New Blog Address!

Thanks to my amazing husband I have a new blog! Please make a change to your bookmarks and find me and all my past content at anindianastateofmind.wordpress.com. Love you all.

Life Lately

Life lately has been fun (for the most part!), sweet and busy. There are so many little moments I'd like to share with all of you, but they happen so quickly I don't have time to blog about them! However, here are a few highlights. 

(I am still struggling with photos on my blog and am looking into switching platforms to hopefully be able to show you better pictures. I had some photos for this post, but they are too poor to post. Sorry about that!) 

We spend so much time outside now the the weather is beautiful. I bought Liam a red tricycle back at our Encores sale and just within the past week he is finally tall enough to reach the pedals and pedal himself. This was a big feat for him as he had been working on that for awhile. Now, he constantly wants to take a "quick walk around the block" (it's about a half-mile loop :). We aim to walk after dinner on most evenings and Monday night was the first time he made it all the way around by himself on his tricycle. 

His other favorite outdoor activity is baseball. We "borrowed" a plastic tee, bat and ball that had been hanging out in Boppy and Mimi's garage and I don't think he has stopped playing since we brought it home. He has a decent hit and loves sending it off down the sidewalk. He has also been enjoying a lot of golf with his little clubs. 

We have many, many friends in our neighborhood so we are often outside with them playing, playing, playing. Caleb, Evelyn, Peter, Lucy, Iain, Owen, Abraham, Whitaker and Jubilee all live on our street so we see them daily. Liam always wants to be outside when his friends are out playing. It is so wonderful to have such close friends (both for mama and Liam) who we enjoy spending time with. 

I know I say this all the time, but this age Liam is at is truly my favorite so far. He is so much fun and is truly my little buddy. He is almost always with me doing what I am doing, reading books, playing trains, doing puzzles, talking, singing and going outside. His mind is exploding with information and questions and thoughts all day long. I am certainly tired by the end of the day, but for the most part I am able to keep up with him. 

Rob is working hard on his summer teaching class and preparing for his PhD exams in August and September. He teaches early in the morning and then stays on campus to read and study. His exams will be upon us before we know it so it is essential that he prepares as much as he can now. He's also been biking to school most mornings in preparation for his overnight bike trip with men from my family in August. 

As usual, I have about ten projects going on at once! I took on some more free-lance work from my old job here in Bloomington for about three weeks in May. We are always so thankful for the money it provides us and see it as God's provision to us. There are always extra things it helps to pay for. But, it is hard for me to keep up with everything at home and do about two hours of work each day. This time I did a total of 34 hours and most of it was in the early morning. I found it worked best for me to discipline myself to be in bed by 9:30 or 10 and get up and work from about 5:45 to 7:15 and then a little bit more later in the day. I was glad when that was finished! 

Another thing never far from me (literally) is our new baby. He is growing strong and healthy, praise the Lord. We had a third ultrasound today to re-check a part of his brain they thought was enlarged at our 20-week ultrasound. I was nervous going into the ultrasound, but as always, God is faithful and proved to me once again that he can be trusted with the lives of my children. Everything looks great and he is a strong little boy. I am 24 weeks today so moving right along toward September. Thankfully, I've felt well for the most part, but I can tell I am not in as good of physical shape when I was pregnant with Liam. Pregnancy while having an older child is so different. Gone are the days when I slept til 10:00 and watched tv in the middle of the day! I've found it does help me to go to bed early, get up early, pray, do some kind of exercise and shower before Liam gets up. 

We've certainly had our trials over the past month including a big, unexpected car repair bill and a leak in our AC unit that took over a week and a half to fix because water leaked into the wall. It was not fun having our dry wall ripped out and workers coming and going. But, since it's a rental, we didn't pay a dime and I had to be patient and thankful for that. I've also been in a crazy organizing mode as we work to clean out our office and turn it into Liam's new big boy room. It is astounding how much stuff one small family can collect in almost five years of marriage! That room is driving me nuts, but we're almost there and hoping to have Liam set up in there this weekend. I am not sure how he will do with the change, but I'll take some pictures and update you later. What I am most excited about is the adorable toddler bed my brother Ben made him. We met them in Ohio this weekend and had a fun time hanging out with them and picking up the bed. I can't wait to show it to you all once we get it set up with new bedding. 

