Life is a Balancing Act

One of Those Days:

2011-01-16T11:08:00.001-08:00

Ever have one of THOSE days, when the kids are driving you completely bonkers and you just want to hide out in the bathroom with the shower on, pretending you can't hear anything outside the door????

Yeah. I'm having one of THOSE. In fact, I'm only posting this blog in order to avoid the last few loads of laundry that will quickly become an impossible mountain if I don't wash them TODAY.

*sigh* It has actually gotten to the point that I would rather workout than wash and fold laundry. That's what I just finished doing, and now I'm thinking a shower would be way better than running through a load of wash.

Remember when NB was just starting school and I was all boo-hooey about her going off into the big wide world? Yeah... now as soon as I wake up saturday mornings, I'm counting down the hours until monday morning when I drop her off at the front door. Not that I don't love her, or even that I don't miss her, but now that she's gotten use to that much stimulation throughout her day, she is nearly impossible to deal with on the weekends.

She gets so wired up, and it's too cold to send her outside, so she just goes wild indoors. Neither of the babies nap when she is home, either. She's way too loud. Tomorrow is a holiday, so my weekend has been extended by one more day. Tim is on night shifts, so he is spending the days sleeping and the nights away from home.

I realise this blog is turning into random tidbits and probably should have written it in list form. Oh well! In other news, I tried Zumba this past week! In Public! TWICE! I actually really enjoyed it and am planning on going back this week too.

Sorry for this random post, but it wouldn't really fit in on my other blogs. So now it's here.

Wow... So Yeah

2011-01-15T13:52:00.000-08:00

I am rather ashamed at how horrible I've done about updating this blog here. I mean... it's still decorated for Christmas for crying out loud! (By the way, Tammie, I got your Christmas card! I'm saving it, since it was your first time celebrating the holiday!)

I have been working on trying to get fit and healthy. However, this is NOT a "resolution." I started back at the beginning of December and so far have lost 10 lbs. I even did really well over the holidays about not over indulging. I'm using sparkpeople and the 400 Calorie Fix cookbook that my Mom got me for a Christmas present. That's been where a lot of my focus has been lately, which isn't helping my blog situation any. Also, I am trying to move more, so when I sit down at the computer, I set a timer for 15 minutes. When it's up, I get up and do something else until I need to track something. Since I've been focusing mainly on sparkpeople, that doesn't leave me a lot of time to update here.

Anyway, as of January 1st, the baby is 4 months old. She is rolling all over the place, eating mushy baby cereal, and laughing real belly laughs. If her body would do what she wants it to, she would be crawling all over the place. You can tell from how she moves when you are holding her that she is just ready to GO.

This picture is from a couple of months ago, and is of NB and her new best friend, Joker. We have been trying to make sure she gets out by Tim's grandparents fairly often as she is learning to ride. She has been doing mostly really well in school, with a few difficult days here and there, but I think the break was good for her.

Other than that, we've mostly just been enjoying our spare time with one another, driving off the occasional cold weather with fires in the fire place. Calvin thinks they are better than Spongebob, which is saying something for our house. He just sits there like this, in front of the fire for hours and says "Ohhhhhh! Ahhhh! YAY YAY YAY!!"

Hey, what do you know, An update!

2010-12-01T19:06:00.000-08:00

As of today, our little Lena Bena Bobena is 3 months old. In the last month she has discovered that she has hands and they are probably the single most interesting thing happening in her life right now. In every picture we get of her she is studying her hands. She will wave them around in front of her own face for nearly an hour. She is smiling in response to our smiles and making those cute little baby gurgles and sounds. She can also do push ups now and will pop that darling little head up and look around. She loves tummy time, especially when we are enjoying it with her. She loves to be talked to. It really doesn't even matter what you're saying, she just thinks it's hilarious. She's already rolled over from her tummy to her back a couple of times but it's not happening consistently yet, though that could change by tomorrow.

Calvin is about 16 months old now and a right handful, for sure. He is now climbing all over the place. He figured out how to go up and down stairs, how to climb up onto the couch and back off again and he loves doing it over and over again. Lately, we call him CalvinBobPlunderPants because he is ALWAYS into something. He likes to pull out everything from the cabinets and sort through it. He loves to stack Lena's formula cans and blocks, but mostly the cans. He is also a little chatterbox these days. He just babbles on and on, and it's so stinking adorable. His new favorite things to say are "Whaizz dat?!" and "Whoizz dat?!" On the other hand, he has also developed quite the temper, which isn't cute in the least. Any time he's not getting his way or thinks we aren't getting the message he will let out this really aggravated sounding yell, like: "AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHH!!!" It's horrible. I think I would prefer crying to that noise. On the other, other hand (how many am I up to now?) he's learned how to give real kisses and LOVES giving them. He kisses me, Tim, NB, the baby, stuffed animals, his cars. It just melts my heart every time. He definitely keeps me back and forth on my toes. The stinker.

NB is still pretty much 95% sas. I think the week long break from school was good for her though, because her behavior and school work are both improved since they've been back at school this week. I'm still trying to keep the creative stimuli coming at home in hopes that it is helping. I made a felt board for the kids a couple of days ago and they have been at it nearly non-stop. Even Calvin gets how he is supposed to use it and will spend a good solid 1/2 hour peeling off the shapes and then sticking them back on. NB informed me today that they made hand print Santa Clauses at school today, so I'm excited about that too! NB had another dentist appointment today for a regular cleaning and then they removed one of her teeth that had an abscess. I think I was more nervous than she was, but she went back there all by herself like a big girl. They somehow numbed her jaw without the use of shots and she did just great. There was no whining, crying, or (thank God) biting, she just sat through it like a big girl. All of which makes me wonder why we were given the big run around through the out of town dentist office in the first place. Seriously, if you can numb the kid's jaw without shots why would anyone do it any other way??!! Why would give an adult a shot for that matter!? I'd much prefer the miracle gel stuff or whatever they used for her. Anyway, I'm just glad that's all over and done with.

In other news, my Grandpa passed away over the Thanksgiving break. My sister and I drove down to Nola for the wake and then back home all in the same day. Even though the circumstances were sad, it was good to see and reconnect with all of our relatives and I wish we'd been able to visit longer. I also wish I had brought the kids with me, but it just seemed like so much to travel that far with the two little ones. Hopefully we will be able to make it down for a more cheerful visit when they are a bit older.

Until next time! Have a Happy Holiday Season!

Whatever Happened to Construction Paper Turkeys?

2010-11-18T13:52:00.000-08:00

This is a post that is primarily about me and Nadi-B. She missed school today because we were supposed to be going to the dentist to have some cavities filled as well as a couple of teeth pulled. However there was some kind of mix-up in the scheduling so what ended up happening is that we got up at 4:30 am and drove for 2 hours to the nearest pediatric dentist to end up rescheduling.

Just to get this out of the way, I feel like a big fat failure as a Mom for NB's teeth having any cavities in the first place. I mean, it's not like we allow the child to consume obscene amounts of sweets or sodas. I would feel pretty confident that she doesn't get any more of those things than any normal kid. In fact, I would feel pretty confident saying that she probably gets less than what is "normal." The only thing I can figure is that we started letting her brush her own teeth a little too early on in the game and she just wasn't prepared to do a good job. I mean, at least these are her baby teeth, but it still makes me feel like when that dentist hygienist is looking at me she just sees words like: "Irresponsible Parent" or "Fail"

In any case, we drove all that way for nothing more than a frustrating hour spent alternating between waiting and explaining over and over again what we were supposed to be there for; followed by a few back and forth phone calls between Tim, myself, and NB's regular dentist. I *think* we finally have it all straightened out, but I'll know for sure when she goes for her cleaning in December.

We are still having issues with Nadia's behavior at school. I don't really know how to explain it. She's not behaving badly really. She just can't focus or be still or stop talking so much. She was doing really awesome for a good while, but all of a sudden over the last month or so, she just can't seem to concentrate on anything. Well... that's not entirely true.. it's like she can only focus on one thing. If she's concentrating on not talking or playing during class time then she isn't doing her work. If she's concentrating on doing her work, she's getting in trouble for silly behavior or playing during class time.

If she comes home from a bad day and we talk about it, the next day she does great, but every day after that she goes back to the same behavior. I am pretty much at my wits' end. I don't know what else to do, having exhausted all parenting things I can come up with, or approve of. It just seems not to sink in. I'm quite frankly, tired of having the same conversations every day.

And while I'm at it, I am also kind of bummed about her school's curriculum. I mean, don't get me wrong, I think it is AWESOME to see NB sounding out and reading words and so forth, but whatever happened to the fun stuff? When I was in kindergarten we were coloring pictures every day. At this time of year we were making construction paper turkeys and hand print turkeys to bring home to our moms. I was so looking forward to NB bringing home a turkey or a Popsicle stick reindeer to hang on the tree or SOMETHING for crying out loud! But all we ever get are worksheets, worksheets, worksheets. Do they even get to do things like that at school anymore? As far as I can tell, no.

I actually think that might be part of the problem with NB's behavior. There doesn't seem to be any time cut out in their day to create anything. She gets to draw on the back of her worksheets if she finishes on time, but other than that they haven't brought home a single art project of any kind. It makes me feel sad and even jipped on her part.

So today, after our nice road trip, and our nice lunch out, just us two; NB and I made a construction paper turkey. I have already started researching any and all holiday art projects I can find for us to do in the afternoons when she is home. I'm hoping that the creative stimulation might help curb her enthusiasm a little at school. I also have ONE more thing I'm going to try with her for behavior, and that's meditation.

I don't mean anything lengthy or structured or anything. Just simple transcendental meditation, which is simply sitting quietly with one's eyes closed for a short amount of time. I am thinking 5 minutes in the morning after waking up and 5 minutes in the evenings before bed. I'm going to do it with her. I think it will help her "practice" being still and calm and quiet, and that it will also teach her to still her constantly turning mind so she can focus better. I am excited to see how this will do with NB and with myself. In the meantime, we are making our own construction paper turkeys and popsicle reindeer.

Mundane Update:

2010-11-09T08:06:00.000-08:00

Wow! So things have finally slowed down enough that I can post a little mundane family update. Well... they aren't really slow at all, actually. I'm just forcing the time. The last few weeks I have been working part time at my favorite discount fabric store to fill in for one of their employees who got bit by a brown recluse. *shudder* Anyway, she is now back at work, even though she isn't quite at 100%, and I'm a little bummed. I really enjoyed filling in there. However, they are considering having me come in on Fridays from now on just to help out with their busiest day! I hope that works out because I really do/did LOVE working there.

Yesterday I hosted my very first Pampered Chef cooking show for a friend and it was AWESOME! We made homemade pizza, a cheese torta, and mini tirramissu cakes using all the fancy shmancy pampered chef gear. Then we got to eat the outcome while shopping. It was a fairly good/entertaining show and we did pretty well with the sales too which means more free stuff for me for hosting! Whaa-hoo! I'm so excited! Mom also ordered me a pizza stone for my birthday, so that's one thing I don't have to spend my free on.

Okay! Enough about me, moving on to the important people: the kids.

Lena is 2 months old, as of November 1st. She is all smiles these days and just today started rolling over from her tummy to her back! At her 2 month check up, she was a little over 8lbs. She is still small for her age, but since she's been small since birth, developmentally, she's right on track. Our pretty girl is somewhat of a miracle baby. At 2 months she already sleeps the majority of the night. Occasionally, she will get up once during the night, but about 5/7 nights of the week she will sleep the whole night. It's pretty awesome to say the least.

Calvin is getting bigger by the day! He is now 15 months. He is a little jabber box these days. Most of it is just cute baby jibberish, but there are a few words he's getting really good at. He now recognizes us in photos. He likes to point at NB's picture on the fireplace and say "Sisser?!" He also knows the baby, Daddy, and Momma. I think he also says "Papa," for my dad. He can also say "Uh oh," and "tank u!"

He is my little heart throb. I am so in love with this kid, I tell ya. He is so goofy and silly and sweet. Most of the time. He has a temper though when he isn't getting his way! But he is growing super fast it seems. It's already hard to imagine him as Lena sized.

And here's my other pretty girl! NB is modelling a dress I made her this past weekend. NB is just her own kind of person. She is doing well in school, but every day is a struggle for her to get a "smiley face." It's not that she's a bad kid, by any means. It's that she's over imaginative and sociable and silly, so her greatest offenses are often just forgetting herself and talking too much at times that are inappropriate. We've also been having a little issue with her rushing through her work so she can spend more time drawing kitty cats. NB is OBSESSED with cats. Her teacher sent me a message informing me that NB now insists on being called "Nadia Cat." *laughs* See what I mean about being her own person?

It has also become apparent that she is very sensitive. She gets it from her momma, so she comes by it honest. Yesterday she got her feelings hurt over a few other kids laughing at the name she calls her Gigi. Apparently "Gigi" sounds funny to a five year old, but NB thought they were making fun of her Gigi. So instead of doing her work, she spent her time making a necklace for her Gigi. Oh geeze! So that was a whole other discussion we had to have with her. Nothing is ever mundane or boring with NB around, that's for sure! My biggest challenge as a Mom has been to balance correcting her without crushing her spirit and individuality, which are the things I love in her.

My life is a Mom's life. But it's a happy one!

Wabbit Season

2010-10-24T05:53:00.000-07:00

This is an actual jar on an actual shelf, inside my actual house, and if I get one more phone call from one more political candidate for whatever.... I'm going to start putting people in it.

Let me explain how I feel about politics/politicians: I HATE them. I don't just hate this party or that party... I hate them all. I don't watch them on the news. I don't read about them in the paper. I don't listen to their pre-recorded phone calls. Ugh.. mostly this time of year, I just try to avoid them as much as possible.

Seriously?! Don't call my house, during dinner time, and chirp to me over the phone about your "traditional family values!" Really?! If you're such a stand-up family man how come you aren't at home, I dunno, eating dinner with your family? And why are you annoyingly interrupting other families' dinners? I don't want to take your stupid survey. I don't want to listen to your campaign. I just want you to shut-up, stop calling my house, and leave me alone so I can listen to my daughter describe the entire plot line of Marmaduke one more time, K?

OH! And what is with all you creepy politicians squatting outside of my house?! This is no exaggeration: last week, I noticed a huge red SUV, emblazoned with posters and American flags, parked outside on the grass right in between my next door neighbor's yard and my own. It, and the guy inside of it, sat out there for 30 minutes. Just sat there, staring at our houses. It was right at the time I always go pick up NB from school. He sat there and watched me as I carted Calvin out, strapped him into his car seat, came back inside, grabbed the baby, strapped her into her seat, came back inside, grabbed my purse and my keys, and as I'm trying to sit down in my car, he GETS OUT and walks over to my WINDOW and starts tapping the glass trying to hand me a damned political pamphlet!!!! The old man is lucky I didn't run him over with my car. He is lucky all he got was a slammed car door in his face and a very blunt, "I don't have time for this now!!!!" before I quickly backed out of the driveway.

The very next night, I noticed, yet another car parked across the street facing our house. It and the man inside sat there for a good while. I noticed it when I was leaving to go pick up some dinner (dinner time, again). I had enough time to drive into town, wait in line for 15 minutes or so, stop at the grocery and get drinks, and drive back home, at which point he was STILL SITTING there. As I get out and start gathering up all of my grocery bags and such, he gets out and starts making his way over to my house. I could see the pamphlets out of the corner of my eye. It was like one of those horrific dreams you have where you are trying to run away from a monster and you just know you aren't going to make it. But I did, and I closed the door and locked it before he made it halfway across our yard. He must have knocked on the door a good 5 times before he gave up and realized that even though we were in there, we weren't going to answer it. So he just shoved his pamphlet into the door and FINALLY left.

The next time I see some creepy politician perched out on the street I'm calling the police and reporting them for loitering. Even if nothing comes of it, maybe they will at least move along.

It's politician season, folks. And the little buggers are everywhere!!!!

Halloween Costume Photo Dump!

2010-10-22T14:18:00.001-07:00

So. Every year, I have the same grand idea: I will MAKE the kids' costumes! They will be awesome and better than store bought crap costumes that are way overpriced! I will get lots of cute photos!!

And every year: I FAIL. Usually one of two things happen: I run out of time and energy to get them completed, OR I mess up the costume and am unable to fix it due to time constraints or there not being enough fabric to start over. And then I'm always rushing around trying to get out trick or treating and snapping crap pictures that barely show the crap costumes I had to run out and buy at the last minute. *sigh*

But this year?! I DID IT! I made 3 costumes! Three. Whole. Costumes. And they are all awesome (IMO). AND they all match a theme! Yay! AND! AND!! I got lots of super cute pictures! So here they are:

Here is Nadia, all decked out as the Cheshire Cat. I made her dress and her ears and did her make-up, but we bought the awesome pinky-purple hair.

This is my favorite photo of NB. Apparently, the trick to getting her to be all smiles for the camera is to paint her face like a cat! She would wear the make-up every day if I would let her.

Here is the Baby! She is the Queen of hearts, obviously. I like to imagine that in the above picture she has just said "Off with their heads... bleh" in a very bored tone.

I made her tutu, stenciled her onesie, and made her head poof. The center of it has a sparkly red heart, but it's kinda hard to see it in this picture.

And here is Calvin, giving ole' Johnny a run for his money! He is such a handsome Hatter!

I made his hat and his bow tie and vest. The rest is just a white shirt and black pants.

Like any toddler, he wasn't a big fan of leaving the hat on for very long and kept yanking it off, which is why Tim's hand is in the photos.

I don't believe I'm going to dress up this year myself. If I decide to, I have a closet full of things like peasant dresses, witches' hats, coin scarves, etc. But I'm really thinking I'm just going to enjoy the kids this year.

I am so proud of myself for completing these costumes! I even made costumes for OTHER PEOPLE'S kids! I made a Wicked Witch of the West, Wicked Witch of the East, and Dorothy costume set for three little girls, a Tinkerbell tutu for my niece, and a purple fairy tutu for my other niece. I don't have any pics of them in their costumes yet though.

So what you doing for Halloween? Are you dressing up? Going trick or treating? Staying in?

Aplin Farms Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-18T05:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Tim and I loaded up the kidlets and drove up to see my sister a couple of towns over. After meeting up with them for lunch at their place, we took a family trip over to Aplin Farms for their annual pumpkin patch. It was AWESOME. It was hands down the BEST pumpkin patch I've ever attended.

When you arrive, the very first thing you see is a huge produce pagoda where they sell pumpkins as well as other produce from their farm such as: apples, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, etc. You can buy pumpkins from that area, but it's much more fun to do the "You pick" pumpkins. They load several people onto these huge tractor-pulled wagons, and then drive you up into the fields where you can pick your own pumpkins, fresh from the fields.

One of their other features is that they also grow large fields of sunflowers! Which they let you pick: FOR FREE! They are SO pretty, but they start to wilt almost immediately after you pick them. We brought home a few and I have them in a vase now. I'm hoping they will start to perk up a little, so that we can enjoy them for a bit longer.

I took quite a few pictures of the sunflowers, but this one with the bee inside of it was my favorite. They also kept a few bee-hives on the farm as well and were selling jars of honey in the produce pagoda. I unfortunately didn't get any, but I'm definitely purchasing a jar next year!

I love this picture of our whole family coming back from the wagon ride. We rarely get any of these, since I'm usually the one behind the camera. There's me, holding Lena; Tim holding Calvin, and of course, NB who is not looking at the camera (typical) but is at least, smiling! I'm going to have this one blown up and framed for above the fireplace. Speaking of fires, another feature of Aplin Farms is that you can arrange to have a bonfire after dark on their property! We've already decided that next year we are going to plan it where more of the family can come so we can have a bonfire and smores after our day of pumpkin picking!

All around the front end of the farm, they have hay bales "dressed up" in costume! We saw spiders and pumpkin hay bales, but our personal favorites were these piggies. (that's my sister, Allie and her b/f's daughter, Haley).

There were also the obligatory "face in hole" photo opportunities, inflatable bouncy slides, a corn maze, reasonably price concessions, an animal barn or two, and train rides. Needless to say, we had an amazing afternoon followed by this:

on the way back to Allie and Jeff's. You can't see Lena because she is rear facing (we're legal that way), but she is having a screaming melt down too! Apparently wedging three tired, cranky, hungry kids into the back seat of a small vehicle brings out the worst in them! I can't WAIT until we get the new car. Only a couple more weeks!!! Anyway, we took them back to my sisters where she was gracious enough to cook all of us an awesome dinner, after which we headed back home. The kids slept most of the way on the home trip, except for the last 20 minutes, in which Calvin woke up and screamed the rest of the way home. I can't wait to go back next year! But, before I go, here is one more sunflower pic.

This one has a grass hopper on it!

Stoooopid Comment Thingy:

2010-10-17T19:57:00.000-07:00

For some reason, a few of my comments have been disappearing after I hit "publish" and not posting to the blogs, so if you have commented recently and it hasn't shown up this is why.

So, HI BONNIE! I was so excited to hear from you and then stoooopid blogger ate your comment! You'll have to send me your email so we can catch up!

All about Lena

2010-10-16T08:14:00.000-07:00

~***** Warning! This post contains gross stuff like news on baby spit-up and poop is mentioned.*****~

* The other night she did this crazy little fluke thing where she slept through the entire night. She is only 6 weeks old, so as far as I know, sleeping through the night is unheard of for her age. We were kind of astounded, and I spent the morning hovering around her crib checking her breathing and nudging her every now and again to make sure she was ok. But, not to worry! It was only a fluke and hasn't happened since!

*Spit-up. Ohhhhhhh my! Lately it has seemed as though our little Beanah has been practicing for her upcoming role in the exorcist. I mean, I know babies spit up, it's what they do, but I'm beginning to become concerned that she isn't getting enough nutrition what with the constant spitting up and also: poop. I am thinking she might be lactose intolerant or at least lactose sensitive, so I'm going to talk to her doctor about it on Monday and see about switching her formula.

* Speaking of formula, how about that scary recall of Similac? I've been diligent about checking all of ours to make sure we didn't bring home any bad cans, but still.......it makes you nervous.

* Lena is so different from my first two children. Where they were BIG babies (9-6 and 8-8 respectively), she is small. Where they were chubby and dimpled, she is long and skinny. Where they had little fat feet with sausage toes and fingers, she has long skinny feet and fingers and toes. Her eyes are big and blue, just like my other two, but are shaped differently. I just can't seem to get enough of looking at her. While my other two weren't big fans of the sling, she is content to chill in there all day. She just has a different energy and personality all together. I am so interested to see her grow and develop.

Ahh... Fall!

2010-10-15T07:49:00.000-07:00

The leaves! The cool weather! The colors! The incessant coughing! Every year around this time, NB develops this horrible chest-y cough. It seems no matter what we do, we can't get rid of it. We've tried cough and cold stuff and allergy stuff. We've taken her to the doctor to see if it might be asthma since Tim has it, but even that trip proved worthless in defeating the cough. It has gotten to the point where yesterday she was having a bit of difficulty speaking, so back to the doctor we will go. Hopefully we can get her an appointment for this afternoon.

In other news, I feel like a complete jerk. Nadia has been chirping about popcorn at school for the last few weeks, and I had NO IDEA what she was going on about. It is sometimes really difficult to get information out of NB that makes sense, because you have to try to filter it through her 5 year old brain which is jammed packed with shiny things and unicorns and rainbows and happiness from what I can tell. I thought it might have been something that the school supplied for snack every once in awhile, so I tried sending snack money for a week or two. According to NB, all they ever gave for snack was chips and juice boxes and she was tired of eating the same things every day, so we went back to sending her snack from home. Then yesterday, I'm reading over the daily behavior report that they send home DAILY, and I notice in tiny print along the bottom "Kid's may bring popcorn money every Friday" or something along those lines. So now I feel like "jerk mom" because it's probably been there for weeks, and it's only $0.50, and I haven't sent any money, and she really, really wanted that popcorn. I sent the $0.50 today, but I still feel like a jerk. I hate for her to feel left out of things like that, and it's obvious from the way she asked about it before that she did. I apologized for my jerk-ness on the way to school this morning to which NB replied, "It's okay, Mommy!" and all was again right in the world.

