Christmas In Heaven

I see the countless Christmas trees around the world below,

With tiny lights, like heaven's stars, reflecting on the snow,

The sight is so spectacular, please wipe away the tears,

For I am spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

I hear the many Christmas songs that people hold so dear,

The sound of music can't compare with the Christmas choir here.

I have no words to tell you, the joy their voices bring,

For it is beyond description, to hear the angels sing.

I know how much you miss me, I see the pain inside your heart,

But I am noe so far away. We really aren't apart.

So be happy for me dear ones. You know I hold you dear,

And be glad I'm spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

I send you each a special gift from my heavenly home above.

I send you each a memory of my undying love.

After all, Love is a Gift more precious than pure gold.

It was always most important in the stories Jesus told.

Please love and keep each other, as my Father said to do,

For I can't count the blessings of love He has for each of you,

So have a Merry Christmas and wipe away your tears.

Remember, I'm spending Christmas with Jesus Christ this year.

-Author Unknown

What a weekend. It actually started on Thursday with me having a 24 hour stomach virus, I won't describe what that means, I think we all know. On Friday I felt a lot better with Earl suprising me with saying we could go to the mall and other stores to do shopping that Dad had asked me to do for the girls. We hadn't been to the mall since last April. However Earl's Christmas giving spirit LEFT when we hit the second store and had 3 more to go to. However to defend his scruge attitude he had got up at 3:00am that morning and after supper was in his belly he became tired. In a couple of stores he had to have the girls all to himself while for the next 20 minutes they would ask over and over "Where's Mommy""Is she done yet". This also could contributed to the mental breakdown.
Then on Saturday was our Sunday school Christmas party. We went on the back of a wagon caroling for different people around town. Sammi fell asleep and had Earl not caught her as she fell asleep she could have rolledbackwards off the wagon. She wanted to sit by herself and the area she sat in was the only place that an adult wasn't sitting behind her. I then took her held her the rest of the way. (5 mores houses). We then went back and had a ham dinner. I thought of Sunday dinners at Gana's and Gladys's, no good homemade rolls.
On Sunday was the children's play at church. Except that morning all 4 of us woke up at 4:00am and stayed awake. It was horrible. The kids have never done this before, but after we got to church we found out that a handful of other people had done the same thing. Sammi fell asleep during the play
Beth did a great job with her play and you couldn't even tell if she was nervous or not. At one point she was putting her left fingers around her right fingers and looking at the size of the hole it made. When I asked her about it she said "I just wondered how big of a hole my different fingers would make" She did this during her solo.
Over all it was a good weekend. Last nights church service was to be each family coming to church and the head of the family would talk about Christmas and our memories of Christmas, then we would receive communion. Dad had signed up our family for 5:00 and when Beth and I got there the preacher told me that no one else was coming, not even Dad. We were going to leave but Beth had never received communion before and wanted to very badly. She asked Jesus into her heart last Christmas season, so I saw no problem with it. I thought that it would have been very special for Dad to have done it but I tried to fill in the gap. My preachers wife Debbie and our assistant Pastor Ann came in and joined us. It was special even though it wasn't exactly what I had envisioned. We got to learn a little bit more about Debbie and Ann and maybe grow a little closer as friends and I got to serve Beth her first communion. Special.
So now we are getting ready for Christmas, going to stay all night at Dad's on Christmas Eve with my brother and wife and all of us. We will also have a candle lit service at church Wed. Then spend some of Christmas day with Dad opening packages and eating. Then going back to our house to recover and let the girls play. I am letting Beth have this week off from school though the original plans was to make her keep working I have found that I need the week off just like she does.
Today we are going to a friends house to make cookies and let the kids play. The great thing about the season is that it is making March come all the sooner. Then Suzy will be here and things can be completely chaotic hahaha

Yeah!!! Our cantata at church was done yesterday and we wound up doing it last night also. The songs weren't too bad to learn but there were some songs that had notes up in the high F section. I had a 3 or 4 line solo. Our pastor put the cantata on our church's website www.rutlandnaz.org if anyone is interested. Now, next Sunday is Beth's play "Bethlehem Gulch" She is a sheep and had to sing 2 songs, one with the group of sheep and one with another girl. I think that I am more nervous than she is but we have not talked about it because I don't want to give her any ideas about FEAR. Sammi is very content not to be involved, in fact usually on Sunday nights she stays home with Earl. So last night I asked her why she didn't want to go to church with me, her reply " I don't like it", I was speechless. In fact I still don't know what to say, except maybe giving her the option of staying home will have to end. Yesterday she had to go to the bathroom during church, but as she and I approached the door she informed me that she wanted to do it herself. So I stood outside of the bathroom and waited, out she came with toilet paper and her pants down saying "I done you finish up". Needless to say the women that had been in the bathroom thought it was quite funny as I am shoving her back into a stall to "finish up" I want her to be independent but not a streaker.

