we're heading out in a few hours to spend christmas in iowa. the weather looks clear and the kids slept like crap last night so i'm sure they'll crash nicely once we're on the road.
merry christmas to all you out in bloggerland!
12.16.2006
12.14.2006
why hallmark and the postal service love me
we've been getting more and more christmas 'cards' in the mail, since the holiday is approaching rapidly. i call them 'cards' because what people have been sending is barely worth the 39 cent stamp on the envelope.
apparently the 'in' (or acceptable) thing to do is to put a picture of the kids or family onto a picture postcard, add in a lovey greeting and then stuff in an envelope with computer-generated labels stuck on the front. what they end up sending out is something that is as unpersonal as you get. the only thing special is the picture, when the real reason i open the envelope is to see the card they chose...the greetings they used...the signatures of my friends and family.
i think letter writing is a dying art. not in a sense of communication, that will continue through email or other electronic means (although the thought of texting honestly makes me cringe). i mean, putting your thoughts on paper in a semi-organized form, with legible penmanship, a loving closing, and flowy signature...spending the 39 cents or more, putting it in the mailbox, and imagining the recipient's excitement at opening mail. i love getting REAL mail. there's not much of it these days btwn the bills and the credit card offers. i consider the time that i put into a letter a gift of its own.
that is why all 70 of the cards i sent out were:
upon receiving a photo card from people who i thought of as dear friends, it makes me question the relationship btwn myself and the sender. for example, i've known 'monica' since 2nd grade. we were best friends from about 5th grade on. we grew apart during college and rarely talk now, but i still send her a chatty card for christmas and usually a card for her birthday. today in the mail i got a picture of her two boys in the normal computer-generated format. nothing special at all included to show to me that i was more than just another name in her address book, another checkmark on her card list.
another couple, the husband used to work with rob, sent the most boring printed letter ever, having stuffed it into an envelope with computer printed labels. they didn't even sign the letter. the only PERSONAL touch was a picture of the couple on the address label. i really feel like christmas mailings are all about who can take the most shortcuts with their computer these days.
as long as i can still hold a pen and find a post office, i will do it my way. which we all know is the right way, right? right.
apparently the 'in' (or acceptable) thing to do is to put a picture of the kids or family onto a picture postcard, add in a lovey greeting and then stuff in an envelope with computer-generated labels stuck on the front. what they end up sending out is something that is as unpersonal as you get. the only thing special is the picture, when the real reason i open the envelope is to see the card they chose...the greetings they used...the signatures of my friends and family.
i think letter writing is a dying art. not in a sense of communication, that will continue through email or other electronic means (although the thought of texting honestly makes me cringe). i mean, putting your thoughts on paper in a semi-organized form, with legible penmanship, a loving closing, and flowy signature...spending the 39 cents or more, putting it in the mailbox, and imagining the recipient's excitement at opening mail. i love getting REAL mail. there's not much of it these days btwn the bills and the credit card offers. i consider the time that i put into a letter a gift of its own.
that is why all 70 of the cards i sent out were:
- hand addressed (return address too)
- a personal greeting and signature in each card
- a family signature on our xmas letters that were included (and YES, the letters were off the computer...i do have 3 kids after all!)
upon receiving a photo card from people who i thought of as dear friends, it makes me question the relationship btwn myself and the sender. for example, i've known 'monica' since 2nd grade. we were best friends from about 5th grade on. we grew apart during college and rarely talk now, but i still send her a chatty card for christmas and usually a card for her birthday. today in the mail i got a picture of her two boys in the normal computer-generated format. nothing special at all included to show to me that i was more than just another name in her address book, another checkmark on her card list.
another couple, the husband used to work with rob, sent the most boring printed letter ever, having stuffed it into an envelope with computer printed labels. they didn't even sign the letter. the only PERSONAL touch was a picture of the couple on the address label. i really feel like christmas mailings are all about who can take the most shortcuts with their computer these days.
as long as i can still hold a pen and find a post office, i will do it my way. which we all know is the right way, right? right.
12.09.2006
arg.
my husband is trying to waterproof a jacket. he's spraying this scotchguard/waterproofing agent on his jacket...while still inside.
does he read the part of the can that says do this in a VENTILATED area??? the man is a college graduate, he has 2 degrees, why does he not follow directions???
his excuse? it's too cold outside to do it out there. so instead he's going to expose all of us to these wonderfully toxic fumes. arg.
does he read the part of the can that says do this in a VENTILATED area??? the man is a college graduate, he has 2 degrees, why does he not follow directions???
his excuse? it's too cold outside to do it out there. so instead he's going to expose all of us to these wonderfully toxic fumes. arg.
12.07.2006
i am...
i am a diet pepsi whore. so is rob. the bottles are mine, the cans are his.i am also the family bottle redemption clerk so i get to take these back to walmart and feed the machines to get our deposit money back. i hate it when the machines are full or the scary looking people with garbage bags full of cans are there. my mother used to work customer service at a grocery store where they would accept pop cans at the counter in back. she has lots of tales of people bringing in garbage bags FULL of cans, not necessarily in clean condition...and sometimes with a dead mouse or live spiders way down in the bottom of the bag. people would just leave the bags out in their garage and bring them in 'when they got around to it.' my mother was transferred to another part of the store long before the redemption machines put in an appearance. these days, i think there should be a limit on how many garbage bags one person can redeem at once. it's not unusual to see a person with 3 bags at the machines. i'm wondering if they use that money to supplement their welfare checks or what. it has to take forever to empty those bags.
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i am mentally reviewing my purchases for the kids' christmas presents and i believe i have NOT bought any gifts which require batteries. i believe this is the first christmas as a mom that that has happened! we're going the puzzle and dollhouse route this season. while other parents are looking at the new game systems, we're going granola. (i personally don't understand why parents buy these systems for their kids. rob compared it to his parents buying him an original atari when he was 9. point for rob, but ataris were/are cool. and there was not a lot of blood or cursing on an atari game. the most you had to be worried about was a white square shooting blocks at your yellow square.) it seems like kids don't get enough fresh air or exercise, why would you buy a gaming system to encourage this? rob might use the excuse how it teaches hand/eye coordination. he may be right, but dammit, can't we get a pingpong table to do that instead? or a game of jacks? or a good old fashioned acorn fight every fall? (i'm reliving my childhood here...my brother and i would have acorn fights, the perfect place to launch an attack was from the bed of my dad's pickup truck. it was always parked right under an oaktree.)
i am guilty of keeping the kids inside too much. before elisha was born we played outside a lot, mostly it was cade helping me garden and reese running laps around the house (she likes to run...don't know how she could be MY daughter). but with a tiny baby, it's a little hard to orchestrate outside playtime. it's almost 55 outside and sunny today, we should be out there right now. the sun sets in about 3 hours (rolling eyes here, i hate short winter days).
i am wondering if winter days will last a bit longer when we move to georgia? it's further south, but not quite the bahamas.
and now the baby has woken up. damn.
i am outta here.
a bit of craziness
things i've accomplished this week:
the last few days have been rough for me, mentally. if it's not postpartum depression, it's something similar. i've found myself thinking about throwing myself down the stairs, and then cursing the same stairs for not being long enough to break my neck if i did go down them. also passing through my thoughts: my kids would be better off without me. i've had a dark few days, apparently. i haven't even told rob the thoughts that have gone through my head. i should but i'm scared to death of actually seeking help...i worry about mental evaluations following me in my medical record.
anyway, i've been feeling better the last 24 hours. i think i was just at a low point, maybe brought on by holiday stress. damn holidays. that's the reason i'm crazy. heh heh.
it also helps that elisha slept really well last night. she only woke up once last night, around 4am. she nursed and went right back to sleep. she's such an angel.
better go get some more stuff done...only an hour til reese gets home.
- far too much laundry...3 loads of kids' clothes ALONE. am i buying them too many clothes? i'm so tired of folding little clothes...ugh. if we had more closet space, i'd hang them all.
- gotten rid of 2 sleeping bags and an old carseat through freecycle. i love freecycle, otherwise i'd feel really guilty for throwing all that away. we already produce the most garbage on our block...how do the other families get by with just one big bag of garbage a week?!?!? i'm sure that with 2 in diapers, our trash is also the most fragrant.
- finally vacuumed upstairs. i've been wanting to do this for the last week...so it REALLY needed done. and it's finished just in time for me to vacuum downstairs again. sigh. i would love to have a central vacuum. (yes, i just wished for a big vacuum.)
- almost done with our xmas letter that goes in our card. we got some pictures of the kids last night that MIGHT work to go into the card, too. i'm going to take a few more shots tonight if everyone is happy and we'll make the final decision. then i'll send rob to the local kodak machine to make many many prints. at least all the envelopes are addressed. i did that yesterday.
the last few days have been rough for me, mentally. if it's not postpartum depression, it's something similar. i've found myself thinking about throwing myself down the stairs, and then cursing the same stairs for not being long enough to break my neck if i did go down them. also passing through my thoughts: my kids would be better off without me. i've had a dark few days, apparently. i haven't even told rob the thoughts that have gone through my head. i should but i'm scared to death of actually seeking help...i worry about mental evaluations following me in my medical record.
anyway, i've been feeling better the last 24 hours. i think i was just at a low point, maybe brought on by holiday stress. damn holidays. that's the reason i'm crazy. heh heh.
it also helps that elisha slept really well last night. she only woke up once last night, around 4am. she nursed and went right back to sleep. she's such an angel.
better go get some more stuff done...only an hour til reese gets home.
12.01.2006
happy december! (otherwise titled '24 days to go!')
it's december! hooray!
i celebrated by having a bagel instead of my normal raisin bran. it's a yummy cranberry bagel, ones that only come out at christmas time. delicious :)
elisha's first tooth is ready to pop through any time. it's weird to see a teeny baby chewing on her hands, usually at this age they're just discovering they HAVE hands and watching them quietly or sometimes sucking a finger when it gets too close to their mouth. but elisha is cramming her whole fist in her mouth. we have pictures but they're on my husbands camera and i have no clue where the cord is to upload the evidence. so you'll have to wait.
she's also gotten a her first cold. it's a real 'juicy' one, lots of mucas and congestion. so we're using the snot-sucker as needed, and we even have one upstairs and one downstairs for our own convenience. reese brought this cold home from school about 3 weeks ago and it's taking forever to get over...averaging about a week per child, but they all still have a nasty sounding cough. so i just give them some more orange juice and hope it goes away soon. i'm sure it will, just in time for the next round of sickies.
i think i'm passing on the flu shot for the kids this year. according to our pediatrician, we SHOULD get it, since elisha is so tiny but we've gotten the flu shot every year since we started having babies in the house and i think it's just useless. after joining a parenting board, i'm more worried than ever about vaccines and their side effects. i think it's absurd that the chicken pox vaccine (varicella) is required for entrance into preschool or kindergarten. unfortunately, for reese to attend preschool, she had to have it; seems that the school district is telling ME how to care for my child's health. since cade is not in daycare, he won't have it until he has to enter school...same with elisha. i just don't see what is the benefit of the varicella vaccine....is it just so kids won't miss a week or more of classes with chicken pox? so it won't wipe out a whole class for a week or more?
i had the pox (how medieval sounding!) when i was a baby, under 2 years of age. i frightened my mom with my high fever and febrile seizures, but i think that's pretty uncommon to have with the chicken pox. i don't remember any of it. i think the vaccine needs to be studied more before it becomes school policy. too late for many districts though.
we're heading to iowa for christmas. this is really turning into a national lampoon's road trip. 3 kids and a dog in a minivan....add in a dad that stops for every starbucks and a mom that continually tells the dad to slow down and that would be us. how, in 5 short years, did i go from newlywed to mother of 3? from 0 to frumpy in 5 years flat. speaking of, this month marks when elisha was conceived (i think pearl harbor day was the big day...let's just say our sex
life is pretty easy to track) and december 30th marks when i found out i was pregnant with her. the last year has just ZOOMED past. how does time go so fast???
when it comes to christmas music, i'm pretty traditional. i found a double cd set in bath & body works that i bought on a whim (for $10, and a $1 of that goes to a charity of some sort...i figured what the heck). it's a pretty good album with some big names (they could have left off the pussycat dolls...do they belong on a christmas album? no.). for some non-traditional christmas music, i recommend it.
i celebrated by having a bagel instead of my normal raisin bran. it's a yummy cranberry bagel, ones that only come out at christmas time. delicious :)
elisha's first tooth is ready to pop through any time. it's weird to see a teeny baby chewing on her hands, usually at this age they're just discovering they HAVE hands and watching them quietly or sometimes sucking a finger when it gets too close to their mouth. but elisha is cramming her whole fist in her mouth. we have pictures but they're on my husbands camera and i have no clue where the cord is to upload the evidence. so you'll have to wait.
she's also gotten a her first cold. it's a real 'juicy' one, lots of mucas and congestion. so we're using the snot-sucker as needed, and we even have one upstairs and one downstairs for our own convenience. reese brought this cold home from school about 3 weeks ago and it's taking forever to get over...averaging about a week per child, but they all still have a nasty sounding cough. so i just give them some more orange juice and hope it goes away soon. i'm sure it will, just in time for the next round of sickies.
i think i'm passing on the flu shot for the kids this year. according to our pediatrician, we SHOULD get it, since elisha is so tiny but we've gotten the flu shot every year since we started having babies in the house and i think it's just useless. after joining a parenting board, i'm more worried than ever about vaccines and their side effects. i think it's absurd that the chicken pox vaccine (varicella) is required for entrance into preschool or kindergarten. unfortunately, for reese to attend preschool, she had to have it; seems that the school district is telling ME how to care for my child's health. since cade is not in daycare, he won't have it until he has to enter school...same with elisha. i just don't see what is the benefit of the varicella vaccine....is it just so kids won't miss a week or more of classes with chicken pox? so it won't wipe out a whole class for a week or more?
i had the pox (how medieval sounding!) when i was a baby, under 2 years of age. i frightened my mom with my high fever and febrile seizures, but i think that's pretty uncommon to have with the chicken pox. i don't remember any of it. i think the vaccine needs to be studied more before it becomes school policy. too late for many districts though.
we're heading to iowa for christmas. this is really turning into a national lampoon's road trip. 3 kids and a dog in a minivan....add in a dad that stops for every starbucks and a mom that continually tells the dad to slow down and that would be us. how, in 5 short years, did i go from newlywed to mother of 3? from 0 to frumpy in 5 years flat. speaking of, this month marks when elisha was conceived (i think pearl harbor day was the big day...let's just say our sex
life is pretty easy to track) and december 30th marks when i found out i was pregnant with her. the last year has just ZOOMED past. how does time go so fast???when it comes to christmas music, i'm pretty traditional. i found a double cd set in bath & body works that i bought on a whim (for $10, and a $1 of that goes to a charity of some sort...i figured what the heck). it's a pretty good album with some big names (they could have left off the pussycat dolls...do they belong on a christmas album? no.). for some non-traditional christmas music, i recommend it.
11.27.2006
the true meaning of christmas...
my pets have the christmas spirit already. which is "share or i'll scratch you." poley is a short-hair dog, he should be thankful for a kitty to warm his arse!
a post in which the bobeara gets philosophical...
i'm trying to be a dedicated blogger. all of my kids are asleep but here i am typing as fast as i possibly can. i KNOW that within 30 seconds someone is going to wake up. it works that way whenever i start typing on the computer or i fall asleep. like murphy's law, only maybe call it the mommy law.
i've spent quite a bit of time trying to put some christmas music on my ipod. for some reason my computer is really slow at importing everything. it used to be pretty fast but then i upgraded to itunes who-knows-what-version and now it takes forever. but the neat part is that i'm listening to the nutcracker ballet (courtesy of the philadelphia orchestra :)) and i had forgotten how much i love it.
the last few days i've had a bit of a stuggle. i'm not really religous...i never was required to go to church as a child and don't really understand how someone can just have blind faith that the whole god thing really exists. however, now i'm a mom and it's amazing how helpless i feel at times raising these kids. when reese is at school or on the bus, i'm constantly hoping that if the teachers/bus drivers aren't watching out for her welfare, then somebody of a higher power hopefully is. and at least 5x a day, i'm thankful for our health..and the health of our family. but i really don't know who i'm thanking...all the religious types would immediately answer with 'god', but i hate to actually say that yes, i'm praying/thanking a god whom i've never really worshipped. it's like i'm asking for his/her care without putting any real effort into it.