In other news, Calvin did the sweetest thing a couple days ago. We had just gotten back from the store and Lena was crying to be fed. I propped her up in the boppy and went into the kitchen to fix her bottle. When I returned to living room, Calvin was crouched by her pillow and alternating between giving her big sloppy kisses and poking her in the face with his sippy cup. It was obvious he was trying to console her as well as share his milk with her. It was so sweet, my heart just melted. However, Lena was not impressed. All she got out of the idea was brother slobber and a face full of milk. I have to admit that sometimes I am surprised by the amount of empathy Calvin feels for her. Whenever she is upset or crying, he will come over to "pet" her and say "Ohhhhhhh."

I finally finished up all of the Halloween costumes and things people had ordered in the last few weeks. I am also all finished with NB's and Lena's costumes. We are doing an Alice in Wonderland theme this year with NB as the Cheshire cat, Lena as the queen of hearts, and Calvin as the Hatter (of course!). All I have left to finish Calvin's costume is to make his bow-tie. I can't wait to get a picture of them.

Other exciting news includes:

We're soon getting a new (not brand new, but new to us) car that will actually fit all of us comfortably and safely!

We're going to a big pumpkin patch this Sunday with my sisters and their kids and possibly some visiting relatives from New Orleans. There will be corn mazes and hay rides and a petting zoo and of course PUNKINS!!

I have a stack of fire wood to burn!

And that about wraps it up.

Well... You can Hang that Up....

2010-10-07T07:13:00.000-07:00

Yanno... when I was preggers and BORED and had NOTHING TO DO, it seemed as though all of you went on a blogging hiatus. Now that I'm bargaining for five minutes to sit down that the computer, you have all started posting bookoo blogs. Let's be honest. As much as I love reading about you guys and your lives and your kids.. I am NEVER going to get caught up on all of these blogs! Sheesh! So I'm thinking I'm just going to pick up on the latest ones you've posted and just keep going from there. Sorry. :(

Also........just out of curiosity, has anyone watched any of the new TLC series, "Sister Wives?" I am so intrigued! And not really in a "yeah I could see myself doing this" kind of way, just more like, "hunh???!!!!" kind of way, followed by daydreaming about having another person here every day helping me do laundry and make dinner and feed babies all day. Is there anyway to have a Sister Mom instead of a Sister wife. Because I really don't dig on sharing my hubs.

Making No Promises

2010-10-05T14:17:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated this poor blog in so long! I even have to admit that I haven't caught up on reading your blog posts either. Did you know that having 3 kids is kinda crazy? Especially when one is in kindergarten, one is a toddler, and the other one is an infant? Well, I'm telling you right now, IT'S CRAZY. I'm consider myself pretty lucky at this point if I get the opportunity to pee more than once a day. (did I just say that on the internet? You bet your bottom I did)

Here's the latest picture of our little Lena-Bean-ah. She is one month old and she HATES me for putting that silly flower on her head. Or she could be passing gas. She does that. A LOT.

Here's one where she could either be smiling or passing gas.

She is a really good baby. She sleeps fairly well at night and is awake and alert during a good part of the day. She is very expressive and Tim says she looks a lot like me! Especially when she is annoyed. I must agree. Her mad face looks a lot like mine!

NB is still doing fairly well in school. About 2 months ago, I thought I'd try my hand at making her some hair bows because we didn't have very many. NB likes to wear hair things, but it was difficult finding some to match her clothes and also? I didn't want to spend a fortune on bows when ribbon is fairly inexpensive.

Check out my handy work here. Oh, and you might notice NB's drastically shorter hair. I took her to get it TRIMMED and the lady butchered her hair. I seriously should have snapped a photo of the job she did. It looked like NB had done the job herself. I had to rush her to another salon to have them fix it so she wouldn't have to go to school looking all funk-i-fied. I was in hysterics, guys, but ya know, hair grows and she loves it, so I guess it's okay. And if you are wondering what that obscene ball of fluff is that she is holding, it's a webkin that her Aunt Barb sent her. ......... we THINK it's a cat.........we could be wrong.

Since NB has been wearing her new hair bows to school, her teacher has started sending home notes requesting me to make some for her little girl and sending notes to all of her friends with little girls. I have learned that just because I am not willing to spend tons of money on hair things, doesn't mean that other people aren't. These ladies have some serious obsession with hair things. BUT, it's actually turned into a nice little at home side business for me. So far be it from me to complain.

NB is already reading short words! She gets a new word list every week that she reads over every night for homework. There are about 12 words on each week's list. I can't believe she is already that far along! It's pretty neat though!

As for Calvin. He is just ALL boy. He is walking and starting to talk. He loves Lena. He will walk up to her and touch her very gently and say "Ohhhhhh Bay-bee! Ohhhhhhhhh." He is a little rotten stinker though. You can't leave any open cup or bottle laying around or he will grab it and start chugging frat boy style. The other morning I forgot and he finished off my diet pepsi in about 2 seconds.

In other news, the weather here has FINALLY started to reflect the season! To celebrate we had a bunch of friends out last night and I cooked up a big pot of gumbo. It was AWESOME. The first chance I get I am putting our fire pit to use. I already have a nice big stack of wood and limbs just waiting for me in the backyard.

I'm sure there is plenty I've left out as far as updating everything goes. I am going to try to blog more now that we are starting to settle a little more, but I'm not making any promises. I hope you all are well!!

Still Alive and Breathing

2010-09-19T06:35:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to pop in here and let everyone know that I'm still alive and breathing. So are the kids. I will leave an actual, more detailed update on how things are going with the new little one and the other little one and the kindergartner as soon as I get to it.

We have Baby!! And You'll never guess what happened!!

2010-09-03T14:03:00.000-07:00

We arrived at the hospital, bright and early at 5:30 am to begin the prep for the c-section. I was set up in a room, my IV was put in and we were minutes away from being rolled into the OR to begin the anesthesia when Dr. Bowen decided to do one final ultrasound.

Imagine our surprise! Lena had decided to flip over night!! She must have done so while I was sleeping because I don't remember feeling anything. I guess she decided that she didn't want surgery either, because she was miraculously head down, and I was dialated to 2.5 cm. Deciding that the opportunity was just too good to pass up, Dr. B had me transferred directly to a labor room and began the process of inducing labor instead.

By 10:30 am, I was to 4 cm, my water was broken, and my epidural was put in. We had a little bit of a scare after that when Lena's heartrate started to decrease with every contraction. The nurses repositioned me onto first one side and then the other to try and relieve some pressure from the umbillocal chord. The right side turned out to be the correct one, and for awhile we didn't have any more issues with her heartrate.

I napped through most of the afternoon, since due to the epidural I had little to no discomfort. By 4:45 pm, I was fully dialated and it was time to begin pushing. The nurse got all of her things set up, called in the Doctor, Tim came in, everything was ready to go!

We decided to push with the next contraction, so as soon as it started, I started. I pushed ONCE for literally 10-15 seconds, and there she was! After all of that stressing and worrying that she put me through the last nine months, one push and she was here!! Safe and sound and healthy!

Helena

Born Sept. 1st, 2010

6 lbs. 9 oz

20 1/2 inches long

Preggo Update!

2010-08-31T15:42:00.001-07:00

Today I am 38 weeks and 2 days, and I had an exam scheduled with my dr. to see if it would be at all possible to induce before he takes off on his Alaskan ice fishing vacation on the 4th. By this point, I was really hoping to have already had to go in for labor anyhow, but things have been holding out in the "pretty damn miserable" stage for days now. I have been having some pretty intense contractions/braxton hicks for the last couple of days, so I was really hoping to hear some good news about the exam.

Once he started the exam, I could tell from the look on his face that whatever the news was, it wasn't going to be anything like the "Hey! You're 4 cm dialated and ready to go!!" news I had dreamed about. On top of which, it was kind of painful as I've been pretty swollen in the girly parts region. He finishes the exam, sighs, and then says, "You have a few wierd things going on, so I'm going to let you get dressed first, and then we'll talk." Gee... that sounds promising!

Apparently, aside from my cervix being no where near ready for labor (very high and barely 1 cm dialated), he could not feel any part of the baby whatsoever. She was not head down, or anywhere near the cervix area, and he couldn't determine her position. The ultrasound they did at 32 weeks had shown she was breech and that the placenta was low lying, though there was no previa. His concern was that the placenta may have moved lower, though he couldn't feel that either, and that the baby was still either breech, or transverse (the position she was in for all the other ultrasounds up until the 32 weeks one). At this point he pretty much told me that my chances of delivering vaginally were basically nill, but he was sending me over for another ultrasound just to be sure.

The ultrasound tech couldn't even find the placenta. She had to call in the doctor and have him show her. The baby is a wierd position. Her head is way up, almost in my rib cage on the right side. Her feet are up and even with her head on the left side, with her butt pointing straight down in the middle. So she's in this little "U" shape. The placenta isn't lower than her or blocking the cervix, it's far over the left exactly even with the baby.

I was then sent back to Dr. B's office where he presented me with 3 equally craptacular options.

Option 1: I could wait in hopes that she would decide to turn at the last minute, before labor, though hopefully not until after he returned from his trip in two weeks. The risks here would be that she would not turn and I could go into labor with a doctor who had no previous knowledge of the earlier complications we've had with this pregnancy. Also, if she didn't turn, I'd end up having to have a c-section in the end.

Option 2: We could try an external version to try and turn her. However, if he turned her, we would then need to induce labor rather than waiting for natural labor because waiting could mean she would simply re-posistion herself in the original or an even worse posistion for delivery. Of course, she could also turn durning the labor. On top of which, the condition my cervix is currently in, inducing labor would be nearly impossible and could cause even more complications and would probably end in a c-section.

Option 3: I could just go ahead an opt for the c-section. Of course, the risks here are all of the normal risks associated with c-sections.

I knew there was no way I was waiting. I would drive myself crazy with worry and in the end could end up waiting around stressing for nothing and have to have a c-section anyway. I was not interested in the version at all. From what I hear they are pretty painful and honestly, I felt like it would be a complete waste of time considering he would then have to induce and we had already determined that induction would be unlikely. So I opted to just go ahead and do the c-section. I honestly feel like this was going to be the end result no matter what I chose, so I figured we might as well go ahead and get it over with so I could stop stressing about it all. So my c-section is scheduled for 7:30 am tomorrow.

At least she is full term and not having to be taken early. Part of me is really relieved that it's almost all over and that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The other part of me is really stressed and worried. I've never had any kind of surgery before, so I'm naturally nervous. I know doctors do these sorts of things every day, but I don't.

So, anyway, wish me luck!! Tomorrow I go to have a baby!!

Happy Birthday!

2010-08-19T05:07:00.000-07:00

One year ago, today, our little viking was born! It's hard to believe he's a year old already! I'm not sure if being pregnant through most of this time has made it seem to pass faster than usual, or if time is just speeding up on me anyway. Either way, the last year seems to have flown by, and I feel like somehow I missed out on Calvin being a baby. Of course, in a lot of ways, he is still very much a baby. He still has all of that beautiful baby chub going on. But he is also walking all over the place now and beginning to communicate better and sometimes when I catch an eyeful of him acting all toddler-ish, I feel a little twinge of sadness.

Happy 1st Birthday Calvin! You are growing up too fast.

A couple of Book Reviews:

2010-08-18T17:52:00.000-07:00

So, to pass the time away, how about a couple of book reviews? First up:

I'm a really big Terry Pratchett/Discworld fan, but even if you aren't, this is still a really awesome book. The sheer amount of information concerning myths, legends, folklore, their origins, etc. from our own world, that is in this book is baffling. I'm talking everything from the origins of English football to Santa Clause. If you like interesting factoids, you would probably really enjoy this book. I did. I more or less just piddled through it for about a month, and every time I would pick it up to read a chapter I'd find out something really interesting that I never knew before.

Next up is:

If we were scaling on a 1-5 basis, I'd have to give this book somewhere around 3.5-4. I really liked the IDEA behind the story. It's obviously a different version of the classic Alice in Wonderland but also so much more than that. This is supposedly the TRUE story of the real "Alyss" and the book Alice in Wonderland is actually somewhat of an insult to her "real life" story. Anyway. It has a kind of steam-punky vibe to it, which I enjoyed. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it seemed VERY rushed through. The author had all these really great ideas and concepts and I felt like he should have spent more time on them than he did. I didn't feel like there was ENOUGH story. It's the first book in a trilogy and I'm having a hard time getting into the second one. I kind of feel like he should of concentrated on fleshing out the first book more before trying to develop the series. You can almost feel him rushing through the writing to get to the next part. Meanwhile, he's leaving behind all of these really interesting tidbits that I wish he would tell his readers more about. So it was a good book, but it could have been GREAT. And that kind of sucks. *sighs*

Anyway. I'm still pregnant.

In other news, Calvin turns 1 year old tomorrow!! I can hardly believe it. Already. 1 whole year. *sniffles*

Pomplamoose

2010-08-13T05:30:00.000-07:00

Somebody on Offsprung posted a link to this band and now I can't get enough. They have amazing original stuff and awesome covers. This is a cover of "Beat it" by Michael Jackson. Of course, I suppose it's all a matter of taste. This is the style of music I tend towards. Her voice is perfect for me to sing along with. Plus, she and the guy, Jack are really goofy and cute, which is just a bonus for me. Just thought I'd pass it along in case anybody actually shares my taste in music!

Off

2010-08-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

I have not felt "right" for the last couple of days. I don't know how to explain it, other than that:

"I just don't feel right."

"Something feels wierd."

"Something is OFF."

Some of it might have to do with the fact that I haven't gotten a decent night's rest in the last 3 nights. However, it's kind of a "chicken or the egg" situation in that I'm not sleeping well because I feel wierd and can't get comfortable, and also, I feel a little off from not sleeping well.

Last night I rolled around in bed for a good two hours unable to find a way to fall asleep comfortably. I had even taken a benadryl ANOTHER hour before lying down in hopes that I'd lay down while it started to work and zonk out regardless. Didn't. Happen. I don't know what time it was when I finally fell asleep, but I was up by 2 am and unable to fall back asleep. So I just rolled around and huffed until it was time to get up with the kids.

I can't focus or concentrate. I sit. I stand up. I walk around. I sit. I lay down. I get up. I flip through channels. I try to read blogs. I try to comment. I lose track of my thoughts and just start rambling on. I get up. I walk around. Etc.

I've also been whining about it to Tim and my friends the last couple of days too. I'm very flustered and well.....just.......I don't feel right. *sigh* So I thought I'd complain to you guys too.

What's for Dinner?

2010-07-31T15:56:00.001-07:00

Go here, Make This.

You won't regret it. Though, unless you are planning on hosting an army for dinner or have at least 4 kids, I would recommend halving the chicken, broth, and noodles. But leave the veggies and spices the same.

Also? I used dried egg noodles out of the bag, not the fancy shmancy kind she uses. And I also just used regular old black pepper. It was still yummalicious.

Super Quick Update:

2010-07-31T07:21:00.000-07:00

So, the ultrasound report showed no Previa. YAY! The only thing that was interesting was that the baby is still in a breech position, but that's something I'm not really concerned about. If she doesn't turn before delivery then we will deal with that at the delivery.

Que Pasa

2010-07-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

So here's what's up recently:

*I'm still cranky all the time. All. The. Time. This has a lot to do with why blogs have been scarce. I hate to just sit here and whine and complain, and that is pretty much all I feel like doing. My crankiness has now progressed to a whole new level which we will call the "Don't Touch Me!" level. It sucks. Moving on.

*Ultrasounds! I never thought I would get tired of them, now I hate them. I dread having to go in for the ultrasound hoopla. It means being touched AND smeared with sticky goo. Boo. It doesn't seem to help matters any that aside from one, all of them have been performed by the same tech. I can't believe she still checks my armband when I go in for them. She sees me at least once a month if not twice, and I know she recognizes me from the annoyed look she gets whenever she sees me. Hello. It's me again, Margret. *sigh* The ultrasound they did last month apparently showed that I had a low lying placenta, so Dr. B sent me back for yet another one. I had no idea what that meant, and the (apparently) mute tech didn't help me out any. I had the follow up ultrasound on Monday and all she did was click, click, click, measure, measure, measure. Momma mentioned that it's just possible she may not be allowed to talk to me about it. From what I could see, it looked like my placenta was pretty much right on top of the cervix. But what do I know? I'll have to wait to get the report from the Dr. on this coming up Tuesday.

*I googled "Low Lying Placenta" and then "Low Lying Placenta 3rd Trimester," and probably shouldn't have. Basically, if it's sitting too low it could possibly mean more bleeds in the next few weeks, and also its possible I will have no choice but to have a cesarean to deliver. Whoop. Ee. As if I haven't had enough to think about. I told you I shouldn't have googled it. Stay off of google.

*I'm 32 weeks and a few days. I now watch episodes of "I didn't know I was Pregnant" to torture myself. HOW?!! How do you NOT know you are pregnant? When the baby kicks, my belly MOVES. That is NOT gas! I try not to watch when Tim is home because he starts to look frightened when I begin yelling at the TV screen.

*Nadia starts school on August 9th. That is in roughly 2 1/2- 3 weeks. It seems obscenely early to me. At some point the school is supposed to send a letter with the name of her teacher, date of her orientation, and what time her bus will arrive and so forth. I don't think we're ready. I feel very unprepared and scatter brained.

*Calvin turns one year old on August 19th. I hope I don't go into labor on his birthday. Or worse.. before his birthday. We are planning a cook out with the family to celebrate his big year. I'm hoping all goes well.

*Momma is leaving town for my grandfather's 90th birthday at the end of August. I'm due September 12th. I am freaking out. Momma has been in the delivery room for both of my other children, and now I feel like I'm facing the possibilities of all this scary stuff and there is the other scary possibility that she won't be there. I should mention that Mom was pretty blown away and nervous about being in the delivery room for NB, her first grandchild. She kept saying, "But... I'm not good at this stuff! I didn't even want to see Ya'll being born!!" Despite that, she was awesome and she loved it, of course and has been in the room for all the other grandbabies. She likes to chit chat with the nurses about the grandbabies between contractions. I'm going to freak if I go into labor and she's in Lousianna.

I DID it! I DID It!!!

2010-07-18T18:04:00.001-07:00

I FINALLY figured out how to make one of these pop-over, reversible, criss cross pinafore tops without using buttons or ties for the straps!!! I had finally given in and bought this pattern from Whimsy Coture on etsy, but aside from using her pattern pieces, I didn't get much out of it. She had some CRAZY instructions for how to make it using a side seam thing, that didn't make any sense to me. Even looking at the tutorial pics didn't help me one bit. I got really frustrated and probably swore some, and undoubtedly cried a lot. I was actually kind of angry that I finally broke down and bought the pattern and STILL couldn't make the top.

I went to sleep on it and then, suddenly, I had this idea. This wonderfully simple fantastic idea.

See, there is this shoulder bag tutorial that Tammie and I use all the time, that has a way to join the reversible straps without using a button or a tie. There really isn't a difference between the straps of the top and the straps of the purse, so obviously, I could just join them the same way. I ended up joining her pattern pieces to make one, seamless piece like this smockette. I cut one out of each fabric, and then sewed them right sides together, stopping about an inch away from each shoulder opening. I turned it inside out, pressed it, and then crossed the back and joined the straps using the method in the shoulder bag tutorial. Then I topstitched all around the top to finish it off.

I am so stinkin' excited!!! I love the one I made for NB for school this year. The retro fabric is my favorite, but I really like the orange side too. I think I'm going to have to make at least two more of these for the school year.

Conversation With a 5 Year Old:

2010-07-15T19:28:00.000-07:00

Me: "NB, stop growling at your brother!" (OK, seriously, does anyone else have to say this several times a day? Or is it just me?)

NB: "What will happen if I growl at him?"

Me: "It scares him, see?! Now he's all fussy."

.....

Me: "NB, come back to the table and finish this milk! Don't waste it!"

NB: "What happens when you waste milk?"

Me: "It gets sour and smelly and then we have to throw it out."

NB: "Well, what happens when we throw it out?"

Me: "......It's wasted, and no one gets to drink it."

........

Me: "NB, it's time for bed, go brush your teeth."

NB: "What happens when we brush our teeth?"

Me: "...........*and then my brain explodes*...........

"What will Happen?" is NB's new favorite question of all time. She doesn't even mean it as a smart ass come back either. She genuinely wants to know what will happen when _________happens or doesn't happen. After hearing it about 50 times or more a day in response to everything I say.....it gets a bit frustrating.

This has been yet another conversation with a 5 year old.

Waiting Game Randomness

2010-07-13T06:24:00.000-07:00

* I realize I haven't posted an actual real post here in quite awhile; just random lists of updates. I'm 32 weeks now and the pregnancy has more or less just become a waiting game. Dr. B expects me to go in a little early (around 2-3 weeks early), and I'm beginning to agree with him. I feel so ... heavy. And slow. Things that usually take me no time at all to accomplish seem to take me forever and a day to do now. Mostly I just give up after a few minutes and then wander off to read or something.

* They finally put out the school supply lists for the upcoming year, so I snagged one at the store yesterday and decided to get some of that shopping out of the way. Do ya know that NB has to have 8, EIGHT boxes of crayons? She is supposed to bring 2 boxes of large 8 count crayons, 4 boxes of regular size 8 count crayons, and 2 boxes of regular sized 16 count crayons. Seriously? Not to mention 10 jumbo glue sticks. TEN?! She better come home with lots of art projects. That's all I'm sayin'. Me, being me, I bought a few extra boxes of markers and crayons (hello?! They are only $1!!!!) just to have at our house for coloring with. I will confess. This is my favorite time of year. I did manage to avoid buying school supplies like lined filler paper and notebooks that we definitely DO NOT need.... but it was hard.

* Remember when I talked a little about my facebook shop thing? I have been debating on whether or not I'm going to keep it going. On the one hand, I put a lot of work into it and setting it up and the photos all look really cute; so I hate to just yank it all down. On the other hand, I find I am just not very business oriented. I don't like trying to anticipate what people will buy. I don't like buying extra fabric for a particular item that then doesn't sell, or only one size will sell, so I'm left with lots of left overs. Not that I mind left over FABRIC. Shyah! I just can't figure out how long is long enough to leave that item available before I use the fabric for something else. I don't like when I'm buying fabric or sewing and NB wanders in and asks, "Is this for ME!???" And then I have to tell her no. When I started sewing, is was because it was something Momma did and I wanted to learn. So she taught me, and I sewed things for myself. When I started having my own kids, it seemed "made" clothing was super popular all of a sudden, and I knew I wanted to do that for my children. I really enjoy sewing for my children and for my home, and trying to keep a business mind frame while sewing is NO. FUN. Not for me, anyhow. I enjoy sewing for others: for friends and family, so I will still make things for others whether they pay me for them, or they act as gifts. I just don't have the energy it takes to run it like a business.

