Ahhh, the joys of a new child

Tank is either getting spoiled or a little sick. Since he's so young, I'm voting for a little sick. That, and he's had a sour stomach for a couple of days. Sigh, I guess they have to build up their immune systems somehow. The poor kid just wants to be held, it seems to be the only comfort he can get. Only, it's exhausting and nothing is getting accomplished around the house. Sushi was wonderful last night and stayed up with Tank and played video games so I could sleep. What a great husband! I'm letting him continue to sleep even though it's currently 1pm. He needs some sleep after this last semester and he's been fighting a cold for a couple of weeks. We went to Target last night and got family, kids, and Tank's two week pictures taken. We had a phenomenal photographer and we got some great pictures. The really cool thing is that we will have them back by Christmas Eve, that is something I didn't expect this late in the season! When I get the email with the images I'll have to post the pictures. After that we went to dinner with big sister and big grizz. It was a fun night, I was exhausted after everything but it was fun! We got hit with a terrible snow storm (again) right before rush hour so we were late but the studio was fine with it. I'm glad because it was definitely worth the time. Well, perhaps I'll go deliver neighbor gifts and make singing time for the licorice stick lady who is still subbing for me in church(she is so great!). I also need to do some more laundry and clean bathrooms. Yippe, a fun filled day is ahead for all!

Tanks birth and other sushiboy family happenings December 2008

Wow, I am behind on posting pictures, go figure, I've been taking care of tank and the rest of the family. Happily, sushi is done with his finals and he got A's in his classes. I am so proud of him! I had quite a few pictures to post so I just made a slide show, The slideshow should go in order of events. We start with the picture of me right before I went into the hospital and go from during the c-section to finishing the c-section and then there are pictures of our stay at the hospital and going home. Poor tank (like all my kids) had to spend some time under the bili lights but other than that his stay was pretty uneventful. There are pictures of our ward christmas party with Santa and the kids. Tank had his two week checkup yesterday, usually they want the baby to be back up to his birth weight by the two week checkup. I wasn't concerned because by the time we left the hospital he was almost back up to his birth weight. WELL, as of yesterday tank weighed 10 lbs, 12 oz, his height and head circumference are the same but he has gained over a pound over his birth weight in two weeks! The doctor just kept saying WOW, you must make some good milk! Thankfully, I do and I am grateful to have healthy happy kids! Well, gotta run, enjoy the pics!

24

24- the number of pounds I have lost in 11 days, no wonder I'm always cold! Of course having an almost 10 lb baby helped. This makes me very happy, that means I'm about half way there to where I want to be after baby. Yippee! Too bad the last half will be a lot harder to lose!

WHEW!

Wow, what a difference one little baby makes in your life. I have been busy, inbetween resting as much as possible. Tank is great, I wish he would get his days and nights switched to the right way but that will come. I just keep looking at him and admiring how perfect and beautiful he is. I love his adorable fat cheeks and double chin, his perfect blonde peach fuzz and little eyes. I really need to post some pictures but the camera is with sushi and he is currently at the nutcracker with cakes and grandma. My mom left today so I am officially on my own now. My ward is bringing in dinner for the next three nights and I am going to have some friends who volunteered take my kids to school this week and after that it is christmas vacation so by the time school starts again I should be in much better shape. My blood pressure was high at my incision check so I am now on blood pressure medication for the time being. I hope it goes away soon, I really hate having to rely on a pill to be healthy. The irony is that the whole pregnancy my blood pressure was great, sigh, oh well, like I said, hopefully I only need the medication temporarily. I seem to be healing well though and my belly is going down quickly considering it's only been 11 days since I had my c-section. It just never seems it goes down quickly enough. Well, hopefully when sushi gets back I can post some pictures. Wish sushi luck, he has two finals this next week and he is very nervous about them I know he'll do great because he always does, but he is very scared he wont, so go tell him how great he is!

SO Close!

Well, we were in to Labor and Delivery yesterday because the baby wasn't moving very much and I felt like we needed to check on it. It's fine, I'm fine, although all the annoying contractions I've been feeling are labeled an "irritable uterus". From what I can tell it just means annoying pain. So, after monitoring me for about an hour, they sent me home with a shot of morphene and phenermine(sp?) and told me I was to be on bedrest until tuesday. I came home and zonked out until about 8 pm, woke up for about an hour and fell asleep again until the next morning. I woke up this morning and was a little puffy but that seems to have gone away on it's own. I have a wonderful neighbor who will take Cookie to and from school tomorrow and all I have to do tomorrow is pick up the house a little, do a very small amount of laundry, and call the school to tell them Cookie won't be there the rest of the week. Sushi will take the car to work and school tomorrow and come home and we'll take the kids to my parents where we'll have dinner together and sushi and I will come home, go to bed and have a baby on tuesday very early! I am supposed to be at the hospital by 5:30 am so I figure by the time I take a shower and get everything ready to go and drive there I need to be up by about 4am. ugh, at least my surgery is supposed to be at 7:30 am so I figure I'll be in my room resting by about 10am. I'm sure sushi will update on his blog what the baby is and all the info about it. Wish me luck, we're almost there and I can't wait to be done! I probably won't post again until after baby comes and I'm home and resting on friday. Hope you all have a great week and remember to check sushi's blog for updates!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving and I hope everyone else did as well. We had a nice relaxing morning and afternoon and our families arrived around 4:00. We had a wonderful dinner of ham and turkey, mashed potatoes, country sausage gravy and turkey gravy, yams, green bean casserole, stuffing, rolls, pumpkin pie and black bottom bananna creme pie. Everything was so good! I am so greatful for my wonderful family and beautiful home. Sushi is now out trying to see if anything is left in the stores from the black friday sales. There were some pretty great deals out there, I hope what we were looking at is still there, if not, oh well. Later today we will go to Sushi's aunt and uncle's house and hang out with his cousins & their wives and sister & brother in law. It should be a lot of fun. Well, I hope everyone else had a wonderful thanksgiving as well!

