Ups & Downs

We've had some short, but fun, thunderstorms this evening. I told Ivana if we were in Nashville we'd be turning the weather channel on to see if we need to be heading toward the cellar. She said the only idea she has of tornados is from television and movies. They just don't happen here. That's a good thing. There's not really a place in this house to hide from them!

I got to talk to my best friend Erin last night over Skype. It's been ages since we talked on the phone and we had the same problem we always do: we can't hang up. She's in Walsall, England and due to have a baby the day before me! Isn't that neat? She caught me up on the antics of her two year old twin boys, Sam and Ethan.

I feel myself getting emotional and easily depressed these days. I've been keeping the Bible handy to pick up when I know the hormones are charging in. I just read until I can't read anymore and then my attitude is usually better. Only eight or so more weeks to go; six if I'm a good girl! I have my next appointment tomorrow and she should be giving me information for the head midwives at the hospitals so I can decide where to deliver.

Wherever I go I'm almost certain that they'll be glad to see me leave! They dress newborn babies in about four layers of clothes here; similar to swaddling. They are not putting my kid in that much clothing in the middle of August when there's no AC! This is going to be a real test for me.

Movin' Right Along

With lots of down time I've gotten my feet down to their normal size. I've also had some help with my emotional well being. Yesterday I had a pedicure and today a hair cut. They don't just wash your hair here. They deeply cleanse and then massage and it takes at least twice the time it usually takes in the States. I love it. Margareta is a good stylist, but I always walk away looking like a mushroom. She wants to give my hair body, but the style is a bit odd. With enough gel I can fix anything.

The pedicure wasn't at all what I was expecting. It was more like going to the podiatrist. She did everything I wanted though without me asking. The skin on my feet has gotten so dry and yucky. She gave me new feet and then didn't even offer to paint my toe nails. I didn't want that b/c I can't reach them if I want to change the color.

I found out at this salon where they do pedicures they also have massage (and acupuncture) for pretty low prices. Timothy and I both need some work done on our backs so we'll be making more appointments. Plus, my 8th visit is 50% off so I could get a one hour massage for $20! Not too bad!

It's been in the lower to mid 80's here. Of course, it's felt about 10 degrees warmer to me. I've had fans on me constantly. I walked by myself to get my haircut this morning and passed an older man on a bike who smiled at me and said, "Bravo." Thanks. I'm thankful for the heat though. I wasn't having a lot of braxton hicks contractions, but I've had some great ones yesterday and today.

Nana and I started on the website tonight. The first thing we need to do is find an affordable program and learn how to use it. Since I'm on the couch quite a bit of the time this will give me stuff to do. Tomorrow I'm handing the house hold stuff over to Ivana; she doesn't know it yet. I know she's stressed and feels pressured because she's in the middle of exams, but I think it will be a good time management lesson for her (which has been the biggest thing we've had to deal with since she's been here). Before you assume I'm being mean, she doesn't have any classes going on right now. She has a psych exam Thursday and a German exam Monday...and she's Slovene. Slovene's just love to worry and work themselves up in my opinion. I could give examples, but I won't right now.

We've received enough monies now to pay for translating the SaveOne material. God is right on time! We've had to rewrite our "constitution" and now it just needs a good looking over and taken back to the government office.

Just Another Lazy Sunday

The weather has warmed up nicely in Ljubljana. If I wasn't 7 months pregnant I would probably really enjoy it. Last summer I would love to walk to the grocery store around 2:00 in the afternoon b/c the Slovene's were all hiding from the heat. I thought it felt great. It does get pretty warm, but the humidity isn't nearly as bad as what we've lived with in the States.

I've woke up the past two mornings with swollen feet. I really don't enjoy it. It feels funny and it's a little annoying to walk on. I've sat on the couch most of this afternoon with my feet elevated on pillows and drinking water, with the exception of a glass of pink lemonade this evening.

Church was miserable this morning since there isn't air conditioning; not in stores, not in houses, no where. Towards the end I was starting to feel sick and thought I might pass out. Clay threw a temper tantrum right on time (he was too warm too) so I had another reason to leave and find a cooler place.

This evening Timothy took me out for a driving lesson. It didn't last long since the car was low on gas and neither of us had cash on us. Plus, Timothy was bored out of his mind. I was just driving around in circles getting the feel of shifting again. The last time I tried to drive stick was last October.

Now I'm back on the couch with the laptop (thank goodness for wireless internet!), drinking my pink lemonade and researching church websites. Our friend Nana got the idea in her head this morning that our church needs a website so I've been doing some research today. Any suggestions or help are welcome.

Anniversary and New Houses

Four years ago this week we said "I do." I'd say it's been anything but boring. Timothy out did himself this year with flowers (twice), a new watch, Chinese food and a movie. This is the most "celebrating", or gift giving at least, I think we've ever done for our anniversary. He wanted a new bike, but those are a bit harder to afford here, so we might combine it as an anniversary/birthday present for him. I told him he should at least go golfing so I don't feel like he's going without.

Things are winding down at the QSI headquarters. Ram and Sally will be the last people to leave on the 12th of July, but I think they're supposed to bring Ram's sister back with them from India. She's the only other Christian at this time in Ram's family and she needs to get away for awhile and be with other Christians. They are from a more elite family and it's been rough on them to follow Christ. Naughty Hindus.

