Saturdays: Our Family Day

I love Saturdays. Saturdays in our family mean "Family Day!"

We don't ever schedule anything on Saturdays. We reserve the whole day to spend time with eachother and to rest. Saturdays are our Sabbath. It is hard to have Sunday be a day of rest since we are busy all day long from 8:30am to 10pm at night with church activities. We lead the young adult group every Sunday, so we often aren't home until 10pm. Sundays can be exhausting for us. So, that is why Saturdays are our day to just enjoy whatever the day may bring.

Today is a great example of a perfect Saturday. Ezra woke up in the middle of night from a dream...he was still 1/2 asleep and was crying and saying, " My doughnut! I want my doughnut!" Ross and I thought it was really funny.

Side story-- 3 nights ago he woke up and was crying and saying he wanted tylonal with blueberries!! He ate blueberry pancakes just about every morning in Alaska, so I guess that is where it was coming from!

Anyway, onto our Saturday.....Ross had the idea to go get doughnuts for breakfast. So, we went to the bakery of Fred Meyers and picked out our doughnuts. It was 10am by this time, and Ross was getting really hungry, so we also go chicken strips from the deli! We came home and ate our doughnuts and chicken strips! (A blanced meal..right?) In my defense...I tried to cut up a peach to add to the weird breakfast, but Ross said to just let it be!=)

Ross did actually have a meeting to go to today at church for a bit, so during that Ezra and I went to the Farmer's Market and bought a flat of local rasberries and marionberries!! YUMMY!! We also got fresh rosemary and garlic bread to go with the homemade chicken noodle soup that I will be making shortly! We also bought carrotts that are grown just around the corner from our house! Yes, we bought local today.=)

The day isn't over yet, but so far it has been very relaxing and enjoyable. I do enjoy getting a small project done on Saturdays, so perhaps I will fold the rest of my laundry.

I am sure that later we will go to the park with our dog and play until we are so wiped out that we just want to kick our feet up and watch a movie.

I would love to know what your Saturdays are like! Please comment and let me know! Or if you have a different family day, what is that like and what day?

17 Week Baby Appt

I have been hoping and praying that I would get good news at this appointment. I had some good news, and some not so good news. Do you want the good or bad news first? I always like to give bad news first and end on a positive note....

Bad News: I am still on light duty. The placenta is still over my cervix and in a spot that with to much strain could cause lots more bleeding and problems for me and the baby. I am more prone to bleeding because of my past episodes in this pregnancy. I have an ultrasound in 3 weeks. We are hoping the placenta moves up. If it doesn't by then, most likely I'll be having a C-section. I was told with Ezra about this time that I had the same thing and it moved up with him, so hopefully that will be the case here too.

Good News: The doctor did an ultrasound! I got to see the little baby moving around. I got the see the baby's face and body. The doctor was so nice and even tried to see if we could see boy or girl parts. We weren't able to see either.....he did say that girl parts are hard to see, but boy parts can usually be seen at this point....so is it a girl?! We will find out in 3 weeks!
So, the baby is doing great and I am healing well from the hemorrhage. My blood pressure is under control too, so still no meds!

Dream Friends

As you all know I am suppose to be off my feet as much as possible. Well, I have some of the greatest friends who want to make sure I follow the doctors orders. I was greeted by two of my friends on Sunday and they informed me that while I was in Alaska, several of my friends put money together and got me 9 meals from Dream Dinners! Two of them went and prepared the meals for me! So, now I have 9 meals that just need to be heated up or put in the skillet for a few minutes! Oh my goodness! I feel so blessed to have such caring and thoughtful people in my life.

SSG Jackson

Ross was in the color guard at church the Sunday after the 4th of July. Here he is all dressed up in his class A's.

Alaska Pictures- July '08

16.5 Weeks Pregnant

Here is a picture of me about 16.5 weeks pregnant taken last week. Sorry for the poor quality of the picture. I am growing....everywhere!