There are many things ahead of us to be excited about -- moving Liam to his new room with a big boy bed, Ryan and Lauren's wedding, three family vacations, *hopefully* a quick babymoon and of course, a new baby. I was reminded by our sermon on Sunday that we should not presume upon God to go with us as we make all our plans, but instead we should seek him and ask him for wisdom and guidance as we make decisions, big and small, in our lives. An excellent reminder and teaching for my often impatient and controlling personality! 

Hang in there with me as I sort out my blog and hopefully I will be back soon with pictures! Love.

A Birthday, A Graduation, A Shower...and Then Some...

We had a whirlwind weekend in Cincinnati that was super busy and super fun along the way. We started out with a birthday celebration for our soon to be brother-in-law Ryan on Friday evening. Saturday we were all up very early for a military commissioning ceremony for Rob's cousin Ross who graduated from Miami University and is heading off to Navy Seals training in June. It was a cold, misty, outdoor ceremony so I was under a blanket with Liam not taking any pictures. Later, on Saturday evening Kayla and I hosted a personal shower for Lauren with a group of her girlfriends. Sunday was Mother's Day so we had church and brunch with the family before Lauren and I headed off to a friend's baby shower in the afternoon. Whew, I was ready to go home by the end of all that! 

We had a great time seeing everyone we did and celebrating many fun things, especially for Lauren and Ryan and their upcoming wedding. 

In the midst of all that I was remembering where we were a year ago with our miscarriage over Mother's Day weekend. There were some sad moments, but mostly it was sweet to feel this baby kicking around inside me and be thankful for him. The Lord was very kind to use my trial to help a friend who also miscarried early in her pregnancy over the weekend. She remembered that we went through the same thing and called me to talk. I was able to share what helped me and also pray with her. I felt like the whole experience came full circle and that was a healing moment for me. I think Mother's Day will always be bittersweet for me considering how blessed I am on one hand and to still miss the child we have in heaven on the other hand. 

But, like I said, the whole thing makes me thankful that my body is able to bear and have children and that the Lord is so kind to continue to give us children at all. 

And here are a few photos from the weekend. (Sidenote: Blogger is not being kind to the photos I upload from my iPhone. They look terrible on here! If anyone has any idea why this is happening and how to fix it, I would appreciate the feedback.) 

During the shower on Saturday, Rob and his dad took Liam out to a real golf course for the first time. He had his little set of clubs and apparently had a great time. I was glad Rob had our camera to get a few pictures. 

Riding in a golf cart with a snack. Does life get any better than that? 

Lining up the shot...

Rob had so many pictures like this! Apparently Liam was very particular (big surprise there!) about getting the ball on the tee and spent a lot of time bent over attempting that feat of coordination. 

I was very disappointed that my peony plant was not blooming in time for the shower. But Trader Joe's came through and I was able to get some pretty white flowers instead. This was for the shower food table, but before the tablecloth went on. 

Sisters! 

Lauren introduced me to Kathryn when we first moved to Bloomington and we were immediate friends. She and her husband now live in Minnesota, so we were quite blessed to have her come in for the shower. They are expecting their first baby in July so we were at her baby shower on Sunday afternoon. 

I loved that our babies got to "meet!" 

Mother's Day brunch with the Bedinghaus women 

And with my THREE best guys! Happy Mother's Day to me! 

Baby!

It's official -- we're adding another BOY to our family! We had our 20-week ultrasound today and all the boy parts were there. We were not surprised at all, but it was good to have our thoughts confirmed. Even better than this news is the fact that everything about the baby looked good. I was reminded again of how good God is to give us children, but not only that, healthy children. We do not deserve anything from his hand and yet he continues to bestow these blessings upon us. He is the creator of all life and is the one who knits together all those parts of a baby so perfectly. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! 

It is also very kind of God to give us another boy. I think he and Liam will be tremendous friends. Liam definitely needs a playmate! Liam is already talking about all the things he will teach his brother, particularly all the Thomas trains and all about trucks. 

Thank you for your prayers for this baby! Please pray the rest of my pregnancy goes well and the baby continues to grow strong and healthy. 

Again, the intricacies of the spine growing together is astounding. 

We can't wait to meet this baby! 

Celebratory ice cream after the ultrasound. Liam is clearly more excited about the ice cream than a new brother! 

