Baby Brooke Update

So yesterday was my OB appointment. That went well. My amniotic fluid is completly back to normal...YEAH!!! They checked my cervix as a result of the many and painful contractions I have been having and everything looks ok for now. The OB wants me to go into the hospital for a Non-Stress Test the next time I have a contraction "episode" just to see what we are dealing with. We are also off and running with the 3rd trimester. As with Faith my blood pressure is up. So I am suppose to see the OB again in 2 weeks, yeah me!! If we do not get the blood pressure under control they may put me on medication...yuck!! They do not want me to deliver prematurly, so they are being very cautious and thourough, for this I am thankful!!!

We are Back

We are back home in Washington! We will miss everyone in Cali but it is good to be home. I also prefer my 60-70 degree weather over the 90-100 degree weather down there. We took 2 days to get home and decided to drive 95 home and that took us through Oregon. We spent the night in Bend, OR that was nice. The second day was a shorter driving distance but being 29 weeks pregnant it seemed MUCH longer and the 2nd day was harder for me. We got home on Monday afternoon and then needed to recover. Now we seem to be getting back into routine! Yeah for Routines!! I will post some pictures here and on Faith's sight over the next few days from our trip to Cali.

Ok...the phone works both ways!!!

I have always been very open and honest,about what is going on in our lives and how I am feeling,on this blog, so I am going to continue that trend because I do not feel like I am going to offend anyone becuase of my honesty and because I just could care less anymore if someone gets mad at me because of my opinion or my feelings.



So we arrived in California 4 weeks ago. Most of our immediate family knew that we were here almost instantly and most everyone else know within a week because either they read my blog where I posted that we were in California and willing to get together with people if they contacted us, or becuase they had talked to other people and found out the same information. I said in my blog that we are available, I do not know what anyones schedules are so I would like them tocontact us to work around their schedules. So why is it that when it comes down to the last 8-10 days we are getting phone calls asking us why we have not contacted them to get together. THE PHONE WORKS TWO WAYS PEOPLE!!!!



I am not the type of personality that just stops by someones house randomly (except like 3 households, My Parents, My Mother-in-Laws, and My Nana and Papa's). I also do not invite myself over. If you want to get together I will make time as best as I can but I am not going to ASSUME you want to see us. I am of the personality and mind frame that you get together with people because they want to see you so they have contacted you to come see them or meet somewhere.



So, we leave in 4 days and we have not seen everyone. There are people we probably will not see because there will not be anytime left. I have some time slots still open so if you want to see us give me a call or leave me a comment on here and I will contact you but I am not going to assume that you wnat to see us nor am I going to just "STOP BY." That is not me. Sorry!!!

Hello California

So for those of you that have not heard. We are here. We arrived last weekend and had a very packed week that included very little time to blog or call people to tell them we were in California. I needed lots of time to acclimate to the "HOT" weather down here again. I tell you once your body get used to something it is hard to put it through such a drastic change. You see when we left Washington to come down our highs were in the high 50's to low 60's...ohhh it was nice, we were enjoying it. Then we get down here and OH MY...here we go in the 90's -100's...yucky!!! I have decided that it is a much smarter idea to be pregnant during the winter. Much easier to stay cool and comfortable. So if you would like to see us shoot me an email, leave me a comment here, text me, or call (if I do not answer then leave me a message and I will get back to you). We would love to see everyone at least once. We do have a couple of things already planned so hopefully we can work around all that!!! Talk to you soon!!!!

REaching A Breaking Point

There are some days when I think that making ends meet is just a part of life and we will get through with no problem. Then there are days when I cry because I realize that the truth is we are in a downward spiral to never ending doomedness. We are suppose to be coming to California in May and that is looking very dreary, I only have 4 ish weeks of pt work left then I have just enough hours for June and July to keep our medical benefits in tack with the exception of having to come up with the balance for the premium every month and then there is the dreaded "summer hours" for Garratt on top of his O-Chem Class he wants to take, although I have to pay off a student account balance first so that he can register...plus the normal bills and groceries and gas money. Then on top of all that we have to take Faith to Spokane ASAP to see an Allergy Specialist and have a consultation and a bunch of specialized tests done. OMG!!!!!!!! When will it all end?????????? AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!