Oh, and I'm thankful there are only 4 more days until Dec 2. Almost there!

still here

I'm still here, taking it easy and taking tylenol. Sushi thinks I'm silly. He thinks I should just go have a baby already. I just know that I won't progress, I never have and never will so unless my water breaks or something I plan on being here until my scheduled c-section on Dec 2. I hope everyone has a very happy thanksgiving!

Ouch.

I don't feel well today. I woke up feeling achy everywhere and I'm having contractions, real ones that start in my back and come around to the front. I really, really, really want to last until next tuesday. I already have the house all ready for thanksgiving and the groceries are bought and I really want to make it one more week. I'm trying to take it easy today but today is my crazy day with dance class for cakes, school for both kids, I need to mail a host packet for Pampered chef as well as deliver a host packet and close a show. I also have visiting teaching this afternoon. (visiting teaching is where you have a partner and you meet with other women in your ward and give them a lesson and keep in touch with them so the church can keep track of everyone's needs, a neat thing really) I'm trying to rest in between everything as much as possible though. Wish me luck with lasting another 7 days. As much as I want it all to end, I want it to end on MY terms. As in: with the surgeron I want, not the on-call doctor, not over thanksgiving, etc.

9 days and counting. . .

Well, true to my word, here are some pictures taken tonight. Of course I have something spilled on my belly because, well, I always do. And quite frankly, I think I look completely ridiculous but hopefully I will be a lot thinner in 9 more days. I am glad that overall, I look pretty good IMHO, I just have this silly thing sticking out from my belly. Today Licorice stick lady came and followed me at church to see how I do singing time. I am so greatful that she is willing to substitute for me in singing time while I recover. Well, enjoy the pics! BTW, the doctors are expecting this child to be a very large child, I hope they're right and I'm not just fat!

Like every other female in the world. . . . .

I went and saw Twilight today. I wasn't planning on it. I actually was just fine with catching it on Redbox when it got to that point, but my friend asked me to go with her at the last minute and I figured it would be one last chance to have some girl time before the baby comes. So, Sushi was wonderful and agreed to watch the kids while I went and saw my friend Al who I have been friends with since kindergarten (yes, kindergarten, isn't it cool!). By the time I got back he was done, the kids were done, everyone was hungry and I got to get right back into mommy mode. But, the 6 hours without the mommy duties were wonderful! I'm glad that sushi agreed to let me go even though he is tired and stressed out and probably could have used some time to himself more than I could have. Anyhoo. The movie was actually pretty good. Ever since the fourth book I have been ticked off at the series. I just thought the series ended WAY too fairytale, simple ish. I enjoyed the movie and found it thouroughly entertaining, even if I still think Jacob was WAY cuter than Edward. So, yes, it's worth the 2 1/2 hours of your time.

On another note, as of Sunday I enter the single digits for the countdown to baby!!!!!! Only 9 more days as of Sunday of this! I am ready, let it be done already. I have been nesting in a bad way and my house is getting ridiculously clean. Areas people never see are clean, like our storage rooms. I haven't gone so far as washing walls and cleaning carpets but I'm not too far off from doing those things. I just have to keep reminding myself it's really not necessary to do. Hopefully I can keep the nesting under control for the next nine days and focus on resting and just keeping up the house for Thanksgiving and when baby comes. I need to post another picture of my huge belly one of these days. Perhaps I'll do that tomorrow.

It's a great day

I needed to fill the tank in the van tonight, I did my grocery shopping before hand to try to get the 10 cents off per gallon coupon and was very please to see that gas was under 2.00 a gallon. It was 1.99 a gallon. So, I took my 10 cent off coupon, and it was only 38.00 to fill the tank, that is the least I think we have ever paid to fill the tank in the van. I hope it stays this low but sadly, I don't think it will, I think this is a temporary lull in prices and they will go back up again. We still need to combine trips, etc to conserve gas and come up with alternative fuels. I just hope people will continue to remember 4.20 a gallon gas and keep pressuring the government and corporations to come up with a permanent cheap solution that is also environmentally friendly. But, for now I was pleased as could be to only pay 1.89 a gallon! Yipee!

