Baths, brothers and Star Wars:

I was just up in our bathroom brushing my teeth when I saw the tub was still full of water and towels were all over the edge of the tub...had to run down and type this quick...

tonight we were moving the old office furniture out of the office, (it's on the market if anyone wants it, it's very nice )

while Scott was working on disassembling that, I was baking chocolate chip cookies to bribe our "worker" when he came to help scott move it all...I asked Tommy to start the tub for Jack. He did so....stayed with him while he took his bath for most of it, talking to him...then Drew asked if he could head up and wash Jack's hair. I said sure swap out with Tommy. SO between the 2 of them they completely got Jack bathed and hair washed. Pretty cute. Our bathroom shows that they were all in there without monitoring from me, but that's okay.

Then Taylor Owens came over...Taylor is the younger brother of Miss Emily :).

Emily and her brothers, right after they saw her on her wedding day. Taylor (rt) couldn't stop the tears. It was so sweet.

He is a riot and the boys think he's great. I wish I would have taken his picture with the boys. After he helped Scott move everything to the garage in many loads for the desk that comes apart in sections, he ate a bunch of cookies, and then sat with Jack and let Jack read his homework book to him. I wish I would have grabbed a picture of the moment. He was in our big red chair, Jack on his lap, Drew on the arm and Tommy right there. It was pretty cute. They all really like Taylor, he is 22 years old, tall, red hair and is just a fun loving guy. He comes from an awesome family.

Then after homework was done...he let Jack show him his Star Wars book he loves....and Taylor is a HUGE Star Wars fan so since Jack has yet to see the movies he has a bizillion questions and sweet Taylor answered them all, explained as much as he could to them until it was almost 9 and I said it was an hour past bedtime they had to let Taylor leave.

The boys all stood at the door yelling goodbye to Taylor...it was sweet. We sent him home with a plate of cookies and a BIG thank you for helping us out. I love it when guys like that are role models for kids...he could have rushed through the moving stuff and just left. But no he stayed and spent time with the boys. And then he was off...I know his night had just begun. :)

He's back on the road

Monsanto has had a travel freeze on employees since June, so Scott has not had really any overnights since then for work. We were apart a few times when we were at the cabin and he was home working but really he has been around more in the past 3 months than I can probably ever remember in our marriage. Don't get me wrong he has never been gone ALL the time, but ever since we were married it seems like he averages 1 night out a week and we have had seasons where it has been more than that.

But tomorrow he leaves for a trip...it is September 1st and you can now go on "approved trips" through Monsanto. (allow me to regress: If you haven't figured out they are doing LOTS of budget cuts, closing offices all around the country, letting people go, travel freeze, spending freeze etc to try to make some year end goals. Year end is today for them) So tomorrow night, after he spends the day moving out of his office (he is there now still packing up) he flies to Austin Texas. He is speaking there to a group on Wednesday for their Seed Kick off meeting, Mr. Motivational speaker. Firing them up I guess. He will be back very late Wednesday night.

As I put the boys to bed tonight and he is gone at the office Jack asked if Daddy could lay with him when he gets home, I told him he would but tomorrow night he is gone and Wednesday night he would be home very late..the look on his face was shock. Poor guy. We have all been a little spoiled with having him here SO much.

We are grateful for his job, and actually we are all okay with his traveling. It is something that has always been a part of our marriage...and dating life too. We lived 6 hours apart the entire time we dated. But we have gotten a little spoiled these past few months. What a blessing it has been in this season and chapter of our lives to have him home, summer time, pregnancy, Drew being sick...it's all been so good.

Love you my dear....have fun packing it up. Can't wait to have you in your home office here.

Prayers for baby

Psalm 139:13-16

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

I did get a call from the Dr. this afternoon re: the ultrasound. He said all was well with it other than the possibility that the umbilical cord is at the edge of the placenta? Which he didn't seem overly concerned over. He said at this stage of pregnancy it isn't a big deal since baby is so small, but as baby gets bigger if that is confirmed it becomes more of a risk with blood flow etc. to baby. He was very calm as he told me all of this. I said what's that mean for baby and he said nothing until baby reaches 6-7 pounds.

SO let's all pray that the cord is okay and that this resolves itself. He said they will do another ultrasound in 3-4 weeks. And they will continue to do that throughout the pregnancy to monitor it all.

I don't completely understand it, sounds to me like if this continues to be the case they would take baby earlier?

But for now we are just going to pray that God resolves it and at the next ultrasound nothing shows up..that would be ideal. :) We will pray for ideal and we will take whatever He gives us inbetween.

Thanks for prayer,

and Scott too :)

God-made

Driving this morning, as we drive by a lake Tommy asks me

Tommy, "Hey Mom is that lake God-made or Man-made?"