We are not done with our shopping yet and the girls have failed to see Santa of get their picture taken, it might be because he is at the mall an hour away and with only one vehicle it is important for Earl to go to work. But Santa usuallly comes to our fire house, except I have a great fear I might have missed it so I am calling the Chief today to find out.

We finally got rid of 2 of the bunnies and have 2 males to go. But the great news is that they are OUTSIDE yeahhhh!!!. Now we have to get the Dad outside. You should see our rabbit hutch. We used what we had and it is too funny. Its like a redneck home for rabbits. All that's missing is the tire in the front yard and a car up on blocks. I even burned my finger. Earl had tried to put a screw in and he had trouble so I wanted to see how far it stuck out and didn't realize that the electric drill had made the screw hot and burned a smiley face into my middle finger.

And that is life in the fast lane at the Bickfords Cave

Yesterday I went to my diabetes Dr., nice young man, Dr Stout. I am now on insulin 4x's a day and checking my blood sugars as often. No problem, this is just like when I was expecting Sammi. This time I am on 2 different insulins, a fast acting one with meals and a slower one at night for bedtime.

I had trouble with my insurance trying to tell the pharmacy that I have two insurances, but I don't. Every time we go to the pharmacy with a new script/prescription this happens. I tried to fill it at Walmart but they wouldn't even try to fight the insurance company, so I took it to a local pharmacy Fruiths and they were able to figure it out. The only problem being that my insurance doesn't want to cover my strips for my glucose machine that the Dr gave me, they cover a different kind. So Fruiths was going to call and try to see if he would write me a subscrition for the new machine and the new strips. I will find out today if it will be done. If not my strips cost $93.00 to use on my new machine ayayayay!! But I don't see Dr Stout giving them any hassel about the different machine.

We are all doing OK. Earl went back to work yesterday on his line. He seems to think that he will be getting very long hours and for the first day he was right. He went to work at 7am and got done at 8pm. Our churchs cantata is Dec 14, Beth's play is the 21st,she is not nervous at all.

The girls made their list of what they wanted for Christmas and I had to tell you what Sammi is wanting. There is a show on Disney that is about a man that does repairs to things and he has 7 tools that talk. Handy Manny, and Sammi loves them. They have his tools at Walmart and the toolbox sings and you can take the toos out, that is what Sammi wants. She also wants "girl" toys but the only thing that she will say when she goes to the store or if you ask her is Handy Manny tools.

Do any of you love the electric holders that you place a small candel down in and it heats the candel up so that you can smell it but you don't have to light the candle. A store down here has them for $3. They have strawberries, apples, blueberries, fish, animals(deer,moose) all kind, I want to go back and get some for my bathroom and bedroom. The had larger ones that were beautiful with snowmen and angels on them with quilt patterns in their clothes. I'll pick you one up if you'd like just let me know.

Once again the animals in our life are causing havoc. When we moved over here to my hometown, Beth really wanted a puppy. So Earl in the interest of getting into the rabbit hunting again got her a beagle. She has had 2 litters so far that we knew the father ect.. Well when she came in heat this last time we had a 3:00am visitor ,that until yesterday, we thought had just said hi and left. A big black Lab had mated with our little Beagle. So Sat. at about 9:00 pm she went into labor. And cried and howled the WHOLE night, because the first puppy got stuck in the birth canal. So at 7:00 am Earl called the vet and rushed her to the Vet ER to have some help. Now Earl has been around animals most of his adult life at least and had even taken one of the mail in course about being a Vet, so he tried most of the night to help Copper (beagle). To no avail. She wound up having to have a c-section then got spayed because the puppies had stretched her uterus to the point of never having puppies again without killing her. They are all black with some white and brown little spots for what I have seen. Copper is a very protective mother, 3 boys and 1 girl. By the way I have never been the only one pregnant in my house. I have always had at least one or two animals that are expecting at the same time. While it doesn't seem fair that they only get 1 to 2 months pregnancy then its over for them at least we humans are not like elephants who have a pregnancy of 23 months. Yes I am complaining but my sugars have been 200-260 and it makes me feel VERY ucky. Though I must say on the positive note that Suzy moving is the most wonderful thing, even though she is laying with her head over my left hip and the rest of her towards my right hip, Beth ans Sammi were already head down by this time.

By the way did I metion that Earl was going to have 9 days off in a row :0) Down to 7 days, thankfully he is home because Momma and the pups can't be outside because of the 8 degrees and 15 degrees weather that we are having at night.

I had to go and have glucose test done yesterday and I found out the results today. For a 1 hour test my blood sugar came back 201 (this was the 6th time that I have had this test done in the last 8 years, 3x's with Beth, 2x's with Sammi, and 1x with Suzy). So I will be going to see the diabetes Dr on Dec. 1st and I went to the Dr tonight for my sore throat that I have had for 8 days. It is due to sinus drainage, but my prenatal nurse wanted to make sure that it wasn't strep. So now I have to take Benedryl and Tylenol and suck on Halls cough drops. This is the longest that I have had a sore throat in the longest while. Earl has the next 9 days off for vacation. He said it was to bad that he had to spend it in Rutland, haha.

