A little bit of stuff

Wow. It's been quite a while. So much is going on all the time finding time to blog and what to blog about is hard. It's just easier to not blog. Who cares anyway? Life has been filled with Young women's, water polo, tennis, Dr's appointments, driving lessons, citrus by the tons, Holidays and just normal, everyday existing.

Things are coming to a close and things are just beginning. Yesterday, while hiking, I had more complete strangers stop me and comment on my pregnancy than ever. "Oh, you're so small", "Are you trying to have the kid on the trail?", "It must be soon, right?" , "I never could have done this during my pregnancies!" It was just weird. I'm grateful I've been able to continue hiking this long. We've almost got everything ready but it really doesn't matter. It still hits like a ton of bricks anyway. I'm excited to meet this new little person that I've been sharing everything with. The real challenge lies in the next 20+ years. Getting him/her here is the easy part. We have about 10-12 years to really teach and then they start making very independent decisions. We usually don't recognize that until they're about 18 or so. Should be an interesting ride.

Names have been discussed but no front runners. Some are concerned. We're not. Pairing anything with Brown is always an issue because BOTH sides of the family have the name.

I'm not looking forward to missing the tennis tournament this year. A big part of me still wants to participate. So much fun with my children, kids from all over the place and the other Ball kid coordinators. So much great tennis to watch at all hours. The antics in the tunnel and on court are priceless. My goal is to attend one good match. Maybe this baby will be a good one and we can bring him/her along. Maybe I'll just go and hang out for a few hours one day. Well, much to do.

Ouch!

Well, I did it! I finally crashed during this pregnancy. My left ankle just buckled right under and down I went. I rolled though so that saved me a little. Two scraped knees, one scraped elbow, two slightly damaged hands and one protected tummy! The blood was running down my legs but luckily Rich had a tissue with him so I had something to clean it up with. We're headed over to the office to use the laser on the knees. See if that will speed up the healing. On the funny side, Rich said, "You should post the pic and say that this is indicative of how hard I've been praying for my children!"

I love this!

My good Bishop showed us a version of this at girls camp! The analogies are endless. Just love it.

Hiking and life.

Today as I was hauling my ever increasing belly up the trail I was thinking about life. I've often thought this before. My trail is a lot like life. Some parts of the trail are really steep and hard. Some parts are flat (relatively) and give you a little breather before you hit the next uphill climb. Some people need extra help and use nordic walking poles. Sometimes we crash. HARD. We lose our footing because our attention is on other things rather than foot placement and face plant into big boulders. Giving way to blackened eyes that stay for a while. We sometimes slip and twist an ankle even when we aren't running. Sometimes we are so adept at falling that when we fall we can turn it into a roll and with one fluid motion stand right back up, barely missing a step. We talk to others having the same grueling experience in a friendly, encouraging manner. Some of them we even get to know better and they become a part of our lives. When we get to the top the view that is laid out before us is beautiful to behold. It made the struggle worth it. Whatever we do, we keep on. Winston Churchill said, "Never, never, never give up!" I love USC's motto. Fight On! It implies strength, determination, struggle and endurance no matter what! Forward motion. Never stopping as you're going up on the down escalator. So to everyone who struggles, and that's all of us, FIGHT ON!

Ohhh cute!

LIMES!

These are the pictures of today's harvest. Fifty-three limes. Yesterday it was 57 but I didn't pick any up on Saturday. I'm juicing and freezing daily. Giving away as many as I can. If you want some and are local, come and get 'em!

Pictures 1 year apart.

The top image is the first day of school for 2010 and the bottom one is for 2009. Anyone notice a big difference?

The other pics!

Here are all the pictures that were taken. I wish I'd remembered to take a video but, oh well. The pic posted below is here as well as one of his foot (gender is not yet known so don't think I'm pulling one over on you!) The others are just more pictures. Enjoy.

The real picture!

Here's the newest photograph of the soon to be newest member of our family, little squirt. Madelyn came with me and got to see the whole thing. She loved it. We could see little squirt flipping all around and everything. We even saw him sucking. So cute. We didn't find out the gender but I've always thought it was a boy. But I have been known to be wrong.

News spreads.

More and more people are finding out. Today a random person from another ward in another building came up to my husband and offered her congratulations. My thoughts, "How the heck did she find out?!" We love to talk. Especially when it's something shocking about others. We survived the first week of school. Seminary starts next week with even more changes. The stake has decided to mess with the system in our building. Great. I have a list of questions to throw out at the parent meeting. When something isn't broke, why try to fix it? Should be interesting and even a little fun to grill the stake representative if they come? My kids think I have more testosterone than usual because I enjoy a little friendly debate more than usual lately. Bwahahaha! Especially when I have lots of doctrine to back me up. Life goes on. Study hard, work hard and pray hard!