New Normal

It's Moving Time!

2008-02-11T04:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I did it.

After 3 years and 288 posts, I moving to Wordpress. I decided it's time to get a website that's actually the name of my blog. I'll miss you little blog, but I'm looking forward to my new site! So update your bookmarks and links and head on over to newnormal.wordpress.com

Don't worry, I'll leave this up for a while in case you forget the new website.

See you at my new home!

Housekeeping notes

2008-02-06T18:04:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of things I've been thinking about and keep forgetting to post.

1) The Big Bloggy Move. Come back on Monday, I've got something up my sleeve...

2) Have you seen the commercials for the new reality show? It's called Baby Borrowers. Teenage couples who think they want to be parents get to take care of babies for a while. The tagline is something about birth control. I think it may be pretty funny.

3) Isabelle can roll to her side now. That's all she can do, but that's pretty exciting!

I'm baking

2008-02-06T17:54:00.000-07:00

Today I got really bored and wanted to bake something. I didn't have any mixes and remembered I had cocoa powder in the pantry so I decided to find a brownie recipe.

My cousin Ariana came through again in our Family Cookbook and I made this recipe:

Chewy Cocoa Brownies

1 2/3 cups granulated sugar (high altitude- remove one 1 tablespoon)
3/4 cup butter, melted
2 tablespoons water
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (high altitude- add 1 tablespoon)
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (high altitude- 365 degrees). Grease 9x13 baking pan. Combine sugar, butter, and water in large bowl. Stir in eggs and vanilla extract. Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl; stir into sugar mixture. Stir in nuts. Spread into prepared baking pan. Bake for 18 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out slightly sticky. Cool completely and cut into bars.

I have made the brownies and they are still cooling. They look so good that I'm passing the recipe on before I even taste them!

My life revolves around store openings

2008-01-31T09:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took Isabelle to get her pictures taken. She did great- I scheduled it right after she eats so that she'd be awake and smiley, and she was!

When we were done I had the horrible task of picking which pictures to buy. After what seems like the rest of the afternoon I had made my decision and was getting my order together. The photographer was scheduling my pick-up date and said "How about February 20th?"

I looked at the date and knew there is something I'm doing that day. I couldn't remember and thought about it a bit more and then I remembered. "Costco is opening that day!" She laughed as I scheduled my pick-up around the fact that I would be attending Costco's opening. But hey, Costco is THAT cool. I've been waiting for this day since I moved to Colorado, why would I miss it????

So yes ma'am I planning my life around the opening of a store and I'm proud of it!

Question

2008-01-30T09:58:00.000-07:00

Here's something I need to know. Isabelle is starting to have arms that are too long for her sleeves and her toes get squished in some of her pajamas. She's still in 0-3 month clothes and I'm still able to snap onesies just fine. What I don't know is what is the best way to transition to the next size. Often when I put something on her it's fine on the changing table but after wearing it, it's obvious that it's getting small on her. I then forget which clothes were small after I do laundry.

What worked for you all when getting to the next size?

I'm sure you wanted to know...

2008-01-27T15:37:00.000-07:00

Megan tagged me for a meme. I don't usually get tagged (I just do meme's I like) so I'm doing to do this one- it makes me feel special.

6 Non-Important things/habits/quirks about myself:

1). I was a cheerleader in high school, my senior year I ate a full box of Mac-N-Cheese before going to every Friday night football game. I love Mac-N-Cheese. Because I love it so much I have a very specific way of making it and have made Tim follow along. Here are the things that HAVE TO happen: *Imperial Margarine has to be used, no other butter tastes the same and I can tell the difference. *The cheese must be added last, specifically the butter goes first to melt, then the milk and finally the cheese. If the cheese comes before the milk it's too runny and I don't like it runny.
Tim actually added his own rule and makes sure the timer is set for the 6 minutes the box says for it to cook- he doesn't trust my cooking instinct.

2). Any time I'm in the car I have to call someone. I get in this mood where I can't be quiet in the car- I can go 4 days at home without a phone call and can't last 5 minutes in the car. My mom, dad, or brothers usually see the result of this need- I make a lot of pointless calls to them in the middle of the day.

3). My funny bone is dislocated. Actually it's my ulnar nerve. I took a weight training class in high school to strengthen for cheerleading and noticed my elbow was really weird. I ended up getting a bunch of x-rays in which my family doctor couldn't read so I had to go to a bone specialist to find out it's not in the right place in my arm. She said once my hand starts going numb a lot I have to have the nerve moved to the other side of my arm. That was 12 years ago and I haven't had a problem. I found out the ulnar nerve is the funny bone by watching Bill Nye the Science Guy.

4). I have no cartilage in the tip of my nose. It pops in when it's squeezed between your fingers. Those of you in Oregon know all about it and it's old hat. I can show you guys in Colorado if you want- it freaks people out. My grandma was unimpressed because her nose did the same thing, that endeared me to her forever- I got her nose.

5). The first CD I owned was Tom Petty. I hadn't ever really listened to him but the girls in the class ahead of me loved him so I got his CD. I also wore Converse because they did.

6). I can't stand unfolded laundry. I could care less if it gets puts away, but I must have the clothes folded. I can't even hang things directly in the closest, it has to be folded first. Right now we have a pile of folded laundry on the end of the bed, I don't blink an eye. There is one bucket of laundry in our room that hasn't been folded for a week and it's driving me nuts just thinking about it. Thankfully Tim doesn't care as long as he has clean clothes when he needs them.

Whew, I finished my list! I had to think about those for quite awhile. I don't think I'll join these kinds of meme's too often. I'll stick to clicking on links to make rock bands or something.

I tag:

Joani
Melissa
Janell

learning to be a mom?!?!?!

2008-01-23T08:03:00.000-07:00

Last week Tim and I were talking about things and he made a comment about figuring out how to be a mom. Baby is two months old now and things are settling down now with our schedules and such.
That comment got me thinking. My moment of realization came (which I'm sure every new mom has had at some point) that I'm not a babysitter. Until now my frame of reference for taking care of children has been to come into a home, play or sit with the kids, maybe put together a meal, and leave when the parents come back. I've never included cleaning a home, getting myself ready, making meals, grocery shopping, running errands, and working my home based business in that equation. I think we are used to each other enough now that I can run around the house working on things while she's sleeping because I know how long she'll typically sleep.
My biggest change is to not schedule my day around time but in nap segments and shoot for small goals during that time. I think I'll get it figured out.

I'd like to leave you with yet another example of how the baby is definitely Daddy's Little Girl. I'm going to need to intervene soon or she'll start attending Star Trek Conventions.

Introducing, Darth Izzy:

My Rock Band

2008-01-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

Megan posted this and it's too funny not to do.

Here is the debut album of my band:

Sinky Bay
Of his own happiness

If you want to find your band's next album follow these easy instructions:

1. Click Here
The first article title on the page is the name of your band. (If it’s the entry for a real musician or band, cheating with a reload is probably a good idea.)

2. Click Here
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.

3. Click Here
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

I could do this all night. It's funny to see what comes up.

Two months down

2008-01-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

Isabelle has made it through two months of her life. And she's growing to prove it.

We had her pediatrician appointment a couple of days ago. She got weighed, measured, poked and prodded.

The doctor walked in and said, "Hello chunky monkey!" (Hey, she's not that fat!) Here's why:

* She weighs 10 pounds, 12 oz. 63rd percentile.
* She's 23 inches long. 85th percentile. We have no idea where she gets the length from.
* Her head is 15 inches or so, in the 63rd percentile as well.

She developing right on track. We only have a flat head issue but she all of the sudden started turning her head to the opposite side this week. Hopefully it'll correct without having to go to rehab.

In the middle of the appointment she got hungry, started crying, and we topped it off with four shots and an oral vaccine. Not a happy baby that day. But hey, she got her first dose of Baby Tylenol out of the deal!

Hockey Time!

2008-01-17T10:35:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night Tim and I went to a Colorado College hockey game in town.

Isabelle decided that she needed to go to her very first game and start to learn the ropes.

She made friends with the guys behind us, who were very excited that a two-month old was becoming a fan. Those CC fans are pretty loyal. She loved the game and did great the whole time. We think it's because she's used to Tim watching football- loud noises don't scare her.

If Tim has his way she'll become a hockey player. I'll probably get my way which means she won't! :)

The ongoing game

2008-01-09T14:28:00.000-07:00

Tim got me a 2 player strategy game for Christmas. I love board games but we don't have too many that he and I can play together.

The game is called Pentago. We take turns putting the marbles on the board and the a square has to be turned (so you need to know where you want the marble to end up). Since Christmas we have left the game on the counter to play as we walk by- ala Mauri and Sherry. It's been fun to play as we go along our day. Sometimes a game will take 2 or 3 days, other times we stand in the kitchen and play a quick game. We've had fun learning the strategy and trying to out-trick each other.

It's Library Time!

2008-01-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

Our library system is great- we have one main branch and then smaller branches scattered around town. The branch for our part of town is right around the corner so I have never had the need to visit other branches. Until now.

One thing they have is baby story time. I wasn't sure about it since Isabelle doesn't have the capacity to listen to stories. My friend told me that her son loves story time so last week I decided to check it out. It was awesome!

The library staff have set up the time as a way to develop pre-reading skills. I didn't have any early childhood development classes in college since I wasn't a elementary ed major- so I wasn't really aware that there are ways to develop reading skills. They make it lots of fun for the babies and we only get in a couple of stories the whole time.

The morning starts with songs and nursery rhymes. During that time we help the baby act out motions and in general play with them. The librarian reads a story, we get a copy to read again (I didn't read today because Isabelle fell asleep by that point), and we finish the morning with a short playtime. Today the playtime didn't work too well because there were 10 babies under 6 months that still play by themselves. The morning ended with 6 of those babies crying their heads off. But it's fun anyway- and it's free. The nice thing is that they have a different story group for each age so she can be involved at the library for a long time.

As an added bonus I discovered that this branch is much better than my branch so I hung out a little while afterward and read some magazines. I'm seeing a Monday morning tradition starting...

Old School

2008-01-07T06:21:00.000-07:00

There is nothing more fun than seeing the grin on your husband's face as he watches the new American Gladiators. We're both 12 again.

A New Year, a New Me

2008-01-03T18:22:00.000-07:00

For a while now I've needed to get my hair cut. It's the longest I've ever had it, which has been since my senior year in high school. I don't have a regular stylist and haven't wanted to pay the giant price most places cost. So I keep putting it off- until today. I was picking up a book I ordered and heard a commercial on the radio about a salon by our house that was having a special haircutting day. They were donating all the proceeds to the families that were affected from the New Life Church shootings. I decided that I should go in and give that way instead (part of the reason I hadn't cut my hair yet was to be able to donate it). I went in and got a real nice stylist who is a Christian and was from Roseburg, Oregon! She also ended up keeping my ponytail for the donation box they have- double score!

Here I am with my new do. The camera doesn't show the whole thing very well and I've already played with it a bit- but I like it a lot. It's lighter and supposed to be easy to maintain. And I was able to keep some of the length! Oh, and I think it makes me look thinner. Bonus!

My aching back

2007-12-29T09:44:00.000-07:00

Why is it that after 9 nine of carrying a baby in my belly- going through all those aches and painful back aches- she's right back where she started?

Christmas Cards???

2007-12-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

Every year I love getting Christmas cards. It helps stay connected to people everywhere.