* NB has started swimming lessons this week. The child is terrified of water that is any deeper than her belly button, and more than anything, I just want for her to be comfortable in the water. I don't care if she becomes a master swimmer or anything. I told myself when this started that I would be happy if by the end of it she would at least play in the shallow end of the pool, off the steps, without having to cling to me or Tim. Yesterday was the first day, and after the first 15 minutes I was thinking it was probably going to take the whole 2 weeks for her to just get off the steps. Apparently, all it took was for my sister to hang her over the side (in the shallow end, now, don't get all upset) until she'd put her feet down. It scared her pretty bad and then any time she wandered over by the steps, my sis would threaten to hang her over the side again. After about another 10 minutes or so, she was great. She practiced her "bouncy ball" where they have them jump and down in the water. This is to show them that they aren't going to sink even if they aren't touching the bottom. She put her face in the water and blew bubbles. By the end of the hour, she would even kick all the way through the deep end to the ladder with one of the girls holding her hands. I was SO PROUD! She didn't want to leave when the hour was up. I was so happy that she was actually in the water and not freaking out that I'd be happy to just take that and go. We will go back today for day 2.

* Speaking of swimming, you would have died the first time you saw her kick. Instead of putting her feet out behind her, she tucked her legs up under her and kicked. She looked like she was riding an underwater bicycle. It was hilarious. I thought my sister and I were both going to die laughing. We laugh at our children in this family............it's kind of hard not to, actually.

Conversation with a 5 year old:

2010-07-04T19:35:00.001-07:00

Nadi-B approached me in my sewing room today and started kind of "dancing around." Only, not really dancing, more like just swinging her arms and legs around all sporadically like kids do when they talk.

NB- "Momma? Did you KNOW that there is ONE flower that is dangerous?!"

Me- "Mmmhmm.. really?"

NB- "Yeah! It's a FORMIS BEE TRAP!"

Me- "Oh? Is that anything like a Venus fly trap?"

NB- "No, it's a formis bee trap, and it's in the forest and when bees run out of time, they land on it and it SNAPS! (with a hand clap for emphasis) on the bee and.......IT EATS IT!!!"

Me- "Really?"

NB- "Yeah, they are really dangerous! So, we have to be careful when we are outside not to touch them. Like the bees. That run out of time. ...........

"Maybe I should write Elizabeth (her best friend) a letter and tell her about the Formis Bee Trap so she can warn her daddy not to touch them when he's hunting in the woods."

Me- "Ummm... I really don't think we have any Formis Bee Traps around this area, Nadia."

NB- "Yeeeaaaahhhh.... but just in case, I'll draw her a picture in the letter."

Me- "Okay..."

You have to admit: It's probably the scariest looking Formis Bee Trap you'll ever see. I think my favorite part is that it's apparently blooming from the same plant as that harmless looking yellow daisy there. And that bee??? He is running out of time.

What I've Been Up To: Photo Dump

2010-06-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

Recently, one of my friends convinced me to open up a "shop" of sorts on facebook. Basically all it is, is a page where I put up pics of things that I've made that I'd be willing to make for other people and/or their kids and then people comment on the photos saying they'd like to purchase one. They pay me through paypal, or if they are local, they come by the house and pay in cash or check when they pick up their items. I never thought it would go anywhere, but so far, I've had quite a few "customers." Heh... it feels weird saying that. I'm not swimming in teh mon-hay or anything, but I've had a steady-ish flow of about 2-3 orders per week. It's kinda neat! And not more than I can handle so that's cool.

Also, I'm mostly just exhausted and bitchy most of the time, so I've been very hermit-ish the last few weeks. I feel like a scum bag for not getting out to see my friends more or taking my kids to see theirs... but honestly just the thought of loading everything up in the car to go anywhere makes me want to hide under the covers in my room with the AC on sub zero and nap all day. .........not that I've done that recently.........more than once a day...........

The thing is, I'm tired all the time, and then when I try to nap or sleep at all for that matter, an idea will pop into my head and then I cannot sleep no matter what I do, until the idea has been realized. Completely. Not even with benadryl. So here's all the stuff I've been churning out when I should have been, but couldn't be, sleeping. At least most of it is stuff I can be proud of. In fact, everything pictured here has sold to at least one "customer" aside from the top I made for B out of some left over fabric I found.

Made this Birthday dress for a "customer"

Made some Minky Baby Loveys

Made this ruffled onesie for Baby Lena

Made these photo block/keepsakes. One for each of the kiddos.

Made a Top for B.

Made her a dress.

Made some clothes for other people

OW! OW! OW!!!!

2010-06-25T08:02:00.001-07:00

I woke up this morning to terrible, "charlie-horse" type leg cramps in my right leg. The muscle would just sieze up and you could actually feel the leg heat up from it. I wasn't even doing anything! I was just laying there and BAM. Pain.

So ready for this baby.

WOW! I WON!!

2010-06-23T07:42:00.001-07:00

I never win online blog giveaway things. Actually, I never win anything. Not even Bingo. But I entered this little give away over on Made anyway because I figured: "What the heck?" and also I have a hard time staying away from the home improvement scene. Seriously, if my television is on, 95% of the time it's on HGTV. I can spend hours of time in stores like Lowe's and having a semi-local IKEA would be like my dream come true.

BUT, I'm getting off topic, because I ACTUALLY WON!!!! I won a $100 gift card to LOWES!!! I am sooooo stoked. We have been working on the house little by little since we moved in, a little over 5 years ago, but have really been getting into it the last few weeks or so. We've been picking out new furniture for the kids' rooms. I have one really cute dresser set that my Papa made over for us before we moved in that will be going into the girls' room, but I need a dresser and bed set for the Boy-Bob. I will most likely spend the entire gift card and then some on paint since I'm planning on painting the little front room for the boy, and then the back larger room for the girls. The back room and hallway are both currently the same ugly pink beige as our bathroom USED to be, so both HAVE to be repainted.

This card could not have come at a better time. The last trimester for me is always full of "I've GOT to get this DONE. NOW!!!" and "Quick! We must throw EVERY THING AWAY!!" hormones to make way for the new baby, punctuated by crazy OCD cleaning fits involving toothbrushes, bleach, and corners. *shudders* Last year I bought new living room furniture. This year it's the kids' rooms that have been keeping me up at night with wheels turning non-stop. Also, this past year has been the first year that we haven't had someone or someone else's stuff staying at our house. It's the first year that we have TRULY LIVED in every room of our house, so I've been doing a lot of purging and re-organizing and furniture moving anyway. Seriously. Tim has taken apart and moved Calvin's crib about 4-5 times in the last year. And that's just moving it from room to room. That doesn't include me wheeling it from this side of the room to that side.

Remember, not that long ago, I had him move the boy out of Nadia's little room and into the back larger bedroom? And then I put up another crib for Baby Lena in the big room? Well, now I've changed my mind. AGAIN. And decided that with Nadia being in kindergarten in the fall, it will be easier to have the babies in separate rooms in case one needs to fuss a bit during nap time. That way they aren't waking each other up. SO. I'm moving Calvin's crib. Again. Into the little front room that he'll end up in eventually anyway, and putting the girls in the back room. We always co-sleep the new baby in our bedroom for the first 4-5 months anyway, or until they start sleeping for longer stretches of time, so I don't see that being a problem.

BUT! Anyway! I WON!!! I WON!!! WHoo-HOO!

Book Review: But Inside I'm Screaming

2010-06-20T19:24:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading But Inside I'm Screaming by Elizabeth Flock, and I'm kind of undecided about it.

The book is about a TV news anchor named Isabelle who suffers a psychotic break on the air and ends up in a mental institution. Throughout the story you learn more about her history: her alcoholic no-show father, her physically abusive high school boy friend, her emotionally and physically abusive husband, her divorce, her job.

It's an interesting story, that much is certain. I guess I'm just unsure of whether or not I liked it because it was almost a little TOO real. I got sucked into Isabelle's story enough to be really unsettled by her experience with Electroshock therapy. Her disgust with and fear of the idea of undergoing that treatment when she hadn't even yet accepted there was anything wrong with her was palpable and disturbing. So, if realism is what the author was going for, I'd say she hit the nail on the head.

I'm also not pleased with the ending. I wanted more satisfaction from it. I wanted to read about her finalizing her divorce with her jerk of a husband. I wanted a "Then Isabelle walked off into the sunset" kind of ending. Instead the author ends it with her telling her group therapy com padres that she's leaving the next day. That's it. You have to take the rest on faith, and in truth it just kind made of me angry. Like, "What the heck did I just read all this for???? All this depressing and unsettling journey for nada? Nothing? GEEZE!"

At least I didn't chuck the book across the room, though that may just be from lack of the energy to actually do so. So yeah, that's what I think about this book. Humph.

Update-ish-ness

2010-06-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

I don't know what's been up with me lately, but my focus has been completely elsewhere and the last thing I've felt like doing for awhile has been blogging.

*Nadia has been doing pretty good with camp! She gets up in the mornings and rides the school bus just like a big girl. One thing is for certain, it is going to be an adjustment for her to get used to going every day. On the third day she missed the bus and Tim had to drive her to school. After that she has been more reluctant about the whole bus riding deal. However, considering that in September I will have a one year old boy and a brand new infant baby girl, loading everyone up to take her to school in the mornings is going to be a no-go, so we are definitely doing the bus ride. At least in the mornings. I really like her school. They do an art project every day. Every day she brings home some really cute project that she got to make and I know that she is enjoying the heck out of it.

*I'm enjoying her being at camp. Not that I don't love her to pieces; not that I don't miss her while she is gone. But, holy cow I can get a lot done because when Calvin naps, it's just me here and I don't have to come up with a zillion and one things to entertain Nadia's constantly running brain. I realize that when she actually starts kindergarten, what with the TWO babies, this little bit of quiet time I've been getting every morning (and AFTERNOON because when she gets home she has played so hard that she passes out!) will likely cease to exist. That's okay. I'm living it up now while I can.

*Baby Einstein ROCKS. They have these silly little puppets that don't even talk. They more or less just squeak. But they are cute in a baby way, not all creepy like some other puppets. And Calvin thinks they are the funniest thing on the face of the Earth. Every time they pop up on the screen he drops what he's doing and laughs and claps and bounces up and down until he's gasping for air. Even Nadia doesn't seem to mind them. She likes watching and copying them do the sign language for the different words and has already picked up quite a bit of it. It's pretty adorable, and these little 30 minute digi board books have become part of our wake up and night time routine. One after breakfast, and one after dinner and a bath. Awesome.

*It's HOT. It's HUMID. I'm pregnant and swollen and sweaty and uncomfortable, and, at this point? I've been pregnant for almost 2 years. I'm just ready to get this over with and have this baby. Not that I want to do the pre-term labor gig, which we are all kinda worried might happen. Dr. B seems pretty optimistic but he's already seeing me every two weeks (I'm 27 and 4 days along) and has ordered another diagnostic ultrasound in a couple of weeks just to keep an eye on things. I just frankly haven't been in the mood to be all smiley and "pregnancy is the most wonderful time in a woman's life!!" happy and junk. It's hard to be that way when your ankles slowly disappear up until lunch time, at which point they are officially gone and your toes are touching together. Also? I know there are some yellow box flip flop dislikers/haters out there, but I have to say that I am currently extremely grateful that my mom got me a pair. They are very cushy, and they are big. They are the ONLY pair of shoes that fit comfortably after about 11 am, the only pair that doesn't cut off the circulation further in my feet, and they still look "nice" enough that I don't feel like slob wearing them to the store.

*The huge gash I got on my hand/thumb last Monday is starting to close up and I can finally get through the day with out needing about 3-5 band aids. Dr. B and the nurse had a bit of freak out over at my check up today because they thought I was going to try and climb through the window. Apparently I haven't explained myself well enough. See, I was trying to reach THROUGH the window around to the lock on the door so I could WALK through it. I had no delusional thoughts about trying to crawl through this window. A)I know climbing and junk is bad for pregnant ladies. B)My currently round baby belly was never gonna fit through that hole.

That about sums up my last week or more. Even though I haven't been posting, I've still been trying to keep up with all of your blogs and goings-ons!

Just Another Monday Morning

2010-06-07T06:32:00.000-07:00

Yeah... whatever. This monday morning was like the monday from Hell. For those of you keeping track, today was Nadia's first day of kindergarten preview/summer camp stuff and we had to get up early for her to catch the bus for the very first time! We were so excited that none of us slept at all last night! No, seriously. Nadia was up and down all night. The baby was up and down all night. So of course, was I, taking care of the kiddos. Tim was on night shifts, so he was up and working all night.

Nonetheless, we got up on time and things started out pretty well. Nadia was dressed with shoes tied and hair fixed in no time, and then insisted on waiting outside for the bus for the next 30 minutes. This was fine, as the baby was still sleeping (finally) in his crib. We headed outside and after about 5 minutes, I sent Nadia inside to get the camera so I could take some pics of her getting on the bus. On her way back out, she LOCKED. THE. DOOR. She locked it, with me outside, with the baby inside still in his crib. We have no hide-a-key because the first year we lived here we came home while someone was in the process of robbing us. For the same reason, we keep all the windows and doors locked up tight. Especially when Tim is on night shifts. So I had no way in and no phone.

I tried not to let my panic show because I really didn't want to ruin her big day by taking out my frustrations on her for an honest mistake. We all do it. It's a force of habit, but inside: I was FREAKING OUT. I set Nadia up on the front steps to wait for the bus and instructed her not to move and to yell for me if the bus should come while I was looking for a way in.

In the process of trying to open one of the firmly locked windows, I then, being a clumsy woman at the best of times, sliced open my hand, just on the back of my thumb. Not just a little slice, mind you, but a BIG ONE. So, now, I'm locked out of the house, the baby is locked in the house, Tim is still at least an hour and half out at work, I have no phone, and my hand is literally pouring blood down my shirt.

Allow me to pause and mention that Nadia FREAKS out and has hysterical fits over TINY paper cuts that look even the least bit red. If she spills so much as a spec of blood she is over the top and sobbing. Combine that with her having been VERY mommy clingy ever since the whole ER trip for the baby several months ago, and I knew that if she got one look at my hand there was no way I was getting her on that bus.

After saying several swear words and having a bit of a cry, I pulled my self together and started looking for some way to bind up my hand AND cover the blood that was now soaking the front of my shirt. Luckily there was an emergency beach towel still in the trunk of the car, so I wrapped a portion of it around my hand and started applying pressure. I used the rest of the towel to cover my shirt. She knew I had a "boo-boo" but since she couldn't see it, she was okay.

I kept my smiling brave face on until she was safely on the bus. As it turned to pull away, I saw her little face looking out at me from the window, just ever so concerned, and then she waved at me. I gave her a big smile, and waved back, but as soon as the bus was out of sight, I lost it. I'm talking big hiccuping panicked sobs.

After I had calmed down a bit, my across the street neighbor pulled in his driveway. I swallowed all of my pride and walked over to ask if I could maybe use the phone. Bless his heart, he took one look at me, and the mess that I was and even called the hubby FOR ME. I was surprised Tim answered the phone considering he rarely does if he doesn't recognize the number. Since Tim works around a lot of very noisy machinery, all he managed to make out was "wife is locked out. Needs to go to the hospital." My poor neighbor was pretty insistent that I was going to need stitches.

While Tim was panicking and racing home, my neighbor walked back over with me and tried for ten minutes to get into the house. By this time, the baby was awake and playing happily in his crib. When the man got to his windows, he got really excited and started bouncing up and down and shouting "Ba! Ba! BAahhhh!" at him with big two teeth smiles and everything. At least he was ok!

I was exhausted physically and emotionally so when Tim pulled in the driveway, I just came straight inside and cried some more in the bathroom. I cleaned up my hand and changed my clothes while Tim fed the baby breakfast. I called my mom and filled her in and then called my friend Beth and unloaded on her a bit more. After which, I was at least able to find humor in the whole ordeal and get through the rest of my morning.

Thankfully, I didn't end up needing stitches, though it was still a pretty nasty cut. My thumb is all wrapped up with gauze and paper tape, but otherwise in tact. I'm hoping that I didn't totally ruin Nadia's first day at camp and that she was able to forget the whole morning. She has a tendency to mull things over for awhile before reacting, so it's entirely possible that she doesn't get upset about it until later in the day.

I get to pick her up in a couple of hours, so we shall see! Also, Tim called in to work tonight, so at least I can take a much needed nap later on. *sigh* Also on the up side, at least now I can sleep easier while Tim is on night shifts since apparently the only way to get into our house when it's locked up is with a crow-bar or a key!

Rules For My Sanity:

2010-06-04T18:08:00.000-07:00

Over the last few years or so, I have come to realize that I have, at the least, a tiny case of OCD. I am fully aware and accepting of the fact that not everyone operates on the same level of crazy that I do, so allow me to present

RULES FOR MY SANITY
The Laundry Edition:

Rule Number 1: If you aren't going to do things MY way, then please, for my sanity, DON'T do them.

This rule is pretty much the most important rule for my sanity. Period. There are some things that I can deal with as long as I don't watch. For example, I can't stand the way in which my husband makes sweet tea or kool-aid. As long as I don't watch, it doesn't bother me, but if I happen to catch him at it... it makes me twitch.

Laundry is not one of those things that I can just turn around and ignore while someone else is doing it. Your laundry? Do it how you want, but MY laundry? Ha.. that's a whole other story.

First of all: Do not wash laundry unless you plan on putting it through the drier. I would rather laundry get dried and not folded than to sit in the washing machine until I happen upon it and then have to RE WASH it because it got all yicky sitting in there. Washing a load of laundry is NOT the same as DOING the laundry.

Next, I have a certain way of folding things. All things must be folded to these specifications or I start twitching and get a head ache. I'm serious. I ALWAYS fold things the same way and it drives me crazy that after 5 years of watching me fold laundry and always finding his laundry folded in the same manner, that my hubs DOES NOT fold the same way I do.

Do NOT begin folding a load of laundry and then stop half-way through and pile it all back into the basket. Finish what you start or just leave it alone.

If the laundry is a load of towels then just DON'T. Just WALK AWAY. I will do it. I just RE-FOLDED an entire load of towels that the hubby "folded" and then re-folded every towel in both bathroom cabinets. I can't stand a sloppily folded towel. I just can't. It's a rectangle. It has corners and flat edges and for it to be slopped together is just intolerable. All towels should form a nice and neat square or rectangle once folded.

I fold towels in half short ways first, then long ways, then short to make a square. Hand towels get folded in half short ways, then long ways to make a rectangle. Bath cloths get folded into squares UNLESS it is a baby bath cloth. They are so small, they don't need folding. I just stack them into a neat pile. I do this EVERY TIME I fold towels. EVERY TIME. I stack them so that the rounded, folded seam is facing out, and if there are more than one of a certain color I stack them on top of each other. I told you, I like neat towels. I always divide the towels into the same stacks according to which bathrooms they go in. I put the SAME towels into the front bathroom EVERY TIME. I put the same towels into my bathroom every time. Based on what color they are. Our bathroom gets the neutrals. The front bathroom gets the bright kid colors.

BUT, no matter how many times I have shown the hubs my towel folding method, no matter how many times he has watched me do it, he still slops them all together. Long ways first and the corners all askew and cattywonkers. Folding up baby bath cloths into tiny little squares that won't stack. Shoving them into the cabinets any which way. Towels all in the wrong bathrooms.

And, also?! There is a difference between a wash cloth and a bath cloth. Wash cloths are what get used to wash things in the house. Like wiping down counters or tables, or for dusting, or for cleaning out bathroom sinks and tubs, for wiping up spills. Bath cloths are used for bathing one's body. If you cannot tell the difference between a bath cloth and a wash cloth, even after using them and pulling them from their respective places for years, just DON'T do the towels. PLEASE. I beg you, at least, not at my house anyway.

There is this one wash cloth in particular that keeps finding it's way into the bath cloths and the shower despite my having held it up numerous times and declaring it a WASH cloth. A DISH RAG. A PLEASE DON'T BATH YOURSELF WITH THIS THING!!!! So today I just tossed it. It's not worth the twitching and the headaches.

Now, as I mentioned, I understand that not every one operates at this same level of crazy. I am even able to see the humor in my worrying over such things. I get laughed at for it, and I can totally laugh at myself for it, so feel free to tease. I don't nag Tim to do the laundry and then bitch at him for not doing it right. He just has a tendency to be helpful and do things without my asking. I know, right? It's almost blasphemous to complain about such things, but all of this brings us back to rule number 1 for my sanity.

If you are not going to do things my way, then please just don't do them.

Bathroom Reno:

2010-06-03T13:50:00.000-07:00

Ahh... well it's good to see the nesting hormones are now in full swing! Last year about this time in the pregnancy I sprung for new living room furniture. This year I just decided to update our "master" bathroom a little. I use the word "master" kind of loosely. Try not to picture some grand huge bathroom with a huge deep tub or anything. The only thing that makes this bathroom this "master" is that it is attached to the "master" bedroom. Heh. Anyway, moving right along.

There wasn't a whole lot that really needed to be done. The shower and the vanity and such were all in good shape so there wasn't any ripping out or huge demo. However, there were things that just weren't awesome like so many of the other rooms in our house. I've mentioned it before. Those people, they cut corners and apparently were just sloppy all around. For example, the floor in front of the shower wasn't finished properly or sealed, so the moisture from the shower was causing the linoleum to roll up.

That was a simple enough fix. We had the local Marvin's pre-cut a piece of strip molding, which Tim then used to tack the linoleum back down and then caulked around it to seal the moisture out. The other big fix was the light fixtures/mirror. Bad, bad me forgot to take any "before" pics but we have the same ghastly light fixtures in the front bathroom too so imagine two of these:

On either side of a mirror in what appeared to be just a white picture frame. The lights, aside from being ugly, are impractical. It took 8 light bulbs to fill it up and even then the bulbs were just kind of hanging there. As for the mirror, well apparently they hung it there to hide the huge square hole they hacked into the wall in order to do the wiring for the lights. And once we removed the light fixtures, there were MORE huge holes behind them. Um.....it looked kind of like they couldn't figure out how to get the wires through to where they needed them, so they just punched one through with a hammer. Way to go guys, way to go. Other than those things, the walls were a very ugly shade of like beige-ish pink. Kinda like this:

So, we replaced the light fixture and bought a new, larger mirror to cover all of the holes. We fixed the floor in front of the shower, and then painted the walls a more neutral color called "Bleached Wheat." Everything from there on was just decorating. We framed the mirror on either side with a matching set of wall hangings, and put up a bin/shelf organizer for all of the things that normally clutter the counter in there. Then I got some new chocolate brown bath mats, a new shower curtain and liner, and a set of chocolate brown "decorative" towels. And YES, I know that decorative towels are silly and serve no purpose, but they were cheap and they look pretty!

So here is a shot of my finished "new" bathroom. I really, really love it. I like that it's finally finished and that there aren't little tiny irritating things like the floor bothering me whenever I go in there, so now I can actually relax and take a shower in there and enjoy having our own space away from the kids' bathroom which is about to be, very soon, over-run with THREE kids.

So, for the interested: Here's the tally:

Paint and supplies: $20 (and I have enough paint that I could probably repaint the front bath the same color!)

New Light fixture: $16

Wall Art: $12

New shower curtain and liner: $12

New Mirror: $12

New Bathmats: $6 x 2= $12

Decorative Towel set: $10

Bin/Shelf organizer: $12

Strip Molding and Caulk: $6

Total Makeover: ~$115.

Not too shabby!

Random Things

2010-06-01T17:04:00.000-07:00

1. My memorial day was great. We spent it in the company of our closest friends and swam in the pool, grilled lots of yummy food, ate too much of said food, and just had an all around great time.

2. I really want to meet the Dali Lama. My brother sent me this really cool video after an awesome conversation he and I had the other day, wherein he informed me that yoga is an important part of his day. Lemme just pause a second and tell you how weird it is to have very mature, philosophical/theological discussions with my "baby" brother. It's weird. But very cool.

