It's a ...

baby!

Baby's gender is still unknown... but he/she is absolutely beautiful and absolutely perfect. We're proud to show you the newest member of our family.

Pictures, as promised

Here are some pics taken the week I found out I was pregnant (at around 4 weeks) and from today (at around 12 weeks). I lost 3 lbs from morning sickness early on and I've only gained back 2 of the 3 lbs so far!!!! I have an appt next Thursday and *hopefully* we'll find out if our little June-bug is a boy or girl! Right now we *think* we've settled on the names Madigan Isabella Ruth Arnold or Samuel Garrison Arnold. Time will tell!!!

Bye-Bye July! Hello June-bug!!

Wednesday I had my first OB appointment and we discovered that I was a week off! So my due date is no longer in July... it's June 25! Miracle's birthday!!! Rick and I got to see our little June-bug on ultrasound (tho the doc didn't print us a pic) and she looks great! Her little heart-rate was 174 bpm. (Yes, we're hoping for a girl!) This doctor is a perinatologist in Rolla. Rick really likes him.... he's very knowledgeable in so many areas, he's very matter-of-fact, and he was a Navy Corpman for 6 years. So Rick REALLY respects him. I can DEFINITELY see the military medical training in this guy. He could really care less how this pregnancy affects me emotionally. He didn't once ask me how I was feeling or what hopes I had throughout this pregnancy. It's his job to keep me alive and he made it clear that that's all that is important to him. To me, he kinda sucked the fun out of going in for those prenatal visits. After taking my history, he tried to scare me half to death. He ordered blood work (which ended up being 14 VILES worth!!!) to test for everything under the sun. Then he expalined to me all the various ways this pregnancy could be "potentailly" dangerous. I guess he doesn't realize who he's talking to. He'll soon learn. :>) But, I will say, he IS thorough. He's testing me for things I've never even heard of. So, I at least am confident that he takes my lupus seriously and I'm sure if I ever sneeze, he'll run a test for everything from the common cold to the bird flu! lol

Oh that's another thing! He wanted me to take the flu shot. He said that being pregnant and having lupus are BOTH reasons that I should take it. He didn't ask me if I wanted it... he just ordered it. When the nurse brought it, I asked her if I could decline it. The doctor popped in and looked at me like I was nuts. He kept trying to tell me that it won't hurt that bad, yada yada. I finally explained that I'm not afraid of the pain... I'm just picky about immunizations. I feel that doctors these days want to inject us with everything under the sun. You should have heard the fight that he put up... but in the end, I won. He made me sign something saying that I declined it... and apparently, I'm the first patient of his to ever decline it. He said, "Just sign this saying that you're declining the flu shot even tho it could potentially kill you." Good grief. He may turn out to be more of a drama queen than I am! It'll be a fun 30 more weeks! I go back Dec 20 and we'll have another ultrasound then. YAY!!!

I'll post pictures as soon as I can!

We're having a BABY!

Baby #4 is due July 2, 2008! We just found out on Friday and we're so excited! Shocked.... but excited!!! Please keep our growing family in your prayers!

Yes... HE GOT A JOB!!!!

RICK IS WORKING AGAIN!!!!!!

I was so tired of saying "Rick got a job"... "No he didn't".... "He got a job"... "No he didn't" that I just quit. I decided I'd announce he got a job when he got his first paycheck. And today, HE GOT HIS FIRST PAYCHECK!!!!!! Rick is working for the Pulaski County Ambulance District (or P-CAD) as an EMT. He's also doing his Reserve Drill in the ER on Post and he's been filling in shifts for firefighters at St. Robert. He's staying busy!! AND getting paid! PRAISE GOD!!!!! I'm so proud of Rick! He's great at what he does!

Women At Rest Weekend Retreat

This past weekend, WAR-Missouri had our first Fall Retreat at Whispering Winds Camp near St. James. OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! This is the land that God blessed.

Here are a few pics from our weekend. These pictures here are of the campgrounds. I laid under this tree and took an hour long nap. All I could hear was the wind and occassionally a little rooster. When I woke up my cheek was warm - the sun was shining through the branches above me, as if God was sending down a gentle kiss on my cheek. I tell ya, those kinds of moments are the things that beautiful poems are written about. I felt like I was in a scene right out of a book or movie. When was the last time that you laid still, in the middle of a field and heard NOTHING?? "Be still and know that I am God." -Psalm 46:10

The House Of Yummy

The Dining Hall at Whispering Winds was affectionately dubbed "The House Of Yummy" and became one of our favorite parts of the weekend retreat! I don't know that I've ever eaten so well in my life! Each meal was completely home made from scratch. I think I helped myself to seconds on everything at every meal! Another favorite at the House Of Yummy was the "Magic Window". When you set your dishes in front of it, they disappear!! Even better... Magic Window came with Magic Man... and sometimes Magic Man came out of Magic Window and picked up your dishes for you!!! We all want to know where we can order a Magic Window/Man Deluxe Combo for ourselves!!!!