St. Louis

We set out Thursday for another fun-filled weekend in St. Louis. My youngest brother Luke and his wife Logan live there while Luke is in chiropractic school. Since they've lived there, Logan has now almost finished two years of college. She had her senior show for her graphic design major on Thursday night so our whole family decided to make a family weekend out of it. My parents and Ben and Heidi flew down at various times too.

This was the first we'd all been together since Christmas so it was wonderful to be together. The bummer was the weather as it ended up raining the entire weekend. We did not pack enough warm clothing either! We had hoped to do some fun things like visiting their zoo, the Arch park, golf and walking around their adorable neighborhood, but alas, most of that didn't happen. The guys still managed two rounds of golf in decent weather, but the ladies and Liam mostly stayed inside.

We made the best of it and still had a fun time together. It was especially fun to see Logan's finished projects that she has worked so hard on. She is incredibly talented. We are so proud of you, Logan! Your show was beautiful. 

This was one of my favorite designs. She created fake companies like this florist and made marketing materials for them. 

More from the florist

Another fake company, a jewelry store this time. 

Liam's favorite activity of the weekend was throwing Bow Wow up into the ceiling fan while it was spinning. Tons of fun I tell you. 

Apparently many people spent a lot of time reading to Liam over the weekend....Grammy...

Aunt Heidi....

And Uncle Luke.

This was really how we spent a lot of the weekend. 

On Friday we ventured out to their science museum because it was free and indoors. Most of the exhibits were over Liam's head, but there were some fun things for everyone to do. 

Of course Ben and Luke found something to build.

This was as close as Liam got to the Arch. 

Love you all! 

And this munchin too...how can I resist taking a picture of him sleeping like this? 

Coming up tomorrow: Our 20-week ultrasound and hopefully the revealing of the sex of our new baby! 

Lauren's Graduation

We had the joy of celebrating with Lauren over the weekend as she graduated from Indiana Wesleyan University with a degree in Nursing. She'd be the first to admit its been a long road and I think everyone breathed a sigh of relief when she went across that stage! She is going to be a fantastic nurse, wife (soon!) and Lord willing, mother someday. 

We love you so much, Lauren and are proud of you! It was so fun to celebrate with you this weekend and we hope you felt loved. 

Next up: the big wedding day!! 

(Most of these pictures are from Lori....where would I be without your pictures?! :) 

How do you stay entertained during a two and a half hour graduation ceremony? Lots of stickers for Liam and an iPhone for papa. 

The Bedinghaus ladies + Liam + baby B

She did it! 

They're practicing their smiles for the big wedding day in two months...

The whole family. As usual, we missed our Pop. He would have been so proud. 

Post-graduation lunch with these two silly guys. 

Looking handsome, Liam! (I think he started the day with his shirt tucked in...) 

We can't ever pass up a stop at Ivanhoe's for ice cream. 

The line was very long, but it was worth the wait! 

Visiting Pops and Grammy

Liam and I spent most of last week in Pennsylvania visiting my parents. It was a long awaited trip, probably beginning when we left their house at Christmas. Christmas to April feels like a long time not to see someone you love very much, and really it was a long time. Long enough that we made the flight out there to be with them. Rob had to stay home and work, this being crunch time of his semester. We went Monday to Friday and while we always wish we could see them more, it was about as long as we could both stand to be away from papa. 

We did all kinds of fun things while we were there, although I'm sure Liam would have been happy to just play and play and play with Grammy's toys and read all the books she has. But we still did things like bake cupcakes, see my dear friend Chrissie and her kiddos, get ice cream, play basketball with Pops and more. I got to go shopping with my mom, get a pedicure and take naps almost every day so I chalk that up to a great vacation. 

One big highlight of the trip was getting to go to Grammy's Little Kids and Babies class at her local hospital. My mom has taught this class for older siblings who are going to have a new baby in their family for about as long as I can remember. For years I went as her "helper" and have many fond memories of that time with her. She is a wonderful teacher and it was so fun to be on this side of the class. Liam seemed to like it for the most part and mom told me not to worry if he didn't seem interested, as he was probably picking stuff up. This proved true after we got back to their house and dad asked what he had learned. He said, "the baby is in a pink place upside down." Which is exactly true based on the book mom showed the class. 

