Yuckiness

I have much to blog about, unfortunately, Tuesday morning I woke up with a yucky head cold. Wednesday brought early morning vomiting, severe sore throat, headache, and green yucky stuff! Besides being overwhelmed with school this week and many appointments, I have just been resting, eating soup, and drinking lots of fluids. Please pray that this yuckiness passes soon. In our attempt to maintain a 100% non-medicated pregnancy, I am not taking any drugs, I am just waiting for it to pass and hoping that is soon! Although our midwife has informed us that it takes about 3 weeks for a cold to completely get out of our systems.

I must share with you how much I LOVE my husband! Not that it was in question or anything - but I do LOVE him so very much. Over the past couple days, while he has been off work and could have been resting himself, he has taken such great care of me! He has gone to Wal-Mart, not only once, but twice to get me 2 humidifiers - one for upstairs and one for downstairs, Vicks vapors for the humidifier, and soup! He made me Chai for a breakfast drink yesterday and has been making me soup for lunch and dinner, whenever I want it. He has such a servants' heart and I love him so very very much! I have the BEST husband in the world! :)

Please pray for me as I continue to heal. I promise, once I am feeling better, I have lots to share! Including information about our 1st Birthing Class on Tuesday night and a recap of our 30/31 week check-up on Wednesday. Plus, I have great news to share about our little girl! :)

Thanks for the prayers. Lots of love to all our readers!

Does Your Tongue Need Healing? (Chapters 1-3)

As promised, here are my devotionals for Does Your Tongue Need Healing - Hope they are a blessing to you in some way or any other.

Chapter 1 - Death or Life?

Key Verse:

Proverbs 3:13 - "He who guards his lips, guards his soul, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin." (NIV)

Key Thoughts:

As we speak, we can either speak life or we can speak death. There is power in our tongues.

Consider this, God, the creator of the human head, designed it with 7 openings. (The number 7 is often used in Scripture to denote completeness) We have 3 pairs of openings - 2 eyes, 2 ears, and 2 nostrils. But He restricted the 7th opening to just ONE, the mouth! (Prince, p 5)

Do we use this ONE opening to speak mostly death into our lives and the lives of others, or do we seek to speak LIFE?

Chapter 2 - The Heart Overflows through the Mouth

Key Verse:

Matthew 12:33-37
"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." (NIV)

Key Thoughts:

It is important to live out what Jesus teaches us in the verse quoted above. A good tree bears good fruit and a rotten tree bears bad fruit. Our words are very similar - Negative words and speech will not bring forth blessings, same as positive and encouraging words will produce that which is good.

If the heart is good, then out of the mouth will come words that are good. But if the heart is evil, then out of the mouth will come words that are evil...We may deceive ourselves about the state of our hearts with all sorts of ideas about our own goodness, purity, or righteousness, but the sure and unfailing indicator is what comes out of our mouths. God knows our hearts! (Prince, p 16-17)

Chapter 3 - The Biblical Picture of the Tongue

Key Verse:

James 1:26 - "If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless." (NIV)

Key Thoughts:

It does not matter how religious we may claim to be. We may attend church, sing praises, and do all the other things that are expected of religious people. In themselves, all those things are good. We may do all those things, but if we do not keep our tongues under control, our religion is worthless and unacceptable to God. (Prince, p 24)

As a sinner, I am definitely convicted of this. How many times as Christians do we speak about how much faith we have and our knowledge of Jesus being the same yesterday, today, and forever; yet in the next breath we speak something that completely lacks the faith we just proclaimed to have! This happens too often when sickness, or trails, or hard circumstances hit our lives; but it also occurs in simple daily life situations as well. I know I need to prayerfully keep a tighter rein on my tongue in these situations!


Next Week - Chapter 4 - Words Determine Destiny

Prayer Request

My friend Lisa has a requested prayer need. You may have seen this on the news too. I saw it on Fox News last night. Please click the link below to read the prayer request. Please Pray!!!

In Need Of Prayers

Does Your Tongue Need Healing?