It was such a cute question. I have heard of Man-made lakes but even growing up in Minnesota Land of 10,000 lakes, I had never heard the term "God-made lake"

It made me smile to have him ask it in that way.

Mission Organization (aka nesting for baby)

Most of you know that WE (well mainly me) are on a mission organization stint here at the Shisler house. I worked all week on the kitchen and family room area. Trying to get it all pulled together and a place for everything, and everything back in its place, school work from last year to its proper location so we are cleared up for this year, things filed into their proper locations, socks sorted, fridges cleaned...lots of little things.

With Scott's office building closing he is moving his office HOME. Which will be great, he still will have a small office in Ankeny at the other Monsanto building and access there to conference rooms etc. But he will mainly office out of here. SO....My plan for next week was to begin to attack the office in our basement, which I have mainly taken over with scrap book stuff and picture stuff. And to be real honest I haven't scrap booked in at least 4 maybe even 5 years now. I think it is the latter of the 2. :( Before you feel badly for our kids not having scrapbooks I have been printing pics and putting them into slip in albums for the past 4 years and for the past 3.5 have been making each of them a digital scrapbook of their year for their big christmas gift. 100 pages of their year...each one gets their own, thank you Shutterfly! This year I haven't printed out any pictures, I am trying to go 100% digital. Hence why grandparents aren't getting pics in the mail. So my children DO have scrapbooks and DO have lots of pictures taken of them. Just not in the Creative Memories, hand journaled with cute backgrounds and die cuts any more. I couldn't keep up with that and lost sleep over it. My point in sharing all of that is that I really don't need to have my own "office" downstairs.

But...brings me back to the mess I have created by putting stuff into that office for 4+ years and not doing anything with it. Scott told me today he is moving THIS week, I thought I had until Sept 14th but they have moved the date up when they need them out of the building. So....I am heading down there as soon as I finish this blog post. I did get a little started this afternoon after school, but there is a LOT to be done and another HUGE mess before it's done. I don't particularly love messes. So you can pray for me.

Scott took the older 2 boys to the first HS football game of the year, hope it isn't pushing Drew too much with his mono to be up this late. We will find out I guess. Jack and I had a little date and now he is in bed sleeping.

I am off to organize...if only I had a team of people, like the tv shows, to come unload the room for me and help me sort it all and put it in its new home.

My Dad's Resume

This morning we were talking about how Daddy is moving his office home, his office building is closing. Part of budget cuts. And Tommy said the cutest thing;

Tommy : "If Dad did lose his job Mom, I am sure someone would want him to work for them. I'm sure he has a very good resume."

Didn't know Tommy even knew what a resume was...all the boys agreed with him too. And no one asked what a resume even was....fun to see their confidence in their Dad. They are obviously proud of him and have great security in their Dad.

Baby names

Any great ideas for baby names? We have several girl names I am sure we could pick from, but boy names we are really struggling.

So feel free to send us your thoughts. We are super traditional with names, and were on the biblical name thing with Thomas and Andrew and then off a little with Jack.. But we really want something basic.

Breakfast

Boy the boys are chowing down breakfast. Making rolls, had leftover Krispy Kremes already from yesterday after the ultrasound. Not eating the healthiest breakfast...but they are HUNGRY! Guess dinner last night didn't really fill them up.

But the best thing is, they keep saying how HAPPY they are to have food at their fingertips. Pray this memory sticks with them.

Dinnertime

Well, as promised dinner tonight was our Kids Against Hunger dinner. As mentioned in Sunday's blog. (sorry don't know how to link you back to that blog) The boys were not very excited by this meal and were not very happy when told this was it for dinner, and there was no dessert or bedtime snacks either. I did promise them there would be breakfast tomorrow.

But to all of our amazement the meal was really quite good. The boys all liked it and said they would eat it again, but next time they wanted a piece of chicken on top. :) It was amazing how much it actually made. It is designed to feed a family of 6, and we had about one serving leftover when we were all done eating.

It lent to a nice prayer before dinner by Tommy thanking God for the food that we do have...and ended with Jack thinking we should do this every day for a week and make it our only meal then we would really understand the "experience" as he said.

I would say it was a good family dinner and a good way to discuss how much we have, and how little many others have for food. Just looking at the table and not having anything on it besides the bowl of rice was different. Usually our table is covered and we have stuff to pass and share. Not tonight.

We did have our "normal" milk to drink, Jack thought we should have had water. Next time...

Lego house completed

Today after school Jack put the finishing touches on the house he has been building all week, note the man driving in front, there are also pieces of furniture etc. in the house. The car is usually parked in the garage as you can see by the roof view photo he took.

He is very proud of his project. Tommy is very excited to see it built too. Jack took most of these pictures, other than the ones he is in. :)

Baby Shisler

Today was the big day, we got to see Baby Shisler at the official BIG ultrasound appointment, most likely the last before we meet baby in January.

