My birthday was as success, I turned 27 without major fanfare and too much drama. It was a wonderful day actually....I was awoken by my husband and son who had awakened at 5:30 to drive the 25 miles to a Krispy Kreme store to fetch me fresh donuts for breakfast. That's the best way to wake up I am no convinced and have told Matt that this is now my birthday tradition!

So instead of whining about how miserably pregnant I am, I decided to make a list of all the "normal" things I miss about my life....

1. Bending over to put on shoes and socks without passing out
2. Having more than two things that fit
3. Real jeans
4. Being able to quick run upstairs and fetch something without dying
5. Doing laundry
6. Getting out of a chair without a crane
7. Knowing that everywhere I go, people aren't staring at my stomach going, "Holy cow, she must be having triplets!"
8. Picking up Sydney
9. Sex (Sorry, but you know...it's just one of those things)
10. Fitting behind the steering wheel
11. Chasing after my kids
12. Being able to hold my bladder until I want to get out of bed, as opposed to it making my uterus as hard as a rock
13. And the things I miss the most....just the feeling of being a normal human again....normal emotions and proportions!

There you have it...things I am looking forward to and here's a dew more things I am anxious for...

1. Meeting this little boy
2. Smelling that new baby smell that cannot be duplicated anywhere
3. Breastfeeding
4. Watching my children with their new brother
5. Seeing Matt discover how much he really loves being a dad all over again
6. Staying in the hospital and having visitors :)

I could go on and on...

Kittens, showers, and birthdays....whew!

First of all, we adopted yet another kitten into the Kurtz clan...meet Dory.


As we already had a Nemo, it seemed only fitting that Dory be her name.

Then this afternoon was my baby shower. Now I know most of you are scratching your heads going, "Um, this is her FIFTH baby...why in heaven's name is she having a baby shower?!?!" My thoughts exactly. But it's our first baby born to this congregation so they wanted to throw one. My girlfriend is due about a week and a half ahead of me so it was a "Two for One" baby shower. It was made even more fun due to the fact that I am having a boy and she is having a girl. So we had pink and blue teams....it was a hoot. My mom did such a great job on it! So here are some pics from that...



Yes, even Thomas had to wear a name tag!


Kimberly and I with the duel cake :)


Thomas and Gracie's first picture together

Very eventful. And tomorrow is my birthday so it doesn't slow down I guess....

Who knew you could be so tired from a day of doing nothing??

My day started out so typical, Sydney crying next to my bed at 6AM...the girls sleeping in my bed already. So i crawled out of bed to start the day. As I was on the phone with my girlfriend, I had to pee. (Now don't tell me that none of you have friends that you haven't used the bathroom while on the phone with them!) As I was finishing, I noticed some blood. I tried not to panic and checked again and there was more. I casually mention this to my friend who orders me to call the doctor. I hemmed and hawed and then agreed. So I call, and they order me to go to Labor and Delivery. Ugh. So I scramble around, organize my kids, try and call Matt, and drop kids off at the aforementioned girlfriend's house. (by the way Mindy, you are my hero!) I head into L&D. Then I sit there for the next 12 hours as they check and re-check me, tell me I am contracting regularly and I am dialated. Then nothing. I pulled up to the house at 8 PM, after leaving it at 9 AM this morning. What a day. And I can only imagine that Thomas is in there, chuckling to himself at getting his mother all riled up for nothing. Punk kid.

It's been a somewhat eventful week at the Kurtz home.

Wednesday was Matt and I's anniversary. I can hardly believe it's been 8 years....man, where does the time go? I had mentally prepared myself that it would just be a nothing day as we really didn't have any extra money for anything. However, Matt came home from work with flowers, a card, and orders for me to get ready. He readied our children and whisked them away to my girlfriend's house and we went out for a lovely dinner. Afterwards we walked through the mall, what a treat without children!! After an ice-cream cone on the way home, we settled in for the night. It was s wonderful surprise and a refreshing time for the two of us.

