Yes, my friends, I am pregnant. About 8 1/2 weeks to be exact. So, if anyone out there as wondered why I am slacking, I have a legitimate excuse. So far, the morning sickness and fatigue have been much worse, but I'm hoping those will subside soon! Tentative due date is Nov 5, but my doctor thinks it may be a bit earlier. Her words were that my uterus just runs out of room! Her goal is after Oct 31, but probably before the 11/5 date. I'm feeling boy vibes, but sure wouldn't mind a little girl to round out our family. Either way we will be blessed. So, hopefully I'll be back to the land of the living soon. For now, me and my couch have become best friends.

Easter at the Knauss House was a great day! Grey woke up and found a basket just waiting for him filled with some of his favorite things - TRANSFORMERS! He loves the little Transformers and funny how that Easter Bunny knew just what to bring! After church and lunch at home, Grey looked out in the back yard and saw the bunny had left eggs! He was so excited. Here are some pictures and a video. Be sure to listen to the last line on the video "this is the happiest day of my life". Now that little sentence made it the happiest day of MY life!

We just got back from Copper Mountain, Colorado and had a great time. We got to spend time with some of our closest friends from college - my how times have changed! We had 6 adults and 6 kids!!! But it was an absolute blast. I'll add pictures later but wanted to share these videos first.

This is a video of Grey after his day at Snowboarding School, or Ride School, as they call it. His teacher said he did good, but got bored quickly and moved on to playing in the snow, sledding, and other winter activities. She said he went down the run twice and got the concept, had good balance and coordination. We didn't know how well he'd do on his own.



This is a video of Grey our 2nd day of skiing. This was a day that we spent together as a family and stayed together on the runs. Grey did great. He had a few spills (see below) but got back up and went again!




This is the last video I got of Grey. He did so great and we are so proud of him. I can't believe how much he learned with just a few runs in the school, but he really got the hang of it!

Here are a few pictures from Copper. I didn't really blog much about our trip, but we had a blast! We went with another family who are some good friends from college and stayed with another family that was part of our group in college. We had a blast. We stayed in Denver with the Wilkersons who were amazing hosts! We got up early a few mornings and went to Copper and spent the day on the mountain. Grey went to ski school the first day. We originally signed Grey up for ski lessons, but he saw the snowboarding and wanted to do that instead, so we switched him. Apparently during lessons Grey grew bored quickly and spent most of the day sledding, playing in the snow, and feeding horses. But, as soon as we got there he was eager to show off his skills and we were surprised at how much he really did learn. The second day we skied with families, so Billy, Grey, and I stayed together. We took Grey down a few runs and he did amazing. He really has great balance and just picked it up like it was the easiest thing in the world. We met for lunch with the Dunhams and unfortunately our good luck ran out after that. Grey was so exhausted he literally fell asleep on the floor of the cafeteria. We split up and I did a few runs, then Billy got in a few runs, but when Grey woke up he absolutely REFUSED to go out on the mountain again. So, that was the end of our skiing. It was such a great trip. We also went to Casa Bonita Friday night for dinner and had a blast. The food there isn't so great, but it's just such a Denver experience. Another not so fun part to the trip was Friday night we all ended up getting food poisoning. So, Saturday was mostly spent laying around the house with the few well people taking care of the many sick people - yuck! And by Sunday it was time to head home. We had a great trip. It was so fun to catch up with old friends and to see our kids all playing together and having a great time. We are so blessed to have amazing life-long friends. It's been years since we were all together and we just catch up like it was yesterday. We cherish them all very much!

Just a reminder that if you need a photographer, I am around. I do take pictures of people, I just did not want to include those for privacy reasons, but you can borrow my book anytime to see my work! Just comment me if you would like to try and work something out!

My Job:
Disclaimer: Here is probably more information than you ever wanted to know about what I do. But some things have been going on lately that have weighed heavy on my heart and I would ask that you remember my "clients" and pray for them. And pray for me when dealing with them...

There are things that I can't put out here on the Internet, and what I can say needs to be in vague details, so bear with me. Since the beginning of the year I have had to deal with many stressful issues including abortions and with suicide attempts. I do normally have to deal with this, however this year it has been in extreme situations. Not just abortions, but people using them as birth control (i.e. multiple abortions that you can't count on one hand), and women using drugs while pregnant. Not just suicide attempts but me literally holding paper towels over cut wrists to stop the bleeding. So, it's been an extreme start to the year. Right now we are not in a position for me to quit. Financially we need the income, I am too close to being fully vested in retirement to leave, the insurance is great and cheap, and it allows me to be home 2 days a week with Grey. However, I also have started to wonder if maybe I'm not supposed to quit. I know God has a plan for each of us, and I know each of us have special gifts He has given to us. Maybe my gift, and my plan includes me being here right now. So, I ask that you pray for my caseload, pray for peace of mind for me, as well as insight into how to deal with, and help these people. Sometimes it is an overwhelming burden. I enjoy my job and for the most part really love what I do. But, sometimes it'd be nice to have one of those nice, cushy jobs in a pretty building where people actually are aware of self-hygiene!

Check out my new header! It's not really a blog worthy moment, but I'm still proud that I actually figured out how to make it and post it!