3. I'm in love with the whole instant streaming gig from netflix. It's no wonder our local movie gallery is going out of business, since apparently I'm late to the table again on this one. *shrugs*

4. I love thunderstorms. We've been having them off and on for the last three days, which is why this is my favorite time of year, hands down. It's one of the few things I really LOVE about living in the South that I think I would miss if we ever should move. The BIG HUGE AMAZING thunderstorms.

5. My nails are getting too long to type comfortably thanks to vitamins. It's actually kind of annoying but they look so pretty I don't want to shorten them. I used to be a horrible nail biter until finally a little over a year ago, I kicked the habit. I'm oddly proud of my long, yet annoying, nails.

6. I'm thinking of going back to school again in the fall. I saw a flier that said the local community college will be offering classes for a Bachelor's in Business Admin, so I wouldn't have to go out of town to do it. Plus, it only takes a year to earn it if you already have at least two years of college completed, which I do. I'm very interested.

7. It's been a long, long weekend. I'm very tired but still have lots to do. On the agenda for tonight is to fold all the laundry I washed while watching episodes 3&4 of Season 1 of True Blood with the hubby.

Busy Like the Bees

2010-05-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I got a nesting itch and decided to clean out and reorganize the two closets in mine and Tim's bedroom. I might have mentioned it before, but the people that we bought our house from cut a lot of corners when they were renovating it for sale, and one of those things was the closet doors in our room. They have been nearly impossible to open ever since we moved in. In a moment of frustration, I had Tim remove the doors from the closet we primarily use for clothes and installed a couple of long curtains in it's place. The other closet which has been primarily used for storing things like Christmas decorations and camping gear still had the impossible to open closet doors, so we got to work on that one yesterday.

We have finally discovered how to make use of all the crawl space in the attic for storage, so we cleaned out and boxed up all of the decorations in rubber/plastic containers and Tim stored them all neatly away in the attic space. Then we separated all of his clothes from mine and put them in the extra closet. In the process the doors got removed completely and we were contemplating just throwing them out as we did the others, but I really wanted to find another use for them. Then Tim or I, I can't remember which, had a moment of sheer genius. I had been using our old dining room table to sew on, but last week gave the whole set: table and four chairs, to a friend who needed a new set. That has resulted in my sewing machine and accompanying mess being relocated to the dining table (again). Long story short, we used some left over cinder blocks from doing the garden bed to make table legs and ended up using the closet doors to make a new, awesome, l-shaped sewing desk in my craft/mess room. It's SO perfect.

The doors were nice and narrow so I have more room and more table space to work with. I love it!

This next month is going to be extremely busy. I was bound and determined to find things for Nadia to do over the summer so she burn off some of the multitudes of energy she generates every day, so I signed her up for several different camps. The first two weeks of June she will be attending a summer camp program put on by the Elementary school she will be attending in the fall for kindergarten. She will ride the bus to school and basically get a two week preview of what kindergarten will be like and we will pick her up at the end of the day. The third week she has dance camp every afternoon from 3:30-4:30, and the week after that she has tumbling camp from 3:30 -4:30. That pretty much covers June.

At the end of June Tim gets one of his two vacation checks of the year, so we are planning an entire day out with just us and Nadia to do all of her school shopping for kindergarten. Mom is going to watch the little one, so the whole day will be just about Nadia.

Now I just need to find things to preoccupy her in July. The local art council is offering kids art camps this summer, I'm just not clear on the dates. I'm hoping that they will have something scheduled for July because Nadia has expressed a HUGE interest in doing anything to deal with art. And before you go thinking I'm one of those kooky moms that tries to force activities upon her kids, she ASKED to do the dance and tumbling camps. She has been "practicing" her moves for weeks now in anticipation of going to an actual dance class, so she is super excited about all of these things. We are going to be crazy busy this summer, but that's good! Nadia doesn't do well being cooped up for more than a couple of days at a time and then things start getting rough.

Wait... REALLY??!!! (EDITED TO ADD)

2010-05-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

The last couple of days have been really hectic, crazy, full of nerves and phone calls.... but it was sooo worth it!

Every time a graduation comes around, I start feeling subconsciously bad about myself, slightly ashamed even. I went to college after high school, but after my first year I was burnt out. It was during that time that Tim and I got all mushy and junk and decided to get married and start a family. I have loved being a Mommy more than any other job I've ever done.

After the B was born, I went back to school, but it was slow going. I have found it increasingly difficult to figure out just exactly what it is that I want to DO as a "grown-up," other than motherhood. I changed my major at least three times. I had to stop and take breaks so that I could work full time and take care of the kids. Somewhere along the line, I just stopped trying to go back. I'd think about it every now and again, and would then get discouraged by all the "but who would watch the kids while I'm gone" things and just forget all about it. Deep down, though, I felt like a failure.

With the two recent graduations in our family, and my older sister having already graduated from college as well, my parents have been turning their sights on me again and wondering out loud when/if I was ever going to complete my degree. I finally decided to push down all the nerves and the guilt and just make a few phone calls to see what I was lacking in completing my degree.

SO

Apparently, I completed my degree back in December of 2007! WHAT?! How come nobody ever told ME?!!! I've spent the last three years ducking my head whenever the word graduation gets mentioned, and I'm DONE?! I'M DONE!!! So yeah, I'm going up to the school today, after my check up with Dr. B, to order my official diploma. I feel as though a weight has been lifted, and that I can finally hold my head up a little bit more. I didn't get to walk, but who cares?! I have the degree and soon will have the diploma, and no one can take that from me. Should I decide to continue forward, I won't have to start all over, I can just move forward.

I feel all kinda giddy and stuff! Plus, Momma and Papa are all excited as well. I think it is a weight lifted from my father's shoulders as well. I called Tim at work and he's already talking about buying a frame for my diploma, which is very mushy and gushy and all, but it's also great. It's just.... great.

** Just wanted to add some more good news! I just got back from my check up with Dr. B and he said the last ultrasound report came back really positive. Things are getting to look pretty much normal and Lena's fetal growth is right on track. He sounded VERY excited, and I am in a word: relieved. He said we will probably do one or two more ultrasounds along the way to delivery just to keep an eye on things and make sure they are still going our way, but that for now, things are looking really good. Next week is my glucose test, so here's hoping that all comes back normal as well.

I have been having some dizzy spells and funny vision things going on the last couple of weeks that had me a little concerned, but Dr. B thinks it is most likely just the heat. My blood pressure was lower than usual today, so he said I'm probably just getting dehydrated and over heated, which can happen very easily when pregnant. I'm to drink lots and lots of water and stay out of the heat and direct sun as much as possible. If I venture out I'm supposed to bring lots of water with me, and wear good sun screen. I'm glad I went today, because my brother's high school graduation is in two days and it's OUT SIDE in the icky heat. Guess who's packing a water bottle? I'm also to sit or lie down if I start feeling woozy so that I don't end up falling down or passing out.

Other than the southern summer being really bad for pregnant ladies, every thing was normal and healthy! My diploma will be here by the end of next week and while I was at the school paying for it, I saw a flier that caught my attention so I may end up doing more school after all. That remains to be seen, but for now, the good news just keeps on coming! **

Hello Monday!

2010-05-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

This morning, I meandered into the kitchen to start the coffee pot and discovered it was.... MONDAY. There was no bread for toast, no frozen waffles for the B, no milk for cereal, no butter so even if we'd had waffles and toast... eh... Also no juice for the baby. It was in a word: wonderful. And I mean that from the bottom of my bitchy sarcastic heart. *laughs* The kids ended up having go-gurt for breakfast this morning with some dry cereal on the side, and then I loaded them up to head to the grocery store.

Can I just say how much nicer the store is early in the morning when most people are still sleeping or at work? It's nice. Much nicer than going mid-afternoon. Now we are home and Nadia is happily munching on powdered donuts and chocolate milk (I know, I'm like champion mom today for the meal plan!), Calvin is napping, and I'm going over the long list of things I need to do today.

For starters, as I was putting groceries away, I realized it was time, yet again, to clean out the fridge. Then I need to do some dishes and make some phone calls. After that, there is a large pile of laundry waiting for me that I at least need to put a dent in today if nothing else. There is tons more, I'm sure, but that's probably about all I will be able to manage if I'm being optimistic, and despite it being monday, I'm trying to be. *laughs*

How is everyone else's monday going?

Random Things and Thoughts:

2010-05-21T16:58:00.001-07:00

*I have really enjoyed reading every one's post about things they hate today. I love that we have things in common that we can really get behind disliking... but more than that? I love proof that there are people out there who can read that someone dislikes/hates something that they themselves enjoy and still appreciate the humor in it without getting all touchy and bent out of shape about it.

*After the last few busy days trying to catch up on all the sewing projects I had lined up, I feel like I accomplished very little today. I did read a book from start to finish though. Granted it was short as most of Paulo Coelho's are, but it was still a really awesome read, as most of his books are (IMO). Every book of his that I've read focuses a lot on God, magic, and the Mysteries of life and love... and just well... THE mysteries. I won't go into my personal beliefs here as I tend to keep that sort of banter for personal conversations and not blog world, but I will say that I really like how Coelho manages to make God a universal power/person that anyone of any religion could relate to, and allows for anyone to walk away from his books with something. Even if it's nothing more than the appreciation of a really good story told in a really great way.

*Read a really awesome quote in that book (Brida), that has made it into my journal of random things and sayings and so forth that I like:

"Sometimes, certain of God's blessings arrive by shattering all the windows" ~Paulo Coelho in Brida

*Know what makes a really great ending to any day, no matter how much was accomplished?

Oatmeal peanut butter cookies with m&m's in. Yummm

Thing you Probably Like, That I Hate:

2010-05-21T09:56:00.001-07:00

So, first things first: I stole this blog idea from Tammie, who stole it from someone named Elizabeth, who stole it from someone, who stole it from someone and so forth. Still, thought it was a pretty neat blog idea, so I'm stealing and posting too.

*Lost- I hate this too, Tammie! I've watched two or three episodes and have yet to catch on to exactly what all the hype is about. Is there like a magic pill you're supposed to take when you watch this that adds to the effect or something? Is my drinking water coming from some other magical place than all the other people who are in love with this show? *shrugs*

*Buffy- Yet another stupid, ridiculous hyped up show that I apparently missed the boat on. Maybe it's just the area that we live in, or just the majority of our friends and people we hang with, but even though it no longer airs, people still seem obsessed with talking and talking and TALKING about Buffy. Ugh. Bad, cheesy dialogue. Horrible fight scenes with more cheesy "take-that!" dialogue. And sorry: I don't get the whole Willow obsession either. *wrinkles nose* Also, growing up, we had a collie named Buffy, so maybe I've just never been able to move past that.

*Most of the music on regular radio- Is it just me, or do the vast majority of today's musical artists all sound the same? And what's with the canned-music/tin-man robot voice tweak thingies? I prefer satellite and internet radios where you can cut through all of that crap and just plug in what you like. In fact, I can't even remember the last time I listened to any regular local radio station anywhere.

*Over sized bows/flowers- I know I'm probably going to get a lot of haters for this one, but at least I know my younger sister is in agreement here. I'm almost embarrassed to admit this one because I know several people who do it, but I just can't jump onto the whole "bow-3/4 the size of my daughter's head" band wagon. Bows-cute. Flowers-cute. HUGE bow sticking up on the side of a baby's/little girl's head...eh.... not so much. Nadia would never keep even the tiniest bows on her head, especially if it was attached to a little wrap headband. I imagine it must be pretty uncomfortable, especially for the babies. But then, I did the little sproingy pig-tails when Nadia was a baby, so I guess I don't have much room to be talking. The only bald baby I've had is the boy, so I don't have to go out of my way to prevent the whole gender confusion thing. Honestly, though, from what I've heard, you're still bound to get that anyway, despite the gigantic bows. Poor bald baby girls. They are so adorable all on their own.

*Cell phones- I have one, sort of. It's so old they probably don't even manufacture the model anymore and it's pre-paid, so I only put minutes on it once in a blue moon, like if I'm going on a trip or something. I can appreciate the convenience of having one, but it doesn't mean I have to like it. I hate being sent random text messages or receiving calls from people wanting to know what I'm doing when I'm out. I hate trying to have a conversation with someone who is texting or playing one of a million apps on their phone and only half listening to what I'm saying. I hate being cut off on the road with my kids in the car because the other driver was busy talking or texting on their cell phone. I hate seeing 5 year olds walking around with their own cell phones. Seriously... who the heck are they calling? I understand that this is a pretty old fashioned sentiment and probably just me, but *shrugs* It's my blog and I can hate it if I wanna. LOL

I bet this would be a neat blog to turn around too: Things I like, that you probably hate. LOL I bet have way more of those than the other way around.

Wait.... What day is it?

2010-05-20T10:58:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah. Toilet Paper Tuesdays... only today is Thursday, right? *checks date at bottom of computer screen* Right. Well, let's face it, we all knew I wasn't going to be able to keep up with that nonsense anyway. I mean, who has time to measure their belly every tuesday with toilet paper?? People who don't already have other kids, that's who. I have two, and therefore also have other more viable uses for toilet paper anyhow. *sigh*

If I've said it once, I've complained about it often enough to be too embarrassed to count: but this pregnancy is one emotional roller coaster that I would like to get off of. Like now, please. I'll be great one minute and the Incredible Hulk the next. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but the crankiness and moodiness is sudden, though usually swift, and leaves me with a horrible headache and a hankering for peanut butter cookies. With m&m's.

The other morning Tim was trying to tell me about this really meaningful (I'm sure) dream he'd had the night before, and all I could remember dreaming about was peanut butter cookies. I think I should probably make some.

The last few days I've been trying to stay on top of housework and the kids and fill a few orders I've been putting off for some little girl outfits and hot/cold therapy bags. Done and done. I also finished filling in the flower bed border, and if I feel like it later I'll put up a pic on the garden page.

My body is seriously whacked out lately. The night before last, I slept HORRIBLY, but was up with good energy all day yesterday. Last night I slept like a dream (with peanut butter cookies), and today I feel like I'm dragging around like a zombie. I need a nap, but the hubs is on night shifts, so he is hogging the bed right now and well.. someone has to make sure the baby isn't eating paper and such, so here I am.

I think I'm going to go make some peanut butter cookies.... or at least look through dozens of recipes for them on allrecipes. While I'm on there I should probably figure out what I'm going to be making for dinner.

They Are Growing up SO FAST

2010-05-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday, at 3 in the afternoon, my "little" sister graduated from college with her Bachelors in Psychology.

I am constantly amazed by how far in life my siblings have come. It is easy to remember us all as children playing, arguing over this or that, competing for conversation around the dinner table... and yet it is always shocking to stumble across the adult moments. To know that one or the other might not be there for dinner because they have... a ... job, responsibilities, a sick child. The conversations that now revolve around interviews, house renovations, kindergarten registrations still kind of take me by surprise, and I have to remind myself of my age. Yet even in the midst of all of our "grown up" doings, there are moments...

when we are all gathered around the dinner table, when we all remember what it was like growing up. This often leads to recounting all of our favorite embarrassing stories about one another and lots and lots of laughter.

That's me in the purple, and see the young man standing next to me? Yeah, that's my "Baby" brother, who in just a few short days will be graduating from high school, and thanks to dual enrollment, also with his AA degree in aero-technology. Next to him is the college grad, and then my Momma with my (hopefully soon to be, and lets face it, I treat her as such) niece, Haylee. My older sister is missing from this picture because she had to get my other niece home, and my Papa is taking the picture because he is opposed to his image being shared on the internet. *Laughs* Old fashioned and paranoid as always, but we love him still.

Everyday, my entire family is growing by leaps and bounds and I struggle to see and remember it all, while still enjoying each passing moment. It sounds so cliche', but it seems like just yesterday I was arguing with the new college grad through the bathroom door about how long I was taking in the shower. Hrm... wonder what sort of psycho-analysis she could apply to that memory? *laughs*

For the Interested;

2010-05-15T10:30:00.000-07:00

I've moved all posts concerning gardening and such to their own page. If you click on the tab at the top up there that says "Gardening 2010" you can look at all the pics and such I've posted!

Baby Lena Ultrasound Update and Pics

2010-05-13T15:45:00.000-07:00

Today was my second follow up ultrasound after the incident we had a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, I don't really have that much to report. I ended up having a different ultrasound tech today, rather than the lady who did my initial one, the one immediately after the tear, and the last follow up one. The lady who did today's US was really nice but didn't have any of the background info. I explained to her what had happened and why I was having so many of them done and so forth, but since she didn't have the report or print outs from the previous two US's, she couldn't tell me anything about how things were looking healing wise. So I'll just have to wait to get that info from Dr. B at my next visit... but I'm thinking I'll probably call him on Monday and ask instead of waiting until the next appointment.

Even though I didn't get much info on the torn area, I did get more information on the baby. She is growing accordingly with my expected due date and has been moving ALL OVER THE PLACE. Last night she actually kicked my belly enough that Tim could see my tummy move just sitting next to me on the couch! It's always exciting when it gets to this point in the pregnancy. She is still lying "transverse" (there's some fancy schmancy ultrasound lingo I picked up today), with her head over on the left side and her feet drawn up on the right side. Her little legs and feet are all curled up like a little pretzel, so we had a hard time getting to see anything. At the last ultrasound the tech told us that she "looked like a girl" but wasn't 100% sure, so we poked around her some more today hoping for a better look. She was not very good about cooperating, but the tech was determined and just before we finished up, she got the money shot.

See? I circled the little area. Those three little white lines are the tell tale signs of a little girl! If she was a boy you'd be looking at a little turtle. LOL I love that the US techs call it that. If I compare this pick to the one of Calvin's... uh... "turtle" you can definitely tell that she is 100% girl. Thank goodness because I was starting to get worried we'd never find out for sure and then I'd end up leaving the hospital with "baby boy _____" because I hadn't come up with any boy names. LOL

Also, even though she has been mainly facing "posterior" (some more US lingo), or towards my back, she turned around today and we got an excellent shot of her little face.

All in all, our little Lena is doing really well. Growing. Moving. Right on schedule, so we are of course VERY thankful for that. Hopefully I'll have more info on the tear soon. Dr. B is still hoping that as she and the placenta grow that the torn area will begin to reattach itself, so we don't have any further incidents later on. I guess until delivery or until he sees what he's looking for in the ultrasounds I will continue having them once a month. I will be just far enough along for the 4D in time for the next round! I can't wait!

One Big Post of Awesome Randomness

2010-05-12T08:35:00.000-07:00

*Sometime back I noticed that on days that I got up and about before the kiddos wake up, that I have much more productive days, and I even tend towards more patience. I dunno, but I thought it was worth working with so I set myself a goal for this past week that I would get up at the same time every morning, before the kids started stirring about. So far, I've managed to stick to it. I don't necessarily set the alarm, but my internal clock seems to be set pretty well. I don't make excuses or do the five more minutes deal. When I wake, I get up; so I've been getting up between 7:30 and 8 am every morning since Sunday. (Yep, I even got up early on Momma's Day). This gives me anywhere from 15-30 minutes ALL TO MYSELF in the mornings, which I've been spending enjoying my breakfast or a bit of reading or checking my facebook... whatever. It's just my time. Once the kids wake up, it's all systems GO. I do their breakfast, get them both dressed for the day and then while they play I clean up the breakfast mess and start on my stuff for the day. I.E: A load or two of laundry, or vacuuming or whatever. It's been working out amazingly so far, so I'm thinking I'll try to stick with it.

*This morning the phone was ringing off the hook and in a matter of 30 minutes, my entire day got rearranged. First the dentist's office called to reschedule Nadi-B's appoint for a month from now since apparently the dentist will be on vacation or something. Then the hospital called and said they needed the ultrasound techs and stuff to do an emergency biopsy this morning and rescheduled my ultrasound for tomorrow afternoon. Almost immediately afterwards, my Momma called to chat and invite me out to lunch with she and my older sister in honor of a belated "mother's day" thing. Also, she offered to get me a pair of Yellow Box for my M-day gift. Awww! Yay! I love flip flops. So I'm supposed to meet them around noon-ish. It's pretty nice because if they hadn't rescheduled my ultrasound, I might not have been able to meet up with them.

*The rearranging of my schedule for today, coupled with my getting up earlier opened up a HUGE chunk of time this morning, so I decided to work on the little ~~weed~~ flower bed next to the house. The front two need a lot of work too, but my lady friend is supposed to come help me with those this afternoon. I wanted an herb bed, so I had bought a few plants last week that were waiting to be put in the ground. I got out there and with Nadi-B and Tim's help we got it in pretty good shape. We dug up some sort of flower that I planted from bulbs about this time last year.... and I um... can't remember what they are.. but anyhow, I'm transplanting them to the bird bath circle in the back yard and if they bloom I'll let you know what they are. Then we weeded out the bed really well. I was surprised that under the weeds was one of the lavender plants I had put in the ground last year. The lemon balm came back too. Wow! I put in two rosemary plants, 3 basil sprouts, and a bunch of sweet mint.

Here is the finished Herb Bed. Here's hoping that I remember to water everything and all the plants pull through.

Here is that resilient little lavender plant that somehow survived the freak snow we had and then all the weeds. He's my favorite.

Now, I'm about to go get ready for my little afternoon with Momma and my older sister. This has been a post of random randomness!

TP Tuesdays

2010-05-11T21:16:00.001-07:00

So this morning I measure around my belly and got 11 1/4 squares... so um... either I mis-measured last week or my belly shrunk a bit. Eh... I'm chalking the little difference up to things like water weight or what have you.

I have another follow up ultrasound tomorrow morning so I'll post about that when I know more!

Pregnancy Resources and Goodies!

2010-05-09T15:41:00.000-07:00

1. Baby Fit

This is a really awesome website for moms and moms-to-be and women who are trying to become pregnant. It's a website dedicated to healthy moms, pregnancies, and kids. You can make your own profile page, join groups of moms with the same due date, moms in the same areas, moms with the same interests... there are just groups for everything. The website offers daily articles on nutrition, exercise, breast feeding, bottle feeding, just EVERYTHING. There are message boards and baby tickers, nutrition and fitness trackers, and a week by week play by play of how the baby develops throughout the pregnancy. After baby arrives, there are all sorts of groups and articles for support through post partum, breast feeding woes, what to feed your baby, teething, just yep.. you guessed it: EVERYTHING. I used their website throughout my entire pregnancy with Calvin and have re-vamped my user page there for this pregnancy. Sooooo much amazing info and tools all in one place.

2. Lifenut's Big but Partial List of Pregnancy and Baby Musings

12 ~~Easy~~ Steps to Prepare for Parenting

Jen's A,B,C's of Parenting

Just a few blogs/websites with some neat little posts on the whole ordeal.

3.Swistle Baby Names
This site is really awesome when you go to pick out names. You can email her and tell her some of your picks and likes/dislikes and then she'll post a blog with suggestions and people will comment and pool in. Plus it's just plain fun to talk about baby names and all

4. A few of my own tips:

*Keep your sense of humor. You're gonna need it-
And not just because kids really are the most interesting little people you'll ever meet... You're really going to need it when you're having a really crappy day and some stranger wants to rub your belly in the parking lot. Or when you're like 38 weeks and baby kicks your bladder. Oof. Or when you have one of those interesting little pregnancy melt downs because the chinese restaurant makes the WRONG kind of egg drop soup (I'm lookin at you Barb! Love Ya!). Being able to laugh at yourself .... even if not until months later is a GOOD thing. Find the humor.