This year I received an abundance of picture cards; it's the easier way to update people. Normally I'll save my cards for a couple of months and then eventually they get "filed" away (Mr. Trash Can makes a great cabinet). But what about the pictures? I don't have enough room on my refrigerator for all the pictures I get and I don't want to throw them away. If you save them you have the fun of seeing how much the kids have grown when you get the next family picture!

I've been thinking about a creative way to save the picture cards I get- I would like them to be displayed somehow or they aren't worth saving. My friends Megan would put their pictures on a map on the wall so their daughters could learn where their friends lived and also use it as a prayer reminder. Isabelle's not really at a point for geography lessons so I don't want to do that, just something like it.

What about you all? Do you save your Christmas cards? If so, how? Do you have any ideas for fun easy ways to display pictures you receive? Let's hear them!

Back in the saddle again

2007-12-28T08:39:00.000-07:00

Well, we're home- we made it safe and sound in between snow storms on Wednesday. There was supposed to be a big storm here yesterday and there wasn't enough snowfall to cover the ground- which was fine with me because it meant I could take my post-christmas trip to Target. I think our family will open Christmas presents on New Year's so we can buy all our gifts on sale!

Isabelle was great traveling and meeting her great-grandparents. She slept through both flights and adjusted well to sleeping in her carseat all week. Then we got home. The first night home she decided that she hadn't gotten enough awake time that day and pretty much was up all night.

We've had in her the pack-n-play bassinet and every time we put her down she sleeps for about 15 minutes and then starts crying. I knew it wasn't because she was on her back because she does pretty good sleeping that way. I noticed that she would start moving her legs and arms which would rock the bassinet back and forth. We haven't tried her in her crib yet so I decided last night (at 12:30 AM) to see if the movement was bothering her. I set up the room- moved the heater, cleared out the crib and put her down. Guess what! It worked! I had to put her back to sleep after that so she slept there from 1:30 to 3:30, woke up to eat and then slept from 4:00 to 6:00! She fussed a little but without the movement she fell right to sleep. 6 weeks old and she's now in her own room. Such a grown up.

My new thing to get used to is that she is starting to be more awake during the day- so now my schedule needs to reflect our playing together and when to just let her be awake on her own.

I have a couple more fun pictures of our trip- so I'll get those posted soon.

Happy New Year!

Daddy's Girl

2007-12-22T17:26:00.000-07:00

We've hardly started our vacation and already they're exhausted.

Christmas Baking!

2007-12-20T10:52:00.000-07:00

I've been going around to all my usual blog reads and keep seeing post after post about everyone's Christmas preparations. This year has been a bit anti-climatic for me since I'm home and not surrounded by the usual Christmas cheer (my past two jobs relied heavily on Christmas business- therefore it's been in my face for 6 years). I couldn't take it anymore and last night I quickly baked up a batch of M&M cookies. It may not sound like a traditional Christmas treat, but I remember that my Mom only seemed to make them at Christmas- therefore I usually only crave them at Christmas.
I had enough to take to Bible Study with us and for Tim to take the rest to his co-workers. He really wanted to give them something, but hadn't said anything to me so he was pretty glad when he came home and realized that I was making them. The only thing I was sad about was that I was too asleep this morning to put them in a cute bag. But you don't need a cute bag to enjoy cookies!

We leave in the morning for Iowa and Isabelle gets to meet her only living Great-Grandparents. Not only is Isabelle the 1st (well, 2nd) grandkid on both sides of our family, she is also the first great-grandchild for them. They are pretty excited about that. I have a feeling we'll be seeing Tim's relatives a little bit more than we normally do when we visit...

I won't be able to really post from there so here's a "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" to all of you and I hope that you have a great time with your families and friends.

Irony

2007-12-17T18:24:00.000-07:00

Irony is writing a post about how mellow your daughter is only to have her eat non-stop and cry when not eating the following day.

Thank goodness for a daddy that does a better job getting said daughter to sleep than her mommy does.

One month old

2007-12-16T17:51:00.000-07:00

Hey Isabelle!

You're a month old today! I don't even know what to say. I still can't believe that you're here and we get to be your mom and dad.

I've decided that you are going to be a pretty laid back person. You're happiest in our arms but can be patient with me when I put you down so I can take a shower. 10 ladies at MOPS can pass you around without you even stirring a little bit. Our dog Puddle can lick your face, sniff your feet and practically sit on you and you don't mind at all, you just keep sleeping. You even be in a mall on a Saturday before Christmas and not wake up.

You have adapted to the cold weather and decided that you can sleep just fine in your bassinet. In fact, you have been considerate of your mother's need for extended chunks of sleep time and give me at least 3 hours of sleep before you wake up again. Maybe next month you'll show us you are a big girl and move to your own room.

You like your daddy. Your favorite thing to do is have him hold you and you just stare at him. You like it so much that you have a hard time falling asleep. Right now he likes watching the Science Channel with you to make sure you are learning. You'll also be one of those girls that love to watch football- you may even yell at the television. Don't be embarrassed by this, it'll make you attractive to boys later on.

What will happen for you in month two? Maybe you'll grab your tummy time rattle on purpose and not just because I put it where your reflex will get it. Maybe you'll smile at us for real, although it is pretty cute to see you smile when you are full. Will you finally be happy in your Baby Bjorn?

Thanks for a good first month Isabelle. I promise I'll work on not laughing at you when you cry but your pout face is just too cute.

Learning to be a daddy

2007-12-13T08:54:00.001-07:00

One thing that has been pretty funny for Tim and I is seeing how he is learning to take care of a baby. He's got the diaper down now, but not after a few diapers that didn't provide the best coverage. He's getting the passing-the-baby down, no more nervous panic that I don't have her when he gives her to me. He's got the typing-a-final-report-while-holding-baby down, it's the only way I get things done sometimes.
But the thing we are working on and continues to make us laugh is how heavy of a sleeper he is. Tim has never woken up well. I usually have to stand back if I need to wake him up because he startles easily, often accompanied with a self-defense move (I fear getting karate chopped). I've stopped trying to wake him up at night to help out because of these two incidents:

1. I had just finished feeding her after like two hours and she kept crying in her crib so I just needed Tim to hold her. He stumbled out of bed, walked around a little and picked her up. Once she stopped crying he comes over to me and says, "Go for it". I looked at him and asked him what he meant. "You said you needed to clean the nursery," he responded. Um, nope. I explained that I just wanted him to hold the baby and I fell asleep. The next morning Tim told me that soon after I fell asleep he woke up in a panic trying to figure out how the baby got in his lap. I don't think I'll ask my semi-conscious husband to hold a child in the middle of the night again.

2. Tim has a fear that if the baby is in the bed, something will happen to her. A couple of nights after incident #1 I had finally gotten her settled down and in bed. All of the sudden Tim sits up straight, turns on the light and starts moving the bedding around. He started asking "where's the baby?" and kept lifting up his pillow and blankets. I told him a couple of times that she was finally in bed and now I was mad because the light was going to wake her up. Sure enough, she woke up and I had to get up again while Tim went back to sleep.

I've stopped trying to get him to help as you can see. But I don't hold it against him, so far I've been able to get her crying pretty good in our room and he doesn't blink an eye. Well maybe, I'll catch him lifting his head and looking at me when he rolls over, but I don't think he really sees me. Since I don't have my podcasts ready yet, he's my 2 AM entertainment.

******************

Once more story that made me laugh.

Tim hasn't practiced burping her while she sitting up and I like to do it that way to control where the spit up goes a little bit (I know it's in vain but I pretend). Last night at bible study I suggested that he burp her sitting up. Not too comfortable with it but he said he'd try. The next thing I know he has her propped a little against the arm of the couch, is holding the top of her head, and patting her back with his other hand. I lost it (I started laughing so hard I ended up interrupting the conversation), I have never seen anyone hold the top of a baby's head to burp them. Too funny. Needless to say we are going to work on holding her without the feeling of choking her. The joys of being a daddy.

Bits and Pieces

2007-12-12T16:43:00.000-07:00

Random thoughts running through my head:

*I'm so excited to be drinking a Gingerbread Latte at HOME! Starbucks is selling the big gingerbread syrup bottles for the first time this season. I think I may stock up to get me through the year.

*Errands are a lot harder to run now. Can't imagine what it's like with a couple of toddlers who need naps. At least my child can just fall asleep in her carrier and I can take her where I need to go. Also, I'm having to be more organized- I can't run out three times in a day if I've forgotten something.

*It's 2 weeks until Christmas and this year it feels very different. Instead of sibling presents, the three couples pooled our money to give a donation to the mission organization that was our sending mission (we are MK's...). One of the gifts is going to help out a missionary who used to be our babysitter in Bolivia- kind of cool. Now I don't have any shopping to get done, which is a big relief and is weird at the same time. Tim and I are trying to figure out how we can make Christmas not about the presents and give our children a different perspective.

*This weekend Isabelle is a month old. One month and time already is flying.

*On the news the other day someone made a comment in regards to the Omaha shootings that we are focusing so much on the terrorists in other countries that we haven't been paying attention to the fact that more Americans are being killed by other Americans. I think this weekends shootings here in town were even more evidence of that. It's sad that we have to witness such things. And pray for New Life Church and YWAM, they are all trying to put together what happened last weekend.

*Next Friday we are going to Iowa for Christmas. Isabelle will have her first plane ride! And we get to board first, how exciting. We'll be gone for 5 days. I'm worried that I'll either overpack or underpack. It's hard to know that first time. Fortunately I read somewhere that instead of bringing all the diapers in your closet, buy them when you get there. That's going to help out a lot.

Weekend update

2007-12-09T21:39:00.000-07:00

Isabelle had a special visitor this week. My youth pastor growing up (and the pastor that married us) was in Denver last week so he made sure to come down and see Isabelle. This is what he did the whole evening:

He also made sure to call his wife a couple of times and rub it in.

It was a lot of fun to spend time with Steve and catch up- I saw him this summer when I was home but didn't get to really hang out. He's the first person from back home to meet Isabelle (that is not my family) so he can go back and brag a little- at least to all you that read my blog. :)

Things are settling in around here- we had a baby shower yesterday at our house and it was great to see our friends and let them hold her. She's starting to have really good awake times during the day and sometimes at 2 in the morning.

Reasons my parents need to come back

2007-12-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

1. Laundry was getting done
2. Dishes were getting washed
3. Baby holding is easier with 4 people to share
4. Three nutritious meals were being cooked daily
5. House was clean
6. Someone was around to answer the phone/door during feedings
7. People to talk to during the day
8. Extra diaper changer
9. Grandparents just need to be around

Thanks for all your help Mom and Dad, we miss you already.

My new favorite thing

2007-12-02T17:04:00.001-07:00

Some of you may think it's a little too early to introduce this wonderful invention, but my pediatrician and my chest said otherwise. After realizing that marathon feedings were only probably consuming nourishment for the first 30 minutes or less, I asked if she could have a pacifier and the doc said go for it! Hallelujah. It's actually helped more during the day now that she is establishing some awake time. Don't worry- when she really is hungry she lets us know.

Favorite thing number 2 is our space heater. I was having trouble putting her back to bed after eating at night and narrowed it down to being cold. So last night we had the space heater on in our room. It was great. She ate and fell asleep fairly quickly and when I put her down she slept for two hours straight without fussing. So that will be another welcome addition to our home. Question: how did you guys keep your babies warm in the winter?

