a tidbit on peppers

"Eating spicy food and/or chile peppers can become addictive. There are many people who don't enjoy tortilla chips unless they have salsa to eat with them, there are others that can never find a salsa HOT enough for their taste. Studies have shown that, yes, eating spicy food is addicting. What happens after eating something hot, is your body nerves feel pain. These pain signals are immediately transmitted to your brain. Your brain interprets this signal and automatically releases endorphins (the body's natural pain killer). The endorphins kick in and act as a pain killer and create this temporary feeling of euphoria. Hot and spicy food lovers soon begin to crave this feeling and are hooked!"

Insomnia

It never fails that when I actually try to get sleep, to be rested, to stop trying to get things done that my efforts are richly rewarded with insomnia. Can't get to sleep, sleep terribly while I am asleep, can't stay asleep. So at 3am I'm downstairs checking email, balancing the checkbook, positng a blog, and considering doing some of my tax work that needs to be done by Tuesday morning. It's just wrong.

I'm feeling very pregnant. Yesterday I realized that I have 45 days until my due date. It's feels like an eternity and it feels like it will be here tomorrow. It still hasn't hit me that I get to meet my little guy soon, that I'm going to be the mother of three kids, that I have to start nursing again. I'm excited to see what Hananh and Benjamin do when he comes home. I'm excited to stop the weight yo-yo and just be able to wear my clothes! I'm excited to be DONE growing my family for a couple of years!!

On a lighter note, we actually had friends "passing through town" who came and stayed with us this weekend! Chuck and Wendy West and their five kids (age range 5 to 14) came into town on Friday afternoon and stayed until after church on Sunday afternoon. We had such a good time! It was amazing to us that we actually have a house big enough to have an extra SEVEN people come and stay the weekend :) And what was so crazy to me and Jeremy is the fact that we have only lived in the same "town" at the Wests for two months. We arrived in Korea in April 2005 and they left in June 2005. (Yes, I was as pregnant the last time I saw them as I was this time!!) Yet in that short two months (and the emails, blog reading and responses that followed) we have become and remained friends. They are precious and we love them!!

(Note to my readers: we love having people come and visit and stay with us!! Who will be next!?)

True pregnancy brain

So, my response time for Anniversary and Birthday celebrations is very slow right now. I finally, finally got a package sent to my college roommate and dear friend Mary. Included in the package was a very late birthday present for her oldest son Asher. I was SO EXCITED about his present--Gideon the Tuba Warrior. For those who have seen it, you know that the silly song is a Ukulele Karaoke with Bob the Tomato. And, of course, Gideon plays the tuba in the movie. Well, Joel, Mary's husband, played the tuba in college and they are living in Hawaii. What a better gift? They had the video at the local Christian bookstore (a miracle) and I didn't have to order it for them. I was thrilled.

Flash forward two weeks. I got an email from Mary saying that Asher was listening to it in Spanish and that Dora must have had an effect on him. I emailed her back--did I SEND it in Spanish or was there an option to LISTEN in Spanish? You guessed it. I bought it in Spanish! Really?!? I don't live in Texas, Florida, Arizona, California--I live in Montana. You can't get more Caucasian than Montana. Seriously. How in the WORLD was there a Spanish-only version of a Veggie Tales' DVD in the Family Christian Bookstore?!?!

I can't imagine what life is going to be like when Levi actually gets here! So here is a blanket disclaimer against anything off-the-wall and not-quite-right thing I may do in the next, oh, year! HA!

Camping while 8 months pregnant

So we had to take advantage of the warmer weather and go camping, regardless of the fact that I'm less than 8 weeks from my due date. (If you'll recall, I have done crazier things like being stranded on the side of the road in Korea at 38 weeks after a day at the beach!!) I had not been camping since Labor Day 2004, and I was in major need of the therapy of the outdoors. So we headed out on Friday for a camping trip that took about 3 hours of driving (the last hour we only went 10 miles into the woods!). It was quite the adventure! Our friends Courtney and Jesse Atchley went with us, which made the trip just perfect. We joked that doing things with another married couple is almost like dating--you never know how it's going to turn out. I think we found some good camping buddies, and hopefully they won't decide to move away for a while!!

Apart from the back window of the truck falling out right before we left Great Falls (don't worry--my amazing husband fixed it in less than 30 minutes!), a scare with our coolant level, the flat tire on Courtney & Jesse's Explorer, the east coast rainstorm we went through on the trip down, and almost getting lost in the woods trying to drive to the "campsite" the rest of the trip was lots of fun, very comical, and void of major catastrophe!