Sour Cakes

Normally our cakes is such a sweet, good girl, she has her off days, but we all do. Lately however, she has been a total nightmare. And it's only getting worse. We have had meltdowns that have lasted for 20-40 minutes at least once a day. Nothing can consol her, I can't handle listening to her scream and follow me around so she gets timeouts in her room. After she is done she is usually fine, we talk about things and I hope they will get better but then the next day we have another meltdown. I am so tired, I don't have a ton of patience for her issues right now. I realize this is normal and such but what can I do to make her realize we will love her no matter what, new baby and all. I don't want to condone the fits so I ignore the bad behaviors, when she is good I have been trying to spend extra time with her and to tell her even more than normal that I love her. But quite frankly, I'm reaching the end of my rope. I know there are experienced mothers out there that have delt with this issue. Cookie was never this bad, the only problems I had were that he would act out while I was nursing cakes, other than that he could care less. Of course, they were only 23 months apart and not 4 1/2 years apart. HELP!!! I need to know how best to handle this! I'm trying to be patient and stick with our boundaries and giving extra love when she is behaving but this doesn't seem to be doing the trick. So, any advice would be great because I am too tired to think of a new solution.

Cookie Reads

Cookiemonster had some simple books sent home from his kindergarten since he knows most his sounds and letters. His teacher instructed us in a note that he was to practice reading the book and send it back to school when he could read it. I pulled the first out last night and he read it the first time with very little help, today he got the second one and he read it without my help. I can't believe it! He is just taking off with reading everything. It's like lightbulbs are going off every second. It truly is so exciting to see your kids learn so well! I'm so proud of my little cookie.

I am officially 37 weeks today, I just want it to end. I'm uncomfortable, I can't sleep, everything I eat gives me heartburn, I have this disgusting rash on the underside of my belly and I just want it all to be over with. Only 15 more days until the c-section. Eesh, I can handle anything for 15 days right??? I certainly hope so. Wish me luck.

Nothing yet

I had my doctors appointment yesterday, I am officially 19 days away from having a baby via c-section providing I don't go into labor. My docotor checked my cervix yesterday and it is softening but not at all dialated. I never have dialated so this comes as no surprise and you may feel bad for me but I don't. My mom will be in texas the 20-25th of this month to visit my sister and sushi has school work to finish up before baby comes plus the whole avoiding having a brand new baby at Thanksgiving stuff. So Dec 2 really is the best option. I think the doctors are expecting another very large baby because they just keep looking at my belly in amazement. At least I know I have very fat, healthy babies!

Veterans Day, my 108th post and Puking

First and foremost, Happy Veterans Day, I for one and so greatful to our armed men and women and the freedoms they protect for us. We are so fortunate to live in a free country and to feel safe and secure and so prosperous.

Secondly, this is my 108th post. Wow, time has flown by. I can't believe I've had that much to say to you all!

Lastly, ugh, Cakes was up almost all of last night puking. It was lovely, we changed sheets twice and I was up every couple of hours taking care of a puking girl. Or a girl with fever and chills who I was afraid to give any medicine to because I was afraid she would puke. I am tired. She seems to be much better today but I think I better keep her home tomorrow as well to make sure we aren't passing the fun around. All of this doesn't help with me lasting another three weeks.

Cookie and I made a chain of how many days until the baby comes and he was excited to tear off one of the links today, it was cute. Cakes just told me "Mom, are we going to get the baby out of your tummy today yet?" when I told her no she told me "awww, I'm tired of waiting, I want it to be TODAY!" hee hee, it will all come soon enough.

What do you do with a giant box

We finally got our infant car seat the other day (thank you SO much big sister!!! It's such a great early christmas present!) and I got it out of the box today to read the instructions and assemble it and stuff and I (being the silly adult that I am) was going to throw the box away. A sweet little 4 year old saw it and immediatley wanted to make a house out of it. So, Cakes and Cookie got out some scissors and set to work, I caught a picture of them making the house as well as Cakes with her "baby" in the car seat. They are getting a little anxious, they can't wait until the baby comes. It's cute, they will be great helpers. Cookie wanted to make a chain the other day, mabey we'll make one this afternoon. Well, enjoy the pictures, I thought they were cute!






EDIT***** I was informed that it wasn't quite big enough to fit both of them so now it's a dog house.

It's official. . . .