Everything went well, baby looks good, all parts of baby are where they should be and doing what they should be doing. We continue to pray for a healthy, strong little one.

The ultrasound was LONG, we were lucky enough (I say that with sarcasm) to have a student sonographer, and we had the boys along...she was SUPER slow and so the first 45 minutes were a bit painful with the boys squirming and her trying to figure things out and my tummy with about a tube of gel on it. BUT then came in the professional sonographer and like that she had 20 great pics, measurements, heartbeats, blood flow etc and we were done. She told me that all looked well and if it didnt she would have gotten the Dr. So I assume the results are good by that. Baby weighed in at 8 oz today and had a 148 heartrate, it had been in the 160's so lower today.

The placenta is in the front of the uterus which explains why all the kicks and moves I have felt are off to the side or back. It was breach most of the time today, but has lots of space to move. So who knows what it will end up like, Tommy was breach but no one else was. As baby gets stronger and bigger, it will certainly kick right over that placenta.

We are officially about half way...about 19 weeks according to the original calculations and we go to 39 thanks to the planned section so 20 weeks to go.

Here are some pics...and no we didn't find out boy or girl for those of you wondering if we gave in. Baby had it's legs crossed most of the time so they wouldn't have wanted us to know anyways. :) The umbilical cord is in a bunch of these pics too which is kind of neat. Enjoy

Here is our little gift from God....

baby was trying to suck its thumb here, see it's knees crossed

This one is hard to see...but it is baby's nose, lips and chin

baby on its tummy, spine, ribs and back

baby was clapping here for us...

In the starter blocks about to kick me

baby, legs crossed, hand up

left foot

Oh Sweet Baby

We had another Dr's appt today, this time only Scott and I went. They were able to find baby heartbeat easily this time, although baby didn't stay in the same spot so she had to keep chasing him/her around to be able to time it. What a sweet sound that fast little beat is to a Momma's ears.

Then our Dr. offered a sneak peak at baby in the Ultrasound room, a pretty old machine and not very clear, didn't even get a good picture as baby wouldn't sit still. So much fun to watch them move, and flip around, and even got to watch them sucking their thumb. You could see baby's mouth sucking. It was pretty amazing. Saw the spine, the legs, the hands...the miracle of life growing right inside of me.

Wednesday we have our BIG ultrasound, the one downtown at the specialists office. We are taking the boys with us to it, they will be in awe. It will be a memory I don't think they will ever forget, being able to see their baby brother/sister on the big screen...I can't wait. I can't wait for my self but I think most of all I can't wait for the boys.

No, we won't find out if it's a boy or girl. We never do, we don't care. (but I sure wish I had $1- for every time someone asks us that) The blessing of a healthy baby is a gift. I was talking to a friend the other day about that...and told her that I was actually glad that we don't get to pick what gender the baby is...I wouldn't know which one would fit better into our family. I am glad God chooses that, and chose it long before we ever knew this baby would come. He knows what our family will be, He knows what is best for all of us..He just knows. And as Scott always replies to people when they ask...he says "We do know one thing, this baby is a Buckeye, and that's all we need to know". Cute response. And as Jack tells people, "we don't get to pick anyways so why find out"? Good point.

But oh sweet baby...we can't wait to meet you in January. Wednesday, January 20th to be exact it's officially on the Dr's calendar!

Quote of the day...from Jerilynn

"We are God's plan to change the world. We're Plan A and he doesn't have a Plan B." ~Rich Stearns

Another found while cleaning off inside of my desk cupboard...

"I BELIEVE if Jesus calls me to get out of the boat, He is going to be there to help me walk on the water. IF I start to sink, which sometimes I do, He'll reach His hand down and HE'LL LIFT ME UP."

-Joyce Meyer

Another good one...

"Blessed is the Mother...

Who can hold onto her children while letting them go;

Who puts a tranquil home ahead of an immaculate house;

Who knows a kind act will be remembered longer than an easy word;

Who really believe prayer changes things;

Whose faith in the future sweetens the present;

Whose Bible never needs dusting;

and Whose sense of humor is alive and well."

-Anonymous

More quotes found while cleaning...

"You can tell the value of a man by the way he treats his wife, by the way he treats a subordinate and by the way he treats someone who can do nothing for him."

-Ken Babcock

"Remember, we are not raising grass, we are raising boys"

-unknown

"Remember the big picture, Remember the original intent of God's word. Remember that it was meant to bless our lives and bring hope to our future."

-unknown

for Mom's

"Don't get so involved in the duties of your life and your children that you forget the pleasure. Remember why you had children."

