16 weeks! Whoa! I love this week's pictures. There were quite a few adorable contenders, but this one pulled ahead for the win! I took Gia to the doctor *again* today because she had quite the scary screaming fit last night. But, once again, the little girl is just fine! I feel kinda silly having taken her to the doctor twice already-- before her next scheduled well-visit, which is just in another two weeks. But, she was up screaming all night and part of the day yesterday, so I thought something might be wrong with her ears. She just wasn't herself. The dr. said everything looks good, though so we are going to try her on some reflux medicine to see if that takes care of some of her spit-up issues. The good side of going to the doctor so much is I get to see how much weight she's gaining! Today she was 12 pounds 5 ounces and 25 inches long! She is quite the growing girl! I'm hoping to make a trip to Once Upon A Child sometime soon to pick up some longer sleepers for her at night, as she's just getting too long for the 0-3 month ones!

"I love a good provision story."

My sister left that comment on my Facebook page after I wrote a status about how we were praising God as our Jehovah-jireh. And she's right... who doesn't love a good provision story? Afterall, God tells us time and time again that he will provide for us. He provides for the birds of the air, the fish of the sea... how much more value are we to him? So why should we doubt his provision?

Yesterday, I wasn't exactly doubting his provision, I was just having a pity party. I was allowing Satan to creep in feelings of fear and doubt. We got yet another bill from the hospital where I delivered Gia, saying that they had not heard from us and were sending our account to collections if we did not contact them immediately. I was frustrated to the point of tears because we had been in contact with them about our account, so I didn't know why we'd gotten the letter of delinquency. Almost a month ago, I submitted our request for financial assistance with some of the hospital bills from Gia's delivery. I'm not one who like to ask for or even take a hand out, but given the fact that Sean had been unemployed since October of last year and I'd not been working since February, our life savings was dwindling and we were living in Sean's dad's basement at the time of her birth, we probably qualified for some kind of reduction in our bill.

So yesterday, after receiving the letter, I was so frustrated. In tears frustrated. Sean was home for lunch and Gia was napping so I made a quick run to the Post Office just to get out of the house. When I got back home, I was geared up to call the hospital and tell them that indeed, I had been following up on our account balance, and that I had applied for the financial aid, blah blah blah. When I gave the woman my account number, she took a few seconds to look it up, then said "We show you have a zero balance for your account."

I was confused for a second, and I thought she meant we had paid zero on our account. I was getting ready to say something like, "Yes I know, but....." when she said "Your application for financial assistance was accepted and we granted you 100% assistance."

WHAT?!?! I was floored! I stumbled over thank-you's as I got off the phone and called Sean, again in tears. They erased our debt! Sure, its just one of several bills that we still have to pay, but God provides! Just a few minutes earlier, I was uncertain of how we were going to squeeze in another monthly payment for medical bills, and now it was taken care of.

In truth, a few minutes earlier, I had doubted the faithfulness of God. Sure, I didn't put it in as many words, and didn't really say outloud that I was doubting the provision of God, but I felt it in my heart. That quick conversation with Hospital Billing was both a relief and a conviction. God provides. I know this. I've experienced it before. We're all living by faith to some degree, right? I guess lately, though, my degree of faith has lessened to the point where I just wonder how long I will have to suffer before God 'pulls through' for us. And that's wrong. God is good all the time-- whether we have plenty or have little. When life is easy or life is hard. When seasons are beautiful or season are bleak. God is still GOD.

So I guess to say I was humbled yesterday is an understatement. I was immediately repentful of
the doubt revealed in my heart and felt much like the father in Mark 9... "Lord I believe! Help my unbelief!" So... there's our good provision story! Just like God provided Abraham with a sacrifice, the Israelites with manna, Jesus with food for a multitude, fish and birds with sustenance and many countless other stories of God's undeserved provision, I praise him as our Jehovah-jireh!

Since Emily Post is dead and Dear Abby is no longer syndicated, I need your opinions on an etiquette question. Gia is 3 1/2 months old and I have yet to send out her baby announcements. I'm pretty sure the whole world knows she's here, so its not exactly news to anyone. But, I still want to send them out because I've had them made up for over a month now (I designed them myself), I just haven't had them printed. They're so cute... but I am worried that its weird to send them out so late.

So what says you, oh great and wise friends of the blog-o-sphere? Sending out birth announcements three months later: tacky? taboo? or totally cool because you know new moms who've just moved their lives across the country and had a baby are busy?

15 weeks! Whoa! Gia rolled over again for us this week! What I thought might have been a one-time wonder is now par for the course whenever I'm changing Gia's diaper! She is quite the roly poly. She also gave us her first real laugh this week too! It was a deep, throaty laugh and she went on and on with it for a good 5 minutes while we were tickling her! SO CUTE. She's been really sleepy the past couple of days... not sure if her cold is getting to her or if she's just growing. She slept until 10 am this morning! (After waking up at 2:30 and 7:30 to eat, of course.) I'm keeping an eye on her temperature, but it seems like she's just really sleepy. She's still talkative and happy when she is awake.

Gia was a blast this afternoon when I took her weekly photos. My camera isn't very good at shooting in low light, and it was kinda cloudy outside. So this picture below was the one I really wanted to use for her weekly photo, but it just wasn't clear enough. But hopefully you can see how stinking cute she is in it! She was really telling me a story!!