We are now a two pet household. Pencil "escaped" (I think a little boy left the door open accidentally), and today we found a good home for jewel. I have been listing jewel on our local online classifieds for about six months now since I just feel overwhelmed and I feel bad that she is quite neglected. Sushi is too busy to spend any time with her and since I take care of everything else besides his school and work I also was too busy. Now don't get me wrong, she got watered and fed but that is about it. Other than that she sat on her chain in the back yard and entertained herself. Everyonce in a while I would head out there and try to play with her but it just didn't happen too often. So, I re-listed her recently with the title "lab/shepherd mix, great for teaching to hunt" since the bird hunt happened not too long ago or something(a lady I know told me this, I don't really know when the bird hunt is). I actually got a response. I think it will be the perfect fit. The guy who took her lives on a small ranch up in Idaho and wants to teach her to hunt birds, help with cattle and be a good companion dog. I think it's perfect, she can run and run and run on a ranch and he seemed to be really good with her. He's a nice older man and has had lots of dogs so he knows how to deal with her and he's had lots of labs so he knows how to deal with labs. The kids are thrilled, they are glad to be dog free, I feel a huge sense of relief because it's one less thing to think about and I know she'll be so much happier with her new owner. So, there we go, it's official, I bet you thought I was going to say we had a baby or something didn't you?! Hee hee, three more weeks and I'm done.

9 Words women use

I got this in an email from my friend in Texas and it cracked me up, enjoy, we could all use a little laughter!

NINE WORDS WOMEN USE

(1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.
(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.
(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.
(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!
(5) Loud Sigh: This is actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)
(6) That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.
(7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're welcome' . That will bring on a 'whatever').
(8) Whatever: Is a woman's way of saying F--- YOU!
(9) Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.

* Send this to the men you know, to warn them about arguments they can avoid if they remember the terminology.
* Send this to all the women you know to give them a good laugh, 'cause they know it's true!!!

WHEW

We recently got this note in the mail from Cakes' school nurse saying she had failed the school eye exam (I had no idea the school had an eye exam). It told us we needed to get her into an eye doctor and check things out. I wasn't too thrilled about the whole thing basically because if she did need glasses I didn't want to deal with them with a 4 year old. Well, HALLELUJAH and praise be. Her appointment was today and the doctor is NOT recommending glasses. She as 20/20- vision which basically means she answered one question wrong, and a slight astigmatism with the doctor says is normal. I'm thankful she doesn't need glasses, that is a huge blessing for us!

Sigh, I guess I get to complain a lot during the next four years

Well, no matter what it was going to be an historic election. Not the way I would have prefered it to end but it is what it is. I guess I get to complain a lot for the next four years.

PSA

I have a very important message for you all. GO VOTE TOMORROW!!!! Otherwise I don't want to hear you complain about anything that happens in the government for the next four years. That is all.

My Day of Waiting. . . . .

Yesterday was a busy day but a lot of it was spent waiting, and waiting. I had a doctors appointment yesterday and waited 40 minutes to even get into the room, this would not have been such a big deal except that I only had an hour for the appointment. So, I went up to the receptionist and asked her when I was going to get to the doctors and she said "soon" so I told her I have to leave by 1:30 to go pick up my kids from school. If you're not going to be done you need to reschedule me. She then proceeded to go talk to the nurses and they had me done in time. I was glad, a kindergartener just doesn't understand that you got stuck at the doctors office and that's why you were late. Then I went to do early voting. HOLY LONG WAIT, by this time I had the kids with me and I had to wait an hour to do early voting. The irony was that when I got up to vote the poll workers told me that I shouldn't have had to wait, I could have gone to the front of the line because I am so pregnant. "now you tell me" I jokingly replied. So, I have voted, yipee, we'll see if it makes a difference. I did come home and call bon and tell her she could go directly to the front of the line and she appreciated that I passed that info along. At least she won't have to wait too long. After that it was more errands, wallyworld and such. I had a friend ask me if I could watch her kids for a while because she had an appointment with her LDS bishop and her one year old little boy just cried the whole time. It didn't matter what I did so I just put him on the floor and let him cry. I had things to do. I know it sounds heartless but if I have to listen to a kid cry in my face and it's not helping I can't stand it. Lastly, I woke up today and my belly was itching like crazy, I grabbed a mirror and it looks like I have some sort of skin issue happening. It's red and itchy. I put some baby powder on it and hopefully that will take care of it. AHH, the joys of pregnancy. It will all be over soon, in just a few more weeks. Oh, my friend posted pictures of her twins on howeslifewith5. Check out the link if you want to.

34 weeks and counting. . . .

Well, another of my friends had her babies, she had twins on Saturday, I'm not sure if pictures are posted on her blog but her blog is howeslifewith5.blogspot.com. I have a link over on my sidebar if you want to know more. We only saw the girl twin, the boy twin took a huge breath of amniotic fluid during delivery and so he is in the NICU but the doctors have him there mostly as a precaution and aren't terribly concerned. But the girl twin is adorable. It made me want to be done even more. But, only more 5 weeks left since the c-section is scheduled for 39 weeks. I seem to be alright about the contractions if I don't do too much. However, that is incredibly frustrating for me. I'm starting to feel like we might be ready if this baby comes early, I was able to fish out the baby stuff from the basement storage room today and I just need to wash all of it and figure out where we're going to put a changing table in our house. Someone (either cookie or cakes) will have to give up something in their room to make room for another dresser and a changing table. We'll see how that goes. I need to keep an eye out for another dresser at our local thrift store since there just isn't money in our account to buy one new. We'll see what we can find. Well, that's about it. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I last another five weeks. It really would be best if I made it to 39 weeks, even though I want to be done already.