There are a couple locals in the office, the receptionist and another accountant, so Timothy won't be completely alone there. Jim gave Timothy the authority to set different office hours during the summer; those will probably take effect the day after Timothy's boss leaves:) She's a bit of a stickler to the rules.

Timothy talked to Max, the landlord of the house we want, this week. He said his lawyer told him there's a law in Slovenia that a family with a new born baby cannot be put out of a rental property. Good law, but I don't see why that should stop him. He really believes he can sell that house for 1.5 million Euros and that is just not going to happen. We're not telling him that. We're telling him, "Yeah, you stick to your beliefs on that house costing that much." Ocean front property on the coast doesn't cost that much here; I don't know why an older home in the middle of no where would. Timothy said we can put something in the contract about, if we want to leave we give him a notice of so much time in writing or if he should sell he gives us a notice of so much time in writing. I don't know what would be wrong with that and I think we'll ask our lawyer about that law just to make sure.

We did look at another house this past Wednesday. It was very nice, although a bit messy. The last tenants didn't take very good care of the place. The landlord said to look at it in this condition, see what we think and then go from there. It definitely had possibilities. He said he would repaint to our specifications and make the necessary improvements for us to move in. It had a very big lawn out back, but overlooking the lawn was a row of apartment buildings! Someone could come out on their balcony and look right in to my kitchen. I thought about asking about a privacy fence, but instead I asked about landscaping. A row of tall ever greens would solve that problem. He did say we had free reign with landscaping, but it would be with our money. That's fair.

After praying about it and discussing it with our pastor we feel like the second house, although still very nice, maybe even nicer in some aspects, would be taking second best. I think there's a difference between God's will and God's perfect will. It's His will that we have a roof over our heads, food on the table, heat in the winter, etc. Just about any house can provide that. We still believe His perfect will is the house in Vodice. Maybe it's not so much for us, but certainly His perfect will for SaveOne.

Today is a national holiday so most of the shops and restaurants are closed. I guess we'll just have a quiet day around the house.

Little Man

Yesterday evening I was getting things out of the fridge and informed Clay that as soon as Daddy walked in the door with the tortillas we would be ready to eat supper. I turned around to find him climbing in to his high chair by himself. We don't have the standard American high chair. It's more like the kind you would find in a restaurant. My heart stopped for a second, but I was able to keep myself from yelling and scaring him.

He did that again today for lunch, but this time I was prepared and standing right behind him. When he got in I congratulated him on being such a big boy. He put his hands on each side of my tummy and gave my belly a big open mouthed kiss!

Clay is getting closer and closer to actual words. He's been repeating what I say a lot the past couple days. This afternoon I laid him down for his nap and instead of putting his head on the burp rag like normal he sat up and gave me a big grin. I said, "See ya later, Charlie Brown." He repeated with a couple syllables and 'ch' and 'b/n' sounds.

He has a new...thing. We first noticed it Sunday morning. He walked into the living room, looked at Timothy and I with a serious expression and took the stance of a sumo wrestler then growled and flexed his muscles. We taught him to flex the muscles, but I'm not sure where the drama comes from. Probably Timothy's side.

That's Gross!

Saturday morning I go to Clay's room to get him out of bed. We had all slept in and I could hear him talking to who knows who or what through the door. He was happy to see another human and excitedly collected his things (pacifier, burp rag and blanket) ready for any adventures. Before he allowed me to pick him up though he had to retrieve one more object from the crib mattress.

I couldn't see what this something was, but could tell by the way he was acting it must be something important. He carefully picked up the tiny object with his thumb and index finger and held it out to me with a huge grin on his face. I opened my hand for it and he places a big, green, dry buger in my hand! "Ooh! Neat! Did this come out of your nose?"

He jabbered something and took it back. I asked him if he wanted to go show Daddy. We put the other things back in his bed and he ran to our room, right hand out stretched with the green novelty that he was so sure Daddy would be impressed with. Daddy commented a little and then the buger was forgotten and I was able to get it from him and throw it away.

...just thought I'd share.

Reasons For Not Posting

a. Have felt too sick to sit at the computer.
b. Have not had time...really!
c. Have felt too fat to sit at the computer.
d. Have been too discouraged to post a blog.

I did write one up the other day, but lost it when I went to copy it. Oh well. It was depressing anyway.

I have been pretty discouraged lately. One reason being that I have no self-discipline. I'm trying to avoid sugar and excess dairy, but having a very hard time. The sugar isn't so hard, except for chocolate, but I crave milk so much! I want it all the time, usually accompanied with some sort of cereal. I just finished two bowls of cornflakes with brown sugar!

The other discouraging thing is our house situation. Our landlords informed us that our contract on this house states that we have to give them a three month warning in writing; or vise versa if they decide to sell. Why didn't someone at QSI or our lawyer tell us that? So, now we're here until September, which might turn out to be a good thing since the landlord of the new house is now trying to get out of the agreement of 1000 euros a month.

We found out this week this weird landlord had some people come and look at the house while we were in the States, that's his motive for avoiding us and not signing the contract. Instead of just telling us that he's been giving us this story of, "...if you move in and your wife has a baby and then you have to move right back out b/c we sell the house that will be too much stress on your wife." Timothy's answer: "Think about how much stress you're putting on her by keeping her out of the house she wants."

I am discouraged, but not really worried about it. For one, I know God is going to take care of us. Two, we believe that He's spoken to us and He wants that house so it's not even in the landlord's hands.

There's more to the story, but I'm too tired to go into it right now. Good night!