She's growing

2007-11-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

We had our two week appointment today- Isabelle has gained her birth weight back- yeah. She grew a 1/2 inch and her head has grown a tiny bit as well. At the last appointment the doctor still heard the murmur so we were referred to a cardiologist, but today he's not sure he heard it (he had to listen through her pj's 'cause she wouldn't stop crying without the clothes on). We still need to go to the baby heart doc just to make sure, but it looks like the heart stuff just took a little longer than normal to close up.

I have been thinking a lot about my recovery this pregnancy. I didn't realize how drugged I was after (and during) giving birth to Lucy. Add grieving on top of that and I wasn't doing too well for a couple of weeks. I couldn't walk too much, didn't have energy, and cried all the time. Now I'm fine going out and walking, have energy except for the occasional nap, and have only cried three or four times (how long does that last?). Overall a much better experience. Sometimes I forget I am recovering since it's such a different experience.

I feel like all I have to write about is this baby, but then I realized that's all I've been doing for the last two weeks. So keep tuned in for all things baby until I actually get out and do things again.

I'm awake... barely

2007-11-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

Who knew that a baby can be so sweet and calm all day and cranky all night long. Literally. I think last night she could've eaten from 10 pm to 5 am if I had let her. Tim ended up watching TV for over an hour at 3 in the morning to get her asleep only for her to wake up a half hour later to eat again! We're hoping she learns her day and nighttimes soon!
We had a great time with my family over the weekend. We haven't seen each other since this summer when I was home. It was a bit different since we had to revolve our schedule around Isabelle's schedule- we spent more time at home than we usually do.
Not much more to write about- I'm not having deep epiphanies in the middle of the night yet- but I am getting good at falling asleep sitting straight up and holding a baby.

On the list for today: decorating for Christmas!

Win a free CD

2007-11-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

If there is one thing I love in this world it's Christmas music. In fact, last week as I was cleaning up the house before going to the hospital I couldn't take it anymore and I just had to start my Christmas collection going. It was great!

I just found out that Michael W Smith is releasing a new Christmas CD and you may be able to get one for free! The first 150 bloggers who sign up and have at least 100 unique visitors a month are eligible to get a copy to review. How fun! I loved his last Christmas CD and there are previews of his songs on this site for you to enjoy.

So go check it out:

The littlest cheerleader

2007-11-20T14:58:00.000-07:00

After sleeping all day yesterday, Isabelle decided that she needed to help cheer the Broncos to a win last night. Here she is before the game. (It actually fit a little better than the picture shows).
This morning was a big morning for her. She had her first appointment with her doctor (passed with flying colors, and a poopy diaper) and then she had her first shopping trip to Target. She doesn't mind the car or her carseat so that's fun.

The Details

2007-11-18T18:02:00.000-07:00

So, making sure that AJ knows the full details like who won the prize- here the update now that we're home.

She was born at 7:32 PM making my Aunt Sue winner of an Arbonne Awaken Sea Salt Scrub with a guess of 7:00 PM. Word has it that she used her own experience to guess, good job Aunt Sue.

She weighed 6 pounds, 14 oz and is 20 inches long/tall.

Nothing much happened until I got my epidural at 2:00 pm. I then started having low blood pressure which was messing with her heart rate (it keep dropping funny). I also stopped progressing and she wasn't really descending which made them wonder if she wasn't positioned right.

At 5:00 they started talking about doing a c-section by 7:00 PM if nothing happened. At 6:15 still nothing was happening and it was pretty much guaranteed that I'd be in surgery. 20 minutes later I was at 8 centimeters and around 7:00 I was ready to go. Had to wait for the doctor to finish delivering a different baby and then it only took 12 minutes of pushing to deliver her! She ended up having the cord around her neck- so I'm glad that she was born Friday (we didn't see anything in the ultrasound last week).

So she's here and it's a little weird that she is. 2 whole pregnancies is a long time to wait for a baby. She had a heart murmur that was different enough to run tests and we thought she was going to have more this morning, but thankfully it was gone this morning.

That's all I think for now. My family is coming in town this week so hopefully I'll have time to add some updates.

Thanks everyone for praying and checking in on us! It was very appreciated.

Introducing...

2007-11-18T13:27:00.000-07:00

Isabelle Claire

Hello all! We're still in the hospital- waiting to go home. After long day, a possible c-section, and not that much pushing, Isabelle came into the world.
Can't type much because I'm holding her and typing with one hand but just wanted to check in. More pictures to come later, including the debut of the youngest Denver Bronco cheerleader. :)

I let you all know who the winner of the contest was when we get settled at home.

almost done with my checklist!

2007-11-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

Remember this post? Back in August I asked what I should do with our extra mocha powder containers. I don't know if I ever followed up with what I decided to do with them! After reading the comments I incorporated a couple of ideas and decided to use them as containers for nurse gifts when we go to the hospital.
I was thinking that it would be a little closer to Christmas... so I got Christmas scrapbooking paper and mod podged the paper to the outsides. The labels were too sticky to take off and use as plain black containers, but I liked the way these turned out.

I filled each one with a bag of candy and a lotion or body wash:

Once I got all the outsides completed, I wrapped a ribbon around it with a candy cane (Monica's idea) and added a little note on a Christmas tree I drew:
Here are all six containers that I made. Our friend is a Mom/Baby nurse at the hospital and she thinks I'll have around 5 or 6 nurses, so hopefully I have enough. The nurses were really nice to us last time and they even sent us a sympathy card- so this is just a nice way to say that we appreciate them. I hope they like it!

Taking advantage of my need to clean

2007-11-13T09:54:00.000-07:00

**Don't forget to enter my contest!**

One thing that has always bothered me are my utensil drawers- I have three, and they are all completely cluttered (and have always been).
Since I have been reading Org Junkie's blog I've realized the need to have small baskets available for my organizing urges. I have wanted to organize my kitchen drawers for a while but don't make it to dollar stores very much to pick up things like that.
Yesterday while I was at Walgreen's I found little baskets that looked perfect and were like .25 apiece. I picked them up and here's how my drawers have been transformed.

Before pic of my top drawer:
In here I have eating utensils, measuring spoons (recently moved from a container on the counter), straws, bag clips, and knives that have covers. My biggest needs here were managing the straws (they are hard plastic straws) and containing the measuring spoons. After pic of the top drawer:
Next comes the middle drawer. Here is where I store any kind of kitchen tool that is not in the spoon container next to the stove. I use this drawer a lot and have the hardest time with the measuring cups, they jam up the drawer the most. Here is the before pic:
I focused on putting my most used utensils in this drawer, my favorite is the basket just for measuring cups. Here is the after pic:

Finally my third drawer. Here is the before picture:This is where I store my small cutting boards and various spatulas, etc. I ended up moving items down from the second drawer that were too big for the baskets. This drawer now has tools that I use less than the second drawer but I still use. Reject items that I use a couple times of the year but still need got moved to my "extra things" drawer. Here is the after pic:

Aren't those pictures fun! You know something is wrong when you are overjoyed about organizing drawers! But hey, my mom is going to be cooking for a couple of weeks so I don't want to drive her crazy either.

Go baskets! I now completely understand the need for a stash of containers.

(And in case you really paid attention to the items in the drawers, I had a Pampered Chef bridal shower when I got married and sold it for a year so that's the reason for my drawers looking like a Pampered Chef catalog. I'm not obsessed or anything. Oh, and the reason for calling things "tools" not "gadgets".)

Belly Pictures

2007-11-13T09:43:00.000-07:00

I hadn't shown these yet and I realized how much my belly has actually grown- which has been proven by the fact that shirts don't cover everything anymore.

Here's me in August, I think I was around 24 weeks.

Here's me last night- 38 weeks and 3 days:

Yikes.

stranger attack

2007-11-12T15:06:00.000-07:00

I was in Walgreen's on my continued quest to have ALL MY ERRANDS completed by Thursday and I was just browsing an aisle minding my own business, not bothering anyone. An employee came to the aisle and I know she was looking for me because I had passed her earlier.
She asked if I needed help with anything and then goes, "I'm so excited for you!!!!" She comes at me and I think she would've attacked my belly if it hadn't been for the way I was standing there.
Then she said, "I'm so jealous." And she walked away.

Seriously, weirdest stranger encounter as a pregnant lady I've had.

Don't forget to enter my contest below!

Guess the hour, win a prize!

2007-11-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

I decided to throw a little contest on my blog!

I'm going to have a pool (don't worry, it's heated) to see who can guess closest to the time of birth of our baby. We are inducing on Friday and the doc says she should be born the same day.

Leave a comment saying what time in hours and minutes you think she'll be born. I'll take the closest person under or over the time and send you something fun! But I'll announce the prize afterward 'cause it'll change depending on if a boy or girl wins.

If you are really channeling the pregnancy vibe and think she'll come before or after Friday make sure you clarify the day as well.

You have until midnight on Thursday the 15th to leave your guess. Good luck!

not enough food

2007-11-09T10:13:00.000-07:00

Something really funny happened this morning. I woke up at 5 am and had to go to the bathroom- pretty typical- then I couldn't get back to sleep.

I tossed and turned trying to sleep so that I'm not tired all day but still couldn't really fall asleep. Then I started realizing that I was hungry. We ate dinner earlier than normal last night so I must have needed to eat a meal before I even went to bed. I laid there waiting for Tim's alarm to go off and decided that I should make him breakfast instead of falling asleep. So as Tim was stumbling around trying to turn off the alarm he hears, "Do you want waffles???" (in a wide awake, excited tone). He laughed at me that I had been waiting for him to wake up.

So we went downstairs and had a nice breakfast of waffles and lattes and I had my hunger needs filled. After breakfast I had nothing better to do so I went back to bed! And guess what! I was able to get back to sleep and sleep for a couple more hours. It was nice.

When I woke up I almost starting laughing to myself. I was still hungry! So I had my second breakfast 3 hours later and I *think* I'm good until lunch. Wish me luck!

Planning ahead??

2007-11-08T16:56:00.000-07:00

Last night I was cruising around the interweb and decided to look at websites of a couple of elementary schools in town. Did I just say elementary schools? My baby's not even born yet! But there is a conspiracy in this town.
One of our charter schools is very popular and has a GIANT waiting list. I think the website said something about 6000 kids are on the waiting list. Getting in at kindergarten is the key to staying in the system, so what do people do? They sign up when their kids are born! We think we are going to put our kids through our local school- but just in case we change our minds by kindergarten (heaven forbid!) I think I may add our baby to the list (we're in the priority district so we have an advantage).
As I was looking at age requirements I realized that she'll be turning 6 a couple of months into school, so guess when she starts- 2013! That seems so far away and impossible to think about, but before I know it, it'll happen. Crazy!

This is what I love about nesting...

2007-11-07T15:53:00.001-07:00

funny presents

2007-11-01T11:47:00.000-06:00

I got a package from bro and sis today that made me laugh pretty hard. First I got our very own copy of Amelia Bedelia. I just have to say that Amelia was one of my favorite kids books and my brothers and I had a lot of fun reading these books (and trying to figure out how Amelia would do something!). I have been looking at bookstores a lot lately because books are the main thing missing from the nursery and have been thinking about starting an Amelia collection- perfect timing!

Second was the best onesie someone could buy our family:

Yes this is the perfect shirt. Because it's true in the most loving way. By purchasing this shirt my brother is not making fun of my husband. No, Michael and Melissa are acknowledging Tim's true character and allowing our daughter to embrace that fact. Hey, she'll be the only girl in 3rd grade that can build her own computer.