*Say No to Baby TV-
No matter how tempted you may be to torture yourself by watching television about babies: i.e.- A Baby Story, Bringing Home Baby, or anything dealing with Michelle Dugger and her new tiny infant delivered at 25 weeks.... JUST SAY NO. You may think you've got a handle on the whole emotional preggo/infant thing, but just trust me and save yourself the overwhelming flood of emotions and tears. Sometimes happy, sometimes sad. You're on your own when it comes to commercials. I'm just sayin.

*Find a Good Game/Book/TV series-
Or all three. You won't really need it right away, but when it gets down to those last couple of months and you can't sleep because Baby is moving around and kicking your bladder or your ribs; or because you have heartburn, or nightmares, or insomnia; or when you think you might be having contractions and you sit up for hours timing them.... These little things come in handy. They help to pass the time during the day, they help with the boredom of waiting, they help when you CAN NOT SLEEP. For my pregnancy with Nadia it was Bejeweled2. Simple, mindless, endless gem switching and what not. For Calvin it was re-reading every book series I ever enjoyed, more Bejeweled2, and... shhhhh... watching TLC marathon re-runs of John and Kate Plus 8. I anticipate more Bejeweled2... possibly Blitz for this pregnancy.

*Pack a Bag-
This one seems kinda "doih" and you'll see it on every list. But it's a GOOD idea. Nadia was LATE. I mean... like I was knocking on the door of 42-43 weeks with her. We had to induce to get her out. She was gonna stay RIGHT THERE. I'm still convinced after that labor experience that she was gripping something on the inside. Calvin came almost a week early. My water broke at home. My point? Ya just never know, so just do it.

*Things to Bring/Not to Bring-
The hospital where I delivered Calvin gave me a list of things I should be sure to bring and it was very helpful. Like, for instance that I needed to bring my own shampoo and soap and things because those wouldn't be provided. Who knew, right? Of course toothbrush, toothpaste, that kinda thing. Some people say bring pj's, others say why for? I say bring some comfy clothes. I wouldn't bring NEW pj's as things are kind of leaky and gross for a few days. I'm just sayin. Keep in mind that people will be popping in and wanting to see Baby, especially if it's your first; so make sure you are comfortable being seen and having photos snapped of you in what you decide to bring. Some folks say don't bother bringing your own underwear, blah blah, hospital provided, yada yada. I say ... ick; and buy a pack of cheapo's and be sure to pack a couple sports bras for the pregnancy bag. Up to you. That's just what I do. Don't forget clothes for Baby; comfy and soft.

*If At First You Don't Succeed-
TRY, TRY again. *SIGH* Breastfeeding. Zomg. I breastfed Nadia for 4-5 weeks, but wasn't very good at it. It was frustrating and HARD and I'd cry and she'd cry and I gave up and gave her formula. She's FINE. She's healthy and smart, some would say smarter than the average bear (and not just her Momma). I don't really think my milk ever came in fully with her though. I made it 6 weeks with Calvin. My milk came in ... like fo sho. I tried the whole pumping thing with him too so that I could get a break from a feeding now and again. *snort* But it HURT. It H. U. R. T. And things were drippy and exposed and Tim's grandparents/family kept popping in and banging on the front door WITH NO WARNING. AT ALL, while I was fighting the breastfeeding battle. Then I wimped out and switched to formula. Calvin is FINE. He's healthy and smart and he's not obese or anything silly like that. I'm going to try again with the breastfeeding. It will HURT and it will be HARD, but I'm going to try again. However, if things do not work out I will forgo the 2-3 weeks of beating myself up emotionally and berating myself and feeling guilty and sub-par as a mom. Period.

*Be Informative and Be Firm About It-
Seriously. Especially if you choose to go the breastfeeding route. Explain to family and friends that popping over unannounced is NOT COOL. There will be boobs exposed and some veteran moms might not think twice about it, but when you're trying to figure that stuff out it's stressful and emotional and the last thing you need is for someone to start pounding "open-up-it's-the-police" style on your front door after you FINALLY after 1/2 an hour of tears and re-arranging got Baby to latch properly and now you're stranded in the living room with your boob out and by God you are NOT MOVING to the bedroom!!! (in the event that informing said family members to call first and then having them show up anyway, have the hubby meet them and KEEP them in the yard for half an hour or until they go home.....ahem......)Also, Baby will be sleeping, you will be trying to nap or shower or brush your teeth... it's just good manners, okay? Sometime before you come home with Baby make sure all well-meaning relatives and friends know that there is a "please call first" policy in place. Help is awesome and amazing. Unannounced company is NOT COOL.

*Last But Not Least: ENJOY-
Enjoy while it lasts. Try to take time out from the stressing and the sleeplessness to enjoy them being tiny and little and cuddly and wanting to sleep on you for hours at a time. Before too long they will be all knees and elbows and on the go and running around and before you know it, it is embarrassing for you to kiss them in public and attempts to do so are met with "Moooooommmmmm!!!!"

It's Mother's Day!

2010-05-09T09:55:00.000-07:00

And so far I've:

*Washed a load of dishes

*Organized all of the bottles, sippy cups, kid cups, plates, bowls, and straws.

*Wiped down the counters

*Cleaned the bathrooms

*Swept, Steam-mopped (I <3 my shark), and vacuumed.

*Washed, dried, and folded 2 loads of laundry.

And I did it all while wearing this stylish piece of homemade jewelry from the B.

Yep. It's awesome. Before long all the hip moms will be wearing them. I love the vintage button she put in the middle. She has an eye for detail, don't you think?

Anyway, as a mother's work is never done, I've gotta jump off here so I can make B her lunch and then I have a brand new pack of swiffer dusters with my name on em. Hope all of you fellow blogging Moms have a great and wonderful Momma's Day!

Toilet Paper Tuesdays!

2010-05-04T17:16:00.000-07:00

So, my mommy (Sept. due date) group on babyfit.com has this weekly group post where everyone measures around their tummy at the belly button with toilet paper and then posts how many squares around they are. I think it's pretty cute and so far has been a lot of fun. More fun lately, since 21 weeks into this pregnancy, I am FINALLY starting to show. It kind of happened over night, because a week ago, you couldn't tell at all, and then one morning I just woke up and there it was: The baby bump!

In any case, I thought the Toilet Paper Tuesdays thing would be a neat weekly post I could share with all you blogging buddies. If any of you other pregnant ladies would like to join in, I would love to see your toilet paper progress! *Laughs*

21 Weeks: 12 Squares @ the Belly button!

Relaxed and Groovy:

2010-05-03T15:49:00.000-07:00

For Valentine's Day, the hubs had gotten me a gift certificate to be pampered at the spa. So, this afternoon, while he was at home with the kids; I was HERE, at the Oasis. To add to my special day, Tim got up with the kids and pretty much gave me the entire day off. I got to take a 45 minute shower BY MYSELF. With NO INTERRUPTIONS. It was heaven!

My special treatment started with a one hour massage with Teresa. I used to work for her when she had her own place at Knead Massage, and it was great to visit with her. Plus, due to the massive amounts of rain here, she had a lot of cancellations.... which coupled with the two of us catching up on the times resulted in what was actually an hour and A HALF massage. AWESOME.

After I was all floppy and relaxed, I got my nails manicured and painted. The lady who did my nails turned out to be someone Tim and I went to high school with, so there was lots of chatty conversation going on there too. I got the full tour of the spa too, and I'm seriously thinking of cancelling my membership with USA gym and spending my money on a gym membership at the Oasis instead. It's women only and you can take any of their classes for free with your membership. They have zumba and belly dancing and all kinds of stuff. It will most likely wait until after the baby is born though since I'm still under strict orders from Dr. B to "limit my mobility." Boo. But at least I can still swim, which I've been trying to do a lot of.

Anyway, back on topic. I came home to Tim starting on dinner. He's grilling up steak and making baked potatoes and steamed veggies and he already fed the baby... Yeah. Cue Spongebob singing "It's the Best Day EVERRRRRRRR!!!!!" And that would pretty much finish things off.

See This??

2010-05-02T16:41:00.000-07:00

SUPER DAD.

You know you have a good man when he'll put on your baby sling and carry the baby around to give you a few minutes to have a little ~~potty~~ ME time. Just look how awesome he looks in all those pretty florals. Of course, Calvin looks a little unsure, but that's nothing to be alarmed about. He went with it after just a few minutes and then settled right down. Have I ever mentioned how much I love my sling? Hands down the most used item I've ever sewn.

Look what Nadia and I did today!

2010-05-01T17:41:00.000-07:00

We made our own play doh! It's the kind that you cook, but I find I like it better than non-cook varieties. Its texture is the most similar to store bought play doh and I dunno... I just really like kneading the warm doh. It's very theraputic.

After we made it and dyed it, we played with it. We made some spotted dinosaurs.

And a few flowers and houses and things.

Nadia must have played with that stuff for over an hour. She kept saying she likes "Mommy play doh" way better than store play doh.

See???

What I've Been Up To Lately:

2010-05-01T08:05:00.000-07:00

I've had a lot of projects going the last few days here. First, I ~~forced~~ asked Tim to re-upholster the dining chairs. After a couple of months, I realized that it's all well and good to cover stains from other people's kids... but.. uh... I have my OWN kids and they don't really give a hoot about stains. I got tired of watching the chairs revert back to the state they were in when we bought them, so I got some vinyl cloth instead. Total cost to re-upholster 8 chairs and two bar stools? $4.00 + 1 headache. That staple gun is brutal! Anyway, now my chair cushions are completely wipe-able. Not to mention, they look pretty snazzy. They have this same fabric in cotton in this orange/red, yellow, and a green, so I see matching napkins and coasters in the very near future. Yay!

The other thing I've been working on is the babies' room. Even though New Baby is a girl, we decided to keep the two little ones together for at least the first few years. They will only be a year apart, so they will be good company for one another. Plus, since we are planning on starting kindergarten with the B this fall, I don't want to risk waking up the baby to get her dressed and ready for school in the mornings. Or the baby keeping her up all night. SO, we'll just wait a few years before putting the girls together in the big room and for now it will be the baby room.

I didn't want to do the whole pink vs. blue thing. Ugh. So I went with green instead. I bought three different fabrics with the same shade of green in. One with stripes, one with a fairly neutral scroll pattern, and one with a splash of pink for little Lena. Now I can just buy green and white sheets and it doesn't matter whose crib they go in.

Then I made curtains and crib skirts. I didn't use patterns. I just kinda winged it on both projects and I'm really liking the outcome. I only did half curtains because, so far, our kids adore looking out the windows at the world outside. Plus, this room is located in the back corner of the house and gets a good balance of light and shade. I didn't do crib bumpers. I have a horrible fear of suffocation and they are considered a hazard anyway. We tried doing a bumper with Calvin, but I kept waking him up trying to move his face away from the bumper and check his breathing. So NO BUMPERS.

I also did little wall hangings with their names. I drew the letters onto freezer paper, ironed them onto the fabric and cut them out. Then I modge podged them onto a canvas that B had painted "vanilla" for me. Their cribs don't match. It kinda bothers me in the OCD area, but not bad enough to cause me to buy another crib. However, Momma had mentioned wanting to buy one to keep at "Sunshine and Papa's" house for when they have the kids. I'm trying to convince her to buy one that matches Calvin's so I can switch with them. It might just be working. It remains to be seen.

Never mind Calvin's Pooh sheet in this photo. He kindly spit up all over the green one I had in for the pictures as soon as I walked in there this morning. Baby's are kinda like that. I'm still not 100% finished with their room. I have some of those foam puzzle mats in front of each crib and I'm thinking of getting little throw rugs to go over them, or making some slip covers for them in matching fabrics. I also just got a new changing table/closet combo thing today that I need to set up and all. But this is what is done so far!

How I Digi Scrapbook

2010-04-30T16:58:00.001-07:00

I've had a couple of requests both on here and facebook on how I'm doing the digital scrapbooking, so I'm just going to post a little blog. Feel free to click off if you aren't interested.

1.) Software/Program: I'm using a program called Paint.net to put together the pages. It's a free program that you can download from their website. They say it is very similar to adobe photoshop and has a lot of the same tools. I could never figure out photoshop, no matter how much I played around with it, plus it's expensive. I find paint.net to be SOOOO much easier to use. I adore it.

2.) Scrapbooking Kits/Papers: You can find these downloadable for free all over the internet. I basically just did a google search for digital scrapbooking papers/kits/embellishments until I found what I was looking for. Of course, there are also several sites that offer kits for a price too, which is usually pretty reasonable. We're talking like $1-$2 for a kit that would cost anywhere from $8-$15 if you bought it in paper form at the store. That being said, Shabby Princess has some really great kits that you can download for free.

3.) Tips/Suggestions: Um... well, I really just got started, so I don't really have a lot to offer by way of tips. I just downloaded everything I wanted and went through hard drives of pictures to find the ones I wanted, and then just started playing around with it. I will tell you that if you want to put an embellishment on your paper with a transparent background you have to click "paste into new layer" on paint.net or it will just paste it in with an ugly white square behind it. There are plenty of tutorials and lay out advice on the net though if you get stuck or need help, just google it. That's really the best tip I can give. That and just keep playing with it, you'll figure it out. That's pretty much how I do it.

This is a page I did of Nadia as a baby using a few of the different kits from Shabby Princess! Have fun with your digi scrapbooking!

Digital Scrapbooking:

2010-04-28T12:54:00.000-07:00

It's addicting. I can't leave it alone. It all started with trying to redo my blog layout... and then it just took off from there. Thank goodness I have a crock pot that I started dinner in yesterday morning or we all might have gone hungry yesterday. I've already done our first year as a family.

No more buying expensive printed papers and embellishments. I can download them for free. No more cutting and punching out thousands of tiny paper pieces. No more pages of stickers roaming the house waiting for Nadia to put them on the walls, the tv, the bathtub. No more searching for glue sticks. I have gone digital and I am obsessed. It's so EASY! And then it's just a matter of printing the pages and shoving them into the many scrapbooks collecting dust waiting for me to DO something with them already.

I can use the same stuff to do blog layouts. I can use the same stuff to make greeting cards. And the best part??? It's all FREE. The program I'm using, the paper kits I'm using. All downloaded free off the internet. Why didn't I do this SOONER?

The Best Laid Plans

2010-04-26T17:55:00.000-07:00

I had THE BEST plans for today. First, I was going to sleep in a bit, and then get up and kind of pick at the house work. I planned on staying home all day and nursing my sun burnt, crispy shoulders by doing very little of anything. I planned on having a nice relaxing day with the kiddos right here at home. But you know what they say about "the best laid plans...."

Usually, the baby will chill in his crib for a bit first thing in the morning and talk to the birds outside of his window, or Nadia will go in and entertain him with puppet shows and things for a bit so I can get a little extra dozing time. NOT SO this morning. Nadia woke up early and immediately started demanding breakfast. Quick on her heals was Calvin who decided this morning that he wanted OUT. NOW. So much for my extra 30 minutes of snooze time.

I rolled out of bed and changed the baby, brought him into the kitchen and strapped him in his chair. While he entertained himself with the high chair toy attachment thing, I popped Nadia's waffle into the toaster. While it was toasting, I made the baby his oatmeal and applesauce. I spread peanut butter on the waffle (this is something Nadia LOVES to eat for breakfast, and quite frankly she could use the extra protein and fat, so we go for it), and fixed some juice for the baby and then sat them both down for breakfast together. I fed Calvin while Nadia ate her waffle, and then turned them both loose in the living room to play while I did clean up.

I wanted a cup of coffee SOOOO bad this morning. I haven't been able to drink it since day uno of this pregnancy. And not just because of the caffeine, but because every time I've tried to cheat for one cup, it's made me horribly ill. I went for it anyway, I could literally taste it just thinking about it. Got it all the way brewed and realized my creamer had expired MONTHS ago, so had to substitute some fat free milk. It also happened to be the last 1/4 cup of milk we had left, and an attempt to make toast revealed we were down to one piece of bread. In the process of throwing out the expired creamer I also remembered we were out of garbage bags.

So much for staying at home, I was going to have to make a trip to the store. I decided to put it off until after the baby's morning nap, during which I spent an obscene amount of time trying to edit my blog layout on paint.NET. I'm still not entirely sure if I'm happy with it, but I'm happier, so at least there's that. Once the baby woke up, I dressed both kids and managed to make myself look somewhat human and then headed to the store.

Nothing really interesting happened while at the grocery store unless you want to count all of the near misses I had with other people's grocery carts. I'm hesitant to say it was just me, since after all I'd had a cup of coffee that morning.... but it was CRAZY in there today! We got home just in time for me to fix lunch and then get the baby down for his afternoon nap, during which I spent an obscene amount of time playing with my blog layout. (yes, again) Right before the baby woke up, my younger sister called to say she was on her way to town and wanted to know if me and the kids wanted to go swimming with her, Jeff, and his daughter Haylee.

Remember, I'm sun burnt from yesterday, but I didn't think it was bad enough to miss out, and I could always chill under the umbrella while the kids splashed around with Aunt Allie, so I agreed. AFTER I agreed, Allie mentioned she would need me to go pick up my niece Anita from day care so she could come with. When I got there, there was a bit of a mix up since they were expecting Allie. Figured that out. Back in the car. Onwards and sideways!

Once we got to the pool, and a gust of wind lifted the umbrella and threw against the house (no lie) I decided to heck with it, and doused myself in SPF 70 and got in the water. After all, swimming is the ONLY exercise I'm allowed to partake in right now. As I'm packing up the kids and all of our gear to head home, my other sister calls and asks me if I could take Anita home with me and give her a bath since her bathroom is still under reconstruction. Before I knew it, everyone was coming over for dinner. Er..... chicken and rice anyone????

So I came home, I cooked dinner, I fed kids, I bathed kids, I cleaned off the table, I put kids to bed. Now I'm going to spend an obscene amount of time playing with my blog layout. (just kidding!..... maybe.....) Oh well... there's always tomorrow!

A Day at the Lake

2010-04-25T15:49:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, the hubs and I were discussing how we just couldn't wait to start celebrating the warm weather months with barbecues and beach trips. We've been barbecuing with several of our friends for the last couple of weeks now, and we decided it was time to get to the water. Instead of trying to a make a large trip to the beach, we just loaded up and headed over to a local lake instead.

It was GORGEOUS! We had some thunderstorms the last couple of days, but today was full of bright sunshine and nice breezes. We didn't have to worry about the kids getting dragged under by the waves, it was TONS less crowded than the beach, just laid back, easy FUN.

Even Calvin got in on the water action. He LOVED it. He just kicked back in his little boat and splashed in the water, and just enjoyed himself. While us girls were swimming with the kids and soaking up the sun, the boys manned the grill and cooked up some hamburgers and dogs.

We munched on some snacks and played in the sand. We just had ourselves a grand ol' time.

Right before we loaded up to leave, some ducks made their way over to the shore. The kids went nuts and threw them an entire bag of puff corn, which made for some very happy ducks.

All in all, it was a simply fantastic day and yet another reminder of why I could never move away from here. I LOVE my friends. We have a great time wherever we are and the company is always enjoyable. I can't wait to go back. We are all thinking of buying some season passes so we can head on over whenever we want.

What's For Dinner:

2010-04-23T14:35:00.001-07:00

Tonight I'm making this enchilada casserole stuff based on the Taste of Home cookbook's slow cooker version. Momma used to make the slow cooker enchiladas, but I can never remember to put it all together in the morning so I found a neat way to cheat.

Enchilada Casserole:

1 lb ground beef or turkey (we are doing turkey because we are trying to be healthier, and of course, you could omit the meat all together to go vegetarian)

1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed)

1 can of pintos (drained and rinsed)

1 can of chili ready diced tomatoes

1/2 cup salsa

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp cumin

Chili powder to taste (depends on how spicy you want this)

6 flour or corn tortillas, medium-ish sized

2 cups of shredded cheese (I used colby and monterey jack)

*Note: You can used chopped onion and garlic if your husband and kids don't pick at their plate and complain about the "bits" in their food. Mine do, so I've just resigned myself to using the powdered versions.

Brown the ground beef or turkey and then drain the fat. Re-add it to a large deep skillet or in a medium sized sauce pot. Add the tomatoes, both cans of beans, the salsa, and the seasonings. Stir well and then bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for ten minutes.

Spray a medium sized casserole dish with non stick spray. I used a 9x9 square baking dish, because that is what I had that would fit everything. You could use an oval one or a circular one or whatever, just make sure it's nice and deep.

Start by placing one tortilla in the bottom of the dish. Layer on a cup of the meat and beans mixture, and then sprinkle on a layer of cheese. Add another tortilla and repeat until you run out of stuff or room. The top layer should be the meat and beans, and then add the remaining cheese. I crushed up some tortilla chips and topped it with those as well.

Cover with tin foil and bake at 375 for 35 minutes.

The Taste of Home version says it serves 4. Um.... yeah... Momma used to feed 4 teenagers and 2 adults off of ONE of their casseroles, so I would say that this would feasibly serve 6. Especially if you serve it with a nice salad on the side. YUM! And now... I'm going to go shove some of this in my face and then head on over to Beth's for a MUCH needed GIRL'S NIGHT! YAY!

Baby Update:

2010-04-22T12:26:00.000-07:00

I just got back from my baby check up with the doctor, where I got the report from my ultrasound last week. According to Dr. B, pretty much NOTHING has changed from the ultrasound done immediately after the tear. I was really thinking that after a month, 3 weeks of which were spent on bed rest that there would have been much more healing going on, but Dr. B says it looks pretty much exactly the same. There has been a very tiny amount of reparation, but not anything to get excited about.

Dr. B also said that the area that tore was/is a very LARGE area, so it is just something we are going to have to watch for the remainder of the pregnancy. I will have an ultrasound once a month until delivery, so that we can keep an eye on it, and anything else that might (but hopefully WON'T) develop. It was really kind of disheartening because I was hoping to hear that it wasn't that bad of an incident and that things were healing up just fine. Dr. B kept saying he doesn't expect for there to be any other incidents, and that as long as I continue to watch and limit my activity we should be okay, but the overhanging need for concern and watchfulness sort of puts a damper on things.

On a brighter, happier note, I can feel baby Lena moving around all the time now. She is still growing and developing at a healthy rate, so it doesn't seem as though the tearing is affecting her any. She keeps me up at night swimming around in there and when I talk to her she bumps back. Also, if I'm being honest, I'm kind of happy about the frequent ultrasounds and getting to see her every month. I cannot wait for this little one to make here, safe and sound and healthy. I'm 19 weeks along as of today, so right at half way along.

Happy Earth Day Give Away!

2010-04-22T11:17:00.000-07:00

In honor of Earth Day, I am giving away the above bag, which was made by recycling t-shirts! Even the flower accent is made from a strip of t-shirt left over from making other bags. Hooray for up cycling and re-using!! I used this tutorial for making the bag, but made some changes. I found after making the pink bag yesterday following her instructions that the bag was difficult to situate on the shoulders for carrying. So I used a different method, but still the idea was hers originally so credit where it's due and all that.

BUT! If you want to win it and have a neat little stretchy, Earth friendly tote for going to beach, the pool, the gym, the store or wherever, you can enter my little give-away. Only 1 entry per person, so just leave a comment to enter. If you don't follow or have a blog/website attached to your comment, please leave an email where I can contact you if you win!

Entries will be open until Monday, April 26th. Then I will enter every one's names into a random name generator and let it pick the winner.

Happy Earth Day!

Random Stuff:

2010-04-21T11:28:00.000-07:00

Tim bought me a brand new water bottle with a straw. It's exactly like the other one I had, but a little better. So he's off the hook.

I made this stretchy bag out and the flower out of old t-shirts today using this tutorial, from Between The Lines.