ANYWAY, now that it's the christmas season, reese wants to know what all these christmas songs are about. not just rudolph and frosty, those she can figure out on her own. i'm talking about 'away in a manger' and 'silent night.' one of the christmas books i bought her the other day had a version of the birth of jesus in it (it was actually ok with me, seemed appropriate for her age, maybe a little older). but i just cringe everytime jesus or god might come up in conversation with her. maybe by not talking more about it, i'm doing more harm than not. i guess i'm raising her to be a good person, period. i don't think you have to be a devout bible-thumping person to have a good afterlife.
weird that i'm thinking about this. it's all because of silvia browne. she's really got me thinking...enough so that i've programmed my tivo to record montel on wednesdays. that and i've been unbelievably fortunate to have ignored this issue for so long, all of my friends and family are healthy and still walking around.
i really need to discuss this with rob. rob is even less religious than me, his mother was buddhist and his dad was...um...from st. louis. i have no clue what his dad impressed upon him as far as religion. i think rob is of the same opinion as me, that just being a good person and a KIND person is enough to make a good life.
holy moly, i got more than 30 seconds there, didn't i? although i hear baby elisha starting to wake. she's an angel, by the way. she's gotten so she's only waking up around 3 or 4am, nursing and going back to sleep. i wish my boobs would accept this new schedule though, i've woken up the last few nights really engorged.
anyway, here's a shot of the tree this year. and yes, it's huge. like huge enough that it's a pain in the ass. but those little white lights make me feel all warm inside.
my shopping has been started. reese is done, my mom is 1/2 done. i still have my dad, my bro & sis in law, rob, and cade. and elisha. but does a 4 month old really need presents? i bought a peanut shell sling to tote her around and i think that may be her xmas present. she's the one getting a free ride, after all.
and i'm working on cards already...bought letter paper and stamps today. i'm mentally composing the christmas letter already. it's been a busy year!
i've spent quite a bit of time trying to put some christmas music on my ipod. for some reason my computer is really slow at importing everything. it used to be pretty fast but then i upgraded to itunes who-knows-what-version and now it takes forever. but the neat part is that i'm listening to the nutcracker ballet (courtesy of the philadelphia orchestra :)) and i had forgotten how much i love it.
the last few days i've had a bit of a stuggle. i'm not really religous...i never was required to go to church as a child and don't really understand how someone can just have blind faith that the whole god thing really exists. however, now i'm a mom and it's amazing how helpless i feel at times raising these kids. when reese is at school or on the bus, i'm constantly hoping that if the teachers/bus drivers aren't watching out for her welfare, then somebody of a higher power hopefully is. and at least 5x a day, i'm thankful for our health..and the health of our family. but i really don't know who i'm thanking...all the religious types would immediately answer with 'god', but i hate to actually say that yes, i'm praying/thanking a god whom i've never really worshipped. it's like i'm asking for his/her care without putting any real effort into it.
ANYWAY, now that it's the christmas season, reese wants to know what all these christmas songs are about. not just rudolph and frosty, those she can figure out on her own. i'm talking about 'away in a manger' and 'silent night.' one of the christmas books i bought her the other day had a version of the birth of jesus in it (it was actually ok with me, seemed appropriate for her age, maybe a little older). but i just cringe everytime jesus or god might come up in conversation with her. maybe by not talking more about it, i'm doing more harm than not. i guess i'm raising her to be a good person, period. i don't think you have to be a devout bible-thumping person to have a good afterlife.
weird that i'm thinking about this. it's all because of silvia browne. she's really got me thinking...enough so that i've programmed my tivo to record montel on wednesdays. that and i've been unbelievably fortunate to have ignored this issue for so long, all of my friends and family are healthy and still walking around.
i really need to discuss this with rob. rob is even less religious than me, his mother was buddhist and his dad was...um...from st. louis. i have no clue what his dad impressed upon him as far as religion. i think rob is of the same opinion as me, that just being a good person and a KIND person is enough to make a good life.
holy moly, i got more than 30 seconds there, didn't i? although i hear baby elisha starting to wake. she's an angel, by the way. she's gotten so she's only waking up around 3 or 4am, nursing and going back to sleep. i wish my boobs would accept this new schedule though, i've woken up the last few nights really engorged.
anyway, here's a shot of the tree this year. and yes, it's huge. like huge enough that it's a pain in the ass. but those little white lights make me feel all warm inside.
my shopping has been started. reese is done, my mom is 1/2 done. i still have my dad, my bro & sis in law, rob, and cade. and elisha. but does a 4 month old really need presents? i bought a peanut shell sling to tote her around and i think that may be her xmas present. she's the one getting a free ride, after all.
and i'm working on cards already...bought letter paper and stamps today. i'm mentally composing the christmas letter already. it's been a busy year!
11.26.2006
holiday blather
welcome to the christmas season. the OFFICIAL christmas season. it is after thanksgiving and now the world has my approval to start decorating and shopping and being christmasy. it was hard to hold out, with us having a 4 year old who asks at least once a day when christmas will be, but we made it.
we put up the tree the day after thanksgiving. it was a 7pm affair, meaning the baby cried the whole time, cade was whiney & tired, and reese was hyperactive and bouncing around (i think she thought that since the tree was going up, the big day was soon to follow). so we put up the tree, turned on the twinkle lights and then started bathtime. i was not going to put up all those glass ornaments with kids whining and crying and bouncing around me.
we had to rearrange our entire living room. with all the baby stuff, floor space is really getting tight, and i think our tree is just TOO DAMN BIG. we bought a new tree last year and of course we had to get a BIG tree. we chose a 7.5 foot prelit tree (made in china, of course. i just found the tag on the tree yesterday and snipped it off!) from home depot. now i'm wishing we would have gotten a charlie brown style tree instead. not only is this tree tall but it's wide. thank god we're leaving for christmas, i don't think our house could hold the tree AND presents under it.
i wasn't sure i wanted to even put up the tree at all, since we are going to my parents' house for the holiday. one of those 'more trouble than it's worth' things. but then all that turkey on thanksgiving kind of put me in the holiday mood. and now the tree has it's own half of the living room :)
the ornaments went up saturday morning, while daddy & cade were gone. elisha was snoozing and so it was just reese & me. reese was still bouncing around, does she ever stop?? but we got all the ornaments up...and in more than one part of the tree. reese was trying to hang every ornament i gave her on the same branch. this is the first year that she's really been allowed to even touch the ornaments, so it's a learning experience for her. but next year, she better remember to space them out evenly, dangit.
i think thanksgiving dinner went really well. it was just us, but i went ahead and got a turkey and all the side dishes that go along with it. the turkey was delicious (thank you butterball!) and my pie turned out beautifully (thank you pilsbury roll out dough!). the stuffing wasn't so good, in fact i may just not make it next year. it doesn't stay warm and no one eats it (sorry, stove top). we had corn this year because my husband refuses to eat vegetables except corn and he's passed this preferece to our children. i would have loved to have some fattening green bean casserole, but i know i would have had the whole dish to myself...and even that *might* be too much green bean casserole for one person. my rolls were perfect (thank you better homes & garden cookbook!) and my cranberry jello salad was yummy (thank you allrecipes.com).
the best part: i bought a big turkey just so we could have leftovers...which rob refuses to eat, so they're ALL mine! woohoo! the experts say that all leftovers should be consumed or thrown away within 3-4 days after thanksgiving, and we're right on schedule. everything is gone except for the turkey and i'm due to have yet another yummy turkey sandwich (extra mustard) for lunch today.
my to do list for today:
we put up the tree the day after thanksgiving. it was a 7pm affair, meaning the baby cried the whole time, cade was whiney & tired, and reese was hyperactive and bouncing around (i think she thought that since the tree was going up, the big day was soon to follow). so we put up the tree, turned on the twinkle lights and then started bathtime. i was not going to put up all those glass ornaments with kids whining and crying and bouncing around me.
we had to rearrange our entire living room. with all the baby stuff, floor space is really getting tight, and i think our tree is just TOO DAMN BIG. we bought a new tree last year and of course we had to get a BIG tree. we chose a 7.5 foot prelit tree (made in china, of course. i just found the tag on the tree yesterday and snipped it off!) from home depot. now i'm wishing we would have gotten a charlie brown style tree instead. not only is this tree tall but it's wide. thank god we're leaving for christmas, i don't think our house could hold the tree AND presents under it.
i wasn't sure i wanted to even put up the tree at all, since we are going to my parents' house for the holiday. one of those 'more trouble than it's worth' things. but then all that turkey on thanksgiving kind of put me in the holiday mood. and now the tree has it's own half of the living room :)
the ornaments went up saturday morning, while daddy & cade were gone. elisha was snoozing and so it was just reese & me. reese was still bouncing around, does she ever stop?? but we got all the ornaments up...and in more than one part of the tree. reese was trying to hang every ornament i gave her on the same branch. this is the first year that she's really been allowed to even touch the ornaments, so it's a learning experience for her. but next year, she better remember to space them out evenly, dangit.
i think thanksgiving dinner went really well. it was just us, but i went ahead and got a turkey and all the side dishes that go along with it. the turkey was delicious (thank you butterball!) and my pie turned out beautifully (thank you pilsbury roll out dough!). the stuffing wasn't so good, in fact i may just not make it next year. it doesn't stay warm and no one eats it (sorry, stove top). we had corn this year because my husband refuses to eat vegetables except corn and he's passed this preferece to our children. i would have loved to have some fattening green bean casserole, but i know i would have had the whole dish to myself...and even that *might* be too much green bean casserole for one person. my rolls were perfect (thank you better homes & garden cookbook!) and my cranberry jello salad was yummy (thank you allrecipes.com).
the best part: i bought a big turkey just so we could have leftovers...which rob refuses to eat, so they're ALL mine! woohoo! the experts say that all leftovers should be consumed or thrown away within 3-4 days after thanksgiving, and we're right on schedule. everything is gone except for the turkey and i'm due to have yet another yummy turkey sandwich (extra mustard) for lunch today.
my to do list for today:
- put some holiday music on my ipod
- figure out why our humidifier isn't working (both cade & elisha have the 'crud'...lots of snot and lots of phlegmy coughing :( thank god for vapo-rub!)
- fold the 3 loads of laundry that are waiting for me. sigh. they're all baby/kid clothes and those loads take forever to fold. actually, i should be doing that right now while elisha is dozing. ooops
- hit walmart (milk & maybe a new humidifier), linens & things (yankee candle plug ins, i can't handle the yankee candle outlet today), and bath & body works (looking for a gift for a friend)
- wait for elisha to have a blowout. she didn't have a dirty diaper yesterday so i know it's just a matter of time. i even dressed her in another sleeper this morning so it'd be easier to clean up.
11.12.2006
a nap you say?
greetings!
first things first...yes, the baby has arrived. whew! if not, that would be the world's longest pregnancy!
elisha brooke was born on the very last day of august. officially 6 days overdue by the ultrasound's dating, right on time for fertility friend dating, and one day early for my own dating. i had hoped for a september baby for some reason.
my water broke around 8pm on the 30th of august, just as we were tucking the kids into bed. rob was convinced i needed to go to the hospital as soon as possible, which meant dragging the kids along with us. i was having very few contractions so the doc was ok with me staying at home. if i hadn't gone before then, she wanted us at the hospital at 7am.
so the kids went to bed and i called grandma & grandpa, who were still on the road. they had left a few days earlier to make the trek from iowa to connecticut in order to be here when the baby arrived. g&g were still in NY state and were looking for a place to stop for the night. when i told them that my water broke, they got back on the interstate and drove as fast as 2 old farts can drive that late at night.
meanwhile, i tried to relax and get some rest but i had a few contractions coming here & there and it was more comfortable to be up and moving around. and since it was such a surprise to have my water break, of course the house was a mess. so i spent an hour cleaning it, mostly the kitchen...and then cleaning up 'drips' on the floor where my towels leaked through. the smell of amniotic fluid is one that you don't forget. wierd.
g&g arrived around 12:30am, bleary but here. whew. now we had childcare secured and i could at least not worry about that. i know that when we were sitting around talking, my contractions really started hurting a bit. maybe b/c i could relax now that g&g were here?
i showed grandma around a little upstairs so she would be familiar in the morning with where stuff was (we had switched the kids' rooms since their last visit). reese woke up mid-tour and gave grandma some hugs, then she went back to sleep.
then we all settled in for some sleep around 2am, g&g on the airmattress in the living room and rob and i in bed...with a garbage bag and some towels under me. i think i used up all the spare towels we had.
i was actually able to get some rest, but woke up around 4am, with contrax a little more painful. i took a shower and got cade back to sleep, then woke rob up at 6 so we could be at the hospital by 7. reese woke up to tell us goodbye, but cade woke up right before we were leaving and i didn't see any alternative but to sneak out the back door. i was starting to be in real pain (stopping in order to deal with contrax) and i didn't want to deal with his meltdown when he saw us drive away. (turns out he went back to sleep in our bed after whining a bit, then came down later and was a perfect angel! no way!)
for some reason rob thought we were taking his low-riding acura to the hospital, and started to load up the trunk. but i was intent on the minivan. no way did i want to struggle out of the acura when we got to the hospital. so after a brief squabble, we were on our way. i wish men could experience just 10 minutes of active labor...they would understand what we mean when we say SLOW DOWN and NO BUMPS. sudden turns and potholes and short stops just irritate the hell out of me when i'm in excruiciating pain. go figure. :/
we made it to the hospital and we walked up to the maternity ward. they had a room waiting for us and my doc was already there, which was a relief. i didn't have to go to triage or wait for anything. (i have a feeling that this delivery was one my doc's first ones, she seemed to be a young ob/gyn and she was new at the practice, maybe that's why she was there before i was...either way, it was reassuring!)
i got changed into the lovely hospital gown and the belly belt and then went back into our room. they hooked up the monitors to my belly (i didn't remember this, i had to ask rob if they had monitors on me at all) and checked me. i was at 6 cm and it was about 7:15am.
with it being just after 7am, we were dealing with the nurse's shift change. add to the fact that it was a really busy morning in the ward, and things were a little hectic. my first nurse was anne and i can just say how thankful i am that she got reassigned to another patient. i remember she had really strong perfume, and a poor bedside manner (trying to find a vein for an IV during a contrax and telling me to 'relax my hand'...not going to work, honey. bah!), and a mustache. i shit you not, she had to have been grooming that thing. it was way too long to NOT see when she looked in the mirror.
thank goodness she was sent somewhere else and we got a new nurse, whose name i've suddenly blanked on. but she was such a blessing...quiet voice, had tons of advice for helping deal with the pain, and she really made the experience special.
i decided i wanted to go with an epidural, the pain was so bad at this point i didn't even want to open my eyes. so they got the doc in to do that and by the time they had gone over all the possible things that could go wrong, i had the nurse check me one more time and i was at 9cm.
i really thought it was too late for an epi, so i sent the epi doc on his way. i felt bad for wasting his time and opening all those sterile-wrapped packages but i really didn't think i could sit still enough to have them insert the needle...or that it would take effect in time. maybe it would have and i could have had a more controlled birth...or a birth that i remember more about. who knows.
so i knew when the epi guy left that i was going natural. it wasn't long after he left that i started wimpering with contrax. right after that started happening, both the nurse and doc said that i could push with a contrax if i wanted to. at that point, i did want to, it felt better than just laying there in pain.