Thanks guys! I have a feeling that this one will get a lot of use.

Preparing countdown

2007-10-29T12:06:00.000-06:00

Today I'm going to work on a whole month's worth of menus. Yep you heard, um read, me right. A whole month. I really want to make sure that the next two weeks I'm building up our pantry so we aren't running out of food once my family gets here. So the first step in building up the pantry is actually knowing what's in there.

This morning I took an entire inventory of our food (don't worry, it didn't take long!). I want to make sure that our menus are taking into account food we have right now, so I don't keep throwing away things I find with 2 year old expiration dates!

Next, my cookbook cupboard is driving me nuts and I have loose recipes falling out of it, so I'm going to pull out all my cookbooks as I create my menu. This will force me to organize it all when I have to put them away. I also put a little pad of sticky flags in the cupboard so I can mark the pages where I find recipes I want to try or have used. This way when I make it again I know where to find it.

I may also try to start freezing some meals, I found one idea on the pasta shell box I have. Any favorite meals-to-freeze out there?? Let me know!

I'm done at Starbucks on Friday, perfect timing for finishing up things around here!

For those of you not tired of pictures

2007-10-24T18:16:00.000-06:00

Here's yet another picture of the baby. The tech was laughing that both her foot and hand were in her face. And then we figured out that a knee and elbow were above my belly button- quite the acrobat.

Appointments are still looking good. Right now things may be lining up for inducing a week early- which is fine by me since I'll be home by Thanksgiving.

Going organic

2007-10-22T12:32:00.000-06:00

I've been shopping at Whole Foods for a couple months now, and just ran across this interesting article: (click here)

I haven't really researched a ton of things as far as organic goes, but things like this are a start. Especially since I'll be not working anymore and will have to continue to be budget conscience, almost even more now.

What about you guys- are there any non-negotiables for you in the food arena?

Yeah for Colorado!

2007-10-21T10:49:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year where my mom always get jealous that I live here (one of the few times I may add). Yep, it snowed!

It came down pretty deep but didn't stick on the roads. It's nice when it doesn't really stick the first few times because people are crazy driving in the first snows.

I have to work today which is always interesting because we can never gauge traffic flow with weather changes. It could either be really busy since everyone will want something warm to drink or they could all stay home to not drive today. I guess I'll see!

A Lesson in Fine Print

2007-10-20T22:50:00.000-06:00

After reading Monica's post and seeing some online ads I decided today to hatch my evil genius plan. Since Coinstar is running a promo for their e-certificates, I knew it would be a good time to change in all our coins to use for Christmas presents on Amazon. We give to the same family every year from our church's missionary giving tree and the kids always ask for Amazon gift certificates so this is a perfect way to get them.

I pulled out our change jar (ok, really it's Tim's) which has been collecting for over 5 years now. And I proceeded to sort. Tim thought it was strange that I spent all afternoon counting our coins, but I wanted to see what would get out of this. I read online that $30 gets a $10 bonus certificate. When I was done with the jar we had $83!!!!! Crazy, so I went to the cars to find 7 more dollars to bring the total to $90 and get $30 in extra certificates. I found the change we needed and we left to get our coupons!

Here's where both reading fine print (or instructions) and counting coins correctly comes in handy. We fed all the coins and a watched the counter ticking away. And this was our total: $89.77. I was 25 cents off! One quarter, 25 pennies! Between the two of us we had no more change and we'd only be getting $20 now. The coupon printed and I looked at the receipt- it said we had earned ONE $10 coupon! After all that work the instructions are for every single transaction over $30. Argh!

If I had paid attention I could've separated the change and done 3 different transactions! I didn't know what was worse- not having that last 25 cents or losing out on the other $10 (since I wouldn't have gotten the last $10 without the quarter).

Either way, we didn't lose any of our own money and we did make $10 in the process so it wasn't all for loss. If you need some extra Amazon money you have until Nov 4th (if I read it right)!

Me and my smooshed face

2007-10-17T17:58:00.000-06:00

I got to have a growth ultrasound today since my belly was busting out. Everything looks great- she's around 5 lbs 7 oz (two oz away from Lucy's full term birth weight) and that put her in the 44th percentile. Lucy was 15th percentile at 36 weeks (a week from now) so that's a very good sign for this baby. She stayed steady from the last ultrasound we measured the growth in August. The doc and the tech said everything looks great.

I went to my pre-admit appointment at the hospital today and she asked me how many ultrasounds I've had. I actually had to count them on my calendar because I've had more than I've kept track of. I figured out I've had nine ultrasounds (3 full ones and 6 "small" ones). I even have 4 more to go! I'm too spoiled with ultrasounds now- I won't get very many with the next baby if all goes well so I'm not going to know what to do!

I got to see Jill today for the ultrasound and she has the good machine (she said it's the newest GE model available). So here is latest 4-D picture of baby #2:

She's a little squished in my belly which makes her squished in the picture. Tim and I think her fat lips are funny. She may be puckering them a little in this picture to make them look plumper. I found out the dark where her hair should be is just the parts of the face the ultrasound can't pick up. She did mention a layer of hair on the baby, we just can't see it yet.

Four appointments left and then my parents get here and everything will become a blur. I also have 2 weeks left at work- a little weird but it's getting harder so it's perfect timing.

Go Rockies!

2007-10-15T23:46:00.000-06:00

I've watched more baseball these past two weeks then I have since oh, 8th grade (and that was Little League). If you haven't been paying attention (meaning you don't live in Boston, Cleveland, Phoenix or Denver) the Rockies are going to the World Series for the first time in franchise history. What's kind of funny around here is that people are acting like they've been Rockies fans their whole lives. I would say that most of the state didn't realize we had a baseball team until about 2 months ago!
It's been fun now actually learning about the team and having some favorite players.

Now Denver gets to watch a World Series and in case you have a couple thousand extra dollars in your back pocket, you can go watch them in person!

Go Rockies!

I lead a boring life

2007-10-14T21:26:00.000-06:00

I've tried to post about three different posts this weekend but deleted them because they are boring! Boring!

I can't have my own reality show since nothing would ever happen, ever.

So unless you want to hear about how I had a cold this weekend, how my belly is still big, or about my cleaning frenzy last week, I'll let you go.

Stay tuned to see if my life gets exciting again...

Too funny!

2007-10-09T11:13:00.000-06:00

So my brother decided to post a follow-up post to mine below.

Check it out.

1983 called, she wants her hair back

2007-10-07T22:57:00.001-06:00

Recently I've been seeing a lot more pictures of Suri Cruise roaming around the interweb. They all look curiously familiar and then I realized--- she copied my haircut!!!!!

Yes Suri, your haircut was very stylish in 1983, I have the proof:

Amy, circa 1983

Suri, circa 2007

48 days! AAHHHHHH!!!!!!

2007-10-06T16:20:00.000-06:00

So the good thing about having a ticker is that I don't have to really keep track of how days I have left or how far along I am. The bad thing, I'm freaking out!

My nursery's done and ready to go (it's been ready for 15 months- I can see that as a blessing) but my nesting has kicked in way to early! Everything in this house is dirtier to me than I have ever felt. And I'm trying to pace myself so I won't have to clean the house from top to bottom five times before the baby comes. And trust me, if my belly wasn't in the way I probably would.

We also decided to have my parents, brothers and their wives come out for Thanksgiving. Did I mention that's the day I'm due? Did I mention I go into freak out mode just to be a good hostess? These two things aren't being nice to me right now. Fortunately my parents will be here for 5 days before the bros show up so my mom will have thoroughly taken over.

So, um, I think the next month you'll mostly be reading freak-out posts. Care to join in?

Don't wake the baby

2007-10-04T19:47:00.000-06:00

So apparently Chalula/Rhonda (still don't have a name...) doesn't like to be woken up. This morning I went to my regular appointment and made the mistake of being late and not grabbing something to eat or drink before I went. This meant that she was still asleep when I got to the ultrasound.
She's been awake at pretty much every ultrasound I've gotten so I never realized that they actually track movement as well- so the tech started to try and wake her up. First she pushed the wand up and down on my right side where her bottom is. She kept on sleeping. Then the tech moved to the other side of my belly and did the same thing to her feet. That helped a little- she woke up as long as her feet were being bothered and then went right back to sleep when the wand moved.
Since there hadn't been enough movement she had me try and lay on my left side. Easier said than done. You try moving a giant belly covered in gel while on an exam table, doesn't work very well. No luck- but I knew it wouldn't work as well since she usually responds more on my right side. After a little bit we tried on my right side and when that didn't work the tech pushed her bottom one last time. I guess the baby figured out that we weren't going anywhere and she'd be bothered until she did some aerobics in my belly that she started to cooperate.
Then the tech laughed and said the baby was showing off for us by immediately practicing her breathing and moved enough for the tech to finish the ultrasound. Last 6 weeks, 5 minute appointments. Today, 25 minutes.

But wait, there were more appointments today. The last two weeks she has taken longer to respond during her NST's. So I was hoping things would go more quickly today. I had a lunch break between the ultrasound and NST so I made sure I got a great lunch and drank a ton. Thank goodness it worked. I guess she had a slow start but my doctor said she went crazy for the last half. No checking on Amy 20 times before removing the monitors today!

Lastly I went to see my doctor. I was curious about my measurement from last week- I saw a different doctor and he measured me at 35 centimeters, I should've measured 32. I asked if they measure differently and he said he was wondering about the same thing. If the measurement was right I grew 3 centimeters in a week. Today I'm 36 centimeters so I finally get a growth ultrasound now. He said my fluid levels are right where they should be so it's possible that I either have a longer or fatter baby.

Overall the doc said everything looks fine and everything is growing great.

Comparison note: With Lucy at this time we were in Denver getting tests done to rule out Down's. It's nice not worrying about that now.

Being spontaneous means having a back up plan

2007-09-30T12:43:00.000-06:00

Last night Tim and I decided to try and see if the whole concert thing would work out. The concert started at 9 pm so we took it easy and went up to Denver when we felt like it. We don't usually get to play our evenings by ear like that. If we have plans in Denver we seem to run into something that makes us cutting our time close and always seem rushed.

Just in case we didn't actually get "on the list" or "on the list" really meant we'd still have to pay for the tickets I figured out where a Regal cinemas was. We got free movie tickets for our anniversary and we can only use them in Denver since there are no regal cinemas in the Springs.

We left around 6 and headed up to my favorite mall- Park Meadows. We got dinner and then walked around a bit. They put a Mac Store in the mall so we got to see the new iPod nano. They are cool and tiny! Plus we played with the non-phone iPhone (is it called the iTouch?).

Found the club and started to go in. And guess what!! They forgot to put us on the list- or never intended to in the first place, but I like to believe the best and say they forgot. Fortunately, while slightly disappointed, I had prepared myself that it was highly likely to not work out and was glad that we had a just-in-case plan. So we ended up going to see "3:10 to Yuma" and loved it. I love Christian Bale and he did great in the movie. Plus we didn't have to spend the $19 it would've cost us! I can't believe movies cost that much now! I'd rather wait until it's on DVD and pay $4.29, thank you very much.

As we were driving home we realized that we don't do spontaneous things very much and it's a lot of fun.

