Our family’s dear friend, Kennis, who had been bravely fighting a form of brain tumors, has gone to be with Jesus this morning. We are extremely sad around here and abroad. My sweet niece (Kennis’s best friend since they were in diapers) will have a hard time grieving as well as the rest of our family.

We are sad here but she is no longer sad or hurting! These past few months have been tough as the cancer came back suddenly and aggressively. My family has had to watch sweet Kennis slowly slip away mentally. We are so thankful that she is no longer hurting and that she’s up in heaven praising Jesus!

Please pray for the Nix family and all the friends grieving the loss of such a special young lady. I am very frustrated that I can not console my niece or nephew at this time because of the baby coming soon. Please pray for comfort for them. My niece is 8 and my nephew is 6 and this is a hard age to learn what it means to be mortal and to also know where eternity will be spent. I praise God that they are all Christians and have a good grasp on His unfailing love during this difficult time.

To send condolences, you can sign Kennis’s Caring Bridge site at www.kennisnix.com

I will get pictures up soon, I promise. Here is a quick update:

Construction: has been pretty much nonexistent this week. Mr. Bill is waiting on the electrician. However, Mark talked with Mr. Bill yesterday, and if the electrician is unable to come out tomorrow, then Mr. Bill will come out and start working on the door to the boys’ bathroom. I’m also supposed to be picking out siding color, but have yet to see any samples. I went yesterday and picked out colors, I think, for the kitchen, boys’ bathroom, and, finally, our bedroom. Last night, we cleaned out our hall closet and took the doors off…now, where to store all this stuff!

Kids: Liam has started waving and saying, “dye dye” anytime anyone leaves. It’s very cute. We’re working on the correct pronunciation of “bye bye” but that’s slow coming. He also says his own form of “thank you.” He’s learned the sign for “please,” too. Zoe’s speech continues to go well. We’re still working on the ‘s’ sound. She wants to say “st” instead of “s.” Ace continues to grow and learn. We’re working on planning his birthday party so that I won’t have to think about it after the baby gets here.

Baby Josiah update: We went to the doctor yesterday. He is doing good. I measured 29 weeks, which is right on target. I was able to talk to Dr. J about a lot of stuff. Since my due date has varied by three dates (6/29, 7/5, and 7/12)…after some discussion, we landed on 7/5 based on ovulation (sorry if you didn’t want to know that). That’s precisely where I thought we might be due to begin with. However, Dr. J is going to be out of town 6/29 through 7/3)! Yikes! He loves to deliver his own babies and suggested we do it early. That led to the discussion of not wanting to be induced and not wanting an epidural (all of you who didn’t know that, I’m not crazy, I’ll post my reasons later). We agreed to wait and see what happens. Dr. J is very laid back and we are too when it comes to labor, so we’re all just going to take it as it goes. He told us about a lady who just delivered…she was at 5-6 dilated and wouldn’t let him use pitocin at all. She stayed at 5-6 for over 16 hours and finally after he broke her water (and nothing happened), she let him use a little bit of pitocin and that baby popped out after an hour and a half. Mark and I laughed and told him if I was walking around at 5-6 dilated to please induce because I’m going to be ready to see a baby by then! Also, it looks like we’ll not be using St. Joseph’s Hospital…that was the hospital we used for Zoe, Ace, and Liam. I was so sad to see they had taken the sign down at St. Joe’s. It was purchased by a company and some area physicians. We talked with Dr. J and he said that St. Joe’s is now going to be Trinity Hospital and much much better than what it was. We decided that’s where we want to go. It’s so much smaller than the other hospital we go to and it doesn’t feel like you’re being run through a “baby factory” which is a feeling I get at the other hospital. I looked up last night to see if they had the new website set up, but it’s not up yet. But we did see that Dr. J was on the board of directors which means he’s got all the good inside info! I’m excited about this new change.

My tooth: I had a root canal on Wednesday. The nerves were pretty much dead but it still hurt a little. The endodontist was good and was able to finish it all in one sitting. I was not very comfortable through it (1 1/2 hours on my back almost lying on my head). Poor Josiah couldn’t get comfortable and moved a whole lot. The pain is much better today. I’ve only had to take regular tylenol for the pain. I took just one today but mostly for a headache from sleeping funny.

Well, it’s not quite 7:30 and all the munchkins are up! Guess we’ll start our day. I hope to post pictures later today or this weekend.

Yes, I’m back…did anyone miss me??!! I had a great weekend scrapbooking with some friends in the mountains. I’ll post pictures later. I got over 40 pages done and all of our 2005 family album done!

Liam had a recheck for his ears today…all clear. The claritin seems to be working! Yippee!

I am dealing with a tooth ache. It’s a lot better than it was yesterday but I went ahead and scheduled an appointment for the dentist for Wednesday. I hate tooth pain.

More later…