rob was there, but i don't even remember him while i was pushing. no clue what he said during contrax or even what he said when elisha was born. i think i pushed for 10 or 15 minutes? it didn't seem like long at all, but geez, the pain seemed worse than with cade. at one point (i think when she was crowning), i remember throwing my head back in my pillows and yelling, 'i can't breathe, i can't breathe.' but rob said that the doctor just told me 'now sarah, take a deep breath and push.' and i did. and then elisha was born. 8:32am on 8/31 (a thursday). funny, both of my girls were born in the early morning...reese was 8:06 on a saturday.
when they put her on my belly, i just remember saying over and over 'thank you, thank you, thank you.' not sure who i was thanking...as non-religious as i like to think i am, i think i was thanking god...for giving me this baby and for making the pain STOP.
elisha weighed in at 8 lbs, 13 oz and 21.5". she was quiet at birth, just like reese, but then started crying after a few moments (cade was a screamer...and still is a screamer). amazing how similar the girls are, even their baby pictures look so much alike. i had a 2nd degree tear and the doc didn't numb me up enough for those stitches, but i survived.
we didn't decide on her name til right before we left the hospital the next day. we had to wait around for the birth certificate lady before we could be discharged, so elisha brooke it was. with reese & cade we've chosen their names for family relevance, or background of the name. with elisha...there's no good reason for her name, other than that we like it. and reese has told us several times what a good name that is for a baby :)
we only stayed in the hospital one night and came home around 5pm the day after she was born. frankly, i was bored in the hospital. the first few nights weren't easy, but i didn't expect them to be. rob had 2 weeks off from work (wow, pretty generous for the navy!) and g&g stayed for another week. nursing was rough here & there but now it's all routine. she still gets picky about her latch but she's gaining just fine, averaging about a lb a month and growing an inch a month.
her first round of shots at 2 months of age were rough on me, but she had no reactions at all during the following days...and i *think* she's teething, can you believe it? she's chewing on her hands constantly and she has little bumps on her lower gums. she hates tummy time, she'll barely lift her head 1/2 an inch off the ground, she prefers to turn her head to suck on her hands. but she loves to sit up and look around, that's probably when she's most alert. even when she's up on my shoulder, she kind of slumps into my shoulder most of the time. maybe she's just going to be a cuddly girl.
the older 2 are doing ok. reese has preschool to distract her from issues at home and cade's new hobby is throwing tantrums anytime mommy tries to tell him what to do. arg. i sure hope he grows out of this...it's getting worse and worse every day it seems. i think today he had 2 tantrums before breakfast.
rob is gone right now too, that doesn't make it any easier. october was spent with him working from around 6am til 8pm at night, in training and studying. and right before halloween he went on an underway to complete the onboard section of the course. he'll be home on the 21st, only 8 more days.
i can't wait til he gets home, i am prioritizing some time for myself. i want to paint my toenails, finish my book, and take a NAP. even if it's with elisha, i want a NAP. can't wait for my NAP. wonder if i can get a NAP wrapped up for christmas and put it under the tree for myself? hmmmm...
first things first...yes, the baby has arrived. whew! if not, that would be the world's longest pregnancy!
elisha brooke was born on the very last day of august. officially 6 days overdue by the ultrasound's dating, right on time for fertility friend dating, and one day early for my own dating. i had hoped for a september baby for some reason.
my water broke around 8pm on the 30th of august, just as we were tucking the kids into bed. rob was convinced i needed to go to the hospital as soon as possible, which meant dragging the kids along with us. i was having very few contractions so the doc was ok with me staying at home. if i hadn't gone before then, she wanted us at the hospital at 7am.
so the kids went to bed and i called grandma & grandpa, who were still on the road. they had left a few days earlier to make the trek from iowa to connecticut in order to be here when the baby arrived. g&g were still in NY state and were looking for a place to stop for the night. when i told them that my water broke, they got back on the interstate and drove as fast as 2 old farts can drive that late at night.
meanwhile, i tried to relax and get some rest but i had a few contractions coming here & there and it was more comfortable to be up and moving around. and since it was such a surprise to have my water break, of course the house was a mess. so i spent an hour cleaning it, mostly the kitchen...and then cleaning up 'drips' on the floor where my towels leaked through. the smell of amniotic fluid is one that you don't forget. wierd.
g&g arrived around 12:30am, bleary but here. whew. now we had childcare secured and i could at least not worry about that. i know that when we were sitting around talking, my contractions really started hurting a bit. maybe b/c i could relax now that g&g were here?
i showed grandma around a little upstairs so she would be familiar in the morning with where stuff was (we had switched the kids' rooms since their last visit). reese woke up mid-tour and gave grandma some hugs, then she went back to sleep.
then we all settled in for some sleep around 2am, g&g on the airmattress in the living room and rob and i in bed...with a garbage bag and some towels under me. i think i used up all the spare towels we had.
i was actually able to get some rest, but woke up around 4am, with contrax a little more painful. i took a shower and got cade back to sleep, then woke rob up at 6 so we could be at the hospital by 7. reese woke up to tell us goodbye, but cade woke up right before we were leaving and i didn't see any alternative but to sneak out the back door. i was starting to be in real pain (stopping in order to deal with contrax) and i didn't want to deal with his meltdown when he saw us drive away. (turns out he went back to sleep in our bed after whining a bit, then came down later and was a perfect angel! no way!)
for some reason rob thought we were taking his low-riding acura to the hospital, and started to load up the trunk. but i was intent on the minivan. no way did i want to struggle out of the acura when we got to the hospital. so after a brief squabble, we were on our way. i wish men could experience just 10 minutes of active labor...they would understand what we mean when we say SLOW DOWN and NO BUMPS. sudden turns and potholes and short stops just irritate the hell out of me when i'm in excruiciating pain. go figure. :/
we made it to the hospital and we walked up to the maternity ward. they had a room waiting for us and my doc was already there, which was a relief. i didn't have to go to triage or wait for anything. (i have a feeling that this delivery was one my doc's first ones, she seemed to be a young ob/gyn and she was new at the practice, maybe that's why she was there before i was...either way, it was reassuring!)
i got changed into the lovely hospital gown and the belly belt and then went back into our room. they hooked up the monitors to my belly (i didn't remember this, i had to ask rob if they had monitors on me at all) and checked me. i was at 6 cm and it was about 7:15am.
with it being just after 7am, we were dealing with the nurse's shift change. add to the fact that it was a really busy morning in the ward, and things were a little hectic. my first nurse was anne and i can just say how thankful i am that she got reassigned to another patient. i remember she had really strong perfume, and a poor bedside manner (trying to find a vein for an IV during a contrax and telling me to 'relax my hand'...not going to work, honey. bah!), and a mustache. i shit you not, she had to have been grooming that thing. it was way too long to NOT see when she looked in the mirror.
thank goodness she was sent somewhere else and we got a new nurse, whose name i've suddenly blanked on. but she was such a blessing...quiet voice, had tons of advice for helping deal with the pain, and she really made the experience special.
i decided i wanted to go with an epidural, the pain was so bad at this point i didn't even want to open my eyes. so they got the doc in to do that and by the time they had gone over all the possible things that could go wrong, i had the nurse check me one more time and i was at 9cm.
i really thought it was too late for an epi, so i sent the epi doc on his way. i felt bad for wasting his time and opening all those sterile-wrapped packages but i really didn't think i could sit still enough to have them insert the needle...or that it would take effect in time. maybe it would have and i could have had a more controlled birth...or a birth that i remember more about. who knows.
so i knew when the epi guy left that i was going natural. it wasn't long after he left that i started wimpering with contrax. right after that started happening, both the nurse and doc said that i could push with a contrax if i wanted to. at that point, i did want to, it felt better than just laying there in pain.
rob was there, but i don't even remember him while i was pushing. no clue what he said during contrax or even what he said when elisha was born. i think i pushed for 10 or 15 minutes? it didn't seem like long at all, but geez, the pain seemed worse than with cade. at one point (i think when she was crowning), i remember throwing my head back in my pillows and yelling, 'i can't breathe, i can't breathe.' but rob said that the doctor just told me 'now sarah, take a deep breath and push.' and i did. and then elisha was born. 8:32am on 8/31 (a thursday). funny, both of my girls were born in the early morning...reese was 8:06 on a saturday.
when they put her on my belly, i just remember saying over and over 'thank you, thank you, thank you.' not sure who i was thanking...as non-religious as i like to think i am, i think i was thanking god...for giving me this baby and for making the pain STOP.
elisha weighed in at 8 lbs, 13 oz and 21.5". she was quiet at birth, just like reese, but then started crying after a few moments (cade was a screamer...and still is a screamer). amazing how similar the girls are, even their baby pictures look so much alike. i had a 2nd degree tear and the doc didn't numb me up enough for those stitches, but i survived.
we didn't decide on her name til right before we left the hospital the next day. we had to wait around for the birth certificate lady before we could be discharged, so elisha brooke it was. with reese & cade we've chosen their names for family relevance, or background of the name. with elisha...there's no good reason for her name, other than that we like it. and reese has told us several times what a good name that is for a baby :)
we only stayed in the hospital one night and came home around 5pm the day after she was born. frankly, i was bored in the hospital. the first few nights weren't easy, but i didn't expect them to be. rob had 2 weeks off from work (wow, pretty generous for the navy!) and g&g stayed for another week. nursing was rough here & there but now it's all routine. she still gets picky about her latch but she's gaining just fine, averaging about a lb a month and growing an inch a month.
her first round of shots at 2 months of age were rough on me, but she had no reactions at all during the following days...and i *think* she's teething, can you believe it? she's chewing on her hands constantly and she has little bumps on her lower gums. she hates tummy time, she'll barely lift her head 1/2 an inch off the ground, she prefers to turn her head to suck on her hands. but she loves to sit up and look around, that's probably when she's most alert. even when she's up on my shoulder, she kind of slumps into my shoulder most of the time. maybe she's just going to be a cuddly girl.
the older 2 are doing ok. reese has preschool to distract her from issues at home and cade's new hobby is throwing tantrums anytime mommy tries to tell him what to do. arg. i sure hope he grows out of this...it's getting worse and worse every day it seems. i think today he had 2 tantrums before breakfast.
rob is gone right now too, that doesn't make it any easier. october was spent with him working from around 6am til 8pm at night, in training and studying. and right before halloween he went on an underway to complete the onboard section of the course. he'll be home on the 21st, only 8 more days.
i can't wait til he gets home, i am prioritizing some time for myself. i want to paint my toenails, finish my book, and take a NAP. even if it's with elisha, i want a NAP. can't wait for my NAP. wonder if i can get a NAP wrapped up for christmas and put it under the tree for myself? hmmmm...
8.15.2006
just a check in
still here.
still pregant.
still no name for jane doe.
rob is working late this week. yesterday he went to a friend's house and played cards for a few hours. the kids & i were invited along but i'm to the point where no clothing fits, i really don't want to be around anyone who can't handle being yelled at for no reason, and my pelvis really hurts. can't wait to see how 'happy' i am to see rob when he gets home at 8pm tonight, wed and thurs! ;)
favorite outfits these days:
cut off sweatpants and a maternity tshirt from old navy...however even those tshirts are starting to get tight in the tummy. and suddenly they're showing an inch or 2 of skin at the bottom hem. when did that happen? and i don't know if my back fat is increasing or my boobs are getting bigger or sinking or what but suddenly, these favorite tshirts of mine are fitting tight through the shoulders and boobs. throw in a pair of flipflops and you have sarah on any given day. don't forget the huge circles under my eyes (restless nights here & there) and my hair in a ponytail anytime i'm vertical.
favorite sayings:
'are you listening to me?'
'what did mommy say?'
'CADE!'
'CADE, stop it!'
'don't talk to me.'
'i'm not listening.'
'leave me alone.'
'god, it's hot in here.'
and of course, random yelling at the dog...i'm sure the neighbors are getting a kick out of watching the expanding belly and the ever-shortening fuse. i'm just a huge ball of fun these days.
favorite foods:
still pregant.
still no name for jane doe.
rob is working late this week. yesterday he went to a friend's house and played cards for a few hours. the kids & i were invited along but i'm to the point where no clothing fits, i really don't want to be around anyone who can't handle being yelled at for no reason, and my pelvis really hurts. can't wait to see how 'happy' i am to see rob when he gets home at 8pm tonight, wed and thurs! ;)
favorite outfits these days:
cut off sweatpants and a maternity tshirt from old navy...however even those tshirts are starting to get tight in the tummy. and suddenly they're showing an inch or 2 of skin at the bottom hem. when did that happen? and i don't know if my back fat is increasing or my boobs are getting bigger or sinking or what but suddenly, these favorite tshirts of mine are fitting tight through the shoulders and boobs. throw in a pair of flipflops and you have sarah on any given day. don't forget the huge circles under my eyes (restless nights here & there) and my hair in a ponytail anytime i'm vertical.
favorite sayings:
'are you listening to me?'
'what did mommy say?'
'CADE!'
'CADE, stop it!'
'don't talk to me.'
'i'm not listening.'
'leave me alone.'
'god, it's hot in here.'
and of course, random yelling at the dog...i'm sure the neighbors are getting a kick out of watching the expanding belly and the ever-shortening fuse. i'm just a huge ball of fun these days.
favorite foods:
- chocolate milk
- chocolate ice cream
- drinkable yogurts (i haven't gagged on them yet, i always thought i would if i tried them)
- tortilla chips & bean dip with sour cream on top. (that would explain my gas pains, huh?)
- the little mini rubies hamburgers at ruby tuesday restaurants. those things are worth the heartburn.
- peaches, blueberries, cherries...probably all the fruit that is worthless in vitamins or fiber.
- raisin bran...for obvious reasons (blush).
