Finally...Pictures!!!

This was after I had been in labor for 23 hrs.or so.  If someone had told me that I had almost 4 more hours to go I probably would not have been smiling! (neither would Tyler probably)  I guess that is why the Lord does not let us know ahead of time what is going to happen!

He finally came!!

A tired Daddy was the first one to hold him

A very, very tired Mommy was relieved to carry him in her arms, as opposed to where she had carried him before!

Content in the Hospital

Ready to go home!!!

First Car Ride

Home from the hospital

His favorite chair

First Doctor Visit--4 days old

First walk...Mommy made a mental note when she got home that it is not a real good idea to go on a long walk that involves hills 4 days after delivering a baby!!!

Ready for a diaper change

Sleeping with Daddy

Grandma got to visit and was a BIG help!

Sleeping

Trying to decide if he likes his crib or not

Not real excited after his FIRST bath

We feel so blessed to have Nehemiah in our lives!  We went to his 2 week checkup and he had already gained 1lb. 4oz.!  The doctor said he was "off the charts" with his growth.  Praise the Lord for His goodness...our cup is overflowing!

Nehemiah Allen

     Although I am sure that most of you who read this already know, I wanted to officially announce that our little boy has arrived!!!  He was born on June 8th--4 days early--at 11:45 p.m.  When he came, there was a huge sigh of relief from both Tyler and myself, seeing that I had been in labor since 9:00 p.m. the night before!  Let me tell you, those were the 26 longest hours of my life, and I am thinking of Tyler's life too!  Nehemiah weighed 8 lbs. 4 1/2 oz. and was 22 in. long. 
     We are so very thankful for the little life that God has given us.  In the early mornings as I took walks with him through the hospital halls I found myself praying over and over that the Lord would lead us as we raise him.  It definitely changes your outlook on life to know that you are fully responsible for the little bundle you are holding in your arms.  We love him dearly, even though he chose to not fall sleep until 4:30 a.m. last night!  I am sure that as the days progress, we will have more stories to tell about him.  We have taken many, many pictures already, and will try to make it a point to post some of them soon!

No More School, No More Books...

     Today was our last day of school!  We ended the year off great with a half-day filled with fun!  I cannot believe that my first year as teacher is over!  It still has not quite sunk in, but I am certainly enjoying the fact that it is 2:20 and I am peacefully sitting in my clean classroom with no students in it.  Everything has been taken off the walls and bulletin boards, desks have been washed, chairs have been stacked, chalkboard erasers have been cleaned, and children have been sent home! 
     The more I think about it, the more it seems like school just started, but in reality it has been 9 months!  I have definitely learned a lot this year!  One major thing I learned was that if I want to be an effective teacher, I have to send up many prayers to the Lord during the day!  There were many times when I did not know what to do in a certain situation, and had to send out a big cry of "HELP!" to the Lord.  I would hate to make a decision on the spur of the moment that would affect a student for later years.  The Lord was definitely good to me this year, and helped me get through those difficult times.  Having 8 students, ranging from 5 to 10 years old was definitely a challenge!  They each came from very different families and backgrounds, and I had to learn what made each of them "tick".  As the year progressed and I prayed for them, the Lord gave me a love for each one of them, and helped me to understand what their specific spiritual and emotional needs were.  I am so thankful for the Lord's leading!
     Last night was our "Closing Program", and my kids all performed beautifully!  There were many things during our practices that happened, which caused me to have some butterflies in my stomach when the time came for the program to start.  I had to wonder, "Will they all do what they are supposed to do?"  Thankfully they all remembered when they were supposed to do what, and what exactly it was they were supposed to say, etc.  I was so pleased with them!  Of course, after the program when I talked to them and told them how well they had done, they wanted to know if they were going to get a special treat for doing a good job.  I guess kids will be kids:)!!
     Even though there were many speed bumps and rough spots along the way, I can look back and say that we had a good year.  I am looking forward to next year, but first: a nice, long summer before me!  Although I am sure that our (hopefully soon) addition to the family will make it a very busy one!

The Power of Post-it® Notes...

         Yesterday, my wife & I went to the graduation of a young man in our church! At least in the United States, it is a tradition at wedding & graduation to "deck out" a person's car with various things, whether it be balloons, silly string, etc. Well, yesterday, I saw a couple of cars "deck out" that caught my attention. The first one was a car that was shrink wrapped all the way around the car. Then after the graduation as I was trying to find my car in the ocean of cars, I saw this car!

