessing because we dont even give to God when we are poor. He also said that per Luke 6:27-37 we are to love our enemies and give to those that we know will not give back. If we love those who love us or give to those who we know will repay us then we are doing the same thing sinners do and so we are called to be different and generous and love our enemies and give to those who will not repay the favor. There was alot more but unfortunately I didnt take notes this time but it was awesome and an eye opener for us!
Anyway grandma I wanted you to know that your legacy lives on at my church :)
Every lady tells me when I walk in the door, "where is your coat? Where are your shoes?"
So dont worry there are people here taking care of me the same way you do :)
LOVE U LOTS!!!

well here are pics of anissa in her sunday outfit today :)

Take this quiz. I am the wolf. What are u??

2010-01-23T18:20:00.000-08:00

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Final Dr. Visit

2010-01-20T15:51:00.000-08:00

Today was my last visit w my OBGYN to make sure everything is okay. I have been having SEVERE back pains and so she told me i cant go back to work until it is found out what is wrong w me. So she referred me to a back specialist and I go on Tuesday and hopefully he can find out what is wrong w my back but I am in ALOT of pain.
The good news is though that I get some more time with my lil one.
I just hope we are not put in too much of a financial bind bc of it.
Here are the CUTE pics of boo boo today :)
SOO SOO cute
I cant stop staring at her.
she gets prettier and prettier everyday.

New Pics of the cutest baby ever!!!

2010-01-19T15:27:00.000-08:00

Today in her new bouncer that I got for $1 at the flee market. Dont worry I washed it thoroughly. She loves it. :)

This is her poo face. :)

Trust me she definately pooed! ALOT!

In bed, all wrapped up.

In her church clothes on Sunday.

This is in church on Sunday. She goes to sleep to the singing and then sleeps the whole service. SO GOOD!

babysitter

2010-01-19T14:21:00.000-08:00

Ok so we finally found a babysitter for Nissy when I go back to work on Monday and yesterday was my first day with her training her w boo boo. Her name is Aneita and I went to high school with her husband Colin and they have a 2 year old son named Jordan. She was originally going to come over here to our house and watch nissa and jordan and so that is what we did yesterday but her son is really hyper and so last nite Mandrae and I talked and we decided it would be easiest if she watched Nissa at her apartment. So we have someone to watch her and she is really good w Nissa and her apartment is already child safe and has all of jordans stuff there since he needs more things than lil boo boo does.
Anyway lil jordan is so so cute and yesterday he was looking for me and he said, "Where is missa??" (he thinks that is my name) and then his mom asked him what the babies name is and he said, "baby missa."
SO CUTE!

Jordan, Aneita and Colin

Jordan

Anissa Pictures!!!

2010-01-17T11:19:00.000-08:00

Okay so I know I havent been on here much at all but I just got internet and I am going to share all my pics of baby girl Anissa. She is the best and cutest baby ever!

My Birth Story- December 12, 2009 4:00 am

2010-01-14T16:40:00.000-08:00

My Birth Story:
I was supposed to be induced on December 16th and so the weekend of December 12th
Mandrae and I had plans to go to a movie and dinner and hang out as a couple for the last
time. So on December 11th we had fun together and Mandrae was being his normal self and
cracking some jokes and had me on the floor crying laughing. Anyway I went to bed that
night and woke up at 4 am to use the bathroom. I got back in bed and felt really wet so I
checked myself and determined it was nothing and went back to sleep. Then all of sudden I
felt like I was swimming in bed! So I stood up and had water flowing down my legs and all
over the floor. So I ran in the living room where Mandrae had fallen asleep watching sports
and told him in a scared and shaking voice, “My water broke!!!” I ran to the bathroom
thinking the water would stop coming and it did nothing of the sort! My water leaked for
like 3 hours, or should I say poured. Anyway I got my bag and got dressed and told Mandrae
to pack his clothes and then we were on our way. By the time I got there my clothes were
soaking wet. We checked in at the ER and then I was in the bed waiting on the lil one to
come. At that point I hadn’t felt any pain so far and thought man this is easy. For the
next 7 hours I didn’t really feel too much, nothing like I expected. Then at the 7th hour
my body went into shock. The nurses had been asking me the whole time if I wanted an
epidural and pretty much wanting me to have it. I really wanted a natural child birth
though so I kept my cool and kept denying it. The pain got worse but I never made a sound.
I took it like a champ. J Then when my body went into shock I said I wanted an epidural and
before I got one I needed to use the bathroom. After Mandrae helped me to the restroom w
the IV cords and monitor cords all over the place, I REALLY had to use the bathroom. I sat
down and stuff was coming out everywhere. I started to get really bad diarrhea and couldn’t
get off the toilet. The nurse started banging on the door saying, “Get out the epidural is
here and we have to do it now, come on we are waiting on you.” So I sucked it all in so it
wouldn’t come out and braved my way out to the bed to get my epidural. The man that gave me
the epidural had just finished running outside in the freezing cold and so his hands were
like ice and by this point I was having intense pressure and contractions every 15 minutes.
So while he was sticking the needle in my back I had like 10 contractions. This was the
worst pain I had ever experienced and I kept leaning forward from the pain and the dr. was
telling me to lean back towards him or he could mess up but w the contractions it was almost
impossible. He was also cracking jokes that this was his first epidural and let me tell u
that at this time I did not find that funny! So Mandrae was holding my hand and I had a
puddle of tears in front of me and u could tell Mandrae would have done anything to trade me
places. He was so so great for the whole delivery. Anyway they had checked me about 20 min
before the epidural and I was 7 cm. After the epidural the nurse checked me and I was a
full 10 cm. So that means that when my body went into shock I was ready to push! So I
didn’t need the epidural and could have the baby by now. But since I had an epidural then
the contractions slowed down a ton and they needed me to wait an hour to start pushing to
let the epidural take place. By now I felt a lot of pressure which the epidural doesn’t
take away and this was the only pain I was feeling before and so really the epidural did me
no good at all. So after an hour they had me start pushing and so I started to push and my
contractions were every 5 min and so every 5 min I had to push for one minute. I always
thought pushing would be the easy part but no. Since I was numb I couldn’t tell if I was
really doing anything or if my pushing was doing any good. Pushing was HARD! At one point
the nurse left and I felt a contraction coming on and so Mandrae stood at the bottom of the
bed and coached me through the push. He was so great. So after 2 hours of pushing and
getting really no where except that Mandrae could see the top of her head but she kept
coming close and then going back in so they gave me pletocin to get my contractions closer
together and so I was able to push every minute then and within 30 minutes she was out at
1:10 pm. In order to get her out the doctor had to cut me because she wouldn’t fit. So I
thought I was having a 9 or 10 lb baby and really chubby one at that and when I saw her my
heart just filled with so much happiness her lil body was so long and so tiny. She wasn’t
chubby at all and I was so excited. She was adorable. While they were weighing and
measuring her right by my head the dr. sewed me up. After I was stitched up they dropped
off baby to be breastfed and left her with me the rest of my stay in the hospital. I was
ready to go home by around 5 pm that day but they make u stay 24 hours in the hospital. So
every 3 hours I had to breast feed and change diapers and I hadn’t slept for like 2 days at
this point and had to take care of a brand new baby and I had no idea what to do. It did
come pretty natural though. She did a great job breastfeeding until I gave her a passie.
Once I did that she refused to breastfeed. She didn’t eat at all the second day. We left
the hospital around 4 pm the next day the 13th. When we got home she still wouldn’t
breastfeed and went like 40 hours without eating and I broke down! I started bawling because
she was acting like she was dying and couldn’t breathe and so I couldn’t stop crying and
wanted to take her to the hospital. Luckily my mom was here and told me she would be fine.
So I stayed up all night again trying to breastfeed and calling the breastfeeding hotline
with no answer. So finally the next morning we had to give her some formula. The next few
days I tried and tried and she finally breastfed with a shield. I still didn’t have a lot
of milk though. Once my mom left after a week I had NO appetite at all and didn’t eat for 4
days straight and so my milk started to get less and less. We then on vacation for
Christmas to Denison, TX/ Hutchinson, KS/ and Woodland Park, CO and I breastfed her 2 to 3
times a day. By the time I got home I was dried up and so we did formula only. I was really
sad but there was nothing I could do. Now I have only 2 weeks left til I go back to work
and we have no idea who we will get to watch her. We are at a loss right now and I am
horrified to leave her with anyone. She is so tiny still and it really scares me. She is
so gorgeous, adorable, cute and silly and she will hear it her whole life from us I am sure.
I still want another one soon and would be okay with getting pregnant in one month. It is
really hard though to stay up with her all night because she wont sleep at night, only
during the day. But I know it will all be worth it. WE LOVE HER TO DEATH!

Almost ready

2009-11-20T18:57:00.000-08:00

so yesterday I had my 37 week sonogram and the lady that did the sonogram was shocked when she was trying to find the baby. The baby was so low she couldnt even see her face! it was crazy and she told me that she thought that i was dialated and to get it checked bc the baby was in position! so after being weighed, 181 LBS!!! (ive gained 40 lbs so far! golly!), the dr. (who didnt believe that i was dialated) checked me and sd that I am 2 to 3 cm dialated and the baby could come any time now. and it could be 2 to 3 weeks til she comes too. She said that I measure on my stomach outwardly with a 35 week baby but on the sono the baby weighs 7 lbs right now and so I am measuring big that way. That means my baby will be double the size of Parker! so sad! Anyway the dr. said that if the baby gets bigger I might need to be induced because she is pretty big right now. Anyway I am just sitting here waiting on lil baby to come. Mandrae is super excited for her to come. It is so cute. We are all ready!

9 months- 37 weeks

2009-11-13T14:46:00.000-08:00

Ok here are pics of me at 9 months last nite. I feel like I gain 3 lbs a day! URGH! I am big, ready to pop and ready for this baby to come. Today is Mandrae's bday and we were hoping Anissa would be born today but doesnt seem like that will happen. He is getting off at 6 pm today and so we are going to Olive Garden for dinner and then to the movie 2012 at 10 pm. Fun Fun! He is turning 26 years old. Happy Birthday Mandrae.

2009-11-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

Nov. 8th, 2009
"Devastated but not destroyed"
2 Corinthians 4
Destiny Church

People in the world are snapping:
Examples:
- the shooting at the airforce base in Texas (shooter snapped)
- Rhianna and Chris Brown (chris brown snapped)
- the father that ran over his daughter because she was too westernized (father snapped)
- the pastor in Oklahoma that killed himself
- people are losing their jobs, houses and family members
- people are going through divorces and leaving each other

we might be devastated but we cannot be destroyed
We need to live with new covenant which is based on Christ and what He can do not what we can do.
On our worst day there is still good news- the Gospel.
The best is still yet to come.
We still have trials to go through though.

We need to remember that whatever we have or wherever we are going is because of the grace of God. Just because we have trials doesnt mean that we will not triumph.

1. We are afflicted in every way but not crushed.
Regardless of the affliction we experience, God still loves us and cares. Just because we are in a jam doesnt mean that we cant have joy.

Most people think that your marriage is bad if you have trials but the good and honorable thing about marriage is holding your commitment to each other in all the trials of life.
Having joy in trials isnt saying it will be a joyous time for you but that your attitude should be one of joy in the midst of trial.
Knowing God and having faith in the midst of trials should be enough to give us joy in our trials. God is in process of working something out for our good in the midst of the bad.

2. We can be perplexed but not despairing:
meaning that we can be confused- just because we cant figure out what or why God does what he does, doesnt mean we are losers or low in our faith.

3. We are persecuted but not forsaken:
Just bc we are going thru trials, doesnt mean that God doesnt love us.
Romans 8:30-35
Gods relationship with us is like super glue. To seperate the bond of super glue you have to acutally pull off the other side that it is glued to. When God makes a bond with us, it is stronger than any other bond. If God is stuck to us, who can come between us? No one can stop God's plan. Whatever comes our way we may be devastated but we are not ultimately destroyed.

4. We are struck down but not destoyed.
When your a believer in Jesus you cant be knocked down.
Just like the toy we all used to get for Christmas. The toy that cost like $7 that we played with the most despite the multitude of gifts that we got for Christmas. The lil punching bags that u blow up and they have sand in the bottom of them. When your kids go to sleep and u r turning off lights and walking around putting everything away, you see the punching man and u start to hit. No matter how many times u hit that lil blow up punching man you cant knock him down! That is the same way we are with Christ, we can get struck down but no one can knock us down.

BECAUSE OF CHRIST WE ARE DEVASTATED BUT NOT DESTROYED!
weve all felt devastated but God has not hung us our to dry.

?s:
How can we know our purpose in Christ?
The general purpose of all believers is:
1. Worship Him
2. Be apart of the body of Christ (church) and be involved in a ministry
3. Share your faith

The specific purpose for us all comes down to our personality, experiences, ect. We are to just live a holy life and God will bring us the opportunities that we need to fulfill our purpose in Him. We just need to be open and available and live a holy life.
It is okay to not know your specific purpose. It will be revealed to you in time.

Will you go to heaven if you kill yourself?
Yes! Alot of people believe that u cant go to heaven once u kill yourself bc you never had a chance to confess that sin and when Christ died on the cross he died for ALL of our sins. Past, present and future sins! He died before we were ever born and so he died for all of our sins, including the ones we have not committed yet. If we were to die in a car accident right now, there will be some sins that we were not able to confess to too and we will still go to heaven. Same with killing yourself. Christ already died for that sin.

