He Is Risen!

The boys were able to wear their new Easter outfits my mom bought them yesterday and they both looked so sharp. I missed the Sunday morning sermon because Daniel fussed just enough going down for his nap that he needed to be removed from the sanctuary. Rev. Don Myers preached last evening and I was able to attend for the first time in over a month ( the evening service that is).

Philip has decided to do something very special for me in place of our missed "Weekend to Remember." As far as I'm concerned this will be a "weekend to remember"! I'll post more next week. We're praying the traveling doesn't make the nausea worse.

Philip

In addition to helping here at home, taking care of the boys and teaching he has taken some time to celebrate. On the 12th was his 37th birthday so we celebrated the Sunday before at his mom and dad's with strawberry shortcake.

Yesterday we had the official celebration of the release of the Reader's Hebrew Bible. It started shipping earlier this month and so far there are a lot of good reviews and comments about it. I'm so proud of a husband who "finished the job." This will be such a blessing to those who are serious about reading Scripture in the original language. His mom and dad hosted a party fit for a king. They fixed steak and shrimp (with marinated, pan fried mushrooms to top it), salad (with homemade crutons), corn on the cob (or corn on the combine as Allan called it), baked potatoes with all the fixings and pecan pie for dessert. What a celebration! Afterwards we read the sayings of Jesus on the cross to commemorate Good Friday and then fixed a fire in the fireplace. Lovely evening, good food, great company...we're blessed.

Marianne

I'm at week 11 in this pregnancy and things are slowly getting better. My energy level isn't returning as quickly as I'd like but that will come with time. Usually by the time I feed the boys breakfast, get them dressed, get myself washed, dressed, and combed then it's time for a nap. The evenings are usually spent in bed lying very still and slowly but surely those are getting better too. All the blood work and Dr's reports are positive. The sonogram showed one baby (YEAH!) and an approximate due date of October 10th. The heart rate was 172 so if you believe old wives tales then it must be a girl. Allan has proudly telling everyone, "We don't know what our baby is but if it's a girl her name will be Emily Grace and I'm going to call her Grace and if it's a boy it will be Daniel Mark Brown." He has the girl name correct (this is the one name we've agreed on for the past 4 years) but the boy name will have to be worked on.

I'm slowly getting some of the "piles" in my house put in their proper places but it will be a while before we're back to normal. Philip has been so wonderful at keeping the kitchen clean and operational since the smell of my kitchen is too overwhelming for me. He's also done a million other things to help keep the house from falling apart. We may be a team but right now he's the only one playing the game.

I did have to cancel a wedding cake for earlier this month which made me very sad but it was a necessary choice. It does look like I'll be having perhaps two more weddings this summer before the baby is born so I'm thankful they're further out and I should be doing fine by then. I'm thankful for what looks like another healthy baby and pregnancy. There are already things that are making me realize that third pregnancies are more uncomfortable than first or second but I keep telling myself, "My grandma Miller did this nine times...I can tough it out for three!" 'Course I think she was made of different stuff than I am!

I'm also thankful for the strength to keep teaching. So far I've only missed one class. And in another week is spring break so I get another breather. This is the last time I'll be teaching Philosophy since we're going to start homeschooling in the fall and my children need the time that I've been spending studying lectures, grading papers, responding to students, and the emotional energy that goes into teaching needs to be channeled into my own home. This is sort of a bittersweet year for me but I have some great students who have made this a good "last" year.
No pictures of me until the green tinge is totally gone! :o)

Allan

Allan has developed a new fascination with babies and what is happening to mommy right now. Several times he's stuffed his brother's purple rabbit under his shirt and announces he has a baby in his tummy. We've enjoyed telling him the story of his birth and everyone in the family gets involved telling him what he looked like, how he cried, his stay at the hospital, how pop-pop prayed a patriarchal prayer over him when he was about an hour old. And he asks for the stories again and again. Some of the interesting things he's said lately:


1. Philip has been telling him the story of the crucifixion and yesterday as we were laying down to take our afternoon nap he asked me to tell him. I gave a very shortened version and we talked about how terrible the suffering was that Jesus went through. (Of course in his mind if he had been there he would have "poked" Pilate and the bad soldiers and it would have never happened.) I made the statement that what Jesus had to go through was awful and I didn't even like to think about it. Allan asked me why I didn't like to think about and I told him in made me sad because it was so terrible. He replied that I shouldn't feel that way because when Jesus suffered "he conquered death" and that wasn't sad. As he lay sleeping I though it really is true, instead of focusing on the awfulness of the crucifixion I should focus on what was accomplished by it. Death was conquered and I'm so very thankful.