On Thursday, I had thawed out some chicken that really needed to be cooked. (Don't worry, this is not another maggot story!) So I decided to throw it on the grill for lunch. As I am out back grilling, I notice some smoke. I wasn't startled because our neighbor burns things all the time. However, I noticed that it was coming from our neighbors garage (not the neighbor that usually has fires) The smoke was getting thicker and blacker. I yelled for Jonah to get me the phone and I ran (well as best a eight 1/2 month pregnant woman can) to get our neighbor. She comes flying out her house and yells over her shoulder to me that there are two gas grills and cans of gasoline in the garage! We share a driveway and our houses and garages are extremely close together. So again I ran to the house, this time to gather my children and get out! I was babysitting my brother as well so I hauled him as fast as I could to his wheelchair, all the while yelling for my kids to get in our car as fast as they can. Now they can see the smoke and are panicking. I finally get everyone loaded and we head over to the church (which is behind our church). We watched as the fire trucks arrived and they drug out their hoses and gear. The kids thought this was all very fascinating except for Molli who was crying that our house was going to burn down. I must confess that I was praying that God would not allow that to happen myself! After a while, we were cleared to return home. Our neighbors garage is pretty totaled, but thank the Lord, our garage and home are safe! Very exciting!

Noah and Nemo 

Curious Nemo 

Emma and Nemo 

Thanks to all of you who listened to me whine...I'm over it now. It's a cool 71 right now and it feels like heaven. Even when we had a killer storm and lost power this morning, I was just so thankful that it wasn't hot! I finally gave up last night and had Matt take our unit up to the kid's bedroom so they could sleep upstairs. I guess I never really realized how much I treasure my alone time!

Well some of you didn't believe how big I would get...here's some proof and I still have 6 weeks to go!!





And here are some other random pics of our summer...


Sydney "snuggling" Nemo...


Blogger won't let me post anymore...have to do it later!

Oh what to write that doesn't sound like whining????

This heat, oh this heat. It severely alters me. I knew it was coming and I was prepared...until Matt broke our air conditioner. Then I just snapped....like I knew that I couldn't survive without it. The implications are far reaching. He ruined the one that was in the living room. Therefore, we either sacrifice our bedroom one (NOT) or we take the one from the kid's room. Doesn't sound like a hard decision. But that means that now the children must sleep in the living room, which would be ok if it weren't for Sydney. She will not fall asleep without a closed door. Therefore she ends up in our bed which means that the precious little sleep I do get is now gone. I have to sleep in the middle to keep her feet away from Matt so he can sleep. Yeah, ok there's a mental picture for you...an eight month pregnant woman squishing herself between her husband and her two year old. Ugh. Not to mention that I have to get up four times a night....if I thought that was hard to do from the side of the bed, it's now impossible from the middle of the bed. Add to all of this the mother of all tension headaches (apologies to those of you who suffer from migranes. I know I have no idea what you suffer regularly, but this destroys me) So I just don't know what to do. I know the heat will break, but will I still be living? Will my family?

How many of you will come to my funeral? Amy, will you sing? Mindy and Misty will you take pics?

My deepest apologies to everyone, there was a virus embedded into the background I was using....I think I've contained it now and fixed it. I am sorry for those of you who were blocked from viewing it due to that.

Not too much going on around here, summer keeps moving on. Jonah has stopped going to summer school. I discovered that the "academic" programming was a joke. I do more with him at home than they were doing there. Not to mention loading everyone into the car at 7:15 AM to take him and then having to go back at 11:15 and drag everyone into the school with me....ugh! So he's back home and we're doing school stuff in the morning which seems to be going well. At least he'll have something when he goes back. Our days are spent here at home and the pool. The kids are getting so great at swimming. Jonah and Molli have perfected their diving (thanks Aunt Carol!) Emma is jumping in and swimming with no tube or goggles and even Syd runs to the deep end and throws her little body into the pool.

As for Thomas and I, we're hanging in there. I have gotten rather large and am SOOOO tired of people asking me if I am having twins or if I am due tomorrow. Listen up people, this is my FIFTH child...your body stretches out farther quicker with each baby. This baby is not a giant nor am I having twins. Get over it! *deep breath* I am feeling pretty lousy today, can you tell? I have not been sleeping well, I'm enormous, not to mention my allergies. I prayed and prayed that this summer would not be miserably hot and so far God has been faithful. Unfortunately the trade off must have been that my allergies have been out of control ALL summer! The other day I would have done almost anything to be able to take one Advil Cold and Sinus. All I can say is the next 7 weeks better go quickly or I may lose my mind!!!

Yet another ode.....