Latest Dr. Update

2009-11-03T09:26:00.000-08:00

Ok so I went to the dr. again yesterday. Another disappointing appt. I waited in the waiting room for 2 hours, one lady even walked out and yelled at them and sd that she was going to find a new dr. office, and then when I got in the room I waited one hour for the dr. Then when she finally got in there she was hungry, in a hurry and cranky. I was trying to get all my concerns and questions answered but shew as totally distracted. I asked about my ears because they ache like they are infected every single night and give me migraines every nite and I am miserable. She checked my ears and couldnt see anything and sd that even if i did have an infection she wouldnt give me anything anyway because they dont recommend treating them with anything anyway. (?) Then I told her about my back pain and hip pain and she cut me off and sd yeah that is normal and the only cure is to deliver, ok well see u in 2 weeks and walked out! What in the world??
She did check the babies heartbeat and it is 148 and that was it. I gained 6 lbs!! in 2 weeks!! That is alot! Man maybe I need to slow down?
The nurse before the dr was really helpful though. I told her about my cramps at nite and how I cant even walk in the morning bc my cramps are so bad and she told me to eat bananas and that she got them all the time too when she was pregnant. So that was helpful at least.
Anyway I guess we will see when Anissa comes.
I am totally clueless as to if she is even close to coming now. Before I thought it would be anyday but who knows now.
The nurse told me I need to take it easy and keep my feet up but the dr. didnt really care what I do.
Anyway I get a sonogram on Nov. 19th at my next appt so Mandrae will go with me then. Except we were hoping she would come on the 13th but we will see. Maybe we still have a chance for the 21st?

Inspiration

2009-11-03T09:16:00.000-08:00

So I was sitting in church the other day and realized something. I am so excited to go to church and learn what the pastor has to say and preach on. I am so excited to learn more about God. I remember in high school I hated listening to the sermon and just wanted to go for praise and worship but now I cant wait to hear the sermon and learn how to live a better life married and at work and as a future parent. I am so encouraged that I have this excitement inside of me and it just makes me so happy. Just thought I would share that I have the joy of the Lord inside of me and excitement of becoming a stronger Christian. Praise God, He is good! I think that moving to Fort Worth has really helped me get excited to share the Word. I hated it at first but maybe that was God's way of getting me to become stronger in my faith. It is crazy how God puts you in areas that you are not happy with or comfortable and then He reveals why He does it. I guess we are where God wants us. :)

R U kidding me?

2009-11-03T09:12:00.001-08:00

Ok so yesterday I went to Target after my dr. appt. and I was getting outta my car and there was a family next to me that was loading their car. The wife turned her head and her empty cart started to roll down the hill and she looked at it and then turned her head and got in her car. The cart was rolling really fast and heading towards a van because she was on top of a hill. There was a Target worker there w a lot of carts and the cart rolled right by him and he didnt move. The cart was going towards a car and was going to hit it hard. I guess the worker wanted to see it hit the car- who knows. So I being pregnant took off! I ran as fast as I could and just barely saved the poor van. I turned around walked the cart to the worker and walked inside. No one seemed to care that the van was saved. Who knows what this world is coming to when 3 grown adults watch a preg woman chase down a cart when they were all closer in the first place! ?

Ole School Holiness

2009-11-02T18:09:00.001-08:00

Destiny Church
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Transcend
Ole School Holiness
1 Peter 1: 16-19
Social Media has a HUGE impact on the world today. (face book, blogs, myspace, twitter, utube, tv internet, ipods, dvrs, ect)We now have access to the Bible through the actual book, our phones, online but do we have it in our hearts?What is missing today? An emphasis on holiness.This is an aspect of faith that only works when we have the right mentality. We cant have a worldy mindset.When you travel on an airplane and want to use ur internet you have to pay to use the air card. The only thing is that you can only use the internet when you are at least 10,000 feet in the air or higher. You cannot use their internet when you are on the ground.Same with with faith and holiness, it only works when we have the correct Godly mindset. The solution to our issues or problems in life might be that we need to live holy.Our society has broken away from holiness and we need to get back to the ole school holiness that used to be so important. Whenever we choose the world’s way and not God, we are rejecting holiness. Our society needs better people- not better finances, jobs, technology, fundraisers, homes, ect- we need people with a desire to be holy. We need to have a zeal for God but in accordance to knowledge.
1 Timothy 4:3This passage talks about men out in the world professing truths that are not holy or true. These men are lovers of money, of self, unloving, unholy, haters, lovers of pleasure rather than God. 2 Timothy 3:4-7For example, I was watching the Tyra show the other day (just so I can see what Anissa will be growing up with and hearing in the world). Tyra tends to profess a lot of worldly views and truths that are completely wrong but this show really hit me hard. They were talking about living out your sexual fantasies and there was a Christian childrens writer (woman) on the show who wanted to be a porn star having sex with 2 men for one day while her boyfriend filmed her. Her boyfriend came on the show and she told him that she wanted to act out that fantasy and he didn’t want her to. Tyra and the audience booed him and told him that he is close minded and not a supportive boyfriend for not allowing it and Tyra convinced the woman to act out her fantasy anyway and turn it into a reality. I was appalled.
Because of our relationship with God we ought to live holy. We are called to live like Christ. The question becomes how will we live when we get to heaven? Not are we going to heaven because we already know that we are. We need to have the fear of God.We have minimalized God so much now a days that we have lost the fear of God. God will still judge us accordingly.
Single women need to remember to marry a man that loves God more than they love you. (quote from pastor, just had to throw that in)
Once we become believers, our previous generations no longer will hold us down. We are no longer held back by generational curses, our parents, grandparents, and relatives and their evil ways. We no longer have an excuse. Because of the blood of Jesus we have a new zip code in Christ and that is holiness. We are to choose not to continue in sin because we don’t want God to be mad at us. It is one thing to have your spouse mad at you but a whole other thing to have God mad at you.
What are the benefits of being holy?Everyone in Christ gets the basic benefits but how you live impacts your commission. Pastor, before he became a pastor was a suit salesman and they gave him a base salary plus a commission for every suit he sold. It is the same with our benefits in Christ. How we live impacts our commission in Christ. God promises a special commission with Him when we live holy.We are called to be gracious when it is in our power to be gracious. Just because man (even management at your job) tells you to do something doesn’t mean we are to do it- we are to follow God only, and if Gods way contradicts the human instructions then we regroup and follow Gods instructions. We are to obey God’s mission. Pastor went to see his grandmother in a nursing home to check on her because she has had a lot of surgeries on her bad knees, back, shoulders and hips and is bed ridden 24-7. When he got there he asked her how life is sitting in a bed all the time and all she had was tv and gross food. The first and only thing outta her mouth was, “GOD IS GOOD!”
THAT IS OLE SCHOOL HOLINESS!

Newest Sermon

2009-10-30T16:20:00.001-07:00

Transcend
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Destiny Church
Pastor Womack

1 Peter 1:13
Ready, Set, Live!
Now is the time to live out our faith. First thing to do when living out faith is to manage our mindset. We need to make sure we are not walking around mentally flabby and make sure our mind is set and prepared to live out our spiritual life.
Just as we are coached to do on the basketball court, stay on our toes and be ready for anything that comes our way. Same with spiritually. Stay on our toes mentally and spiritually and be ready for the things the world and satan throw at us. We must not be mentally lazy.
We are called to be learners of Gods Word. If we don’t use it, we will lose it. We have to live and read God’s Word. (Not the daily bread, it is a good tool but not sufficient to the Word of God- it is like trying to live on vitamins without eating, but we still have to eat)
We must make time to meditate on God’s Word. Life gets too busy and stressful and we don’t make time for it.
On game day athletes will show up for a game at 6 am knowing the game starts at 7 pm so that they have time to mentally prepare – get their minds right and stay focused for the task ahead.
Do we have our spiritual game face on?
Are we still learning God’s word? (not do we already know it but are we still learning and seeking it?)
We need to get rid of our stinking thinking. Our thinking should reflect God and not our thoughts. When life doesn’t go our way, our thinking is always impacted. (when we lose our job, family member dies, lose house or car, ect- we turn to human thinking and not God’s way of thinking)
For example:
Last week, a young man went into a bank to rob it and met the woman behind the counter. She started to pray and ask him why he would want to do this when he had so much to live for. They started to talk while he held the gun to her head. He asked her to pray with him and she did and he even gave her the bullet in his gun. He was seen on an interview with Oprah, where he said that he knew that God was talking to him and not the lady behind the counter. She held the money out to him many times and he chose not to take the money and walked out of the bank with his life changed. His mom made him turn himself in later on that evening after seeing his face on the news and he later admitted on Oprah that he had robbed a bank a week earlier. Anyway the woman in the bank had a different way of thinking when the worst came her way and God was able to speak through her and a life was changed in the process.
The robber couldn’t get away from stinking thinking because life didn’t go his way. He knew what he was doing was wrong but he wanted to provide money for his family and celebrate his 2 year old girls bday.
It is tough to think clearly and biblically when life falls apart.
If you are not in God’s Word you cant decipher stinking thinking.
What is the quality of the decisions that you have been making?

Secondly we need to focus on God’s favor and biblical hope.
Not hoping that something will happen but knowing that we will be victorious when trials come our way.
It is one thing to know grace but another to live by grace. When you understand the Word you set your hope on God’s grace. We can hope in Jesus.
WHATEVER WE FOCUS ON WILL DETERMINE OUR EMOTIONS!
If you focus on a dead and scary economy you will be in fear.
If you focus on Christ you will live confidently.
Where do u see the grace of God showing up in your life?
His grace shows up in time to strengthen our hope in Christ in the future.
He also shows up in others lives to be an inspiration and hope to us.

We are called to move forwards in our lives and not backwards
We are obedient to God to possess His favor not to gain His favor.
Now that we are believers we can feel His conviction and that is why he allows us to live however we want and still go to heaven but His conviction causes us to constantly move forward and want to live righteous.
Now that we understand salvation we cannot go back to our former lusts. We are called to move ahead.
Live like you know that God is your father because Satan is no longer your father.
95% of babies walk backwards before they learn to walk forwards and that is how it is in our spiritual lives too. When we are babies in Christ we start out by walking backwards and build our ways to walking forwards.
Are you moving forward or backward in Christ?
Where are u tempted to not grow in Christ?
Are u making spiritual excuses? (by saying I can do whatever I want because I will go to heaven anyway)

Be God’s Next Top Model
God wants us to model after Him.
He wants us to be holy, just as he is holy.
We need to compare ourselves to Christ in whom there is no sin.
Where is God challenging us to look more like Him?
We are to be holy in ALL our behavior. (home, work, kids, spouse, bball court, finances, driving, ect)
We are to represent Christ EVERYWHERE.

If we pray for something and God doesn’t answer the way we were hoping, we are to have confidence in the face that he is still able to answer that request- he just chose not to. Like the 3 men in the fiery furnace, they said that if God does not deliver us we know He is still able to and they had hope and confidence in that fact.
Gods will might not be ours but He is still able to do anything!

Thought this was funny!

2009-10-29T10:06:00.001-07:00

We went to the alliance air show on Sunday. It is at the Alliance airport across the street from my job. So we got to park in our parking lot at work and walk to the air show, which was SUPER nice bc they charge $20 to park!!! My job also provided free lunch of hot dogs, chips and sodas. It was so nice. The air show was pretty cool I have to say. We got to see all the different kinds of airplanes and go inside them. Mandrae showed me all the planes he rode on, on his way to Iraq when he was with the Globetrotters. We took Larry and Carrie (our friends from our cruise that moved here about 2 weeks ago- YAY!) and they were in the navy and so they LOVED it. There was alot of good food and the planes did some cool tricks in the air. The planes were LOUD though and everyone had ear plugs in and poor Anissa! Every time the plane (atomic bomb) flew by she would kick me so hard bc either the noise scared her or made her mad! Poor girl. We were there for probably 5 hours and there was no where to sit down and so that was really hard on my feet and back but it was fun. I even saw Uncle Dean and his daughter Candace and son in law so that was good.
Regarding the picture below, there was a plane and they named it the puking dogs w a pic on it and I thought HOW PERFECT that is for my lil bebe. She should be the PILOT!

My semi costume :)

2009-10-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

Ok so tomorrow is our costume contest here at work. Daimler Financial and I am going as a Freightliner because that is what my department finances. :) Haha. So here are pics of me in my costume right after Mandrae and I finished it on Saturday. I cut it out of some old cardboard from the garage and then Mandrae spray painted it and I drew on it. It took like 15 to 20 hours to make and cost about $10 for the spray paint and tape. I think I will make my own costume every year. It was ALOT of fun and I cant wait to wear it. The only problem is that it is so huge that it wont fit through the door and wouldnt fit in our explorer!!! It took us an hour to smash it into in our explorer and we had to rip off the tires and bend the frame a bit. It should still hold up tomorrow I hope! It has been in the explorer since Saturday bc I am not moving it til I have to put it on and walk around work! :) I still need to find me a horn so I can honk as I walk down the aisles at work. haha. And like I said before, I have been feeling some strong back labor and so I wouldnt be surprised if Anissa is born out of a Semi tomorrow. HAHA!