Here I Am To Worship

Friday night we learned about different creative forms of expression to incorporate in our worship time. Here we learn how to use the billows.

Riley.... or Kenny Chesney??

Riley just cracks me up. He came in posed like this and all I could think of was "Give the kid a shell necklace and he looks like a little Kenny Chesney!"

A Few Pictures From Orlando

Here are a few pictures from the Women At Rest conference that Melissa and I spoke at in July. These are 2 pictures of the church we spoke at. A picture of Melissa and I. And a picture of Sandy LeSourd and Sandy Wellman.

Life Got Busy

It seems that when the school year started, life got busy!

On Sunday evenings I have Christmas Dinner Theater rehearsal and Women At Rest. Rick has a men's Bible Study. Mira has WGTA (Worshipping God Through the Arts). Riley and Joey have the Joyful Noise choir. Sundays are a busy day! I can't believe we're all working on Christmas music already! I'm blessed this year to have been asked to write the Christmas musical that will be used for our second annual dinner theater. It's so exciting! My WAR group has taken off and is AMAZING. We're averaging 16 women, all military wives, and so many prayers have been answered in this group; so many lives have been touched.

Tuesdays at 5pm Mira & Riley have gymnastics... and Mommy is one of their coaches! Rick has Fire Dept training each Tues evening, too. On Wednesdays all 3 kids are in the AWANA program. Friday nights we have our cell group which we look forward to all week. There's so much to do!

The kids are adjusting well to public school - Mom's just having a hard time keeping up! Spelling words and vocabulary tests seem to take up the evenings we have "off". And even tho we're always gone, we some how still manage to always make a mess at home! lol

I'm hoping to get some more pics of the kids this week to post.

Joey Starts School

Joey started school this past week. We absolutely love his teacher, Mrs. Shelden (she's our pastor's wife!) and her assistant, Mrs. Hackney (a friend from church and Mira & Riley's gymnastics coach!). On Joey's first day, his Daddy got to go with him. Here are pictures of him and his daddy... and him with the bags of candy he (squished and) brought to his teachers on his first day.

The First Day of School

This morning was the kids' first day of school! They were not nearly as excited, eager, anxious or nervous as I was! I was up all night running through the list in my head - did I have all their supplies in their backpacks, were their lunches ready in the fridge, did I sign all the right papers? This morning proved to remind me that I can be completely prepared but things still won't neccessarily run smoothly - the bus forgot to pick them up. So, after standing outside waiting for 40 minutes, Daddy drove them to school. Here are some picks of them this morning.

Last night was "Meet The Teacher Night" and we got to meet Mira and Riley's teachers. We were so happy! Mira's teacher is a member of our church. Riley's teacher comes highly recommended by our pastor's wife. She's taught for 19 years and has a child in Kindergarten herself, so we were pleased. She's really nice and I think she'll be great for Riley. She's soft spoken and seems to love her job. Mira's teacher is just genuinely a sweet lady with kids of her own, as well. Our first year of public school is a scarey step, but knowing my babies are in good hands helps me relax a little.

Still Waiting

Richard was sent to Camp Perry, OH on 1 July and was due to return 14 July. Well, they extended him 2 weeks and now he is due to return 29 July. That's not set in stone, tho. His commander wants to extend him to 20 Aug. So, we're still waiting. He's really ready to come home and I'm ready to get him here! Once they realized his computer skills, they set him to work on computers. Some days he works 12 hours on the firing range and then another 4-6 hours in the evening on computers. He's wiped out!

Still no news on the civillian job front. I'm praying that this commander of his in Ohio will take the initiative to get the ball rolling and put him back on orders for his knee surgery. If that happens, he would be able to go active duty once he is healed. I don't know what God's will is for us right now. We have this strong feeling that we should be HERE in the Ft Wood area... but we're still not sure HOW we can make that happen. But, with God ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE and we hold tightly to that promise. He's brought us this far, he's not going to let us go, now.

My first new Women At Rest military group meets this Sunday for the first time and I may not even be there for it if I'm picking Richard up at the airport. We're still teaching Sunday School and loving our class. Life remains busy.

I just got back from speaking at a Women At Rest conference in Orlando, FL. It was an AMAZING weekend and such a blessing to share my testimony with over 100 women. Some of them came to me afterwards to talk and to pray, sharing that my story was not much different than theirs. A handful of them were military wives - wives of Reservists and Gaurdsmen. It was an amazing opportunity and SUCH a huge blessing. I also got to spend that time with my good friend Melissa and her husband Jamie. As soon as I got off the plane she shared with me that they are expecting their first child to be born in the spring. I'm so excited for them! It was a great weekend with Jamie & Melissa and I'm so happy that I got to spend it with them.

