If you look to the right of your computer screen, you will see a little blue elephant counting down the days until my due date.  Hmmm…. does anyone else think he looks like he’s going off the page? His left ear isn’t whole.  Right now it says 40 weeks and 4 days.  I remember telling MANY people that I absolutely would have Noah before Thanksgiving.  It’s one of those moments where you wish you would’ve kept your mouth shut.  I’m excellent at trying to control my life, and God is excellent at reminding me that I’d better not do that!  Anyway, three days or less and the elephant will be going BYE BYE.  Thank you, Lord, for teaching me patience… even when it hurts.  Literally.

What do you do when you’re almost 41 weeks pregnant and sick of reading, watching TV, and looking for Christmas presents online?  You bake!  Get out the ingredients, bowls & measuring cups.  Then drag a stool into the kitchen and sit at the counter to do the mixing (because standing for more than 5 minutes HURTS!). This morning I decided to bake pumpkin muffins.  For some reason I bought about 6 cans of pumpkin, so I’m trying to use it up!  I found this recipe, and it’s on the healthier side – which I love.  Whole wheat flour and no butter.  The one thing I might do differently next time is add pecans or dark chocolate chips to make them a little sweeter.  I just thought I’d share the recipe in case you’re wanting to use up your pumpkin as well… hope you enjoy them.

If your birthday is coming up or you think you might get clothes for Christmas, I would advise that you cut the price tags off before you wear them.  It’s NOT cool to keep them on.  At a birthday lunch today with my friends from Sherman, Pam decided to sport her price tag in the armpit of her spankin’ new green hoodie. To all of our delight, she was quite embarrassed (She deserved it!  She thrives on making fun of the rest of us!).  Anyway, we got a good laugh and thought it was blog-worthy.  Love you, Pammie.  :)

In my women’s Bible study we are doing an Andy Stanley study called “Breakaway.” This week he made a statement that greatly impacted (convicted?) me.  He said that, if we could all remember this one truth throughout our day, it would make a huge difference in our world.  The statement is this – “Every person you lay your eyes on is someone for whom Christ died.”  Typically, as humans, we ascribe value to those who give some value to us.  For instance, Andy said that, when someone introduces him and simply says, “This is Andy Stanley,” the person kindly says hello and shakes his hand.  But if “He is Charles Stanley’s son,” is added on to the introduction, the person meeting him seems overly joyful and steps a little closer to him, shaking his hand more adamantly (in some circles, Charles Stanley is quite famous). They obviously valued Andy more because of his father.

But to God, each person is equally valued.  No one person is more “famous.”  If we could see all people as deeply valued by God, maybe we would treat them differently. My parents have always treated people very kindly, so I learned this well from a young age.  Although sometimes I can, admittedly, still be critical and judgmental.  I loved this study… what a profound truth.  God doesn’t value John Travolta or John Piper or John from the street any differently, but would I be equally excited to spend time with any of these?  To whom would I express more kindness or attention?  

All people have extreme value to our Father.  He loves no one person more than the next.  I have tried to focus on that this week.  I hope to not lose sight of it.  I have so much to learn, but this is a big step. My life is meant to be lived to show people who Christ is.  The way I treat each person is a testimony to whom I follow.  If I am to represent Him well, I will see each person as He does – with utmost value.

I had a tough dr’s appt this morning.  Basically, Noah isn’t dropping at all… in fact, he’s really high up for a full-term baby.  Dr Parker doesn’t think Noah will go anywhere without inducing, and he wants me to be prepared for a possible c-section – not 100%, but very possible. He also told me that I can’t induce next week, on or near my due date, because all the spots are filled.

So – long story short – our options were to 1) induce tomorrow, 2) get on a waiting list for next week, or 3) schedule an induction for Dec 1, which is a week past my due date.  After a long day of discussing options of if/when to induce, etc, Jason & I have decided to let my body take its course and see what happens. Dr Parker doesn’t want me to go over a week past my due date, so we’ve scheduled an induction for Monday, Dec 1st, but are hoping Noah will come before then (preferably between now & next Tues, since doc will be gone for Thanksgiving next Wed – Sun).

It has been a long and emotional day for me.  God continues to teach me to trust Him!  This is not at all how I envisioned this process going, so it’s been hard. But I am very peaceful about the decision.  At least if we have to induce on Dec 1, we’ll know that we tried everything we could to let him come naturally.

Please pray for continued peace for us, and that my body will kick it into gear sometime between now & next Tuesday!

Thanks for your prayers… Casey

Just thought I would post some photos of the nursery.  We’re ready for you, baby!

Okay, TWO WEEKS and counting… really, when you think about it, two weeks is NOTHING!  :)  And it could be sooner ??  Anyway, Jason and I decided we’d better take some photos tonight, in case Noah decides to come early (which would make mommy VERY happy!).  So here’s a couple from tonight… enjoy, they may be the last!  Say BYE BYE to the tummy! (darn!  haha)…

Love this and just wanted to share…

“If You wake me each morning with the sound of Your voice, I’ll go to sleep each night trusting in You.  Point out the road I must travel; I’m all ears, all eyes before You.”

I have a friend who used to laugh at herself, because she said she has “cankles.”  If you’ve never heard of cankles before, it’s when your calf runs into your ankle… calf + ankle = CANKLE.  It’s basically a fat ankle.  I would just crack up when she talked about her cankles.  In fact, I think we actually called her “Cankles” for a while.  Well, it’s payback time I guess.  I have somewhat prided myself on the fact that I’ve had minimal swelling thus far in my pregnancy (as if I have any say in it, really).  Well, last night… ankles were just fine. This morning… not so much.  I took a bath, and when I got out and started to put some lotion on my legs I could NOT believe my eyes… MY ANKLES HAD DISAPPEARED!  True cankles staring me right in the face. They appeared out of nowhere!!  Anyway, it’s quite disturbing.  Tonight we had our small group over, and I had to cover my cankles with a blanket, because I didn’t want to look at them!! HA…  Anyway, I just needed to share my pain.  And I might as well say that I have 18 days until my due date!  YAY!  It’s time to have this little boy and get rid of these cankles!  :)

Okay, this is the second time I’ve been tagged, so I’m going for it.  Jamie tagged me first, then Sharon.  Here goes…

1) Every morning, I have to brush my teeth immediately after I wake up.  Sometimes I even get up, brush my teeth, and go back to bed.

2) If I’m home, I turn almost all of the lights on in the house, because if the lights are off I feel tired.

3) I fix the frames hanging in my hallway AT LEAST once a day, because they always look crooked, and it drives me INSANE! (I’m starting to sound a bit OCD like Sharon!!).  :)

4) When I was a toddler, and we were visiting my grandparents, my mom walked out on the front porch and I was stuffing birdseed up my nose!

5) I have to hear my sweet husband say “I love you” before I fall asleep every night.

6) In eighth grade I sang (by myself!) the beginning part to “A Whole New World” for a spring festival in my high school football stadium.  Why my choir director had a girl singing Aladdin’s part, I’ll never know.

7) When I was 4, my mom and Jamie (1 yr), and I were kidnapped outside the mall in Cleveland.  A strange man approached us in the parking lot and told us to get in the car.  I actually sat on his lap in the front seat.  When we had driven about 10 minutes, he told my mom to stop, and he got out of the car.  I guess he just wanted a ride!? FREAKY!

Alright… now I’m tagging YOU:

Jen

Julia

Julie

Courtney

Mary