Greetings from the 35 year old. I thought I would blog about my birthday. First Earl Beth Sam and I have been surviving a weird cold, sinus and throats that hurts (not the typical sore throat, it only hurts when we swallow or move our heads),and extremely tired no cough, no runny noses just a weird cold. Then I heard yesterday that Mono was going around down here, I have no idea what the symptoms to that could be. So I didn't feel to bad yesterday so we got school done, then did laundry and watched movies ate lunch and laid in bed. In the afternoon I really felt yucky, very tired, blurry eyed and all that jazz. I tried to take a nap but 3 people came to the door so the nap didn't happen. I still felt bad and decided to take my blood sugar at 4:00 it was 256 I about had a fit. So I started drinking water and I went out to feed the dogs. I wanted to go for a walk but it was spitting snow and the kids have the same cold as me. I found when it gets to high if I can do some exercise then it gets better, faster. In an hour it was down to 214, but I really need to be a pill and insist on the Dr. doing my blood test. I hadn't eaten since 12:00 and that was my sugar at 4:00.
Then at 6:30 I went to a spa party that my friend had. It was fun!! I would have loved to get the products but selling my children seemed a steep price. Beth went with me to play with her friend and in the end got to try some of the products. I will say that they were great products just about $100 out of my price range. Sammi stayed home with Earl and watched Dora.
Tonight Sammi and I are supposed to do somethings together, but we need to get milk and that usually involves the whole family. Because our truck is not working right now and when someone goes to town the whole family wants to go.
On the 15th our firefighters had a turkey dinner to sell to the community. I went down to the elementary school to get it to go. When I opened my car door the wind caught it and whipped it so hard the the henge's are bent and the door panel got bent and now it won't close or open all the way. Have you ever tried to squeeze a pregnant belly into a space of 10 inches. NOT easy!!
Poor Earl has to hold the door for 40 min morning and night to get to work. My brother said he would try to fix it but we don't know what year that will be.
And that is my birthday. I got money from my Dad and brother. And Earl said that he was still thinking about what to get me and if I could pick something out that would help. I just love he guy!!! This is actually except for the spa party a typical birthday, since my Mom died.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Half way through my 30 wahhhh!!!

Well we are having another little girl. And for those of you who might say "They've been wrong before", it may be true but our little ones ultrasound makes it very sure that it is a girl. We have been very worried about not having a girl name picked out for the last few days. Beth wanted us to come up with one because she wants to talk to the baby and call her by name. We have been throwing names back and forth a few of the names have been- Jean, Faith, Emma, Anna, Catherine, Grace, Sara, but each time the name just fell short of what we really wanted. So we have decided our newest little Bickford will be called

Susannah Kay Bickford

and we will nickname her Suzy or as Earl calls her Suzy Q. By the way this gives Gene and Gana a bakers dozen of grandchildren. HAHA. The Dr told me that the c-section will take place at 38 weeks so that I will not go into labour and take the chance of my uterus ripping (Because of having a c-section with Sammi). If he does it on exactly the 38th week it will be March Fri 13th. That should help me remember easily, but we don't know as yet if that will be the day or not.

I have been feeling great. No sickness, a little tired but that could be because of the girls and school and everything. I will say if one more person asks me if I am disappointed because it is not a boy I'm gonna scream. Yes we would have liked a boy but are very happy with what God has decided to give us. Besides I know about girls and I was feeling very anxious because all the little boys down here are WILD!!!!!

Have a great day, it is now time for my Sunday afternoon nap. Love ya all!!!

We are having a GIRL !!!!!

My heart is heavy this morning. I was greated by my husband with the words of who won the presidential election. At first I was so disappointed, but then my thoughts went to the thoughts of all the prayers that have been poured out before the throne of God in the past months about the outcome of this election. This outcome was not a surprise to our Father He knows exactly what would happen and even though it doesn't look good, our Father is in control. No matter who our president is our Father God is still in control. Now we as Christians have to make sure to pray for President Bush in his last months in office and then for our future president Obama. I don't have to like the choice but I do have to obey the Bible and pray for his decisions ect.. So now is the time to pour out our hearts to our Father and remember that God is in control.

