I have wondered if I should blog about this or not and decided that I would as I know other women have experienced this same thing and this is a journal of sorts. A month ago I had a miscarriage. My feelings on this were so mixed as the way I found out I was even pregnant was when I miscarried.
I am still nursing baby boy and so my cycle had yet to return. Typically for me it begins once the baby is eating more solids and so I was expecting it anytime. When I started spotting I thought nothing of it. A few days later I had cramping unlike anything I have had before. I told John that the pain was so intense it felt almost as if I was in labor and I could even time it. So, I had thoughts flash through my mind of "could I be?" but "no, not possible". I took ibuprofen to help with the pain and then went to the store figuring that by the time I got there the pain meds. would have kicked in and I'd feel fine. I took George along with me, just in case.
As we walked through the store I started to feel faint and got really hot. I had to keep stopping for each cramp I had. George was planning out what he would do if I should pass out and had my cell phone in hand. By the time we got to the parking lot I felt a big "whoosh" and immediately I felt fine again. We went home and I found that I had passed a clot.
I talked to a friend of mine who has miscarried too many times and talked to her about my experience. She told me if I wanted to know for sure to take a pregnancy test as the hormones would still be in my body. John went out to get one and in the meantime I was online looking at signs of miscarriages and stumbled upon a picture of a baby that was miscarried at six weeks. It was amazing!
I took the test and found that indeed, I had been pregnant. What a mix of emotions! I had honestly not desired to be pregnant at that moment in time but yet, I had life inside of me and didn't even know it. Well, I had saved the clot for reasons I don't really know but decided to look at it more. I have always been fascinated by the various stages of a baby's development, especially when I am pregnant and so I was curious. When I turned it over I could see the form of a baby at about 3 weeks after ovulation. I could see the head with a dot of an eye, the arm buds and the spine which was still in the form of a tail. It was simply amazing to see the beginning stage of my little baby that God had knit together and yet had also decided for one reason or another that it was not to be. I took a picture to remember, but I won't share that here.
So, if you are wondering, as I am sure some of you might be, yes, we would love to have more children if God blesses us again. For my thoughts on this subject I stumbled upon a post that puts into words feelings that I have. You might enjoy reading HERE.
I signed George up to take Writing Class which is through our homeschool group. He has participated for the past two years, you may remember his wax museum Patrick Henry speech from this past spring. Last week was the first class which was a Show & Tell and George decided to write about racing of course. We put pictures together of our summer along with a poster he has of all of the cars in his Daddy's Pro-Super Buggy class. This class is as much of a speech class as it is writing.
George was quite nervous and this time Pete went up with him to assist in holding the poster and pointing to the pictures as George talked about them. He did a great job for his first time in awhile. He typically memorizes his speech and then pretends he is reading as of course you can't look at anyone. George spoke clearly and not too fast. It will only get easier with each time. Pete and Re-Pete have decided that they would like to try this also so we'll see how it goes with the next month's assignment.
"Welcome to the first day of our homeschool!" were the words that greeted the boys Monday as we officially began school. They giggled and snickered but we were excited to begin. Our schedule is still in rough draft as we have some modifications to make but we should be able to complete everything by lunchtime and then they have the afternoon to play. I had been preparing the boys of my expectations for them and was amazed that they took it to heart. They actually all made their bed, got dressed before breakfast and then completed their chores. I still have to add to their chore schedule and am using Chorepacks software for that which I hope will help and will avoid me having to constantly ask "did you do _____?"
The only problem I've had is with Missy Blue as she adjusts to the boys new schedule and only Tank to play with. She screamed about every little thing that didn't go her way on Monday and I had to stop and take care of that. Thankfully she has gotten better as the week progressed.
On Monday George was a help to me in making sandwiches for lunch while I finished up working on reading with the three younger boys. He made pj&j and cut each person's initial in the top of their sandwich. He is creative that way, well they all are for the most part. I think I let them play with their food too often, making creations. :)- Anyway, I need to get in the mode of quick lunches rather than always trying to make something.
Our curriculum for the year is:
- Bible, History, and Science we are using My Father's World - American History and that is all-together. I love that it has a teacher's guide and everything all planned out for me.
George
Sequential Spelling
Queen Language Lessons
Italics Handwriting
Math-U-See
Pete & Re-Pete
Math-U-See
Reading Made Easy
Tank
Reading Made Easy
Various flash cards
Labor day weekend was my husband's final race of the season! What a relief to be at the end, although it also means an end to our summer. This was a big weekend celebration and so we went to Crandon on Thursday night. Friday was spent in town as the race cars and trucks are on display parked along the streets, which is followed by a small parade. The weather was warm, so it finally felt like summer to me. On that note, according to my Dad, this has been our coolest summer in the past 34 years! I know some of my blog friends live in warmer climates where you are sweltering but we have come no where near this year. We never even hit 90° this summer! This has been too cool for me but where is that kind of summer when I am big an pregnant?!? 
The kids watching the parade next to Daddy's car
Back to the story. My husband went into this weekend being the points leader in his Pro-Super Buggy Class by 37 points and needed to finish in at least 8th place on Saturday to clinch the title. He had two plans depending on his start. If he could get the hole-shot he would run with it but if not, he was going to play it safe and hold back to make sure he finished without breaking. He ended up going with the second plan, which made for a boring race on our part, but sealed him with the victory as points champion for the year! Yippee!
