My Belly

Okay, the embarrassment quotient on this post is extremely high, but nevertheless, I'm posting.
Below you'll find a somewhat blurry photo of my big belly. I'm only 17 weeks along, so it's gonna get a lot bigger, but anyway ...

Our Thanksgiving Extravaganza, Part II

On Thanksgiving Day we went up to North Georgia with Charles and Dawn. We went to Rock Town, a hidden little area near Pigeon Mountain with some incredible huge hunks of rocks and boulders. We had fun scrambling around on top of them and down in the crevices between them.

Our Thanksgiving Extravaganza, Part I

The Wednesday Night Meal

The $60 hunk o' meat (before cooking) ,,,















Catri and I making marbled mousse pie















The feasting ...















Mike and Charles in full carnivore mode ...















The Signorinis (self portrait)















The Spoelstras in a food coma ...















The Hunters in a food coma ...















and the Rothnies ...

What NOT to Say to Your Pregnant Wife

1. "Yeah, you're probably starving the baby," after reading the nutrition section of What to Expect When You're Expecting.
2. "Exactly how big do you plan to get??" when wife goes for more bread and brie 5 minutes after the dinner dishes have been put away.

Just for the record, though - Mark's been great. Just the few minor slip-ups above, for which I'm still making him pay - for example, by this post.
;o)

TV, Fires, & Rib Roasts

I killed our tv last night.
I don't think it was a conscious action, but maybe I did it subconsciously, tv being the great evil of our time and all. I had already done some damage to it last year. (Note the tape on the back of the tv in the photo.) Anyway, the tv was sitting on a rolling stand, and I was trying to roll it into another room, but instead I just knocked it over and killed it. We don't have cable or anything, and we only used it to watch movies, so it's not a horrible loss, but I guess eventually we'll have to break down and buy a new one. If we don't, I'm sure Catri will harangue us about it endlessly. She loves to rent movies.

In other news, we hosted Midtown Church's monthly fellowship/party at our house last night.
















It was great fun. We put a fire in the fire pit in our back yard and many of us hung around outside, eating s'mores and talking and laughing. There were also folks inside, so we had quite a lot of people Chez Rothnie. Many of them commented on how beautiful our house looks now. Evelyn House-Stager, we salute you!
















Today we did some grocery shopping and bought stuff for our Thanksgiving dinner (which we're celebrating on Wednesday, since that's when we have Catri.) Mark and I decided that we're really not big fans of turkey and we would rather have a roast instead, so we went to the store and told the butcher that we needed a rib roast that would feed about 8 adults. He gave us what appears to be a quarter of a cow and it cost us $60. Shortly after we got home we had buyers' remorse. I mean, SIXTY DOLLARS for a hunk o' meat for one meal! The turkey would have cost us about $15. Why oh why are we such food snobs?? Anyway, we'll have a great Thanksgiving I guess. We'll probably be gnawing on the bones for a few weeks afterwards, since we won't be able to afford to buy food again for a while.

Finally, just a little editorial note: I added a photo of Dani, Mitzi, and myself from our dinner Thursday night to my previous post. Check it out if you're interested.

The coming week

We've got a lot going on this week.
Last night we had my friends Mitzi and Dani over. Mitzi and Dani were my "posse" from before I met Mark and before I started coming to Midtown church. Even though I've been married over a year now, Mitzi still hadn't had an opportunity to really talk to and get to know Mark, so I had the girls over last night. Unfortunately I think Mitzi STILL hasn't had the chance to get to know Mark, since the conversation devolved into us three girls talking about clothes and stuff. Poor Mark. He endured it well.

Tonight we go on a double date with Mark's friend from work, Roger T and his girlfriend Joyce.
Tomorrow night we host Midtown's monthly "fellowship" (read: party) at our house.
Sunday night of course we have our weekly "Life Group" meeting at our house.
Monday night is our only night "off".
Tuesday we may go up to see the Signorinis in Jasper.
Wednesday night we celebrate Thanksgiving with Catri (since Catri will be with her mom on Thanksgiving day.)
Whew! That's alot going on! Mark and I have toyed with the idea of packing up the Element and going camping for a few days over the Thanksgiving weekend. That still may be a possibility. We'll see ...

Weather has definitely turned cold and it was hard to get out of my nice snuggly warm bed this morning. My tummy's getting big and my poor stomach muscles are all stretched so much that every time I make a sudden turn in bed I get this pain like I just pulled a muscle. Plus my hip joints have been KILLING me at night. I have to sleep on my side now - no stomach or back sleeping - and it's been hurting my hips like I have arthritis or something. Evidently, from what my midwife tells me, it's simply my joints loosening up, getting ready for labor. This morning was a good morning, though. Just a little wrenching when I rolled over is all, so I stayed in bed a little longer than usual. Sometimes though the pain is unbearable and the other morning I finally just got up at 4 AM and read for a while.
By the way, I'm reading Lord of the Rings. I'm halfway through The Two Towers right now.