Friday morning we left very, very early (I was up at 4 am) to catch a flight home in time for me to go to our church's women's retreat. It was a very long day for me since I didn't end up going to bed until after 1 am on Friday night, but as usual, the whole time was a ton of fun. We had excellent teaching, funny games and lots of quality time with my dear friends. 

Needless to say Sunday and Monday were re-grouping days with the usual laundry and grocery shopping to round out the time. This is always a busy time of year for us as Rob finishes up his semester. We are praising God though that he did get a summer teaching assignment again for May and June. This is always a huge blessing to us financially and professionally for him. 

To round out the week, here are some pictures from our adventure east! 

This sticker book was probably the best $10 I have ever spent on Liam. It was an I Spy sticker book that allowed us to work together to find the matching stickers without the problem of Liam just covering himself in stickers as is his usual course of action for stickers. I called it "stickers with a purpose." We probably spent about an hour of the flight working on this and then more on the way home. 

All the wonderful toys at Grammy's house. 

Cupcake batter! 

Cupcakes with icing and sprinkles! 

Visiting one of our favorite places - Ott's greenhouse. They have a jungle inside with a huge waterfall and so many gorgeous plants. Unfortunately none would travel well on a plane. Mom bought me some seeds instead.

A glimpse of the future...holding (and throwing) a baby doll during Grammy's class. 

Getting ice cream on one beautiful spring day. 

Mama got some too!

15 Weeks

Hi baby B! 

We finally (!) got into the doctor on Tuesday. We had to wait awhile for our insurance to go through, but it did and we were able to meet with the doctor. We also got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. It's always such a wonderful, sweet sound. Since I'm fairly far along for a first appointment, he squeezed me in for an ultrasound on Wednesday. I wasn't expecting that, so it was a treat to see the baby moving around and to hear that all is well.

We will have another ultrasound around 20 weeks to hopefully determine the sex of the baby. BUT, for all my faithful blog readers, here's an inside tip...the ultrasound tech said it's probably a boy! She saw something very tiny sticking out if that's any indication. I've thought all along this baby is a boy so it wasn't a big surprise to me. It would be very kind of God to give us another boy as a friend for Liam and a happy member of our family. But, we will be thankful for whatever child God chooses to give us, boy or girl. I was more thankful to hear we aren't having the twins Liam was predicting! {Although, let's be real, that would have been wonderful and terrifying}.

I'm definitely feeling way better and not so hungry and tired now that I'm into the second trimester. It is good to feel more like myself again and be able to get out and do more, especially now that spring has finally decided to come to Indiana!

Excuse the awkward photo! Yikes. This is pre-makeup, pre-hair fixed this morning before Rob rushed out the door. I'm glad we finally took a photo of this pregnancy though! Poor second kid. 

This is a much better photo of all of us from Easter Sunday. We had a wonderful celebration with our church family, celebrating our risen Savior. 

So there's the update! Stay tuned for more along the way. 

Not Our Best Day

Monday started off a little rough. I'd just come off a busy weekend with Encores and Liam had been at Mimi and Boppy's all weekend. He always needs a day or so to "readjust" to "real" life after being anywhere with family. Mama doesn't quite keep up the level of fun everyone else does! And it was snowing six inches...at the end of March. 

To add to all that, Liam fell in his Sunday school class Sunday morning and had been complaining about his left wrist hurting. He wasn't putting any pressure on it and it seemed to get worse as the day went on. I called the doctor and we went in for an x-ray late in the afternoon. After waiting and being shuffled around, we got our x-ray. Liam was a champ the whole time, especially when he had to sit on another nurse's lap for the x-ray because I couldn't go in the x-ray room. Pregnancy and x-rays don't mix apparently. The initial reading of the x-ray didn't show a fracture, but the doctor still wanted him to wear a little splint on his wrist. He was pretty excited about that and didn't seem to mind the splint. 

By the time we were done it was after 6:00, I was starving and did not want to go home and deal with raw chicken. Rob was with us by now so we stopped at home, picked up an Applebees gift card we had from Christmas and went out to a rare weeknight dinner. 