CRAP

This morning I woke up around 6 am to go to the bathroom for the thousanth time and when I went to get back in bed I had a very long, painful contraction. Well, I tried to go back to sleep but couldn't because even though they weren't consistent I continued to have contractions. This lasted about three hours until I finally took a hot bath and things calmed down. Needless to say I didn't do much today. We had our ward trunk or treat and dinner tonight so I made taco soup in the crock pot and rested and did a little pampered chef business and got kids ready for when sushi got back and we went to the trunk or treat. I have a show tomorrow and that is all so I think I'll rest a little more tomorrow. The kids will have to clean their parts of the house, sushi needs to get the winter squashes out of the garden and into the house and I guess I better get serious about getting ready for a baby to come. We need to get the basinette upstairs and I need to wash the bedding for it, I need to get the changing table upstairs and cleaned. I also need to find the box of newborn clothes and blankets and diapers and get them washed. I should have five weeks left but I have this strange feeling I may not make it that far. Crap, I really liked the December 2 date.

Edit- yeah, it's Saturday morning and no contractions last night, at the trunk or treat I was having some but there weren't any last night! Cross your fingers for me.

The Answers

Cheer34- what is your favorite cookie? besides your child named cookie monster

My favorite is pretty consistently chocolate chip, I like other kinds for a while, I like gingerbread or butter and recently have been craving rasin filled I even enjoy snickerdoodles. But, it always comes back to chocolate chip with semisweet chocolate chips, you can't beat a classic.


Karen- When are we getting together next?

How about when I can walk again and not waddle. So, mabey after about 5 weeks, although I would love to see your adorable baby. Although, I am afraid it would just make me more anxious to be done to see him!


Nobody- My eye hurts. What the heck is in my eye?

Well, you know your mom always said you'd go blind if you looked at that stuff too much! Hee hee

Scarlet- Sock length? Short anklet sock or regular?

I depends on what I am doing, if I am exercising then anklet for sure, I hate how regular ones pinch my legs, however, for everyday wear or yardwork and snow activities regular length. They protect my legs better than anklet ones.

Q & A

I've got nothing, so, I'll go with an old blogging standby, Q&A, ask me a question, I'll answer. The inspiration for this post today was brought to you by fantastagirl who just did this recently as well.

Baby Mama

Well, after many people telling me how great this movie was I finally rented it last night from redbox. It was really fun. The jokes made me laugh and it was overall very enjoyable. I recommend it. I know you've all been waiting for this review forever.

UEA weekend

Another one of my friends had her baby, he is adorable, click on karen's blog on my links to see him. Congrats Karen! I wish it was me! I'm getting a little tired of being pregnant. This weekend is UEA weekend. I will get to have an entire three and a half days without kids! My mother is taking the kids camping with her to goblin valley in Southern Utah. Sushi and I plan on going on a few dates and are looking forward to a break. My mom tried to convince me to go with her but I didn't think it would be very fun for me to go camping in my current condition. So, as of tomorrow afternoon I am kid free until saturday night! YIPEE!!! I might actually get caught up on some things and get some sleep!

Nothing beats getting told your obese by 8:20 in the morning.

I guess I'm a little grumpy today. I had a WIC appointment today at 8:20 am and even though I expected it I'm a little irritated at WIC. They weighed me today and showed me where I was on their "charts". I was way up high above all the prefered weight gain and they pointed it out to me and told me they wanted me to be way down here. Then proceeded to tell me AGAIN that I needed to be really careful what I eat and try to not gain any more weight. To which I snapped "well, my doctor says my weight gain is fine and he's not worried so I think I go with his advice." Like I sit at home and eat bon bons all day and pig out constantly. UGH!!!! I HATE that they use the BMI charts. It's according to the BMI charts that I'm obese. I'm sorry, I look at myself and I really don't think I'm obese. I'm very muscular and I'm glad for that. I have a husband who is never here, he's doing what he needs to do but the fact remains that he is not here very often. If I had to wait until he got home to carry something for me I would never get things done. One of my best friends mentioned that when she was in her peak physical shape she weighed the most she ever has in her life. I kind of feel the same way. Up until a couple of weeks ago I was going to the gym every day and working out for an hour and a half. I was and still am in great physical shape. I weigh a lot more than I look like I do. I just wish they would look at me and see that "nope, she doesn't fit into the obese category". I'm sick of it and tired of the snide remarks from the dietician at WIC.

Me me

I've been tagged by the wonderful Big Sister. So, here you go, you can do it too if you so desire.

Answer these with just one word.

