Thursday, September 04, 2008

Glucose Testing

Gretchen had her 1 hour glucose test done last week (Aug. 25th). She failed it, so she had to go back today to get her 3 hour glucose test done. That meant, she had to go to the doctors (with Zach) and get blood drawn. Then, she had to drink this "sugar water" (which is basically what it is) and then wait for an hour and have blood drawn again. Then, she had to wait another hour and have blood drawn again. Then again, another hour later she had to have blood drawn again.

This time the glucose stuff made her feel light headed, dizzy, hot and a little nauteous. So... they let her and Zach go back into a room and had her lay down. That made her feel better. Zach was so good and ended up doing so many pages in his Kindergarten book. He also read her 2 books, got to play on his leapster for a little (until the batteries ran out.... which wasn't very long) and got to play with some of his Star War figurines.

Then, we came home and Gretchen has had a headache the rest of the evening. So, we're just relaxing and doing nothing for the night.

Sunday, August 24, 2008


HAPPY 33rd BIRTHDAY to COREY!

We love You!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Nursery peek




Gretchen's been working so hard on getting the nursery ready. It's not 100% completed but it's getting pretty close. She still need to finish the "window decorating". Plus, there's a picture up on the wall that still has the paper in it from when it was bought. We're going to leave it like that until after the baby is born. Then, once we have a definite name, we're going to order her name to go in that frame. So, if you look real close, it might look a little strange but now you know why. Anyway, here are a few of the pics to see what it looks like so far.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Busy, busy Summer '08


This summer has been soooo busy for us. In July alone, Gretchen and Zach had Vacation Bible School for a week. Then, Gretchen had some bleeding and had to go to the doctor's a couple of times. Everything is okay, tho. At the end of July, we met Gretchen's parents' half way to drop Zach off with them for almost a week. The following weekend, Gretchen's parents' drove down here and stayed with us for a couple of days. While they were down, Corey & Gretchen's Dad went to a men's conference, Promise Keepers. They love going to those things together. They always have fun and get their "guy time" together. :)

While the guys were at Promise Keepers, the girls and Zach got to just hang out. Although, we did do a lot of work. Gretchen's mom helped Gretchen (or basically did it all) sew a bunch of matching things to go in the nursery. She did an EXCELLENT job! It really helped the baby's room look so much nicer.

The next 2 days after they left, the beginning of August, Gretchen painted the nursery all by herself. It was hard work but it is done! We then had a Sunday School get together/ barbeque at our house. For those of you that don't know, we started teaching the young adult sunday school group at our church. So, we had a "kick off" to try to get to know them better. With that came Gretchen having to clean the house, figure out what we were going to have to eat, going to the grocery store and actually making or cutting up the food. Corey did all the grilling, tho. :)

Gretchen is now 26 weeks pregnant and everything looks good. The picture is from last week, her being 25 weeks pregnant. We are getting more and more excited about meeting our daugther. (that's so weird to say, lol)

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Happy Birthday to Russ!




HAPPY 34th BIRTHDAY

to Gretchen's brother, Russ!

We hope you have a great birthday!


Monday, July 07, 2008

Baby Girl!



We found out today that we're having a girl! We prayed last night the God would allow us to see the gender of the baby during the sonogram today. The first part that the camera saw was the crotch area and her legs were wide open. After those first 3 pictures, she curled up in one corner of Gretchen's stomach. We were very fortunate to get the pictures that we did get. There is no doubt, from the pic, that it's a girl. See for yourself and don't forget to look at Zach's blog for more pics. :)

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Hard Rock Review






We went to Hard Rock Park yesterday for Corey's company picnic! It was pretty fun. There weren't a whole lot of adult rides, which was fine with Gretchen since she wasn't allowed to ride any of them being pregnant. There were several "kid" rides that Zach liked to get on but his favorite were the "swings". I'm not sure we would go back unless it was for the company picnic again but at least we got to go and see what it was all about.... and for free! :)

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Fever and No A/C

Zach has had a fever since Tuesday. It's finally starting to come down, thankfully. Especially since we're suppose to go to a theme park tomorrow. This will be the first time that Zach can ride the rides for the kids. Last time we went, he was only 2 years old and couldn't get on a whole lot of rides. Now, at 4 1/2 years old he's 45" tall and will be able to ride a lot more! He's excited about it and so is Corey. We get to go for free since it's where Corey's "Company picnic" is being held.