It pays to direct people to your store

2007-09-28T13:58:00.000-06:00

This morning I was at work and got a phone call asking which Starbucks was closest to the freeway. The guy was on his way to Denver and was near downtown Colorado Springs. There are two stores right by where they were driving, but it's one big construction mess there right now and I'm sure I would gotten them lost. So I told him where our store was since it's easy to get to and was on their way.
Since some people have a hard time finding our store I was wondering if they were going to find it ok. About 15 min later a van pulling a trailer and a second van pulled into the parking lot and a whole group of people got out. I figured it was the guy on the phone so I asked them if they had called for directions. The girl in the group said "Are you Amy?!?" and I told her I was and was glad that they found the store ok. I starting chatting with them, asking why they were driving through and what they were going to do in Denver. Turns out, they are a band called Over the Rhine and are playing in a sold out show in a club tomorrow night. The lady (who is the lead singer) went ahead a offered to put me "on the list" of the show if I wanted to come up! So guess what! Tim and I are getting to go to a show tomorrow night. And, I listened to some of their music and I think I'm going to become a fan. They have a artsy Americana sound and I like that she plays the piano when she sings.
So check them out and hopefully we really do make it on the list! If not, we have movie tickets we need to us and they're only good in Denver so that's our back-up for making the trip up there. I'll post on Sunday how the concert went!

Menu Plan Monday Sept 24

2007-09-24T13:54:00.000-06:00

Last week I only had two days planned because we still had leftovers from the week before. That's what good about not having three teenagers in your home. My mom would cook 9 x 13 casseroles and be lucky to get enough leftovers for my dad's lunch the next day. I could have a casserole that size around here for a couple of weeks!
After watching The Biggest Loser last week I decided to try and incorporate turkey meat into our menus more often- higher protein without all the fat. So for our first meal I just put ground turkey meat into our spaghetti sauce. It was great!

Also last week I made these Pork Chops. I can't remember which blog I got the link from! But, these are my new favorite meal. So yummy. I'll definitely try more pork recipes as well.

When I started menu planning I also started shopping at Whole Foods. Mostly I was inspired by Megan (which often happens!). My only problem was I starting shopping there at the same time I was actively planning menus. Our grocery bills jumped up since I was actually buying food instead of running to the store and guessing on things we may eat. I took a week and went to King Soopers (or Krogers or Fred Meyer depending on where you live...) to see if the store or my menu was affecting my price. I didn't save enough to make me want to spend the extra time looking through the ingredients before food hit my cart, so I'm back to Whole Foods. Just thought you'd all want to know. :)

Anyway, here is my menu this week:

Monday- Turkey Burgers and Fries (Followed by the season premiere of Heroes!)

Tuesday- Chicken Turnovers (I put this on my first menu and still haven't made them, Tim is starting to make fun of me since I try every week)

Wednesday- Slow- Cooker Spaghetti.

Thursday- Baked Potatoes and Chili

Friday- Out with Tim's co-workers

Why do we have to learn this way?

2007-09-23T13:34:00.000-06:00

This weekend my family had to relive all the emotions from last summer. My brother and sister-in-law lost their baby after 10 weeks of being pregnant. Needless to say, Friday was a hard day, Saturday was a sad day.

This could become a post about God's fairness. We have our "one angel baby" therefore every child conceived in our family has to be born now, it's only fair. Or, Michael and Melissa don't deserve the heartbreak- that's not fair. We should all get to be happy all the time. But it's not a post about fairness.

I could write a post about God's perfect plan for our life. You know, "all things work out for good..." We do know that God's plan is perfect, but why do we only think about it when it's not "our plan".

Knowing that Michael and Melissa will read this I could make it about how they should grieve and what's going to happen next and have all the answers. But we are different people in different situations. All I could tell him on the phone was that I knew exactly what they were going through and I still didn't know what to say. No one ever does.

What this post can ultimately be about is Trust. Every person out there knows someone or is someone that has lost a baby. Some understand more than others the constant fear that grips you during a pregnancy after you've had a bad experience. I told Michael yesterday that I wish babies would start kicking hard enough for us to feel the minute we become pregnant. If that happened, we wouldn't have to start our child raising experience with faith and trust in God. We have three to four months of basically hoping our baby is alive and thinking that once the baby starts moving then all the worry goes away. But that's never going to happen.

We trust that God protects our baby to birth. Then we start the countdown past the SIDS window. Then we may worry about serious illness or getting kidnapped. What about kids walking to school? Should we drive them so they don't get abducted, or wait, most car accidents happen within 20 miles of your home so I'll walk them to school everyday and not get in the car. Then come the teenage years and the worry gets worse. Add the worry that your kid may or may not be "normal" and you could spend the rest of your life worrying and not living.

So all that goes to say I've learned more about trusting God in my life than in any other scenario. I'm sure moms with no losses can identify just as strongly.

I write about this because I wish that this was one area where trust could be easy. So far my family can not "blissfully" go through a pregnancy. We don't, and probably never will, day dream the minute the test becomes positive. We'll always be tentative in our terminology and never completely know how to answer the questions: "Is this your first baby?" or "How many kids/grandkids do you have?" If I had my way, babies wouldn't die, no one would struggle with infertility and there wouldn't be birth defects. But I can't have my way and that is part of God's plan. He uses this to teach us to appreciate and love each child we get on earth and to love them as much as we can until God takes them Home.

Until God decides to see things my way, I'll be taking the time to learn trust and teach trust. My hope is that my future experiences in parenting will only bring me closer to God and allow me to rely on Him even more.

In the meantime, keep Michael and Melissa in your prayers as she recovers this week and takes steps to understand everything that just happened.

Where do all the books go?

2007-09-21T12:51:00.000-06:00

A while ago I was helping out in our church library. Everything in it has been donated by members over the years. There were quite a few books that were duplicated and I knew that we didn't need 5 copies of a book no one was reading, but what to do with them?? We had a couple of avenues to give them away but it started making me think about what happens to all the unwanted books in the world. Where do the books go that even the libraries and thrift stores don't want them.
I know that libraries sell their unwanted books for pretty cheap and there are a lot of books on Ebay. Then what happens?

The only reason I ask (besides the fact that this was the only thing I could think to post for a week!) is because I hadn't thought about things like this until I spent a summer in Honduras. I lived in a fairly small town near the Guatemala border and the "big deal" stores were the "American Clothes stores". There were stores in towns all over that literally sold reject thrift store clothes. Reject Thrift Store clothes. At first you think they could be clothes with manufacture issues until you realize that they have definitely been worn and were often out of date. Who knew that they'd be a hot item in another country.

Knowing that clothes get sent south of the border makes me wonder if there are more things that are showing up in places we never expected. Maybe books just get passed around yard sales, thrift stores and online avenues until someone just throws them away. I may never know...

This is unnatural

2007-09-13T21:51:00.000-06:00

I have ten weeks to go and I don't feel like my belly can get any bigger. But oh, it will. No fun I say. No fun.

Poor Blazers!

2007-09-13T17:47:00.000-06:00

When I went home in July Greg Oden had been drafted to the Portland Trail Blazers for probably less than a week. Even so, the city already had billboards about him up around town because he was going to "save the Blazers"!

I saw this article today. While I feel sorry for the guy that he won't be able to play it makes me giggle a little knowing how much the team was going to be relying on one person. It's kind of weird feeling sorry and laughing at the same time...

The great day ahead of me

2007-09-13T09:09:00.001-06:00

It's 9:00 AM. I'm out of bed, made eggs for breakfast and got my dinner going in the crockpot. Did I mention it's 9:00 AM?? Not a big deal to most of you, I'm sure. But on my days off I usually sleep all morning after going to bed late- I obviously don't have any kids running around the house!
Now that I have dinner going, what should I do the rest of the day??? After I get back from Bible study I think I'll clean up a little around the house and then tackle some crafts!

I've got three projects going- well two going and one I really want to start. Remember the mocha jars? I decided to take Karen's and Monica's ideas and combine them. I'm going to mod podge Christmas scrapbook paper on to them and put hot chocolate in them for thank you presents for the nurses at the hospital when we have our baby. Since it'll be around Thanksgiving it's perfect timing! Our good friend is a mom/baby nurse at my hospital so I'm going to see how many nurses I should make gifts for. I've got one going as a prototype and it's looking pretty good!

My second project is finishing a wall hanging that is a baby shower gift from May- yes, from May! I showed them what I had done when I gave them the gift and I have one letter left in his name to finish. So I *should* be able to get it done in the next two days.

The last project that I really want to start are the soft blocks I'm making for the baby. They'll have each letter of her name on it- so I'll only be able to cut everything and get the other sides going. This will probably be her Christmas present from us. Fortunately our top two names have the same amount of letters so I can have most of it put together. I'm planning to use these on a shelf as a decoration until she can play with them.

This is setting me up for a fairly productive day! I'll need to make sure that I get up early all the time so I can have "fun time" as well during my day!

Garlic Chicken from Gooseberry Patch

2007-09-12T14:41:00.000-06:00

We had the garlic chicken recipe from one of my Gooseberry Patch cookbooks. And this is WAY to good to keep to myself. It was very easy, looks like you spent a long time in the kitchen and is also easy to double or triple to serve more than 4 people.

Here's the recipe from the Gooseberry Patch: 5 ingredients or less. (note: they have the cookbook divided by the four seasons, this is an autumn main dish which I thought would be appropriate!).

4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 c. olive oil
1/2 c. garlic herb Parmesan cheese (I freshly shredded Parmesan Reggiano cheese, yummy- no seasoned cheese for me)
1/2 c. seasoned bread crumbs (I could not find the bread crumbs at the store- I'm sure they exist- so I crushed seasoned croutons that I can now use on salads!)
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (the ones I get are gigantic so I cut two in half instead)

Mix garlic with olive oil; place in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for 3 minutes; set aside. Combine Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs together; place in a shallow dish. Dip chicken in garlic mixture; coat with bread crumb mixture. Place in an ungreased 13x9 baking pan; bake at 425 degrees fro 35 minutes or until juices run clear when chicken is pierced with a fork. Serves 4.
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This really only took me less than a half hour to prepare! It was longer to defrost the chicken then do anything else, so a great meal to throw together. I made garlic mashed potatoes and that was a great complement to the garlic in the chicken.

This is staying on our menu rotation for sure!

Menu Plan Monday Sept 10

2007-09-09T22:50:00.000-06:00

I made a menu last Monday but didn't get it posted! Oops! This week I decided to use a couple of cookbooks I haven't really opened since I got them (for my wedding, 4 1/2 years ago...)

Monday: Sloppy Joe Hamburgers (Quick 'n Easy- 6 ingredients or less)

Tuesday: Garlic Chicken (Gooseberry Patch- 5 ingredients or less; pg 149) Do you see a pattern?

Wednesday: Baked Potato Soup

Thursday: Slow-Cooker Day! Hamburger Potatoes (Fix-it and Forget-it Cookbook; pg 112)

Friday: Leftovers!

Do you have anything for $2.00?

2007-09-09T19:36:00.000-06:00

I forgot to tell this story yesterday:

Three kids walked in, probably late elementary age. One of the girls asked me if there was anything on the menu for $2.00. I thought they had two dollars each- but the only thing they could get was the iced tea. So they moved to the pastry case and the bottled drink case- that's when I realized they were splitting $2.00 between the three of them.
I wasn't sure what they were going to get and they kept checking the price with me. And guess what, they made the most creative decision and really got the best deal they could! They bought a bottled frappucino and I gave them three cups with ice in them so they split the drink. The cutest part was the handful of change the boy paid with. They only had 3 cents more than the price and I just remembered summers with my brothers and how we would've done the exact same thing- except we would buy candy, from the 9th street market (remember that store!).
Once they bought the drink they sat down at a table together and enjoyed their drinks! A perfect Saturday afternoon. :)

the best maternity investment

2007-09-08T18:47:00.000-06:00

After the last month or two of having a hurting back every time I'd come home from work, I got a maternity belt.
And boy, is it great! I worked my first shift today with it on and I feel fine now. I usually can't do much once I get home, but I should be good the rest of the night to clean up around the house and get some things done.

