Sorry, I just keep finding really cute, old pics:

More Random Thoughts:

-Just sitting at the computer listening to my sweet baby sing "Jesus Loves Me" while laying in his bed. I guess he is having trouble going to sleep. Maybe it was the sugary sweet treat that he was awarded for being such a good boy at the grocery store. Going to the grocery store has now become such a hard task that I had Franklin go with me tonight. Wow, I got a 1.5 hour trip done in 40 minutes!! Living in a tri-level requires you to carry all of the groceries up the stairs, so it was really helpful to have him here to help!

-Funny thing that Fischer said the other day

1) We went to the hospital to visit an older woman from church who had a hip replacement. Fischer had never really been to a hospital to visit anyone before, but of course I had explained to him that I would be there to have the baby. So, he proceeded to ask her, "Are you going to have a baby?" It was too funny! On the way out of the room he yelled, "How do we get out of this place?" Apparently he shares the same sentiment for hospitals as his mother!

-I can't believe we are going to have a little one again...I am so excited!! Here are a couple of oldies:

In lieu of a new baby around the corner, I wanted to find something special for Fischer to do that was all about him! I found a class at a local Sports Academy called Lil Sluggers. They had a free trial class today, so I took him to see how he would do. HE LOVED IT! The best part was his nervous tick...the constant grabbing of the private area. Hey it's baseball, he's already got that part down! Several times the coach would ask him to get in the ready position(the position where you are ready to catch a ball) and Fischer would put both hands in front of his "jewels"...it was too funny!!

Here are a few proud mama pics:

Just some random thoughts that I have been thinking about over the past several days:

1) I can't believe it...my three year old is officially potty trained. It actually makes me a little sad that he is so independent, but I am thrilled to not buy size 5 diapers at practically $.50 each. That being said, I went to Target today and bought size 1 diapers for the baby...I had forgotten how incredibly adorable those size 1 diapers are! At least you get more diapers for your buck!

2) Whoa...my pregnancy hormones are out of control! I am SO easily irritated and annoyed by the most random things. Today I stepped in some gum and I couldn't stop ranting for 5 minutes about how nasty people are...why couldn't they just find a trash can?? Then I am in line at Target and there is one cashier and like 20 people in line behind me. When the manager comes over to open more lines, everyone disappears. Maybe it was my upbringing, but I always ask the person in front of me if they would like to go b/c they were in line first. So, I quietly waited as the person in front of me spent $300 and the cashier commented on how cute everything was that she was buying...grrr. Last night I watched a sad movie with Franklin and started crying about it this evening at 7:00pm...hormones...enough said.

3) I love seeing Fischer run around the house in his Superman undies...so cute.

4)Sometimes I wonder if my house will ever be organized and clean all at the same time. I feel like I spend the better part of my day picking up, cooking, picking up, scrubbing, doing dishes, laundry and picking up. I'm not sure who I am trying to measure up to, but it SEEMS as if everyone else has it together every day. Is anyone else just so exhausted at the end of the day that Mr. Potato Head and all of his parts will have to sit on the rug all night?

5)I am looking forward to the fall season and the month of September. There is nothing better than a cloudy fall day, staying inside, lighting a cinnamon candle and baking an apple crisp. Plus, who doesn't love going to the pumpkin patch?

6) I made this Chicken Pot Pie the other day. Hey, I was impressed with myself :)

I know what you are thinking...why are there pictures of baby clothes on my blog? I just couldn't resist showing you some of the new things that Garrison has received. Last night I volunteered at a consignment sale so I was able to shop while I was there. Most of the clothes I got have never even been used.

Kelly got Garrison the Big Brother/LIttle Brother outfits...aren't they adorable?

My mom bought the Little Turkey onesie at Carters for Thanksgiving and the Charm onesie was from the Gap...I couldn't resist.

When I first found out I was pregnant I was thinking that I wouldn't buy much for this little guy b/c Fischer had SO many clothes. As I get closer to holding him, I just can't resist buying him some new little clothes.

How funny is that? Stole this from www.uncomplicate-me.blogspot.com
The scary part is that it does actually look like Fischer a little bit!!!

It has been a busy couple of days. I've been helping my mom with her estate sale and we have done plenty of playing as well. We spent 7 hours at the waterpark yesterday! Fischer had an absolute blast! He went down the big water slide 7 times, and spent hours in the wave pool. He loved the wave pool! Let's just say that getting him to leave the water park was work!

We also visited the Petting Zoo at Domino Farms. Yes, I do find it strange that Domino Pizza's headquarters has a petting zoo. However it is really cute. Fischer had a great time feeding the ducks!

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!!!