One of the greatest blessings in my life is the fact that I attend a Christian University.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying there is anything wrong with secular institutions; however, given the option again, I would ALWAYS choose to be educated within a Christian environment.

The opportunity that I have been given to attend Regent, in my opinion, makes my degree so much more meaningful to me. After all, as Christians we are here on this earth to love and serve God in EVERYTHING we do, I feel blessed that even my higher education is being done in servitude towards my heavenly Father. Again, don't misunderstand what I am saying, I have attended a secular university as well and that experience was a great growing period for me. Also, my involvement in Campus Crusade for Christ was a huge opportunity for me to love and serve God and my campus.

At Regent, I am grateful for the opportunity to learn from other Christians, be educated by Christian professors and apply Biblical teaching throughout my curriculum. When I finally walk across that stage and receive my degree, to me, it will mean so much more. Not only will it signify my hard work and dedication to achieving my goals, but it will also stand as a testimony of God's amazing grace, love, and faithfulness in my life. All the glory will belong to Him!

Regent University's motto is "Christian Leadership to Change the World" and I LOVE being a part of that. I believe that is the calling on my life and God certainly has been revealing that to me often.

One of the greatest things about attending Regent is that in every class the professor selects a key scripture verse to go along with the subject matter. This small item built into our syllabus is so uplifting and encouraging. Not only does it provide Biblical encouragement to get me through the semester, but it also allows me to remember God's ultimate control over my life and my studies.

This semester in my "Teaching reading and language arts" class, we are doing a devotional for the first 15 minutes of every class. The book we are reading/studying is one that I highly recommend to EVERYONE out there! It is by Derek Prince and it is called "Does Your Tongue Need Healing"

For many that know me, especially my mother and co-workers at Advance, I am famous for reminding them to watch how they speak. Trust me, I am not perfect by any means, but specifically when Daniel was battling his illness, through our studies, God clearly spoke to us and reminded us how imperative it was to watch how we spoke and what we spoke. I started reminding others around me, by saying "don't speak that" so many times. It was a great blessing to help others guard their tongues as we were learning to guard ours as well. I am excited to be studying this book and diving into the Scripture revolving around guarding and healing our tongues yet again.

I have decided that each week I am going to post insights from our devotionals here on the blog. You would be amazed at how much time is spent throughout the Bible teaching about the power of our words. I have read books in the past about positive thinking, positive speaking, and the power of our tongues, but now I am excited to share with all of you how God is speaking to me through this book and our devotionals.

My partner is Jenny (of course!) :) and we have already covered Chapter 1 - "Death or Life" and Chapter 2 - "The Heart Overflows Through The Mouth"

Next week I will do a brief overview of those two chapters and share with you from Chapter 3 - "The Biblical Picture of the Tongue"

I will leave you with this for this week...
Proverbs 18:20-21 (NAS)

"With the fruit of a man's mouth his stomach will be satisfied;
He will be satisfied with the product of his lips.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit."

Blessings and love to each of you and may we ALL have clean, healthy tongues! :)

Nothing to write home about...

Well the big snow storm of January 2008 came and went...

The only thing the storm brought to those of us here in VA Beach is very very cold weather! It is 32 degrees out right now and although I have not been outside, "they" say it feels like it is in the teens. I plan on going to church tonight and will probably realize just how cold it is when I step out my front door. Please pray for me, I despise cold weather!

I am ready for 70 degree weather again now! Bring on the spring and summer!!!

Here are some pictures of our "Snow Storm"
(Take Caution, you may go into shock when you see the sheer amount of snow that we accumulated!)

Here is Mannix enjoying the fire that I built to keep us warm...



















ALL the snow in our backyard...I told you it was shocking...

Excitement!!!

I am so very, very thankful for a husband who loves God, who loves me, and who loves the miracle that is growing inside my belly!!!

Brian is so excited to be a daddy and I can't wait to see him hold our precious little girl in his arms. Enjoy the video below of the gift I found for both me and Sierra when I came home from class last night. :)

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

29 Weeks!

Of course this isn't an illustration of myself...but I thought it was funny!
However, my husband may claim that it is me...Don't listen to him! :)























A 29 Week old baby in the womb....



