Our upstairs A/C unit stopped working last Tuesday evening. Fortunately, we have 2 seperate units, one for the upstairs (where all the bedrooms are) and one for the downstairs. While upstairs gets to be around 88 degrees, we still have A/C downstairs. So, we all "camped out" downstairs on the couches. Someone is suppose to be coming today to fix it, hopefully. :)

Last week, Gretchen spent a whole day JUST cleaning the kitchen. She went through every single cabinet and sanitized it. She went through all the food and threw out the stuff that's expired and re-organized everything. She sanitized almost everything in the kitchen. Aren't pregnant women suppose to "nest" and "clean" when it closer to the birth? lol

Monday, June 16, 2008

The Beach!

Last Friday, Gretchen and Zach went to a local beach with their friends Kim, Kacie and Madison. It was a lot of fun! We stayed at the beach for 3 hours and then came home so Gretchen could give Kacie and Madison a piano lesson. Zach doesn't even look like he got any sun and Gretchen got a little burned.

Today, Gretchen and Zach went to Myrtle Beach to see one of Gretchen's friends from up north, Tracie. We had so much fun! We got to play on the beach/ in the ocean and in the pool at the resort that they were staying at. Gretchen got a little burnt on her back, but otherwise it was nice to catch up with an "old" friend and just relax by/in the pool. We were there for 6 hours.

Zach fell asleep on the way home. He didn't want to leave when it was time to go! What a nice day!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Rearranging


Last weekend we sold our "guest bedroom" set. So, we moved Zach into that room which is bigger. It's also the hottest room during the summer and the coldest in the winter. So, we let Zach go pick out his ceiling fan. Here is a picture of his new room. He LOVES it! He has been in his room a lot more playing with his toys. Of course, we kind of like hanging out in there now too. It's so "cozy".

We went ahead and put the crib up, too. Gretchen arranged the nursery like she wants (although that might change a time or two, lol). We've got the crib, the changing table, the dresser and the glider (all matching) in the room (all of it Zach's old set). It looks really nice. We just can't decorate until we find out what the baby will be on July 7th! :) Zach prays every night that we'll have a girl and Corey prays that we'll have a boy. Although, Corey said the other day that he is starting to want a girl. Gretchen doesn't really care anymore. As long as the baby is healthy! (although, boys are MUCH easier) :)

Today, Gretchen and Zach went to see a pirate Veggie Tales movie at the movie theatre where they started the "free family film festival" today. Zach had a blast! He loved the movie and of course eating popcorn! :)

Friday, May 30, 2008

Last weekend, Gretchen's parents' came down to visit us. They drove down on Friday and arrived around noon. Around 4 p.m., we left to go out to dinner as a storm was coming into town. When we got back from dinner that evening, Gretchen noticed that our security system was off, along with our house phone. Corey checked the breakers and found one switched off. When he switched it back on, Gretchen heard a noise in the kitchen. She unplugged something from the outlet of where the noise was. When she did, smoke started coming out from the outlet. That's when we knew that lightening had struck our house.
We ended up finding SEVERAL things "fried" in our house, even through the rest of the weekend. Here is a list of everything that was affected in our house by the lightening strike:

1.) The A/C unit transformer had to be replaced (which Corey and Dad fixed)
2.) The thermostat had to be replaced (Corey bought one that weekend)
3.) The GFCI had to be replaced in the kitchen (Corey bought one that weekend)
4.) The Security System doesn't work (That will be replaced in a few days)
5.) The Garage Door opener doesn't work (we're still looking into that one)
6.) The surround sound system doesn't work (we MIGHT get one if we can sell our hardwood flooring)
7.) The xbox 360 doesn't work (we ordered a power supply brick on ebay, hoping that is our problem and not the console)
8.) The Internet modem had to be replaced (Fortunately, the cable company took care of that)
9.) Zach's TV doesn't work (still undecided if we're going to replace that)
10.) The loft TV doesn't work (we might just give that to someone and see if they want to fix it... won't be replaced at least in the next year)
11.) The Nintendo Wii doesn't work (we ordered a power supply brick for this too on ebay, hoping that is the problem as well)
12.) The HD/DVR box in our bedroom didn't work (The cable company just replaced that today)
13.) The DVD player in our room doesn't work (we have the DVD player from the loft TV, so we shouldn't need to get another one of these)

