Merry Christmas!

We had the most wonderful time at my Mom's house. We had gotten my parents the game Pictionary Man so we played that, and it is really fun! We hung out and attended the Christmas Eve service at New Vision, which was fun! (except Adalai had a belly ache, and last time she had a belly ache, she threw up, so I was on constant allert!) The whole evening was a blast, watching the kids open their gifts and play with the toys that they were given. My Mom did an amazing job with the gifts particularly this year. She crocheted me a market bag, so I can carry all my veggies and stuff on my shoulder.. She got the kids a ton of different things they can do at home, and so did Kira, which is wonderful because sometimes the days get long in the Northwoods! Grams got us a Wii, which I was completely blown away by. I am so incredibly thankful of their thoughtfulness! How wonderful!
Today we are going to spend somet ime with Sherry and Neal, and then back to my Mom's to watch some movies and maybe play somemore games :) Grams got Wyatt a big boy seat, so he is super proud of it-me too!
Anyhow off to get ready for another wonderful day.
Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve!

Love being home for the holidays! I can use my laptop and blog for once! YAy!
We got here last night through the snowstorm and I am so happy to be here!!!!

Today we are going to my Moms. Can't wait, so so excited. The kids are dressed. I need to get ready!

HOpefully we'll be making a special New Vision appearance today! *not sure yet though!

Bleh.... Can't use my blog on Blackberry

BuT! At least I have internet now... eventhough it is on my mobile phone... it is working out really well that I can keep up with people a bit better, so send me a message! :) I hope to get internet on our laptop eventually, but for now, the Blackberry is working out! SOOOOO

thegeddes@gmail.com
and my new number is
715-966-0918

and I am also on facebook...

Don't know when I will be back to bloggin :(

Its been awhile...

And it will probably be awhile longer before we can afford internet access to our house in the woods. I wish I could post pics, but can't, as I am always using the internet at the library or elsewhere. Can't wait until we get all that fixed. For now, we are enjoying our family, our house, our huge yard, the fire pit, the family that likes to vacation here (you are welcome to come. Please please do... it is only about a 4 hour drive from where we used to live, and trust me it isn't bad. You won't be sorry).

I have to work today (I am a waitress now) and Ben is waiting to hear from his interview that he had yesterday.

I am on my way now to see my nieces get their hairs cut for school starting next week...

Then to work.

Blessings...

Fertility Issues and Surgery

I thought I may as well blog about this because it is probably something that you all would hear about one way or another anyhow.
I was with my sweet friend Shel on Saturday and was experiancing pain in my side (I had been feeling it for a couple days) and she suggested that I be seen. I got to Ben's Dad's (where my dear husband was) and asked him to take me to the ER.

We went to West Allis Memorial, and they had about a two hour wait in the ER. I was in so much pain that it was making me feel faint and nauseated. After waiting about two hours I started to feel better, and we decided to leave. The nurse said that she would have to charge us for a triage visit, and then something made her ask about the fact that I have had an ectopic pregnancy in the past. Yep. So, she asked "Have you tested for pregnancy?" Well, nope, I wasn't far enough in my cycle to even think of testing with an at home pregnancy test. SO, she suggested that we check and then she would let us go. We waited all of about 10 minutes and she came in and told me that it was positive. So, eventhough the ER was super booked, they made a makeshift wall in their hallway so they could give me a scan. They couldn't see anything but did all sorts of testing, started an IV line, got me in a room, did a pelvic and everything. They ordered a formal ultrasound. The sonographer lady was awesome. She informed us though that there was pretty much no point in looking because my HcG hormones were so low. So, they discovered that I had an unusual amount of fluid in my pelvis. Great. So, the doc ordered that I stay over night and that they re-draw blood the next day to see if the levels went up (they should at least double). So, I spent the night in the hospital with no pain at all.
The next day the doctor himself came in and explained that the numbers had not doubled and had actually gone down which means that I was having an unsuccessful pregnancy. We discussed my options and he told me that the fastest would be a laproscopic surgery (three incisions in my abdomen) and a D&C. We went ahead with that. So, I had two procedures and have spend the last couple days recovering in the hospital. Today they discovered that my HcG had gone back up. Not good. So they had to give me a shot and ordered me to come in to their office (which is now 4.5 hours from where I live) to have the physician that cared for me check me over.
I am happy to be home at Grams now. Sad that I missed my birthday party. Sad that we have had another unsuccessful pregnancy, but thankful to be home with my beautiful kids and heading upnorth tomorrow with my parents and family. Things will get better soon I am sure, but for now I ask for your prayers.