I have to say that I am pretty proud of myself for actually trying some of the onemillion things I've recently pinned to Pinterest. Most of the inspirations have been food for dinners, as that seems to be the area where I most fall short of creativity and variety. This week I made the Autumn Chopped Salad I pinned here:



So here's my verdict. Overall, its a yummy, crunchy salad. However, I found it to be quite expensive. I didn't have any of the "ingredients" on hand, so I had to buy everything. I'm cheap these days, so I went to Aldi's and much to my pleasant surprise, I found everything I needed (including the bacon!) except for the pears and feta cheese. The pecans and craisins were more than $3 each, and had I not been shopping at Aldi's, the poppyseed and balsalmic vinaigrette would have been expensive too. (Woot woot to Aldi's for $1.50 salad dressings! Great for marinades, BTW.) The bacon was also more than $3. Which already brings this meal-- a SALAD-- to over $9. I'd rather go to Chili's and pay for a crunchy asian chicken salad. (Which, again, BTW, the bacon was ok in this salad... i would have preferred chunks of chicken instead.)

Of course, we still have some dressing & craisins & pecans leftover for future meals, but overall, I don't think I'd run out and buy these ingredients all over again just for this particular salad. Perhaps with a better (more expensive) poppy seed dressing it would be tastier, too.

So there's my first assessment of a PinterstInspiration Meal! Tomorrow night, I am trying these:

Look at how much my baby is growing!! She is 14 weeks old today. I cannot even tell you all what a joy she is to my heart! Its absolutely incredible. Never in my life has my heart been so full. I took Gia to her new pediatrician yesterday because she's been kinda congested and coughing for a while. The doctor's office is at the brand new hospital which is less than a mile from our house, and I was really hoping that we would like the new doctor and her practice. We loved Gia's first pedi in Cincinnati so I was nervous that we wouldn't find anyone else that I was so comfortable with. BUT, God is so good! I LOVE her new pediatrician and the whole office... the nurses were great, and one of the nurses even has a son in our youth group! Love small towns! The dr. took her time with us and was so encouraging and reassuring. She is also cool with us doing a modified vaccination schedule, which was my biggest concern. So, all in all it was a great visit. Gia's fine, she just has some kind of cold or something. The doctor said it may take a couple weeks to clear up, but everything else looks great. She has grown since her 2 month visit... she is now 11 pounds and 11 ounces exactly! And she is 24 and 1/4 inches long!! She's only the 20th% for her weight but 77th% for her height. She's a long baby, which we've known since before she was born! Her head circumference is 15.5 inches, and is right in the middle of the growth chart. She is still breastfeeding like a champ! I am so thankful for that. We're still using cloth diapers pretty much exclusively, except for nighttime. Then I use a disposable because she pees a lot in her sleep! She's been having trouble sleeping the past week or 10 days... I don't konw if its because of her cold or a growth spurt, but she was waking up every 2-3 hours again! But last night she slept for almost 6 hours before waking up to eat. :)

Last night, a family from our church called and asked if we wanted to go see Mercy Me and Third Day at the fair. It was way short notice, but we said sure! It was a beautiful day yesterday, and we LOVE the fair. We got to the concert and it was fun but L-O-U-D! It was an outside concert, so we thought it would be ok for Li'l G, but after just 3 songs I had to leave. :( But we hung around and listened to the music from a distance, then we went and walked around. There was an organization there that had Lactation Stations to breastfeed, so I walked all over for about 40 minutes to find them! It was a great set-up... an airconditioned RV that had a comfy couch, diaper changing station, music playing and cold water in the fridge. It was great. I wish more places had things like that for nursing moms! After I fed Gia, we went back to get Sean from the concert arena and we walked around for a while. We had to get a funnel cake and sweet tea, too. Gia slept through that, though. :) It was a great night with our family, and we are so thankful to the wonderful people from church who invited us to the concert!

Since we all know life happens on Facebook, here's my status from yesterday evening: Gia rolled over!! I don't keep a calendar like I used to (ok, I used to keep 5 calendars... I was a very busy and important person once upon a time. Right BFF?) so this blog will be my new way of documenting Gia's milestones!

I was getting Gia ready to go to youth group, so I was going to change her diaper. However, she was still *ahem* pooing, so I let her finish while I went and changed into my jeans. She was lying on her back on her changing pad. (Don't worry- she was safely on the floor... I never leave her anywhere off the ground!) I came around the corner a few seconds later, and she was just rolling over to her tummy!! She's been up on her side for weeks now, but I didn't think it would happen yet! (She's been sleeping on her side since the first night we brought her home from the hospital. Freaked me out!) I am so glad I saw her rolling over! I put her back on her back after squealing with delight. She returned my squeals with squeals and smiles of delight, and she rolled over AGAIN!! That's when I snapped this picture, just for proof that she did! And she looked really funny because I had already unsnapped her diaper cover and it was coming off a little, so her hiney looked really big compared to her head!


I cannot believe how fast she is growing. I think she's still in the middle of her 3 month growth spurt, because she's back to not sleeping much at night. She's been waking up every 2 hours again... shes didn't even do that when she was a newborn! I know this stage won't last forever, so I'm ok with it. But I know Sean would love a better night's sleep! We're heading to Buy Buy Baby later today to get a sheet for her crib so we can try putting her in her own room at night. Maybe that will help.

Yes, like much of the blogging world, I am addicted to Pinterest. I've pinned about a million things (ok, technically just a couple thousand maybe, but who's counting?) and up until this week, I"ve not tried a single one of them. I figured it was time to get off my websurfing BEEhind and do something!

So, for dinner last night, I made this crock pot apple pie pork chop dinner.



It was SCRUMPTIOUS! Then today, while we were enjoying a lazy Family Friday (aka Sean's day off), I tried a photo set up that I had pinned as inspiration. Here's the inspiration photo:



Here's my interpretation of that:


I love how it came out!! Up next to try are these frozen meals that you make all in one day, freeze then have ready for the crock pot. I'll let you know how they turn out!