-Lois Wyse

Dinner this week

Today in church they were talking about MEALS FROM THE HEARTLAND which is a way that Iowans can meet some of the hunger needs in the world. They are partnered with Kids Against Hunger which we have volunteered for before. (I will try to make that link but not sure if it will work) Long story short 1/3 of our world is starving..which is a HUGE number when you really sit and think about it. And this is a 5 day volunteer run deal that will package meals for families. It is a combination of rice, dried veggies, protein, and a couple of other ingredients and it makes a meal for 6 people. 25 cents per meal for one entire family. Our family plans on volunteering.

At church this morning they also offered the packaged meals for $10- to take one home. We took one...one night this week I am planning on making it for dinner for our family. Only that. I plan on doing it on a day where we don't have an after school snack so the kids are especially hungry...that's the point I want to make. That this meal will be about 1/2 cup to 1 cup of rice for each of us cooked and I doubt it will be delicious. BUT it is a TREAT and BLESSING to others in this world who do not have food, who find their food on the streets, or in the trash cans or just go without.

I am hoping it will be a lasting reminder to our boys...and to us. I know we can't fully grasp what HUNGER truly is...we will be eating this after having had breakfast and lunch that day...we know we will have breakfast the following morning. But maybe, just maybe, it will help us to appreciate a little more having a pantry filled, a fridge filled, a freezer filled with food.

Matthew 25:31-46 was the message today..."whatever we do for the least of these we do for Jesus" was what we took away. What a great reminder, we can't change the world. We can't solve world hunger, but we can do SOMETHING.

Jack is taking over the Legos

For Christmas Tommy asked for a Lego. His first time he has ever wanted anything Lego but I think seeing Jack build them in the fall he wanted one. The one he asked for was a white house, similar to ours he said. He worked on it for about 4 days of Christmas break then said he was done...frustrated pulled the pieces all apart and put it all back in the box..it was more work and more complicated than he had ever thought.

We packed it away thinking when Jack got older he would enjoy it as the age is 9-12 on it I believe.

Well, this afternoon while I have been beginning to clean out my desk area, the boys schoolwork papers from last year...Jack asked where it was. He started it about an hour ago. And is LOVING it. Despite the fact that all of the pieces were in one HUGE bag vs. the normal 1 step at a time bags he is used to.

It will be interesting to see how many hours/days it takes him to build it. He is VERY excited about it. Tommy is happy to see him doing it for him as well. :) Goes to show that every child is certainly unique. Legos are not Tommy's gig and shooting basketballs for an hour isn't Jack's. It's fun to see how they are different....

Iowa State Fair....EVERYONE

It seems like a whirlwind since school started, it was supposed to feel like things were slowing down. hmm maybe next week. Thursday was our "date" day to the fair...just Scott and I went. It was a cool day which was perfect for us. We leisurely strolled around starting with our favorite warm chocolate chip cookies and milk stand, and ending our day with it as well. Saw a few friends along the way. Enjoyed talking without interruption most of all I think. I love that my heart still skips a beat when we hold hands. 16 years since we met, and still.

Yesterday, Friday, was family day at the fair for the Shislers. We picked the boys up from school and went right to the fair...well we park at the Capital always so we can ride the city bus there, that is one of the boys' highlights. Riding on the "twisty bus" which is over 60 feet long.

Here it is moment by moment...feel free to skim. Once again, in traditional Shisler style, we started off with cookies for our "after school snack" and loaded the boys up with tatoos. We went from there to take the family picture at the official telecom site where they email it off to you...

...walked up past the fun Iowa State Fair cut outs for pictures...

then stopped to see our favorite weatherman and good friend Ed Wilson before he was on for the news,

did the Little Hands on the Farm loop which Tommy still participated in all because you get free food at the end,

Drew and Scott hit the Butterfly house as we had free tickets for 2 for there...

from there it was a wagon pulled by the John Deere tractor ride up to the Campground, where we visited one of Scott's customers Mom at her fancy RV.

Ran into my good friend from college Lisa and her hubby there, Lisa was in our wedding....

back then for dinner at the Pork tent, ran into more friends there and ate with them....down to the bumper cars for one final ride...

over the see our dear Miss Emily and Ross who were working for a friends at a restaurant there, next to the Giant Slide...and the Grand Finale of the fair for the Shislers...the GIANT slide back for one more hug from Emily and we were OFF.

Walked back to the bus past the tractors, Jack's favorite...and loaded it up for another great 2009 at the fair. The ride home was filled with quiet, a VERY tired Mom and some pretty tired little boys.

P.S One of my favorite conversations was on the way down to the fair in the bus, the boys were talking about how next year we will have a baby with us. They said "well Dad, will have to take the baby for his or her own day at the fair. " I said, I don't think that will happen because Daddy won't be able to feed the baby when it's hungry. Scott then chimed in "I'd be happy to take the baby, then I would get a day where I could do JUST what I wanted to do, the baby would let me choose". bless his heart...think of how many days he has gone to the fair and only done what others with him have wanted to....never a day for him to choose.