...its been a long time...

Oh man I miss having my computer up and runnin so much. I mean in ways I do, and in ways I don't. I have really appreciated having the extra time to do other things with my kids and take walks and such.

We are in town and staying at Grams, and then I am heading back tomorrow with my family and little Grams with some of our things from storage, and then we come back again Tuesday to pick up more from our storage unit. So excited to get some of our things home. We are having a wonderful timeat our new house. I wish it wasn't as far away from things as it is, but that doesn't even make it a big deal to me because I love it so much. There is something I really like about getting snail mail, and composting, and having fires and all the northwoodsy things we are doing lately.

I got a job working at a restaurant as a server, which will be helpful for the time being. Ben is searching up and down for jobs too. We are excited because people are starting to come up and visit us now, so we can share with them our little house, and our huge piece of land. The kids love it. They love being by their cousins, auntie, and uncle. It is so much fun.

I wish I had brought my card to load some photo's, but in honesty it will be much more fun to share with you photo's once we can start to get our own belogings there and get a couple things settled in.

Today we are heading off to see people. George, JoAnn, Shelly, and my parents :)

We are going to get internet soon.

Until then, thanks for hangin' in!

Monday.

The house is coming along famously. Wish I would have uploaded photos to share with you today. Ooop! We had my father in law over this weekend, so happy to be able to share it with him... the cute place.. it is precious. Can't wait until we can get our things there to fill it up! :)
Pics to come very soon!
Oh, and starting a compost. SO jazzed to compost and then have a garden next year!
Looking for a job too, it is tough.

Moved in!

We have now moved into our house, it is so much fun. We only had enough from to fill up the Jeep, but we are having a blast, have to take a bit of time off from the internet because the new place doesn't have it. Working on getting internet through alltell up here, details to come later.

New Day, new tude.

Today I am feeling much much better. Yesterday I was sad. No particular reason, just was.
We applied for jobs online last night. Looked into getting high speed internet upnorth too, which will turn out to be much more affordable then I thought. Phew.
Spending time with God today. We are going to drive upnorth, our Jeep is packed. I am actually excited for it today. Lucky how God works. I am scared/worried/lonely/upset. I say a small prayer and He is there for me. Eventhough I have been rebelious lately. He is there for me. I think that is the source of my depression lately. Haven't been turning to God for help. I've been rebelious.
Thank you, Lord for who you are, that even if I am rebelious to you, you still are there. Loving me. Helping me through the counseling words of my friend. Thank you God for the people that You put there for me. Amen.
SO... off to a different type of day with a different type of attitude.

We're moving

Tomorrow.
I am not feeling great about it right now, just because it means moving our things 4 hours away from my family. I am excited for obvious reasons, like getting my kids into a consistant routine at home. Today is a stressful day though. We removed all of our belongings from the place where we have called home for the last few weeks, to move them to an unfamiliar place to get re-adjusted again. I am looking forward to being in a house! And living with just the kids and my wonderful husband. I am excited that I can redecorate, and set it all up. I am excited that I am going to be getting a part time job so we can pay off some bills and afford the house :) I think that it will be good for me now to have a job. I am still waiting to hear about our benefits and stuff... it has been stressful because we have been changing counties ever since we moved from our apartment, and it takes a lot of work to change our unemployment type things. Oh well though, God has helped us through it all, and we are doing well. (Although my nerves are quite frayed at this point). I really look forward to people visiting us though, because we can make a weekend of it! :)
I am excited to be around my neices and nephews. I am looking forward to the fishing we will do on bass lake up there. Can't wait for that!