1. Where is your cell phone? Non-existent
2. Where is your significant other? Playing World of Warcraft
3. Your hair color? Red
4. Your mother? At home
5. Your father? On the road
6. Your favorite thing? Having a fun time with the family, laughing together
7. Your dream last night? Thankfully, I don’t remember (I hate pregnant dreams)
8. Your dream/goal? To one day have enough money that we don’t have to worry about money
9. The room you’re in? Office
10. Your hobby? Haaaa Haaaa Haaa, Bwahhhhh, wipes away tears, hobbies no longer exist, only family.
11. Your fear? Losing my family
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Happy, healthy, someplace where we’re all together
13. Where were you last night? At a Pampered Chef show
14. What you’re not? Skinny, but that will change again in two months I hope.
15. One of your wish-list items? To be debt free
16. Where you grew up? America
17. The last thing you did? Watched Eleventh Hour, it was ok, definitely not as intriguing as Fringe
18. What are you wearing? Some of my new big pregnant clothes
19. Your TV? HD, I always forget to change it to HD and it drives sushiboy nuts
20. Your pet? Baby, Jewel, Pencil, Come in shell come out shell
21. Your computer? Necessary
22. Your mood? Ready to be done with the whole pregnant thing
23. Missing someone? Yes
24. Your car? White
25. Something you’re not wearing? Socks or shoes although it’s supposed to snow this weekend, I guess I’ll have to find some shoes that fit other than flip-flops.
26. Favorite store? I don’t usually love to shop, I truly can’t think of anywhere
27. Your summer? I neglected my yard and garden, I’ll have a lot of catching up to do next summer
28. Love someone? My family, all of them
29. Your favorite color? Green
30. When is the last time you laughed? Earlier
31. Last time you cried? I don’t know, I don’t cry often

December 2 it is

Well, the doctors appointment went well today. The doctor measured my belly and I am still measuring large but that is because the baby's head is just below my belly button sticking out instead of engaged in my pelvis. He didn't want to do another ultrasound because he said it basically wouldn't tell us anything relevant. We did schedule the c-section with the hospital for Dec 2 early in the morning. So, unless I go into labor or something that will definitely be the day! I just really didn't want to have a baby right before thanksgiving. The baby and I would have missed all the big family thanksgiving feasts because there are only so many ways you can politely say "no, you may not hold my baby". I normally don't worry so much about germs but with baby coming right at the beginning of RSV season I am worried this time. People also just aren't very considerate sometimes around new babies. They do things like want to hold them and put their faces right in the baby's face even though they have a cold, or they let their child who has a snotty, goopy nose play with the baby or they put their fingers in the baby's mouth and let the baby suck on them. So, I am happy to say I don't have to deal with all that! I will be able to go to a good thanksgiving dinner and visit with family and not have to worry about having a sick baby.

31 Weeks

Well, it's been a while since I posted pictures of myself and my huge belly. I had Sushiboy take these this morning,



And here is one from the side




In other news, my sister had her baby last night all natural. Whew! She wanted to avoid another c-section and she was able to. She was waiting until the baby was born to find out the gender (like us!) And she had a 9'5" little girl! They picked a beautiful name and I'm so happy for her that she was able to avoid another c-section like she wanted to so badly.

Also, remember when we redid the front yard??? There was this patch that I needed to replant grass in.



Well, here it is! I've never planted grass before so I am very happy to see it coming in so thick and nice. For a minute there I was wondering if it was going to come in or not, then within a few days it looked like that.



I have a doctors appointment today and we'll see if I'm still measuring big and if they still want to do another ultrasound to check on baby and it sounds like possibly move the date up. I have very mixed feelings about this. I know they're afraid I'll have a 10 lb baby but if I have it right before thanksgiving I won't be going to thanksgiving. I really don't want to be in the hospital on thanksgiving or sitting at home recovering alone while everyone else goes to thanksgiving with the family. So, while I would LOVE to be done early, I really hope we keep the Dec 2 date for the c-section so life will stay easy and my plans will all work out.

The next size

Sigh, my belly is so huge that I was running into issues where nothing would cover the darn thing. So, I finally admitted that I needed to buy the next larger size of clothes. I hate that I had to since I only have 9 weeks left but, the sad news is that I did. However, me being the frugal person that I am, I didn't want to pay full price for them. If I'm buying all new clothes, they will be skinny clothes, not big fat pregnant lady clothes. But, I simply couldn't get away with wearing sweats and oversize t-shirts either. So I turned to our local online classifieds and started searching. I found a killer of a deal. I was able to find someone selling all their maternity clothes in the size I needed and they were selling the pants for $5.00 each and shirts for $3.00 each. I picked up 10 shirts, 6 pairs of pants, a skirt, a jacket and a pair of pj's for $70.00. I was very happy, I basically got an entire wardrobe for less than the price of three pairs of pants at Motherhood. So, even though I am very sad that I had to go to that size I am finally comfortable again and that is worth every penny. Oh, my older sister was in hard labor tonight. I hope I have good news tomorrow and I will know if I have a new niece or nephew.