2. He came into our room the other morning with little wisps of hair sticking out on the sides of his head and declared they were his "foul fiend horns." He's been re-watching Pilgrim's Progress and we hear many of the phrases coming out in everyday speech.


3. The other evening he came into the bedroom where I spend my evening lying very still and quiet to tell me, "Bless your little hearty, you're feeling puny!" I had to smile as I agreed with him.

Daniel

Daniel continues to be a challenge to keep up with. Someone has said, "if you don't keep a child busy you deserve what they're going to do to you." That is indeed the case with this child. If I don't get ahead of him at the beginning of the day I'll be picking up the pieces after him all day long.

His latest training exercise has been learning to stay out of the refrigerator. After one container of French dressing was drizzled over the living room carpet, back the hallway, and dumped in the office; 9 eggs broken on the kitchen and living room floors; and half a stick of margarine eaten; and half a gallon of Kool- aid dumped on the kitchen floor mommy has taken a stand. The closest verbal picture I can give you is a tornado on legs. Little boys like this were meant to be outside where their energy can be put to good use digging, climbing, and running. We're thankful that he seems to have a tender spirit and pray that God will keep him pliable. In the picture of him (that I couldn't catch him looking at me) in the kitchen he was eating his first yellow marshmallow peep that Grandma and Grandpa Slagenweit sent him. I don't know how kids stand them but they seemed to be a hit.

Happy March!

Another month....I'm asking for a month that is normal. Very mundane, non-exciting, the kind that you look back and wonder where it went...because February was NOTHING like that. Finding out about our new baby was a highlight but that news also started a series of events that I don't want to repeat any time soon. The ER visit was necessary and did very thankfully stop the vomiting cycle. That was a direct answer to prayer.



I took the Zofran on Thursday, Philip left for Idaho Friday and I continued to take it over the weekend. Now, I'm thinking Zofran is to be a miracle drug...great for nausea but I didn't notice much of a difference at all. It was perhaps slightly worse when I didn't take it but not that big of a difference. My thought is that any pill that is $25.19 (This is no joke - Philip paid $377.99 for 15 pills!) should not only take nausea away but you should feel like a million dollars. Perhaps my expectations were too high but I was really disappointed. We don't have that kind of money to put into something that only helps slightly. (Zofran story to be continued)

Skip to boys - Philip leaves Friday morning and Allan begins running a temperature. By Sunday both boys are sick - bad coughs, congestion, etc. My mother-in-law stayed the weekend until Philip could come home Monday. I come down with the cold on Monday to add to the nausea. Tuesday Philip is home, takes Allan to the Dr. to be told it's a virus, let it run its course. Philip begins taking night duty! (Bless him!) Thursday Philip begins to get sick and by Saturday does have to go to bed. But he's scheduled to preach tomorrow so he's working on his sermon right now.

Zofran story continued: pregnancy, very bad nausea, cold...pretty miserable. BUT, Zofran has added an interesting twist. I will not spell out all of the details here but some of the side effects of Zofran are: "Headache, lightheadedness, dizziness, drowsiness, tiredness, OR CONSTIPATION may occur." Let me make a correction to that: "constipation will occur and you will suffer horribly because of it." So as I sit here tonight my system contains Citrucel, Miralax, Peri-Colace, prune juice (not too bad if it's really cold!), pears, grapes, and orange juice. It's proving to be an interesting weekend and once again my in-laws have pitched in and taken the boys to give us a break.

This week has been a challenge but God has met our needs and things could be a lot worse. One of the things I'm not able to do because of the nausea is prepare food. Since we're on break the cafeteria is closed and I wondered what in the world I would do. But we didn't go hungry thanks to Marybeth Brown, Myra Alexander, Brandy Singleton, and Kim Vance. They pitched in so I didn't have to cook this week. Thank you ladies! You were an answer to prayer.

The boys are fairing well though they both have had a difficult week also. Allan particularly doesn't understand why mommy isn't able to take care of him which tears at me. Daniel has been his usual careening self leaving himself looking like he's been abused. The picture of Allan with Valentine's Day cookies is a few weeks old (before the nausea got too bad) but it's the only one I have. So here's to a better March! (It has to be because school starts Tuesday............)