So, if you are on your feet a lot for your job and are pregnant- get a belt! They really are a lifesaver!

10 ultrasounds later

2007-09-05T21:03:00.000-06:00

I've had a total of ten ultrasounds since the first time I got pregnant, but even for having that many, today I experienced something new. Shocking, I know! I had a 3-D ultrasound! I was getting the Bio Profile on her- the only thing they don't do is get her measurements- and then all of the sudden she was there in 3D!!!
It was pretty weird and cool. She had her arm in front of her face the whole time so I didn't get a good look at her, she's also just starting to fill out more, so I'm sure she'll look more like herself later.
My doctor said that she had a "reactive NST" which is good because they don't normally see that in a 28 week-er, so she's doing good this week.

So here she is, arm over face and all. (I think she was also playing with her umbilical cord- it's draped over her wrist.)

Oh, she also became an official Bronco fan today with her first Bronco blankie. It's a great fleece blanket that will keep her warm and let her cheer on the team. Next year she's getting a jersey!

Playdates and Hurricanes

2007-09-05T07:12:00.000-06:00

If you think about it, say a prayer or two for the impact Hurricane Felix may do to Honduras. I lived in Honduras for a summer two years after Hurricane Mitch and there were still signs of the damage and strong in their memories. I think this one is hitting on the other side of the country from the last one but the impact will be just as strong both emotionally and to the land itself. Honduras is also the poorest country in Central America and this is much more of a blow to them.

In other news today is my second week of playgroup without even having a contributing player. :) A group of friends started a babysitting co-op/playgroup and there are three babies and 4 expecting moms. This is the first time I've heard of the co-op idea. We'll all get vouchers that are good for an hour of babysitting each and we'll exchange them as we babysit and need babysitting. It should be good- the new moms won't get coupons until January or so since we won't have a kid that needs babysitting, but we are meeting together now since some of the moms haven't met before. We are all moms with one baby so we've been joking about this will help up learn how to take care of more than one kid at a time- or thankful we don't have multiples.

when it rains, it pours

2007-09-04T21:43:00.000-06:00

I don't what it is about posting on my blog. I haven't posted in a week and now this is my third post today (and I had about three more ready to go).

Tim and I are sitting in our TV room working on homework and crafts while listening to the tv radio stations. So far every artist that has come on Tim's been able to guess who's singing while I've adamantly disagreed with him about who it is. I guess that just proves both my lack of musical knowledge and my need to be right. You'd think I'd know better after 5 years of knowing him...

Updates on baby

2007-09-04T16:29:00.000-06:00

I haven't updated about our baby girl in a while so while she's kicking me as I type I thought I'd throw a few things out here.

- I mentioned she's kicking. I definitely have a way more active baby this pregnancy. I think that the movement is closer to a "normal" amount of moving that I should have felt last time. I have begun to figure out her movement patterns and it's been nice to be able to feel them. There's less to worry about when your baby actually moves.

- I'm officially in my 3rd Trimester! But it's depressing that I still have 2 and 1/2 months to go. We could have a baby tomorrow and be ready (but I'm not wishing on that since she'd be in the NICU for a while if she was born tomorrow...). I have made a list of things I need/want to get done by the due date so I can slowly work on that now.

- We found out last month that our baby will be getting a cousin in the spring! My brother and sister-in-law are expecting in April and Chalula/Rhonda is pretty excited (she's kicking hard right now in agreement). She wanted a cousin close to her own age so I'd say that 6 months is pretty close! I have three cousins that were born within the year I was, so it's fun to know that they can be good friends. I also just realized that they'll even be in the same grade. My brother just moved to Philadelphia for grad school so they'll be coming back with a new addition. They are coming out for Thanksgiving to meet the baby so my mom is going to have a fun time getting to shop for two grandkids.

- I start my 2 hour appointments at the doctor tomorrow. I start with a mini-ultrasound where they check the fluids and I think they may measure her again. Then I move to the non-stress test where I sit in a recliner for 45 minutes while they measure her heart rate to my contractions (which I have been feeling-thanks to my job!). After those two things I meet with my doctor for my normal appointment. I do this every week for the next 12 weeks!!!!!!! I have two books checked out and I'll keep the rotation on books going. The good news about tomorrow's appointment is that they won't have to do the full gestational diabetes test since I didn't have it last time. I think I just have to do the blood test- but I'd much rather drink the juice than get poked with a needle.

New blog

2007-09-04T16:18:00.000-06:00

Last week sometime I was browsing blogs and found this lady. She had posted a story on eBay a while ago about why she needed sell a set of pokemon cards. She reposted here on her blog for when eBay takes down the auction. It's a pretty funny story and she has a great writing style. She even got $150 for the cards. I guess she made $1000 earlier on Ebay by selling a baseball- that story was even crazier!

She started her blog after the Pokemon story and has been getting major attention. The media has been all over this lady and she's even getting talks about a book deal.

Just thought I'd introduce you all to a new blog.

Thank you utilities man

2007-08-29T15:39:00.000-06:00

Whenever I open at the store (which I did this morning) I tend to wake up every couple of hours. It's like my body knows I need to wake up, but the internal clock doesn't work quite right. It doesn't bother me and I think I actually get up easier because I'm not coming out of a very deep sleep.

Last night I was turning over in bed- which is a task in itself since I have to flip the pillow, pull my belly over and re-situate everything- and I realized that the ceiling fan was off. Thinking Tim turned it off I started to fall asleep and then noticed the clock wasn't on either! I panicked for a minute and then was VERY thankful that I use my cell phone for an alarm. I got up, checked my phone and tried to go the bathroom. I was glad there was a full moon last night because I opened the blinds just to see where I was going. (Note to self: get a flashlight in our bedroom)

I tried to go back to sleep and spent the rest of the night hearing the utility trucks driving around the neighborhood and semi-planning how I was going to get ready for work in the dark. Thanks to the utility man he came through and got the electricity back on within minutes of my alarm. Hallelujah! Got dressed, ate breakfast and then started to leave and that's when I knew how thankful I really was for the utility man. As I pressed the garage door button I realized that I wouldn't have been able to get the garage open with the electricity out! Yikes! And to make it worse my coworker's phone doesn't work so I wouldn't even have been able to get a hold of her at 4 AM for a ride!!!

So, thanks to you, Utility Man, I adverted a crisis at work at an hour that no one should be up anyway!

Menu Plan Monday, Aug 27

2007-08-27T08:52:00.000-06:00

Here is my menu for this week. I had to change some things because last week I forgot that Tim started Grad School classes again and this week I work through dinner time a couple of days.
I also got around to a couple of participants from the planning and found a recipe I'm going to try this week. It's been great having leftovers for lunch. Which is actually a funny statement coming from our house since we're notorious for not eating them. Most of the time we forget the leftovers are there and they go bad- or we're picky about certain ingredients being reheated so I don't save the food. But, we're getting older and it's time to suck it up and eat some leftovers!

Menu this week:

Monday- Waffles (Tim cooks since I'm at work)
Tuesday- Chicken Turnovers (didn't get to these last week)
Wednesday- Bible Study at our house, potluck style
Thursday- Baked Potatoes
Friday- Orange Chicken
Weekend- Homemade Pizza and whatever we didn't get to this week.

Have a fun week!

Win fun giveaways!

2007-08-26T22:19:00.000-06:00

So over at Rocks in my Dryer, Shannon has created a new giveaway site. She's has the next four weeks schedule to post a new giveaway everyday.

Today is one I totally hope I win. There is a lady that has created her own Etsy shop with fun and way cute baby products.

I was just going to tell you all to go and try and win, but then you hurt my chances of winning! :)

So check it out Eliza Grace Designs and the Giveaway site and maybe you'll become a winner!!!

To whom it may concern

2007-08-23T22:12:00.000-06:00

Dear Stranger or Neighbor out there:

I noticed tonight that my printer light was blinking, so I put some more paper in it. As something started printing I tried to remember what I had last printed, but I couldn't think of it.
As I saw what I was printing I know it wasn't my document.

So, whoever tried printing their kitchen floor plan to my printer, I have the plans. And while I think they are nice plans, I'm sure you'd enjoy them better than I would. Whenever you are ready to pick them up, they're in my office waiting for you.

Oh, I also learned that even though my printer is locally installed on my computer it is also available on the network somehow, so my husband is going to work on making it not so easy to print the next time you need something. Just wanted to let you know.

Slow-Cooker Cheesy Tomato Spaghetti

2007-08-22T16:54:00.000-06:00

Here is the recipe that I'm using tonight for the Slow-Cooker Spaghetti. It was easy to prep- especially if you buy pre-grated cheese and aren't trying to grate Mozzarella while talking on the phone (it makes a pretty big mess).

16 oz. angel hair or spaghetti noodles (I had fettuccine noodles in the pantry so I used those)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 large eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/4 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
1 jar (28 oz) tomato-basil spaghetti sauce (you can use your favorite sauce here)

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water to cool. Place pasta in a sprayed slow cooker and toss with the olive oil. Combine eggs and cheeses in a small bowl. Add to the slow cooker and toss thoroughly with the pasta. Make a shallow bed in the center of the pasta. Spread the sauce in this bed, not allowing any sauce to touch the sides of the slow cooker. Cover and cook on High 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until heated through.

----------------------

I've gotten through the first 1/2 hour so I guess we'll wait and see how it turns out! One note, I think this recipe is for the oval slow cookers that have a wider base- I wasn't able to make a nice shallow bed so I made a small hole in the middle and then mixed the sauce in a little with the noodles- we'll see how it turns out.

Enjoy!

A meme I wasn't tagged for...

2007-08-21T13:19:00.000-06:00

I saw this meme on Karen's Blog and thought it would be fun to participate. She listed 8 jobs she has held (I think the original meme was 8 things about yourself- I was curious to see if I have had 8 jobs...).

So here are the 8 jobs I've had (of the 9-10 total so far in my life):

1. "Amy's Honor Box Vending". You read that right, my first job was a home business my parents helped me operate. I was 14 or 15. Every week I had to inventory the candy, count the money, and deliver full boxes to businesses around town. I learned to drive with this job because I got my permit while we stilled owned it. I think we ate more candy than we made money.

2. Waitress at Friendsview Manor. My grandparents lived here and it was a great high school job. I worked the dinner hour so I had to be at work from 5-7 pm. I was still able to be in sports and get my homework done. I worked here from Junior year in high school until Sophomore year in college. I was a hostess when I left which just meant that I served coffee (ironic since that's what I do now!). It was pretty fun to interact with retired couples and meet some neat people.

3. Then began my "Work Study Years". My freshman year I worked in the Faculty mailroom at George Fox. I sorted A LOT of mail and we sent out A LOT of mail. I did this for two years and one whole summer. My first semester sophomore year I talked too much to two other coworkers (we were all to blame- talking was fun!), my boss thought we weren't getting any work done and she split us up second semester. None of us came back the next year.