This week, she should measure over 16 inches tall and weigh around 2 1/2 pounds.
We are 2 months and 14 days away from our due date (but who's counting, right?)!

Karen at 29 Weeks :)




































I popped (and it wasn't due to lots of ice cream, I promise!)!

PS - My midwife says I can blame the lovely stretch marks on my Mama! Thanks Mom!! :)

Please continue to pray for us, specifically that Sierra turns into the head down position, and for my left lower back pain that I woke up with this morning. Every time I walk, bend over, or sit for longer than 30 minutes I am in pain and experiencing shooting pains down my left leg. Hopefully this will subside soon. Thanks for the continued love and prayers! :)

In Need of Prayer

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." James 5:16 (NIV)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the many of you that have known me for a long while, and knew my late husband Daniel, you understand how important praying for others can be.

While Daniel was battling his cancer, we literally had thousands of people all over the world praying for us, many people that we never met and probably many that I will never meet (on this earth anyway).

Daniel used to always ask me, "Karen, how do I thank everyone?" "How do I make people realize that I am so thankful for their love, support, and prayers?"

I didn't always have the most wise response, but I used to tell him that someday people would need us to pray for them; someday, all those that lifted us up would need us to converse with God on their behalf. As our battle continued, Daniel and I would pray for all those that were praying for us, knowing that God knew what their needs were; and I would tell Daniel, that when the day came that someone needed us to pray specifically for them, he could talk to God at that time and request healing in whatever form it was needed.

I urge each of you now to remember how you once prayed for Daniel and myself and I ask that you intercede for a couple named Nathan and Tricia, and their new baby Gwyneth.

Tricia is battling cystic fibrosis and is in need of a double lung transplant and Gwyneth is a miracle gift from God who is thriving on His healing after being born last week at 24 weeks of age. They both are being treated at Duke Medical Center - a place where me and my family have a lot of history and a place that is so near and dear to my heart. You can check Nathan's blog - http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/ which is dedicated to updating all their "prayer warriors" on their progress and God's healing on both of them.

In reading Nathan's blog for the past week, I am reminded so much of how my Daniel lived his life; Nathan is requesting not what his will is, because obviously his will is total healing - yesterday! But instead, he is seeking the will of our Father in Heaven. Knowing that God is never absent from any trial or circumstance that we endure on this earth. Also Nathan does not want our pity or sadness, because he knows, thanks to the saving grace of Jesus' death on the cross for us, eternal life has already been granted.

I leave you with this, as so many of you prayed for me, it is my responsibility now to share with you the opportunity to pray for another couple who is in need. It was not only Daniel's legacy, but we all know and understand that prayer WORKS!

We pray that Nathan, Tricia, and Gwyneth feel the overwhelming peace of God through our prayers! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

27 1/2 Week Check-up

Karen and Pierce - 27 Weeks pregnant :)

Yesterday, Brian and I attended our 27/28 week check-up. Because we almost at 28 weeks, it was time to take the lovely glucose test, to check for gestational diabetes. That meant eating protein for breakfast, instead of my traditional cereal and milk. My wonderful hubby got up and made me scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast! He is the sweetest! 45 minutes before my appointment time I had to drink the glucose drink, I must admit it, it wasn't that bad. It was orange flavor and carbonated. I love orange soda, so honestly, it wasn't that bad at all.

After we arrived at the midwifery center our midwife checked my blood sugar and my iron and everything was perfect! The glucose level must be below 135 and mine was 120 and they are looking for an iron level of at least 11 and mine was at 11.5 - We passed with flying colors - Thank goodness!