Then I went and got my hair chopped off because I was tired of how long and thick it was. I never have the 45 minutes it takes to blow dry it and fix it, so I called my favorite hair lady person EVER and begged her to fit me in, and she did.

Yay! It's so short and cool now! She even went through with those little choppy shears and thinned it all out for me. I love this woman. And no, I'm not telling who she is because then everyone will want to go there and she won't be able to take me at a moment's notice. So there!

Big Girls Don't Cry:

2010-04-20T14:54:00.000-07:00

This morning I had a joint dentist appointment with Nadia. I LOATHE the dentist. I always feel like my teeth are a lot more gross AFTER they clean them than before I get in there. Because of my complete cowardice concerning having my teeth cleaned, it has been a little over 5 years since my last cleaning.

The tech who did our cleanings thought it would be a wonderful idea if I went first, so Nadia could watch and see what to expect. Well, needless to say, since I am preggers, my gums bled. A LOT. Five minutes into my cleaning, Nadia was horrified and cowering in the chair in the corner of the room. I thought for sure they were going to have to sedate her with laughing gas just to be able to clean her teeth.

Surprisingly, though, she did REALLY well! Of course, we know now that she is not doing the best job of cleaning her own teeth, but we had already kinda figured that anyway. We've been helping her with her teeth for the last month or so, but we're still going to have to go back in May for her to get a filling. Also, her teeth are apparently coming in REALLY early. She already has all of her 6 year molars, and a permanent tooth half way grown in where she lost the other one. And hey, I didn't cry either! So we both did great!

Afterwards, the rest of my day was kinda... not really... BAD. I was just really emotional, and everything seemed a lot worse than it actually was. For example, I had a complete crying meltdown because my doc told me I am not allowed to do even light walking. Not even a stroll through the park and then I couldn't find the straw to my water bottle. The water bottle was the most upsetting. It was MY water bottle, and Tim lost the straw and now I can't use it. And I can't walk around the park or drink water EVER AGAIN so I'll just have to spend the WHOLE SUMMER feeling like a MOO COW. UGH!!!! (go ahead and have a giggle at my preggo hormone drama, it's okay. I would.)

On the upside: We decided on the baby's name. Surprise, surprise, it's not one that even made it to the list I posted a week ago. We are going to name her Helena Nicole (Hel-leena, NOT Helen-ah), and we are using Lena as a nickname which I LOVE. The suggestion for Helena came from the baby's godmother to be, my dear friend Barb. And Nicole is Barb's middle name which I thought flowed really well with the first name. So I'm excited, I love it. The hubs loves it. The Godmother loves it. WEWT!

With the Sweet, Comes the Sour

2010-04-19T14:57:00.000-07:00

And vice-a-versa apparently. Today was glorious compared to the last two stress filled ones. Tim was off of work today, so I got to sleep in a little later than usual while he did the kids' breakfast and such.

We went to Walmart and the Tractor Supply Store to get a new blade for the lawn mower. I had no idea how much cool stuff is in the Tractor Supply store, and at really awesome prices too. Why didn't anybody TELL ME?!!! I got a new wall hangy bit for my front door, some cracked corn for filling heat therapy packs and boo-boo packs, and I probably would have spent Tim's entire paycheck in there if he hadn't dragged me to the car.

Then we went out for lunch at the new Mexican place in town. It was DELICIOUS! After we got home, my sister Allie called and said she was in town and headed over our way to go swimming at a friend's house. Only, these friends are more like family because their daughter, Katie, baby sat for us from when I was the baby's age until I was in high school, and then we baby sat for her children... and now her kids are old enough to babysit our kids..... you get the picture. So, anyway, she was headed to Mary's to swim and me and the B went with.

It was so nice to relax and lounge by the pool and float around in there. Mary (or Grammy to the kids) has been a nurse for years and reminded me that swimming is the best exercise for pregnant women because it takes the pressure off of the legs and reduces swelling and back pain and all that other wonderful preggo stuff. So I now have an open invitation to go over and use the pool whenever I please, and since they live literally 5 minutes away, I'm thinking that is going to be pretty often this summer. How awesome is that?! I had A LOT of swelling last year with Calvin's pregnancy, like to the point where I couldn't even wear flip-flops without cutting off the circulation in my feet. He was born in August, so I was the most pregnant at the hottest time of the year down here in the South. Since this baby is due early September, it will be more of the same, so I'm excited to have an outlet for a little relief.

In any case, the day was overall very relaxing and distracting and just what I needed. Now if I can just remember to make my appointments to use my spa gift certificates, I'll be relaxed in NO TIME!

Not The Right Place

2010-04-18T17:51:00.001-07:00

They say that the internet is not the acceptable place to air one's intimate family drama. I'm inclined to agree... especially when it comes to more social sites like facebook and myspace, but the last couple of days it has been SOOOOO hard not to come here and post a rant or even boo-hoo-ish post.

I will go so far as to say it's not problems between me and the hubs, or me and the kids. But it is family, and as such, that is as much detail as I will disclose on a public blog space. In any case, the last couple of days have been EXTREMELY stressful for me, leaving me feeling wrung out and hung up to dry emotionally and I could really use a hug. *sigh*

No Really, I DID!!!!

2010-04-16T17:43:00.001-07:00

Today was my first day officially off of bed rest, and was also the first day that I've had the kids and the house all to do by myself in 3 weeks! The order to "take it easy" still stands, however, and it was REALLY hard to stick to that today. Not only have I been cooped up and antsy for the last few weeks, but there are a million little things that I do, that haven't gotten done and it's been driving me CRAZY.

Don't get me wrong, my hubs, he's a one of a kind man. He TRIED very hard to be me while he was home. Very hard. See, keeping house and taking care of the kids and making dinner, is my "job." And hang on, all you feminists who are about to get all horrified, I LOVE it. This is my CHOICE. My hubs doesn't care one toot if I want to go out and have a career or go back to school or get a job or stay home and take care of our little ones, as long as I'm happy doing it, he's 100% supportive. I feel very blessed that a little over a year ago, our situation became such that I am able to stay home full time, and we can still live comfortable lives. We aren't rolling in big money, and we still have to budget for me to be able to do this, but we always have enough, and that is a blessing that I am quick to acknowledge and be thankful for.

The last few weeks, I've been trying very hard not to pay attention to the little things that have been going undone. After all, Tim has been trying to stay on top of his job and mine. I felt too guilty to sit there on the couch and tick off things for him to do, so unless it was major, I just let it slide. But NOW, oh now that I can DO things, I've been all over the house today exclaiming things like, "When was the last time someone SWEPT IN HERE? OH MA GAH!" and "Why does no one ever scrub the TOILET?! EWWWW!!!!"

Tim seems to have this thing about cleaning where he just does surfaces. He'll do dishes and wipe counters, but not sweep. He'll clean out the sink and wipe out the tub, but not sweep or scrub the potty. He'll dust, but not vacuum. Keep in mind, I'm not complaining. I get told all the time that several women would commit murder for a hubs who does the dishes or folds laundry. However, at our house is an 8 month old on the GO and if floors don't get swept and vacuumed, he is forever putting whatever he can find in his mouth.

So I did dishes, and ran the vacuum, and swept, and scrubbed the bathrooms. I wiped counters and tables and made dinner. Now I know what some of you are going to say, but trust me, I DID! I took it easy! For example, I didn't move the stove and refrigerator so I could sweep and steam mop under and behind them. I didn't get on my hands and knees to scrub base boards. I didn't do any laundry, and I didn't climb on chairs to wipe the dust from the ceiling fan blades! So see?! I think I did pretty good. Oh, and I also cheated on dinner. I made spaghetti but got bread sticks from Pizza hut to go with. ... and okay, I'll admit I also ordered some of the chocolate dunker bread sticks for desert... but only because Nadia begged for them. Ahem...

In any case, I really did take lots of breaks and such and even got a little reading done. It was really nice to be able to take care of the kids all by myself again, and to be able to sweep up crumbs instead of having to look at them until I could get up with someone else to get at them. Now, as soon as Tim gets home if he'll just move some appliances around I can get things back to normal around here!

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!!

2010-04-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

Although how the ultrasound tech could tell what anything was is beyond me. Baby is all scrunched up in a tiny little ball and is lying horizontally across my stomach, which I was told makes her really difficult to scan. Her profile is pressed right up against the uterine wall, and she was very uncooperative.

I know you can never tell what is what in the pictures, but I'm sharing them anyway. This first one is of her two little feet, and one of her hands, which gives you an idea of how scrunched up she is!

Here's the one of her profile. I outlined it in a little yellow so it would be easier to make out. Because of her position, it was difficult for the tech to find all of her measurements and we had a bit of a scary moment while looking for the heartbeat. Apparently the tech shot the spine instead of the heart so when we were expecting the rapid little heartbeat, we heard a very slow pulse instead. She moved the wand around a little and found the actual heartbeat, which was just as fast and strong as it should be. WHEW!

If I'm being honest, I think I knew this baby was going to be a girl. I can tell from my hormones and my moods. All that extra estrogen is taking it's toll, lemme tell ya! Anyway, we are all VERY excited! Especially Nadia who soooo wanted this baby to be a girl as she "already had a brother, and didn't need another one!" *laughs*

Also, Dr. Bowen has taken me off of bed rest for now. My new orders are to simply play it safe and take it easy. No heavy lifting, of course, and no over-doing, but I'm allowed to get back to some semblance of my normal routine and can pick up the baby. However, Calvin is the only thing more than 5-10 pounds that I'm allowed to lift, which is FINE with me! YAY! So all in all, lots of good news today!

I am now taking suggestions for Baby Girl Names, too, as I'm still unsure of what to name this baby. With Nadia and Calvin, I just KNEW, right off the bat what their names would be. I just haven't found a name yet that really gives me that feeling for this baby, and by this time in both of my other pregnancies I had long since chosen. It's making kind of anxious. So suggest away!

Names we've considered:

Stella Rose
Stella Grace
Moira Grace
Zaria (middle name meh??.. but I love the Z, and it's also Russian, like Nadia)
Zarya

My Budding Artist

2010-04-14T16:06:00.000-07:00

So, rather than post any more of what I've been doing lately, I thought I would share with you some of Nadia's latest art work. Like me, when I was young, she just can't seem to get enough of paper, paint, markers, crayons, pencils... you name it.

Here is a rainbow she painted with some watercolors the other day. There are trees at the bottom and a sun in the sky. Rainbows are her FAVORITE recently.

This is a picture of a "pregnant cheetah." Ever since we found out about the new baby, there have been drawings of various "pregnant" things.

Here is a drawing of some zoo animals. There is clearly a giraffe, a cheetah, a tiger, a zebra, and a lion. There is also a tree which the giraffe is snacking on. It's a whole safari!

This is a picture she drew of me. I am pregnant in the picture. See the circle with the dot in the middle? That is my pregnant tummy and the dot is the baby. I don't know why, but I think it's hilarious! It hangs on the fridge.

This is her latest painting that she did today. There are flowers, a sunshine, and the animal to the left is a horse. The giant purple bug in the sky is a "flying lady bug."

I love her art. Yesterday she spent ALL DAY printing out pictures from PBS kids and coloring them. Each picture was of a different room in the house, like the kitchen, the living room, the bed room, etc. She colored each one and then glued them all together to make a "house out of paper." It's HUGE, and she is so proud of it! I think my ultimate favorite is going to have the picture of me pregnant though. Or the preggo cheetah. That's kinda funny too. LOL

More of the Same, But Different

2010-04-14T09:14:00.001-07:00

Are you tired of seeing the stuff I've made yet? Well, then probably this isn't the post for you. Also if you are tired of seeing this beautiful yellow print, then probably you want to just move along.

I made this aroma/heat therapy rice pack the day before yesterday. I had seen a few tutorials around the blogosphere on making them, and remembered the one Mom made when my sisters and I were teenagers and my older sister started suffering from monster menstrual cramps. Hers was made out of an old towel and was ugly as sin, but hey, IT WORKED! I used an old t-shirt to make the inner pack that houses the rice and scented my rice with essential oils so it would smell all pretty. Then I made it a nice little slip cover out of some left over fabrics I had. Mine is version 1.0 and I made the cover like a bag that velcros shut at one end. You take the inner part out and put it in the microwave and out comes yummy soothing heat! It's kinda hard to get the rice bag in the cover though, and requires a lot of shaking and moving stuff around. But, again, it works, and has been WONDERFUL therapy for my aching shoulders, lower back, and sore hips. I'm going to make a mini one for head aches too. I had a major head ache and neck ache last night and Tim entered the living room to find me with this thing wrapped all funky around my head and neck and stuff and started laughing. In the future I'd kinda like my headaches to be taken a little more seriously, So I'll make a small one. When I got finished, I posted pics and explanations on my facebook like I always do, and can you believe in less than an hour someone ordered one?!

This is the set I made for her. I can't believe I'm getting paid for this, but I'm not going to complain. I made Tim go to Glenn's yesterday and buy some unbleached cotton muslin. Then I went by the local wellness center and bought some new essential oils and some raw flax seed. Cyndi's set is version 2.0. I made the inner bag out of cotton muslin instead of old t-shirt. I filled hers with a mixture of the raw flax seed and rice because I read that the flax seed helps to cut back on the "cooked rice" smell as well as helps the pack to hold heat longer. I scented hers with a relaxation blend of essential oils, and now my whole sewing room smells AWESOME. I made the cover for this pack more like a pillow sham with a pretty cotton print on the front and a muslin backing. You can slide the inner pack in and out much easier that way and I don't have to waste my time with velcro. I made her an eye pillow with the same fabrics and fillings that can be put in the fridge or freezer for a soothing cool eye mask. I think I need one of those too.

Tomorrow is my ultrasound day! So hopefully tomorrow I will have a little more news!

More Stuff:

2010-04-12T14:43:00.001-07:00

I actually made this tee pee for Nadia last summer... or was it the summer before that? Heck, I don't remember. Anyway, for one reason or another, I never got around to posting any pictures of it. I had actually spent like 2 weeks online looking at other people's tee pees trying to figure out how to make one. Then I purchased a pattern. I got anxious waiting for the pattern to get here and decided to just wing it. I still have never opened the pattern. I kinda want my $15 back. We've gotten a lot of use out of this thing. It collapses to be put in the corner, a closet, under the bed, etc. And you can put it up ANYWHERE. It's large enough to be an outside fort, but not outrageously large enough that it can't be used inside too. We've even taken it to the beach for the kids to have a little extra shade.

I made this shoulder bag today for my Mom. She has been asking me for a bag since.... Christmas? Thanksgiving?! Despite countless attempts to get her to purchase a reusable tote for like $1 (they are seriously everywhere, even Bath and Body Works had some super cute fold-able ones for $1.50), she insisted she would just wait until I made her one. I used some of the left over fabric from making Nadia's outfit. I LOVE these prints. Especially the yellow and white one. I still have a good bit left over of both fabrics. Who knows what I'll do with them. ANYWAY, I used This Tutorial, sort of, to make it. I changed the dimensions and stuff, but used that shape and her instructions. Mom came over just as I was finishing it up. She pretty much snatched it as soon as I pulled it off the sewing machine. I had to distract her with the baby to be able to snap this photo of it, and obviously I didn't get time to iron it to make it look more finished. Oh well, at least I know she likes it!

The sewing thing is keeping me busy without breaking the "no long time on your feet" rules. I just do a little bit, in between spurts of sitting with my feet up on the couch or propped up in a lawn chair outside. That pretty much allows me one project per day, or every two days. I've also been spending an obscene amount of time on the internet looking up free tutorials. I am going to send the hubs to Glenn's(my favorite discount fabric store)to get me a yard of muslin on tuesday so I can make some of those heat therapy rice bags. I want one for my lower back and shoulders, and I want to make one of the cold therapy ones for a "boo boo" bag. I'm thinking I might do an eye pillow too. I'm going to break out the aromatherapy oils and scent them too. That's my project for this next week, along with making two outfits similar to the one I made Nadia with the pillow case top and shorts. My friend wants one for her little girl, and my sister wants one for my niece. I should have known better than to ever make a pillow case ANYTHING.

Things I Made Today:

2010-04-11T16:06:00.000-07:00

Made this outfit for Nadia. Reversible criss cross pinny and ruffled capri's. My camera ate the last two AA batteries in the house so I had to take these pics with the cell phone. Boo for crappy photography.

Here's the reversed side of the top and a better pic of the print on the fabrics I used. I figured out how to make the top without it having to tie at the shoulders. Eventually I will figure out how to make the shoulders without tying or buttoning at the shoulders. I refuse to spend $10 on a pattern that I have already figured out on my own for just that ONE piece of knowledge!!!

I made this pie for dessert. It's from Prevention Magazine's 400 Calorie Fix book. I don't own the book. YET. I bought a copy of their magazine that had a sample pull out of the book. I'm obsessed with the sample pull out. As soon as I come across some extra cash, I'm buying the book. ANYWAY, this pie is so easy, and it's kinda sorta "diet-ish." It's just graham cracker crust, 2-6oz containers of low fat yogurt, and 2 cups lite cool whip. Mix up the yogurt and cool whip, spoon into crust. Freeze to set. I made tonight's with raspberry yogurt. The next time I make it I'm using the key lime pie flavored yogurt. Oh. Yeah. 1/8 of the pie is 210 calories. The book says to eat it with a homemade latte to make up one of your 400 calorie meals for the day. It's good all on it's own though.

Only 6 More Days!

2010-04-09T15:49:00.000-07:00

I have 6 more days until my next ultrasound, and I. Can't. Wait. Not only will I be far enough along to *hopefully* find out the baby's gender, but we will also be able to see how things have progressed in the healing department. I am really hoping that things will be healthy enough to warrant at least a partial lift of the bed rest. At least enough that I can pick up Calvin and maybe run the vacuum cleaner now and then.

I have been fairly good at following the Dr.'s instructions if you ask me. I keep my feet up most of the time, and don't walk around or stay on my feet for long periods of time. I haven't picked up the kids, or done laundry, or bent over to load the dishwasher. But there was just NO way I was going to make it through another week in the actual bed. So I kinda took my bed rest on the fly: sometimes on the living room couch or propped up in a lawn chair. At least that way, I've been able to feel like I'm still a part of the every day world and enjoy a little sun shine.

However, I'm still more than ready to see the end of bed rest, so I'm hoping that after the ultrasound Dr. Bowen will just tell me to take it easy. I don't mind being banned from doing the laundry for a few more weeks, but I need to be able to pick up the baby. Plus, I really want to go grocery shopping. I ALWAYS do the grocery shopping. Not because the hubs is in any way incompetent, but because I LIKE to the shopping. I like looking at things and buying things and cooking dinner. The most depressing day of this last week was when I didn't get to go do the grocery shopping. I actually contemplated calling the Dr. and asking if I could go. Tim said I should have went and used one of the power chair things they have available for the elderly and such. I was tempted. You have no idea how tempted.

In other news, Nadia got the rest of her shots needed to attend Kindergarten this week. She still refuses to take off the band-aids for fear that her "blood will come out." It's been 3 days. I'm thinking of snatching them off while she sleeps tonight. I also decided that she is through with pre-school for the summer. I'm still not sure it was the BEST decision, but I'm okay with it.

What have you all been up to?

Pillow Case Thing-a-ma-bob:

2010-04-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

So, this was my first shot at the pillow-case top/dress thingy-doo-hickey. I've never made one before.. mostly because they aren't exactly my fave. I don't know.. they just tend to look unfinished for the most part. For whatever reason, though, they are INSANELY popular around here. I mean, you sew your own wedding dress and people are all, "Hey, that's pretty nice!" BUT, make a pillowcase dress and they think you are GOD. Okay... well, maybe not God, but considering how easy they are to pull off, I think the hype is kinda over the top.

ANYWAY, as I said, they are popular around these parts, so I thought it was high time Nadia had one. Plus, it's already hitting the mid to high 80's here, and quite frankly, I wouldn't mind wearing a light and breezy pillow case myself. Perhaps a maternity version is in order?

I didn't want it to look all weird at the armholes, which is where I find they generally look unfinished, so I used left over fabric from making the shorts (which I call baggies, because they are a bit longer than shorts and kinda baggy, I know, I'm insanely creative!), to make my own bias tape which I then used to line the armholes. Then I used some more fabric scraps to make the ribbon ties. Since I STILL had scraps, I made the little star applique' for the front.

I'm pretty pleased with it and I think it will be cute for some 4th of July photos in the next few months, provided Nadia miraculously keeps it stain free between now and then. Maybe I should make a back up one just in case because I do still have scraps of that red stuff left. I need to find a similar print in blue and white to make the baby a matching romper. Too bad boys can't do pillow case thing-a-ma-bobs, or he'd be all the rage!

What I did Today:

2010-04-05T16:26:00.000-07:00

I cannot sit in the bed ALL DAY. It's not just boring, it makes me feel .... moldy. So today, I wanted to sew. I made Nadia this little outfit. It's a criss-cross pinafore or smock or whatever and matching cropped pants. The top is reversible and the other side is the same lime green as the trim on the pants. The top is PERFECT for the hot weather we get down here. She doesn't even need a shirt under it. When it gets cooler, the little smock shirts look cute over a long sleeved shirt too, so she can really wear it all year.

This is the most satisfying outfit I've ever made. It comes together FAST and EASY. The whole outfit maybe took me two hours from start to finish. Start being cutting out the fabric, and finish being DONE, hems and all. I spread the work out over the course of the day, just doing a little bit here and a little bit there, so I wasn't up for the whole day. Besides which, I was sitting down to sew... and I don't really think sewing and lifting mere ounces of fabric counts as strenuous activity.

I love the print on the fabric too. It's tea-pots!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

Well the Easter Bunny definitely visited our house last night. My first clue was Nadi-B running up and down the hall every 2 seconds to show me each individual item from her basket. My favorite part was that the Easter Bunny brought her a Golden Egg.

Last Thursday her preschool had an egg hunt for the kids in her class with ONE golden "prize" egg. Then the stooopid teachers wanted to act like the kids who were upset that they didn't find it were somehow abnormal. Um.. HELLO?! These are kids aged 3-5. And you have ONE special prize egg? Just ONE!? Of course, they always act like my Nadi is abnormal. She gets put in time out for asking too many questions. Seriously. So, anyway, she came home all upset and sat on the foot of my bed and told me all about the golden egg and how she was a loser because she didn't find it.

Well, obviously, the Easter Bunny thinks that Nadi is indeed a winner and not a loser, so he brought her her very own golden egg. In other news, I took some pics of the kiddos this morning and thought I'd share a couple. Mostly because I'm really kinda impressed with myself. I have a photo editor that I downloaded for free off of the internet and it makes all of my amateur photos look awesome. I think I'm going to even frame some of these. Of course, Nadi's dress really helped make these pics. It is a beautiful little thing that was given to us by a friend.

Trying

2010-04-02T10:09:00.001-07:00

I am trying so hard not to get discouraged and depressed. The last two days were really rough. It is just so hard to see every one's lives going on as normal when mine seems to be stuck in the same place.

Yesterday and the day before were the two hardest days so far because the kids were being kept away from home all day Wednesday. They spent the night with my Momma on Wednesday night, and were there for the majority of the day on Thursday. Since Tim was working that pretty much just left me here all by myself.

The having to lay still in basically the same place for the last week or so is starting to really get to me. Last night I was just so uncomfortable that I could not sleep. I ended up watching re-runs of The Nanny on nick at night until I got a head ache and finally passed out around 1 or 2 am.

I have been trying to keep myself entertained and busy with some sort of project or other, but after about an hour of coloring or crocheting, I start getting bored and restless.