SOOOOO CHEESY

I was flipping to find Wy some cartoons and came across this little part of Full house. OH my gosh... I loved that show when I was little. What was your fav when you were young?

Woooohoooo for a house!

We found out yesterday that we are going to be moving into a house in Tripoli. It is on the same road as Ben's brother and his family. I can't tell you how excited I am to have a consistant schedule, and a place to actually call home. Thrilled.

Wednesday 7/15/09

Today has been fun with the kids. They, as my friend Kate says it "rock my socks".

We had little Grams over to the house today, she watched the kids play outside and I saw her smile lots, which is good.

We ran some errands, but I tried to be calm and patient. Two traits I have seriously lacked lately. It is actually really sad. I need to re-read Mitten Strings for God.

I miss my husband. Left him behind on Sunday. He is coming home soon I think. I can't wait to have a place to call home. My children ask me sometimes "Where is home?" Good question.

I am working on an afghan right now and making progress, it feels good. I am reading a couple of good things, and trying hard to find peaceful moments to relish. It is working. Listening to music helps. Quiet prayer helps. Talking to my friends, it all helps. Yet there are times during the day where I feel so overwhelmed. All a work in progress.

Our fam from upnorth (Christopher, Julie, and kids) are coming to stay here for the weekend. Tomorrow we visit "Doms" and I am really excited. My sister, Mom, and us are all going to be going there, and it will be a nice time to relax and enjoy.

Blessings to you.

Happy 11th Birthday, Hunter~

Maximus joined in on the fun! <3> My dear sweet hilarious niece, Autumn. She's 7. She's good at it.

My other dear sweet niece Kristina. She turns 10 on Thursday. She is wonderful. Precious, and I just love her.

See?

Hahaha then you go to this little one. She really was frustrated with her cousin who had the camera. Hunter tried to get a good one, but she just was mad at him that day, hence the face.

And this little man is a whole different story. George Douglas. 4 years old and you would never know it. He has dirt on his face. He loves dirt. And because of Georgie my Wyatt's face looked similar the whole time we were upnorth. They played in the dirt daily.

Birthday boy!

He is so handsome. I remember when he was like 3 years old and he would say "Auntie Sara, you are beautiful." "You are too Hunter" "I'm not beautiful, I am handsome!!!" He is.

Bleeeeh

Maximus. Or as Adi calls him "Mackey"


...and now it is sometimes, "Mack"


This is Anna. One of their pooches. And Max's girlfriend.


the birdies by the house

The end.

Just a quick update.

Life is a bit trying right now.
We are kind of living two places. And they are about 4 hours apart in distance. And that is pretty much how far apart my wonderful husband and I spend apart now. He is learning semi driving with his brother and is somewhat Christopher's personal mechanic. It is working out really well and the brothers are really enjoying their time together. The kids and I came down for some time with our family. We don't have a car, but my MIL has been really gracious in letting us use her car while she is out of the country. I am so thankful. I am happy to be home (southern WI home) for now and working on applying for jobs, but I miss my husband so much that it actually makes it feel like it isn't worth it. He will come to get us eventually and we will come and spend time with him in the northwoods. This is not a permanent arrangement by any means, and I am so thankful for that, but it is causing it to be very difficult for us at the moment.

Wyatt and the God hug

We sat down for lunch today.
Ben said, "We have to pray before we eat."
Wyatt was more interested in eating and said, "I don't want to pray."
Ben explained that we have to pray to thank God for our meal. We bowed our heads and prayed.
Later, Ben said, "I think you should say sorry to God for not wanting to talk to Him."
"Sorry God"
Wy: "I feel God hugging me"
Ben: "Well, hug Him back!"
He sweetly reached his arms around himself and gave himself a little hug.
Wy:"Ok, He stopped"

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July people!!!