: (

CRAZY AND CONFUSSING

Hello everyone. It has been awhile since I gave you any updates. A few weeks ago I mentioned that the Budget was very gloomy here at WSU well, not it is not just gloomy it is downright depressing, not to be confussed with the overwhelming anxiety that CA is dealing with, but yet still just as dreary.

The WA state Senate and House released their projected budgets which will be finalized May 1st, to the shock of everyone. We were anticipating a 12-18% budget cut what we saw was a 20% budget cut from the Senate and a 29% budget cut from the House....AWWWW!!! This is now the situation we have all been dreading, this is going to hurt and bad!!!

My job is basically done the 2nd week of May. I will have 8 hours in June and 8 hours in July for now to hang on to my medical benefits as long as possible. August is currently up in the air. So please pray for us financially.

As for the situation with Garratt, well here you go. We found out when Garratt went to do his advising that there was a class that he was required to take that was not going to be offered anymore. This ment that he would be short on credits and a pre-req for his major classes. His advisor said she would talk to the department chair and instructor and see about an exception, but she was not very optimisic, she was wrong, they decieded to grant his the exception and allow him to take the class as an independent study course. Ok, one obsicle down. Then Garratt got a department email informing all the Nutritional Science students that the Dean of their department was stepping down as of May. Then a few days later Garratt got an email from his advisor informing him that she was leaving in May and refereing him to a Faculty Advisor. WHAT?? What is happening? Well, the jist of it is simple. The dietetic program is low on the WSU agenda as far as priority goes. It is one of quite a few programs being cut, although like many others the students have been told that they have a certain amount of time to finish up. This is partially true, meaning that as long as the budget holds out then they will allow the students to finish up, the more the budget goes down for cuts, the more likly that situation is to change.

All of this is happening while I am reevaluating the whole situation and realizing that there are no jobs here that fit my qualifications. I realized that I should have just stuck school out a long time ago. For awhile I have talked about going back to school and I just kept putting it off, why? Why is a good question, I had no answer either. I always said well now is not a good time ( I also said this about having kids, now we are going on baby #2) but the truth is as my wonderful husband has reminded me everytime I talk about going back to school, is there every a good time? There is always something that is going to stop you. So Garratt and I decided that we are going to look into possibly transfering to a school that is not considering Nutritional Science/Dietetics a low priority degree and we are going to take a leap of faith and see where God leads. Garratt is going to appy to some schools. At the same time that he is applying I am going to apply. I will be entering as a Freshman in the BSN program (Nursing).

All in all we have very mixed emotions about it. We know that God has the ultimate plan for us and He knows where we are suppose to be, yet the Human in us is scared for our family financially and emotionally as well as futuristically (is that a word). We are also excited to see what God does. So our request right now is for LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of PRAYER!!!! The big things are 1) Finances to get through the summer and a little into the fall until I can work again. 2) Finances for Application fees...those darn things are expensive. 3) Finances for visisting CA in May...we do not want to cancel this trip. My sister is graduating High School, Catie ( a special member of our family) is graduating from High School, my Mom is having surgery on her hand, my brother is turning 10, and this is the only time we can come down this summer because Garratt is planning on taking O-Chem this summer and it runs through the end of July. 4) Finances for a possible move 5) Peace as we have to make decisions wheather to move or not and when!

So there you have it the chaos of our lives!!! We love everyone very much and are thinking of you all.

AND THE WINNER IS...

We are proud to announce that we are having a baby Brooke (girl). We are sure, as you will see below in the pictures, she was not shy about showing us she is a GIRL. We are very excited. She is very healthy and active and size wise is measuring "average" and right on target, unlike her big sister who was always big, thankfully Brooke is not. Here are some ultrasound pictures for your enjoyment.

This is a profile picture. You can see her head (looks a little big to me) and her cute nose and mouth.

This is her showing us that she really is a little girl... hello world. The arrow is showing us too..HAHA Those are some long legs...must be those Jeffery genes!! : )

This is Brooke's foot. The arrow is pointing to the foot and the little smudge under that foot is her other foot, just like her Daddy she had her feet crossed at the ankle.