Lately...

Five days have gone on by since I last wrote an up-date. So, what have we been up to lately? Well, Sunday afternoon we had a whole house full of people over after church. We had a potluck type lunch. There was one family with 11 kids and one with 3 kids and a single man. So, the house was full to overflowing!

Saturday, Stephen had a Marine Corps muster to go to. That lasted for about 3 - 3 1/2 hours. It was a mandatory event due to the fact that he is in the Individual Ready Reserve. It was a chance for him to bring in things like his marriage certificate, so they can up-date his info., as well as a chance for them to talk to the Marines that were there and up-date them on various things.

Monday, I had my art class. This week we worked on waterscapes (is that what you call them? Landscapes that have water in them?) I was fairly happy with how mine turned out, though it won't go down as one of my all time favorites.

Today was kind of an errand day for me...mailing a package, returning a couple videos (The Ultimate Gift and the latest Rocky Balboa movie, for those of you who are wondering), depositing a check and grocery shopping...and I got some lunch while I was out too. And a note to Mom M...they could have used you at the post office... there was a rather long, slow moving line! Can't blame you for being glad you're not doing that any more though! Tonight we get to have dinner with Uncle Everett and Aunt Louise.

So, that's a little of what's been happening lately.

The Ten "Ferguson Kids" Plus the One Grandkid!

The ten Ferguson kids (sort of :-)) plus one grandkid (who can't yet be seen but is still in the picture:-))! This was taken when my family was here shortly before Christmas. We're standing in order of age. Yes, it does look like I could end up being the "runt" of the family!

The New Set Up

Well, I'm not the only thing looking different around here! The house is taking on a new look too! We bought another couch
before my family came out around Christmas time. Then when my friend was here we went out and found two book
shelves at a thrift store. One of our neighbors is ill and living with her parents, so this weekend her couch, armour (sp?), coffee table, and long decorative table were moved into our house. They did not want to keep paying for storage so we are going to "baby sit" them until she moves out on her own, but they don't know when that will be. All that furniture is in our
living area, so needless to say, it's a whole new look!!! I like it pretty well!

Funny Family Picture!

Sorry the picture is sideways. We haven't yet discovered how to rotate horizontal pictures when we put them on the blog. Any of you boggers who know, please leave me a comment! Thanks! Anyway, you can see two things in this pictures. One is that Clara is letting her presence be known quite clearly. The second is that fatherhood has not caused her Dad to lose his sense of humor! :-)

New Setting

Hi everyone! We're going to try a new setting that allows anyone, even those who don't have google accounts to leave comments. It would be really nice to know who you are though when you leave us a comment, so please do! Thanks! Have a great day!

You Should Have Seen...

You should have seen my husband going crazy for the Packers...but all for nothing in the end. Too bad. :-( Neither game today went the way we were hoping...not that either of us follow football much and care a whole lot. :-)

We had a message about prayer at the chapel today. Something that stood out to me was that prayer is our life line to God, and His life line to us is the Scriptures. If we neglect or ignore either one we put ourselves in great peril!

After the services we had a nice fellowship lunch!

Later in the day, among other things, we hung out at the house, took a nap and I spent quite a while doing some art. I finished up a picture I had started yesterday and did another.

It Has Been A While

It has been a while since I last wrote! That's because I had one of my best friends visiting for most of the week! We had quite a nice time! Among other things we went to the Botanical gardens (they were ok, but not worth the money to get in), went thrift shopping and bought some book shelves, which we managed to bring home in the car without Stephen's help :-), played our flutes, did some watercolor painting and lots of chatting! Corinne and I have been friends since we were 10 and 12, respectively, and she was one of the bridesmaids in my wedding. Thanks again so much for coming, Corinne!

Baby Clara gave her Dad three strong kicks last night. He was pretty happy about that! He hadn't felt her move a whole lot before that.

So What's It Like?

So, what's it like to be five months pregnant and travel for a total of about ten hours in less then 48 hours? Well, I definitely can't answer for everyone else out there who has done that (and much longer and harder trips), but for me it went quite nicely! :-) I was quite comfortable and my dear hubby let me stretch out on the bench seat (we had taken our truck), but my head on his lap and sleep! What a deal! So, I spent quite a bit of time doing that both ways. On our way home last night we got stuck in some really bad traffic for a little while, due to late night work on the freeway. We had some fun being together and being goofy! So, believe it or not, you can have fun, enjoyable times, even in bad traffic, especially if you're with someone like Stephen Madgwick! :-)

We were treated to very kind hospitality on our trip! The parents in the family we were staying with gave up their room for us! Now if that isn't gracious, kind, generous hospitality, what is? We had times to sit and chat, joined the family for their evening devotional time and were treated to some really good food! We spent quite a while Saturday night playing a couple games. Now, Stephen and I can both be rather competitive when it comes to games! :-) We actually ended the night fairly evenly, in that neither of us came out victorious in either game but he out did me in Apples to Apples and I out did him in Crazy Bridge! :-) Stephen spoke on Sunday and did a great job! It's a privilege and honor to be that man's wife!