I had to post about my niece that has entered a contest with Velveeta. She has the chance to win a couple great prizes go over to www.kraft.promotions.com/velveetachallenge to see the enteries. Melanie is my niece, the last girl on the line.
She also likes to give things away in contest on her blog site www.livinwithme.com This week she is giving away a DVD where your childs face is put into the video from a picture and then a story is told to help teach ABC's. I think my youngest daughter will really like this for Christmas. You know how much kids love to look at their own pictures.
Only 5 more days and we will have our ultrasound. If the baby cooperates we will find out what we are having. We really haven't decided if we are going to tell people what we are having. When people ask us that question Earl just laughs and says that I won't be able to keep it to myself. 15 years together and he is propably right.
We did trick or treating last night. Beth was a princess, Sammi a pizza (her choice, Homemade costume). We get one hour to run through town getting the candy. They blow the fire whistle and the surge begins. We only have about 500 - 600 people in whole town and we usually get 350 kids in one hour rushing for candy. This was the first year that I took the kids I always had to work at the auction. Neither kid was very excitied to go up to strangers and get candy, though they did say thank you without me prompting very often. After a while Sammi said that I could hold her bag "but don't eat any". At the end of the hour the whistle sounds again to let people know that they are done. My church has not only candy for the kids but we also have chili and crackers and peanut butter sandwhiches. Yes, down here dipping pb sandwiches in our chili is consider good eating. I did a whole loaf of bread with peanut butter for the sandwiches then they didn't use them because they didn't see them in the corner, so Earl's lunch today was pb sandwiches and also ours. Sammi loves the sanwiches but Beth hates them. And I have reached the time in my pregnancy that I have heartburn and peanut butter doesn't help.
I will post pictures later of the girls (AGAin I can't find my camera)(It's too small).

We went to Bob Evans Farm Festival for Beth's birthday. Smokey the Bear was there. Sammi wasn't even afraid. We went with our friends the Tomacks and had a great day. We took Beth to Ponderosa that night and the food was good.

The favorite activity was getting to ride the horses

This is Sammi's first time riding a horse she has sit on one before but not actually rode one.

When Sammi saw this horse she shouted "Look Mommy a Zebra" We never did convince her that it was just a horse.

The girls liked the wagon rides also! But wouldn't go with Earl and me they wanted to go with our friends.

Bob Evans has a hole in the hill that the people can look and see what an old time coal mine would look like, even has the rails for the cars to go into, but no one is allowed inside.
Beth is always palying with her sister's hair of head of face when I want to take a picture, usually I catch her but I didn't this time. That's the reason for the ponytail swinging widly

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY

Bethany Rachelle
Beaner Bop

We love you very much!!

We got to go to the musuem a couple of Sat. ago. Here are the 3 pictures that I took. I was usually busy telling Sammi 'don't touch the glass baby doll. It will break". She has really been into her babies lately, then in the next five minutes she brings me a babydoll bottle and wants to pretend she is the baby and I have to feed her.

This was taken in one of the rooms that was used for guest to sleep overnight, the musuem used to be an inn. One of the room's info paper said that if they had a lot of guest to stay overnight the guest would be asked to sleep from side to side instead of head to foot, so that there would be more room for everyone. Can you imagine? I would rather sleep in the wagon. Women had their room and the men had their own room, even 2 or more families could have been put in one room(with the men sleeping in the mens room). Prpbably my favorite thing to explain to Beth was the chamber pot, now there is a picture that I missed.

The girls always love fountains, notice the baby in Sammi's hand.

One of the things they showed that day was weaving with a loom. This lady actually has her own loom at her home and makes rugs.

Earl has been switched to another job at work. He is now working with research and development, he usually has to be to work at 4:30am and doesn't get home until 7:00pm The girls are not liking it because he usually comes home eats, does computer then goes and "lays" on the bed(goes to sleep), Beth really is having a rough time. Beth is doing good in her homeschool except if I have to teach another story about creation and Adam and Eve I'll scream. Out of her 7 subjects four of them started with Creation and Adam and Eve and that included 5 days of creation and then 5 days of Adam/Eve sinning. Beth asked me the other day if they did that because they didn't think she would be able to get it. I told they just want to make sure you know where you came from and how sin came into the world. Beth replied"I know already can we get on with it".

The little church that we attended for a while is in revival with Bro.

James Sutherland and his wife this week. We went one night and I think we are going tonight.

I had a Dr. appointment yesterday, again our little one wanted his/her picture taken. Yes the outside heartbeat could not be heard with their machine, so they had to do a ultrasound. It was so cute the baby was wiggling his/her arms and legs and moving the head. The heartbeat was fine, but we coudn't see any parts. Nov 5th I have to go and have a scheduled ultrasound and if the baby cooperates we will find out what the baby's gender is. Earl is planning on taking a personal day so he can be there too.

Tomorrow the Church of the Nazarene is planning a 100 year celebration. Every church worldwide is supposed to receive communion at the same time and have a big celebration. In our church the children are putting on a play, Beth is in it and has one line that she has to say. Then afterwards we are having lunch in the fellowship hall and different things.

We went to a Fall picnic last night. It was a little chilly but not that bad.