We are going to be heading out on the Harley today for a ride. Can't wait.

What are you doing for the 4th?

Just finished reading a book called Mitten Strings for God. Best book I have read in a long long time!~

Onto reading Heartfelt Discipline....

Fishing in the Northwoods

This is my nephew Hunter. He was so proud of his big fish. I was proud too!

Hugest turtle that I have ever seen, and probably will ever see. He hung out by us both days we were on the lake. He was awesome!!!

Oh my gosh this turtle was awesome!

Trip to Illinois to visit our buddies!

My sweet children

They are such an amazing blessing to me... Oh my gosh I am so blessed!

Part of my PA family...

These pics are from our last night at the Stoak house. Awwwww :(

Ron: (aka Pappy Stoak)

Donna (aka: Nanny)

Aunt Kelly

Miss this girl.

4th day away

Ugh 4 days with out Ben. Bummer cuz I miss him so so much. It is good for me though to have him be away so I can work with the kids on listening a little better to me.

We had a wonderful morning today. I designated today as our off day of the week. We needed it. George set up the baby pool for them to play in, and I am really excited to sit outside with a book while the kids splash later on. Sounds like a wonderful evening.

Tomorrow we are visiting Katie, G, and LL, and I am really excited to see their house and let the kids play. We also are having Father's day at Grams for supper tomorrow. So, it is a busy, but very good week.

Finished my fun book "The Friday Night Knit Club" pretty nice fun read to have while we drove from PA, and now I am going to finish "Experiancing God" and my scripture that is assigned, before moving on to another for fun book.

Love to read. Also want to work on the afghan that I have started to crochet.

Lots to do, but today
I really want to enjoy my kids
be patient
drink a lovely Frappacino that Rachel so graciously blessed me with yesterday. Ahh

Graduation parties!

Things are busy. Like super duper busy.

Benjamin is gone right now. At his brother's helping him work on the semi's. And learning how to drive them too a bit while he is there. I am thankful that he worked it out to let me keep the Jeep here, so I could visit with friends and family. What a blessing. I got to see Rachel and Jadyn last night, and today we went to our old apartments and hung out there. It was a blast. I got burnt. The kids are burnt out. They are resisting bedtime because they didn't get enough rest. Seems like they haven't gotten enough rest at all lately. Bleh. Naptime is a must and early bedtime needs to really start being enforced. Since Ben is gone for the week that sometimes makes things hard because we have no consistancy in schedule. SO, looks like we need to just make it work out.

I have been feeling a little at the end of my rope lately just because of all the stuff going on around me. I love where we are staying now, but need to accomplish a few things in our schedule and routine that haven't been able to be pulled off lately. Prayer/exercise/scripture in the morning, is SUPER important, and has been lacking. I feel bummed about it, and trying not to make myself feel accountable to... well.... myself, but I always feel bummed when I miss my chance to read, and it should be more then just the morning, too. It will come slowly I am sure, but I need to work on consistancy with those types of things, and pray for patience and direction with mothering my children. I have had a bit of a struggle with things lately, and I need to ask God for more help with it.

Tomorrow I am excited to attend New Vision, like good ole times. Hoping to see Rachel afterwards and have fun!

Dexter Steven

I am stoked to be an auntie again! YAY

Emily ended up in a cesarean last night and Dexter Steven Wilcox was brought into this world at 9.19pm. Weighed in a 8 lbs 3.4 oz and 19.5 inches and has a full head of hair! I will post photos as soon as I get to see the little guy!

We are back in WI, now. I am jazzed about it and had a nice welcome home. We are very comfortable at Georges, and I am very happy! We pulled into West Allis yesterday all the way after driving 6 states, our Jeep decided it had enough of all the driving, and it started to go into convulsions. SO, Benjamin is up and ready to work on our baby to get her on the road so we can visit our family that we haven't seen in about 2 months :)

Can't wait to hear about the baby and see him!!