After we ate and all felt better we got in the car and realized Bow Wow was missing. If you know anything about Liam you know how much he adores his Bow Wow. Bow Wow is one of those little blankies with a dog head on it. One way he goes to sleep is by rubbing Bow Wow's tags between his fingers. I usually never let Bow Wow leave the house because of the chance for him to go missing, but I thought with the x-ray it might be a comfort to him. We knew he'd had it when we left the doctor's office, but where it went after that we still don't know. We stopped in at the doctor's office, called Applebees and almost drove back across town to check the parking lot in the dark. 

I was dreading bedtime, but we talked about it with Liam and I told him that I'd already ordered a new Bow Wow online that would come in the mail in a few days. {Parents, let this be a lesson to you. If your child has a special lovie like this, do not wait another day. Order an extra, or two, today and be prepared!} He also got to sleep with extra stuffed animals including papa's old teddy and that made him happier. Bedtime went a lot better than expected. At the end of the day I think I was more sad about losing Bow Wow. I told Rob I've read too many stories of stuffed animals that are alive and miss their owners. I kept thinking about Bow Wow being all alone in a cold, wet parking lot missing Liam. Clearly not the case, but still it was a little sad! 

We are still waiting for the new Bow Wow to come, but the splint came off today and he's using his wrist normally again. I think it was probably just a minor sprain, but I'll chalk it up to our first childhood injury. 

And, maybe more importantly we survived the Monday and learned some lessons along the way. Like buy back up lovies or don't let them leave the house in the first place! 

Encores

The past few weeks of my life were in many ways consumed with this little {ok, big!} kids' consignment sale. This is the fifth sale our church has done as a fundraiser for our moms' group, BloomingMoms. I've been on the planning committee for every sale and every sale I always think I'm crazy for doing it again, but every sale I still love it. It is a lot of work and there are always hiccups along the way, but we still have fun pulling it off. 

This turned out to be our biggest sale ever with over 9,000 items, 70-some consignors and over 600 shoppers over Friday and Saturday. As you can imagine, all those people have LOTS of stuff to sell. However, it never ceases to amaze us how much goes out the door with the shoppers. Our consignment works out that each seller prices and tags their own stuff, but then keeps 70 percent of the amount that sells. We keep 30 percent to fill out the budget for our moms's group. This sale allows us to offer free brunch, free childcare and free crafts and speakers at our twice monthly BloomingMoms meetings. It's a great deal all around because we do all the setup, advertising and tear down and all our consignors do is bring us their stuff. 

My favorite parts of the sale are getting to work with some dear friends, using some of my skills in organizing and event planning and then of course shopping for great deals for Liam. I actually found almost everything on my list this year, including a decent Ergo carrier for $30 for the new baby. I was pretty excited about that since they usually retail over $100 new. I was a little bummed that we don't know the sex of this new baby because the clothes are adorable, but I did buy one little pair of overalls and two hats for the new baby. All purchases were based on my hunch that we're having a boy and not twins like Liam is predicting...! 

To give you a scope of the sale, I took a few pictures. 

Large items -- strollers, furniture, riding toys, etc. 

The main floor area. Tables of toys, blankets, room decor, feeding, books, accessories, etc., etc. 

Anyone need some toys? Most of this was gone by the end of the day on Saturday. 

Girl clothing racks. We take sizes from newborn through juniors. 

Boys racks. 

I'm still slowly recovering from the weekend. It's taken me a little while to bounce back from this sale because it's hours on my feet. I had lots of people telling me to take care of myself because of the baby and I really tried. Thankfully, Liam went to the Bedinghaus' for Thursday through Saturday and that was a HUGE blessing. Just knowing he was well cared for and that I could come home and take naps on my breaks was wonderful. Rob got the short end of the stick, mostly summed up in my meal plan for the week which read, "Encores - Rob alone." Poor guy. I think he lived like a bachelor most of the time and ate at least one meal at Taco Bell. 

We went to Cincinnati on Saturday afternoon to pick up Liam and celebrate a milestone birthday for Lori (I won't give away her secret!). It was a quick trip since we decided to come back late Saturday night and avoid the predicted snow storm Sunday morning. It made for a very late night Saturday, but it was worth it to wake up in our own beds on Sunday, be at our church for Palm Sunday and get to take long naps on Sunday afternoon. And watch IU barely win against Temple....

Now, it's back to "real" life. Real life meaning things like Liam spraining his wrist and losing Bow Wow...but that's for another post!