The kids are here with me this week... just in case Richard doesn't come home this weekend, I didn't want to make ANOTHER trip to St. Louis. My friend Mindy is keeping them during the day while I work (along with her own 6 kids!) and that's been absolutely WONDERFUL. Her hubby is out of town this week, too, so we're doing dinner together each night. I love our friends, here. They are family. The thought of ever leaving here makes me so incredibly sad.

Tonight Miracle and I are about to have a girl's night. So I guess I need to go dig out the toe nail polish and start popping the popcorn!

It's hard to keep this blog updated when it seems I don't know what's going on in my own life from one day to the next. It's an exausting roller coaster and it's even more exausting when I bring other people in on the ride. It's just easier to not share what's going on when I'm sure things will change.

Right now Rick is at Camp Perry, Ohio. He was sent there to be a medic for the NRA's national competition. He left 1 July and is "supposed" to come home 14 July. Once they saw how good he was at fixing computers, they reassigned him and he's now working on computers. He has 4 laptops and a handful of desktops that they want him to fix TODAY! They're short on medics and MSgt Biaz wants to keep Rick 2 more weeks... so he's looking at the possibility of being extended. I am in no way prepared for him to do that. I just want my husband back home. I understand that it would pay good $$$... but I just want him back home.

The kids are all in St Louis and have been sick. I haven't been feeling well either and I'm going crazy down here by myself. My kids are sick, my husband is gone and I can't do anything at all about it. I don't even know what's going to happen. One minute Rick is sure he'll be extended, the next minute he doesn't think he will. It's the battle of uncertainty and that's just what military life is all about. It's also the part that I hate the most. I am a strong woman and I can deal with alot of things... but it's the not knowing that is so hard.

A little update on us

Everyone's been asking for an update... and it's been a long time since I've had much of anything to post. Today is Rick's 29th birthday and tomorrow is mine. Being with my husband is the greatest gift I could ever have. I love this man so much... and I am in complete AWE of the amazing things that God is doing in him and through him every day. I know God has something big in store for Rick... I'm watching God take Rick through the refining process... and I know He has sweet plans for Rick on the other side.

The kids start school on Tuesday, May 29th!! Yes, SCHOOL! Summer school begins next week for a month... just a little something to get the kids introduced to the public school and hopefully they will adjust well in the fall. Joey will also be in preschool (at the church) while Mira and Riley are at big school. They're all 3 so excited! I love the fact that Joey will be in the same building that I'm in all day... I can pop in to have lunch with him or just drop in to say HI. I think I'm looking forward to school as much as the kids are.

I absolutely love my job working as the Executive Secretary at Westside Baptist. This job is such a gift from God... in so many ways. I couldn't ask for a better place to work, better people to work with, or better things to spend my days doing. I'm leading a Women At Rest group at Westside on Sunday afternoons for women who are military wives or female military personnel. We have a great group and we are really enjoying the book we're reading. Rick and I begin teaching Sunday School June 3.... Yes, I said RICK AND I are teaching Sunday School! We're going to be leading a study called "Five Lies That Ruin Relationships". It's an awesome program! We picked up the material and seemed to read our own testimony on the back cover of the book. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us through this class! Rick continues to volunteer for St Robert Fire Dept. He is just so good at what he does! He's still looking for a job... the right job... the job that God has waiting for him. God has shown us many doors... but most of them keep shutting. We're ready, whenever God is, to find the door for us to walk through. He has a couple leads... but they're just leads. So, we continue to wait. God continues to provide.

I had a major lupus attack last week... the worst one I've ever had. I ended up in the Emergency Room. But I'm doing much better now. Rick was an amazing help to me and I found myself actually thanking God that Rick was at home, and not at work. Funny how circumstances can change your perspective. I'm feeling much better this week and am back at work. It's good to be back in the swng of things. I'm a little tired still... so I'm looking forward to a nice 3 day weekend.

I guess that's it for us! I'll try to keep pictures and updates posted more frequently again!


Love,
Heather

Women At Rest

Here are a few pictures from our weekend seminar for Women At Rest. I miss these ladies terribly!

My Husband, My Hero

Fun at the Firehouse with Daddy

Fun Pictures of Bouncer

My Girls

These ladies have blessed my life more than words could ever express. I am so excited to have this ONE picture of my three best friends in the whole world! Colleen, Melissa and Tanya

Mira's New Haircut

My big girl! She's already to start school next Tuesday! She loves her new haircut!

We Miss You, Miss Mawisssssa!

Melissa, known affectionately at our house as "Miss Mawisssssa" just moved to California and we miss her so much already! Here are a few pictures that we will always treasure of her and her husband Jamie before they moved.

Mira's Baptism

Mira was baptized on 3/25 by her PaPaw at Westside Baptist Church. Here are a few special pictures from that day.