A few months back we had to say goodbye to Bob....our beloved kitty. It was awful for me, I cried for days. (of course being pregnant had nothing to do with it) So we just had Larry. He was never the same. We went on vacation and came home and he was sick. We just decided to watch him and see what happened. Then we got Nemo thinking he would help Larry pull out of his depression. It seemed to help at first, but then he just got worse. Finally, yesterday I coulnd't take it anymore. Off we went to the vet. It turns out that Larry had Feline Leukemia for which there is no cure and he was dying. So once again, I ushered the kids in to kiss Larry goodbye and we all watched as they carried our other precious kitty away. We brought him home and buried him next to his brother. So now Nemo is alone and I am so sad. I realize that we didn't kill Larry or Bob as they were, most likely, born with this disease. But it sure makes me feel like a bad pet owner when we've buried two cats in 4 months!

So here is my ode to Larry....we will miss you...

Here's the summer pic of the kids and one of Sydney....she's the only one I didn't have a picture of by herself....poor child. Can you tell she's number 4????

Well if you've been to Misty's blog then you already have a taste of what Wednesday was like around here! At about 12:45, Amy, Mindy, and Misty arrived at my house for an afternoon of fun and play. All total we had 11 children in my little blue house. What a riot! The kids got along really well. Here they are having some mac and cheese....



Then we headed to the pool which was so funny! Here are a few of my favorite moments...






A good time was had by all, I think. Three cheers for mini- reunions and tons of kids :)

I've written several posts over the last few days, but have erased them all. I've been in a very childish, petty mood and the littlest things have been bugging me. guess it's a combination of getting more and more pregnant and the heat...not a good combo, I'm discovering :)

Jonah started summer school this morning. I was still wrestling with the decision as I drove him there. It helped that he jumped out of bed and got all ready this morning. I think he is craving a little structure. He walked right into his classroom without even saying goodbye so I took that as a good sign. Plus, I pick him up at 11:30....so he'll be fine. (I'm writing this more for myself than you all)

My family comes home today so I am so excited about that. I can't wait to see the pictures and hear all the details of their trip. It's just been weird around here without them.

Plus, even more good news.....my friends from Howell are coming!!!! At first there was just one friend and her kids, but now they are all coming!!! And of course bringing their kids so total we will have 10 kids in my little blue house! What a blast!! We're praying for good weather so we can hit my mom's pool, a.k.a tiring them out :) I'll take pics and post them of our little friend/blogging reunion!

Well time to get some stuff done.....

** CAUTION **** If you have a weak stomach, DO NOT READ this! Although, I have a weak stomach and I am writing it.

So last week, I got the nesting bug. I was scrubbing everything. I cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom, using Soft Scrub on almost every surface. (Love that stuff!)So we went to my mom's for a few days and came home to an odd smell in the kitchen. We blamed it on the kitty litter which was promptly changed. However, the smell lingered. I found a bowl that had some bad chicken juices in it, which we thought was it as well. Still, there was the smell. So tonight, my Aunt Carol had just returned home from a trip and we invited her over to dinner. As I started the water for potatoes, I noticed the smell was particularly bad by the stove. I shrugged it off and walked away. When I came back to check the water, I noticed something on the stove that had not been there a few minutes prior. To my absolute horror, I realized they were MAGGOTS! I started to vomit and ran from the room. Matt came dashing in and then the hunt began. Where on earth had they come from???? I remained out of the room (which now smelled so disgusting.....) while Matt searched. I insisted that I had just scrubbed the entire kitchen. However, I had forgotten that the day after I had scrubbed the kitchen down I had set some chicken out on the stove to thaw. Well some of the juice had dripped down into the big pan underneath the burners. When Matt lifted that he screamed and declared, "Um yeah....found out where they came from!!" I remained far away as he scrubbed and cleaned it all up. The children of course had to watch everything, even though they were completely disgusted. My stomach is still churning and the thought of going back into the kitchen makes my skin crawl. They are so vile. So I just wanted you all to know that I am a horrible housewife. Who has maggots living in their stove?!!?!?!?!?!?!
The kitchen smells infinitely better now and I will NEVER thaw chicken that way again!!!!

Thanks to all of you for your comments on the kitten. He is turning out to be quite the pistol, especially at night while I am attempting to sleep! He attacks my toes under the cover and bats at my hair. We have started shutting our bedroom door :) Larry is coming around very nicely, spending more and more time out from under the bed. He is very patient with Nemo, unless Nemo takes it a tad too far and Larry has had enough. Comical and somewhat ironic since it used to be Larry who was the antagonizer!!