Fun Facts

2009-10-21T12:42:00.001-07:00

Proven Fun (good to know) Bathroom Facts (that I heard on the Tyra show):

- The cleanest way to sit on the toilet is to just plain old sit on it bare bottom. Do not squat because the distance from the butt to the toilet water causes the water splash on you and creating more germs on your rear. Do not use the toilet seat cover because it moves around on the toilet creating more germs to spread to you. Sounds crazy but it is proven that you will get less germs on ur behind by just giving in and sitting directly on the seat!
- The dirtiest part of the bathroom is not the toilet but the floor (the floor right under the napkin dispenser in the stall!) and then the handles.
- The cleanest stall to use in a public restroom is the first one. Dirtiest one is the last one.
- Always hang your purse on the hook in the bathroom and if there isn’t one, use the bathroom with your purse on ur lap or shoulder. In a study 80% of womens purses had feces (however u spell that) on the bottom of their purses from the bathroom. GROSS!

So remember use the first stall always and SIT on the toilet PEOPLE!!!! (and don’t go barefoot and hang your purse)

Update

2009-10-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

Update:
So I had my dr. appt yesterday and expressed my concerns like normal with my intense back pain and pre term labor symptoms and of course was blown off once again. So now I don’t even bother anymore. I will just keep living and if something is wrong, I will go to labor an delivery and deal with someone else. URGH. So yeah anyway I have gained a total of 25 lbs so far and am up to 167 lbs. YIKES! But I was the smallest preg lady in there. So I guess I should be thankful. (?) The only problem now is that they found white blood cells in my urine and so there is an infection somewhere and they are sending in samples to see what is wrong.

And I now have the pleasure of not only being kicked in my right side still but also in my ribs now!!! And now that is PAIN! Now I really am gonna pass out. This is crazy!! No one ever talks about how painful these kicks are! What is wrong w me?
I HAD NO IDEA!!!
I am about 33 to 34 weeks now and we are ready!

Well the good news is that Mandrae is SOOO ready!! He couldn’t be more excited or ready for Anissa to come. He is shocked at how ready he is. He wants her out now. So cute.
That sonogram really made a difference. It seems so real now.
Well anyway I go back in 2 weeks when I start my maternity leave and then 2 weeks after that I should be getting another sonogram if she isn’t here by then. We will see.

Anissa's new sono pics

2009-10-16T07:51:00.001-07:00

Ok this is Mandraes favorite pic. She is holding up her head w her lil hand. So cute :)

Her mouth is open. :)

Her lil hand over her face.

This looks creapy but her eye is kinda open in this pic.

Living upside down

2009-10-14T09:12:00.001-07:00

Living Upside Down
1 Peter 1:9-12
Sunday, October 11, 2009

We sometimes end up living the Christian life upside down.
God calls us to live a unique life in Him- He calls us to stand out and not blend in.
Just like when u get a new pair of prescription glasses, you tend to keep putting on the old ones because you are used to them and they feel more comfortable. Or you will go back and forth from your new glasses to your old glasses. When we come to Christ, He gives us a new prescription to live by but we tend to go back to our old way of living (old glasses). We allow our old way of seeing things to be a grid of how to live our new life. When we hear new info from Christ we try to work it into our old framework of living. Then we say Gods way of living doesn’t work but really it doesn’t work with our old way of living.

We have to allow Gods word to influence us instead of the world. We get too excited about immature Christians sharing and teaching the Word of God. We listen too much to the famous people who change their lives and try to give us spiritual insight. For example a famous comedian and television actor (whose name was not given) gave his life to God and wrote a book about it and in his book taught that we should wait 90 days to have sex when dating (not taught in the Bible) and he taught that women should not date men from the church and it is okay to date men from clubs and that are not Christians because his mom was a Christian and his dad was not but his dad was a good man and they were married 30 years and his dad was a good man, so it is ok to date a non Christian man (also not in the Bible). That is why we need to know and study the Word of God because there are immature Christians out there spreading their way of thinking and passing it on as the Word of God. We lean too much on their words because they can sing, tell jokes, act or are just simply famous with a lot of influence.
We are not to listen to someone that is preaching the Word but doesn’t go to church or read the Bible. We have no way of knowing where their theology is coming from because they are not studying it in their everyday life. That is how we let the world influence our way of thinking. We are to allow the church to be our pillar of truth. We are called to stand up for truth and allow our faith to be rooted in the word of God.
We must be careful and make sure we are listening to the Word and not the world.

Revelation:
If God has only revealed something in his word to you then there is something wrong. Scripture is not a private interpretation. We shouldn’t say, “what does this mean for me?” It s not about what the word means to us but what it means period. When we say, “God told me last night”- that is not a revelation that is a speculation. Its not a private interpretation but instead God showing something to the world that was not known by humanity.
Don’t hang your faith by something that is not true. It must be proven in the word of God. People have tried to disprove the Bible for years but no one can, why do u think the Bible is the best seller of all time?

We are starting to minimize the salvation of Christ.
Will we rely on the Word of God for our faith?
How much time and money do we invest in the Word? We must study and memorize the word to distinguish the truth.
We need to live right side up- based on Gods framework and not on mans philosophies.

SILLY

2009-10-14T06:06:00.000-07:00

Ok now I know this wont be funny to anyone because you werent there but when I got home last nite, I was greeted by the craziest, silliest, hyperest dog in the WHOLE WORLD! She was NUTTY! She did indy races around the house and was just so so happy. Well I passed out on the couch watching Dr. Phil and when I woke up, Bebe wasnt sitting by me and so I looked around and this is what I saw.

She was by her doggy door staring me down like she was gonna come and pounce on me but I soon realized she just wanted me to watch her go outside and potty so she could have a treat! She is so silly!

?

2009-10-13T08:18:00.000-07:00

Ok I have to know:
So far this morning I have eaten 3 honey buns and cannot get full!!! I am starving!!!
Yesterday I ate a HUGE bowl of total cereal for breakfast, a whole box of mac n cheese for lunch, a fruit cup, cheetos, 2 cupcakes in a glass of milk, swiss cake roll, rice crispy treat, then for dinner I had 3 tostados, green beans and beef rice and then another swiss cake roll. HELP ME!!! I am just so hungry. Is this bad??? Am I eating too much??? If so... how do I stop??
I will eat something salty and then need something sweet and then eat too much of the sweet and need something salty and it goes back and forth FOREVER! Please, please help me.

baby nissys new pics :)

2009-10-13T07:16:00.000-07:00

Here is her name that we redid. We painted dots on it and put a bow to tie in the brown color of her crib. It was fun. We did it at 1:30 am on Saturday because we couldnt sleep. :)

( This is the position that Anissa is in according to the Sono)

Ok so we went to have the sonogram on Saturday and Anissa is STUBBORN!!! MAN! She would not cooperate! We kept trying to look at her face or her body and she had umbilical cord in her face and her hands in her face and her face buried in my placenta and she would not move to save her life! She had her feet wrapped around her neck. How she does that I don’t know! She was a mess though, we spent 30 minutes trying to get her to show her face or move away from my right hip. And I was RIGHT! The picture I drew was pretty much the position she is in, but she is a lil different now and I will paste a pic of what she looks like now. Anyway she was so bad that they are letting us go back on Thursday to try again. So we are doing another session on Thursday to see her better hopefully. Please pray she will show her face and cooperate. Here are some pics of her from this sono but I will have a cd and dvd of her to paste by Friday. And question: If she doesn’t sleep now does that mean she wont sleep when she comes out???? O boy, I have a feeling I have a mess on my hands. She is something else. SHE NEVER STOPS! I DON’T SLEEP! HELP!

Okay these are all of her face only. They are kinda hard to see bc they are pics of a pic from my phone but you can kinda see. U can see that she has Mandraes nose and mouth. And my mom and Kris (from work) say that she has my eyes (at least the way they are set in because they are not open in the pics).

pre term labor?

2009-10-09T09:43:00.001-07:00

Pre Term Labor- Hmmmm…………………………..
Ok so I did want to have Anissa early and wanted to have pre term labor but now that I think that I am experiencing it I no longer want her to come early and so am trying to find out how to make it go away without having to go to the hospital. Why do I think this? Well first of all when I sit down or sleep on my side w my knees pulled to my hips Anissa touches my legs with her arms or something and so that shows you how low she is sitting and so it seems that she is getting into position. It is a crazy feeling. Also all day yesterday I was having Braxton Hicks contractions in my stomach, didn’t feel too well, wasn’t that hungry, had cramping (menstrual and abdominal cramping), and also have been having diarrhea. When I looked it up online it says those are all signs of pre term labor. I don’t want that right now and it says to rest but how long can I prolong these effects?
Anyway we have a 4D sonogram tomorrow at 1:45 with Storkvision here in Ft. Worth and we are excited. They are going to get us a 20 min DVD and then a CD rom with around 30 pics on it. I cant wait to see her and this will also be a way for me to see how low she is and see if everything is ok because I just need to see her and make sure she is ok.

What do you think?

2009-10-07T11:34:00.001-07:00

Okay after talking to my dr, this is the position I think she is in. Sideways bc her head pokes out of the side of my stomach and her feet out either my back or the opposite side of my stomach. So if me and my husband push her head back in when it is STICKING out of my stomach, can we hurt her?? What if her legs are extended and when we push her back in we break her leg or touch the soft spot on her head? Is that possible? Just really curious if u think we could hurt her by pushing her head back in from sticking out of my stomach? We dont push hard or anything.

2009-10-07T08:55:00.000-07:00

Sunday, October 4, 2009
Living in HD:
1 Peter 1:3-9

If you have an HD TV you will never go back to watching regular TV because HD is so much clearer and so much better.
It is the same in Christianity. We need to strive for HD Christianity- seeing and understanding the details of how to live Christian lives.
God wants us to live like He really is coming back. Unless we understand Christ completely we will not live for Him confidently. It is impossible to praise God and live in perpetual pain. When we praise God it helps remind us of His goodness and our pain isn’t as painful. He is the only one worth of praise. No one deserves salvation, grace, mercy, hope or the love of Christ. So we are to bless Him regardless of our situation. We tend to believe that God owes us the opportunity to be saved but God chooses us according to the foreknowledge of God.
What if God called us in an interview to see if we would be a good Christian deserving salvation? We will never qualify to be born again. We are all unqualified and messed up but GOD still HIRES us. He still chooses us!
If we go into an interview being completely unqualified and still get the job then we would be extremely happy and that is how it is- we should be praising God because we got the job.
We will always be unworthy of God and need to praise Him regardless of where we are in the Christian faith.
When we were born again we got new information on how to life and a new hope. Our life as Christians should NEVER be hopeless.
We should never say our marriage, finances, health, ect are hopeless! We are born again to a living hope. If we live a hopeless life we are living an abnormal Christian life.
God also shows us His ministry and provides us with an inheritance in Him. Our inheritance is defiled, imperishable and reserved in heaven. It should encourage us today even though we do not receive it until we get to heaven.
God doesn’t have a relationship with everyone on earth, only those that are born again. Our rebirth gives us many benefits in Jesus Christ.
We should not listen to Oprah or CNN when they say that we all have the same Father because we do not- only those born again can call on the same Father.

You cannot lose your salvation in Christ, everyone seems to think that that we lose our salvation when our actions do not measure up to Christ but His works save us not ours!
Our eternity is secured but until God removes us from sin we will always face trials and pain. Life will not be perfect until sin is removed from our lives in heaven. Beware of the person here on earth who has no trials because if you are on Gods team, Satan will always be searching for ways to come against you and you will face trials. If you are not on God’s team, Satan has no reason to mess with you, you are already on his team. As long as you are on Gods team, Satn will always bring you trial and pain.

The holy spirit is Gods down payment to us since He cant be with us physically on earth. It is an indication of what is to come. If God gives us the Holy Spirit now just imagine how much more God will do for us in the future and how much better it will be with Christ there with us.
We have to let the world go, we hang on too tight. We need to quit hanging onto the wrong things. We think if only I had a new job, or new clothes, a new house, a new spouse, the new phone then everything would be better but we are always wrong! Things are never better just by getting the newest and best things here on earth. We are living on an earthly hope. How much better would life be if we could live here on earth with our heavenly hope.

The proof of our faith is when we go through troubles it authenticates our faith. Our faith is what brings us through those hard times. Nothing can destroy our faith- nor life nor death! When we come out of pain and trials with our faith still strong that is the proof of our faith in Christ.
It is not what we give to God but what He gave to us and we must speak well of God in spite of our pain and trials.

The trial of living in HD is that we serve and love a God that we cannot see or touch. And that is the mystery of worshipping Him. We are called to walk by faith and not by sight. Too many of us walk by sight and that is why we are limited in our Christianity.
To live in HD you must live by faith. We tend to walk around defeated because we don’t understand the nature of faith. We can no longer live in the hope of our job, education, marriage, house, ect……..those are temporary.

A new thing we do at our church is we text the pastor ?s while he is preaching and then at the end of the service he answers them. Here are some of the ?s:

Does God choose everyone to be on His team?
No God doesn’t choose everyone because then He couldn’t say that he chooses. He chooses by the foreknowledge of God. Remember we love Him because He first loved us. No one can pursue God, He pursues us. If you feel Gods tug on your heart then He has chosen you. How can we know we are chosen? When we place our total confidence in Him then we are chosen and when we face trials and come out of them with faith in Christ we are chosen!

Will God wait for us to accept Him?
No God will not wait for us to come to Him. We never know when God calls our family home. Tomorrow is never promised. God gives us time to get right with Him but we will never know how much time we are given.

Are certain sins worse than others?
No every sin is despicable to God but there are different consequences to certain sins.