It's still hard though. I find myself getting really cranky and touchy and having my feelings hurt over absolutely nothing at all. Some days are not so bad... some are. I guess that is the way of it.

How I'm Passing the Time:

2010-04-01T10:19:00.001-07:00

So this is the latest way I've found to pass the time. After I took that henna class up in Michigan, I bought a box to take home with me. It's pretty much just been sitting in my suit case ever since, and to be honest, I had forgotten about it. Yesterday, while on the phone with Barb, she mentioned doing henna with her kids and I thought, Hey! I could do that while sitting in bed!!

So I broke out the box, mixed up my paste and set it aside to let it cure. Henna is a process, m'kay? It takes awhile. First you have to sift the powder. Then mix the paste. Then terp the paste. Then wait for it to cure and release dye. THEN you can whip it into a cone or squeegie and apply it.

I mixed the whole 50 g package... which apparently makes a TON of paste. I mean... like enough to henna a small elephant. I had been researching it a lot on the internet, so at least I know that if I keep it in the freezer, it will actually keep for a long time. All I have to do is defrost it as I'm ready to use it.

The above is my left hand. I henna'd it last night. I'm actually kind of satisfied with my paste. It came out pretty stretchy and smooth and sticky. It didn't skip like the paste I used in the class, and since it wasn't as grainy, it didn't crack and split as it dried either. I will still need to practice a good bit though to get better control of the cone thingy so that my patterns are a little more uniform.

I've been working on one of my feet today. Feet are much harder. At least MINE are anyway. It would probably be easier to do someone else's feet because then I could reach better and work closer like I do with my hands. Also, my feet are really narrow and bony, so the surface is a lot more irregular than the top or palm of my hand. Anyway, though, it's actually been a lot of fun.. and since it takes awhile, it's also helping me to pass the time satisfactorily.

I'm wanting to get a lot of practice in and get better at it so that hopefully in the future I can maybe set up a booth at some events or something to make a little extra cash now and then. Maybe I'll open my own small business out of the home and take clients. Since we live so close to the beach, and people love wearing Henna to the beach, maybe I could at least get decent business. Nothing to live off of mind you, but just a little extra now and then. But first... I'm going to need A LOT of practice so I can get really good.

Ahhh.. Spring!

2010-03-31T16:24:00.000-07:00

Well, of course, now that I'm pretty limited, Spring is in full force here below the belt. In fact, today was sunny and beautiful and we got temperatures up in the 80's. I have been so looking forward to getting out in the sun, playing outside with the kids, using the clothes line, and of course, SWIMMING.

So far, I've only been able to enjoy the beautiful weather through the windows. I keep them open all day so I can still feel the warmth and see outside. I'm not entirely sure how things will work out with the bed rest, or for how long I will be on it. I'm hoping that eventually I will be able to get back to a semi-normal routine and possibly still be able to enjoy some swimming in a few months. Not like marathon swimming, more like floating around, possibly treading water... that kind of thing.

In the meantime, I am at least getting to enjoy the early spring and summer fruits and veggies. All of the wonderful people who have brought meals have brought huge bowls of strawberries!!!! I am in strawberry heaven. Not to mention all of the steamed veggies: squash, zucchini, broccoli, carrots...... just YUM! Did I mention that I got strawberries?! This is the time of year when I really enjoy living in the south. The yummy stuff comes a little early.

I am still waiting on a camera full of pictures from B's party, but until then, here are a couple of teasers.

Nadi-B Princess

Elizabeth Princess

All of the kids wearing their crowns that they painted as they came in.

Bed Rest Update

2010-03-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

This morning my doctor's office called to schedule my next sonogram. It was originally going to be in about a week, but Dr. Bowen thinks that is too soon to expect to see any change, so has decided to put it off until the 15th of April. So... in about 2 more weeks.

In the meantime I am to limit my activity as much as possible. I can still get up to go to the bathroom and to shower. I am also now allowed to get up and walk around the house a bit if I need to, BUT: No strenuous activity, no chores, no cleaning, no bending, no lifting, no picking up either of the babies, etc. Basically, he said that the less activity the better off I'll be. At least now I can get up to fix my own drink without sneaking around, though, so that is a plus.

I used my uh... "leisure" time this morning to make all the appointments that I have been meaning to make. I have the appointment for my sonogram, my appointment for my doctor's visit, an appointment for Nadi-B to get her 5 year old/before school shots, a dentist appointment for me, and a dentist appointment for Nadia. Whoo-hoo. I HATE the dentist. LOATHE the dentist. UGH. Especially when I'm pregnant. Hooray for swollen gums and cranky cleaning ladies.

Seriously... what is up with those teeth cleaning ladies?! Is it just my area, or are they judgemental and cranky everywhere? Anyway, it will be B's first check-up with the dentist and she is actually kind of excited about them "scraping the barnacles off her teeth." WHERE she gets this stuff, I have no idea.

In other news, B's birthday party went off very well on Sunday and as soon as I get the rest of the pictures that were taken by various family members, I will post a blog on it.

Meanwhile, I am crocheting. I don't know what it is yet. I guess it depends on how much of it actually gets finished. Nothing fancy though, just row after row of mindless single stitches. Could be a scarf.... or if I'm really ambitious, a blanket.... or if I never do much more with it... a really long bookmark.

Laying Around: Harder than it Looks

2010-03-29T20:13:00.000-07:00

If you've never been on bed rest... let me just tell you: It. Is. HARD. You would think that laying around all day and doing as little as possible would be the easiest thing ever. You would be WRONG.

I am so frustrated. I hate hearing the baby fussing from the other room and knowing that I can't get up and respond. I hate that I have to call someone in from the other room to bend over and take a piece of paper out of his mouth, or fix Nadi-B a snack... or all the other zillion little things I'm used to doing without thinking.

Don't get me wrong... having other people offer to do my laundry and my dishes is pretty damn awesome, but having to ask someone else to get me a drink of water or a glass of tea is nearly impossible.

Confession: I sent my ~~baby sitter~~ sister to the store for a can of tomatoes today just so I could sneak into the kitchen and fix my own drink. I can't seem to get over having to ask for help for something so trivial.

If you've ever been through it, I'm sure you can relate. Maybe it's easier if you don't already have other children. Anyone? But having other babies and not being able to be Momma really bites. I hate sitting in the bedroom and not being able to see what they are doing in the other room with whatever wonderful, beautiful person has volunteered to help for the day.

Is it still bed rest if I relocate to the couch? I mean.. as long as I'm still in a lying down position?

View from Bedrest: Picture Blog

2010-03-27T17:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my friend Heather brought me some goodies, including these flowers to put by my bed to sort of cheer things up a bit.

The baby came to visit for snack time. He is having the delicacy we call "Cheese Puff."

Nom Nom Nom

It was, apparently, delicious

Nadi-B came in this evening after supper.

We colored and watched Hoodwinked.

Scary Day

2010-03-26T12:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday did not go according to plan. Everything started out great: Got the Nadi-B off to preschool on time, cupcakes and all, spent the morning playing with the baby, and started a big pot of pintos for dinner that I was planning on pairing with some homemade flour tortillas. Then it started raining and I had to cancel plans for the kiddos to spend the afternoon with B's godparents.

I was supposed to go to the doctor yesterday afternoon for a check up and then on to the hospital for the triple screen blood test. Once it started raining, I decided I really didn't feel like spending the afternoon at the hospital and that I really wasn't feeling very much like having 5 tubes of blood drawn. I decided to reschedule the triple screen for next week and just do my check up since normally, I'm the only one in there and it takes like 10 minutes.

I went in. Weight was normal. Blood pressure was normal. Baby's heartbeat was normal. Then it was just the normal chit chat, Dr. told me everything looked great, and sent me to the front desk to make an appointment for my next ultrasound and my next month's appointment. As I'm standing at the counter waiting on the nurse to call the ultrasound people and set the appointment I feel ... a gush. Oh great, I think. I figured, considering that the waiting room was for once full of people, and considering my normal luck that I was having one of those embarrassing pregger's moments where you accidentally pee on yourself in public. As I'm thinking this, I feel another gush. Okay, I think. I'll just jot to the bathroom really quick while she's doing her thing.

As I'm walking to the bathroom, the gushes continue and get bigger. By the time I reach the toilet, I'm panicking. It was like my worst nightmare come true. I was bleeding. In gushes. So I FREAK. I start yelling for Melissa the nurse, and by the time she answers me I'm hysterical and sobbing and can barely unlock the door for her and Dr. Bowen to get in and see what's up. The nurse freaks. Dr. Bowen freaks. This has all transpired literally 2 minutes after I walked out of the examination room.

Dr. Bowen ushers me out the door and past the waiting room full of people. Let me just take a minute to say that I feel really sorry for those pregnant women. I'm sure when your sitting there thinking everything is normal and then someone who just had a normal happy checkup starts screaming about blood from the bathroom, that it has to be pretty darn disconcerting. He followed me the 1/4 of a mile to the hospital and escorted me into the emergency room.

By the time they get a nurse into the room to start an IV, the bleeding had slowed down considerably. So much for not spending the afternoon at the hospital. The rushed me to the ultrasound room where I had the pleasure of being probed by the SAME ultrasound tech who did my first rather unpleasant ultrasound. I just lay there, holding my breath while she probed and clicked away, peering at the sonar screen... just waiting for the one thing that was important to ME. After a few minutes, I finally breathed a sigh of relief when the baby's heartbeat started, loud and strong, and normal.

10 minutes later, she, Dr. Bowen, and some other doctor were huddled around the ultrasound screen taking turns wielding the sonar wand and babbling incoherently in medical terms I couldn't possibly follow. It didn't help that they all sounded flustered and not 100% sure of what had caused the bleeding, which by that point had just about stopped. There was some talk about how my placenta looked high, or that it had been pulled up, which I gathered was slightly better than it being low. (????)Dr. Bowen then explained that what appeared to have happened is that a part of the placenta had pulled away from the wall, causing the bleed and that it was already starting to clot. He admitted me for overnight observation and put me on strict bed rest. I was not allowed to eat or drink anything except for ice chips in case of any other emergencies.

The bleeding, thankfully didn't start up again, though I did have a small amount this morning while still at the hospital. The hope is that the blood will continue to clot and form scar tissue, and that as the placenta grows with the baby that it will reattach itself. Apparently, this is a more common issue later in pregnancies, but more rare in someone as early on as what I am.

I am now home, but on strict bed rest for the next 10 days. I am only allowed to get up to go to the bathroom. I may take showers no longer than 5 minutes. I am to move as little as possible. After which I will go back for another ultrasound. I will then be on moderate bed rest for the next 2 months. My activity will be limited to bathroom, showers, and occasionally walking around the house or sitting on the couch... but no lifting, no activity such as cleaning or bending... etc. I will be monitored closely with frequent dr.'s visits and will pretty much have to take it easy even after the 2 months bed rest. This is all of course, barring any other incidents which may result in more bed rest or trips to the hospital. (which we are of course, praying is not the case). The idea is to get me past the 22-25 week marker, before which the baby can't feasibly make it outside of the womb.

It has been a scary couple of days. I take back all the whining and such I did about the throwing up. I will take throwing up any day instead of bleeding. Yep. Bring on the vomit! *sighs* So for now, I am stranded in my bed with a busted laptop and not much else to do but wait. Times like these, I am so grateful that we have formed ourselves a community of friends and loved ones as offers to help with the kids, the house, dinners, etc. have come pouring in from all sides. I must say though, that that sister wife Heather was advertising for the other day would be awesome right now. I will keep you all posted at least as far as bed rest is interesting. In the meantime, I hope you all do a lot of posting because I'm going to be in desperate need of entertainment.

Random Update Post

2010-03-24T18:02:00.000-07:00

* This pregnancy SUCKS. I am not, nor have I really ever been a puker. Up until this pregnancy, I could count on one hand how many times I had ever thrown up in my entire life. And that includes one account of motion sickness. I threw up ONCE during my pregnancy with Ya-Ya, and that was when they pushed the medicine through the epidural. I didn't get sick at all with Cal-man's pregnancy. Sure, I had a lot of nausea and heartburn... but no up-chucking. I am 15 weeks pregnant as of today, and I have lost track of how many times I've puked. I am MISERABLE. With my other two pregnancies, I could look at certain foods and KNOW there was no way I could eat them without getting sick... this pregnancy... my intuition has flown the coop. I'll eat, and be fine all day and then all of a sudden it will hit me like a ton of bricks and I have to rush to the nearest sink/toilet/trash can. It comes OUT OF NOWHERE. The other morning I was chatting with a friend on the phone and all I'd had so far that morning was a big glass of water (which I CRAVE, literally all the time) and I had to hang up on her to run to the bathroom. What gives?! WATER?! SERIOUSLY?! I'm also eternally exhausted. I get horrible heartburn and have had to sleep sitting propped up on 5 pillows for two weeks now. I get short of breath just trying to dishes, or pick up toys, or fold a load of laundry, or shop for groceries. My legs are still cramping and I get a lot of lower pelvic and back pain throughout the day. On a slightly happier note, my ultrasound is coming up in a few more weeks, so soon I'll have blobby pictures to show you guys and hopefully some clue as to what gender the baby is.

* Ya-Ya is getting restless about this whole birthday thing. She seems to think that if she marks off all the days on the calender between now and her birthday, then tomorrow will be her birthday. HA! I wish! If that were the case, I'd be having this baby TOMORROW!

* I finally got the kiddos separated into their own bedrooms. Ever since we've moved into this house, parts of it have been kind of let out to other people. We've had people stay with us in the spare room/s, we've had people use the spare room/s as storage, etc. I didn't really think about it while we were moving around the furniture and setting up the extra crib. My focus was on getting things organized and spread out so I wouldn't be running the gauntlet 8 times a day to change the baby's diaper or pop in a movie for Ya-Ya. When all was said and done, and the rooms were finished, I just kept walking back and forth between the two and looking in. Just to look at them. I can't believe that there is so much space, that even if Ya-Ya and the baby have toys out on the floor, the rooms still look relatively clean. When they were both jammed into the small front room, even a candy wrapper made the space look junky. As I was wandering up and down the hall, it suddenly dawned on me that for the first time, since we moved here, every space in the house has a function. Every room of the house belongs to our family. We have come a long, long way from our big empty rectangle and the milk-crate entertainment center. I could just cry, that makes me so happy.

* I just got done baking and decorating 48 mini cupcakes for Ya-Ya's preschool snack tomorrow in honor of her birthday. I'm freaking out about how I'm going to get everything clean and done by her party on Sunday. I'm freaking out about the possibility of not just rain, but thunderstorms on Sunday. I mean, if we HAVE to do this shin-dig inside, we'll make do, but we are gonna be crammed in here like sardines.

* I made it about 2/3 of the way through Wolfman (the book), and while it is good, I think I just a break from the whole fantasy/vampire/werewolf/mythical creatures thing. I have been kinda disappointed in books lately. While I find the stories hold my interest for awhile, and that some of them are even good... I haven't found one of those "I can't put it down" books in awhile. That's kind of a bummer. I'm unsure if it's because I, myself am restless, or if I just haven't found any goodies yet. I picked up a Jodi Picoult yesterday, though, and so far, it's pretty promising. It's got a kind of paranormal/ghost hunter theme going and I am enjoying it. So here's hoping.

* I think that's it. I think I'm going to sneak a chocolate cupcake and then go to bed.

Is it bad....

2010-03-23T16:31:00.001-07:00

Is it bad that the most exciting part of my day is that I finally got the hubs to put up a clothesline? I have been meaning to get that done since we moved in, and today it finally happened. I hung out all the comforters today to dry and air and I just got a lot of happy goodness from watching them flutter in the warm sun and breeze. I'm actually kind of excited about the prospect of washing laundry just so I can hang it on the clothesline.

I'm not really sure what that says about me as a person... but there you have it!

Upcycling 101

2010-03-20T15:07:00.000-07:00

Today was my very first try at upcycling some of our old clothes into new clothes. I must admit... I think I got a little too ambitious for my first try. I started by trying to turn two of my old knit t-shirts into a shirt and set of pants for the baby using tutorials from MADE. Those projects are still unfinished because guess what I discovered? I HATE working with knit! It turned into a really tedious and frustrating project... so for now it's on hold. I haven't given up completely... I'm just stepping away for a little bit.

Then I tried to get some laundry and house cleaning done since my awesome sister took the little ones to her house to play for a couple of hours. THAT turned out to be yet another frustrating and fruitless project. Gah... laundry! I swear there is a laundry gnome in my house that expands the pile even as I wash, dry, fold and put it all away.

SO, after a fairly frustrating day, I decided I had to do SOMETHING that I could feel good about. Since it's been consistently warmer here, and I've been seeing the bees come out, I thought it would be a good idea to clean out the Ya-Ya's drawers and closet and sort out things she has grown out of. I got a pretty big bag full of things to donate. However, as I was going through her closet I came across two really adorable dresses that are practically brand new. We had just bought one of them last spring, and the other had been a gift from a friend who had bought it in Mexico. I really hated to give either of them away, but Ya-Ya is so tall and lanky that as dresses they have become ridiculously short on her. However, they are big enough sizes that it would be kinda silly to hold onto them in their current state waiting for a child that might grow into them.

Which is when I thought I'd give the upcycling thing another go. I chopped off the top to both dresses, folded down the top to make casing, put in some elastic and voila! Two new awesome skirts just in time for Spring! Ya-Ya loves skirts and dresses and these are both the perfect length on her!

This is the dress from Mexico.

This is the new skirt! I love that I was able to keep the pockets

Here is Ya-Ya modeling her new "purple flowers" skirt.

This little project was so satisfying. It took maybe 25 minutes to make both skirts and they turned out so cute! Whew! I was beginning to worry that I was going to go bed frustrated!

Lost and Found Art:

2010-03-19T07:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, while cleaning out the craft room, I found a huge plastic bag full of drawings and paintings done while Tim and I were in highschool art class. Most of you probably don't know, but we met in that art class. I was a sophomore and he was a senior and our friendship really bloomed in that class. We were also pretty competitive, and it's still somewhat of a joke between us to argue about who is better at what.

I also found a drawer full of sketch pads, art paper, watercolor paper, and a few of mine and Tim's more adolescent drawings.

Here is one that I *think* I did in middle school with oil pastels

Tim did this one. See the attention to detail? Kinda morbid.....

This ink sketch is one that Tim did in highschool art class. He still pays attention to the details.

The tree is one I did as a kid with oil pastels. I seemed to really like those

This pencil sketch is one I did in highschool. I used a photograph of Tim and his sister when they were kiddos as a reference. I forgot to warn you about my elf/fairy obsession. Every portrait I ever drew of anyone included at least one set of pointy ears.

Spring Cleaning the Craft Room:

2010-03-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

Hey, remember that room I kept throwing all the junk in and closing the door on? You know... the one that is supposed to be my "craft" room. The room that NEVER gets cleaned when I'm scouring my house for company and to ease my OCD. Well...... I am kind of ashamed to show this to you guys.... but....

Oh... my.... um... I have no excuse...

Why is there a GUITAR... in my craft room???

It has gotten to the level of scary beyond all reason. For WEEKS (okay, okay.. months) I've been avoiding this mess, but I finally got a touch of spring cleaning fever today and decided to tackle the big messy craft (junk) room.

After an hour, I recruited the hubby for back up due to becoming quickly overwhelmed and on the verge of possible meltdown mode. We spent the ENTIRE day in there sorting, tossing, organizing, moving, rearranging, folding, ignoring the pleas from our hungry kids (not really, sheesh... some people have no sense of humor). It was just, in a word, EXHAUSTING.

BUT, we got it DONE. It is clean! You can see the floor! Things have PLACES and they are in them!

There is even room for more! Although... Tim has told me that if I so much as venture in the direction of the craft or school supply section he will remove my arms.... so... not much hope of that happening in the future.

Anyway, while we were sorting (digging) through the mess, I found a lot of really interesting stuff, like high school artwork from both me and Tim. I might post a blog about a few of the things we found with pictures tomorrow, but for now I'm going to go devour my dinner and then veg out on the couch for the rest of the night.... or maybe just go sit in my craft room and just look at it. *sigh*

Last Night's Project: Photo Prop 2

2010-03-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

I JUST finished up painting the second photo prop for Ya-Ya's birthday bash. Here he is, the frog prince in all his froggy glory! I think he turned out pretty stinkin' cute if I do say so myself!

I think actually, I might be more excited about this birthday party than Ya-Ya is. I have never had the opportunity to pull out all the stops for a birthday party. Most of ours growing up were more or less just family affairs... and up until now that's pretty much how my kids' birthdays have been. Just us boring parents and a few more adults: aunts, uncles, grandparents. Not that all of those aren't really special people... don't get me wrong.

I am just so stoked to be able to put together something that she and her friends will enjoy and that hopefully she will remember for years to come.

Last Night's Project

2010-03-16T18:59:00.000-07:00

So, as you might have read on here, Ya-Ya's 5th birthday is coming up pretty fast (only 2 weeks until party time!!!), and I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with some neat things to do for the party.

I saw this really awesome idea over on Pink and Green Mama, and thought I'd give it a whirl princess style, since that is the theme of Ya-Ya's birthday party. I went to Hellmart this afternoon to buy the foam poster boards and got to work right after dinner.

Here is the princess photo prop. As I was sketching it out I started to get a little worried that it wasn't going to turn out as cute as I wanted it to be. However, once I started to get the paint and color on the board, it really started to shape up. I covered the crown in glitter and glitter paint so it would sparkle when we do the kids' photos (hopefully) outside. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the princess.

I looked everywhere for a good Prince Charming to use as a reference but came up with nada. Then my awesome husband came up with the idea of doing a frog prince for the boys to take pics with. GENIOUS! The frog prince is slotted for tomorrow's after dinner project so stay tuned!

It was a Possum.. Bear... car engine... thing......

2010-03-10T19:08:00.000-08:00

One of the things me and the hubby really enjoy doing together is watching Monster Quest on the history channel. For the unaware, this is a show that investigates things like Big Foot sightings and the chupacabra, lochness, and other various "monsters" that are reported across the US and other countries.

Now, when it comes to this sort of thing, I have a kind of open policy. I've never seen one, but I don't think every person who ever has is some loony tuney psychopath either. They may or may not have found any physical proof, but circumstantial evidence is enough for me to admit that it is entirely plausible that some of these things could exist(hello, I'm from the department of redundancy department)... and I'm not going to just stick my fingers in my ears and scream LaLaLa's and insist it isn't true.

My favorite part about Monster Quest are the hardcore "expert" skeptics that they interview. These people crack me up... mostly because they end up sounding like more of a loony tune than the people who experienced the sightings. Take for example, a man I like to call, Hunter Bill. Hunter Bill has lived in this area his ENTIRE life. His grandfather lived in this area HIS entire life. Hunter Bill grew up roaming in the local woods, hunting the local wildlife. But shoot if he don't know a deer from a giant ape! It's okay, Hunter Bill. It was probably just a bear. Goodness knows in all your years of living on this land that you've probably NEVER seen one of those before... and could you move a little to the left...we don't want the viewers to see that bear rug in the corner there.. and can we remove the deer heads from the wall for this shot? We want to make you look like a moron.

Tonight's episode was on the sightings of a green lizard type monster in West Virginia. Now okay, don't get me wrong... the descriptions of this monster are WAY out there. Supposedly, it looks a little something like the guy on the left here (In fact, this picture was featured on the show), and he/it supposedly emits a foul and toxic gas. Some reports indicate (according to monsterquest) that a vast majority of the people who saw it have developed lung and throat cancers.