8.04.2006
august? now? already?
somehow it's august already? how did that happen?
today marks 37 weeks of pregnancy. and i'm finally starting to feel it. i'm getting little stabbing pains in my lower abdomen whenever i bend over too far and pretty much too pissy to be around. the weather is not helping. although who ever heard of an august when it was nice and cool? just part of my pennance for not planning this pregnancy, i guess. if i had to do it again, i would plan on giving birth in late may/early june. not too many months of summer, but you can still wear most of your non-maternity winter clothes.
because of the 100 degree weather this week, we've pretty much spent the whole week inside. no wonder i'm going crazy! btwn the kids and having to stare at this mess (which refuses to clean itself), i'm lucky i haven't locked myself in the bathroom for a few hours of peace & quiet. the kids are at least napping daily...even reese. so i do get some quiet time. my husband tells me to go somewhere and he'll watch the kids, but that really doesn't sound like an improvement. i'll go somewhere, stuck among annoying strangers (who i shouldn't yell at, even though they're in MY way), i'll spend some $$$ on something we don't really need, and then have to haul it in the house when i get home. oh, and who knows what condition the house will be in when i return. my husband's version of 'watching the kids' is let them ransack the house while he watches baseball and surfs the internet. men really don't get it, do they?
we've come up with a name for the baby...jane doe. honestly. this really might be her name. we are unable to agree on anything these days, much less a name for our 3rd. i still like naomi. and using jean or lynn/lin would be cool. i also told him to pick something japanese for a middle name to honor his mom's memory/history. but still nothing. i have a feeling the baby name book will be coming with us to the hospital. first time EVER, by the way.
not really sure how our birth plan is going to work. birth plan, meaning "what we're going to do with the other 2" when i'm in labor. my due date is 8/25. reese was 2 weeks overdue and cade was 6 days overdue. so this one will be what...4 days overdue? my parents, who have been in town for each birth so far, aren't leaving til 8/29. (my mom feels like she must be there to do some part of job, arg.) it's usually a 2 or 3 day trip for them so hopefully they can get here by 8/31. and i'm telling my uterus that we're holding out for 9/1. no offense to anyone with august birthdays but i prefer the sapphire to what is it...aquamarine? peridot? yellow-greenish stone i think. a petty reason, i know.
however, the doc's wheel is always wrong for me anyway. even though she was 2 weeks late, reese was a normal size and she was still covered in vernix, which i don't think she would have had if she was really 2 weeks late. cade was huge for 6 days late...but i think he would have been huge anyway. he's just a big chubby kid (and i love him to pieces). so who knows. it's all a crap shoot, i guess. i'm just hoping that my water breaks and i don't have to make the decision to go to the hospital. last time that happened i showed up at the hosptial at 8 cms. with cade, my water broke at 5am and it was kind of calming, knowing that the baby WOULD arrive on that day.
so anyway, enough baby stuff. which means i have nothing else to talk about for now. :)
today marks 37 weeks of pregnancy. and i'm finally starting to feel it. i'm getting little stabbing pains in my lower abdomen whenever i bend over too far and pretty much too pissy to be around. the weather is not helping. although who ever heard of an august when it was nice and cool? just part of my pennance for not planning this pregnancy, i guess. if i had to do it again, i would plan on giving birth in late may/early june. not too many months of summer, but you can still wear most of your non-maternity winter clothes.
because of the 100 degree weather this week, we've pretty much spent the whole week inside. no wonder i'm going crazy! btwn the kids and having to stare at this mess (which refuses to clean itself), i'm lucky i haven't locked myself in the bathroom for a few hours of peace & quiet. the kids are at least napping daily...even reese. so i do get some quiet time. my husband tells me to go somewhere and he'll watch the kids, but that really doesn't sound like an improvement. i'll go somewhere, stuck among annoying strangers (who i shouldn't yell at, even though they're in MY way), i'll spend some $$$ on something we don't really need, and then have to haul it in the house when i get home. oh, and who knows what condition the house will be in when i return. my husband's version of 'watching the kids' is let them ransack the house while he watches baseball and surfs the internet. men really don't get it, do they?
we've come up with a name for the baby...jane doe. honestly. this really might be her name. we are unable to agree on anything these days, much less a name for our 3rd. i still like naomi. and using jean or lynn/lin would be cool. i also told him to pick something japanese for a middle name to honor his mom's memory/history. but still nothing. i have a feeling the baby name book will be coming with us to the hospital. first time EVER, by the way.
not really sure how our birth plan is going to work. birth plan, meaning "what we're going to do with the other 2" when i'm in labor. my due date is 8/25. reese was 2 weeks overdue and cade was 6 days overdue. so this one will be what...4 days overdue? my parents, who have been in town for each birth so far, aren't leaving til 8/29. (my mom feels like she must be there to do some part of job, arg.) it's usually a 2 or 3 day trip for them so hopefully they can get here by 8/31. and i'm telling my uterus that we're holding out for 9/1. no offense to anyone with august birthdays but i prefer the sapphire to what is it...aquamarine? peridot? yellow-greenish stone i think. a petty reason, i know.
however, the doc's wheel is always wrong for me anyway. even though she was 2 weeks late, reese was a normal size and she was still covered in vernix, which i don't think she would have had if she was really 2 weeks late. cade was huge for 6 days late...but i think he would have been huge anyway. he's just a big chubby kid (and i love him to pieces). so who knows. it's all a crap shoot, i guess. i'm just hoping that my water breaks and i don't have to make the decision to go to the hospital. last time that happened i showed up at the hosptial at 8 cms. with cade, my water broke at 5am and it was kind of calming, knowing that the baby WOULD arrive on that day.
so anyway, enough baby stuff. which means i have nothing else to talk about for now. :)
7.12.2006
is there a return policy?
hi all!
the husband has returned. he got back on june 30th which was a few days earlier than i had planned. the reason was that he was unable to complete the course. he made an error that jeopardized the safety of the crew and it meant that he was done and would not be given a 2nd chance to complete the course. sigh. he was only days from finishing too...his error was made on tues june 27th and the course ended for the graduates on sunday the 2nd of july. the interesting part is he lasted a day longer than a dutch student...which i think is pretty good, considering the dutch navy was hosting this course and they were on a dutch submarine. for the dutch student, it means the end of his career in submarines; he can still continue in surface ships in their navy. for rob, it just means that he was unable to finish the course. it won't be a strike against him when it comes to promotions, but it would have been a plus if he had finished.
he flew into boston on june 30th, a week ahead of his scheduled return. rob bought his own ticket and is expecting some recompensation on his travel claim for the ticket. we'll be out about $400 but at least we get to claim the mileage to & from boston. $400 is worth it for having him back a week earlier.
so we road tripped up to boston on the friday afternoon before the 4th of july weekend and maneuvered through the big dig. we arrived safely and only had to wait about 45 minutes before rob found us. the kids were eating their lunch (a donut & strawberry milk...the international arrivals area does not have anything better to offer :/) and i was keeping an eye on the door, looking for rob. i was also scarfing a blueberry muffin and apple juice (courtesy dunkin donuts :)). suddenly i hear reese say, 'daddy!' and rob is standing there on my right side, when i had been staring at the door to the left. i was praying i didn't have blueberry muffin junk in my teeth!
it was good to see him. reese was excited, cade was just watchful...or maybe he was just intent on finishing his donut (the boy knows to take advantage of donuts for lunch when he can!). he already had all his luggage so we finished our lunch and headed for the van.
we motored home without any problems, and before i could even get the kids out of the van, rob was already inside the house checking things out. so much for the presentation of the poster i had hung up. pizza for dinner and the kids didn't get to bed til at least 10. talk about tiring for a fat pg lady.
he had all weekend off, which seemed to really drag by. being fat & pg, i want to minimize the time i spend outside (away from a/c) so we stayed close to home. we saw the 4th of july fireworks from our bedroom windows, so that was a bonus...no bug bites! :)
now he's back to the work schedule and helping at subschool...offering his opinion when he feels it's necessary (all the time) and shooting the bull with coworkers. reese loves having daddy home and is finally accepting discipline from him. cade is another story...rob thinks that just b/c he's the daddy he should have instant credibility with cade. i keep trying to tell him that 2 year olds just don't offer out respect to everyone...you have to EARN it. you just can't hammer down on him suddenly and expect him to obey. if he obeys, it's a lucky thing, in my opinion.
rob has also finally started helping out around the house. the first few days were full of dirty dishes on the counter (close to the sink), dirty laundry no where close to the basket, and random stuff left where ever it was dropped. he finally got the hint and is now doing the dishwasher once in a while and at least picking up after himself. the best part is him taking the kids and dog outside to play after dinner. i can clean up at my leisure while hearing 'inside edition.' :)
i'm still adjusting. i'm used to sharing the bed, i think. not so much on sharing the bathroom, i like my vanity space i guess. i don't really like sharing the kitchen though. with our island eating up so much of the space and my tummy eating up what's left, if i'm in there, stay the hell out. you'll just be in MY way.
so i guess we're in love. or as much as you can love a pg woman in the middle of july.
the husband has returned. he got back on june 30th which was a few days earlier than i had planned. the reason was that he was unable to complete the course. he made an error that jeopardized the safety of the crew and it meant that he was done and would not be given a 2nd chance to complete the course. sigh. he was only days from finishing too...his error was made on tues june 27th and the course ended for the graduates on sunday the 2nd of july. the interesting part is he lasted a day longer than a dutch student...which i think is pretty good, considering the dutch navy was hosting this course and they were on a dutch submarine. for the dutch student, it means the end of his career in submarines; he can still continue in surface ships in their navy. for rob, it just means that he was unable to finish the course. it won't be a strike against him when it comes to promotions, but it would have been a plus if he had finished.
he flew into boston on june 30th, a week ahead of his scheduled return. rob bought his own ticket and is expecting some recompensation on his travel claim for the ticket. we'll be out about $400 but at least we get to claim the mileage to & from boston. $400 is worth it for having him back a week earlier.
so we road tripped up to boston on the friday afternoon before the 4th of july weekend and maneuvered through the big dig. we arrived safely and only had to wait about 45 minutes before rob found us. the kids were eating their lunch (a donut & strawberry milk...the international arrivals area does not have anything better to offer :/) and i was keeping an eye on the door, looking for rob. i was also scarfing a blueberry muffin and apple juice (courtesy dunkin donuts :)). suddenly i hear reese say, 'daddy!' and rob is standing there on my right side, when i had been staring at the door to the left. i was praying i didn't have blueberry muffin junk in my teeth!
it was good to see him. reese was excited, cade was just watchful...or maybe he was just intent on finishing his donut (the boy knows to take advantage of donuts for lunch when he can!). he already had all his luggage so we finished our lunch and headed for the van.
we motored home without any problems, and before i could even get the kids out of the van, rob was already inside the house checking things out. so much for the presentation of the poster i had hung up. pizza for dinner and the kids didn't get to bed til at least 10. talk about tiring for a fat pg lady.
he had all weekend off, which seemed to really drag by. being fat & pg, i want to minimize the time i spend outside (away from a/c) so we stayed close to home. we saw the 4th of july fireworks from our bedroom windows, so that was a bonus...no bug bites! :)
now he's back to the work schedule and helping at subschool...offering his opinion when he feels it's necessary (all the time) and shooting the bull with coworkers. reese loves having daddy home and is finally accepting discipline from him. cade is another story...rob thinks that just b/c he's the daddy he should have instant credibility with cade. i keep trying to tell him that 2 year olds just don't offer out respect to everyone...you have to EARN it. you just can't hammer down on him suddenly and expect him to obey. if he obeys, it's a lucky thing, in my opinion.
rob has also finally started helping out around the house. the first few days were full of dirty dishes on the counter (close to the sink), dirty laundry no where close to the basket, and random stuff left where ever it was dropped. he finally got the hint and is now doing the dishwasher once in a while and at least picking up after himself. the best part is him taking the kids and dog outside to play after dinner. i can clean up at my leisure while hearing 'inside edition.' :)
i'm still adjusting. i'm used to sharing the bed, i think. not so much on sharing the bathroom, i like my vanity space i guess. i don't really like sharing the kitchen though. with our island eating up so much of the space and my tummy eating up what's left, if i'm in there, stay the hell out. you'll just be in MY way.
so i guess we're in love. or as much as you can love a pg woman in the middle of july.
6.25.2006
can time go any slower?
welcome to my weekend.
i absolutely hate weekends when rob is gone. i can feel each second passing and each one is more and more painful. most people love weekends, they tidy up the house or spend lots of quality time with their friends and family. well, my house is tidy enough for my low standards and i'm about up to here with quality time with my own family.
i believe we're down to 11 days til rob gets back. honestly though it feels like forever...i have today (sunday) and then another weekend to go through, and (bonus!) a 4th of july to survive. i should plan some fun outing on the 4th, after all, i'll have a husband to put up with again soon. but i'm to the point in this pregnancy where i just feel like hiding indoors where it's cooler, less humid, and fewer neighbors to see my underwear when i bend over.
i do have a few things i'd like to do...
1. make a poster for rob...i have a cheapy 'welcome home' banner but i want to find some paper rolls and write 'daddy' on there. if it's not raining we might even hang it over the front door. although the thought of me balanced on a stepstool on the front step would just give the neighbors something to laugh themselves silly over. maybe we'll just get 2 sheets of posterboard and staple them together. probably cheaper.
2. go to the furniture store...i want to buy a recliner to put on our main level. i remember coming home from the hospital with cade, that first night all i wanted was a recliner to relax in. our sofa and overstuffed chair were too upright (my poor nether-regions :( ) and i wanted to put my swollen feet up. i wasn't ready to share a bed with rob AND cade yet, so i held cade most of the night...waking up at his every little twitch and sometimes just waking myself up b/c i was sure i had let go of him as i slept. and now that i think of it, my first night with reese was similar. rob had the bed b/c he had to work the next day so i took reese out to the sofa and we cuddled (? worried?) all night. neither of these nights resulted in much sleep for me, so i think a $600+ recliner would maybe allow me to drift off in comfort. and i need to buy another dresser. reese will be sharing a room with the baby and cade will be in a room by himself. the new dresser will be for reese, hopefully i can find something that goes with whatever headboard we might buy her in the future.
3. pick out new bedding for our bed. the cat threw up on our quilt and i have been unable to get the stains out. arg. plus our sheets have faded here & there from some strange facial creams that i used in the past. i can't believe i was putting something on my face that bleached the color of my sheets...i think it might have been the clearasil a few years ago. the sheets were a lilac color, matching some little flowers on the quilt. i'd love to find something similar, but i've kind of fallen in love with this minty teal color that i'm suddenly seeing everywhere. unfortunately, i'm seeing it in the LUXURY section of the bedding...i'm not paying $200 for a comforter and 2 shams. sorry folks. good thing it's summer and we don't need a quilt yet anyway. i doubt i'll be wearing clothes to bed here in a few weeks, that cool breeze from the ceiling fan feels pretty good on a fat belly.
4. edit some stuffed animal toys. reese has a big laundry basket in her closet full of stuffed animals. there's another box on the main level of stuffed animals. she plays with about 10-15 of them on a regular basis. so i'm thiking it might be safe to get rid of some? i mean, we have a dog & a cat in the house, do we really need these stuffed animals at all???
i've also added 'find a baby name' to my unofficial list of things to do. we have the 35,000 baby names book, and i've added it to my bedtime reading. i'm only to the Cs (i started this quest last night...rob is usually the vetoer for my names so i better have a long list ready) but i already really like 'ashlin.' does that sound like a boy's name? maybe i'm thinking ashton for a boy's name...but honestly, we have a girl named reese and a boy named cade, do we care? maybe we should name this girl william or michael and just dare people to look at us funny.
so, add ashlin, belinda, and brenna to my list. not sure about belinda...i have a cousin belinda but last night at 11pm, it sounded pretty.
***holy crap, i forgot another thing to add to the list...baby announcements! i still like to send out announcements to friends and family when babies are born. that way it's not MY fault that they don't know my kids' names at family reunions. it's their own fault for not reading the baby announcement! one of my cousins has 7 kids but truthfully, i only knew about 2 or 3 of their births. those were the kids that were born when my grandma was alive and grandma was the family phone tree caller. anyway, postage is 39 cents but i will be sending out announcements. there's more hope of presents then ;)
i absolutely hate weekends when rob is gone. i can feel each second passing and each one is more and more painful. most people love weekends, they tidy up the house or spend lots of quality time with their friends and family. well, my house is tidy enough for my low standards and i'm about up to here with quality time with my own family.
i believe we're down to 11 days til rob gets back. honestly though it feels like forever...i have today (sunday) and then another weekend to go through, and (bonus!) a 4th of july to survive. i should plan some fun outing on the 4th, after all, i'll have a husband to put up with again soon. but i'm to the point in this pregnancy where i just feel like hiding indoors where it's cooler, less humid, and fewer neighbors to see my underwear when i bend over.
i do have a few things i'd like to do...
1. make a poster for rob...i have a cheapy 'welcome home' banner but i want to find some paper rolls and write 'daddy' on there. if it's not raining we might even hang it over the front door. although the thought of me balanced on a stepstool on the front step would just give the neighbors something to laugh themselves silly over. maybe we'll just get 2 sheets of posterboard and staple them together. probably cheaper.
2. go to the furniture store...i want to buy a recliner to put on our main level. i remember coming home from the hospital with cade, that first night all i wanted was a recliner to relax in. our sofa and overstuffed chair were too upright (my poor nether-regions :( ) and i wanted to put my swollen feet up. i wasn't ready to share a bed with rob AND cade yet, so i held cade most of the night...waking up at his every little twitch and sometimes just waking myself up b/c i was sure i had let go of him as i slept. and now that i think of it, my first night with reese was similar. rob had the bed b/c he had to work the next day so i took reese out to the sofa and we cuddled (? worried?) all night. neither of these nights resulted in much sleep for me, so i think a $600+ recliner would maybe allow me to drift off in comfort. and i need to buy another dresser. reese will be sharing a room with the baby and cade will be in a room by himself. the new dresser will be for reese, hopefully i can find something that goes with whatever headboard we might buy her in the future.