Is it okay to divorce when you face trials or betrayal?
God never asks or tells anyone to get a divorce. If American Christians would understand that trials come regardless then the divorce rate would be a lot smaller in America. Hardship is not a reason for divorce. Trial in marriage is inevitable just like we will face trial in life as well. God does say it is ok to divorce if one person is an unbeliever and decides to leave on their own or if there is continual sexual immorality (cheating). The heart of God is forgiveness and people do mess up but if the sexual immorality continues he will permit a divorce but never requires it.

Am I crazy?

2009-10-06T12:31:00.000-07:00

Ok so yesterday I had my doctor appointment and I had so many things to discuss with my dr and so many ?s. Well when I got there, first of all I have gained 2 lbs in 2 weeks- so I guess that is normal. Then I told her all of my issues:
Migraines- should I get the MRI or not and how to manage the pain
Baby movement and pain that will make u pass out
Belly pain around my belly button
Not sleeping
Work schedule
Back pains

Well every issue I brought up was blown off. She just said o yeah that is normal, o yeah that is normal, o yeah that is normal.............for real?? It is normal to pass out from the baby moving?? And what if something was wrong?? What if she is wrapped around my umbilical cord? Dont I have reason to be concerned? Can I not worry and get reassured. I mean I would understand if that was the answer to some ?s but NOT every single ?.
She did say that my migraines are of concern but until I agree to do an MRI she cant help me. If they get worse I am supposed to go to the ER and have them do an MRI right away. She seems to think they will and that she will see me sooner than expected but we will see.
Anyway am I crazy to think that I should get some kinda sympathy or concern from her?
And why cant I get a sonogram of the baby to make sure everything inside is ok? They make you wait from 5 months all the way to 9 months to see the baby again! It has been 3 months since I have gotten a sono. Not fair! I wanna see the baby and make sure everything is ok.
And I want to know why all my friends that are pregnant didnt go through any of the things I am going through.
Ok well I am done venting now. Sorry bout that. This is just frustrating. But I am working for this month and then will go on leave on Novemeber 1st, if I can last that long. :)
O and they said that my due date has been changing and to average them all out they would put me at Dec. 15th but I am messuring for Dec. 8th still so if the baby isnt here by the 15th then they will induce me but she thinks she will be here before then. I still think she will be here on the 21st of nov.

I didnt mean it!

2009-10-02T06:19:00.000-07:00

ok so i wanted to say that i didnt mean it when i said that i was going to spank anissa when she came out. i was just joking, i would never do that. I feel bad for saying that and want u to know that i love her and cant wait to see her and regardless of the pain i have she is only doing what she knows and trying to get comfortable. she is already my favorite thing in the world and i didnt mean what i said, i was just expressing how much it hurt. So please know that this baby will be loved and I was just joking. :) thanks.

I give it one week!

2009-09-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

I give my belly button one more week til it will be completely poke out. :) You can tell I am bored. Haha. Anyway last nite it was really close to being all the way pushed out and so I give it one more week.

And I told Mandrae last nite when this baby comes out she is getting about 50 spankings for all this kicking!!! I dont know how much longer my insides can take it. And NOW she has moved to my ribs!!! HELP ME!
I sit at work, like right now, and watch her head, arms, legs, fingers, toes, ears, rear, back, knees, elbows- all poking through my stomach and wondering just how much longer it will be til she bursts a kidney, bladder, intestine, lung! O goodness THE PAIN!

Sermon- Sept 27th- VERY POWERFUL!

2009-09-29T10:16:00.001-07:00

Between 2 Worlds:

1 Peter 1:1
We as Christians (believers) have been left behind by our family of origin and have to figure out how to live on earth. We are in a sense like E.T.- we are aliens to earth. We are born on earth but earth is not our home. We are caught between earth and heaven. God wants us to live to the beat of a different drummer here on earth. We cannot live like those here on earth because we live between two worlds. Everybody else doesn’t live like us or carry the same value system that we carry. We live only to bring glory to God. Our great temptation here on earth is to withdraw from where God wants us to live on earth. We can get caught up in arrogance of not wanting society around us and withdrawing or separating ourselves from the world. Our great tendency is to duplicate the values and morals of this fallen society. There must be a difference between how we view family, finances and our way of thinking.
We reside on earth as aliens (foreigners) but this is all temporary, we will be in heaven in the end.
We will face trials and pain and it will get the best of us if we are using an earthly mindset. Sometimes we pray for God to deliver us from things he puts in our lives and we waste our time asking God to remove ways He has already placed out for us.
We are displaced here on earth but for a specific reason. If we get too comfortable we will not be able to be ambassadors for God. We can either avoid society or become ambassadors to the society that we live in. We are living too earthbound and need to transform out thinking to living as aliens. We are living too much for other people and satisfying them (too concerned about what they think of us and not what God is calling us to do). As we go through pain, God may not take it away but we should be comforted knowing that God is there for us.
One day Pastors son was sick and in bed crying and Pastor tried to get him to cry it out but his son kept crying for a long time. So pastor went in his room and started to rub his back and his tears turned into snoring. Pastor didn’t take his pain away or heal him but his son was comforted with the fact that his daddy was there.
That is how we should feel in Christ. He may not always take the pain away but He is always there to comfort us.
When was the last time you thought about sharing your faith? When was the last time u shared your faith?

When we come to Jesus it shouldn’t just change our destination but also our thinking, morals and values as well.
The world is concerned about your image and your outside but God is concerned about your heart. We need to stand up and say this isn’t Burger King but the King of Kings and you cant “have it your way” once you are saved!
We cant control what is around us and we will suffer but we need to align ourselves with Christ and not with society. We are scared of man now a days when our real fear needs to be of God. We are scared of our boss and of what people might say but we need to instead be obedient to Christ first. We will still suffer in our obedience and disobedience because there is only place that we will NOT suffer and we are not there yet. Only one place is perfect and that is HEAVEN. God had to save the best for us for later.
Just remember that we will encounter suffering. When you live for Christ you will be ridiculed. Any culture or society that is not influenced is influenced by Satan. There is no in between. You can only be influenced by God or Satan. There is no will is not influenced by one or the other.

If you think that God is calling you or asking u to do something- consult his Word. God leads through His Word and His direction will never conflict with his Word.

Dr. Update

2009-09-29T08:23:00.001-07:00

Ok so yesterday was my MRI appointment. My migraines do not seem to be getting any better and the last 2 days I noticed that my right ear which is the side that my migraines are on has been bleeding, not a lot but it is really weird bc I never had my ears bleed and I clean at least one time a week. So I found that weird. Anyway I couldn’t wait to go to my MRI appt so I could maybe find why I am having migraines and get it fixed. Well after my 30 min wait in the waiting room I went to the MRI room to have it done and she asked me to sign a piece of paper. After reading the paper it said that there are risks to the fetus/baby by doing an MRI and the risks are not yet confirmed if severe or slight. My dr. told me that they would cover my stomach and the baby would be fine but she was wrong. In an MRI there is nothing to cover your stomach from the UV Rays. Or whatever Rays they have? So I had to decline the MRI. I was so upset. I do not want to put Anissa at risk at all but I am at the same time MISERABLE! I do not know what to do and they cant prescribe anything to help the problem bc they have no idea what the problem is. So frustrating. So yeah anyway, I did get some good news though- I don’t have diabetes and my glucose test turned out fine. So at least I have some good news but how I am going to survive the next 2 months w this migraine I don’t know. And then last nite I have Braxton hicks contractions really bad all nite and it was aweful and this morning Anissa was again trying to escape my belly and lay on the soft PQ bed. It was SOOOO painful. I just lay there and moan. I wonder what Mandrae thinks. Haha.

pregnancy pics from Jared!

2009-09-23T16:27:00.001-07:00

Jared Wanzer took amazing pics. Here are some of the preg. pics he took. If you want to see more u can see them at http://www.jaredwanzerphotography.com/Other/Karissa-Baby-Shower/9634457_vtTaa.

my lil bees

2009-09-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

The latest update

2009-09-22T14:59:00.001-07:00

Ok so I just got a call from my dr, here is the news:
My MRI for my brain and migraines is on Monday.
I failed the glucose/diabetes test and so could possibly have diabetes and have a 4 hr. glucose test on Thursday this week.
I am anemic and now have to take iron pills or chewables.

So I got 3 sets of bad news in one call.
I am kinda frustrated.

baby blues

2009-09-22T09:41:00.001-07:00

Update:
So I have been having some major migraines lately. I seemed to get really sick on Monday after the baby shower and it just stayed with me. So on Thursday my migraines were really bad so I went to Labor and Delivery to get checked out. Before I went my blood pressure was really high at 148/98 and then when I got to the hospital it was down to 110/60. (whatever!) They gave me a shot in my rear to take away the pain and the shot was supposed to knock you out and make you feel drunk so that you cant walk or feel pain. Well it sure did knock me out and the nurse asked me how I felt and if I had pain and at the time I was knocked out and pretty much in a deep sleep and I said I am fine and went back to sleep. Then they released me while I was asleep and when I woke up my migraine was WAY worse. I told the nurse and she got made at me! I cant help that when she asked me before that I was too asleep to give her a straight answer, I was knocked out. Anyway I convinced her to let me go home anyway bc i was so tired and so mandrae wheeled me out in a wheel chair. So she said that the shots affects would only last about 6 hours. So I got up to go to work the next day, still w the migraine and I had to hold my eyes open the entire way to work! It was the hardest time I have ever had driving. By the time I got to work I was pretty much asleep and stayed at work for an hour (fell asleep a few times) and had to go home. I was SO OUTTA IT! So when I finally got home (mom had to keep me awake on the way home- thanks mom) I slept til 6 pm straight, completely knocked out. My body must have been exhausted! It was bad. Anyway I woke up feeling aweful! My migraines just wont go away and they are in the back right of my brain. Feels like someone stuck a knife back there and sometimes turns the knife. It hurts to open my mouth or move my head in any direction whatsoever. It hurts to eat, drink and talk. My poor husband. I am so miserable that I take it out on him bc I just cant function. Today it is not as bad but it comes back late at nite. URGH.
So yesterday was my next dr. appt and I took the glucose test and drank my bottle of orange sugar water and then they took my blood. They think I am anemic bc my blood was clear looking. I am still waiting to hear the results. I also got a Rhogan shot and it wasnt that bad but my arm is real sore now. They are also setting me up with an MRI bc of my migraines bc they have no idea what would be causing it. So sometime this week I have to go and get an MRI. FUN FUN! It is a hectic week! I am really struggling. I do not want to be preg anymore and I just want to see Anissa NOW. Then I found out that now my due date is Dec. 18th. The one I had before was wrong. So now I have to wait EVEN longer!!!! I think that Katrina and I had pretty much the same due date. That is cool. :) Anyway I have also gained a total of 20 lbs. That is ALOT! I have gained 10 lbs since my last appt. MAN! I need to slow down eating I guess but dr. sd that I am right where I need to be. And this baby is kicking me like crazy. I just want this to be over and I want to deliver right now. I cant take these long days of work and I am so tired. Please pray for me. I want this to be over.

Just a thought

2009-09-17T06:14:00.001-07:00

I am pretty sure my baby is going to come out saying, "Thank you for calling Fastruck, my name is Karissa, How can I help you?"........................................................poor thing has to listen to it all day long!

Curious

2009-09-16T16:49:00.001-07:00

Can a baby pop your bladder??

Is it possible that Anissa bought a trampoline without telling me and is jumping on it? I promise she just randomly jumps really hard and then oops.................
.....................................if u know what I mean?

an even blonder moment

2009-09-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

So on Saturday when we got to Hutchinson we ate lunch with my grandma and grandpa and Amanda and my mom and we had tea to drink. Mandrae only likes sweet tea so we gave him some sweetner for his tea and didnt think anything of it. After a few minutes, Mandrae looked at me with a look of disgust. I was like what?? He said, "TASTE THIS!" I tasted his tea and he had poured all 6 packets of sweetner in his lil cup of tea!!! It was aweful. I guess he has never used sweetner before and thought it was like regular sugar! He is CRAZY!!

Baby shower

2009-09-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

The baby shower that my sister and mom threw on Sunday, September 13th was awesome!! IT was so much fun. 42 people showed up and we had in the backyard of my parents house in Hutchinson, Kansas. I saw people I have not seen for 8 years and so it was great. The decorations and everything was amazing. The food was awesome. There were a bunch of guys there and it was PERFECT. You couldnt ask for anything better! Here are a few pics. I will get more from Katrina later w pics of all the people that came to the shower. We got a ton of stuff and there isnt too much more that we will need. We got to see Parker and she is the cutest thing in the whole world! We are so excited to see Anissa now and Parker made us more anxious for Anissa to come. Anyway the baby shower was awesome. It was so great to see family again FINALLY and spend some time in Hutchinson. Thanks dad and mom and zak and katrina and grandma and grandpa for everything!

Bull Riding

2009-09-16T09:32:00.000-07:00

Ok so at the state fair on Monday, my dad got Zak and Mandrae to ride the bull. It was hilarious. Here are pics of the guys. I am surprised they did it. Now we gotta get dad on the bull!

Here are the videos!

I must have too much cushioning back there!

