We made it to Michigan. Michigan has to be one of the prettiest states. As soon as you cross the state line from Indiana it's a different world. Tree lined highways, beautiful farms. Last night we took Fischer out to my parents farm. Besides the mosquitos, there's nothing like driving down a dirt road at dusk with thousands of lightning bugs nestled in the growing corn. Beyond the corn there are beautiful old farmhouses and bright red barns.

The kids ran around for hours and hours, and PaPa made them a tire swing. Mom has been growing vegetables in the garden. Even though I didn't plant them, there is something so gratifying about picking vegetables from a garden and then eating them.

Here are some pics from last night:

I am rare. I'm 30 years old and have four living grandparents. I would say that is rare, wouldn't you? I also knew both of my great grandmothers. All of this to say, that my paternal grandpa isn't doing very well. We always joke and say he has nine lives because 10 years ago we thought he was going to die from congestive heart failure. He is really struggling every day and has such poor oxygen levels that he is confused most of the time. He and Granny spent a month in MI with my parents. My mom told me that he had a moment of clarity and said, "How is Tracy?" My mom told him I was doing fine and that the baby was fine. He said, "I sure can't wait to meet that little fellow. He is going to be a live wire!"

Even if my grandpa doesn't make it to meet the little guy, our little one will always know what his great-grandpa thought of him :) I just hope he isn't right!

I just got done telling my hubby what horrible communication skills I have, so I am certain that what I am trying to say will not come out the way I want it to.

Today I went over to Sharons(Sam's mom) house for our Thursday Bible Study group. Of course we weren't planning on studying anything, just helping Sharon around the house if she needed anything. Turns out, she just needed to talk. What an amazing woman.

Here are just some of the comments that were spoken by this sweet, gentle spirit:

"I am not going through anything that God himself did not go through."

" I am accepting that this is God's will. So many miracles have come out of Sam's death."

"I am experiencing sorrow and pain, but I also have so much joy."

WHAT? Did this woman just lose her precious son? She is overjoyed with the miracles that have come about since Sam's passing. People in her family who have reconciled, people in her family that want to study the Bible, and complete strangers writing emails and explaining how Sam's sermon has changed their life. While we were talking, one of the girls told Sharon that her neice had uttered these precious words, " Sam lived his whole life for God, and I want to live that way too." Sharon cried and was then joyous that her neice had expressed an interest in God.

I wish that everyone could sit in a room with her for 2 hours and listen to her express her love for God in the way that I did today.

Sharon told me today when Sam was in utero his estimated due date was October 4th or 5th(which is our little guy's due date). He was born on June 16th though. That means he was born around 24-25 weeks. What a fighter he was. That was a pretty big miracle considering it was 14 years ago, when the technology is not as good as it is today. Sharon knew that his life would have purpose if he survived those three months in the NICU. After his recent sermon he wrote for LTC, she just knew that he was destined to be a preacher. Even with his slight speech impediment, he delivered a flawless sermon to the congregation a few months ago. As our minister Jim expressed a few weeks ago; Sam has preached to more people in the past few weeks than most preachers will ever be able to do. Preachers dream about reaching millions of people with their thoughts, but Sam did that very thing. All you have to do is type in Sam Thomsen Sermon on Google and you will be amazed.

Sam's life was a wonderful testament to his parents abilities to love and raise their child in a Christian home. Love is evident in their home, in their pictures, in their spoken words, and in the Bible laying on the kitchen table. I hope that Franklin and I can be the kind of parents that Sharon and Larry are.

Finally a break in the severe weather so we could enjoy our deck! It(the severe weather) should return tonight or tomorrow so thought I would post some pics of Fischer swimming. We made smores last night on the grill, and as you can see Fischer enjoyed painting with the chocolate. He has a little touch of OCD(not officially diagnosed, just by us) so whenever he chooses to be messy we encourage it!!

To say that we are tired of severe storms here in Nebraska would be a huge understatement. Last night was by far the scariest storm that I have ever experienced. As we sat huddled under couch cushions, branches were hitting our basement window and I was sure it was going to break. No windows broke, but I did post some pics of the aftermath.


Who knows where the orange cone came from???



We lost a few shingles

This would be my neighbors tramploine up in a tree

Our poor tree:(

What a crazy two weeks it has been. For some reason I am struggling to put words together. I have a lot to say but I can't seem to organize my thoughts. Maybe I'm not ready to admit that life goes on after a tragedy happens. Maybe I'm stuck in my own selfish pain. Whatever the reason I am trying to work through it so please be patient with me.

A conversation that took place between Fischer and myself last night:

I was looking at an article online about Sam's funeral:

Me: Fischer, who's that?

Fischer: SAM!!

Me: That's right!

Fischer: What happened to him?

Me: He went to Heaven to be with God!

Fischer: He's happy!!

I just got home from Sam's Celebration of Life. Words are not adequate to describe the event, but I will try. The church was filled with almost 700 people who loved and knew Sam. The stage was decorated with orange and blue balloons, and the teens were dressed in the same colors. A few weeks ago at his sister's graduation party he told everyone at our table that if he could choose home school colors they would be orange and blue. The stories told and the songs that were sung were all beautiful expressions of Sam's love for life, his family and his God.

You can read his truly amazing sermon that he wrote for LTC here:

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10356854

It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you of Sam's passing last night. We hope you will join us in prayer for his sweet, sweet family. They are amazing people and we are so saddened by their loss.

Pray for Sam, a kid in our youth group who is at Little Sioux Scout Camp that was hit by a tornado. His parents are driving up there right now to find out if he is OK!