I just had to write and tell what happened yesterday. The girls and I were going to Walmart to get some much needed undergarments for Beth, tennis shoes, ect. They have built a new bridge from Ohio to West Virginia and to get to Walmart you have to go under both bridges then come to a 3-way stop to turn left to go over the bridge or right to go to town. We went in our 87 Dodge Ram pickup truck and I had noticed that my brakes were acting funny once I got over town to a red light. Well we were coming up to the three-way stop and I pushed to slow down and had NO BRAKES, I saw that I was going to hit the car in front of me so I instead went over the curb, hit a gaurdrail and ran into a pile of dirt from the construction going on. Thanks be to God that no one was hurt and I actually only did cosmetic damage to the truck (the same one that Earl had hit deer with and that deer had run into Earl with). While it was happening the only thing I can remember is that Beth was yelling "Were having an accident". 4 or 5 of the construction guys came over to checks us the truck and let me use their cell phone to call my brother. (Yes I called my brother instead of Earl, because Donny can fix the truck and tell me what to do) I did call Earl with my brothers phone and he came straight from work to check on us. I will post a picture of the brake line later today it had broken off. Needless to say we did not get to go shopping because as we were waiting for Bubby(Donny) to fix the truck the children went to play in the big pile of dirt and I didn't want Earl to go home by himself with the truck.

We are planning on going to a musuem today for their Founder's Day because it is free and they are having things for the children to do. Then a picnic and a shopping adventure with Earl. He is SO thrilled hahaha. But we are all looking forward to the musuem. It is called 'Our House" and was built in 1819 as a home and has a building out side that was the kitchen area.

Sammi admiring the cows and donkeys

Here is a picture of Beth getting ready to throw the stalks over.

Across the road from where we live a gentleman keeps his 15 cows, 1 bull and a family of 3 donkeys. The girls love any animal and yesterday I suggested that we go and look at the animals because the owner had just fed them and they were all down at the bottom of the hill. While we were there the owner brought corn stalks to give to the animals. The girls thought it was great fun to throw the stalks over the fence. At one point the gate was opened and we walked to within touching distance of the cows. Sammi wanted to go and "pet" the cows and Earl about had a heart attack trying to get to Sammi to stop her from going in. The owners girlfriend picked up Sammi and took her over to the cows which was a big deal to Sammi. There was also a 4 month old calf. The cows were so used to people that when the gate was opened all we had to do was say "hiya get in there" when they would try to walk out of the gate, even the bull just sauntered around calm. When I told the girls that we had to go home to feed the dogs, Sammi said "I'm not going home yet, I stay with the cows". She is definitely our farm girl.

I had my Dr. appointment yesterday that was to be just routine, urine tested, heartbeat listened to, ect. But when the Dr tried to listen to the heartbeat with the instrument he uses, he couldn't find it, so he said that he would do an ultrasound and he still couldn't find the baby or heartbeat, then he said that he would do an internal ultrsound. By this time I was starting to get fearful, Beth was asking why she hadn't heard the heartbeat yet. Thankfully with the internal ultrasound there was the little baby with a heartbeat of 167, a little head, body, and 4 little stubs where the arms and legs will grow. I told the Dr that the first thing I was going to do was spank this baby with all the sickness and problems she/he was causing. I joked with the nurse that the baby knew I wanted another picture of him/her and that if this was a clue of what was to come with this kid, I am glad this is the last one. We will find out what the baby is in Nov. Earl is highly convinced that this one is a boy, I am convinced that it is a girl even though this pregnancy is nothing like it was with the girls. More morning sickness, more tired, more emotions. The bad thing is that I have never enjoyed being pregnant, I love having the baby, but pregnancy has never been fun for me. The only part that I like is when the baby moves, which hasn't happened yet and when the baby comes out which of course won't happen for another 6 months.

Earl goes to see the wound specialist today to get his bandage changed and see how the leg is doing. He is not allowed to get the bandage wet so he can't take showers ( I told him to duck tape a plastic bag around it) so he takes baths with his leg hanging out of the tub. He is afraid that his leg is going to stink like it did when he broke it and they took the cast off, I told him that I didn't think it would be that bad and who cares as long as his leg is getting better.

Sammi got a clean bill of health yesterday. Beth is busy with her homeschool work.

Today we went to the Ohio river to look for interesting rocks of drift wood. We went to the boat launch area in Pomeroy. I let the girls take off their shoes and let the water splach on their feet. Sammi didn't like the splashing of the water, however my waterbug Beth was having a ball until she fell face forward because it is slippery at the launch. Earl thought that Beth was going to be sucked under because of the waves from the boats and barge in the river and ran forward to get her and slipped in the same spot as Beth and fell on his backside getting his hurt leg wet. I wound up getting Beth then their buckets that were floating away then trying to help Earl up, while Sammi sat there saying "I not go in the water no way"

Beth loves to use my camera to take pictures, in fact she took this one of Earl and I

Earl tried again the other day to get one of his beagles to run rabbits, for an old hand at running dogs, the fact that NONE of his beagles will chase the rabbits is really getting under his skin. The girls have to wear hats because of the ticks down here. One time we went and I didn't make them wear hats and we found 3 or 4 ticks on us. Yuck!!!

Notice around Beth's waist is the dog leash that is how Earl is teaching Beth to carry her leash, she is doing OK with her training but is having doubts about whether or not dogs really chase rabbits.

