A New Post

Posted by Joellen Armstrong Tuesday, December 30, 2008 12:13 PM 0 comments
Actually, I am talking about the new post on my Small Mustard Seed blog (see the link on the bottom left-side). It's been a long while since I've written anything there... of recent, I've just felt God pushing me to write in it but I've felt so inadequate. I'm reminded that no matter what I do, if I'm doing my best and surrendering it to His power, it will succeed. Maybe not in my idea of succeeding, but it's His idea, not mine :-)

Anyway, so yeah, it's there and I hope that many of you are inspired and challenged by it as I was and continue to be. Of late, my life has just been all about planning and fixing things, trying to make things better and getting out of messes I've gotten myself into. I realize that I have not been putting my time and energy into what God has wanted me to, even though I still don't know what that looks like. And I'm changing my prayers today; Instead of asking for solutions to my problems, I'm going to ask for peace in my circumstances. Trying to figure things out is STRESSFUL and usually doesn't come to any benefit! 

So, all this to say that if you are struggling, you are not alone! I want so badly for my kids to see God in me and not the need for God in me... does that make sense? 

Well, Asher is officially too big for the seat I usually put him in while I shower. My shower got cut short when he tipped the chair over and landed head first on the tile... he's going to have quite the bruise! Poor kiddo :-( I have no clue what I'll do with him while I take showers now... I am looking forward to moving and having a completely babyproof room for him! Be praying for the house search... we won't be moving until February but we'll need to line up a place that will work for us for the next few years. 

Love you all!

My First Bubble Bath

Posted by Joellen Armstrong 9:07 AM 2 comments

It's Official...

Posted by Joellen Armstrong Sunday, December 28, 2008 3:43 PM 1 comments
Now that I've made my fair share of phone calls I can finally announce...

We are having another baby!!

I wouldn't say we "planned" it (okay, so maybe I did a little thinking about how the timing should go) but we are so excited! At this point, we really just want 2 kids and we thought having them close together would be great too... just for bonding for them and being in diapers for less years in total :-) 

Anyway, my unofficial due date is September 1st but considering it will be another c-section I think they'll end up scheduling it more towards the end of August. Once I go to the Dr. I'll let you all know what they say my due date is and all that stuff.

Meanwhile, Asher is cruising easily on all the furniture and is constantly whining for 2 hands to hold so he can walk around the house... so in one way, it will be easier once he walks on his own b/c we won't have to be bent over... instead, we'll be chasing him everywhere! I don't know which is less fun... but I know I'll find out! When we walks with us he has hardly any balance but moves his feet so fast... we'll try to video tape it soon so we can show you! So far I'm feeling good. A little sick feeling throughout the day but nothing terrible yet. A bit more tired than usual but I'm preparing for worse :-) We're so excited... we think a boy would be great fun (playing with Asher and all) and a little girl would be super cute, plus it would be nice to have 1 of each you know. We'll see. And yes, we'll find out the gender as soon as we can! 

In the meantime, you can all pray that we'll get approved on OHP for health insurance. With Asher, we were completely dirt poor so we got accepted easily. Now, we are blessed to have a steady income that pays our bills but that might make us too "rich" for OHP. Which is ridiculous b/c even with what we earn, if we have to pay for insurance and a C-section then we'll spend at least 1/3 of our income on that which would make us poor enough for OHP... ugh. I could hardly sleep last night looking at all of it but I spent a lot of time praying that God would just work out the details and provide for us. If I have to keep working for a while to pay for insurance and save a bit more for the deductible it's not the end of the world... just not my perfect little plan... which is usually not the best anyway. God knows best so I really should and will try to leave it up to Him!

Also, it was my birthday recently so Mark and I went out to the mall and to eat at McCormick and Schmick's where we had 2 free entrees! It was great. Asher is really suffering from being tossed to and fro for the past week but hopefully a few days at home will put him back in a happy state! I think his new walking desire in combination with the teething and trying to communicate stuff has a bit to do with the grumpiness he's been displaying so we just try to deal with each situation individually and not get too worked up... should be easier for me now with all this progesterone rushing through my blood... pregnancy does wonders for my mood!

I'll be posting some photos of our Christmas in Coos Bay soon. Asher had a blast and it was great to catch up with all the sisters! Asher particularly loves his aunt Catie (on my side of the family, yes, he has another aunt Katie on Mark's side) and his aunt Mary. Of course, he loves aunt Tracy... he gets to see her all the time so that helps. Really, he loves them all, he's just really attached to daddy right now. Anyway, got to go... love you all!

Sportin' Nike

Posted by Mark Armstrong Thursday, December 25, 2008 12:42 PM 0 comments

I think he likes it!

Posted by Mark Armstrong 10:57 AM 0 comments

Asher opens his presents

Posted by Mark Armstrong 10:55 AM 0 comments

Chestnuts are gross.

Posted by Mark Armstrong Wednesday, December 24, 2008 11:16 AM 0 comments
We woke up yesterday, turned on the news and lo and behold, Portland government employees were being asked to come in to work. The roads were peaking out from under the snow (on TV anyway, not in McMinnville) so we thought, hey let's give our trip to Coos Bay a try. I knocked the ice and snow off our Escape and drove around McMinnville a while to check out the roads. I seemed to have enough traction so we packed up, jumped in the car and for Joellen's folks' house. Once we got to Amity the roads were starting to clear and by the time we got to Salem, there was no snow on the roads at all!

Anyway, here we are and it's far from a white Christmas here! But hey, we managed to pull off our planned trip down here and Joellen was getting really stir crazy cooped up in the house with Asher for the past week+. Joellen's sister Gnome (short for Naomi) and The Face (Short for 'Trace the Face') are on their way down and should be here in a couple hours. In the meantime, Jo and I plan on meeting up with her friend Tina and husband Eric for lunch.

So here's a 'Merry Christmas' wish going out from our family down in Coos Bay to all of you out there. Make the Yule Tide Gay Y'all :)

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