30 Weeks and 4 Days

The last few days have been crazy. Hormonally, I'm everywhere. Happy one minute, then upset. Sometimes I just can't stand the thought of anyone even touching me, at all. My poor Jacob is finding out that he can't squirm and pinch all over me all the time. He hates being sent to the floor from my lap, but it's that or pull my hair out.

I've been trying to clean lately. Nesting I guess. I got almost all of the back room (our future bedroom, and where I plan to labor) cleaned out. Unfortunately, my right hip joint has been acting up. I can work for an hour, maybe two or three if I'm lucky. After I rest, I am limping for the rest of the day. Sometimes the next as well.

Acid reflux has hit hard again. It's been pretty good this pregnancy. The last month or two I've had almost none. I've had trouble sleeping the last two nights, using my Bumbo pillow to prop myself up and curl around like a body pillow. I did end up sleeping sitting up on the couch half the night lastnight. A big roast dinner just before bed didn't help things. Won't do that again.

Other than that, things are going great. Baby is active, kicking and rolling right now. I did misplace my RRL leaves, but found them today. Weight has been stable. I need to keep up with my fluid intake.

Family news:

Brent is in another play. He's so excited. I thought about trying out for the part of the pregnant lady, but being a few weeks from my due date, I decided it would be more stress than I needed. Plus, I see it as Brent's away time. Where he can "get away" for a bit.

Abby has found she likes to read. YAY!!! She has been so insistent she "can't read". However, she read 79 pages in a book I found for her the other day... All in one day! Can't read! Whatever! LOL!

She also went to the park with Hannah today. They were gone for 15 minutes when they came back. Abby somehow ran into a pole, bloodied her nose and whacked her front left tooth. Thankfully, so far her tooth looks fine, and her nose as well. She "killed" her front baby tooth as a little one (around 2). Knocked it on a free weight, abscessed it, and when the Dr pushed on the spot on her gums above it, it killed; turning it grey. I told her of she did that again, she can't get a new tooth.

Hannah has made a couple friends. Jenny and Destiny. It's really perked her attitude up.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that we bought a school bus last week? Yep. Our van officially died a few weeks ago. We found a cool black school bus on Craigslist and bought it.

That's about it for now!

A Busy Weekend

We're getting ready for our biggest weekend of the year. Saturday and Sunday we will be selling kettle corn at the Weston Applefest. We go through about 500 pounds of popcorn in those two days! It is CRAZY! What an incredible and fun event though! This will be our third year working this festival. Then, excitedly, we get to also set up at the first annual JCPenny Fall Festival in Hamilton on the 20th. What fun to actually be there for the first year! For those who have never seen how kettle corn is made, here is a video of Brent popping it up. It is not our "official" look, since this was just in the front making some for the family, instead of in the trailer for a festival.
You can follow us on Facebook at Kansas City's Best Kettle Corn or on Twitter at @KCBestKettleCrn.

27 Weeks

Here is my official announcement.

Tomorrow I will be 27 weeks into my pregnancy. I am excited to say we are expecting our 8th baby on December 20, 2012. The fun part is that is also Brigham's 6th birthday!

The kids are very excited. We told them a couple weeks ago, when my tummy was popped enough that it could not be mistaken for much other than a "Baby Bump".

Brent's Grandmother, Joyce, passed this year. I feel strongly that this baby is a girl. I talked with Brent about names. That I want to name her after Joyce. After talking about it, he came up with a name I really love. So, if we have a girl, the name might be Joy Christine (Joy C).

If we have a boy, that's a different story. I have no clue. Boy names are drawing a blank, which is another reason I "feel" this is a girl. Every time I am like this, the sex is that of the names I think of.

I just wanted to update what all is going on lately.

Our 8th baby, 5th home birth, and 3rd unassisted birth.

Wisk® Deep Clean From Smiley360

I got free samples of Wisk Deep Clean from Smiley360.   I was able to try several samples and see what I thought.

We are a family of 9.  There are 2 active adults in the house, and 7 very active children (ages 14, 10, 8, 5, 4, 2, and 1).  As I used Wisk Deep Clean laundry detergent I was very impressed at how clean it got our clothes, as well as how fresh they smelled.  I love to smell my clothes as they come out of the laundry.  LOL!  This is a detergent you can do that with.  :)

Thank you Wisk and Smiley360 for this opportunity to review your product!

Wisk® Deep Clean: Thx Wisk for my free Deep Clean sample! Like Wisk on FB for $1 coupon http://on.fb.me/O336xm #DeepCleanMission *Please remember the FTC requires you to mention that you received a free sample courtesy of Smiley360 when sharing.

Happy Birthday Jacob!

My little man! What an amazing year!

Born in your Great-Grandmother's bathtub. She loved telling that story, the birth she had no idea that would happen at her house, to every person she talked to. She loved you so much!

As you have grown, you have shown what an amazing boy you are. You are sweet, smart, and adventurous. LOL! Keep it up!

I love you my baby man!

Kefir Water

I've been working with the kefir water. It's been trial and error. What I'm wanting is kefir soda. What has been giving me problems is the "fizz". I finally got my grape soda to fizz really well tonight. Almost too well. LOL! So far I still have yet to get the ginger ale to fizz.

What I did was take the advice from several people. I'm letting my grains sit in the water for 48 hours, for now. I add the grape juice into the bottle, then the kefir water. I plug it, shake it, and let it sit 24 hours. I then vent it (an listen to see if it pops), then plug it, shake it, and let it sit another 24 hours. After that, I put it in the fridge.

Our First Attempt At Water Kefir

I got my live organic water kefir in the mail today. I am so excited!

I rinsed a clean quart jar with filtered water.

Boiled about 2/3 cup filtered water. Then added it to the jar.

Added 1/3 cup raw sugar to the hot water, and mixed it until dissolved.

Added cool filteted water until about 1 inch from the 4 cup line.

Added 1/4 cup kefir grains.

Covered jar with coffee filter (to allow air flow, but keep dirt, bugs, and other stuff out) and put screw band over it to hold it on.

It's now in the cupboard eating and doing it's job.

We shall see how it is doing tomorrow.