The girls were supposed to be in a 4th of July parade with Beth's school but the rain on the 4th destroyed the float so the girls got to watch the parade instead. They usually don't get to because the are on the church's float in our hometown

We have had a busy summer, thanks to 5 VBS. I didn't even take pictures, I must have lost my mind. Usually I would be asked to help with Sammi's class. At one VBS we had 20 3-5 year olds. AGHHH! Probably our favorite one was the little Community Church that we went to with Pastor Steve Tomack. A small VBS but it was created by the pastor and his family, so it was original and not a cookie cutter VBS. The picture is from the Baptist church VBS. Theirs was 3 hours long every night.

Our cat, Boots, decided that the best place to sleep was my flowers but the picture is cute. However the center of my flowers are trampled.

I am 6 weeks pregnant for all those that were wondering! Beth starts school Aug 25th for the 1st grade, Sammi starts pre-school on Sept 2, my job at school starts Aug 25 if they get more kids. Right now we only have 3 signed up and the teacher will not need an aide for that number. So we are just playing it by ear right now.

The Dr will do another C-section and after Little B is born, I will have my tubes tied, 3 is enough. Of course Earl is hoping strongly for a boy. I don't care one way or the other, just healthy is good with me. If it is a boy the baby will be named Benjamin Ray Bickford, girls names haven't been thought about yet. Earl decided the name. Right now my only symptoms are being tired and some smells aren't very good for the nose. So far the Dr says my sugar is fine. We are being careful though and cutting out all pop and desserts.

This is not a very good copy, but it's the 1st ultrasound of the newest littlest Bickford that is due to arrive March 27. We even heard the heartbeat today.

Happy 4th of July

(Last years Birthday cake)

Happy Birthday My Love

Earl turns 51

We are having Corn Chowder Soup tonight, then on Thursday after we go grocery shopping we will have a birthday cake for Early. Sammi is very upset that there is no cake tonight but very excited to be baking one on Thursday. Beth just wants to sing to him and give him a birthday spanking. She can count to 51 but I think that her arm will get very tired haha!! A friend of mine always has a special plate for the special occasion that is going on to let the special person use. We have waited till today to start doing that. I wanted to begin with Earl's birthday first.

Today our family is growing by one.

Best wished to my nephew Brad and my new niece Melissa.

Wish we could have been there. Love ya guys!!

We got to take the puppies and the girls for their first beagle training walk. This was Sammi's first walk through the woods. We walked about a mile. We have an area that is called The WaterShed project. I had never been on it and told Earl that we should try it out. We loved it!! It was similar to walking in the Adirondacks(less pine trees). We saw deer prints everywhere. It got to be so bad that Sammi began to recognize them and stop at every one of them. We also saw 4 toads the size of dimes, lots of bugs, wildflowers, and Beth was introduced to thorn bushes.

We had a storm on Mon. the 16th and as you can see in the pictures we had hail. The girls were fascinated by it, but Sammi couldn't understand why I wouldn't let her hold her hand out to catch the hail. OUCH!! The hail was about the size of marbles.

I had my weight watchers meeting last night, I couldn't stay for the meeting so I just weighed in and then we had to go to Walmart and Bob Evans for supper. We have coupons where the kids eat free except the coupons expire at the end of the month. Last week I gained 2.4lbs I was not happy. My excuses were a 2nd degree sunburn on my shoulders and other womanly things. This week I lost 6.6lbs so I was much pleased with that. All together I have lost 29.6lbs and I put on a pair of 16avg jeans and though they were a little tight I could sit down in them and not feel like my stomach was being pushed into my spine. Considering I did wear a 20W in jeans, I like knowing that I have come down 3 or 4 sizes in clothes. I can't wait to try on a dress to see where my size will be. However I am running into problems, having always worn Women's clothes and always bought the clothes that had a W next to the size, I am not used to the sizes when I look at clothes at yardsales. Last week I bought a pair of jeans but when I got them home I couldn't fit in them even though they were 18's. I didn't realize that 18 husky's are boys jeans. At least when I go down in shirt sizes I know that they run S M L and XL. Could be interesting!!!

Bethany at the end of school had to take a 'Stanford Achievement Test'. It compared her test scores to those also in Kindergarten in both Public schools and other Christian schools. Her grade equivalent is in the 2nd grade in most of her subjects and her averages were either normal or above normal. We are very proud of Beth and are pleased with the school that she is in. She was also tested in Bible and came out with an advanced rating.

I would greatly appreciate everyone's prayers at this time for the Tillis family. My Great-Aunt Ruth passed away after a very long brave fight against cancer. She passed away last night. Her husband's name is Amos and she is Bill & Naomi Tillis' sister-in-law. She had 5 kids plus grandchildren and extended family. Thanks for your prayers.

I have lost 25.4 lbs so far on my weight watchers. I earned a new charm for my key chain. I thought that I would have not lost very much this week because of Sunday dinner at church. I couldn't count the points for the food, but I lost 3.4 lbs. Yeah! I have 46.6 lbs to go. My new 10% is 19 lbs, I've lost 4.4 lbs of it. I have till Sept. 1st but I hope to be there before then.