Hello Family Car! (Until Otherwise Named)

Well, we now have the family car! Stephen test drove one today and after having a telephone talk with his favorite wife :-), decided to go ahead and purchase our new (to us) car. It's a 2000 Volkswagen Passat wagon. And guess what color it is...silver! So, it won't be that drastically different then looking out there and seeing Franny. :-) One of these days I'll get a picture and put it up here. Maybe I'll even have Stephen in the picture...one of our friends said he couldn't quite imagine Stephen in a family car! :-)

Bye Bye Franny

Yesterday was our last day with dear Franny. That means I've heard the "beep", that lets me know Stephen is home, for the last time. In case you're wondering what on earth I'm talking about, let me explain. "Franny" is what Stephen named his car and the "beep" was the sound of the car being locked from his hand held controls. And the reason Franny is gone is that we sold her yesterday. Thank You, Lord! Stephen had been trying for quite a long time. Stephen is now driving the truck to work until we get another vehicle. You can pray that the Lord will give us wisdom about that.

Stephen spoke last night at Bible study about the sovereignty of God, and did a good job. On Sunday he is scheduled to speak at a chapel in New Mexico. Please pray for us as he prepares for that, we travel and spend time with everyone there.

I've been reading a book called "A Place of Quiet Rest: Finding Intimacy With God Through A Daily Devotional Life" by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. And I would recommend it to you ladies out there! It's touching and convicting! The other day I was reading the section in chapter 4 about submission. Submission was one of the reasons she was giving for having a devotional time. She was talking specifically about submission to God and His will. I think one of the big things I was thinking about as I read was ways I have not submitted to my dear husband. Convicting! Those of you who think I'm the "perfect" wife...I'm not (and submission is just ONE of my problems)! And of course, when I don't submit to my husband, I'm not submitting to God. And I've been blessed with the kind of husband it is sooooo much easier to submit to...because he is soooo loving, caring, patient, etc.!!! So, you can pray that I would get out of the Lord God's way and let Him change me, and make me the wife He wants me to be and that my husband deserves.

One Whole Year

Well, I'm finally getting back to our neglected blog. Since my last post a lot has happened, one of the most significant for Stephen and I being the arrival of our first year anniversary! One whole year of being married to a FANTASTIC man! I'm telling you all, he is such a loving, caring, patient, dear husband and I am SOOOOOOOOOOO blessed to be married to him! What a year it has been and in some ways it flew by!!!

Stephen spoke at the chapel on Sunday, which was our anniversary, and did a great job. After chapel we went to the airport to spend some time with my brother who was there for a lay over on his way back to school. When we got home we discovered that some friends had come by while we were gone and "decorated" windows of our house, the driveway, the truck, and the car port with various anniversary type pictures and messages drawn with soap or something. There were also balloons and some toilet paper, anniversary sign, two bottles of sparkling cider, a package of cookies and one of chocolate! We were very surprised! There were even balloons and three rubber ducks floating in the pool!

On Saturday night we went to Stephen's company dinner. Stephen did a great job as MC of Karaoke and White Elephant gift exchange. He put on his supper-out-going-goofy-hat and even did some stand up comedian type stuff and was pretty funny!!! One guy in particular who he works with and who was sitting at our table, was SOOO surprised to see this "other" Stephen! Apparently, he'd never seen it at work! I think there may have been quite a few surprised people there!!! And my hubby, complete with sunglasses and a hat sang me Brad Paisley's "She's Everything To Me" during Karaoke. Awwwwwww!

Well, little Miss Clara is already five months old! Only four more months, Lord willing, 'till we get to really "meet" her. It's going quickly.

OB Visit and Sourdough Bread...That Didn't Turn Out. :-)

Ok, so the sourdough bread was the most unsuccessful loaf I have turned out so far from this machine. Fell really badly, or just didn't rise, in the middle. There was some nice stuff on the sides, so that sort of gives me some hope for a future loaf. I threw almost the whole thing away. I ended up throwing some ingredients in last night for a recipe (not sourdough) that has already worked. I set the delay and when I got up this morning there was a nice, big loaf of bread! Yay! Encouraging! :-)

OB visit went pretty well. We did have to wait about 45min. to an hour for our appointment, and then once we finally got back there it was sooooo fast. Little Miss Clara Belle's heart beat was in the 140s. Mom had a good blood pressure but...ummmm...had put on quite a bit of weight. :-/ The doctor made some nice comment about how I may be just catching up after not having put on much during the first trimester. :-) Well, at least she's a nice lady! :-)

Happy New Year and a Mistake

Happy New Year friends and family! We got together New Years Eve with some friends at the chapel and had a potluck, chatted, played games, etc. and then had a singing, sharing, foot washing and communion time. Thankfully, Stephen had the next day off and we were able to sleep in the next morning!

Ok, I do lots of ridiculous things and make all kinds of silly mistakes...let me tell you about one that happened New Years Eve. Well, when my family left after their visit, one of my brothers accidentally left his cell phone charger. On New Years Eve I finally packaged it up and Stephen took it to UPS to ship it. Well, the next day Stephen started looking for the charger for his business phone and couldn't find it. You guessed it! I'd packaged that one instead of my brother's! Well, very thankfully, I was able to go this morning and because of the holiday it hadn't been shipped yet, and the man working there let me come back to where they had the boxes and trade chargers! Yay!

I have sourdough bread in the bread machine this morning, for the first time! Hopefully, it will turn out! And I've picked out a recipe to try after this one. It's a oatmeal, applesauce bread. I've been enjoying having that bread machine!

Today we have an appointment for Clara and Mommy. Hopefully, it goes well!