Les photos du jour

"Mmm ... that sounds good. I'll have that."















View from our back patio this evening. It's finally turned cold.




















Gratuitous cat photo. I call this "Le Roi Frankie"

Catri and Roger

I'm still struggling with this cold thing. Mainly I just feel worn out. Pregnancy and sickness do not mix well. My belly's getting big and I have aches and pains. Blah. Maybe I'll post a "pregnancy" photo for you all soon so you can see my "progress".

This past weekend was a Catri weekend. She was stuck doing homework for most of the time - Friday through Sunday. She got it all done in time for her gymnastics meet Sunday night, though. She did really well at the meet - I think she scored something like a 31.6 overall. Which is not too shabby. She was really happy and excited and we were too! Here she is with her teammate, Laura:



















Also this weekend our good friend Roger was in town from California. We met up with him and our friends Charles, Dawn, Ash, and Carrie (& Katie!) for breakfast Sunday morning. For those of you who know Roger but didn't have a chance to see him this past weekend (such as BETH), I'm posting his photo so you can see what California has done to his hair. It's kind of a beatnik/Beatles look, I think. ;o) Anyway, it was great to see ol' Rogelio, if ever so briefly.



















Finally, I'm posting pictures of Katie. She was so cute and entertaining at breakfast Sunday morning as she ate a lemon with sugar on it (see 3rd photo). She wins my vote for cutest kid in the world. Soon to be dethroned by my own kid, of course, but nothing lasts forever ...

The house that would have been

Mark and I put an offer in on this house:















We loved it. The wrap around porch. The granite countertops in the kitchen. The fireplace in the master bedroom. But alas, the owner really starting screwing us around and we ended up not getting it. At least not at this time. At the rate the owner's going, he may go into foreclosure, at which point we might get a better deal from the bank!

In other news ... I've got a rough head cold. It sucks being sick when you're pregnant. 95% of the usual cold-fighting drugs I would take are ruled out. Right now it's just Sudafed and Tylenol and lots of hot tea.

Our Feng Shui Home

Thought I'd post the pictures of our house now that it's been staged and trimmed and all-around fixed up. It looks pretty darn nice, which makes it hard to leave it ...

Hedge Trimmers: For Children ONLY

Well, after my hedge trimming accident rendered my left hand pretty much useless, it was left to Mark and Catri to finish the trimming. When Catri was here Wednesday night, we had her trim for about an hour. I was anxious and vigilant and checking on her regularly.

Me: "Make sure to keep BOTH hands on the trimmer while it's running. If you take a hand off, turn it off."
Catri: "I know."
Me: "Be sure to watch the power cord. You don't want to accidentally cut it."
Catri: "I KNOW!"
She ended up doing a good job.

Then Mark got the trimmer out again Friday morning to do some work and promptly cut the power cord.

I've come to the conclusion that the only person in this household who can properly operate the trimmer is 13 year old Catri. Mark and I just need to stay away from it.
:o)

If it's not one thing ...

it's another.

Mark and I finally got most (but not all) of the items on Evelyn-the-house-stager's to-do list done and our house was listed this week. (I'll give you all the FMLS number later so you can check it out online.) The yard is still a big issue, and the guy we thought we would hire to do the work is now saying he wouldn't be available to start work until Saturday, so Mark has decided to try to do most of it himself. Yesterday he went to Home Despot (no, that's not a type-o; that's how former employees of the big orange tyrant spell it) and bought an electric hedge trimmer. While he was trimming some of the front bushes, he discovered that the wood trim around the front windows was rotten through. It just crumbled when he applied a little pressure. So that's one more thing we have to spend money on to fix before we can sell the house. Just when we thought we were done ...
Anyway, we decided I would take care of trimming the hedges while Mark took care of some other stuff, and in about 15 minutes I had us heading to the emergency room to get stitches where the trimmer had chewed on my fingers. I guess it could be worse - I could have cut them off altogether.
I got 4 stitches on the middle finger and 2 stitches on the ring finger of my left hand. That's the first time in my life I've ever gotten stitches. We were only in the Kennestone ER for two hours, which has got to be a record. This morning my fingers hurt like a sonuvabitch and I can't straighten them because either the stitches are too tight or they're too swollen or a combination thereof. Our front hedges look good, though. ;o) Photo of my Frankenfingers is below, if you're interested.

You know, you'd think all this would really discourage Mark and me, and we are a little disappointed, but we're not discouraged. Somehow we both still have a strong sense that God loves us and is taking care of us. We don't understand all the obstacles and bumps in our road right now, but we know He does and that it's going to be okay. Last night Mark and I were talking about how all this stuff that is so beyond our ability to handle (the stress, the feeling of being overwhelmed, the mangled fingers) keeps us so close to our Father. Which I guess is right where we should be.