      If you are not able to tell, the car is covered with Post-It Notes, even spelling "Class of 2012!" & "Congrats" (first picture). I did not realize until yesterday that Post-It Notes had so much sticky power. If you have ever been to South Dakota for any length of time, you know that we have a lot of high wind, especially on the prairie. Well, this graduation took place at the Ellsworth AFB's High School. It was very windy yesterday, but the "little stickies" held on for dear life! Oh, the Power of Post-It Notes!

"Do NOT under estimate the Power of Post-It Notes!"

36 Weeks

I just wanted to let everyone know that I officially have 4 weeks until I am due!  I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone!  For those of you who complain to me that we never put pictures on our blog:), I thought I would post a picture from last night of how I look at this present moment!  You are not allowed to make fun of how big I am!!!!!!!!

I Am Blessed!

     Last night I realized once again just how blessed I am to have the husband that I have!  I love him dearly and it is times like last night that I am reminded again how much I do love him!
     I woke up yesterday morning with a pinched nerve, and my right leg was hurting terribly!  No matter what I tried to alleviate the pain during the day, it did not work.  Our dear little son seems to be doing that to me A LOT lately!  By the time we got home from work and from visiting someone in the hospital, it was past 6:00. Just the thought of making supper and cleaning up made my leg hurt worse!  As I headed toward the kitchen, I heard Tyler say, "I'll make supper tonight".  Oh what blessed words those were!  I asked him if he was positive that he wanted to do that.  He reassured me several times, and then told  me to go sit in a nice, warm bath, which usually seems to help when I am having back problems.  While I did that, he cooked up a wonderful supper!  I definitely ate too much!!!  When we had finished, I got up to do the dishes and clean up.  Then Tyler said, "I will clean everything up tonight!"  He had to reassure me several more times that he was perfectly fine with doing dishes and cleaning and sweeping, etc.  He made me then lay down and rest!  What a wonderful night it was for me! 
     The Lord has definitely blessed me, and I am so thankful for my husband.  I think that as wives, we don't let our husbands know how much we love them and how thankful we are for them as much as we should.  I praise the Lord that he brought Tyler into my life 3 1/2 years ago and that He has blessed us already with so many wonderful times and memories!
    

Laundry Detergent

During our Ladies' Retreat in March, we had a few "FYI" sessions where some of the ladies taught us how to do different things.  One of the sessions was on how to make your own laundry detergent.  At the end, we were told that in doing so, we would be spending only a penny per load of laundry that we did!  With a baby coming, which means more laundry, I thought that it was something I should look into doing!  I printed the recipe off from online, and bought all of the ingredients the next time we went grocery shopping.  The night that I made my first batch of it, I was very determined to take pictures of it.  It was then that I remembered that my camera was at the church!  I had to take the pictures with our phone.  That, combined with the fact that I am not that great at taking pictures, produced the pictures that you will see.  I am sorry that they are not the greatest pictures.

 Here are the ingredients:

1/2 cup of Borax (I bought 20 Mule Team Brand)

1/2 cup of Washing Soda ( I used Arm & Hammer)

1/2 cup of Baking Soda (You can use more or less depending on how fresh you want your clothes...I also used Arm & Hammer for this)

1/3 bar of Fels-Naptha soap

The first step is to grate the soap into a pot.  It was kind of funny because it did look like cheese, but by the smell you can tell it is not:)!

This is what the soap looked like after it was grated...it also smelt very good.

You then put in 6 cups of water and heat it until the soap has all completely melted.  You of course need to make sure that you are stirring it.

Then add the borax, washing soda, and baking soda, and stir it until it is all dissolved.

Put 4 cups of hot water into a bucket, and then put the soap mixture in and mix it up.  You will then add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and you are done!!!!! 

I doubled the recipe, so it made about 4 gallons of detergent for me...I bought this 5 gallon bucket at Wal-Mart since I did not have one large enough.  I was a little nervous about this whole endeavour, but it actually turned out to not be very hard, and I am very glad to be saving us some money.  One more thing about this detergent that is nice is that you do not have to use dryer sheets if you wash clothes, so that is another way that we area saving money.  One last note--you use 1/2 cup per load.

**Make sure you continue down and read the next post...Tyler and I both happened to have time today to write one, and I do not want you to miss his since it has been a while since he wrote!