Daddy and his pit crew celebrating his victory! Number 1!!! The kids shirts say "Go Daddy Go" which they wore to every race.
Sunday we spent part of the day at the beach as the race was late afternoon. It was a gorgeous day and we all enjoyed the time together just relaxing. We looked forward to the race as my husband was ready to give it his all and go for a podium finish but it was not to be. About three or so laps into the race he pulled off the track and had to be towed back to the trailer. According to my source, George, an aluminum pulley came off causing him to loose power and oil pressure. A podium finish would have been a nice ending to the season but I am so proud of John for the excellent and very exciting race season! He is a talented driver and is more fun to watch with each year. Congratulations honey on being the points champ for the year!!!!
My and my Man in a rare picture together. Tank took this for us and did really well! You can see Missy Blue walking in the background.
My Mom reminded me that I haven't blogged for two weeks so I thought I'd list a few things that happened in the past two weeks.
1. We had a small fire on our hot water heater. It was around 11:30 p.m. on a Saturday night and I was checking to make sure everyone was covered before I turned out the lights. I went into the hall and there was a strange burning smell. I called my husband and he ran to the basement. He thought it was the dryer but it turned out that the panel of the hot water heater had burned and thankfully went out on it's own. After church on Sunday he picked up a new one and installed it right away with my Dad as he was heading to Alabama the next day. The old one had lasted 22 years and we are happy to have a larger one now as we ran out of hot water quickly with all of the baths and showers around here.
2. Hubby was in Alabama Monday and came home Tuesday but the kids and I spent the night at my parents house as I had a homeschool mtg. Monday night and I didn't feel like driving home (25 minutes) yet that night. That is always fun as we are then in town and I can run to Target and places like that in a few minutes time rather than having to drive in. The kids also enjoy camping out in the livingroom. We picked up my nephew and took him home with us for the day. Tank especially enjoys having his cousin over. The kids played all day in the sandbox much to my sister's delight. 
3. The Homeschool group meeting Monday night was exciting to see all of the opportunities available for the year. We are looking forward to writing club (okay, maybe just I am) and a music class being offered. There are also fun field trips as always.
4. I typically enter photos in our county fair and as each year, I wait until the last minute. I had started getting them ready two weeks earlier but couldn't come up with one that I thought I could win with as my favorites ended up a bit blurry. So, I took new ones and the kids were sick of my camera, printed them out and matted them. George and I took them over to the fairgrounds Wednesday night and had fun looking around as everything was being setup.
5. I finished up packing for our trip up North for the last race of the season and left on Thursday afternoon. I forgot to get a picture of our sleeping arrangements in the motorhome as I wanted to share that and this past weekend we stayed with my in-laws. One of these days.
More to come about our race weekend in another post...
6. When we got home we went to the fair on Monday along with my parents. I always enjoy looking at everything and I did get a 3rd with a grouping of four pictures I entered. I also sat for awhile at the MOPS booth with my sister who is a coordinator for a group. It is fun to sit and watch people and have time to actually sit and talk with my sister.
7. Tuesday was another dentist appointment. Turns out that after all of that work a few months back two of my teeth were in need of a root canal. I debated over and again if I would rather just have them pulled for various reasons but ended up deciding to go with the root canal. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, although I am in a bit of pain now. I am hopefully waiting until next year for the other side. I am spending way too much time at the dentist! 
8. Wednesdays we are in town as George has his reading lesson and he also cuts grass. We have church in the evening and when we got home listened to Sarah Palin give her speech at the Republican Convention. I loved listening to her! I don't know if any of you watch it but it was so cute when they cut to her little daughter holding her baby brother, licking her hand to pat down his hair. So sweet!
9. Thursday was spent as always working part of the day at the farm. It was rainy and cold but the kids loved it and were soaked. Tank had a rough day and ended up stung by a wasp.
10. I am not getting anything done today yet here I sit blogging. I need a break as Baby is quite fussy and needing to be held (my carrier is in the van with my husband of course). We both have thrush and let me tell you I am tired of it! I finally called to get a prescription for him as he passes it from one side of me to the other and I end up having to pump my milk due to the pain in nursing him. Baby is gassy as from what I read the yeast is in his gut and he burps quite a bit.
Tonight I plan to get the bookshelves emptied of anything we aren't using this year and put our new materials in place to get ready for our start of school Monday.
Now, I see that I had quite a bit I could have posted about almost each day. If you made it to the end, I sure hope I didn't bore you.
Baby Boy pausing from his search to pose. Oh, I see he missed a cheerio!
Baby was following Tank around as he swept. Tank kept saying, "Get him away from me!!" Here he is banging on the sweeper. Don't worry, he didn't get anything out.
This was the best one out of many of the six of them.
I had George on this photo also but cropped him out as the lighting was wrong in his area of the tree.
My happy bald baby. He didn't even mind the grass. I took a series of him playing with the weeds and such that were cute too.
I took a really cute one of George and Missy in this pose but looking at each other and laughing and of course it was blurry as they were moving and so I couldn't enter it. :( 