Yesterday, Franklin and I took Fischer to the zoo! It was SO relaxing to just hang out as a family! We visited the new butterfly house, which was a blast! However, I would say 95% of the butterflies liked to hang out by the air conditioner vents(as you can see from the picture). So, there wasn't that many butterflies actually flying around. They did like Franklin's orange shirt though. Fischer looks terrified in the picture with me. Maybe he thought a butterfly was about to land on him. We spent 6 hours walking around, and by the end I could barely move. Our zoo is SO hilly I don't know why I thought I could take him to the zoo by myself. I am thankful that I went with Franklin. I think he was extremely thankful to have spent some quality time with Fischer.

I guess he wouldn't be a BOY if his knees and elbows didn't look like this:

Oh well, at least he is still smiling!



On an even scarier note: Our friends are back!!!

So, I borrowed my neighbors hair cut kit and decided to give Fischer a haircut. I have never cut hair before, but I am pretty darn proud of myself! I even convinced Franklin to let me butcher him...haha!! He was actually impressed and I am glad he trusted me!


Here are some pics...I forgot to take a before of Fischer. Why do Fischer and Franklin both look traumatized? Hey, it will be saving us about $30 a month! YAY!

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Today I took on the task of planting flowers. Let me just say that I am SO thankful that I was not a pioneer woman. I can't even imagine being pregnant and doing all of the hard work that they did. I feel like I can't move right now. I have decided that I like planting in pots and not in the ground. I'm pretty proud of my pots, but I need to get a few more fillers for two of them. The sweet potato vines will be so beautiful by the middle of summer. They grow really long and spread easily.I also posted a pic of our deck with flowers. I bought the hanging pouch at Menards and it has just turned out beautifully.

I finally gave in to turning on the A/C. I held out pretty long, mainly b/c I am cheap. But today was just too hot!

This my friends is called a miracle! My child sleeping in the middle of the day. Oh, what will I do with myself?

Well, I survived our camping trip! Oklahoma was HOT and muggy...just like I remembered it. Fischer went fishing for the first time and caught 5 fish! He caught more than anyone else in the boat! He also had a great time riding in the golf cart! The drive was pretty brutal..9.5 hours! The drive home was full of adventure. We were driving through this small town in Oklahoma when a guy pulled out in front of us. He was turning out of the Gaming Center, which of course made me suspicious that he was drunk. It didn't take longer than about 5 seconds to realize that in fact he was drunk. He swerved into oncoming traffic 3 or 4 times, almost hitting a mini-van and a truck. After watching this idiot for about 20 seconds I called 911. After we followed him for about one more mile(staying far back of course) he pulled off on the shoulder. I hope an officer was able to catch him and send him to jail. I hope they took my call seriously.

Then we drove through Picher, OK and noticed that the entire town was destroyed by a tornado. I have seen tornado damage before, but never anything like this. When I got home I looked up Picher on google and found out that six people died and 100 were injured in the tornado on May 10th. FEMA had to test the air quality in the town because it is known for its lead mining.

On a lighter note, I am back to my frugal ways. While in Oklahoma my sister-in-law let me read her book, "America's Cheapest Family." It is written by the Economide family. The book is full of ideas for saving and cutting back, which is right up my alley. Today I went grocery shopping and spent $120 for two weeks worth of food($10 of that was a gift card for a graduate, plus I spent about $15 on food storage items). I might have to go back next week and spend $20 or so, but I think that is pretty good. Anyway, I would recommend this book, especially with the price of gas going up!

Here are some pics of our Memorial Day Weekend!

Lake Eufaula at sunset.


Fischer hates bugs...so this was a big step!


My cousin Esther! She is SO sweet!

Just thought I would post a few pics from a friend's wedding we attended today. We decided to take a family picture since we were all dressed up. Of course Fischer is hamming it up, plus the wind was blowing so hard it was hard to pose. And yes, I am only halfway through my pregnancy and yes I am huge!

I have absolutely no idea who posted the helicopter thing on my blog. Weird. Anyway, we do have helicopters in our yard.

And Now for Something Completely Different...

Have you ever seen these little plants? I call them "helicopters" because you can throw them in the air and they spin like the rotor on a chopper.
Cool to find one and throw in in the air.
Not so cool to have about TEN BILLION of them in your yard!

Just wanted you to know that the doctor called and said that everything looked great! I wish I could post more pictures, but Fischer "stole" my SD card and I haven't been able to find it. Hopefully I will get around to buying a new one!

NEW PICS OF BABY!!!!

HERE ARE SOME NEW PICS OF BABY BOY! WE ARE STILL WAITING TO HEAR BACK FROM THE DOCTOR ABOUT ANY RESULTS. HE KEPT PUTTING HIS THUMB UP TO HIS MOUTH, BUT HE NEVER QUITE MADE IT IN!

Hopefully you can tell by the last pic that we are having a BOY!!!!!!!!

Don't you just love his sweet little profile? Everything went well, my OB just wants to do another ultrasound in two weeks to check on his heart again. The ultrasound tech couldn't get a good picture due to his position. My OB kept reassuring me that this has happened before, and she has never had an abnormality come of it. I told her that I would try to take her words to heart, but that I would probably worry a little bit anyway! But, on the bright side, I get to have another ultrasound on the 20th!!

Well, tomorrow is the big day! Is baby Wood a girl or a boy? I keep having dreams that it is a boy, so we will see. Tune in tomorrow for the big news!!