We are having a nice holiday weekend. Matt ended up having Sunday through Tuesday off which is a much needed break for him. We are camping out at mom and dad's house as they are in Alaska. The kids are having fun swimming and just being here. Also they are loving having "channels" as my parents have cable and we do not :) We had a nice firework display last night in the back yard and tonight we go to the big display in town. But now it is time to vacuum the pool and get read for another day of laziness! Happy Fourth everyone!

As if it weren't enough of a zoo around here already...we decided to make it a little more crazy....





Meet Nemo, the newsest member of our family. Larry never quite recovered from losing Bob so we thought we'd get him a new friend.




Larry still isn't sure what to make of the little fuzz ball, but he's been coming out of hiding more often, so we're taking that as a good sign. He's the cutest thing and apparantly has taken quite a liking to Matt....

Alright it's high time I wrote a real post :)

The last week has been spent in recovering from vacation, going through the mountain of mail, getting everyone back into the groove of a somewhat normal bedtime, Unloading the car and then dealing with the mountain of junk stacked in the living room, finding the garden and a million other little things.

The family is well. Jonah is back into the groove of little league. I'm not sure he really enjoys it although he plays well. He's thinking that he'd like to try soccer next year. He starts summer school two weeks from today which I still have mixed feelings about. I know it's the best thing for him academically. I just want him to have a fun summer too. Molli and Emma are counting down the days till school starts. Emma is becoming quite the swimmer, jumping off the side and going underwater. Doesn't sound too impressive but for a girl who would barely get her feet wet a few weeks ago, it's huge. And then there's Sydney....oh...my Sydney. She definitely keeps me on my toes. She is jumping in the pool as well, IN THE DEEP END! We had a few scary moments when she just ran and jumped into the pool and began to sink as she can't swim! Now she knows that she needs to put her tube on first. Then she's off to jump in! On Saturday night she hopped into Noah's power wheelchair and drove it into a brick wall, trapping her leg between the chair and the wall. She's so lucky that it didn't snap her leg in half! She's sporting a hefty bruise, but thank the Lord that's about it. It's never dull around here, that is for sure. As for little Thomas, he continues to get bigger (as do I!) The kids get so excited when they see my tummy move or feel his feet kicking. They've started asking when he's coming out....not soon enough I reply.

So that's how things are around this zoo....summer live on!

Here's just a taste of our vacation, more to come!!

Vacation, here we come! It's offcial, as of tonight, we are on vacation!! I have been looking forward to this since January! Tomorrow we head out and go to Matt's family's house for the weekend. And it worked out that I get to have lunch with two blogging buddies on Saturday! Woohoo! then at 4 AM on Monday morning, we head to New York. We're stopping for the day in Niagara Falls. I've been there too many times to count, but my fmaily has not. So we're going to do al lthe cool stuff there, including the Maid of Mist which my kids have nicknamed "The boat where you get wet". Then we head to my grandparents house way in the country. My Aunt and her family live right next door and my little cousins are just about Jonah's age. They have four wheelers and tractors and beebee guns....the kids are psyched. We're going to take day trips, hike up the Wiscoy falls to the dam, and other various things. My parents and siblings are going as well so it'll be a blast. Then we head home on Father's Day. I'm just looking so forward to a whole week, just away. Yee haw.

So I spent 4 hours cleaing our van today. Yuck. I even steam cleaned the carpets for pete sake. It's now sparkling clean, well not the outside yet. However, I am trying to analyze why exactly it took me that long. Well part of the problem was Sydney. Any time the car is open, she is in it. That makes cleaning it out a little more difficult. Add to this, that as I begin to clean out the van, a massive bulldozer pulls up right on my lawn!!!! Yes, today was the day they decided to re-run my gas lines. There were trenches and holes everywhere! I wanted to take a pic, but couldn't find the camera. Now you tell four children between the ages of 2 and 7 that they can't go near the bulldozer or the dirt or the 8 foot holes i nthe ground. Yeah right. Literally, they were working two feet from the porch. what a nightmare!! So eventually I had everyone come inside because I got tired of chasing Syd away from the scary bulldozer. Of course my entire house was shaking so it kind of felt like being in a washing machine.

Ok, can you tell I am tired? An entire paragraph of nothingness. Sorry! It's time for vacation!!!!