Baby is too comfortable in mother's womb

Made the trip yesterday from Harrisburg, PA, to Peoria Ill. It took a long time. It was SO worth it to see part of our family on the other end. Was hoping too to see the latest member of our family, however, he is too comfortable on the inside. Emily has been in the hospital for 48 hours. So... today they are doing some other thingies to get it moving along and if they don't get him to cooperate, they are going to invade his little private womb area, and take him out with a cesarean. So, either way, I am pretty sure we will meet our baby nephew today!
Then we are heading to WI. Can't wait. WI here we come!

Time: 4.17 Eastern Time

We are leaving PA to head to Peoria, where my poor sister in law has been in labor since 9am yesterday. Bleh!
SO excited to meet my new nephew and head west!
Pray for my SIL, and baby, and for our travel, pretty please.

Last day in PA.

We are packing up today to head back west. Still am not sure at this point if we will be able to pass through Peoria to visit with Emily. I hope so!

I have a ton of errands to run today and am hoping that we can get them done in time to have plenty of time to visit with Adam and Kelly before we go.

Loved our time in PA more then words can express. Thankful that God has really been protecting us and blessing us this WHOLE time. Yesterday the kids and I went to Paxton for church and lunch, and then hung out at the Stoaks house for naptime for Adi and Ben10 time for Wyatt. He loves that show, my little boy likes all the shows that I don't really like for him to watch. Doesn't help that his uncle Adam is a comic artist and loves all the shows like Ben 10 and Dragonball Z. Hmmm Oh well though he had a great time. Kelly and I got out to take a walk with the kids and then went and got Bruesters ice cream together, I am so thankful we had the time together before we head out. Tonight we are going to eat supper and I am going to insist on Pictures with the family. I really want to have them to remember what a blessing this time has been!!

Wanna get a westie.

I love this pic of my kids by Andy. He obviously took this one quite awhile ago. I miss that age. It is funny how you can look at something in retrospect and learn so much from it and wish you could change it but can't. Anyhoo, daily I learn something about the Lord, or being a mother, or being a wife, or being a friend... it is amazing.

One thing I have been learning lately is that I really would like to get a terrier. My husband doesn't know this and he doesn't check my blog so it might be awhile before he finds out. We have been living with a yorkshire terrier lately named Candy, and I just love her. Nichole and Chris, though, have a Westie terrier. I love Gretzski. I really would like to get a Westie.

Pic of Westie found here

Anyhooo, nothing much new here, we are working at cleaning through and getting rid of things that we don't want to take back home. So, today we are heading over to Goodwill to donate and then hang out together for the day, then tonight we are going to hang out with Michael and Elizabeth and their boys to celebrate Eliabeths birthday! We are planning on leaving probably on Tuesday, and hope to be passin' through when Emily has her baby! I can't wait to meet my new nephew :)

Doing good here in PA

We are doing well in PA. Had fun at our last time attending small group last night. Really enjoy James and Leigh. Last night Ben volunteered at Paxton once more before we return to WI, and tonight is our last famiy night. SO, today we are going to Nicholes and spending the time with the girls. Kelly is getting an EMG this morning because she has had terrible wrist and finger pain lately. Please say a prayer for my buddy. It really hurts her!
This afternoon Kelly, Nichole, the kids, and I are going to head to the Lemoyne famers market to get soft pretzels and soup for supper. I am so excited! Things are wrapping up well here. I am getting a bit sad about leaving the place that we have lived for the last month and a half, but know that we will visit here again so it will all be OK. Just trying to focus on enjoying our last time here before we head home, and looking very forward to seeing my friends and family back home, and attending church at New Vision. Miss that place too.
The kids are doing well, but I am really looking forward to getting back to some sort of a schedule when we get back to WI. I am praising God that they haven't had any times of illness here since they have been so off schedule (read:very little sleep!) but I am so thankful. They are happy and peaceful and really loving spending time with our "Pennsylvania family".
God, thank you.