Family Updates

I've been in Alaska for 6 days now. I am for sure resting more here than I was in Olympia. Ezra loves spending time here with his three aunties and grandma and grandpa. He runs around and acts like he owns the place. He loves seeing the moose and telling stories about the moose he has seen.
Here are updates on each member of the Jackson Family:
Ross-
Ross is counting down the days until we come home. He has been busy out processing from the Army. He has a little over a week left! It is very exciting time for us. We have been preparing for this for quite some time. It is hard to believe that we are actually about to cross the finish line.
So what is next for us? That is the big question that everyone is asking us lately. Well, Ross has vacation time saved up until Nov 1. He will be taking the whole month of August to search for a job that will meet our basic needs and one with hours suitable for his college class schedule. Please be praying that the Lord will guide and open the perfect doors. We have seen over and over that the Lord always provides. I am praying that a job will be available that Ross really enjoy.
He will be starting his bible classes with Salem Bible College at an extension campus that is held at our church. The classes are Friday evenings and all day Saturdays so it works perfect for people with full time jobs. Hopefully in two years he will have finished his bachelors in pastoral ministries.
The next two years will be very busy with Ross going to school full time and another baby that will be born in December! We have been called into vocational ministry and know that it will take sacrifices to get to where we want to be, but know that it will be very rewarding in the end.

Ezra- He is potty trained!!!! YAY! He is wearing real underwear all day long..at home and when we are out and about! He is still in a pull-up at night, but often wakes up dry. I am so proud of him! I am also very excited to save 50 dollars a month on pull ups!!! Maybe I should start buying diapers and stashing them away for the little baby on the way. That way I won't get too used to having an extra 50 dollars!

Angel- I am still on light duty and am not having fun with it. I feel so lazy not being able to do the things I enjoy doing...like going for walks, cleaning my house, picking up my son...the list goes on! I have a dr appt this next Thursday. I am praying that the doctor tells me I am okay to resume normal activity!!

Baby Jackson- We are starting to think of names for our little one. We will find out the gender of the baby on August 12th!! I will be 20 weeks then. I am getting really anxious to know and name this baby! If you have any suggestions for names please let me know! I am having a harder time thinking of names than with Ezra. I have checked out 10 baby name books from the library....so a total of like 800,000 names to choose from and only a few stick out and we aren't sure about them.

Well, I didn't mean for this to be so long! I was slacking on the blogging so you all got hit hard with a long one. I will post pictures from our Alaska trip when I get back to Oly.

15 weeks/ER Update

Hi!
Well, I had my dr appt today with the high risk specialist and everything looks like it is healing well and looking okay! I will be having appointments every two weeks with the complicated ob doctors. I am still on "light duty". I am okay to fly though, so I will be leaving this weekend for about 10 days to go to Alaska and bring Ezra back with me.
Blood Pressure--- It is still elevated to low 140's/75-80ish. So for now I will not be put on medication. If it gets up to 160's then they will put me on medication for it. For now , though I am just being watched closely.
I heard the baby's heartbeat and it was beating fast and strong. So I guess this is all good news! I will get an ultrasound in one month and we'll find out the gender of the baby!!
Thanks for your continuous prayers!
Angel

Back to the ER

I went back to the ER last night for cramping that has lasted 24 hrs and some spotting. We had two more ultrasounds and the baby is doing great. Turns out that I have a hemorrhage on my uterus. The baby is unaffected by it at this time because it is in the sac. They did see quite a bit of fluid from the hemorrhage. So the doctors will be watching that closely.
I am suppose to take it easier than I was and just let this heal and try to prevent anymore hemorrhaging. I have an appt on Monday to follow up the ER visit and then an appt with the high risk doctor Tuesday morning. I'll let you know how those go.
This is all very frustrating for me as I hate being on bed rest and am missing Ezra terribly. I know it is best that he is in Alaska so that I can rest properly. It is still hard to be away from him for so long. I am still hoping that I can fly up there next week and spend some time there relaxing. I am going to let the high risk doctor make that call.
Thank-you for your continued prayers.
Angel