Okay, now LOOK at it. I know, it's really far fetched UFO looking, right? And I will admit.. I find it hard to believe such a thing exists. HOWEVER, the skeptic they interviewed, who apparently writes for "LaLALA LA WE WON'T BELIEVE Magazine" actually said ON TV, that probably the people who have seen it were actually seeing a deer or an opossum. That's right. An opossum. Like this:

Now whether or not you believe in the actual existence of the monster... isn't it safe to say that whatever they saw was probably NOT an opossum?! I mean... REALLY?! Cause I've seen one (two actually, they occasionally get into our house, and yeah guess what?, we live in town) and I did not immediately think, "ARG! It's a Half alien, lizard, man, tank engine!!!!!"

His (the skeptic's) other theory is that people see what they EXPECT to see. So if they've hyped themselves all up for say, a bear, then they will see a bear. Right......because when I'm scared I immediately expect to see a part alien/lizard/man wearing a trash can and floating around emitting toxic gasses ALL THE TIME! Don't you?! I mean surely that theory would mean that opossums were being mistaken for like serial killers and Jason and that kind of thing right? Right?

The Big 5

2010-03-10T11:39:00.000-08:00

In just a few short weeks, Ya-Ya will be turning the big 5. I have, at this point, pretty much gotten over the denial and just come to accept that she is a very big girl now and not much of a baby at all. Though there are days when I swear she acts like a two year old...... then again, I have a few of those days myself here and there, so who am I to judge?

She has been pretty consistent about wanting a princess themed birthday party. Not just any old princesses, either, the Disney ones. We went shopping today to let her pick out decorations. This will be the first year when *hopefully* there will be other kids attending her birthday and not just the usual boring round of adult relatives. I'm really hoping that all of the friends we have with kids her age will pull through and come out to help us celebrate.

About a week ago, right after I had power cleaned the whole front end of the house, Ya-Ya asked if she could play with her barbies and ponies. I said sure, and then watched in mute horror as she pulled out the 20 some odd barbies and 5 HUGE plastic, barbie-haired ponies that we somehow came to own. Apparently, every time she leaves the house with my sister-in-law, she is losing shoes and gaining barbies and ponies. That doesn't even touch the BUCKETS of "my little ponies" in various sizes that are around the house, the plastic animals, the farm ponies and horses, the play food, the huge box of dress up clothes, hats, and accessories.... it is.. in a word, RIDICULOUS. And all I could think was... she is getting ready to have a birthday and undoubtedly people are going to get her MORE of this junk!

When the hubby got home we had a big discussion about the birthday thing because people are already beginning to ask what they should get her. One thing that she has been asking for, which would be practical and OUTSIDE is a swing set. We decided that rather than purchasing more of the same things we already have that outside play things would be the way to go this year. A few of our friends have those glorified, mini-park, wooden sets with all the bells and whistles which, while VERY NICE, are WAY outside of our price range. We had considered asking all of our questioning relatives to contribute to the swing set fund, but then decided that would be tacky, so we decided to settle for something not as pricey, but just as effective.

I'm kind of cheating, because even though she really wants this, I'm getting ready to have three kids, and having something outdoors for them to play on will be AWESOME. We let her pick out the set today while at the store. We settled on just a simple set that has room for three swings and comes with a nice sized slide. We are headed out to Marvin's this evening to get the makings of a larger and nicer sand box to go with it, as well as mulch to fill in around the play area and cement to secure the posts of the swing set. We got her one of those plastic turtle sand boxes last year and in my opinion it was a waste. We get a good bit of rain here, and the cover was not very efficient at keeping the water out. Because it's a plastic tub, the water DOES NOT DRAIN, and so we really just had this standing water, mosquito pit in the back yard that she rarely got to play with. So, we're just going to build one over the ground, so the water can drain out, and make sure that our pest control guy sprays around the outside when he comes to do the house, to help keep out the ants and things. Has anyone ever done this sort of project before?

In any case, we are all excited about the upcoming birthday party. The weather here has been in the lower 70's ALL WEEK, and I for one am THANKFUL. It's been nice to spend more time outdoors and this whole swing set thing is going to be wonderful for when the kids are going nuts indoors.

Book Review: The 5 Love Languages

2010-03-09T19:03:00.000-08:00

I have heard a lot of talk about this book around blogland and otherwise and have been talking about wanting it to read it for awhile now. The hubby picked up on it, and when I got home from my trip to Michigan, my brand new copy was waiting for me.

This book is outside of my usual genres being more of the "self-help" variety, but I really enjoyed it. The idea presented in the book is that each person speaks one of 5 love languages. Each language has many dialects, but more or less people can be put into one of the 5 languages.

It's no secret that each of us has different ways of saying and hearing "I love You." For example, my father is not a very verbally expressive person. His way of saying "I love you," is to ask, "How's the car? Did you fix the washing machine? Have you had any more problems with the air conditioner?" My mom is much more verbal and touchy feely.

Growing up around Momma meant you often got hugs and kisses whether you were in the mood for them or not.

Chapman's book goes into detail about each love language and it's dialects and gives examples from real life couples he has counseled throughout his career. The book also includes ideas of how to learn to speak your spouse's love language as well as a quiz to determine what your own love language is; if you can't figure it out as you read the book. Mine, after reading the book through, is definitely "Acts of Service." Some of the times that I feel the most loved are when, at the end of a long day with the kids and the house, and even after Tim has spent the whole day at work, he comes home and does the dishes before going to bed. THAT simple act of service says "I love you," to me far more loudly than roses or candy or jewelry ever could.

I really enjoyed reading this book and have pretty much decided that everyone I know is getting a copy of this book for Christmas this year. Not because I think everyone I know has marriage problems, far from it. Just because I feel everyone, even those not currently in relationships could benefit from reading it. He has one out now for children and another specifically geared towards teenagers, both of which I'm going to have to get a copy of.

BAD DAY RANT

2010-03-01T14:47:00.001-08:00

Have you ever seen the episode of Spongebob, where Mr. Krabs falls in love with Ms. Puff and has Spongebob buying her things, after which he yells at him for spending his money? You know the part towards the end where Spongebob loses it and just goes off? THAT is exactly what I feel like doing RIGHT NOW!!! But I'm trying very hard these days to not swear as much so ...

I HATE opportunistic, good for nothing, lazy "people!!!" And I use the quotations for people, because I'm not really sure I'd classify them as that. Because... they just make me SICK. UGH!!!!!!!!!

/End Rant

Green Burials and Home Funerals

2010-02-26T16:45:00.000-08:00

One of the more interesting classes I took over my trip was on the concept of Green Burial. I did not attend the class on Home Funerals, but after Barb informed me that the class changed her life and shared her notes with me, and pretty much lacking anything else interesting at the time, I went to the follow up course on Green Burial. I am very glad that I did as it was very thought provoking at the least.

At the beginning of the course, we were shown two videos on the concept of Green Burials and then Nora, the presenter went over some of the highlights from the previous class. Did you know that every year in the US, we bury 827,060 GALLONS of embalming fluid? 104,272 tons of steel for caskets and vaults? Enough to build the Golden Gate Bridge over every year! What about 1,636,000 tons of concrete for grave liners? All of these facts, and more can be found on Nora’s Website. They are kind of shocking when you look at them that way. Did you know that Embalming is not legally mandatory in most cases after death? Did you know that most funeral companies and homes will lead you to believe that it is legally mandatory? You can find links on Nora’s websites to a book that reprints every few years with the updated laws for each of the 50 states revolving around funerals and embalming. Some states have caveats that state that if a body is not buried within a specific time frame that it must be embalmed, but in most cases, the caveat gives one enough time to bury the body without the necessity of embalming.

The way in which we deal with our dead, our loved ones, has changed drastically over the years. Home funerals ARE traditional funerals. It used to be that when a loved one passed on, the family cared for them and for their body until it was time to lay them to rest, and our ancestors didn’t use embalming fluids, harsh chemical baths, and steel and exotic hardwoods. They cared for their loved ones themselves, bathing their bodies with the same soap they used every day in the shower, they dressed them in their own clothes, and they buried them in the earth in simple boxes and shrouds. In the class Nora spoke about how in times before the Civil War it was normal for families to care for their own dead. The bodies would be laid out in the parlor and the family would spend time in remembrance of their loved ones. During the Civil War, we began to hand over the care of our dead to “professionals,” which is where the first Funeral Parlors were born. Later on, advertisements in Ladies Home Journal were published stating that “No longer would any Lady have death in her home and that from here on out the Parlour would be termed the Living room.”

These days, it’s all about the bottom dollar, and while there may be some sympathetic funeral directors out there, most of them are all about the bottom dollar, preying on the grieving in their most vulnerable state with statements such as, “Shouldn’t you do the best you possibly can for your mother?” The bodies are whisked away from their families by strangers almost immediately after the death and brought to funeral homes and laid out on a cold steel slab. The body is then hosed down with disinfectant, soaped with a chemical soap, and then hosed down again. In the embalming process, all of their organs are ruptured and the bodies are then massaged to release all of the bodily fluids which are then replaced with embalming fluids including ethanol, methanol, and formaldehyde. One of the ladies in the class expressed that, being a larger woman, her greatest fear is that they would simply flop her body around and possibly even drop her after death. I’m sure it’s happened more than once. (A point was also brought up in the class by a funeral director who attended stating that the use of such harsh chemicals is to insure that the embalmer does not catch any diseases from the bodies. Nora stated that in all of the bodies she has helped wash and bury, even in the cases of some who had full blown AIDS, NO ONE has ever caught a disease).

These days there is a new movement stirring to return to Home Funerals, and Green Burials. In these cases, a home funeral guide, sometimes referred to as a Death Midwife, guides the family in taking care of the body. They body is preserved naturally with dry ice, and the family bathes and dresses the body, and employing the use of items such as coins and a scarf, they arrange the body for viewing. Nora, who calls herself a Death Midwife states that this kind of care is far from creepy and that in nearly all cases helps to facilitate the grieving process among family members.

After a home remembrance service or memorial, the families can then either seek out a funeral home that will allow un-embalmed bodies to be buried on their premises, cremate the body or bury it themselves in a green burial site. In green burial, the bodies are placed in simple boxes and there are a large variety of options including mediums such as papermache’, woven bamboo or willow, or simple woods like pine. Family members have the option of decorating the shroud in the form of art therapy, utilizing images that were favorites of the deceased, or that remind them of their loved one.

For a long time I have known that I didn’t want to be embalmed and buried in an elaborate box. When my grandmother passed a few years ago, I remember being disappointed at her viewing. She didn’t look anything like I remembered her, like she had looked in life. I felt the way they made her up with makeup was cheap and unnatural, and I found no solace or comfort in viewing her body. A few years after she passed, I began working at a Nursing Home and one of our jobs as CNA’s was to bathe and dress the residents after they had passed. Having done that on quite a few occasions, I can say that I never found it creepy or gross or any such thing. Perhaps that is just me, but *shrugs.* I found it was almost comforting in a way as it gave me the opportunity to do one more caring thing for those residents, especially the ones I was close to, and their families.

Up until this seminar, I had thought my only other option would be to be cremated, which I was fine with. However, after learning of other options, I have a lot to think about. This is something that I would prefer to do for my own loved ones, and an option I would like to explore for myself. I would much rather be laid to rest by my family and my loved ones than handled by strangers. I would much rather be lovingly and gently bathed than hosed down and disinfected. Again, maybe this is just me, but I thought I would share my experience anyway. There is so much more information on Nora’s website that is worth looking into, including what 6 forms you would need in order to insure that your wishes for green burial are carried out after your death, more facts and examples of home funerals and green burials. If you are at all interested in this option either for yourself or for loved ones, I strongly urge you to visit her website. I will say that her web page and practices could be termed as very “New-Agey” which could put some people off, but after speaking with her after the class, Nora informed me that the majority of her clients are not necessarily New Age religious people, and she has helped with several Christian faith based funerals as well, so always remember that that is an option as well. Remember, this used to be the norm for all faith bases!

Back and Stuff

2010-02-26T06:54:00.001-08:00

Well, I am officially back from my trip up to the frozen North. I actually flew back on Monday, but the last few days have been spent recuperating and trying to get all my clothes washed and put back into my closet and catching up on snuggles with the kids and so forth. And then yesterday, Ya-Ya missed school due to frequent barfing which I must say was awesome! (in a very sarcastic kind of way)

I have also been trying to catch up on every one's blogs, which I have to say is making me kind of suspicious. The week or so before I left NO ONE was posting ANYTHING. I'd log on every day and NOTHING. NADA. Now I'm home, I log on and it was like everyone went post crazy and it's going to take me forever to catch up on all of what has been going on around blogland. It's because none of you like my comments right?! *snuffles* I KNEW it. *laughs* Just kidding.

As for my trip, it was AMAZING. Just one awesome experience after another. I took a Henna class, went to a drum circle, danced in front of TONS of people (if you don't know me, understand that this is a HUGE feat, as usually it's something I would be mortified to do), took a spiritual drawing and painting class, went to a masked ball, learned about green burial and home funerals, met an AWESOME author, bought his book, had him sign it, made lots of new friends and connections, and most importantly, I learned a lot about where I am, who I am, where I am at spiritually, and lots of other really important, really amazing stuff. (do you notice I use those words a lot? amazing, awesome... they are so wonderful)

Of course, throughout all of it, I missed my kids and family terribly. My husband apparently missed me as well, considering I got teased the whole weekend about my repeatedly buzzing bag from all of his text messages. All in all though, it was a fantastic trip, and I hated to leave. I would have much rathered just stayed and moved my family up there with me instead. I can't wait to back next year, and then Barb is coming down to visit us in November which doesn't seem nearly soon enough.... but somehow I'll make it.

Updating

2010-02-15T18:50:00.001-08:00

I'm going to try to keep my book review posts separate from all the other little tidbits from my everyday goings ons. The last few weeks have been very stressful and exhausting. I have felt simply horrible. Nauseous, achy, and TIRED. Zomg... SOOOOO tired. Even if I get a full night's sleep, and even if then Tim lets me sleep in until say.. oh... noon, I still feel like I'm just dragging through the day like a zombie. ... wondering when I can go back to sleep. For the most part I find I have no energy to even THINK much less DO things.

And the nausea... I am SO OVER the first trimester crud. OVER IT. I have been subsisting off of things like Ritz crackers, cheese, and fruit cups. Occasionally, I'll really want like a cheeseburger or a steak or a cookie... but then I eat it and get horribly sick and regret it for the rest of the day. Then it's back to the crackers and lime flavored seltzer water. Ugh.

On top of all the general crappiness, we had a bit of scare this past week when I started spotting. I spotted a little with my first pregnancy, so initially, I wasn't too worried... but then it just kept on coming, unlike with my first pregnancy when it stopped after two days. I had been and am still having a lot of lower back pain on the left side only as well, so after 3 days I started to get a little freaked. I went in to see the doc and even though I'm only about 9 1/2 weeks, he was able to get the baby's heartbeat to pick up on the Doppler and I was told to just go home and take it easy and to let him know if it got any heavier. All in all, I spotted for about 5-6 days, and then yesterday it finally stopped. It never really got any heavier or any lighter... it was just kind of the same for all 6 days and then, just like that, it stopped.

Everything is still okay with Baby, as far as we know, so I'm significantly less worried. I'm going in tomorrow just to be sure though and am hoping he will be able to still find the heartbeat just to put my mind at ease. ... Have I mentioned that I'm a chronic worrier? *sigh* Anyway, my plane leaves out on Wednesday morning, and I'm SO ready to just GO. I'm ready to see my best friend and just get to spend some time with her. It's going to be awesome!

Book Review: Percy Jackson Book 1

2010-02-15T18:39:00.000-08:00

Before I get started, let me just say that it is VERY difficult.... nay impossible for me not to compare any book written in this genre for this age group to Harry Potter. I can't help it. J.K. set a standard for me in young literature... which leads me to be very disappointed in most other series which have tried to follow suit. This one is not excluded.

It was.....kinda....well... boring. And sure, maybe it's because it was written for a younger reading audience than myself... but still... in comparison I was not bored with Harry Potter. *shrugs* Call me biased.

It wasn't ALL bad. I liked the IDEA behind the story. I really liked a lot of the concepts expressed in the story... I just felt like they could have been expressed in much more colorful detail and made to be more interesting. In short... I think that the story/series has A LOT of potential.. it just kinda falls short for me in the first book.

I'm holding out and hoping that as the series progresses the author's writing style will mature with her characters. Kinda like in, you know, Harry Potter. Has anyone read any of the other books in this series? What did you think of them? Is it worth the time to read further?

Hrm... anyway, books have been fairly disappointing for me lately. I can't seem to find anything to hold my interest or really even peak it for that matter. Maybe I'll have better luck with the next one. I picked up a couple of Paulo Coelho's books awhile back. I loved his book, The Alchemist. I'm hoping that the two that I picked up will live up to my expectations. Who knows. I also picked up a couple more of Jodi Picoult's books. I have loved every book I've read by her so far, so here's hoping I'm not disappointed in those either. I need a good read to lose myself in.

Dear Mr. Weather Man

2010-02-12T07:48:00.000-08:00

This cold, frozen white stuff on the ground outside my house is terribly misplaced. See... I live in ALABAMA. And I mean, below the belt, on the Gulf, 20 minutes from Florida, ALABAMA. This "snow" stuff belongs up there. You know, in the NORTH. *shivers*

Poor little manic depressive snowman.... he knows his days are numbered.

Unsure of how to respond to the snow, our cat, Wishes, decided to attack it.

Calvin was very unsure of the snow. He just kind of stared at it and then decided it was time to go inside

Ya-Ya on the other hand, knew exactly what to do with the snow and has been begging to go back out ALL MORNING.

Wizard, another of our cats, says, "Kiss my furry butt. I'm going back inside!"

Me too, Wizard. MEEEEE toooo.

Last Night's Project

2010-02-09T06:45:00.001-08:00

I have been seeing these tutorials for freezer paper stenciling all over the web lately and decided that I just had to try it. Also known as the "poor man's silk screening," freezer paper stenciling is a pretty easy and cheap concept. You need freezer paper (of course), designs/ideas, pencil, exacto knife, cutting mat, iron, and fabric paint. You start by free handing or tracing your design onto the non-coated side of the freezer paper. Then you cut out the area you want to be painted. Iron your stencil coated side down onto your t-shirt or fabric. Stencil in with Paint. Wait for it to dry and Voila'! Pretties!

This t-shirt is my very first attempt at freezer paper stenciling. Sure, I could have and probably should have started with a much easier design, but eh.... I had some free time. Okay, so actually this stencil just turned out to be more complicated than I thought. See, once I cut out all the parts that I wanted to be painted, what I ended up with was a big blank hole. I had to piece it all together like a puzzle to put back in the negative space pieces. Is this making sense? I found it easier to first iron on the part I removed, the part that you see painted. Then I put back in all the blank pieces and ironed them on. Then I peeled up the part of the stencil that you see painted. It saved me from having to do a lot of guess work and trying to line up all the pieces in the right spots. In any case, I LOVE it. This is probably going to be my new favorite t-shirt. I was very pleased with how crisp all the edges turned out.

I tried stenciling a few more things onto some canvas tote bags. Just so you know, freezer paper stenciling does not work as well on canvas material as it does on the t-shirts. The canvas is very porous, so the wax seeps in and then the paper doesn't want to peel away all nice and clean like it does on the t-shirt. You know how when you find a sticker your kid has placed like... say... on the window or the bathtub or the table.... and you go to peel it up and no matter how careful you are it tears and leaves behind that layer of white sticky papery goop? Yeah... it's kind of like that, only more frustrating because you CAN'T GET IT OFF!!!!! I had to sit there with the exacto knife and very carefully scrape the stencil remnants off of the bag and it still looked like it could use a lint roller. Only that didn't work. They were black canvas bags, so I just took a black fabric marker and filled in the white spots. It looks okay. Just not nearly as neat and clean and pretty as the t-shirt.

Oh well, live and learn they say! And now you know too, so you can save yourself the hassle. However, if you feel like whipping out a t-shirt for your little ones, freezer paper stenciling is a lot of fun and easy enough that your kids could help.... or at least you can give them a piece of freezer paper and some crayons while you do the shirt. You know. I'm just sayin.

Growing Girl

2010-02-07T08:44:00.000-08:00

My Ya-Ya is GROWING UP. While this is something that I've known and observed for quite awhile, recently it seems to be ever more apparent. She has spent most of this past week away from home. At the first of the week, my father-in-law's girl friend (of 10 years) passed away in her sleep. To those that know me, it's no secret that she wasn't exactly my favorite person, but please don't misunderstand and think for one second that I wanted for her to die.

She was a diabetic who refused to take care of herself, or take responsibility for herself or her illness. She used her illness to manipulate people, including Dad into doing as she pleased. For example, on Christmas Eve she didn't want to visit with his family, and so while he was at Grandma Wade's with the rest of us, she went on a full fledged hunger strike and refused to eat. So Dad spent all of Christmas Eve and Day in the ER. She did that kind of thing so often that even the ambulance drivers got tired of responding to her calls. She wouldn't work or provide for herself or her children, she would go on hunger strike if Dad came to visit Tim or his grandchildren, or Tim's sister. And as sad as what it is, her death, while far too soon, was not really unexpected. Just about everyone who knew her responded in the same way, "well... she finally let it go to far, huh?" Which is exactly what happened.

Dad worked swing shifts like Tim does and was on night shifts. She went for the day, refusing to eat in a response to a fight she had with her son and went to sleep. Her sugar dropped in her sleep and she simply didn't wake up. Dad found her the next morning. Now as I said, I didn't want her to die. I would have much rather seen her grow up and take responsibility for herself and take care of herself. And for whatever reasons he had, Dad cared for her, and we all care for HIM, so it was quite a week. He mostly just seemed lost the first few days as though he didn't know what he was supposed to be doing, since most of what he used to do was dictated by the girlfriend. Angela and Tim both took time off work so that we could be out there with him as much as possible.

We had to explain to Ya-Ya what had happened, and though I was worried about her, she took it in stride and stepped up like a very big (too big) girl. She has been busy keeping Dad busy. She has spent nearly the entire week with him, helping him to feed the animals, asking him to put on this movie or that movie, and eating WAY too much Lucky Charms in the process. She has been an enormous comfort to him, but I have to admit... I'm starting to miss my kid.

In the next couple of months, we will celebrate her 5th birthday. So far, she has consistently asked for a princess themed cake and party. Which is good, usually she has a new idea every week, but this year, it shall be princesses. There will be lots of pink and purple and sparkles and white ponies and unicorns and rainbows and tiaras. It will be....... um....very princess. And I will be trying not to sob in the corner about how she is already 5 years old.

This very week we have kindergarten registration. KINDERGARTEN. ALREADY. Before too long we will buying crayons and paper and scissors and backpacks and lunchboxes. We will get a sign to put in our yard that tells the bus driver she is a new student. And she will be gone, 5 days a week until 2:30 in the afternoon. While, with the new baby, I am sure we will be very busy, the house is still very quiet without her in it.

Not to mention she is a tremendous help. She loves her brother and will make silly faces and play games and sing songs ALL DAY LONG. She will zip diapers to the trash can without even thinking about it, much less complaining. She can be kinda bossy and sassy, but she protects the baby from other kids when they are around, making sure they don't whisk away his toys or accidentally step on him. In those moments she seems so big to me. She likes to help with house cleaning, and she cleans her own room most of the time. And if you take out hamburger, she is in the kitchen on her stool lickety split because she is "Daddy's Hamburger Helper" and she refuses to let you forget it.

She is a very big KID now. There is hardly any baby left in her at all. It makes me, at the same time, very sad and very excited.