Jessica is PREGNANT too and due 12 days before me

My oldest DD Jessica is pregnant,  she is due 12 days before me. We have the same OB and will be delivering at the same hospital. Truly amazing to be able to share this with my daughter  and crazy to be almost due date buddies, we have been to Dr's appointments together and had ultrasounds together, I am so happy.  I'm going to be a grandma again.

Update and...decisions, decisions

As many of you know, we are expecting our 18th  child and we are now about 5 weeks away from delivery!  I'll sure tell you that no matter how many times we do this, the nerves are still there.  Christi has had a pretty good pregnancy and we are looking forward to greeting this new little one.  We are now at the point where we are discussing names and since she let me have Nathaniel, even though she really didn't like the name, Christi is going to get the final say on this one.  We don't know the sex yet, but we've been tossing Quinn and Zane (girl and boy, respectively) around.  We're still working on it.  The Doctor knows the gender, so if we can't stand the suspense, all Christi has to do is make a call and we can find out.  Either way is OK by me.  This being our 18th, and following our own tradition of naming, we face the problem of running out of letters for the first name.  It's always been our "thing" that we not repeat letters of the alphabet, and so far we have used A, B, C, D, E, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, R, S, T, V and W.  It makes it kind of hard to come up with a good name.  We also try to not use very common names, since my name is so popular, I always had several Davids in almost every class I was ever in.  Everywhere I work, Daves galore!  My father also made me promise not to name anyone after him (he didn't like his name, Homer) and we don't have any family names that some like to use.  Although we do try to honor our family members with the middle names, we also want the kids to have names they won't hate when they grow up.  So, name choice still in progress.  Any suggestions?

17 Kids and 44 and guess what......

Woohooo PREGNANT and I want to scream it from the rooftops, WOOOHOOO, I'm PREGNANT, Cason #18 on the way, 44 and PREGNANT.

I still can't believe it, I keep picking up my tests and looking at the lines, all though out the day, YUP, still positive. I am excited, happy, feel blessed, shocked, scared, freaked out a little,  just can't believe God willing, I get to feel the joys of being pregnant and have another baby, WOW, I can WOW, myself, lol, YKWIM, WOW!!! #18 Due 11-12-15!!!! WOW, WOOOHOOOOOO!!

This baby we only used natural herbs, NO prescription drugs were used, just herbs!!

This one was made for me by a friend!!

Cali-where?

Long time no blog.  I won't make any excuses about why it's been so long, other than life just gets in the way sometimes.  Getting in the way most recently has been our move to Indiana.  New job, new house and a whole host of other things that go along with this sort of life change and maybe it's a little easier to see why blogging and more or less anything social media-like takes a back seat.
That aside, I must say that this has been a great step we've taken in our lives.  We had been looking to get out of California for years and had been mainly focusing on the South, Georgia, Tennessee, North or South Carolina. Maybe even Virginia.  I was very close in the running for a great position in Pennsylvania, which I obviously didn't get, but we never really thought about Indiana.  We still ask ourselves if we can believe we live here. 
I had some concerns about things like the weather and how would I deal with snow.  Serious snow, that is, but I must say that it really has been pretty wonderful.  Indiana is a much more family friendly place.  The employment seems to be really booming as all of my adult kids, and even my 17 year old, have secured jobs pretty quickly.  The cost of living is really great too.  Gas is at least 20-40 cents a gallon less, food and other things are generally less expensive and housing...well, it's just ridiculous how much more you get for your house dollar.  The home we have, with the 1/4 acre lot and huge swimming pool would cost at least twice as much as we paid and if it were in So Cal.  It would be the same floor-plan as every 5th house in the subdivision and they would ALL have that same "Southwestern" cookie cutter stucco and tile roof. 

I have trees! 

I like to tell folks that here, you cut down trees to build a house, while in California, they chop the top off a hill, backfill the lot with silt and granite chunks that pass through a 6 inch screen and then plant trees around the wood frame, chicken wire and stucco house to make it look like anywhere but California.  Then, once the sod takes a little bit of root, you realize it's far too expensive to run your sprinklers everyday to keep the grass alive and Voila! your yard is as brown as the "Southwestern motif" that your HOA requires you to maintain.
Do you get the sense that I'm glad I left?

My backyard

 

Under that blanket of 14 inches or so of snow, lies my swimming pool and my huge backyard.  You know what will be there when Spring comes?  Green grass!!  Can't even get that in California.

The kids were a bit upset leaving all that they knew behind, but they've adapted quite nicely and already have a lot of friends and new activities.  I feel like they're blossoming in ways they never would have if we had stayed out West.  Christi loves it too.  She's always wanted to live somewhere that has 4 actual seasons and she is enjoying the little things like the farm fresh veggies that we get that are actually grown right down the road.  The fact that deer come into our yard at night to eat the few leaves left hanging on the huge oak in the front yard and having the kids be able to ride buses to school.  She also likes that my commute is 15 minutes each way.  This is the first time in over 20 years that I have lived closer than 50 miles to work.

We also want to thank those of you who encouraged us to go for the Indiana move.  Lots of you who live here or have before, told us about what to expect here and gave us advice about preparing for winter and such and we appreciate all the information you shared.

We look forward to new challenges, new adventures and maybe even new blog posts.

Stay tuned!