God really was looking out for us when this happened. My parents were down and the only A/C unit that didn't work was the downstairs one, NOT the upstairs one where all the bedrooms are. Fortunately, we have 2 seperate units so that was a blessing. The TV's that got "fried" were the older TV's and not our newer, more expensive ones. The computer ended up being fine (since it's only a year old). Not to mention, we are VERY thankful that our house didn't burn down b/c of this AND that we weren't here when it happened. It certainly made for an interesting weekend. :)

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT DEB!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT DEBBIE!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

New Trampoline

Check out the video of our new trampoline! We've had it for a couple of weeks now. We're just now posting the link to the video. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjZDIgGqkrs

Monday, April 28, 2008

Zach's learning


Many of you know Zach has been reading since right before he turned 4 years old. His teacher told Gretchen last week that she started giving him harder words, to try to challenge him, and he was reading them with no problem. The only one he got stuck on was the word "Shoe". She also said that him and another little boy in his class are the only ones in the class that can read all the numbers from 1 to 100. Corey has been working on Zach with reading numbers in the 1,000's. He's been doing so well. It's just a shame that he can't start Kindergarten until next year with his birthday being right after the cut-off date. Gretchen is definitely going to take advantage of the time with him next year and home school him. She's hoping to get him to the 1st grade level by time he starts Kindergarten.

Zachariah has also been taking piano lessons from Gretchen since January 1st of this year. He has been "flying through" the books. There are some weeks when Gretchen doesn't get a chance to give him a lesson but Zach does so well. He's on the last page of his 3rd book and then will be going into his 4th book. The picture is the song that he is playing right now (the last page of his book). Talk about a smart and gifted 4 year old.

Gretchen has been slacking on working with him on memorizing verses. So far, these are the bible verses he has memorized: John 3:16, 17; Phillippians 4:13; Romans 8:28; Romans 6:23; and Psalm 23:1, 2. She's hoping to work with him more this summer when she doesn't have to teach at his school anymore. Then again, with being so tired from the pregnancy.... we may just "veg" a little. lol :)

Thursday, April 24, 2008


HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY, Grandma!

We hope you enjoyed your surprise party! :)

Friday, April 18, 2008

First Ultrasound


Gretchen went to the doctor yesterday, the first one since finding out she's pregnant. She is officially due November 24th. What is it with these November babies? lol

Everything is normal. The baby measures perfectly. As of today, she is 8 weeks and 5 days. She got to see the heart beating on the ultrasound monitor. There is only ONE baby in there. We were both praying for twins and were a little disappointed to see only one but God definitely knows best.

We're so excited about this new journey. Fortunately, Gretchen saved most of the baby items from when Zach was a baby. So, we don't really need a whole lot. The big things that we need are a stroller (or travel system), maybe a travel swing, a high chair and we'd really like to have a baby video monitor (although it's NOT a necessity).

Gretchen has already started to do a baby registry list at both target.com and walmart.com. She keeps an eye out on craigslist to find people in the local area selling baby items real cheap. As she buys things, she will be deleting things off of the baby registry.
The pregnancy, so far, has been great. No sickness.... just being tired and hungry a lot. She gets nautious when she gets hungry but fortunately hasn't gotten sick.

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Fence is finished!


Our fence is finally finished. After several months of trying to get a fence put up, it's done. We love our privacy and we love how big our backyard looks. We are looking forward to the summer when we can play in the backyard and be outside more. It's VERY exciting! Also, now that we have a fence we can get either a swingset or a trampoline.


Gretchen has been feeling very tired lately. She used to have problems going to sleep but now she's tired all the time. It will pass, tho. :)

Sunday, March 23, 2008

HAPPY EASTER!


Spring is in the air! Not only have we had "Spring Cleaning" fever inside of our house but we've had it on the outside of our house too. This weekend, Corey and Gretchen dug up their tree and all the shrubs that were planted. We then planted a new tree (a red maple tree), 3 Sago Palms and actually put flowers in our flower bed instead of shrubs. It looks sooooo much better! Everything still needs to grow up and we need to put down more mulch but otherwise, it's pretty much completed.

We're suppose to get our fence put in this week. They were suppose to do it last week but didn't and we don't know why. We are VERY anxious about that!

Happy Easter, everyone.... and Happy Spring cleaning! :)

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Happy Bday to Larry!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Corey's Dad, Larry!
We hope it's GREAT!