Here are some pictures from the trip. For pictures of our seven mile hike (and to see what I would look like with a beer gut!) check out Courtney's website.

My kitchen helper

Almost daily we have a choice as mothers--do we make memories and messes or do we just "get things done." I try to choose the memories :) On Sunday, after having mopped the kitchen floor in anticipation of 14 people arriving for Bible study, Hannah asked to help me make pizza. You may be able to tell in the picture that Hannah's pizza crust is rather, um, covered in flour. So was I. So was she. So was the floor. So was the counter. So were the floor mats. Everything was covered in flour. Including the smile on Hannah's face. It was priceless.

Warning

With each subsequent pregnancy, your abdominal muscles just can't hold in the baby anymore. Take a look at me at 30 weeks with Hannah, Benjamin, and Levi. I barely looked pregnant with Hannah at 30 weeks! I barely felt pregnant with her either. Levi, on the other hand, is about to be the death of me. Or maybe it's his siblings...Either way, I am so ready to not be exhausted all of the time! I know, I know. It won't be gone until the wee one is about six months old. I'm on the countdown, baby!

Had a completely useless and uneventful prenatal appointment today. In the civilian world, you have appointments every two weeks starting at 28 weeks. Glad I didn't have that in Korea! Drives me nuts. They just do it to get the extra income. My appointment took all of 10 minutes and consisted of them taking my weight (which I NEVER find out!), my blood pressure, a measurement of my uterus with a measuring tape of sorts, and listening to the heartbeat. Then we have the standard conversation:

"Baby moving?"

"Yes, all of the time."

"Any pains or leaking or spotting?"

"Nope." (And if there were, I should have called you before now anyway!)
"Any questions or concerns?"

"Nope." (I feel like I"ve done this as much as you have!)
"Ok, we'll see you in two weeks."

And then I leave and my insurance company pays them over $200 for that 10 minutes of medical marvels. Now, I understand that pregnancies that have experienced complications or which are "high risk" should be monitored closely. But for a woman on her third pregnancy in as many years who has never had any complications, including with the current pregnancy, it so ridiculous to me. I really want to say "I'll be back in four weeks. I'll call if there is a problem." But I'm afraid of what they'll say...I guess that's the price I pay for a compliant personality!

Nothin' like Playin' with the waterhose

As was expected, waterboy loved the waterhose. Hannah didn't.

The worst part of scrapbooking.

Journaling. I can't stand to journal. It's almost the entire point of the scrapbook--to document what life is like for my kids as they are growing up. But it takes so much time, doesn't add much to the page, and requires a lot of concentration (and memory!). And so, I'm VERY behind on my journaling. Which makes it even more painful. I want to get to the point where I journal AS I scrapbook (which isn't nearly as painful!). And I'm sure I"ll get there by the end of August. And then Levi will come, I'll have a few months "off" from getting to scrapbook, I'll fall behind on the pictures and further behind on the journaling. It will be so nice to only have one scrapbook going at a time!

I always seem to get the munchies when I scrapbook...

4th of July pictures

Because I'm procrastinating my "real" work, I thought I would download pictures and share about our 4th of July. Our friends from Korea, the Peterson family, "moved in" with us last Saturday. In one week they found a house to rent, bought a large portion of their furniture and household items, and bought a car. It was a very crazy and fast week! They spent the night in their house for the first time last night, and we have been piddling around the house for most of the day. It was so fun to have them here! It's like having a set of parents in town :)

It's good for you

GOOD FRUIT
God left us a great clue as to what foods help what part of our body! It's been said that God first separated the salt water from the fresh, made dry land, planted a garden, made animals and fish... all before making a human. He made and provided what we would need before we were born! All of these fruit are best & more powerful when eaten raw.
God's Pharmacy! Amazing!

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye... and YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.
A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopene and are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.

A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.

Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Avocadoes, Eggplant and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility.

Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.

Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.

Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like the body's cells. Today's research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. A working companion, Garlic, also helps eliminate waste materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.

Psalm 46:10 'Be Still and Know that I AM GOD'

Talk about hard

Jeremy just told me that a friend of his from Tech (Paul Franz) just got back from a 15 month deployment. Paul is in the same career field that Jeremy was in. Not only was Paul gone for 15 months, he was stationed in Japan when he went to Iraq and had to leave his wife and two kids (ages 1 and 3) there for the 15 months. Then they moved to Italy. Can you imagine? Two kids by yourself for 15 months while living in Japan and then moving to Italy? One of the reasons to be thankful that Jeremy isn't a CE officer anymore!

A little encouragement

The ordinary acts we practice

every day at home

are of more importance

to the soul

than their simplicity might suggest.

-Thomas Moore