Randomness

Hello all! Yes, I know, we seem to have fallen off the planet here at Chancellor Manor. That is (mostly) beacuse we have a virus on our computer, so I have to go elsewhere to blog, and I hate blogging without pictures for inspiration because I can never think of anything to say. That's my excuse anyways :)

Everything is going well here. Tony is gearing up for winter concerts week after next, and we're settling into severe panic about Christmas coming up too fast mode. It seems that I've started about 12 billion projects that I want done before Christmas and another 12 billion for before Cadence comes - we'll see how that turns out :)

We went to Tulsa for Thanksgiving this year, that was fun. It would seem that all the little munchkins in the world are growing up way too fast! When we got back we went to Mom and Dad's (remember the code: Mom and Dad are Tony's parents, Mommy and Papa are mine) to help decorate. Which reminds me, next time we're in Tulsa I'm rearranging the Nativity set, no matter what it looks like, becuase there is no way I'm letting Josh and Alex put it up two years in a row without some sort of arguement from me.

On the baby front, Cadence finally caved in and gave Tony two good kicks the other night, so he's not mad at her anymore :)
I pretty much have to wear maternity clothes now (after 6 1/2 months) and unless I'm wearing Tony's shirts you can definately tell I'm pregnant.
We finally got a closet rod installed for her clothes, and we kind of know how we're going to pain the nursey and such. Our theme is frogs - here's a link to the bedding set we got (mostly for Auntie's sake :)) We also are going to have a lot of pink, my brain seems to be going into pink mode - must be the hormones ;)


Okay, for some random thoughts...

So the other day I was pondering about being afraid of things, and how you should be able to have caution without overwhelming fear. One thing led to another, and I was soon running headlong down the winding road of speculation and worry. I wondered, how do you teach that concept of balance to a young child? How do you raise a balanced child? How do you allow your child to be free-spirited and fun-loving, yet instill in them self-discipline? How do you teach them a healthy caution without taking away their confidence and making them fearful? How do you gently show them the carnality and evil in man without making them unable to trust? It is these parenting challenges that scare me the most. Diapers, spit-up, toddler tantrums, lack of sleep – these are merely annoying in comparison. As I consider the specific challenges that face us in raising a girl, I have to ask even more questions. How do we raise a young lady who is feminine and womanly, yet tough and capable of taking care of herself? How do we raise a girl who likes girly things, and yet pass down to her our love of outdoors and adventure? How do we raise a young lady to be a II Timothy woman, with a sweet submissive spirit, and also a Proverbs 31 woman, with confidence and business savvy, not afraid to fend for her own?
I guess you just have to live your life as a good example for them, teach them the best you know how, and allow God to do the rest.

Well, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

A Name!

It’s official! We have decided to name our baby Ashley Cadence Chancellor. We will call her Cadence.

And You Though Band Nerds Were Geeks...

Tony has requested I share with you all the story I deemed important enough to share with him at the dinner table the other night...

Yesterday at work, I was busily shelving the non-fiction books, making sure they were in order as I went. I got to the 599’s – mammals – and had to stop in confusion. The 597’s – reptiles, fish, and amphibians – are shelved according to how the animals are related to each other within their class in the animal kingdom. So are the 598’s – Birds – and the 595’s – Insects. Surely all the animal books should be ordered according to the same rule. Right? I mean, surely Dewey wouldn’t change mid-stream – he was anal! He had to have been drunk.

But here, in the mammals, it was confusing. I had heard they were shelved according to continent of origin, and yes, look, there – in 599.64 was buffola, raccoon, lots of North American animals. But look, here – in 599.63 was a whale shelved right next to a hippo, next to a giraffe, next to a llama??? What on earth? Obviously they must be misplaced. No, they are in order. Maybe they are labeled wrong? No, that’s the correct label.

Ok, so they obviously can’t be shelved according to continent. I mean, gracious, whales don’t even have a continent, giraffe’s are from Africa, and llamas (I think) are from Asia ! Hmm. What is going on here? Are they randomly placed on the shelf? I must get to the bottom of this problem and save libraries the world over from the confusion of a drunk Melville Dewey. I went over to Mrs. Hunt (the librarian I work with) and posed my question. She replied, “Well, I think they are shelved by continent of origin, but that wouldn’t make sense because the other animal books are shelved by relationship within the animal kingdom.”

So, we then proceed to spend the next forty minutes discussing and researching the animal kingdom online to see how they could possible be shelved. And we discovered? Dewey wasn’t drunk. Who would have guessed a whale was a hippo’s closest relation?! Who would have guessed whales, hippos, giraffes, and yes, even llamas, are all in the same Order. They are class – mammal. And lo and behold, they are order – Artiodactyla. Shocking.

And that is how I spent forty-five minutes saving libraries world-wide from vast confusion. I thought it was rather important information, but Tony thought I was just plain geeky.

Our Ornery Daughter

We’ve come to the conclusion that our daughter is a teenager. She kicks and squirms and wiggles all the time – until Tony puts his hand on my stomach. Then she goes completely still. She won’t even twitch. Tony is beginning to believe she doesn’t like him already. You should see his interpretation of what she’s doing in there. He crosses his arms, pokes out his lower lip, and pouts about “Daddy, you’re embarrassing me.” “Daddy, quit touching me.” And last night, Godwill added one – “Daddy, get out of my womb (pronounced with a lisp so it almost sounds like room).” I keep telling him one of these days he’ll get to feel her moving around, and maybe even watch her kick and squirm, but he acts truly despondent. He does understand, and he’s very patient, but this little girl better watch it, or she’s going to be in trouble before she ever comes out!

Smelly Incidences

The last week has not been kind to the noses in our household. On Wednesday, I got home from the grocery store to find the milk jug had leaked all over the truck. In spite of my best efforts to scrub it clean and let it air out, it smells, you guessed it, like rotten milk. Tony won’t even get in it – I would like to not get in it, but I have to drive to work. Any suggestions?

Today, I walked into the nursery/Tony’s closet room, and there, on the floor, was a roach. I hate roaches. Without looking any closer, I rushed to the bathroom and got the ant and roach spray. I then proceeded to drench the poor bug. I was trying not to look to close, but I noticed the stupid thing wasn’t dying, so I looked – and low and behold, it wasn’t a roach at all, but some poor lame cricket who was missing a couple legs. I hope it dies anyways. Now of course, the whole house smells like roach killer, so I get to open all the windows and turn on the fans before I leave for work. Oh well, at least the house will get aired out.

Guess what?

It's a girl!

This is a head shot - she was upside down :)

Here are her legs, you can see her right foot pretty clear, with toes and all.

Here are her legs and tummy pooching out (thats an umbilical cord, not boy parts :)).

This was the telling shot - her bottom.

This was just the heartbeat one.

Well, enjoy the pictures - we're very excited. We went shopping for girl stuff, looked at all the pink stuff.

Kickin' and Rollin'

Well, it's official. Our baby is (quite predictably) the most hyperactive child in the universe. I'm serious! He/She/It never stops moving and kicking and jabbing me. It's actually quite exciting and reassuring, but I love harassing Tony about how hyper he/she/it is.

Tomorrow we get to have our ultrasound, and we are definitely planning on finding out if it is a boy or a girl. (Finally! No more he/she/it business :))

After I posted on Saturday about how I'm finally showing, we went to a church potluck, and I had like four people tell me how tiny I was, and how they couldn't even tell I was pregnant and they couldn't believe I was 5 months already. The same thing happened at school yesterday. I guess pregnant belly is in the eye of the beholder!

Well, hope everyone has a wonderful evening, I will try to post ultrasound pictures tomorrow afternoon.