At the midwifery center it is very "do-it-yourself", which I happen to like, so when you arrive, you go into the exam room bathroom, pee in a cup, dip your urine test strip, weigh yourself, and then go back to check your strip. Then we sit and talk with our midwife as she checks my blood pressure, discusses any problems/questions, etc. As the patient, I am responsible for telling her my weight (which Brian likes to be the one to control the scale while making me stand still) :) and also telling her if my urine dip strip was all negative. Everything was negative and my weight went up by 1 pound! I was excited to gain 1 pound in the past 2 weeks! Especially with all the food I feel like I ate over the holidays. So, now I am up 3 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight.

We discussed with our midwife at great length about my weight gain (or lack thereof) and she is not concerned at all. She said it is perfect at this point - so that made me feel good. We also talked to her about the fact that I am not a "starving pregnant woman", like most pregnant women I know. She said no worries about that either - I should just eat when I am hungry and make sure that I am conscious about what I am eating and not so much about how much I am eating. Sounds good to me! :)

Then we had the physical exam. She measured my uterus - which is measuring perfect - just between 27 and 28 centimeters (it should be the same number of centimeters as the number of weeks you are - so I was right on!) Then she checked for fetal positioning. Squeezing my belly all over the place, trying to see how the baby was sitting. She ended up having to grab the u/s equipment to confirm, but sure enough the baby is "sitting" - happily in the breech position. Thankfully there is still plenty of time to get this kid to realize that mommy's only option is to have her head down! Our midwife did recommend a web site that has ways to coerce a little one in the womb to turn properly - the site is titled Spinning Babies. We will try some of these options along with consistent prayer that Sierra realizes soon what is expected of her. :)

Other than all that, life is good, especially if you are curled up inside a nice warm womb with free reign to punch and kick mommy all day - Ahhhh.....a day in the life of our little angel.

Brian and I are great too. We are ready to begin our birthing classes on the 29th of this month, we can't wait to learn all the techniques we can use to have a non-medicated, natural labor and delivery. We attend our 3rd trimester class at the midwifery center next month along with a breastfeeding class.

On top of all this, I start "college" classes tomorrow! Time is going to fly by and I am so excited about all that God has in store for us over the next few months!

We covet your continued prayers for us and for our growing baby girl!
Lots of love to all!!!

Pierce's Birthday Party & Visiting in Charlottesville

I am Queen of Slide Shows today! :)

As mentioned in an earlier post, Brian and I spent some time last week in Charlottesville visiting with my two sisters, my two brother-in-laws, my grandmother (who is visiting from NY until the 12th), and my nephew. We had a wonderful time with everyone and always love whenever we get the chance to be with my sisters and their families.

Here are some pictures of our visit along with some pictures of Pierces' First Birthday Party which took place on Saturday, January 5th. After his birthday and Christmas, this kid is now a champ at opening gifts! :)

Free MySpace slideshows, photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Christmas in Richmond

We were blessed to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with my family this year. It was such an amazing time and again we were abundantly blessed with too many gifts!!!

Brian and I spent Christmas morning decorating a gingerbread house and enjoying some of Dad's delicious monkey bread. We ate too much, played a lot, and had a wonderful time celebrating Jesus' birthday with those that we love immensely!

Here are some pictures of our Christmas celebration. Of course, with this being the first Christmas where Pierce could really participate in the gift opening, he was the center of attention! It was so fun to watch him open gifts and now that he is walking, we had a blast watching him walk every where and fall down a thousand times! Eventually he started falling down on purpose, just to make us all laugh at him! He is such a character!!! :)

(This picture is of Mom and Dad's gorgeous tree - it is real and soooo beautiful!!!)

Free MySpace slideshows, photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Long Overdue....Christmas in NY

Due to lack of Internet access at our house until December 31st and lack of time/energy, I never got around to posting any pictures of our Christmas celebrations.

While we were in Rochester, we enjoyed time with both Karen's family and Brian's family. It is hard to juggle every one and every thing that we want to do, but with Brian's mom having to work on Wednesday and Thursday we were able to use those days to fellowship with Karen's family and then Friday and Saturday were totally dedicated to Brian's family.

It was a great time, here are some of the highlights....

• Nana's deer soup on Wednesday night after a long drive in the car all day
• Going to Rachel's band concert on Wednesday night
• Visiting with Brian's old co-workers at the Penny Saver on Thursday morning - It is always great to see old friends!
  