Only got these three pics in Canada. Boo

Kelly, Adi and I had such a good time in Canada, I am just bummed that these are the only three pictures we got while we were there!
We walked to the park with Kelly's Mom and sister (with her three kids) and visited the UCD's (stands for Ugly Chicken Ducks) the kids fed them and it was really fun to meet Melanie and her kids. Devin is her daughter (pictured with Adi above) and she has twins that are like 18 months (Tanner and Cayden-they are precious).

We had such a blast! Now on to another journey, back to WI. As of right now the plan that we have is in the short term for now, to head back next week and to spend time with our family.

Coming home, to WI

We have had a job opportunity open up, in WI. I am jazzed at the thought of going home. I can't wait. I am really going to miss PA because I really love my family here. I am thankful for our time that we got to spend with our best friends and their family. I know we will see them again because this is typically our vacation destination, but to be honest I would rather leave this the awesome place to visit instead of making it the place we live.
We have had no luck finding a job as of yet, and so when this opportunity arose, it was God's timing. It gives me a chance to donate a ton of stuff (and hopefully be able to get a couple new items when we get home like a coffee maker because we just won't have the room for it to take it back home :( ) And pare down to only what we will need. We are going to spend some time with my father in law, and being around home makes me feel so good.
What an amazing opportunity we have had to be able to live in a different state and different environment for the last month and a half. What a lovely time we have had. I am forever grateful.
Thank you, God for making this opportunity work out for us and give us a chance to be completely blessed, and to have a chance to be a blessing. Lord help us to get home safely and cherish our time with our family even moreso now that we have had quite awhile away from them. Please bless those who have totally blessed us! Amen.
It is gloomy out this morning. So, the kids and I will probably hang out around the house and start our re-sort through clothes and whatnot. We are going to really work on enjoying our last days here. Not get too overwhelmed, but enjoy the family and friends.

Happy Monday

We had a wonderful time in Canada. Kelly's family is a blast, and we were able to have time to just chill and relax. The weather was just about perfect and it was really nice. We had an 8 hour drive back. We were able to thrift quite a bit while we were over there, and it was something that Kelly and I love to do together and haven't had much of a chance to do since coming to PA.
Today we have some catching up on chores and shopping to do.
Need a day off to recover from vacation! How sad is that!
Have a blessed week!

Canada, here these girls come!

This afternoon, Kelly, Ada and I are heading off to Ontario to visit Kelly's parents. I am excited! Looking forward to the time of girl talk while we drive and we are going to work on reading through Experiancing God together, which will be really wonderful. I am hoping that I can spend some time reading a "fun" book too, while I am there. I am starting "Three Cups of Tea", and I would also like to read "The Shack". Anyhow, I will probably offline until Sunday. Have a wonderful weekend!

I <3 this man

photo: Andy Stenz
My husband is amazing. There are so many good qualities I could post about him on my blog, but I will spare you, I just thought I would let you know that he is the more then I could ask for in every way. Yesterday I rented a movie and really wanted to watch it in kind of quiet so I could actually hear it and pay attention (ok ok, I rented "He's just not that into you") so, he took the kids upstairs and they played. Then after awhile I paused it to have some ice cream (which he scooped btw), and then shortly after he took the kids up and put them to bed. Which btw, is NOT easy these days, Adi acts as if we are pulling her toe nails out when it is bedtime. The other night she cried straight for like 2 1/2 hours straight, no joke. I was so amazed that he came down after a little bit and had already gotten them to sleep (at 8pm might I add~they have been going to bed past 11pm because they have been fighting it so much). I am so blessed by him. what an amazing husband.
This morning, after our daily dose of Transformers Animated, the kids and I are heading out to Jonestown Road to do some thrifting, and shopping. SO excited.
Tomorrow Kelly, Adi and I leave for Canada!!!!

Photos from Andy