2009-09-11T07:16:00.000-07:00

Ok so Mandrae finds this funny:
Yesterday when I got home Mandrae was sewing his button back on his shirt. Well I didn’t think anything of it. Then later on that night I went to sit by him while we were watching “More to Love” and didn’t notice anything. Then we got into a political debate and I moved forward on the couch and felt something slicing my rear. I reached down there and there was a needle STUCK in my rear. Like the needle literally had been sitting inside my skin and when I moved it poked out and I finally felt it. When I pulled it out, it hurt so bad and Mandrae just thinks this is the funniest thing in the whole world! So I have a long line in my rear where a needle once lived.

Blonde Moment

2009-09-10T13:27:00.001-07:00

ok so I wanted some sweet tea at work and I we have tea bags here. On the tea bags it says u can have it hot or iced. So I got a big cup of iced water and put 2 tea bags in it and stirred and stirred and stirred and the water was still clear and I so I yelled, "Why isnt my tea making tea?? What is wrong w these tea bags?" And Kris looked over the side of the desk and said, "Are you serious?" I was like what, it isnt working. She finally told me that u cant make tea like that and that u have to have hot water and then add it to ice to make iced tea. OOPS! You learn something new everyday.

New office

2009-09-10T12:33:00.001-07:00

So since we added a baby room upstairs and had to get rid of Mandrae's office we created a desk area in our bedroom, just for Mandrae. It doesnt look too bad. We are happy with it. Now all we need is internet. Can u tell the desk was only $19 at the dollar store? :)

2009-09-08T07:46:00.000-07:00

Ok so I went to the pet store the other day with Carrie because mandrae wont take me and I saw the cutest dogs in the whole world!!! Here is a pug mix w some paper on his nose and then there are 2 videos of the other dogs. They are so cute. These puppies are HYPER! and SILLY! they are crazy. I felt so bad for them though!! they are stuck in those lil cages until someone will take them and they are starved for attention and just want to be played with or run around. poor babies!!!

LABOR DAY WEEKEND

2009-09-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

LABOR DAY WEEKEND

So we had visitors over this weekend for Labor Day weekend, Larry and Carrie. They are moving to Texas in one month so we can all hang out and be in the same state. We are so excited. Well they came down and we had a bunch of stuff planned out. They had interviews and got their jobs right away within in minutes. Crazy huh?? And then we found them an apt as well. Then on Friday night we went to Magic Time Machine in Addison and it was aweful!!! We had Miley Cyrus as our waitress! And she sang to us and wouldn’t stop singing! It was bad. She shouldn’t be singing. They also put us at a normal non themed table. We had never been there and they had no idea what the restaurant was about and I couldn’t wait to take them. Well the other waiters and waitresses were all cool and the themes were awesome. Then the food came out and it was AWEFUL!!! And expensive! What a mess! Then Prince Charming came to our table and was a mess! He told us how much he loves his job bc he gets hit on by cougars all the time and he thinks they are sexy. We were like what??? He was acting so pimpish and unacceptable. It was crazy. So that was not a success!

The next day we went to Medieval Times in Dallas. It was fun. They served us half a baby hen, ribs, tomato soup, half a baked potato, garlic bread, pepsi, and an applie turnover. It was good. The show was great too. It lasted 2 hours and was well worth the price we pd to get in. I had some issues sitting that long. I had major back pain but other than that it was great. Here are pics from it.

Larry and Carrie

Nervous Wreck

2009-09-03T06:03:00.001-07:00

Ok so for all of you out there that have been pregnant please help me out here. I am a nervous wreck! All day at work yesterday I have shooting pains down my back and into my rear and I can’t even stand up after sitting for so long. I have to sit for 10 hours a day and I guess my body can’t take it. I went to HR to see if they had anything they could help me with and they don’t. They said that it is the baby sitting on a nerve and that the only to help it is to walk around every 30 minutes but with the job I have I cant do that. On top of that I was cramping pretty bad yesterday. I called my doctor and the nurse didn’t seem too worried and told me to just walk around and if the cramping continued to call her back. Well it did but eventually went away last night. BUT I can’t take the back pain. I mean it really hurts and I wish there was something that I could do about it.
On top of that the baby is barely moving now. Last night she didn’t move at all. I was so worried all night long. I am just full of worry right now. I don’t want to do anything wrong or miss any signs of trouble and lose the baby. It is a scary thing and I am exhausted from just worrying all the time. If I could just buy a heart monitor and sonogram machine I would!! My body is getting to be warn out from all of this stress though. Why can’t the doctor see me every week? I will pay for it, I don’t even care anymore.

A SUCCESS

2009-09-01T07:20:00.001-07:00

So this weekend I had my first parties ever for Private Quarters and I was so nervous and had no idea what to do and was dreading it. I was not excited and have to admit was scared. Like giving a speech in college. Well my first party was on Saturday and I knew almost everyone that came and so thought I would do a good job. I flew through the presentation and I don’t think I did good at all. It was really awkward and I asked Mandrae not to be there because I was nervous and scared to do it. Well we still ended up with A LOT of sales and the party ended up great! The best part I have to say though are the host rewards. My host got a lot of great products for pretty much nothing. She ended up getting 5 of the 7 layers for her bed at NOTHING! It was amazing. Well the next day on Sunday we had 2 parties scheduled. These I was nervous for because I do not know anyone that comes to these parties. I thought that I would do worse with people I don’t know. Mandrae agreed to help me out at these parties. Well 2:00 pm rolled around for the first party and no one. No one ended up showing up. My host was upset. It was okay though because her mom had a party at 4:30 pm. At her party 4 people showed up and they all bought! The presentation was much easier and much better. I am loving showing off these products because I love them so so much! I am learning so so much. She sold so much that she got even more products for nothing. So for a total of around 4 hours I made about the same amount of money that I make at my job now in one week. It was amazing and we see the money right away. I am convinced that this will work as a job and I cant wait to see what is in store for the future. When people see how nice these products are they will come running back for more. And once I get everything lined up and started and they see me making the big bucks I will be ready to go and people will be begging to start w the company. YAY!
Okay well I just had to share because I am so excited about my weekend and how much money we made, how easy it was, and how much fun it was.

And praise the Lord our bowling league is over!!! Mandrae and I got first place and are super exhausted from the league and the stress of making sure everyone pays and comes each week. The bowling alley is super nice and say they will still make us a trophy and gave us our prize winnings for pizza on the last day. That was really nice of them bc we owed them a lot of money since not everyone showed up each week. So it ended good and people want us to do it again but we are not so sure about that. We will see I guess.

I FINALLY GOT MY PICS FROM SAN ANTONIO!!!

2009-08-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

Ok so we just back from San Antonio yesterday at about 4:00 pm. We did have a lot of fun. We pre bowled for our bowling league on Friday night at 10:00 pm and then left at 5:00 am on Saturday for San Antonio. We arrived there around 9:15 am and met Katrina and Zak at their hotel and then all rode together to Sea World and made it there by 10 am when it opened. We had a lot of fun and the shows there were great. I have some pics below. The only draw back was that I couldn’t ride any of the rides since I am 6 months pregnant. No one ever assumes I am preg and that is the only reason I wish I was bigger bc it seems that everyone forgets I am preg and cant do the same things that they can do. Anyway I sat for an hour to 2 hours everytime they went on a ride but they had a ton of fun and so it was worth it. It was ok, I bonded w the bees and the ants bc they wouldn’t leave me alone to save their lives. Haha. Anyway then Mandrae went over to the game row and I saw an elmo that was holding a building block that had an A on it and I had to have it for Anissa. So Mandrae played the game where u have to hit the platform and make the ball hit the bell at the top of the machine. He hit it so SO SO hard that he pretty much broke it bc he wanted to make sure and get that elmo for Nissy. It was hilarious. We were like did he hit it? It was so fast you could barely tell. So yeah we got Nissy the lil elmo w her A on it. It is cute. But yeah we did the whole park and by 4:00 pm we were exhausted and ready to leave. Then we all went to Bill Millers BBQ and are BBQ and it was so so good! I wish they had them in Fort Worth. Then we took Katrina and Zak back to their hotel so they could shower and Mandrae and I went to Kid to Kid and bought nissa some lil outfits and I got 2 maternity dresses. Then we went back and talked to Katrina and Zak forever in the parking lot til about midnight. After that we drove 30 min to our hotel in New Braunfels. It was good to see them.
The next day we went to our time share presentation and were there for 6 hours and almost bought the program. O man it was so tempting bc it would be PERFECT for our family! But today Mandrae found the program on Craigslist for free so we might just do that. Man he is good finding deals! Then we went to Olive Garden to eat for free from our gift from the timeshare and then headed off to the Mexican Market (the Mercado). And I tell you what their prices are ridiculous! They are way too high and not worth it at all and they have some nasty stuff in their too! After that we headed to the Riverwalk and walked around, it seems bigger than I remember with a lot of new stuff but still pretty much the same. After a few hours of walking we took a boat ride and that was so fun! The tour guide was awesome and we learned a lot. Then when we got back someone was yelling mandraes name and it was his cousin Jason who he had not seen in like 3 years. And he was with his wife and they got married in the same year and same month as we did. They were so nice and so much fun and so we got to go eat dinner with them on the riverwalk. It was a lot of fun. We wish they lived here by us so we could all hang out all the time. We got back to our hotel around midnight again and I passed out while Mandrae went to the hot tub.
Then on Sunday morning we took off around 10:30 am and while were driving home we saw a theme park called Wonder World. So we went there and they said that they had a wildlife petting zoo tour and I wanted to go so so bad. They also had a cave tour and a funny house but it was too expensive to do it all so I begged him to let me take the petting zoo tour bc I would do anything to pet animals. I have been there before when I was real lil on a school field trip and so it was fun just to be there. Well we get on this train and go under a waterfall and then guess what we get to pet?- DEER! I have seen plenty of deer living in KS and that was nothing too exciting. Yeah they were cute but that is all we got to pet and feed! THAT IS IT! Then we took the train around in a circle to see turkeys, goats and llamas. That is all!! For like 10 minutes. Guess how much that cost us? $15!!!! Yeah what a waste!! We were disappointed and poor mandrae just wanted to see the cave but I was selfish and had to pet the animals. URGH! So yeah we then drove home and got home around 4 pm that day to pick up Bebe. I tell you what Bebe had a blast! She was with 4 male dogs and was busy all the time and Jeanene (the lady that took her) spoiled her w walks everyday. She also spoon fed her every 20 min so that she wouldn’t throw up and tore up her treats til she chewed them and then she let her swallow. She also bathed her and let her sleep with them. She was so good to her. So Bebe was happy.
So all in all we had a great weekend vacation. It was exhausting and I am so so tired. We prolly walked 50 miles total this whole weekend and so I got my workout in that is for sure!

The entrance to sea world on our first day there.

The first show we watched

The only pic I got of Katrina and Zak! That is sad. Sorry guys. I dont know where my head was!

The Shamu show.

One of the rides they rode and I was standing on the outside watching. These waits were forever but were worth it bc they had a blast on the rides.

This was their favorite ride ever!! they rode it 2 times

The penguins. i love penguins. i could watch them all day.

our fav. show! the walrus was doing sit ups! crazy huh?

in the aquarium w the sharks and sting rays and fish

oops it is sideways- o well

in the mercado in downtown san antonio

on the riverwalk, it looks alot nicer

we stopped at wonder world. this is the entrance to the lamo petting zoo

I figured it out!!!

2009-08-26T10:41:00.001-07:00

I FIGURED IT OUT
so the other day I was watching tv and I think that I found the answer to all of my questions. So I dont think all of you know what was happening about 6 months ago before I got pregnant but I was passing out and having mini strokes and had been to many doctors who did not know what was going on with me and I was unsafe to drive or do anything. They had done around 6 to 8 MRIs on my brain and my neck to see why I was blacking out and get light headed and just randomly passing out. In my MRIs it showed signs of mini stokes - I think it was like 5 that had recently happened and they could not explain them. The last thing that happened is that they wanted to do heart test because they thought that I had a hole in my heart. The treatment was so expensive that I stopped going to the dr. Well ever since I have been pregnant I have not experienced any of these symptoms really and it just seemed to have gone away. I couldnt figure what it was. Well the other day I was watching tv and there was a commercial on tv that said if you have take yasmin or yaz and have experienced strokes, migraines (another side effect I had) and it listed some more things that I need to call that # to file a lawsuit. I started to think about it and the whole time I was on YAZ and was passing out. The months of Jan and Feb when I went off Yaz is right around when I started to feel better. I am now convinced that these strokes and blacking out spells were all caused from Yaz. So now I know to never to do that again. Which wont happen bc I dont plan on going on birth control ever again anyway but I am relieved that I think I found out the cause. Crazy huh???? Would it be ungodly and unchristian to sue or to call that # and pursue monitary value for my pain and suffering and dr bills??????