Poor Nobody

Poor Nobody, he is having issues with Direct-TV. Please link to his post here. He just wants to get the word out about what idiots they are.

http://myblogisaboutnothing.com/2008/10/04/an-open-letter-to-dish-network-corp/

General Conference

Every six months The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) has their semi-annual general conference. We believe that it is when the church as a whole gets guidance from the Prophet and members of the Quorum of the Twelve and other leaders in the church. Sushi and I will be watching it this weekend. If you've ever wondered what those "crazy mormons" believe this is a great chance to hear what we believe! You can also link to the church's website www.lds.org. I think you'll find we're pretty much normal people who are trying to become as Christ-like as possible. Have a great weekend!

Breaking Dawn

So, I finally finished Breaking Dawn last night and was quite disappointed. Not surprised because Stephanie Meyers has this whole "love conquers all" mentality with her books but disapointed. It was alright. It just seems there were no consequences or natural laws that were followed. I may as well have read Cinderella, life is hard for a minute but then life if perfect and wonderful forever and ever. It all seemed very simplistic. I know a lot of people loved this book, I'm just not one. Oh, and why hasn't anyone been leaving any comments lately???? I guess I'm just boring.

Sigh, I guess that's the end of the gym

Well, I suppose the decision has been made for me. I had a rough weekend with feeling contractions and such and it seems I can't walk more than three or four minutes without feeling contractions so, I guess it's time to put the gym membership on hold. I would rather take it easy than be put on bedrest. I'm going today to put everything on hold and stuff but I think I'm done until after baby comes. I had this silly hope that I could go right up until right before I had the baby but it would seem that isn't going to happen. My trainer is going to give me some exercises that I can do at home to maintain where I am at and we do have the treadmill here now but I just think I probably won't be doing much of those two things. I did make it 30 weeks. I am 7 months pregnant and I feel pretty good about making it this far. I just wish I could have lasted longer. Oh well, getting a baby here at the right time and being healthy are the important things and to keep going would defeat both of those purposes. I need to get a picture of myself at 30 weeks (even though I'm measuring 3 weeks early). My poor sister was due on Sunday and nothing is happening. I wish we could trade places! I guess keeping up with my busy life of kids, house, church callings, and pampered chef will have to be enough for me for the next few months! I think that should be enough.

Sunday Fun

Every once in a while my kids get an irrisitable urge to wrestle with their Dad, cakes is especially bad. She's the one who started this one. I just grabbed the camera and took video as quick as possible. Enjoy!

Nothing new. . . .

After all the hype surrounding the presidential candidates debate tonight I expected more. Pretty much they just spouted off exactly what we've been hearing from each respective candidate and nothing new was learned. I think if you were a McCain supporter before you're a McCain supporter now, if you were an Obama supporter before you're still an Obama supporter. Yep, just expected. . . I don't know. . . something that would reveal more about who the candidates are and what they truly stand for. Hummm, well, that was a waste of time.

UGH, We all feel sick

Well, cakes has been sick for a few weeks now, she just seems to have this yucky cold that hangs on and on and won't go away, who knows, mabey it's allergies. Last night, right around bedtime my throat started to hurt. A LOT. Cakes woke up about an hour later and just kept crying and crying. I couldn't figure out anything coherent as to what was wrong but she just kept wiggling around like she was in pain. I gave her some childrens tylenol cold and she went to sleep the rest of the night. I didn't get so lucky. I was in pain and up every couple of hours. Sushi informed me this morning his throat hurts too. I went to the doctors to make sure I didn't have strep, thank goodness I don't. But, it looks like three of the four of us all have the same yucky cold. Ugh. Too bad I have a crazy weekend. Tomorrow I have a practice for the primary program in the morning and a pampered chef show in the afternoon and Sunday I have the primary program so we need to be at church early. I also need to come up with something fun to do during singing time. Well, at least I don't have strep and I don't need to completely quarantine the family but man, my throat sure hurts. I'm going to go get some tylenol cold and benedryl (my doctor says if you gargle with it that will help with the sore throat). Mabey I can sleep Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

When is it time to stop going to the gym???