3. pick out new bedding for our bed. the cat threw up on our quilt and i have been unable to get the stains out. arg. plus our sheets have faded here & there from some strange facial creams that i used in the past. i can't believe i was putting something on my face that bleached the color of my sheets...i think it might have been the clearasil a few years ago. the sheets were a lilac color, matching some little flowers on the quilt. i'd love to find something similar, but i've kind of fallen in love with this minty teal color that i'm suddenly seeing everywhere. unfortunately, i'm seeing it in the LUXURY section of the bedding...i'm not paying $200 for a comforter and 2 shams. sorry folks. good thing it's summer and we don't need a quilt yet anyway. i doubt i'll be wearing clothes to bed here in a few weeks, that cool breeze from the ceiling fan feels pretty good on a fat belly.
4. edit some stuffed animal toys. reese has a big laundry basket in her closet full of stuffed animals. there's another box on the main level of stuffed animals. she plays with about 10-15 of them on a regular basis. so i'm thiking it might be safe to get rid of some? i mean, we have a dog & a cat in the house, do we really need these stuffed animals at all???
i've also added 'find a baby name' to my unofficial list of things to do. we have the 35,000 baby names book, and i've added it to my bedtime reading. i'm only to the Cs (i started this quest last night...rob is usually the vetoer for my names so i better have a long list ready) but i already really like 'ashlin.' does that sound like a boy's name? maybe i'm thinking ashton for a boy's name...but honestly, we have a girl named reese and a boy named cade, do we care? maybe we should name this girl william or michael and just dare people to look at us funny.
so, add ashlin, belinda, and brenna to my list. not sure about belinda...i have a cousin belinda but last night at 11pm, it sounded pretty.
***holy crap, i forgot another thing to add to the list...baby announcements! i still like to send out announcements to friends and family when babies are born. that way it's not MY fault that they don't know my kids' names at family reunions. it's their own fault for not reading the baby announcement! one of my cousins has 7 kids but truthfully, i only knew about 2 or 3 of their births. those were the kids that were born when my grandma was alive and grandma was the family phone tree caller. anyway, postage is 39 cents but i will be sending out announcements. there's more hope of presents then ;)
6.20.2006
still hanging in there
i'm still here. just busy turning into a sweaty mess. i need to tie a fan with a battery pack onto me so i have airflow around me at all times. the temperature isn't too bad, it's the damn humidity. weatherbug and weather.com HAVE to be wrong when they say it's 45% humidity yet you can see a haze over the town. this is just the first few days of heat...i really hope i survive august. actually i hope my family survives august. i'm telling you now that it won't be pretty.
other than sweating and stinking up the place, life is going well. rob has just 15 days left before he heads home (to his 'hot' wife ;)) and the kids haven't killed each other yet, nor have i lost one of them at the mall. truthfully, that is one of my worries. that i'll turn around and one of them will have vanished and i'll have to call rob and say, 'i lost one of them.' he would be quite disappointed, esp b/c i'm not having anymore babies after this one. closed for business.
reese had her birthday last thursday. she's 4 now and it's amazing some of the things that come out of her mouth. she leaves me laughing 1/2 the time and shocked the other 1/2 of the time. just the other day i had to run downstairs and get some bras that had been hang-drying in the laundry closet. i came back upstairs to where the kids were and reese asked, 'did you have to go get your boobs, mom?' nope, the boobs i take with me everywhere, babe. i just told her i had to go get my bras and had a good laugh.
and i'm so proud of her. reese can wipe her own butt! woohoo! i think my child rearing duties are about done with her...she can feed herself, take her dishes to the sink, and wipe her butt...she's ready to move out. :)
cade's birthday is in about 3 weeks. he'll be 2 and i think he's responsible for most of my new grey hair that have popped up since rob has been gone. the problem with 2 year olds is that they get away with a lot, b/c they're so damn cute. i caught him crayoning on the walls yesterday and i was laughing too hard to be mad. ??? it was my own fault for dozing off during 'aladdin' while crayons were available to him. these kids really make life interesting...and profitable for my hair stylist. i plan on making an appt for the day after rob gets back.
other than sweating and stinking up the place, life is going well. rob has just 15 days left before he heads home (to his 'hot' wife ;)) and the kids haven't killed each other yet, nor have i lost one of them at the mall. truthfully, that is one of my worries. that i'll turn around and one of them will have vanished and i'll have to call rob and say, 'i lost one of them.' he would be quite disappointed, esp b/c i'm not having anymore babies after this one. closed for business.
reese had her birthday last thursday. she's 4 now and it's amazing some of the things that come out of her mouth. she leaves me laughing 1/2 the time and shocked the other 1/2 of the time. just the other day i had to run downstairs and get some bras that had been hang-drying in the laundry closet. i came back upstairs to where the kids were and reese asked, 'did you have to go get your boobs, mom?' nope, the boobs i take with me everywhere, babe. i just told her i had to go get my bras and had a good laugh.
and i'm so proud of her. reese can wipe her own butt! woohoo! i think my child rearing duties are about done with her...she can feed herself, take her dishes to the sink, and wipe her butt...she's ready to move out. :)
cade's birthday is in about 3 weeks. he'll be 2 and i think he's responsible for most of my new grey hair that have popped up since rob has been gone. the problem with 2 year olds is that they get away with a lot, b/c they're so damn cute. i caught him crayoning on the walls yesterday and i was laughing too hard to be mad. ??? it was my own fault for dozing off during 'aladdin' while crayons were available to him. these kids really make life interesting...and profitable for my hair stylist. i plan on making an appt for the day after rob gets back.
6.10.2006
crappy day or crappy mood...
i'm not sure which.
i know i'm highly emotional right now, and usually that comes across by being highly pissy with everyone. mostly my kids i'm ashamed to say. but it's starting to come across more and more.
things that have bugged me in the past 24 hours:
i know i'm highly emotional right now, and usually that comes across by being highly pissy with everyone. mostly my kids i'm ashamed to say. but it's starting to come across more and more.
things that have bugged me in the past 24 hours:
- that smokers hang out right outside entrances/exits of buildings. can you step aside so some of us can CONTINUE breathing fresh air??? they're everywhere...walmart, the grocery store, the damn LIBRARY...hell, a grandpa was sitting in the pickup lane at my daughter's school SMOKING a cigarette on school property. i really hope the dumbass didn't litter too after he was done consuming his carcinogens. and i can't forget the lady who smoked a quick one in the supermarket bathroom and we were the next people to use it. you don't realize how strong and disgusting cigarette smoke is until you're pregnant. this is the SAME lady we saw finishing a cigarette outside the store about 7 minutes before.
- that after spending almost $80 at subway for a sandwich platter and a wrap platter (and our dinner), i can't get a little assistance taking these big damn platters to my car. they see i'm pregnant with 2 annoying kids, yet they set the platters on the counter and say thank you and then walk away. how much would i have to spend to get some goddamn customer service?!?!? at least ASK if i need help. i probably would have refused, but at least ASK.
- the kooky family at subway in front of me. a mom, dad and a 17-ish year old son. the line was ridiculously long (as always, arg) and the mom was standing next to me. suddenly she loses her balance, SMACKS ME IN MY UTERUS as she's trying to stop from falling, and ends up on her ass in front of me. i guess she just was stupid and fell down? whatever, but she didn't even realize she hit me (guess she thought it was the pop cooler behind me?!? you know how warm and squishy those are.) and therefore i got no apology from her. i almost started crying right there in subway b/c i was just so upset. but did i have the balls to say, 'hey, you hit me in the stomach, where's my apology?' i just took it. so i guess if you WANT an apology these days you have to ASK for it. is that just CRAP??? am i alone in thinking this? arg.
- i'm taking everything PERSONALLY. on a parenting board that i've been a part of for almost 5 years, i'm seeing little comments directed at me. maybe it's time to step back from the boards before i say too much back...b/c honestly, they're just DIRECTED. i have a feeling it's all in my pissy little head. and that feeling makes me want to cry b/c then it's just proof that i'm loony. and stressed. did i say i'm stressed? i am.
- the rest of my bitching pretty much just concerns people who are overly concerned about themselves and people who are in my way. there's a lot of people in both category...most of them are everyone at walmart.
and the worst part? i don't even have a husband to complain to. waaaaah. he's still gone. when we got home from the tummy smacking at subway, i had 2 messages on voice mail. i prepared myself, expecting to hear a message from rob saying that he'll be home on monday or something, that he failed the course. no, it was just subway telling me my fucking platters were done. i don't know how the hell i would have survived an 18 month deployment with rob gone.
but the bright spot in this day is that after worrying so much after the uterus-smacking, baby girl is busy rearranging herself. so she must be ok. and i have one more donut to finish off and maybe i'll be a little more ok.
6.08.2006
did you miss me?
probably not.
oh well. i'm going to tell you all about what i've been doing since my last entry.
gardening:
i've been spending quite a bit of time outside, which surprises even myself. i moved our tomato patch to the other side of our yard (not an easy task, do you know how damn many rocks there are in connecticut?!?) and got those in the ground. i put a fancy planting around a utility pole that was in our yard (emphasis on WAS...2 weeks after finishing the planting, the city came & removed the damn pole...now i just have a circle in my yard...and the damn seeds aren't even growing into daisies like they were supposed to. arg).
i've been working on planting things around the house, to hide our foundation. it wasn't too long ago that i didn't even know that was the main purpose of putting plants around a house. i really thought it was a personal preference, either people wanted shit around their house or they preferred to see the concrete. now that i know BETTER, i've decided to plant some shit around our house. i'm pretty much planting whatever our elderly neighbor brings over. probably not a good idea since she spends a lot of her spring cutting back and pruning these plants. however, these plants are FREE. do you know how much plants cost these days?!?!? not cheap, my friend. even at walmart, they're not cheap. so now i have some mums, some lilly of the valley, some iris, and some kind of bush thing with yellow & green leaves (not a hosta, i know what those look like) taking root in the crappy rocky dirt around our house. good thing i have a big damn bag of mulch...it's not a 'planting' in my book til you can smell the cedar mulch.
growing a baby:
baby girl #2 is doing just fine so far. she's getting kind of lazy though, she usually doesn't wake up in the mornings til after i've eaten breakfast and she prefers long naps that tend to worry me. but usually i'm too busy dealing with the house or the kids to stop and think about the last time i felt movement from her. bedtime is still her favorite time to get active (of course).
at the ultrasound at the end of may, she was measuring just under 28 weeks (i was 26 weeks at the time) and was estimated at 2 lbs, 6 oz. she looks a lot like cade in the u/s pictures and is 100% girl. whew, so now i can pass along cade's baby stuff to some other deserving little boys. i wish i could keep it all though. going through reese's baby clothes in preparation for this baby, i remembered so much about every little outfit...even the ones where she had those 'up the back poop explosions'. sigh. but i'd rather see the clothes go to someone i know than end up being pawed through at goodwill. and yes, i am a control freak!
still no names yet for this baby. reese came up with the following names though, in case we needed some help. she added: vanilla, expert, kevin, and duchess. i hope rob & i can come up with something a bit more mainstream...if we end up with a vanilla peters, you'll know who dreamed it up.
killing the car:
rob's acura has bitten the dust. only for a short period though. why is it that i cannot keep a car's battery alive for more than 4 months? when rob was gone for his 6 month deployment, my task was to start up his jetta every so often. i would have driven it but sarah doesn't do stick. (ha ha.) by the time rob got back, the battery was dead and it had to be towed to the dealership to be recoded & etc. i don't remember how much it cost, but it was more expensive than learning how to drive stick shift would have been.
i had been taking rob's acura out every week, usually driving it down to the mall b/c it's so fun on the interstate. last time we drove it, one of the kids didn't shut the back door tightly enough to cancel the interior dome light. and i didn't double check on the kids. i wondered why the automatic lock on the key fob wouldn't lock the damn car...turned out the battery was already dead by then. oops. and the doors were locked and so now i can't even UNLOCK the back door to relock it and shut the door more firmly.
so this means the acura will have to be towed a further distance than the jetta was in order to make a trip to the dealer. and i believe this car has more crap to it than the jetta did, so i'm sure it will be expensive. arg.
rob handled it well when i told him over the phone. i had turned into a blubbering mess, so frustrated at myself for not double checking the doors and not being able to take care of his car while he was gone (and this was an automatic, i thought taking care of the acura would be FUN...not just starting up the car in the driveway for 10 minutes once a week). but no, i failed on this task. sigh.
but at least the kids and cat and dog are still alive! whew.
computer issues:
do not ever put norton 'goback' on your computer. it was part of a norton package i purchased and it downloaded itself with an internal error which proved to be FATAL for my hard drive. arg. i was sans internet for 10 days. do you know how hard it is to go w/o internet COLD TURKEY???? but i learned a lot of things.
oh well. i'm going to tell you all about what i've been doing since my last entry.
gardening:
i've been spending quite a bit of time outside, which surprises even myself. i moved our tomato patch to the other side of our yard (not an easy task, do you know how damn many rocks there are in connecticut?!?) and got those in the ground. i put a fancy planting around a utility pole that was in our yard (emphasis on WAS...2 weeks after finishing the planting, the city came & removed the damn pole...now i just have a circle in my yard...and the damn seeds aren't even growing into daisies like they were supposed to. arg).
i've been working on planting things around the house, to hide our foundation. it wasn't too long ago that i didn't even know that was the main purpose of putting plants around a house. i really thought it was a personal preference, either people wanted shit around their house or they preferred to see the concrete. now that i know BETTER, i've decided to plant some shit around our house. i'm pretty much planting whatever our elderly neighbor brings over. probably not a good idea since she spends a lot of her spring cutting back and pruning these plants. however, these plants are FREE. do you know how much plants cost these days?!?!? not cheap, my friend. even at walmart, they're not cheap. so now i have some mums, some lilly of the valley, some iris, and some kind of bush thing with yellow & green leaves (not a hosta, i know what those look like) taking root in the crappy rocky dirt around our house. good thing i have a big damn bag of mulch...it's not a 'planting' in my book til you can smell the cedar mulch.
growing a baby:
baby girl #2 is doing just fine so far. she's getting kind of lazy though, she usually doesn't wake up in the mornings til after i've eaten breakfast and she prefers long naps that tend to worry me. but usually i'm too busy dealing with the house or the kids to stop and think about the last time i felt movement from her. bedtime is still her favorite time to get active (of course).
at the ultrasound at the end of may, she was measuring just under 28 weeks (i was 26 weeks at the time) and was estimated at 2 lbs, 6 oz. she looks a lot like cade in the u/s pictures and is 100% girl. whew, so now i can pass along cade's baby stuff to some other deserving little boys. i wish i could keep it all though. going through reese's baby clothes in preparation for this baby, i remembered so much about every little outfit...even the ones where she had those 'up the back poop explosions'. sigh. but i'd rather see the clothes go to someone i know than end up being pawed through at goodwill. and yes, i am a control freak!
still no names yet for this baby. reese came up with the following names though, in case we needed some help. she added: vanilla, expert, kevin, and duchess. i hope rob & i can come up with something a bit more mainstream...if we end up with a vanilla peters, you'll know who dreamed it up.
killing the car:
rob's acura has bitten the dust. only for a short period though. why is it that i cannot keep a car's battery alive for more than 4 months? when rob was gone for his 6 month deployment, my task was to start up his jetta every so often. i would have driven it but sarah doesn't do stick. (ha ha.) by the time rob got back, the battery was dead and it had to be towed to the dealership to be recoded & etc. i don't remember how much it cost, but it was more expensive than learning how to drive stick shift would have been.
i had been taking rob's acura out every week, usually driving it down to the mall b/c it's so fun on the interstate. last time we drove it, one of the kids didn't shut the back door tightly enough to cancel the interior dome light. and i didn't double check on the kids. i wondered why the automatic lock on the key fob wouldn't lock the damn car...turned out the battery was already dead by then. oops. and the doors were locked and so now i can't even UNLOCK the back door to relock it and shut the door more firmly.
so this means the acura will have to be towed a further distance than the jetta was in order to make a trip to the dealer. and i believe this car has more crap to it than the jetta did, so i'm sure it will be expensive. arg.
rob handled it well when i told him over the phone. i had turned into a blubbering mess, so frustrated at myself for not double checking the doors and not being able to take care of his car while he was gone (and this was an automatic, i thought taking care of the acura would be FUN...not just starting up the car in the driveway for 10 minutes once a week). but no, i failed on this task. sigh.
but at least the kids and cat and dog are still alive! whew.
computer issues:
do not ever put norton 'goback' on your computer. it was part of a norton package i purchased and it downloaded itself with an internal error which proved to be FATAL for my hard drive. arg. i was sans internet for 10 days. do you know how hard it is to go w/o internet COLD TURKEY???? but i learned a lot of things.