Fun Weekend/ Growing Pains

2009-08-26T09:56:00.000-07:00

So this last weekend, Mandrae and I had a lot of fun. We went garage sale shopping on Saturday morning ( I promise that is my favorite thing to do). We bought 2 board games- Scrabble and Uno (some crazy uno game where the cards spit out at you). We also bought a lil tv to go in the guest room or in the baby room so Anissa can watch videos because I have a bunch of cartoon videos for her. It was $5. I bought some shirts and a dress. And then we bought Anissa 12 books and they are all pretty much dr. suess books for .25 cents a piece. They are the best books ever! I love them. So we did good for ourselves and spent i believe $15 total. We also got a free massager out of it too. Then we went and got me a belly band for my pants so I can keep wearing my pants and just leave them all unbuttoned. Then we went home and played Scrabble all day and yes he beat me every time! URGH! And I am always winning by a ton to begin with. Then at 3:10 we went to see The Time Travelers Wife because Mandrae kept hearing how good it was. We got to the movie like 10 minutes late and we were so confused! It is a crazy weird movie and super confusing. Then by the middle of the movie it was making more sense. We almost left and went to a different movie too. At the end it was so so sad and I was crying (well I cry pretty much to everything now a days!). And he was like ahhh.... it made u cry and then all of a sudden we hear all these runny noses and all these people blowing their nose and bawling. So we turn around only to see the whole theatre full of glasses! It was packed full of elderly people bawling their eyes off. It was hilarious. So we leave and are standing in line at the snack bar to buy 4 $1 hotdogs and out walk all these ladies w their faces drenched in tears and are still crying and cant control themselves. Never seen anything like it! It was hilarious. It was a sad movie but ended really good.
And I am telling you this baby wants out! This morning I woke up due to a baby trying to pry her way out of my stomach! I promise her whole body was pushed again my belly button with her legs pushing on my insides to try to either get out or make more room in there! It was the craziest thing I have ever seen and felt. I promise my stomach is way more stretched out now- thanks to her! CRAZY GIRL! But yeah i can move my stomach around now and see her moving w it! It is hilarious. She will be one strong one bc she punches, kicks, pushes, and who knows what else she is doing in there to get herself out. She really wants out!

6 months and double digits

2009-08-25T16:46:00.000-07:00

ok so I am now at the 6 month mark and yesterday I had my dr. appt. I have now officially gained a total of 11 lbs. I am gaining to be around a lb a week now and so that is not too bad and right about what they suggest. The dr. did say that I am small for 6 months though compared to others but some people just hold it in tighter than others she said. So anyway the newest symptom of my pregnancy is now NIGHTMARES! I have VIVID HORRIBLE AWEFUL nightmares every night and around like 5 of them a night. I wake up crying all the time. They are not good. My family is always dying around me! And for some reason lil Boots (bebe) always get tortured or dies in them. And Mandrae seems to die a lot too. So I find myself waking up a lot not only to pee but to check to make sure my babies are still alive. The other day I had a dream that I was at six flags with my cousin Rachel (not sure why?) and she wanted to ride the rides and so I felt obligated to ride them and I kinda forgot I was preg and that it was a big deal and so I rode them. I would get to the top of the roller coaster and just before the coaster was about to dive down 500 ft I would remember I was preg and start screaming. I could feel my stomach leave my body and just felt like I killed Anissa. It was horrible and the worst part is that it didn’t stop w one ride. I rode prolly 10 rides that day and everytime I forgot I was preg and just kept doing it and screaming and I woke up convinced that I killed Anissa and that this dream was REAL! It 2 days for me to convince myself that I didn’t really go to Six Flags. Then last night I was riding a horse and some girl was chasing me and the horse and bebe and she was beating us. She wanted to kill us and we didn’t know why. The horse was tired and wouldn’t barely move and she would catch us and torture the horse and torture bebe! I would beat her up but was too scared to kill her bc I didn’t want to be mean and so I spent the whole night running from her but it was so real! And I know it sounds dumb but it felt like it was really happening and even when I would wake up 12 times a nite to pee I would still go back to bed w the same dream continuing and I would open my eyes and pray for a new topic to dream about but it was always something aweful. I think the worst one though was when I was stuck in a tornado that kept coming back and everytime it came back in the same nite it would kill someone in my family. My family was all w me and dying left and right. Even lil Parker was there. And it was come and then leave and come right back for someone else til we were all gone and there was no where to hide from it. It had eyes and knew where u were. It was horrible. Right before it killed me I woke up and wanted to throw up. O goodness – help me!!
On top of that the dr told me not to sleep on my back bc it can cut off the blood supply to the baby and that is the ONLY way that I can get comfortable at nite. I cannot sleep on my side to save my life! So I wake up on my back scared the baby isn’t ok. Plus she kicks really hard every time I get on my back. It scares me. Maybe she is struggling or something. Well anyway I am going to prop myself up tonite and sleep on my back at an angle like I am kinda sitting up and that should solve all my probs. I hope!
This preg thing is no joke!!!

I gotta share!

2009-08-18T15:59:00.001-07:00

Ok I gotta share these cutie pics my mom sent of her swimming and then at bath time. Lil Parker is so cute. I hope Anissa is just as cute!

HELP ME!

2009-08-18T11:13:00.000-07:00

Ok so all of you moms out there that have been pregnant please help me out.
Mandrae thinks that if I walk everyday that I will have less pain when delivering and that exercise will take away the pain. I keep telling him that it wont ever take away the pain bc the baby will stretch ur bones and flesh period and the pain will not change but it will help with labor and making it go smoother and possibly faster. Right??
I think that I am right and he thinks that he is right. What do u think?
Will walking - starting now - make the birthing process less painful?

before and after :)

2009-08-14T10:09:00.001-07:00

So here is my lil neice Parker. The cutest baby in the world. This was my favorite pic of her. The first time I ever saw her. She was so tiny and I couldnt get over how cute she was. And then my mom sent me a pic of her in the bathtub last nite and now I really cant get over how funny cute she is!!!! O man that picture should be in ALL kinds of contests!!!

BEFORE

AFTER

POST 100!!! And what a great way to celebrate # 100! :)

2009-08-13T06:53:00.000-07:00

Ok so I have to share the sweetest thing that has ever happened to me. Yesterday I felt aweful all day long at work. My stomach and my head were in so much pain and I just wanted to go home and go to bed. My husband doesn’t work on Wednesdays and so he was home and I told him I wasn’t feeling good and that my day at work with reviews was really bad and he said that he would take care of me when I got home. He also texted me all day saying that he was thinking about me and loved me. SO sweet. So when I got home he had made me a salad for dinner and said that he had a surprise for me and I got excited and then said no just kidding. So I then thought that there was no surprise and didn’t think anything of it. So we were watching “More to Love” and he had to go to his new bowling league soon and so he said that he had to give me my surprise before he left and I just wanted to finish the show. So he took me into the bathroom and there were candles all along the side of the bathtub and the bathtub had bubbles in it and looked awesome and was not too hot since I am pregnant. It was PERFECT! It felt so good and was so so sweet. Then on the side of the bathtub was a card. I opened the card and it had a long saying about how he falls in love me more every day and so on and it was the sweetest words ever. All I could think was how sweet it was but I wished that he had wrote them himself. Well then I get to the inside of the card and there was a book written by him to me! It was like he could read my mind! He has NEVER written that much and I am telling you that it was so deep and so sweet that I couldn’t take it!!! I have never heard anything like that in my life! WOW!!! Well then on the card is a bowl of cherries and I love cherries and so in comes my husband again with a big bowl of cherries for me to eat in the bathtub. Man he really went to a lot of work for me and it took a lot of thought. Then on top of that he brings me a coupon (shaped like a ticket) that he made himself that says “1 ticket for 2 to the Dallas Zoo on August 30th after church.” I have been bugging him for a while to take me to the zoo but he is not animal crazy like I am and so he always said no. He was on a ROLE! I am so excited to go to the zoo. Then to finish off the best surprise of my life he gave me a massage (and no I don’t like massages but I have a huge rash on my back from being pregnant that hurts really bad and so he rubbed anti itch medicine on it for me). I am telling you that I have the best husband that anyone could ever ask for and I am so so lucky!!! How did I get so lucky? And did I mention that he also does almost all of the cleaning and so everyday when I come home from work the whole house is always clean! He doesn’t expect me to cook bc I am always tired from work and I don’t really enjoy it anyway. Man I just have the best life ever. Anissa will be so happy to have a dad like Mandrae! We are truly blessed!

Caught in the act :)

2009-08-12T07:05:00.000-07:00

So on Monday when I was off work and staying at home, I slept in til 2:00 pm. (I know that is so bad but we didnt go to bed til like 3 am that morning). Then I was searching the house for Bebe bc she was no where to be found. She wasnt in her bed, in my bed, at her food dish, on her spot on the couch, wasnt in the baby room or guest room, wasnt on the stairs or in the pantry waiting on her dog treats, and she wasnt in the laundry room waiting on her papa to get home. I was stumped and then I thought o wait maybe she is outside. I went to the door and I got a glimpse of what she does all day when we are gone. I couldnt take how cute it was!!!! I know these pics do it no justice bc she looks far away in the pics but O MY GOODNESS it was the cutest thing in the whole world. What would I do without her to laugh at? Especially when she lays in the 110 degree sun. Who does that? (.............ok well I used to)

kick kick

2009-08-11T11:25:00.001-07:00

Man I tell you what, pregnancy is a crazy thing! It is so funny to me to feel Anissa move and kick me. I love it bc other than that I don’t really feel pregnant. Yeah I sure do look it but I just feel fat and not really pregnant right now. A lot of times I totally forget that I am pregnant all together. I mean I do get outta breath a lot and you would think that would be a huge reminder and the fact that I look and feel like Humpty Dumpty but other than that I keep forgetting that I am pregnant. The other day I was sitting on the couch and I passed out (I sure am ALWAYS tired) and then Anissa kicked me REAL hard and I woke right up and it scared me so bad and it hurt. Haha. Crazy! Guess she didn’t want me to sleep. Right now the worst part of the best month of pregnancy (I am over half way through my 5th month and it is the best bc I am not sick and not overly huge) is my acid reflex. Man I know this will sound gross but I cant sleep bc all I do at nite is throw up in my mouth. And I am so tired that I cant wake up and go throw up so I keep swallowing it all nite and just have crazy dreams that I am eating something disgusting! Yeah it is sick and it is SO uncomfortable. It feels like when I was at Tabor and I used (haha haha haha haha haha haha haha haha- Anissa must know I am talking about her bc she is doing summersaults in my stomach right now…..haha haha haha haha haha haha haha) to overeat after track practice and then try to work out again and I just had all of that food sitting in my throat bc it wouldn’t fit in my stomach. Haha. Man sorry that is gross. But now you know how I feel. So yeah pregnancy is a crazy thing! Boy do I wish our husbands could feel what we feel! If I was the one that made men I would have had them be able to experience all the pains, fatigue, the funny lil kicks (which soon will not be so funny I am sure bc she will be kicking my ribs), the nausea, constipation, being outta breath by walking, labor pains, being poked w all kinds of tests, emotions, swallowing horse pills (even though I refuse to), ect. But if men could experience that then our lives would be upside down bc then there would 2 emotionally unstable and in pain people in the house wining about the pain and no one to do the house work or to lean on for support. So I guess that is why God made men different. Hmmm……….. it all makes sense now. But I still wish every once in a while God would show our husbands a lil fragment of the pain!

Ok here are pics!!! NASTY ONES!

2009-08-05T15:02:00.000-07:00

Ok so I had Kris at work take pics of me in my dress that makes me look the MOST pregnant and let me tell you that I had no idea that I looked this big until I saw the pics!!! I AM HUGE! But here u go! :)

Whats happening now.

2009-08-05T06:36:00.000-07:00

Good news: Mandrae tested negative for cystic fibrosis and so Anissa has no way of getting it. YAY!

And pregnancy is scary. On Saturday I started bleeding and we had tickets to a circus called Universoul Circus (it’s a black circus where they do stunts to hip hop, rap, r & b and gospel with mostly black performers). We had tickets for 4:00pm and I called my doctor and let her know that was bleeding for 4 hours and she told me to go to labor and delivery to get checked since I am RH-. So we ended up going to the dr instead of the circus and we were so disappointed! The dr. checked Anissa’s heartbeat and Anissa was moving around like crazy and her heartbeat was fine so they let me go with strict orders to not have sex for a week. (sorry I didn’t mean to share that) Anyway then we went to the circus to see if we could get into the 7:30 show since we had paid $50 for the tickets and all the shows were sold out and so they agreed to let us sit on folding chairs at the 12:30 show on Sunday. So we got to go to the show on Sunday after church and we got good seats too and it was the best circus I have ever seen! There were not a lot of animals so I wasn’t sad the whole time thinking that they abuse them and getting upset. There was a lot of performers doing all kinds of things and the host was a lil old lady (well a like 29 year old woman playing an old lady- kinda like madea) and she was hilarious! They had people in the audience come down and do dance offs on the stage and did some magic tricks that made me and Mandrae SPEECHLESS! It was just a lot of fun other than being 150 degrees inside the tent. Haha.

Anyway on Friday mom and dad are coming to our house for our first launch party on Saturday at 2:00 pm with Private Quarters and we have invited like 100 people and I am so excited! I hope it goes good. I have a lot of people interested but the tricky part is getting them to our house bc I know a lot of people that tell me they will be there and never show up.

Then on August 15th we get to go to San Antonio!!! And we get to see Katrina and Zak on the 15th and hopefully get to go to Sea World too. So we have some exciting weekends! Just too bad we don’t get to see Parker BUT then we have a baby shower in Hutchinson on September 13th and then we will get to see lil Parker and it will all be good. So yeah we have a lot of things to look forward to.

Question: Is it weird or rude or tacky to throw your own baby shower?
My sister is throwing me a friends and family shower in Kansas and then my friend Kris from work is throwing me a work shower at her house and my church wants us to have a shower and wants to be invited but no one has volunteered to throw it so would it be tacky for us to throw our own baby shower for church and maybe for people from Mandraes job as well?? I know that sounds sad but it is the way it is.