The girls are good. It has really rained here the last few days. And the thunderstorms have been awsome. Except the ones at 3:00 am when I am sleeping. Earl is still waiting on going to 1st shift, he is waiting on papers to be signed. A friend of our neighbors found a Mama deer hit and dead by a car, next to it was her week old male fawn. The people are raising it till it is old enough to go out on its own. The girls got to pet the deer which they loved.

My Bethany is growing up!!

She lost her first tooth on the bottom!

Yes I cried when she wasn't watching. I didn't even cry when she went to pre-school or Kindergarden.

What a week!!

First Fri and Sat I helped my neighbors (both upstairs and next door) move. Then Mon. for 4 hours I cleaned next doors house. Then Tues. my Dad had to have my Mom's dog put to sleep and I helped him bury her. Not to mention helping Bethy deal with that loss. Then Wed. I cleaned my Dad's house for 5 hours because of the Alumni dinner this weekend. Wed at school the teacher asked me to help her by cutting out apples that had the kids pictures lamanted on them. 10 x 10-15 pictures equals 100-150 pictures, which had to be done by Thursday night. My thumb is numb from cutting, but I enjoyed looking at all of Beth's schoolmates Then tonight I had my Weight watchers and Beth graduated from Kindergarten.The good news is that I have officially lost 21 lbs and earned my first 10% charm holder. I was excitied but was really focusing on Beth and her night.

Here Beth is receiving her diploma from the teacher that will be her teacher for the next two years. Mrs Asbek (Mrs.A)

I was very proud of Beth. She was one of the top readers in her class.

I am so thankful that I am on vacation for at least tomorrow.

Tonight was my weight watchers meeting, I lost 3.4 lbs which brings me up to

17.4 lbs. One day at a time. I have 3.6 lbs to go till I have lost my first 10%. Then I have to make a new goal. I haven't decided what I will make it, probably the next 10% until I get to my goal weight. which I found out was 113-141 Oh brother heaven help me.

By the way our bird died after two days of worm feeding. yuck. Earl was sad that "his patient didn't make it." We have finally got rid of the last of the puppies we had for sale, but we still have three kittens. Texas, Boots and AJ.

I had to tell you a story that happened with Sammi. Since the girls were old enough to know what worms and snakes were I have used them to explain carnality. I told them that they have a worm on the inside and when the disobey or are mean ect.. their worm grows into more of a snake and that only by being good can the snake return to a worm but that someday Jesus will remove the "worm/snake" if they ask Him. When I told Sammi the other day that her worm had grown into a little snake she just cocked her head and looked at me. In a few moments Sammi cried out 'ouch' and grabbed her arm, I asked her what was wrong. She looked at me and said

"Your snake bit me"

I couldn't even refrain from laughing. Could you have?

I thought that I would show you what is upstairs in my bathroom in a box thanks to my cat and husband. Earl heard a cat going after something and went out side and found the 3 week old baby robin trying to hop away from the cat. He brought it in and waited for me to come home with Beth. I had to get a box and then go find worms so that we (Earl and ME!!!) could feed the bird. I could cream my husband. Needless to say I wear gloves where the great outdoors man my husband just catches it with his bare hands.

This had better not be what he is getting me for Mother's Day

Well here it is another Friday morning.

Last night I was totally bummed out for only losing 1.4 lbs for the week.

Bringing my weight lost to 14 lbs all together. So my newest stratgy is to stop eating after 7pm. I was still having snacks to make sure that I would get my points in.

Beth only has 9 days of school left, she is very excitied. One of those days she is going to Old Man's Cave here in Ohio. I had to fill out 15 blue letters with names of family and friends for pledge money or she would not have gotten to go. Beth was very concerned that I might not have 15 friends of family. haha It didn't matter if the people actually sent them back just that I had to surrender 15 people's names for the beg-a-thon. I know the school is a good reason just sits wrong in my craw. Another day she will be going to have field day down here which is going to include water guns and water balloons.(Gotta remeber to take towels and dry clothes that day)

Sammi is just happily going on her merry way. Doesn't like it when Sissy is gone for the morning. I don't dare tell her that Beth will be gone for all day next year. But hopefully Sammi will have her hands full on Mon Wed Fri in the morning anyway. I am going to go today and sign her up for headstart. It is earlier that I did Beth but if I am going to work on those days then I have to find someone for Sammi Hey do any of the Aunts or nieces of nephews want to move to Ohio to be my Nanny. hehe Better yet why don't the Bickfords just move home to the Adirondacks. Well this is enough for this time. I have to go get Beth ready to face her day. Usually on Fri. I tell her tomorrow you can sleep in, she never does, but somehow that helps on Fri. morning when the eyes don't want to open

My total is now 12.5 lbs for those of you wondering

Bethany got to sing at the National Day of Prayer

Here is a picture of the Kindergarten class, there are 10 kids. One is missing because of strep throat

Earl and Sammi got to be there also. Earl tried to get up and come closer to the front but Sammi wouldn't hear of it.