• Lunch with Sissy, Rachel (school-skipper) :), and Ricky on Thursday, followed by some fun shopping at Wegmans!
• Chillin' at Aunt Julie's on Thursday afternoon
• Baking Christmas cookies with my wonderful hubby!
• Dinner with Karen's whole family on Thursday night - a family favorite - Rabbit and Spaghetti - Thanks Papa!!!
• Decorating Christmas Cookies with Sissy, Rachel, Brian, Stacey, Jamie, Aunt Sue, and Aunt Julie :)
• Delicious breakfast with Mom on Friday morning
  
• Shopping adventures with Mom and Bob on Friday (in crazy traffic!!!)
  
• Wonderful fish fry dinners with Mom, Bob, Aunt Connie, and Uncle Frank - Soooooo Good! There is nothing like a NY Fish Fry! :)
  
• Late night shopping and gift wrapping with Brian on Friday night
• A full day of fun and fellowship with Brian's wonderful family and a delicious ham dinner at Bob's house on Saturday!
• Too many gifts for Brian, myself, and baby Sierra - In fact, I think Sierra had the most gifts under the tree at Bob's house! Already spoiled and she isn't even 3 pounds yet!!! :)

Brian and I can not count ourselves more blessed and we love all our family in NY and wish we could spend more time with them. Here is a slide show of some pictures we took while we were there.

Free MySpace slideshows, photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

World Travelers....or so it seemed...

Brian and I have finally settled in for our long winter's nap; however, I doubt there will be any napping going on. Even without the napping though, we are very happy to finally be settling in VA Beach for a little while. Here is a glimpse of our travels over the past few weeks...I am not sure how many miles we put on the SUV, but I think even the car is happy to be getting a rest.

Wednesday, December 19th we left for Rochester, NY (pictures still to come of that trip)

We returned to VA Beach on Sunday December 23rd - Brian worked one night and we then drove to Richmond on the morning of Monday, December 24th.

We were in Richmond until Wednesday, December 26th and returned to VA Beach; Brian worked two nights and on Friday, December 28th we returned to Richmond.

On Sunday, December 30th we drove back to VA Beach. Brian worked Monday night and Tuesday night and on Wednesday morning, January 2nd we left (again) and headed to Charlottesville. We were in Charlottesville until early Friday morning (we arrived back in VA Beach around 2:30am). On Friday evening, I helped out at New Student Orientation at Regent and Brian went in to work. After orientation, I drove back to Richmond on Friday night. Then on Saturday morning I drove to Charlottesville (for Pierce's birthday party) where I stayed until Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, Brian had to work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, so he could not go with me. On Sunday, January 6th I drove to Richmond and stayed with my parents until I (finally) returned to VA Beach on Monday afternoon.

Needless to say, we have unpacked our suitcases and don't intend on using them again for a LONG while!!!

And although we didn't calculate the mileage, I certainly don't want to even think about how much we have spent in gas over the past few weeks....

Brian & His buddy Pierce

Pierce and Uncle Brian LOVE spending time together!!!

New Home

As I mentioned before, we moved to a new home in December. We are soooo excited about it!!!
We have so much more space (although right now it is cluttered with bins and boxes).

Brian and I are excited to have a our first real home together and we can't wait to welcome our baby girl home to this place of love and happiness.

We are so blessed!

Here are some pictures of the new (still messy) place...The fireplace
Standing in the living room - looking into the dining room and kitchen

Standing in hallway - Dining room to the left, half bath to the right, living room straight ahead.
Standing in hallway looking towards front door - Stairs to left and kitchen to right (where Brian is walking)


Kitchen - image 1

Kitchen - Image 2 - Door to left leads out to garage

Upstairs hallway - Spare Bedroom, Nursery, Full Bath, Laundry area.

(Messy) Master Bedroom - image 1

(Messy) Master Bedroom - Image 2

Master Bedroom - Image 3 - plus Silly Husband :)

Master Bath