- always make system backup disks. rob is going to teach me this when he returns. he doesn't know it yet, but he is.
- the techs at gateway are AWESOME. i love them. i wish i could keep one around the house with me at all times.
- i spend way too much time on the computer. i got a lot of gardening & reading done when my computer died. i stopped drinking general foods international 'coffee' and tried tea instead (not too bad). i drank more water. i drank less pop. i snacked less. i ate meals with the kids. think i'm a little addicted? :/
4.30.2006
it's been sooooooo long!
it's almost been 2 months since my last post. but not quite, i got in right under the wire, so i don't feel too bad...it's not officially 2 months til tomorrow. whew!
hmmmm...some updates:
1. baby #3 is growing right along. i had an ultrasound a month ago and everything was measuring perfectly and the tech thinks it's a girl. the baby was wiggling its legs too much to be sure. at my ob appt a few days ago, the midwife ordered another u/s in a month to check growth and to get a due date narrowed down (right now it's pretty much the latter 1/2 of august). so hopefully i can get a 100% on the gender. it wasn't until after the first u/s tech said, 'but i wouldn't go out & buy anything yet' that i started 2nd guessing my own mommy intuition. i still really think girl though.
2. cade and reese are doing great. reese is getting mouthy and i think she's venturing into stretching the truth here & there, i can't believe her 4th birthday is about 2 months away! cade is doing good too, he's finally getting taller. he's still chubby and cuddly but i don't have to roll up his 18-24 month pants anymore. he'll be 2 in july, hard to believe 2 years have gone by that quickly. i still see him as the baby, i think b/c he's so cuddly. he's been talking a lot. i've been trying to write down all the words i hear him using and so far i have 17, but i think there's about 5 or 6 i'm forgetting. i think his favorite word is 'money'. is that cute or what?
3. rob is still in holland. sigh. we're 1/2 way done, just about 9 weeks left til he comes back. and boy am i tired. i like to do things MY way, but this is just too much of sarah in charge. especially since now i'm having lawn mower problems. i wish i was the kind of person to beg for help from my neighbors :/ but like i said, i like doing things my way which is sometimes the hard way.
4. we spent almost 3 weeks in iowa and had a great time. the kids didn't sleep much, but they got to play outside every day and we visited the zoo, some buffalo, lots of relatives, and the build a bear workshop. pretty memorable vacation :) it's going to be a while before we go back to iowa. traveling over christmas would mean traveling with a 3 month old and i'm not sure i'm up to it. plus with the friction btwn my mom and her family last christmas, i'm not sure she's interested in going yet...no guilty parties have stepped forward with apologies yet. so maybe grandma & grandpa will come out here for christmas. who knows.
5. rob will be attending prospective executive officer training in september. which means that by june or july we'll know where he's going to be going for sea duty for the next 2 years. eeek. i'm so nervous about this already. i wouldn't mind staying here, now that reese is starting to get into the school system. i wouldn't mind moving, although it would mean selling a house and looking for a new house with 3 kids, a cat, and a dog...and with limited help from rob since he'll have his own training to do. anywhere we move would be long distance, the only exception would be norfolk VA...that's just down the coast. however, it would be a complete household move. :/
so anyway, that's what's been going on the last 2 months. i feel like i only come here to update what's been happening. not exactly what a blog is for, but feel lucky it wasn't a full 2 months since my last entry. waiting that extra day would have been tough for you, i'm sure :)
hmmmm...some updates:
1. baby #3 is growing right along. i had an ultrasound a month ago and everything was measuring perfectly and the tech thinks it's a girl. the baby was wiggling its legs too much to be sure. at my ob appt a few days ago, the midwife ordered another u/s in a month to check growth and to get a due date narrowed down (right now it's pretty much the latter 1/2 of august). so hopefully i can get a 100% on the gender. it wasn't until after the first u/s tech said, 'but i wouldn't go out & buy anything yet' that i started 2nd guessing my own mommy intuition. i still really think girl though.
2. cade and reese are doing great. reese is getting mouthy and i think she's venturing into stretching the truth here & there, i can't believe her 4th birthday is about 2 months away! cade is doing good too, he's finally getting taller. he's still chubby and cuddly but i don't have to roll up his 18-24 month pants anymore. he'll be 2 in july, hard to believe 2 years have gone by that quickly. i still see him as the baby, i think b/c he's so cuddly. he's been talking a lot. i've been trying to write down all the words i hear him using and so far i have 17, but i think there's about 5 or 6 i'm forgetting. i think his favorite word is 'money'. is that cute or what?
3. rob is still in holland. sigh. we're 1/2 way done, just about 9 weeks left til he comes back. and boy am i tired. i like to do things MY way, but this is just too much of sarah in charge. especially since now i'm having lawn mower problems. i wish i was the kind of person to beg for help from my neighbors :/ but like i said, i like doing things my way which is sometimes the hard way.
4. we spent almost 3 weeks in iowa and had a great time. the kids didn't sleep much, but they got to play outside every day and we visited the zoo, some buffalo, lots of relatives, and the build a bear workshop. pretty memorable vacation :) it's going to be a while before we go back to iowa. traveling over christmas would mean traveling with a 3 month old and i'm not sure i'm up to it. plus with the friction btwn my mom and her family last christmas, i'm not sure she's interested in going yet...no guilty parties have stepped forward with apologies yet. so maybe grandma & grandpa will come out here for christmas. who knows.
5. rob will be attending prospective executive officer training in september. which means that by june or july we'll know where he's going to be going for sea duty for the next 2 years. eeek. i'm so nervous about this already. i wouldn't mind staying here, now that reese is starting to get into the school system. i wouldn't mind moving, although it would mean selling a house and looking for a new house with 3 kids, a cat, and a dog...and with limited help from rob since he'll have his own training to do. anywhere we move would be long distance, the only exception would be norfolk VA...that's just down the coast. however, it would be a complete household move. :/
so anyway, that's what's been going on the last 2 months. i feel like i only come here to update what's been happening. not exactly what a blog is for, but feel lucky it wasn't a full 2 months since my last entry. waiting that extra day would have been tough for you, i'm sure :)
3.01.2006
where the hell is spring?
ok, i surrender. here's my little white flag. winter you win, now let spring warm us up a bit.
i'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezing. this last week has been a long cold one and i don't think it's going to end soon. we're supposed to get SNOW on thursday afternoon. where the hell was all this snow during christmas and january? now it's march...there are no more winter clothes left for sale in stores, i hope that my kids can last another 2 months in their long sleeved shirts because it seems we'll be wearing them into threads. right now i have on a long sleeved tshirt, a sweatshirt over that, sweatpants, thick socks, and slippers. and my hands are freezing because they are exposed to the freezing air. my nose is cold too. and you know, my eyes are a little chilly.
it's just such a slap in the face to go to target and see all these tshirts and capris and little skirts for my daughter and if i should buy them, have them sit in her closet for 2 months. and with the CT shoppers, you KNOW all the cute spring wear will be gone within 2 weeks. hoarders! leave some for us realists! and since i am the most real of the realists, i bought myself a new pair of sweatpants and a bag of potato chips. gotta keep my furnace going!
we're on day 13 of rob being gone. he'll be gone 127 more days. which is a long time to be stuck with 2 kids. wish we had a bigger house and a nanny. but if i try to look at teh positive side, i'll still be pregnant when rob gets back. hooray. it will be early july by then and boy will i be a bitch. being alone with 2 children while he's off tooting around europe??? the man better brush up on how to suck up. we're talking massage gift certificates here. pedicures. chocolate...the GOOD stuff. him volunteering to sleep on the futon if his snoring or bodily functions annoy me. can you see where i'm going here? if i'm THIS bitchy now, just wait 127 more days.
i'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezing. this last week has been a long cold one and i don't think it's going to end soon. we're supposed to get SNOW on thursday afternoon. where the hell was all this snow during christmas and january? now it's march...there are no more winter clothes left for sale in stores, i hope that my kids can last another 2 months in their long sleeved shirts because it seems we'll be wearing them into threads. right now i have on a long sleeved tshirt, a sweatshirt over that, sweatpants, thick socks, and slippers. and my hands are freezing because they are exposed to the freezing air. my nose is cold too. and you know, my eyes are a little chilly.
it's just such a slap in the face to go to target and see all these tshirts and capris and little skirts for my daughter and if i should buy them, have them sit in her closet for 2 months. and with the CT shoppers, you KNOW all the cute spring wear will be gone within 2 weeks. hoarders! leave some for us realists! and since i am the most real of the realists, i bought myself a new pair of sweatpants and a bag of potato chips. gotta keep my furnace going!
we're on day 13 of rob being gone. he'll be gone 127 more days. which is a long time to be stuck with 2 kids. wish we had a bigger house and a nanny. but if i try to look at teh positive side, i'll still be pregnant when rob gets back. hooray. it will be early july by then and boy will i be a bitch. being alone with 2 children while he's off tooting around europe??? the man better brush up on how to suck up. we're talking massage gift certificates here. pedicures. chocolate...the GOOD stuff. him volunteering to sleep on the futon if his snoring or bodily functions annoy me. can you see where i'm going here? if i'm THIS bitchy now, just wait 127 more days.
2.16.2006
to the airport we go
we're taking rob to the airport this morning. he is headed back to holland (the netherlands? with all the olympic coverage, i have no clue really what to call this little country...). he is due to return july6th, the day before our 5th anniversary.
and i have to say, and i hope it's just my pregnant hormones talking here, i'm kind of glad he's going. i can put away the coffee maker (ugh, i hate coffee), stop buying egg whites (who the hell just eats egg whites? i need a little yolk in my egg), and know that when i go to bed at night there will be no more dirty dishes on the table or on the sink waiting to greet me in the am.
on the other hand there will be no one to prewarm the bed for me (the dog must follow me EVERYWHERE), no one to guilt into checking out creepy noises for me (although i hope the dog would be brave enough to at least bark threateningly), and no one to grab subway on the way home from work. sigh. how will i survive??? funny how the dog can replace a man so easily though.
and i have to say, and i hope it's just my pregnant hormones talking here, i'm kind of glad he's going. i can put away the coffee maker (ugh, i hate coffee), stop buying egg whites (who the hell just eats egg whites? i need a little yolk in my egg), and know that when i go to bed at night there will be no more dirty dishes on the table or on the sink waiting to greet me in the am.
on the other hand there will be no one to prewarm the bed for me (the dog must follow me EVERYWHERE), no one to guilt into checking out creepy noises for me (although i hope the dog would be brave enough to at least bark threateningly), and no one to grab subway on the way home from work. sigh. how will i survive??? funny how the dog can replace a man so easily though.
2.12.2006
snow snow and a bit more snow
even though it's a snowy day and i'm worried about losing power because of the wind gusts, i am in heaven. i'm munching on rold gold cheddar pretzels. they are just too freakin' good. i thought i was buying honey mustard ones but these are much better! too bad reese loves them too! she keeps snitching from my dish.
i have a friend, marlayna, who lives in southern california. she rarely gets to see snow and she's always tickled to see snow pics...let's see if i can indulge her today.
this is the view out our sidedoor. i shoveled the steps and made an area where the dog can do his business. heaven forbid he get his feet too snowy. although it's so windy today that he came back in as a white dog last time.
i have a friend, marlayna, who lives in southern california. she rarely gets to see snow and she's always tickled to see snow pics...let's see if i can indulge her today.
this is the view out our sidedoor. i shoveled the steps and made an area where the dog can do his business. heaven forbid he get his feet too snowy. although it's so windy today that he came back in as a white dog last time.
more snow in the air.
and christ, what a frustrating process it is to put pictures in this damn thing. with the kids refusing to budge more than 2" away from me and the dog farting, it's a miracle they're up. i had 2 more i wanted to post but they're just not going to cooperate. arg. i need more space to see what i'm doing than just a narrow little frame to work in.
oh well. you get the idea, it's pretty damn snowy outside! rob is wondering if the base will be closed tomorrow (it's not supposed to stop snowing until close to dark tonight, not sure about winds). i don't know if i can handle him at home for 3 days in a row. if we're all going to be housebound together than i need to make a hideout room.
2.10.2006
reese's day at school
reese went to school today and i have mixed feelings about her day.
reese had a potty accident at school. i think i'm more upset about it than she is and if i'd quit bugging her for details, she' probably forget it ever happened. her 'version' of it is that she just didn't make it to the bathroom in time. she does do that, put off going to the bathroom until the last possible minute and then if she has problems with the buttons/zippers on her pants, it becomes an emergency situation. i imagine that that is what happened today. it's her only potty accident at school and so that's 5 months accident free. we've rarely had accidents at home (in fact she'll be pottytrained for 1 year next month!). i guess the part i'm bummed about was that she was *maybe* embarrassed at school.
and i know i'm making too much of it. the more attention i focus on it then she'll think it was a horrible event. but at least she's not in diapers. i know of 2 kids in her class that are still in diapers! (pullups, whatever...)
anyway, they baked valentine's cookies at school and they put reese's loosely-tied-in-a-plastic-bag potty clothes in the same part of her backpack with the napkin-wrapped cookie. ugh. and of course that's the first thing reese started talking about when she got home. no way was i going to let her eat that thing. so i had to do some fast talking and give her some hot cocoa and teddy grahams. and the first thing she told rob when he walked in the door tonight: 'mommy threw away my cookie' (add fake tears here).
the reason reese goes to school is for speech help. it's a playgroup format, based on a preschool format (they do circle time, etc) with a little bit of work on speech sounds. i see a huge improvement in her, but i'm not sure how much of this is her school and how much is just reese growing up. technically she is involved in special ed, she has an IEP.
now in her back pack i found a handout about the local title 1 preschool. reese would be the correct age to go this coming school year (2006-07) and it's 5 days a week, morning or afternoon. i assume that since it's through the school district there is no cost. it wasn't mentioned on the handout. what i do want to know is the kind of kids that will be attending. if these kids are severely handicapped, i'm not sure if it would be appropriate for reese. (do i sound like a snob? probably. :/)
i guess i'm just worried about reese being further behind than i'm aware of and this is the school district's way of telling me to get her more help. i'm paranoid, i guess. i need to talk to her teachers about if there will be formal testing done when she's is done with the group she's in now. and if her entrance to the title 1 preschool is approved/denied based on those tests.
my feelings aren't really a direct result of anything the school did today. hell, for all i know it could be hormonally based.
speaking of, we've been thinking of names. already, i have a feeling it's a boy. one of our names when i was pg with cade was sean robert. i still really like that name. rob is kind of so-so on it. the reason i think it's a boy is b/c no girl names appeal to me at all. it was that way with cade, i just couldn't settle on a girl name. although i will be looking. i already have our baby name book off the bookcase. :)
reese had a potty accident at school. i think i'm more upset about it than she is and if i'd quit bugging her for details, she' probably forget it ever happened. her 'version' of it is that she just didn't make it to the bathroom in time. she does do that, put off going to the bathroom until the last possible minute and then if she has problems with the buttons/zippers on her pants, it becomes an emergency situation. i imagine that that is what happened today. it's her only potty accident at school and so that's 5 months accident free. we've rarely had accidents at home (in fact she'll be pottytrained for 1 year next month!). i guess the part i'm bummed about was that she was *maybe* embarrassed at school.
