Baby Bump

Ok. After a lot of poking and prodding (especially on MEGAN'S PART!!! tee hee hee), here is a picture of my belly. Granted, Megan is FAR more brave for baring all in her belly bump picture, but beggars can't be choosers. I'm shy! So this will have to suffice. Anyways, I am 26 weeks pregnant. Full term is considered 36 weeks, but normal gestation is 40 weeks. Confusing. But long story short, I could easily give birth in 10 WEEKS and Mia would be totally full term and healthy. That would be AWESOME. Yet, a little nerve wracking at the same time. I can't fathom what life has in store for Joel and I in a few short months!!! She is a kicking and squirming little thing, and lately she has this new thing of kicking her feet and punching her arms at the same time, so both sides of my belly are getting pounded at the same time. It's pretty hilarious. She has quite the attitude already. Joel talks to the belly all the time and the other day he called her fussy and got punched in the ear. Hee hee hee. I like this kid already :) We get our 4D ultrasounds in like 5 weeks so we'll have a better idea of what she is going to look like. Be sure to check back for those photos!

Caring for the Utility Workers

Since these utility workers have been in our area for over 2 weeks at this point, they have been working ridiculously long hours trying to get the power back on so that they can get back home. They are exhausted, to say the least. So we wanted to do something nice to tell them thank you and that we're grateful for all their hard work. Every Thursday night our local youth come over and have dinner at our house so we put them to work. I bought all kinds of snack foods, from chips, jerky, and tangerines to string cheese, and some other parents pitched in with peanuts, gum, and cookies. We put together these care package bags with a little thank you note. We drove around that night to the parking lots where most of their utility trucks are parked and put a care package on each windshield. We also delivered bags to the Army National Guard guys (about 50 in our town) who are here doing clean up. All in all, we delivered 115 bags to the utility works and ANG guys. It was a lot of fun and I hope they know how grateful we truly are for their service.

This is Gentry making cookies for the care packages.

Joel, Mikaela (Peanut as we call her), and Whit cutting up Razorback Rib coupons for the bags.

Karlie, Kaitlin, and Rachel cutting out the Thank You notes.

Me putting on the final touches.

And my dear Joel counting our progress.

Aftermath

We have recovered (almost) fully from our ice storm here in Northern Arkansas. Almost every one has gotten power back at this point, but for many the wait was close to 2 weeks!!! It has been a mess, but also a blessing for many. I'll explain. Of course everyone, everywhere, is complaining about the economy, but due to the storm we had over 500 utility workers from out of state working in our town alone! And our town is TINY. These utility workers ate at local restaurants, stayed at the local motels, had flat tire after flat tire fixed at the local tire shop, supported our hardware store, etc. On top of that, many locals who were without power also had to eat out more often, and many of them opted to stay at a hotel or motel rather than at home because they didn't have power for nearly 2 weeks. To top it off, all the tree limbs that were broken everywhere gave many unemployed men work to do cleaning yards, business lots, etc. They are still working their tails off trying to get everything cleaned up. Our local utility workers have been working 7 days a week, and long hours every day, so they're making a lot of money in overtime too. And that's just our TOWN. There are many towns surrounding us that have had the same experience. So really, even though it was a mess and people didn't have power for a long time, God has really used this to bring financial relief to a lot of people who were hurting this time of year. Our friend owns the main motel in our town and he wasn't going to be able to cover his bills this month, until the storm hit. Now he's had a record January and it's looking like a record February too! Isn't that awesome?

Joel and I took a 4-wheeler ride to look at the broken trees and such in our area. Here's just a glimpse of one small section of forest that has fallen down. And I threw in a photo of our dog, Sadee, launching herself through waves we were making in my parent's creek. Silly girl.