4. George Fox Print Room- Junior Year. I left the mailroom to work in the print room. This made the mail staff made because I worked across the hall and they thought the print lady "stole" me. (Job politics are crazy!). I spent my days making copies and putting packets together for teachers. For "fun" we made scratch pads out of messed up print jobs. My favorite part of the job was the deliveries, we all wanted to do those.

5. YMCA desk clerk. I worked here while I was working at the print room. I'd usually work the evening shifts, all I did was scan member cards. I don't know how I functioned that year because on top of two jobs and school I was coordinating a student leadership conference and a summer missions trip for high schoolers. Only in college!

6. IT Help Desk clerk- Senior year. I answered phones for the college IT department mostly taking messages for computer needs. I got this job because the lady running the Help Desk was a good friend of my mom's. The only things I remember about that job is that once I was late because I got a ticket on my way to school. And another time I spent the shift laying on the floor because I had a stomach ache and my freshman year roommate would do that to feel better. Later that day I was having an appendectomy.

7. Eagle Lake Office Manager. After a short stint as waitress I got a job at Glen Eyrie in the guest services department. This is where I relived my junior year when I got transferred to Eagle Lake and everyone thought I was "stolen" by them. It blew over pretty quickly. I did this job for three years. I loved that I had a real job just out of college and I was doing one of the things I went to school for. It was a good job. I then moved to being an assistant for one of the Glen Eyrie/Eagle Lake directors and did that until last summer. I did a lot of different things as his assistant and it kept me on my toes. I needed that.

8. Starbucks Barista. That leads me to now, which most of you are aware of. Job 7 was really three jobs- but I worked for the same company the entire time so it counts. This brings me full circle from my first job and I'm back to making coffee.

How about you? If you don't want to list 8 jobs, which one was your favorite?

Internets, I need your help!

2007-08-20T10:43:00.000-06:00

I'm having a crafty conundrum: what to do with our empty mocha powder jars. See, I inherited a "save-the-jar" trait from my Grandpa and just cannot throw away a good jar that could be used for something. He was a carpenter and anything he could find to sort nails was good for him- baby food jars and band-aid boxes were his fav. I know that he'd love these containers!

So my question is: What would you do with them??? I've got a collection of 6 or more now and here's what they look like.

My main idea has been to save them for marker cans or something like that. But that will be three to four years before I use them. I could decoupage the outside or just pull the label off and leave them black. What to do??? (and I won't be offended if you all think I should just throw them away- but in situations like this I always ask myself, "What would Monica do?")

Menu Plan Monday, I mean Saturday

2007-08-18T12:32:00.000-06:00

One of the ways I can tell that I'm "healing" is that I'm motivated to do things again. I spent yesterday re-arranging and cleaning my office and I actually got some things done today as well. I mean, I've kept the house clean over the last year- but I'm motivated to actually take care of the house, etc.
One of the things that's been hard recently is that we are tightening our budget. Which means we don't go out to eat anymore. We have definitely been the double income, no kids couple that finds it more convenient to eat out than grocery shop (even when I'm home all day!). So now that I actually need to get groceries and keep up with food in our house, I'm back to planning menus. When I don't do menus we both stare at the pantry and realize there's nothing to eat. So today in a random bit of inspiration I made my menu for next week! I know, unbelievable! (I also cleaned out my magazine collection from my magazine holder, Peter Walsh would be proud!)

I was going to wait for Org Junkies Menu Plan Mondays, but I thought I'd share the menu with you today and a couple of the recipes on the days that I make them.

Here's my menu:

Monday: Tacos
Tuesday: Grilled Chicken, Mashed potatoes and salad
Wednesday: Slow-Cooker Spaghetti (This is courtesy my cousin Ariana and is my first recipe from our family cookbook)
Thursday: Chicken Turnovers. My mom's recipe- she always made it with tuna but Tim's not a fan so it'll be chicken tonight. (also in our family cookbook)
Friday: Baked Potato Soup and Sandwiches
Saturday: Grill out. That's how I wrote it, not the westerner way of "BBQ", but "grill out"- what have I become????

Stay tuned for the recipes- maybe I'll wait until after we eat so I can include a review as well.

Have you seen my countdown???

2007-08-16T19:24:00.000-06:00

So I'm officially under 100 days left in this pregnancy!! Pretty crazy!!

I do think that she is bigger than Lucy because I can feel her move more. At least I think it's more. I may just not remember how much Lucy actually moved. We haven't felt her much on the outside of my belly. When she kicks hard enough for Tim to feel it she only does it once or twice and he hasn't gotten kicked by her yet. But I'm pretty sure it'll happen.

Now I'm trying to get my body to go into labor a week early so that I can be home on Thanksgiving since my family is coming out. Maybe if I think about it hard enough it'll happen!

2007-08-13T21:42:00.001-06:00

I just finished reading this book by professional organizer, Peter Walsh. It's called "It's all too Much" and it really helps with the reason someone may have clutter in their house. I think Monica has this book and that's why I put a hold on it at the library.

I was excited that it finally came off the hold list and I enjoyed reading it.

I think what was helpful for me was to look at the reasons why I bring things into our house. We have a lot of space in our house to hide clutter- so at first glance you wouldn't see the problems like those of Clean Sweep. But there is plenty of unnecessary items lurking in our closets.

It also motivated me to get our house even more uncluttered. Since I've started to pack up our house twice now I've gotten rid of a lot. I would like to go through things again and really evaluate my attachment to them.

Whether you need it or not, I would highly recommend this book. So go to the library- today!

The great wide open

2007-08-12T22:25:00.000-06:00

Tim and I need to move across the country so that we can take a driving trip around the United States like my brother and sister-in-law.

Or maybe we can just plan a cool road trip and stay where we are...

One year and normal

2007-08-12T22:08:00.000-06:00

Some may be wondering why I didn't post on Lucy's birthday. Part of me didn't really feel like posting at all. Not because it would be too sad or anything, but because I think that I'm at a point where I'm used to life and things are "normal" again.
I think most of me was just trying to get past the week like the date was cursed or something. Being pregnant again allowed me to focus on something else- I've been in nursery mode a ton. But there's nothing we could really do to change anything so it just didn't feel all that weird. I do think it's true that if you anticipate certain feelings on milestones often they don't occur that way. Then I get hit by a ton of bricks at the least expected time.
Last weekend was a little bit strange just because I felt that everything we did the same weekend last year, happened again. We went to a wedding on Saturday and church on Sunday and that coincidence struck me for some reason. I think it may be because those two things are the only things I remember doing before I went into labor.

I know that I'll have a couple more "time frame" hurdles to jump, but it feels like this marker is my main "she'll be fine" moment. Things are still moving in my belly and I'm just over halfway there- and I have felt more confident lately.

I start going in to the doctor once a week in September and I'll be there 2+ hours for every appointment. If I have any doubts then I'll definitely be able to know. So far everything looks good. (It was confirmed at my doctor's appointment last week).

I mentioned that I've been in nursery mode this week. I got a BUNCH of clothes from a good friend of mine so I've been sorting and storing all week. I got some bins to put in my 3 month and older clothes and had some fun with my label maker. I found a great swing at a consignment sale and have really been working on getting things ready (you wouldn't know I still have 3 months to go!). But I feel that these 3 months are going to go so fast I may not feel ready after all. Although this has been two years in the making so I pretty sure we're ready!

Now, here's Gus!

2007-08-07T21:21:00.001-06:00

I finally found my camera cord so I'll be posting some vacation updates (including a exciting trip to Ikea!)

I figured the most important would be a picture or two of our new tenant- Gus. The first picture is the daily view I get of the big old dog. I think he's starting to figure out I may not play with me, so he now chooses to take his nap next to the door. How could you say "no" to that face????

Here is a picture of me trying to get his size compared to Petey. Unfortunately Petey was always walking on the other side of the porch from Gus. I think it'll be another month or two before they are friends. Petey did sniff Gus today without barking at him- I think it was because I was petting Gus so he must be friendly.

Her name's Elaine

2007-08-02T11:40:00.000-06:00

No, not our baby! She's still "Chalula" or "Rhonda" depending on where I'm at. Chalula is the family nickname, Rhonda is what my boss calls her at work.
Elaine, is our ultrasound tech who we got to see today. She's a nice lady and has been doing ultrasounds for about 20 years or so. Since we tend to get a lot of ultrasounds we've had a chance to get to know her a little bit and learn more about ultrasounds as well. Today I found out that between her and the other tech they perform 35-50 ultrasounds a day. That's pretty crazy!

Since we didn't have a chance to get a good look at Chalula's heart at our last ultrasound she spent a little time doing that today. Here are the stats:

Heart rate: 136 (down from 145 the last appointment)
Weight: 1 pound 8 oz. She has gained exactly 1 lb in six weeks
Percentile: 47%. Most people don't worry about this, but if we get to have another ultrasound I'd like to know that she's maintaining weight.

Chalula was pretty active today and spent a bunch of time sucking her thumb and arching her back. At one point Elaine stopped moving the wand because she thought the back arching was pretty funny. I guess she doesn't see babies do that very often- I don't remember Lucy doing it. Her heart looked great and she said that all the pieces were in the right place. And, good news, the placenta moved. I wasn't sure if we'd be able to know that today- they have to be careful since their techs aren't doctors. She showed us where the placenta was last time and how it had moved back in place and said it's there to stay. So everything looked good today- I have my appointment with my OB next week and I just hope that nothing further showed up. Elaine was pretty talkative and she tends to be so with things are good.

There's my update. It was fun to see some good movement and knowing she's growing well. I think overall she's going to kick a lot more than Lucy did- I notice a difference already.

My aunt and uncle arrive today for a friend's wedding so I better go get their room ready. Once I find my camera cord I'll get some pictures up from my trip.

Anyone want to play?

2007-07-31T19:00:00.001-06:00

We have a new dog at our house. He's not ours, he belongs to our friend that is renting out the basement. Today was the first day I met him since I've been out of town.
Apparently Gus likes to play.

Today when I went out on the porch he realized I was there and bought me a tennis ball in his mouth. He is now standing in front of our sliding door with his frisbee hanging out of his mouth. Do you think he wants to play?

I'm in Colorado!

2007-07-31T10:39:00.000-06:00

Well, we arrived safe and sound last night at midnight and we're home!!!

I've spent this morning working on the important things like mail and catching up on my shows, um, I mean like doing my laundry and unpacking.

I'll try to update on here over the next couple of days, I need to share about my Summer Swap package and the family reunion and tons of stuff.

So stay tuned, I'll be around for awhile.

Why I need a sister

2007-07-20T22:47:00.000-06:00

My mom is sitting at the kitchen table on Skype with my aunt. They are browsing blogs and laughing at them together. That's why I need a sister...

So many recipes, so little time!

2007-07-20T17:39:00.000-06:00

This is my 200th post! Wow. :) I don't have a good "200 things about me" post to share, it's probably good to spare you all the details.

My intended post is about the cookbook I just finished compiling for our family reunion next weekend. We have a reunion every 3 years and that's most of the reason that I'm in Oregon right now. I just found out that a 2nd cousin of mine that I haven't seen since I moved to Colorado will be there so I'm really excited.

Anyway, I spent this week formatting and arranging all the recipes from the last edition that was created in 1992. We added a bunch more recipes to this edition since the 3rd generation (myself and my cousins, etc) are all out on their own discovering their new favorite recipes. (Family tidbit- we'll have 6 generations at the reunion- isn't that crazy!) It's been fun to see everything in one booklet even though it doubled in size and took me a week to finish.