and i know i'm making too much of it. the more attention i focus on it then she'll think it was a horrible event. but at least she's not in diapers. i know of 2 kids in her class that are still in diapers! (pullups, whatever...)
anyway, they baked valentine's cookies at school and they put reese's loosely-tied-in-a-plastic-bag potty clothes in the same part of her backpack with the napkin-wrapped cookie. ugh. and of course that's the first thing reese started talking about when she got home. no way was i going to let her eat that thing. so i had to do some fast talking and give her some hot cocoa and teddy grahams. and the first thing she told rob when he walked in the door tonight: 'mommy threw away my cookie' (add fake tears here).
the reason reese goes to school is for speech help. it's a playgroup format, based on a preschool format (they do circle time, etc) with a little bit of work on speech sounds. i see a huge improvement in her, but i'm not sure how much of this is her school and how much is just reese growing up. technically she is involved in special ed, she has an IEP.
now in her back pack i found a handout about the local title 1 preschool. reese would be the correct age to go this coming school year (2006-07) and it's 5 days a week, morning or afternoon. i assume that since it's through the school district there is no cost. it wasn't mentioned on the handout. what i do want to know is the kind of kids that will be attending. if these kids are severely handicapped, i'm not sure if it would be appropriate for reese. (do i sound like a snob? probably. :/)
i guess i'm just worried about reese being further behind than i'm aware of and this is the school district's way of telling me to get her more help. i'm paranoid, i guess. i need to talk to her teachers about if there will be formal testing done when she's is done with the group she's in now. and if her entrance to the title 1 preschool is approved/denied based on those tests.
my feelings aren't really a direct result of anything the school did today. hell, for all i know it could be hormonally based.
speaking of, we've been thinking of names. already, i have a feeling it's a boy. one of our names when i was pg with cade was sean robert. i still really like that name. rob is kind of so-so on it. the reason i think it's a boy is b/c no girl names appeal to me at all. it was that way with cade, i just couldn't settle on a girl name. although i will be looking. i already have our baby name book off the bookcase. :)
2.09.2006
what i do on friday nights...
greetings :)
tracy, you're awesome. i love that you post comments and let me know that *someone* is peeking at my ramblings. since i'm sure rob will be a dud on valentine's day, will you be my valentine??? and i want you to know that the next time i'm at target i'm going to splurge and try some of the olay regenerist that you raved about. who knows, maybe after i use it i'll get mistaken for....hm....um anyone but me would be fine.
anyway, on to the rambling...
my newest friday night addiction is thanks to the travel channel. they run this show from great britian called 'most haunted.' this team of folks goes into some of the most reportedly haunted places in england. the part that i find most amazing is that some of these structures are intact although they were built in the 1200s. that just blows my mind, being an american and all. over here if anything is over 200 years old it should be locked up behind glass and velvet ropes. i'm not sure how things survive for a thousand years over there. they don't have tornados, earthquakes, huge brush fires, hurricanes, or really any natural disasters. i think their main enemy is mold b/c it's so damp over there. but just to see these that these places are still inhabited is just amazing to me.
anyway, the team consists of a blonde (sometimes redheaded) female host, a medium (derek, he's the shit, let me tell you!), and phil, the parapsychologist that does all the 'baseline readings.' (i love that phrase, 'baseline readings.' say it and you sound knowledgeable about anything.) what i love is that derek can tell so many things about the previous residents of a place and he's not told anything about the location; according to the show, he's not even told WHERE they're going. not sure if they blindfold him and throw him in the trunk or what. but he can tell you with about 80% accuracy about the history of a location.
then it's fun just watching the blonde host get scared out of her wits. they give her a camera and send her somewhere in the house that it's pitch black and let her mind work overtime. i admit, i would be the same exact way. no way could they get me to go in some of these places with the lights off.
i think the creepiest place they went was an underground prison. i was just flabbergasted that such a place had even existed. it wasn't a prison exactly, more like a holding place before prisoners were sent off to be tried or punished i think. after the place was no longer used for that purpose, the town built a street over it and put up some swanky buildings and now it looks totally respectable. amazing how they just build stuff on top of stuff over there. i wish they had shown more from that location, they had some 'evil' spirits chasing the team around and derek would not let the ladies be by themselves. but it is an hour show, the spooks can only have so much time before the commercials gotta pay the bills. it's a cool show for any one who likes to get a bit scared, and i'm afraid i'm looking forward to it a bit too much. if for some reason it wasn't on, i would be disappointed. then i'd have to actually do something productive instead. (like watch 'dallas' reruns...but that's a future post.)
so that is what my tivo is recording on friday nights. that and 'ghost whisperer.' this is one of the few dramas that i enjoy on tv anymore. (oh, and i watched some of 'grey's anatomy' last sunday, i might just have to add that to my tivo to do list!)
cade was up at 6ish this morning, whining/crying in his crib. he's put himself back to sleep before so i just dozed through it. then reese came in at 6:45 b/c he had woken her up and i realize he's still crying and i was SLEEPING THROUGH IT. what kind of a mommy am i? eek. but the crying obviously didn't get louder, and it was more whine than cry. and he was happy to see me when i went into his room, so i guess he's not holding a grudge. but the good news is a guaranteed nap time today. yay! i really hope reese cooperates with operation shuteye.
what to do today...sleep. survive. gestate baby. make sure the dog doesn't yak on the carpet (the linoleum is ok though, it's easier to clean). entertain the kids.
i guess that's it. better get started ;)
tracy, you're awesome. i love that you post comments and let me know that *someone* is peeking at my ramblings. since i'm sure rob will be a dud on valentine's day, will you be my valentine??? and i want you to know that the next time i'm at target i'm going to splurge and try some of the olay regenerist that you raved about. who knows, maybe after i use it i'll get mistaken for....hm....um anyone but me would be fine.
anyway, on to the rambling...
my newest friday night addiction is thanks to the travel channel. they run this show from great britian called 'most haunted.' this team of folks goes into some of the most reportedly haunted places in england. the part that i find most amazing is that some of these structures are intact although they were built in the 1200s. that just blows my mind, being an american and all. over here if anything is over 200 years old it should be locked up behind glass and velvet ropes. i'm not sure how things survive for a thousand years over there. they don't have tornados, earthquakes, huge brush fires, hurricanes, or really any natural disasters. i think their main enemy is mold b/c it's so damp over there. but just to see these that these places are still inhabited is just amazing to me.
anyway, the team consists of a blonde (sometimes redheaded) female host, a medium (derek, he's the shit, let me tell you!), and phil, the parapsychologist that does all the 'baseline readings.' (i love that phrase, 'baseline readings.' say it and you sound knowledgeable about anything.) what i love is that derek can tell so many things about the previous residents of a place and he's not told anything about the location; according to the show, he's not even told WHERE they're going. not sure if they blindfold him and throw him in the trunk or what. but he can tell you with about 80% accuracy about the history of a location.
then it's fun just watching the blonde host get scared out of her wits. they give her a camera and send her somewhere in the house that it's pitch black and let her mind work overtime. i admit, i would be the same exact way. no way could they get me to go in some of these places with the lights off.
i think the creepiest place they went was an underground prison. i was just flabbergasted that such a place had even existed. it wasn't a prison exactly, more like a holding place before prisoners were sent off to be tried or punished i think. after the place was no longer used for that purpose, the town built a street over it and put up some swanky buildings and now it looks totally respectable. amazing how they just build stuff on top of stuff over there. i wish they had shown more from that location, they had some 'evil' spirits chasing the team around and derek would not let the ladies be by themselves. but it is an hour show, the spooks can only have so much time before the commercials gotta pay the bills. it's a cool show for any one who likes to get a bit scared, and i'm afraid i'm looking forward to it a bit too much. if for some reason it wasn't on, i would be disappointed. then i'd have to actually do something productive instead. (like watch 'dallas' reruns...but that's a future post.)
so that is what my tivo is recording on friday nights. that and 'ghost whisperer.' this is one of the few dramas that i enjoy on tv anymore. (oh, and i watched some of 'grey's anatomy' last sunday, i might just have to add that to my tivo to do list!)
cade was up at 6ish this morning, whining/crying in his crib. he's put himself back to sleep before so i just dozed through it. then reese came in at 6:45 b/c he had woken her up and i realize he's still crying and i was SLEEPING THROUGH IT. what kind of a mommy am i? eek. but the crying obviously didn't get louder, and it was more whine than cry. and he was happy to see me when i went into his room, so i guess he's not holding a grudge. but the good news is a guaranteed nap time today. yay! i really hope reese cooperates with operation shuteye.
what to do today...sleep. survive. gestate baby. make sure the dog doesn't yak on the carpet (the linoleum is ok though, it's easier to clean). entertain the kids.
i guess that's it. better get started ;)
2.08.2006
it's hump day!
geez, it's been a while. in case there is anyone out there checking in, sorry!
my last post in here was just before rob returned from holland. how ironic that he'll be leaving in a week or so to go back there for 4 months. please pray for my sanity and health while he's gone. my mind has started worrying about 'what happens if i fall in the shower?', 'what if i fall down the stairs and break my neck?', 'what if i just don't wake up?' and in all these scenarios i worry about when my children would be found, starving and penned. i image reese would be desperately trying to figure out the tivo remote, refusing to use the toilet (since i'm not there to stand in the doorway). she might have tried to get cade out of the crib but i think he'd still be stuck in there for who knows how long. i close the gate at the top of the stairs every night so reese can't wander downstairs as i snooze, but i realize more and more that maybe this is a fire hazard...or could be dangerous in an emergency. can you tell i have way too much time to ponder such things?!?!
maybe my mind wanders this way b/c this pregnancy is progressing well....pregnant women are quite good at visualizing the worst of any situation. i rented a doppler and found the heartbeat and that was a huge relief. if i had any smarts i'd try and link a sound file. wonder if i have that much time to devote to something that wouldn't work anyway. when i let rob listen, he was amazed. i keep forgetting that he never really got to all the short doc appts when i was pregnant with reese or cade, so listening to the heartbeat is amazing technology for him. i'm not showing that much, but my uterus seems to be pushing up all my belly fat so i'm just 2x as chubby. i did buy some maternity tshirts at old navy and i seem to be looking pg in them already. keep in mind i'm only 11 weeks on thursday! i have a feeling that my butt is eating up all the extra room in the shirts. i guess i'll need a buttectomy asap. if only. why doesn't medical science work on the breakthroughs that really matter???
speaking of medical science, i still am not in the care of an ob/gyn. i still haven't even gone on base for the referral yet. since i've already ordered teh doppler, i'm on prenatal vitamins, and doing daily weigh-ins, i'm thinking i'm pretty qualified to have this baby myself. maybe i'll opt for homebirth and tell rob to get out, i can do this myself. heh heh. (and yes, he BETTER be home by the end of august...he's scheduled to be home july 6th-ish.) anyway, i need to review the list of ob/gyns that my insurance will accept. i don't want to use the docs that delievered reese...i ended up with an episiotomy and i hated waiting for 45 minutes for a 5 minute appt. with cade, we started off with a practice in new hampshire and i loved them. it was mostly female midwives & docs and they were so nice, making EYE CONTACT with me, wondering how i was really doing (emotionally too). then we moved to connecticut and the local practice was ok, but even though i went into labor on a friday (the day the midwife was rumored to be on duty), a doc still delivered me. ??? i don't think they really let her catch any babies, probably b/c of insurance. :/
it would be nice to go to someone local, just b/c of childcare issues (hey, why don't ob/gyns offer childcare during appts??? if a grocery store can do it, why not the doctor's office???). i barely remember the doc who delivered cade, and i know i couldn't spell his name. he was the only doctor that i hadn't gotten around to seeing in an appt and his name honestly looked like 'frankenstein' on the birth paperwork. however, i just had a tiny tear with cade and the birth went smoothly. the cocky part of me thinks that's b/c i'm just a healthy person with wide hips...the docs really don't do much except clamp the cord and make sure the baby doesn't hit the floor.
anyway, enough about baby talk.
we're headed for groceries today. you can bet that miniature peanut butter cups are going to be in my cart. i might just hide them til rob leaves next week.
my last post in here was just before rob returned from holland. how ironic that he'll be leaving in a week or so to go back there for 4 months. please pray for my sanity and health while he's gone. my mind has started worrying about 'what happens if i fall in the shower?', 'what if i fall down the stairs and break my neck?', 'what if i just don't wake up?' and in all these scenarios i worry about when my children would be found, starving and penned. i image reese would be desperately trying to figure out the tivo remote, refusing to use the toilet (since i'm not there to stand in the doorway). she might have tried to get cade out of the crib but i think he'd still be stuck in there for who knows how long. i close the gate at the top of the stairs every night so reese can't wander downstairs as i snooze, but i realize more and more that maybe this is a fire hazard...or could be dangerous in an emergency. can you tell i have way too much time to ponder such things?!?!
maybe my mind wanders this way b/c this pregnancy is progressing well....pregnant women are quite good at visualizing the worst of any situation. i rented a doppler and found the heartbeat and that was a huge relief. if i had any smarts i'd try and link a sound file. wonder if i have that much time to devote to something that wouldn't work anyway. when i let rob listen, he was amazed. i keep forgetting that he never really got to all the short doc appts when i was pregnant with reese or cade, so listening to the heartbeat is amazing technology for him. i'm not showing that much, but my uterus seems to be pushing up all my belly fat so i'm just 2x as chubby. i did buy some maternity tshirts at old navy and i seem to be looking pg in them already. keep in mind i'm only 11 weeks on thursday! i have a feeling that my butt is eating up all the extra room in the shirts. i guess i'll need a buttectomy asap. if only. why doesn't medical science work on the breakthroughs that really matter???
speaking of medical science, i still am not in the care of an ob/gyn. i still haven't even gone on base for the referral yet. since i've already ordered teh doppler, i'm on prenatal vitamins, and doing daily weigh-ins, i'm thinking i'm pretty qualified to have this baby myself. maybe i'll opt for homebirth and tell rob to get out, i can do this myself. heh heh. (and yes, he BETTER be home by the end of august...he's scheduled to be home july 6th-ish.) anyway, i need to review the list of ob/gyns that my insurance will accept. i don't want to use the docs that delievered reese...i ended up with an episiotomy and i hated waiting for 45 minutes for a 5 minute appt. with cade, we started off with a practice in new hampshire and i loved them. it was mostly female midwives & docs and they were so nice, making EYE CONTACT with me, wondering how i was really doing (emotionally too). then we moved to connecticut and the local practice was ok, but even though i went into labor on a friday (the day the midwife was rumored to be on duty), a doc still delivered me. ??? i don't think they really let her catch any babies, probably b/c of insurance. :/
it would be nice to go to someone local, just b/c of childcare issues (hey, why don't ob/gyns offer childcare during appts??? if a grocery store can do it, why not the doctor's office???). i barely remember the doc who delivered cade, and i know i couldn't spell his name. he was the only doctor that i hadn't gotten around to seeing in an appt and his name honestly looked like 'frankenstein' on the birth paperwork. however, i just had a tiny tear with cade and the birth went smoothly. the cocky part of me thinks that's b/c i'm just a healthy person with wide hips...the docs really don't do much except clamp the cord and make sure the baby doesn't hit the floor.
anyway, enough about baby talk.
we're headed for groceries today. you can bet that miniature peanut butter cups are going to be in my cart. i might just hide them til rob leaves next week.