Our Family Tree

2009-07-31T06:23:00.000-07:00

So the other day I ran my family 5 year plan by Mandrae and he didn’t seem to disagree with it so right now here is my plan at least:

Anissa- born November 13th 2009 (that is my prediction of when she will be born)
Trae- born October 2010
Andrae- born September 2011
Girl (not sure of another name)- born August 2012
Boy (not sure of another name)- born July 2013

So that means by the time we are 29 we will have our complete family of 5 children.

What do u think?

I know that God has the final say but I hope it looks something like this.

RATS!!

2009-07-30T16:21:00.000-07:00

Ok so Mandrae went to work on Tuesday and when he got there his desk had pink huge balloons all over it and a cake on his desk and everything said, “It’s a girl.” Is’nt that so so sweet? His team loves him. So he brought 3 pieces of the cookie cake home with him and it looked so so good! So I took a piece of it to work for lunch with me on Wednesday and then this morning I was really late leaving for work. I was running like 30 min behind and didn’t have time to make my lunch. So I grabbed my frozen dinner outta the freezer and the rest of the cookie cake and a Gatorade and ran out the door as fast as I could.

Well I got a phone call from Mandrae later on that day and he said, “Baby we have rats!” And I was like what? And he said yeah, I woke up this morning and I was so excited to eat the rest of my cookie cake for breakfast and they ate it all!

OOPS!!!!

So yeah he called me at work and told me this and I was crying so hard from laughing so hard it is not even funny! I cant take how funny that was. He said that he was going to call Terminix again to spray for rats and they just came out on yesterday and sprayed. Apparently I left crumbs all over the floor and the counter and I took the lid off the cake and threw it across the stove in my hurry. I was cramming a big piece of cake into a lil baggie and I guess I got crumbs everywhere. It was dark this morning bc it was raining and so I obviously couldn’t see. So anyway we are sure that bebe cleaned up the floor but he left the counter messy for me to see what the rats did!

What can I say, you show a pregnant girl cake and she will eat it all!

Fence

2009-07-29T06:26:00.000-07:00

Here are pics of the fence that we stained. It looks much better huh? But cost way too much for what it is. O well it is over with now.

Anissa's Room

2009-07-29T06:24:00.000-07:00

Here are pics of our lame poster board dots on the wall. What do u think? What should we change and what color should the dots be? I am taking a poll bc I want just one color and Mandrae wants like 3. What do u think?

IT'S A GIRL!

2009-07-28T10:35:00.001-07:00

Ok so had my dr. appt yesterday to find out what the baby is and IT IS A GIRL! YAY! We will be having Anissa Beth Collins. We are super excited. After the appt we went and registered at Target and Babys R Us. We were gonna register at Walmart but their registry was broken and so we aren’t gonna register there anymore. We found a bunch of stuff at Babys R Us and it is reasonable and so that is great. We looked at all the girl clothes and they were so so cute and that made us super excited to dress her up. And we agreed on most of the clothes that we liked- so that was a surprise. We love their clothes and they are priced well and so that is good too so we can always go and get them later. We then bought her name in white letter from hobby lobby and put her name above her crib. We also cut out orange and light yellow dots from poster board and glued them to the wall to look like it was polka dotted and it turned out really bad! So not sure what I will do about that yet. Mandrae said that he fixed the room with the dots to look better (not sure what he did) but I haven’t seen it yet so we will see.
Anyway the dr. said that the Anissa’s arms and especially legs are SUPER long for her size but that it is okay. It was to be expected do to her parents. They checked all her organs and brain and didn’t see anything abnormal and she is very healthy so that is awesome. They tested Mandrae for cystic fibrosis and so we will find that out soon. If he is positive then we will I guess be transferred to a high risk section where they will test the baby for the disease but she said that they have never had a case where both the parents test positive and that it is really common to be a carrier in the Caucasian race. I gained 6 lbs within the last 4 weeks but I am sure that is from my yummy waffles and peanut butter and syrup. So that is prolly why I gained so much weight and that I am not sick anymore. But I have gained a total of 7 lbs and my dr said that is normal at 5 months. I am 21 weeks today and my due date is said to be around Dec. 6th, 2009. Our new sonogram pics are not that good, the ones from 4 weeks ago were better so I wont post them online today. The baby is still all bones and so the dr said that she is fully developed by now and the rest of the pregnancy is just to fatten her up. Anyway we are super excited now.
At church on Sunday around 20 people found out for the first time that I was pregnant through word of mouth I guess they just thought I was fat. (?) It was funny we were bowling (and I bowled a 175! YAY!) and the lady next to me looked over and said, girl are u preg? She said that she looked over and thought I put a bowling ball in my shirt. Haha it was funny.
Anyway the only other big news is that we stained our fence this weekend. We stained it a dark brown and it looks much much better but we had estimated around a $150 project bc Mandrae was going to do it himself and let me just say that it ended up costing A LOT A LOT A LOT more!!! And you cant just stop in the middle and say this is too much and have half a stained fence so we HAD to pay it. URGH! Mandrae started out by himself and after an hour and a half of staining and only 1/20th of the fence done he called on help from our landscapers to come out and they finished it in 5 hours right when it got dark. So that was good but it was expensive!
I will put up pics of the fence tomorrow.

In Memory Of............

2009-07-24T15:25:00.001-07:00

Ok so I started a memorial for Hercules today on my desk. Here is a pic of my memorial and then a real life pic of a tea cup chihauhah to show u how truly tiny he was.

Follow up from Dr.

2009-07-24T10:11:00.000-07:00

So before I had my second round of surgery on my other toe, I got a call from my OBGYN. She said that my blood tests came back positive for cystic fibrosis and that we will have to get another blood test from Mandrae on Monday to see if he tests negative or positive for carrying the disease. I don’t have it, I am just a carrier. So please pray for those tests and that he is negative. Also they told us that since I am RH- (B-) and he is RH+ (B+) then I will need to be getting Rogan shots starting at 28 weeks to trick my body into thinking that this is my first time being pregnant everytime I have a child because my body is apparently trying to kill off the baby due to our conflicting blood types. Sounds crazy I know but that is what I was told. I am not looking forward to those shots. I am tired of all of these shots and tests and surgeries. O man!
Anyway the surgery on my toe went much better this time. Mandrae went with me and I read a magazine while he cut up my toe and so I didn’t see it at all and so I didn’t pass out. The numbing shots hurt A LOT worse but that only lasts about 2 minutes. So praise the Lord I am done with all of that. I almost ran out though. It is scary sitting there before they cut your toe off. Crazy thing is that I have had a dr. appt with either toe dr or OBGYN every single week of this month. EXHAUSTING. (They are all BIG appts too)
Our real appt to see what the baby is is on Monday the 27th at 9:30 am and I am excited and nervous. I am carrying the baby kinda low and so some people think it is a boy but we will see. I want a girl though. And then we will spend the rest of the day registering at Walmart and Target and maybe Babies r Us.
And I am getting HUGE! I keep telling myself to take pics and put them up and I promise this weekend I will do that for sure or I might have someone take them today while I am at work and then post them later on tonite. But I will get them up bc I am telling you that I am huge! I am pretty much 5 months now though so that should be normal.
The other day I thought that I felt some kicks in my lower tummy when I got in bed and it lasted a while but I was so so sleepy that I fell asleep while I was trying to feel them all. I guess the baby sleeps when I am active and is awake at nite. And I always wonder if the baby can hear me singing in praise team because the drums and guitars are so loud behind me and I wonder if the baby is scared or if she/he likes the singing and the music. I sing so much right now that she will FOR SURE know my voice when he/she comes out. Sorry Mandrae. Maybe the beat of my heart and growl of my tummy overshadows the music at practice and on Sunday morning but it is loud.
O and the other day there was this LOUD noise outside our house like a gunshot and me and bebe jumped because we were so scared and I PROMISE I felt the baby jump too and it was crazy.
Ok well I will stop talking for now. I will try to go get some pics taken and put them up.

New Business

2009-07-23T14:26:00.001-07:00

Ok so Mandrae and I finally joined Private Quarters with my mom. We are excited too and are hoping that this might be my way to stay home w the lil one when he/she comes. We are having a hard time trusting w daycare and so would ideally like for me to stay and I am going to be having babies one after another until 5 of them are born and I then I might stop. Haha. I am serious though. Anyway we are having our launch party on August 8th, 2009 and if any of you are interested in any sheets, pillows, comforter, blankets, doggie bed, baby blanket, robes, footies, and more then check out our website and shop and let me know and we can get it shipped to you since Christmas is on its way here. Anyway our website is www.privatequarters.net/mandraeandkarissa. Check it out and let me know what you all think. And if any of you stay at home moms want to join let me know. I will update you on how well we are doing. I am trying to get to the point where I am making the same amt a month I make now or more and then I can stay home w the baby. So if it works for me it will for sure work for all of you. So check out the website and I will keep you all updated.

Bowling w the TOE

2009-07-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

Ok so on Sunday I had to go bowling for our Destiny league and I had to bowl with my toe all bandaged up from surgery on Monday. The bowling alley will not let me wear a sock so I had to do this:

I had to get a shoe from the bowling alley and shove my foot into a size 13 because there was no way my foot was fitting into anything smaller. I looked so dumb and didnt bowl the greatest.

Parkers Swimsuit

2009-07-21T13:11:00.001-07:00

So I hear that Parker loves to swim and so I ran into this swimsuit for 12 to 18 month olds and I HAD to get it for her. Isnt it the CUTEST???

Garage Sale

2009-07-21T13:07:00.001-07:00

So on Saturday we had our gargage sale from 9am to 1pm and we didnt advertise just put like 4 signs out and we got quite a few people to come. It turned out pretty good considering we had pretty much nothing to sell as u can see by the pics below. It was HOTT though!! But now we really have nothing in our house that we dont need and so that is a good thing.

This is lil boots all laid out on my lap exhausted by the heat. Man she is cute huh? :)

my lil poo poo- (or maybe I should call her my lil barf barf)

2009-07-16T10:50:00.001-07:00

Closet

2009-07-16T10:35:00.001-07:00

So we are having a garage sale on Saturday - I guess from 8 am to noon and so we cleaned out our closet and it looks AWESOME! And Mandrae let me have the good side of the closet so I can hang up all of my shirts now and now stuff them in a basket :)So this was our weekend project last weekend. I know the pics make it look crowded and bad but my camera isnt the best and it is hard to stand back in a lil closet.

SAD SAD ENDING!

2009-07-14T08:26:00.000-07:00

Ok I dont want to write this bc I might end up crying again and it will bring back bad memories and thoughts but you all need to know what happened.
So the other day the lil boy from across the street felt the need to update us once again and I wish he would just leave us alone bc I dont want to hear these things. He knocked on our door and told us that lil Hercules (the lil chihuaha) is apparently dead bc of a neighborhood boy. He said that a few days before Hercules went missing this lil boy who is 11 came over and was holding Hercules and torturing him and flicking Hercules lil boy parts and Hercules was screaming. The lil boy then asked them if he could borrow the lil dog bc he wanted to hurt him. (URGH!) (WHAT I WOULD DO IF I COULD JUST GET MY HANDS ON THAT BOY) They of course said no and then Hercules was missing. They think that the boy stole him. This boy is on house arrest and going to juvy and is on his way to jail apparently. They said that this lil boy is the one who smashed lil Hercules head in and made his eyes pop out and he must get a kick out of torturing animals! I cant take this. I think about it all day- what poor lil Hercules went thru! They reported him to the police but they can no longer find him and are not sure where he lives.

On top of this, on the news last week was a story about a puppy mill in Fort Worth. Animal control got complaints and have gotten them now for 10 years but finally reacted and went to the property to find tons of dead puppies and 497 puppies in cages all starving, abused and neglected. They seized all 497 puppies and are having a hard time finding somewhere to put them. They are all in critical condition. This is horrible and I cant sleep at night bc of stories like this!!!
Sorry I had to share this sadness.

Funniest video in the whole world!

2009-07-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

Ok Jared, I am sorry but this guy is on Tyler Perrys House of Payne and I think that he kinda looks like u and dances like u and I have watched it around a million times and cant get over how funny he is. Sorry I had to tape it on my tv and so it is a bad picture, but hopefully u can see what I see! :) O my goodness it is hilarious!