I've also learned some about my family since people sometimes added thoughts to the recipe. So I'm going to include here my Grandpa's favorite cookies. He died before my mom was married so I never learned this kind of stuff about him. Here is the recipe:

Soft Raisin Cookies

Cover 1-1/2 cups of raisins with water and cook 10 min. Drain. Reserve 1 cup water and mix in 1-1/2 tsp of soda. Let stand while mixing rest of ingredients:

1-1/2 cup sugar
1 cup shortening or butter
2 eggs
3 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Add water & raisins. Spread batter on jellyroll cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 15-20 min. Frost with a powdered sugar frosting.

Crafts Day 2: Duct Tape

2007-07-17T11:00:00.000-06:00

A couple of years ago my cousin did all duct tape crafts for camp and they've been included ever since. On Tuesday it was duct tape wallets or they could make whatever they wanted. One kid made a bag and he had to come in every day to fix the strap.

It was fun and I actually learned how to make a wallet myself. In this picture you can see the girl that brought all her own colored duct tape to camp! She was pretty funny.

Today my parents and I are headed north to go see the new Harry Potter movie. It should be pretty good and makes the book release even more fun on Saturday.

Crafts Day 1: Bandanas!

2007-07-16T10:09:00.000-06:00

So for the past couple of months I had been researching crafts for teenagers and have been dying because I couldn't brainstorm them on my blog! I was trying to think of a good alibi if my mom saw them- but this was the main area that she was suspicious about. I had a craft class everyday and then I had a 2 hour freetime everyday. I had small craft projects for freetime that anybody could just come in and make without a lot of instruction. Then I added the leftovers from the class to freetime as well.

The first day I had bandana day and had bandana bags and bandana wreaths. It's hard to know if 12-14 year olds will actually like to make things, but they all jumped into the bags and one kid the wreath so I was surprised about that. They all liked making them and other kids came back at freetime to make one for themselves (all the boys wanted to just have one to wear, but I made them wait until the last day!). Here is the picture of some of the girls with their bags:

Happy birthday Mom (and a full week of other stuff)

2007-07-15T20:00:00.000-06:00

There's a reason that I haven't posted since the 4th- bright and early the next morning I was on a plane headed for Oregon to get ready for my mom's surprise 50th birthday party. I hadn't been able to post any plans about my trip since my mom reads my blog. So my aunt and my family had been planning a party for her since Christmas and it was fun to finally see the party happen. Here's the picture of my mom when she walked into the room. She wasn't suspicious until that morning, so we considered it pretty successful.

We had a lot of fun and most of the people she works with were there, as well as close friends from where we used to live.
The rest of the story is that along with me coming out for the party I was staying to do crafts for the junior high camp that my brother and sister-in-law were directing. So now I'm in Oregon for the rest of the month because we are also having our family reunion at the end of the month. I'll be posting my crafty pictures a little later. I had wanted to post them during the week but I was so tired from being out and about that I didn't have any energy by the end of the day. This week will really be a vacation and I have a couple little projects that I need to work on before I go see a bunch of friends next week.

2007-07-04T09:47:00.000-06:00

Happy 4th of July!!!

*with the incoming storm and the firework restrictions- these may be the only ones we see today!*

Sunday Funnies

2007-07-01T12:29:00.000-06:00

This morning two funny things happened that I wanted to share:

1) We live two blocks from the main headquarters for Christian Camping International. They are a resource for uniting camps around the US. My parents are pretty involved in their camp region and so whenever they'd come visit my mom would want to go see the office. I'd have to explain to her that it's just a building and unlike some ministries in town it's not really one that people go tour. But today as we were driving to church I saw a couple posing by the big sign out front and a friend taking a picture of them. They looked so excited to be there at that sign! I actually laughed out loud in the car and then called my mom to tell her. She laughed as well and said, "well at least I didn't do that!" But mom, you know if I hadn't ever discouraged you, you'd probably be getting your picture taken there as well!
Good times.

2) Today I wore this one pair of maternity shorts that I have. I've worn them a couple of times already but have been getting discouraged because they are still too big for me. Normally not a problem but I have to be careful that they don't fall off! My hips are just wide enough for shorts to hang. At the end of church I was yet again pulling up a shorts and I felt a button on the side. I looked down and saw that like most elastic maternity clothes, these shorts are adjustable and I've been wearing them on the biggest "setting" this entire time! So I scooted into the bathroom, moved the flap one button back and TA DA! my shorts fit and they aren't falling off! Hooray! And, I just prevented this being a story about how my shorts did fall off!!!! Double Hooray!

Monthly check-up

2007-06-30T14:16:00.000-06:00

I had my doctor's appointment yesterday- the first one after my ultrasound and it was with a different doctor (mines on a medical mission right now).

Baby's heart rate is 147 so she's gone up a little bit.
My blood pressure is good but I never remember what it is.

That was pretty much my appointment. For some reason the doc was really busy so I waited a long time to meet with her. My ultrasounds are never boring and I kind of wish they were. This time around I found out that I have a low placenta- which I guess could lead to placenta previa. Basically this means that the placenta is on the wrong side of my uterus and could prevent me from having a normal delivery. The good thing and what everyone should be praying for :) is that when this is diagnosed before 20 weeks (which I was) it usually corrects itself as the uterus expands. So that's the main reason why I have to get a 2nd ultrasound in a couple of weeks. The docs aren't worried at all- but she said that if I was at 35 weeks I'd be on bed rest and they'd be scheduling a c-section.
This whole process makes me feel sorry for the ultrasound tech- she can see that things are wrong with peoples babies and isn't allowed to say a word.
Everyone asks me if I'm ok. I am, I'm just frustrated that I can't seem to be "normal". The only thing I don't know is that I could've had the same thing last time, it's just that my ultrasound was at like 23 weeks so things may have been fixed already.

So pray that my placenta moves- it's kind of a funny prayer request, I don't hear that one too often. :) Since I'll be monitored like crazy anyway I'm not too worried about my care if the problem doesn't get corrected.

Time for cookies

2007-06-29T08:32:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow is my first day of baking cookies for church!

We provide a bag of cookies for visitors and there is a team that bakes for each week. Since I love to bake but don't want to have all those cookies around all the time (although that definitely encourages Tim to buy cookies instead!) I thought it would be fun to be able to give cookies away.

So tomorrow I'll be baking a couple of batches of cookies while it's supposed to be in the 90's outside. What was I thinking!

It's been a week???

2007-06-28T14:59:00.000-06:00

I feel bad that I haven't written in a week- but there's not much to write about this past week. I've been working at Starbucks and getting things cleaned up around the house.

I can't remember if I posted about our current housing situation- but I guess I'll just repeat myself if I did. We tried selling our house from Aug '05 to July '06 with no luck so we decided to try to stay in the house. This winter we were looking at our budget with my part-time instead of full-time income. So we decided to put the house up for sale again. 5 months have gone by with still no action on it. We started thinking about getting a roommate instead of selling and surprisingly got two requests to live with us in two days! Now we have a friend from the Northwest who's moving to Colorado coming to live with us in a couple of weeks! It'll be a blessing to have the help with our mortgage. So my cleaning has been to get ready for him. We are letting him rent the bigger room downstairs and we need to move some things out of there. I had to buy curtains for the sliding door since I pulled down the really ugly existing ones and we should give him some privacy!

Since he's coming we took our house off the market- so now I feel like I'm moving in all over again. I'm going to put personal pictures back up all over the house- and whatever I had packed up I think it's time to use or get rid of since I haven't used it for two years!

So that's what I've been up to! Tim and I are thinking about going somewhere for the 4th- I really want to go down to Telluride, so we'll probably head over there next weekend.

The ultrasound results are in...

2007-06-21T20:58:00.000-06:00

... and I bet you all are wondering how it went!

Well for starters the baby weighs exactly a half pound. So we still have a pretty small baby!

Good news is that for sure we have a normal umbilical cord this time. For the new readers out there I only had two of three blood vessels in the last umbilical cord. That put us on a high watch the rest of the time for Lucy's size, etc. It was very very unlikely that it would happen again, but we just wanted to make sure.

I was pretty early for an ultrasound due to some weird scheduling so I need to go back later for our tech to get a better look at the heart chambers- we saw them pumping but the smallness made it hard to concentrate on them.

So now what you really wanted to know, I wanted to leave some suspense in the post! We are having another girl! It feels more like a relief to know that we can leave everything in place- so I haven't been excited as much as glad just to know. I was worried we were going to be a family that has one girl- and Lucy was the one girl- it wasn't a huge worry, mostly a thought. Now it's good to know what to plan for and that we don't have to repaint the nursery or anything.

Red Rocks is awesome

2007-06-18T17:51:00.001-06:00

So we went to the concert on Friday night and had quite an interesting time.

First we left a little later than we wanted to but still had two hours to get to the venue. We did fine until our switch of freeways and then traffic got horrible. We sat in the turn lane for a couple of miles and finally made it to the park- but weren't sure which entry to go into. We picked the third- the farthest one away. We parked a little after the opening act started (we could here the music all over) and then proceeded to walk for about a half hour. And that was mostly up hill. We finally made it up the thousands of flights of stairs to our seats just in time for Ben Folds to start. He was in what I can only assume was his usual form. He's pretty unconventional but watching him shows what an amazing piano player he is. Here is the picture I took with my camera phone to show the amazing view we had! It was worth it just for that.

Once it got dark the view became even prettier and we realized that the Downtown Denver skyline doesn't stick out very much.

After Ben Folds finished some lady behind us made a comment about how she was upset that he didn't play "Gravity" and then her friends realized she had thought they were watching John Mayer the entire time. Tim and I still don't know how she sat through the entire set and didn't realize he wasn't John Mayer.

Mayer was really good. The sound was amazing since they have all the rocks to play off of and the back drop is actually a massive rock. Pretty neat to see actually. He doesn't talk to the crowd as much as I like at concerts- I think it's fun to see the artists personality through their chats. Overall it was a great concert and I'll definitely be on the look out for more concerts I can go to there.

Weekend update

2007-06-15T14:28:00.000-06:00

- Three days until our ultrasound and I think our friends are more excited than we are. Not in a bad way, we're looking forward to it too but I keep forgetting that it's happening since it's scheduled sooner than we had it last time. We are the couple that finds out what the gender is and calls the baby by their name- so it's kind of like actually having the baby for all our friends. They were all calling our baby Lucy last time pretty early on- so I don't think this time is different. We'll see if I divulge the information to you readers or keep you in suspense. :)

- Tonight Tim and I are going to a John Mayer concert at Red Rocks in Denver. When I moved here 6 years ago (still can't believe I've lived here that long) my friend Paul told me that if I didn't do anything else- I needed to go to a concert there. Well we finally found one that we both wanted to go to and that we could afford. The best part is that Ben Folds is playing with John Mayer so Tim's pretty excited. We don't know if Ben Folds will sing- but hopefully we'll get a mini- Ben concert as well! So far weather has been great today! I might be able to get a review up tomorrow.

- One of the couples in our Bible Study are moving away. We've been good friends with them pretty much since the week they moved here and are sad they are moving. This is the third couple that are close friends of ours to move in a year. It's hard to realize how transitional this city is and that we have to make friends more often than we sometimes want to. I'm pretty much in denial right now.

cravings?

2007-06-13T16:07:00.000-06:00

I think only a pregnant lady fries bacon at 4:00 in the afternoon for a "snack".

Other fun ones anyone?