Sammi's 3rd Birthday

Beth got her some bubbles that blow themselves.

Sammi chose to go to Wendy's for her birthday lunch.

Blowing out her homemade birthday cake.

(1/2 a sheet cake at the store is $40. I don't think so, besides I used egg beaters instead of eggs for my husband's cholesterol and applesauce instead of the oil for my diet)

We had to take Beth to the Dr. on Sammi's b-day. She came home from school crying with an ear ache (not like her at all) She has another bad ear infection. Earl and I have decided that we are going to invest in some good ear plugs for when the girls wash their hair in the bath tub. I believe that is where all the germs are coming from. They both take their bath together, so twice the germs(and twice the drownded bathroom).

3.6 lbs

Which brings the total up to 9.4 or some weird number. I just round up to a healthy 10 haha.

I am doing this post at 12:30 am because my loving husband came home and woke me up once he decided to come to bed and talk to me for 5 min. Unknown to him Beth had already woke me up twice. I had been asleep at 9:45 (very unusual). The girls had gone to bed early after playing hard at Beth's school talent show tonight. (pictures to follow tomorrow) So I did too. I don't know about the rest of you but I can't be woke up too often or my brain goes into thinking mode and not normal thinking mode but suspicious thinking mode. I tend to analogize every little thing. So here I sit hoping my brain will shut off, listening to Earl say in the bedroom "Where did she go and why is she awake at this hour" Good questions Honey, (I think I'll go make sure he's awake and explain it to him, with my shoe)

Well here it is another day for my weight watchers meeting. Monday was the only day that I didn't get to walk my 3 miles. So when Earl came home early from work Tuesday, I fixed his supper and headed out the door to get my walk in. I was going to do my normal walk but as I got to the end of it I had started to think about somethings and got (worried, aggravated, confused)well pick one. So I kept walking. I wound up walking 5 miles in a loop of country roads and was gone for 2 hours. The next day I really felt every step that I took. I also get to count my activity points. Usually I only earn 3 points but that day I earned 8 points. You can eat those points that you earn or not, I choose not

The only bad food that I had this week was pizza, but I counted them. I just felt guilty (but it was goooooooood)haha.

7 lbs

Thats how much I lost. I earned my first 5lb sticker. yeah me!! (and Earl for letting me walk every morning while he would take care of Sammi.)

I even have dreams about my walking,like sometimes I don't have my music and I can't figure out how to get home, or I forgot to get dressed and all of a sudden I realize it, or I'm walking and have no idea where I am!! Wonder what those dreams mean hehe.

Well, here it is summer is coming, the warm weather, Earl turning on the air conditioner to see if I can freeze to death at night.

My Dr. has told me that if I don't lose weight(again) that I am going to head into a diabetes diagnosis, so I have (with the blessing of my husband) joined Weight Watchers. I am also walking 2 miles a day in the morning. May not be a lot to some of you but excellent for me. I miss Mirro Lake Dr. in Lake Placid and the walks that I used to take around it. I feel foolish to walk to a certain point in town and then turn around to walk back the way that I came. I also have taken the girls for walks at night. They don't even know that I am exercising with them. I weighed in last week at my first meeting.(Don't even think about asking what the weight was)hehe. Tonight is my second meeting and I will find out if their meal plan is helping me lose weight, I am feeling anxious. So I hope to blog later that WW is working or I will try something else.

I don't know if all of you know that my brother and I are adopted. It became final on April 1, 1976 and on that day every year we celebrated as a family our adoption. This year we simply called one another and visited. This year I found myself thinking about my heavenly adoption and the relationship that I have with my Father.

I read a story where the girl in it explained all the things that she did and did not do was because her church said to, the other girl in the story explained that she did the same things but because she believed that God expected her to do the things. I believe that I am in the place of the second girl that I am do certain things or don't do certain things because I want to please my heavenly Father. Though I must admit that growing up I used the same excuse as the first girl.

I also love the scripture in

Jude 1:24

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

I love the fact that Jesus also wants us to make it to heaven and to be joyful when we are presented before the throne of God. Especially the fact that Jesus is able to keep us from falling. When temptation hits me lately I remind Jesus of this scripture then sit back and wait for the rescue.

Have a blessed day everyone, family I have remebered you in prayer. Especially the Myers clan.

Love you all!!!

It was beautiful today so we hit the town park. The children were not willing to have their picture taken so I only took one. Make sure to look close Beth is not doing what you think she is.

However Sammi had her play group today and they had an Easter egg hunt. We haven't had a play group session since Christmas and Sammi missed that due to her pneumonia and hospital stay.

We had a turkey dinner for Easter.

Ham was my first choice but the frozen turkey in the freezer won out against the ham still at Walmart. (hehe!)However my girls enjoyed the turkey legs very much!

A tradition of breaking the wishbone.