A slow start to the new year

Wow, this has certainly been a SLOW couple of weeks for us! Probably best, all things considered. I'm going to try my best to be a bit better about blogging regularly, but my New Year's Resolution to myself (and my family) was to reduce computer time drastically. That got kick-started by Shelby's illness; I just wasn't able to do much! There's other reasons too....

Well, I guess since it's been blabbed at church already (why can't anyone in my family keep a secret?), I might as well spill the beans to everybody, and this is probably the easiest way to do that. I wanted to at least have my first doctor's appointment (to rule out Pete's premonition of twins), but....we're going to have another set of Irish twins come August (or July, depending on just *how* early this one is)! We're all thrilled, and I'm doing fine as usual, just TIRED. In all honesty, the close spacing actually works better for us than having more than 18 months between kiddos. I'm just hoping and praying that Shelby will let me get some sleep now that she's not up all hours of the night gasping for breath.

By the end of the year, we'll be a family of nine. Hey, cool....eight in '08, nine in '09! Heh...ok, dorky sense of humor, I know. I'm working on three hours' sleep, cut me some slack! Anyhoo, the whole seven-kids thing really isn't all that scary on this end of it. Funny, two years ago seven children seemed just as daunting as a dozen, but now, not so much! We will all still be able to fit in our two vehicles...um, unless God REALLY intends to surprise us with multiples!?

For some reason, another pregnancy to begin the new year just seemed a little, oh, I don't know, flat? No biggie. It's the shoulder surgery Pete will have next week and the very good possibility that he's going to be putting in his retirement packet in April or May that kind of gets the adrenaline flowing. I'm working with the kids at church on the scrapbook for the Lads to Leaders convention on Easter weekend; Jon will move on to Fort Campbell in April; Kelsey will start her senior year in the Fall and at least by the time the baby's born we'll be looking for a house. THAT scares me. A baby, no. A house? YES. There's just something about house hunting that makes me shudder.

Oky doky then...there it is. The news from the top of the Mount. All good changes ahead, but even good stress is still stress! We'll all be praying for strength this year, it seems! For now, I'm praying for an end to the sleepless streak.

I'll try to get all of our new pictures uploaded and have something a little more visually stimulating posted later this week!