Surgery :(

2009-07-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

Ok so yesterday was surgery on my first big toe. I had the ingrown toe nails on each side of my right foot big toe removed. My appt was at 1 pm and I didnt know what to expect and let me tell you that it was way worse than I thought it would be! So first I go into the room and they sit me up in a car and put my feet straight in front of me and he gets a HUGE needle and says ok this will hurt and this is the worst part. O great, that is always good to hear. So he injected the needle in my toe 5 times and squeezes in the medication (Licatin) and counts to 10 and every time he counts he says ok this will feel like fire for 10 seconds each time. O great. AND IT DID! So after those 2 minutes of death pains my toe is numb alot faster than he expected. So he comes back take some plyers and pinches my skin all the way to make sure I am numb and I can feel pressure but no pain so I said ok I am numb I guess and he starts the worst thing I have ever seen in my life!
He take a knife and just cuts right down my nail about an inch from the outside of the right side of my nail and blood is gushing everywhere. And I am about to puke! Then he cuts down the other side of my nail and down into my skin as well. And still blood EVERYWHERE! And then he does the other side and he clips the whole nail off and I am like what in the world, that is way too much toe nail to cut off! I am going to have the ugliest big toes in the whole world and by this time I am wondering why in the world I ever agreed to this! I just want to run out but my foot is numb and bloody and so that wont work! Anyway then he stick some cue tips covered in Phenol down the sides of my toes and is shoving them in there like the liposuction tubes- real rough. He said that this is liquid that will create a 3rd degree burn in my nail and never allow it to grow back. By this time I am sweating horribly and hot and I black out bc it is too much to watch! IT was HORRIBLE. So they bring me water and paper towels for my head and finally let me lay back so I cant see the rest (although he was done so it was a lil too late for that). I have to sit there for a while and then they let me leave so that I didnt pass out completely. So then I walk my 3 miles to my car in the parking lot w a numb foot in the 110 degree sun and am still on the verge of passing out. I get to my car and realize- I cant drive! My foot is numb. There is no way. So I sit in my car for an hour and then drive home pretty much w my left foot! Good thing I wasnt too far away. And guess what? I have to do this all over again next Wednesday on my other foot!!!
I am horrified!!
At least Mandrae will be w me but I am scared outta my mind. I wish they would have done it all at once but she sd that since I am preg that they have to wait.
And on top of that the dr kept telling me that the medication should be ok for the baby. That is not reassuring and all I can do is hope that this wont affect the baby. That is the scariest part of it all.
Here are pics of my foot now at work. I cant take off that pink stuff later on tonite.

The Case of the Curious Hercules

2009-07-10T16:24:00.000-07:00

Ok so our neighbors across the street have this tea cup chiuahuah (however u spell that) and his name is Hercules. He is TINY. And I mean TINY. Never seen a dog that small in my life. Anyway a few weeks ago I met him and he had bumps on his head and I heard all of the stories of how he is abused by his owners kids who are like 8, 9, and 10 years old. So I was MAD. And they told me they were selling him and so I went over to buy him and the parents thought I was crazy and told me they arent selling him and to pretty much get out. So anyway yesterday I went home and when I got outta the car, guess who was there? Yep the lil girl that lied to me about the dog being for sale and the one that told me all of the abusive stories and so I didnt want to talk to her AT ALL! So I ignored her and when she was looking at me or talking to me I pretended like I couldnt hear her (even though she was like 1 ft away from me). So finally she sd, "Remember Hercules, he ran away." And I said, "WHAT?" She sd that he either ran thru the gate in the backyard or someone stole him. And of course I was even more mad now! They cant keep a dog to save their lives! Their other dog ran away when he was a puppy and got run over! So anyway she sd that they had been looking for him everywhere and couldnt find him and he was missing for 2 days. So I was hoping that I could find him and not tell them and give him to my friend who wont abuse him.
Well I went inside all upset and was upset all nite about lil Hercules and decided this weekend I was going to go on a quest to search for him. Then around 10:00 PM (AT NIGHT) someone was ringing our door bell like 20 times and POUNDING on our glass on our front door and I was home alone bc Mandrae wasnt home from work yet. I was scared outta my mind. I decided I wouldnt get it. Well it continued for around 5 minutes and kept getting louder like the glass was going to break and so I went to the door and it was that lil girl. She said that they found Hercules in the ditch by the rail road tracks. O MY GOODNESS! First of all he crossed a busy street (and he is like the size of a frog!) and then went to the railroad tracks and could have gotten run over by a train, since around 5 trains go by every day. All I could say is, "Well THEN GO FEED HIM!! HE IS HUNGRY!!" And she took off.

Surgery

2009-07-10T16:17:00.000-07:00

So I know this is disgusting, but I am having surgery on Monday at 1:00 pm on my big toe. Both of my big toes are infected due to ingrown toe nails. They look disgusting. So they are going to have to do surgery to remove the ingrown toe nail from each side of both of my big toes. I was planning on getting them both done but the dr. told me today that since I am pregnant and they are giving me vicatin in my toe to numb it then I might have to do one at a time. Which means I will have to go back later for the other one. URGH! So yeah anyway please pray for baby bc I am really nervous that this is not safe for her. THANKS!

Nursery

2009-07-08T06:06:00.000-07:00

3rd Dr. Appt.

2009-07-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my 3rd dr. appt. and my dr. told me to bring my family bc we were going to get to find out what sex the baby is. Then when we get there she tells us that I am too early to tell and we will have to wait another 3 weeks. So I told her that my family came a ways away to see the sex of the baby and so they agreed to do an ultrasound for me for free and she concluded that it is a girl! She is not 100% but she thinks that it is a girl. I am so so happy! In 3 weeks I will find out 100% what it is but she is almost sure it is a girl. So I am excited. Mandrae wanted a boy but he is okay as long as the baby is healthy. And I know that once she is here he will be happier than ever that it is a girl. So after our dr. appt. we went and got a crib and some ABC baby bedding bc the girls name will be Anissa Beth Collins and that is ABC. So our baby room is almost complete. We have to spray paint the changing table this next weekend to match our dark cherry wood crib and then the room will almost be done other than decorations. I will take a pic when I get home and put it up tomorrow. Here are some pictures of the sonogram. Some of them are in 4D too and her legs and arms are SUPER long. She looks crazy. She is so cute.

This is her profile. (Sorry they are hard to see)

These are the 4D images that show her long arms and legs.

U can not tell at all , but this is showing that she is a girl, her legs are in the air.

This is how you know you look good!

2009-07-07T10:41:00.000-07:00

Ok so yesterday my parents were here in Fort Worth with me and Mandrae and after my dr. appt they went to Souper Salad with us. While we were sitting there eating our salads in peace the waitress came to the table and told Mandrae that he had a phone call. (what in the world? Who gets a phone call at a restaurant and no one even knows that we are eating there!) So Mandrae gets on the company phone at Souper Salad and apparently some girl had just left the restaurant and saw Mandrae and thought he was extremely hott (which he is) and wanted to know if he had a girlfriend or was married. She apparently told the waitress to get the tall guy in the purple shirt to get on the phone! Crazy huh??? I have never in my life heard of anything like this ever. Who does that? All I know is that if you ever doubted the way you look then this would confirm that you are for sure HOTT! Yeah I know, I have the hottest guy in town. I just thought this was hilarious.

Funniest Story In the Whole World!!

2009-06-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

Ok so about a week ago we get a knock (ok well a bang- a few bangs) and so we answer the door and it is two little neighborhood boys. They ask us if we would like to buy a snow cone. And it was like 110 degrees that day and so we said OF COURSE. They said it is $0.25 for a small and $1.00 for a large and we thought wow that is a huge difference but okay. The only flavor they had was birthday cake. So I got a small because I am not a huge fan of snow cones and Mandrae got a large because he LOVES snow cones. So we put our orders in and they rode their bikes around the block to make our snow cones and then would bring them back on their bikes. We were not sure how that was going to work, riding a bike w a snow cone but we said okay that is fine- free delivery. So they were finally back with our snow cones and they first showed Mandrae his large snow cone which was in a normal sized plastic cup and was less than half full and Mandrae was like, “what is this?” But he paid them their $1.00 and then the other little boy pulled the small snow cone out from behind his back and said, “And here is the small snow cone.” And Mandrae busted out laughing. It was HILARIOUS!!! He tried not to laugh in their face and paid them $1.00 each for the delivery and shut the door before he lost it. Ok so my snow cone was in a tiny cup, the cups that you keep in the bathroom by your toothbrushes to wash out your mouth!! On top of that the cup only had about one teaspoon of snow cone in it. It was not even enough to get one swallow in! It was the funniest thing I have seen in my whole life, EVER! Man I wish more people were there. I took a pic of the cup, the picture makes the cup look a lot bigger than it was but man is it hilarious. So I took my one little sip of snow cone and by the way there was no ice in it, just birthday cake syrup. It was nasty but something I will never forget!

Destiny bowling league

2009-06-08T15:36:00.001-07:00

So at our church, Destiny, we are doing summer fun family groups and Pastor asked me and mandrae to be in charge of bowling and get people to bowl and get to know each other and hang out. So we are starting a bowling league next Sunday with our bowling alley, Brunswick Lanes. We talked to our friend there and they are letting us start our own league and giving us a great deal! So we need 25 to 40 people total and we are doing 4 people teams. We play at 6:30 and play 3 games a nite for $10 a person including their shoes which is the cheapest league they can offer! So they are super nice to us! It will last 10 weeks and then on the 11th week we will give the winning a trophy that will be showplaced in the church and will be an ongoing league and we will keep putting the winners names on the trophy and will be a church wide competition for as long as they want to bowl year after year. We are excited. Also on the 11th day we will have a party and play for free the last week w a pizza party or prize money. It is super exciting for us and alot of people in the church are really excited to bowl so pray that we have alot of people join on Sunday. :)

2nd Dr.s Appt.

2009-06-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

Today I had my 2nd Dr. appt. and it was crazy. I had to wait for an hour and a half and then I finally got to see the doctor. I told her the things that are happening now: throwing up still, my whole body just itches like crazy, and my heart issues from before and now. Then she was going to listen to the babies heart beat and so she had the machine on my tummy for 15 min and she couldnt find the heart beat anywhere. Last time I was in the dr. office she found it right away and that was 3 weeks ago and so she and I started to panick. She decided to give me another sonogram today to see if the baby was ok or still alive. I was so scared and almost started crying. I got in the sonogram room and she put the machine on my tummy and all we could see was this lil baby jumping up and down like crazy! It was hilarious and so so cute!!! The baby was just doing the worm on his back none stop! I had no idea that at this stage that the baby moves at all and definately never expected this! Also the baby is far back into my pelvis which is fine but that is why she couldnt find the heartbeat w her machine bc she cant see the baby and he was moving so so much that she couldnt keep up w him! :) So I feel so much better and got to hear the heart beat, thank goodness. I feel like I have gained so much weight but I weigh the EXACT same as I did last dr. appt. 142. Which is still big to me but at least I am not gaining a ton of weight bc I eat 24-7! Anyway on July 6th I get to find out what the baby is if the baby will move in the right way. So I am excited about that. O and hey sorry we changed the girls name if it is a girl.
We are now going to name the girl Anissa Beth Collins and the boy will still be Trae Cardell Collins. I hope it is a girl bc if it is her initials will be ABC and then we can do her room in ABCs. So cute.

baby shopping

2009-06-08T15:15:00.000-07:00

Ok so the other day we went garage sale shopping for baby stuff and look what we found:

This is going to be the babys first christmas outfit. It is brand new in the box and is size 0 to 3 months. It is winnie the pooh and we got 2 sets of bibs too with it. Isnt it cute?

This is the Jordan outfit that my mom bought for the baby! It is adorable and now the baby will match Mandrae to a T.

A girl at Mandraes work got us this robe and onesie set for the baby. It is so cute.

I found all of these toys at a garage sale in our neighborhood for 1$.

Along w the toys they threw in these lil clothes too.

Our new car!!!

2009-05-28T10:22:00.001-07:00

We got a new car yesterday. It is a 2009 Toyota Camry LE with 5900 miles on it. I love it. There really arent any upgrades in the car but it was a great deal. We bought it from a 3rd party who was laid off and had too many cars as it was. We have a Chrysler Sebring also right now that we are leasing through Mandraes company but God is good. Mandrae found out today that he can turn it in with no penalities. So everything worked out perfectly! And the payments are almost identical so it will not even be noticed financially. YAY! Here are some pics:

How could I be a mother?

2009-05-21T15:44:00.000-07:00

So Friday we come home from work around 8 pm like always and I see Bebe (boots) isn’t jumping up and down to see us. She was just dragging her lil legs around to be close to us. I didn’t think much of it. Then she just goes to the couch and lays down and wont come to me when I call her. I get close to her and see that she can barely breathe. She was gasping for air. I try to give her any a # of our different variations of treats and she wont eat or drink anything. So I start to get worried. I hold her close and she is literally gasping for air and it is really, really bad. AWEFUL. She cant hold her head up. She couldn’t get comfortable at all. She looks at me and her eyes start to roll into the back of her head and her eyes turned cloudy and then I start to panic. I start crying and freaking out that my baby is dying. So we try to take her on a walk but she could care less and just can barely walk. You can tell she is in a lot of pain. We get 2 houses down and realize that she is suffering and so turn around and go home. We do not know any vets in town and it is 10pm by this time. So we put her lil body that cant breathe in bed and pray for her all nite. I couldn’t figure out why she was acting like this. It was so weird. She usually acts like this – not nearly this bad- when she eats fertilizer but we hadn’t laid fertilizer for weeks now. So with my potent pregnancy nose I walk to her food and almost pass out. I pick up her bowl and there are maggots and mold in the bowl. I start to think. When we left for the cruise she still had food in her bowl and when we got back it was still there. Our house smelled good when we got back to us and nothing smelled bad at all. Well I just some food on top of the food that was already in there. (this is canned food- not refrigerated) Well apparently that food was no good and had molded while we were gone. So I stand there throwing up and very upset bc if she dies I am the one that killed her bc I was too lazy to clean her food bowl. I felt horrible. How could I possibly almost be a mother if I almost killed my one and only baby?
Well good news is that at 3 am she jumped into our huge and high up bed with me and so that was awesome bc that nite she couldn’t barely jump onto our small couch. So she was better in the morning and by lunch time we got her to eat some chicken. So baby is ok by the grace of God. I know that he saved her bc she was for sure DYING that nite. I just pray to God that she lives to be a big sister to the baby. The baby will love sweet and innocent lil boo boo.