1.19.2006
day 8 of the hostage crisis...
no wonder i have so many grey hairs. i've never spent this much time with both kids!
rob has been gone for 8 days and last night at bedtime they just about made me cry. cade was screaming at me from the crib (screaming as in nasty, mean-sounding, demanding screams). reese refused to stay in bed. she had her nightlight taken away and almost lost her 2 stuffed animals that she chose for bed. she had 3 drinks, 2 potty trips, 4 songs, and almost a spanking. when i saw her come out of the bedroom that 6th time i almost broke down. i just needed some mommy-time dammit!
she finally crashed and it was only 8:40. good thing i started the process early. i told her that she was taking a nap today b/c i was tired of the attitude. i don't know if that will change her behavior but at least i'll get a break in the middle of the day.
i haven't heard from rob since sunday, but he's been a busy boy. we got a package delivered from nhl.com...i opened it up and there was ANOTHER damn coat that rob bought. i think this is the 5th one since september. this one is for the philly team...not sure what they are, they flyers? he buys these coats and then he doesn't wear them. he bought a satin raiders one off ebay that is older (maybe antique in the sports world?) but does he wear it? no. the man doesn't realize that we DON'T HAVE THE ROOM to just buy crap that we don't use. if he wanted to invest less $$$, then we could afford a bigger home to store his crap. but in the meantime, i wish he'd STOP BUYING CRAP. arg.
i'm thinking about emailing him this: "hi honey! the mailman tried to deliver a package for you from NHL.com but i refused to accept it. i knew that since you were out of the country, there was no way he could have purchased anything online and it must have been a mistake." it'd be a lie. i opened it 3 minutes after the mailman brought it up :)
oh and he's also been busy at the atm. the day before he left he withdrew $120 for travel money. then at the aiport, he withdrew another $100 at a foreign atm (ack! more $$$ down the drain). he'll be in the netherlands for 10 days, what does he need $220 for??? he better stay away from those amsterdam prostitutes! just kidding. although he is a sailor, i hope he values his marriage vows more than that.
the good news is that he should be home on tuesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thank god. i don't know how i'm going to handle this for 4 months. my parents invited me out to iowa and i'm thinking about taking them up on it. my dad would fly out, help me close up the house & pack, and then we'd all drive (the cat & dog, too...my parents invited them too! wow!) out to iowa, then my dad would help me drive back after the visit, and then fly home. sounds like a good plan, and i think we could drive it in one stretch, we wouldn't have to do a hotel room one night like we did when we went to iowa for xmas.
if i did go out to iowa, it would be for most of april. b/c of spring break & good friday, reese has almost a month off of school. but i'd be worried that i'd feel way too trapped in iowa. i could always visit family when i'm bored though. however, my parents only have dialup. is it sad that that is the downside to this plan? and the fact that my parents house is NOT childproofed. most of it is ok, but they have this wine rack in the living room, full of bottles that i would hate to see cade try to climb. oh, and the fact that they only have satellite on the downstairs tv. the other tvs are antenna and pbs is the only kid-friendly station. i'd have to bring lots of vhs videos with me :) or else put them out in the van to watch a dvd while i take a shower.
but it would break up the time and the kids would have fun. we'd just be sitting around here anyway. maybe i'll check it out. the only thing i'd worry about would be prenatal care. during april i'll be 19-22 weeks...nothing much happens there except for the big ultrasound. my worry would be if this turns into a high risk pregnancy for some unknown reason.
anyway, plenty of time to research and plan. heck, i haven't even scheduled my first doc appt at the ob/gyn yet. oops! :)
rob has been gone for 8 days and last night at bedtime they just about made me cry. cade was screaming at me from the crib (screaming as in nasty, mean-sounding, demanding screams). reese refused to stay in bed. she had her nightlight taken away and almost lost her 2 stuffed animals that she chose for bed. she had 3 drinks, 2 potty trips, 4 songs, and almost a spanking. when i saw her come out of the bedroom that 6th time i almost broke down. i just needed some mommy-time dammit!
she finally crashed and it was only 8:40. good thing i started the process early. i told her that she was taking a nap today b/c i was tired of the attitude. i don't know if that will change her behavior but at least i'll get a break in the middle of the day.
i haven't heard from rob since sunday, but he's been a busy boy. we got a package delivered from nhl.com...i opened it up and there was ANOTHER damn coat that rob bought. i think this is the 5th one since september. this one is for the philly team...not sure what they are, they flyers? he buys these coats and then he doesn't wear them. he bought a satin raiders one off ebay that is older (maybe antique in the sports world?) but does he wear it? no. the man doesn't realize that we DON'T HAVE THE ROOM to just buy crap that we don't use. if he wanted to invest less $$$, then we could afford a bigger home to store his crap. but in the meantime, i wish he'd STOP BUYING CRAP. arg.
i'm thinking about emailing him this: "hi honey! the mailman tried to deliver a package for you from NHL.com but i refused to accept it. i knew that since you were out of the country, there was no way he could have purchased anything online and it must have been a mistake." it'd be a lie. i opened it 3 minutes after the mailman brought it up :)
oh and he's also been busy at the atm. the day before he left he withdrew $120 for travel money. then at the aiport, he withdrew another $100 at a foreign atm (ack! more $$$ down the drain). he'll be in the netherlands for 10 days, what does he need $220 for??? he better stay away from those amsterdam prostitutes! just kidding. although he is a sailor, i hope he values his marriage vows more than that.
the good news is that he should be home on tuesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thank god. i don't know how i'm going to handle this for 4 months. my parents invited me out to iowa and i'm thinking about taking them up on it. my dad would fly out, help me close up the house & pack, and then we'd all drive (the cat & dog, too...my parents invited them too! wow!) out to iowa, then my dad would help me drive back after the visit, and then fly home. sounds like a good plan, and i think we could drive it in one stretch, we wouldn't have to do a hotel room one night like we did when we went to iowa for xmas.
if i did go out to iowa, it would be for most of april. b/c of spring break & good friday, reese has almost a month off of school. but i'd be worried that i'd feel way too trapped in iowa. i could always visit family when i'm bored though. however, my parents only have dialup. is it sad that that is the downside to this plan? and the fact that my parents house is NOT childproofed. most of it is ok, but they have this wine rack in the living room, full of bottles that i would hate to see cade try to climb. oh, and the fact that they only have satellite on the downstairs tv. the other tvs are antenna and pbs is the only kid-friendly station. i'd have to bring lots of vhs videos with me :) or else put them out in the van to watch a dvd while i take a shower.
but it would break up the time and the kids would have fun. we'd just be sitting around here anyway. maybe i'll check it out. the only thing i'd worry about would be prenatal care. during april i'll be 19-22 weeks...nothing much happens there except for the big ultrasound. my worry would be if this turns into a high risk pregnancy for some unknown reason.
anyway, plenty of time to research and plan. heck, i haven't even scheduled my first doc appt at the ob/gyn yet. oops! :)
1.16.2006
it has been a while...
time is passing slowly at the bobeara household, yet i still manage to avoid updating the blog. am i good or what?
so here you go, here's the goods...
rob is no longer going to iraq. the detailer worked his mojo and now rob will be in the netherlands for 4 months. this is definitely an improvement...i'll take dutch people in a war free zone any day! rob will be a student in the dutch perisher course. all i can equate it to is like a foreign exchange student program for submariners. he goes over there and is immersed in how they run their subs. they use diesel subs so it should be quite interesting for rob. in fact, he's over there now doing the introduction to the course. i hope to be picking him up at the airport in 8 days. then he'll leave again ON MY BIRTHDAY (! ack! what horrible timing the navy has!) to start the actual course. gradution is set for july 5th so he should be home by our anniversary (july 7th). all i can say is that i better get a damn good anniversary present!
and speaking of horrible timing...we've recently found out we'll be adding another bobeara to our family! this was very unexpected, we were planning on trying for #3 in a year or 18 months. i'm still enjoying sleeping through the night so the knowledge that i'll have to give that up in the next 9 months just hurts. really hurts. and another pain...i still recall how much it hurt to be in labor with cade. so i guess i didn't wait long enough between babies. usually women have forgotten all that pain by the next time they get pregnant.
baby #3 is due 8/31/06 but with my cervix of steel i would expect him on about 9/4/06. i refuse to even try to hold out til my dad's birthday (9/9). i have been thinking about the positives with this baby. this baby will be born when cade is 25-26 months old, which is the same age span btwn reese and cade. so we'll have had a baby every 25 months. and we'll have had a baby in '02, '04, and '06. if this child is born in august, we'll have birthdays in june, july and august. and this will be the last child. so all our kids will be young together and rob & i can move on to being married with children...instead of being married and getting pregnant all the time. (i sound like i hate children. i really don't. what i hate is being pregnant. i hate the nausea i'm going through, the fact that i'm going to have to squeeze into maternity clothes...i'm just going to hate being all uncomfortable and hormonal and short-tempered...especially during july and august.) the best part: rob is getting snipped for his birthday. is that sweet revenge for carrying 3 of his big-headed kids or what?
on another front, we're getting settled in with our new dog. after almost 2 weeks of indecision we've come up with napoleon. he's a small dog but he tries to make up for it with his bark. we call him 'poley'. it was either that or nappy. he's still trying to make friends with the cat, and if he didn't chase the damn cat all over the place he'd make more progress. he's a lab mix but he's only about 30 lbs. i don't know what he's mixed with...i'd think terrier but he's completely black. i would think that some brown from the terrier would have come through. he does have short hair like a rat terrier though. no house training accidents yet, just some vomiting here and there. he wants to play too soon after eating and just urps on the floor. but even that is not so common as the first few days he was here. he's good with the kids, except he gets excited and uses them as footstools to jump off of. he's pushed cade down 3 or 4 times. cade's just going to have to either fight back or turn his back.
here he is 'eating' breakfast with the kids this morning. this was after he had gotten the rest of cade's mini-bagel.
as i type poley is trying to share the kitchen chair with me. he has his head on my leg and since cade is on my other leg, the dog is leaning on my back. he keeps on collapsing b/c he's falling asleep but he won't just go sleep on the floor. in fact, the dog has just succeeded in pushing cade off my lap. cade is not happy about the turn of events. since i suppose cade is 'of my loins' i should give him priority to my lap.
anyway, that's the update around here for now. it's taken a while to get it, but i'm sure it was worth the wait!
so here you go, here's the goods...
rob is no longer going to iraq. the detailer worked his mojo and now rob will be in the netherlands for 4 months. this is definitely an improvement...i'll take dutch people in a war free zone any day! rob will be a student in the dutch perisher course. all i can equate it to is like a foreign exchange student program for submariners. he goes over there and is immersed in how they run their subs. they use diesel subs so it should be quite interesting for rob. in fact, he's over there now doing the introduction to the course. i hope to be picking him up at the airport in 8 days. then he'll leave again ON MY BIRTHDAY (! ack! what horrible timing the navy has!) to start the actual course. gradution is set for july 5th so he should be home by our anniversary (july 7th). all i can say is that i better get a damn good anniversary present!
and speaking of horrible timing...we've recently found out we'll be adding another bobeara to our family! this was very unexpected, we were planning on trying for #3 in a year or 18 months. i'm still enjoying sleeping through the night so the knowledge that i'll have to give that up in the next 9 months just hurts. really hurts. and another pain...i still recall how much it hurt to be in labor with cade. so i guess i didn't wait long enough between babies. usually women have forgotten all that pain by the next time they get pregnant.
baby #3 is due 8/31/06 but with my cervix of steel i would expect him on about 9/4/06. i refuse to even try to hold out til my dad's birthday (9/9). i have been thinking about the positives with this baby. this baby will be born when cade is 25-26 months old, which is the same age span btwn reese and cade. so we'll have had a baby every 25 months. and we'll have had a baby in '02, '04, and '06. if this child is born in august, we'll have birthdays in june, july and august. and this will be the last child. so all our kids will be young together and rob & i can move on to being married with children...instead of being married and getting pregnant all the time. (i sound like i hate children. i really don't. what i hate is being pregnant. i hate the nausea i'm going through, the fact that i'm going to have to squeeze into maternity clothes...i'm just going to hate being all uncomfortable and hormonal and short-tempered...especially during july and august.) the best part: rob is getting snipped for his birthday. is that sweet revenge for carrying 3 of his big-headed kids or what?
on another front, we're getting settled in with our new dog. after almost 2 weeks of indecision we've come up with napoleon. he's a small dog but he tries to make up for it with his bark. we call him 'poley'. it was either that or nappy. he's still trying to make friends with the cat, and if he didn't chase the damn cat all over the place he'd make more progress. he's a lab mix but he's only about 30 lbs. i don't know what he's mixed with...i'd think terrier but he's completely black. i would think that some brown from the terrier would have come through. he does have short hair like a rat terrier though. no house training accidents yet, just some vomiting here and there. he wants to play too soon after eating and just urps on the floor. but even that is not so common as the first few days he was here. he's good with the kids, except he gets excited and uses them as footstools to jump off of. he's pushed cade down 3 or 4 times. cade's just going to have to either fight back or turn his back.
here he is 'eating' breakfast with the kids this morning. this was after he had gotten the rest of cade's mini-bagel.
as i type poley is trying to share the kitchen chair with me. he has his head on my leg and since cade is on my other leg, the dog is leaning on my back. he keeps on collapsing b/c he's falling asleep but he won't just go sleep on the floor. in fact, the dog has just succeeded in pushing cade off my lap. cade is not happy about the turn of events. since i suppose cade is 'of my loins' i should give him priority to my lap.
anyway, that's the update around here for now. it's taken a while to get it, but i'm sure it was worth the wait!
1.06.2006
woohoo! i got tagged!
funny thing to be excited about, but hey, i'm a stay-at-home mom. the next exciting thing on my list is when the mail comes.
Four jobs you've had in your life:
1. grocery store clerk/cashier
2. teacher at sylvan learning center
3. test center administrator at what used to be a sylvan testing center (they give GRE, GMAT, etc.)
4. worked retail at a younkers in omaha. like the midwest version of dillards/macy's.
Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Grease
2. Sound of Music
3. Titanic
4. Cousins
Four places you have lived:
1. Iowa
2. Nebraska
3. Connecticut
4. New Hampshire
Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Amazing Race
2. American Idol
3. Commander-in-Chief
4. Ghost Hunters (on scifi)
Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Mexico City
2. Cedar Point in Sandusky OH
3. Tahiti
4. Sweden
Four websites you visit daily:
1. my email (yahoo)
2. sheknows message boards
3. local newspaper online
4. mis tit's blog...and other assorted blogs too :)
Four of your favorite foods:
1. mexican (does taco bell qualify as mexican? hope so!)
2. ice cream
3. potatoes
4. grilled salmon
Four places you would rather be right now:
1. in bed
2. somewhere sunny & warm where fat people aren't stared at on the beach
3. anywhere with child care
4. a closet where i can lock myself in with my laptop
Four jobs you've had in your life:
1. grocery store clerk/cashier
2. teacher at sylvan learning center
3. test center administrator at what used to be a sylvan testing center (they give GRE, GMAT, etc.)
4. worked retail at a younkers in omaha. like the midwest version of dillards/macy's.
Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Grease
2. Sound of Music
3. Titanic
4. Cousins
Four places you have lived:
1. Iowa
2. Nebraska
3. Connecticut
4. New Hampshire
Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Amazing Race
2. American Idol
3. Commander-in-Chief
4. Ghost Hunters (on scifi)
Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Mexico City
2. Cedar Point in Sandusky OH
3. Tahiti
4. Sweden
Four websites you visit daily:
1. my email (yahoo)
2. sheknows message boards
3. local newspaper online
4. mis tit's blog...and other assorted blogs too :)
Four of your favorite foods:
1. mexican (does taco bell qualify as mexican? hope so!)
2. ice cream
3. potatoes
4. grilled salmon
Four places you would rather be right now:
1. in bed
2. somewhere sunny & warm where fat people aren't stared at on the beach
3. anywhere with child care
4. a closet where i can lock myself in with my laptop
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