Well, I'm almost 30 weeks now and I'm facing a dilema. I have so far in this pregnancy managed to get to the gym almost every day Monday through Friday. I have jokingly been saying that this is my little experiment to see if I recover more quickly even though will have a c-section and my stomach muscles will be sliced and diced anyways. I'm really not joking. I'm really curious if I will recover faster. I've noticed that going to the gym is keeping the issues of water retention and swelling at bay. I really love my time to myself (an hour and a half without kids, woo hoo!) and usually feel better after the gym even if I am tired. Here is my dilema. To go to the gym I need to put the kids in the daycare at the gym for the time I am there. There is one way to do this. I have to call at noon a week in advance to get a time. I have been trying to do this. I'm on the phone for a half hour pushing redial until I finally get through and lately by 12:30 I am the sixth person on the waiting list for the time I need to get to the gym. This problem is most pronounced on Mondays. Wednesday through Friday I'm usually 1st on the waiting list and have no problem getting in. This has been happening for the last month and it's only getting worse. I've asked the people in the daycare if they think it will get better and they tell me yes, in about a month. In about a month I'm not sure if I'll still be able to make it to the gym. I'm a little irritated at the whole issue. I think they need more people or a bigger playroom or something. The other issue I'm facing is that more and more I'm starting to feel worse. I feel exhausted, light headed, dizzy, grouchy. I don't have a doctors appointment until October 8th and I suppose I could call the doctor's office but I'm just starting to wonder if it's time to put the gym membership on hold until after this baby comes. What do you think? Should I keep going until the doctor says stop or just stop while I'm ahead. I just don't want to lose all I've gained over the last year at the gym.

Does anybody want a dog????

Well, I know there are a lot of great dog owners out there. We need to get rid of Jewel. She is just too much for me to take care of. The kids are afraid of her because like most labs she likes to jump and play a little rough. She is such a sweet good dog though. She doesn't mean to hurt, she just wants to play. She's smart and really wants to please you. I feel terrible getting rid of her but I would feel worse taking her to the humane society because I know she would most likely just be euthanized because she's not a cute little puppy and she's big. She's been spayed and had her shots, she even has a microchip. The one thing I learned from having Jewel is that we thought we were big dog people and we are not. Apparently we need a small dog that will be able to go into it's crate while we're gone and come interact with us while we're home. I put an ad on our local classifieds but we'll see if anything comes of that. I tried that once. I want her to go to a good home, there are a lot of pit fighting rings around here and I don't want her to go to one of those. It would be more humane for her to be euthanized than to be ripped apart by a mean dog. She's not a mean dog, she's great. So, any takers????

The Hampster tragedy and Cookie rides a bike!

Well, cookie got to deal with his first tragedy with an animal. One of the reasons I allow my children to have pets is because I believe it is such a great learning experience. I think they learn responsibility and they learn about life, birth and death. I believe it's a lot easier to start talking about death and life after death when a pet dies than when someone close in the family dies. But I digress. Cookie has been putting his hampster (pencil) into crazy cages lately. Whatever containers he can find. The other day I walked into his room and didn't see pencil in it's cage so I asked him where pencil was. He had put pencil into a container without any air and the poor little thing had suffocated. It truly was heartbreaking to see the poor dead little hampster. We went out to the garden and buried it and decided to see if we could find another dwarf hampster at our local pet store. He was lucky. They had two males left. We picked one up and he named it. . . . . pencil. The new pencil is more aggressive and bites cookie sometimes but they are starting to get used to each other and I think he will be a good hampster. He is WAY more nocternal than the old pencil and does some pretty funny things like roll around in the woodchips like a dog.

And now for something completely different. . . Cookie finally figured out how to ride a two wheeled bike on his own yesterday at my family dinner! Everytime he has visited grandma and grandpa's house he works on it and yesterday he just took off! I suggested we could take his training wheels off his bike at home and he informed me he wasn't quite ready for that but at least at gradma's house he'll ride a two wheeler just fine. I'm so proud of my little cookie!

Update: We just got back from getting Cookie from school and he asked me to remove his training wheels. Then proceded to ride around without training wheels all by himself. Now we just need to work on getting him to use the brakes. . .

WTH???? What is WRONG with some people

Now I know I am far from a perfect mother and I have a lot of work until my patience is where it should be. But I try to give myself a time out before I reach a point where I can hurt one of my children. I'm very open about how frustrating things can be with small children and I think it helps to have other people admit that their patience is tested as well with small children. However, this is horrible and never should have happened. How could you do this to your child???

Here is the link to the story if you want to read more

In an unrelated side note. I have to shake my head at the irony. I watered my lawn yesterday because it was drying up and the rain the meterologist said would come kept never coming. It's raining now.

The new treadmill

Well, for those of you who don't read sushiboy's blog, go take a look and it will explain a lot. Sushi has been feeling self conscious about how much weight he's gained this year and he ran accross this great idea that involved a treadmill. He thought I would laugh. I didn't. I thought it would be a great idea. So we looked at our local online classifieds and found a treadmill for $100.00. It is a 7 year old nordic trac treadmill and in great shape. So, today we will look for a TV wall mount to mount a monitor on and a few other things and we are in business for hopefully under $200.00. Not too shabby and it's cheaper than a gym membership that sushi informed me he would never use anyways. I guess I'm the weirdo who likes the gym, not him.

Almost done with the day

I'm tired, I have too much to do today and not enough time. That is all.

The ox in the mire

Normally we try not to do yard work or anything like that on sunday, other than church we try to keep it a day of rest. We do things like visit family or just spend time together with our little family. However, when I got home yesterday from church I noticed that there was water everywhere coming from our roof in the back. I grabbed sushi and told him he needed to climb on the roof and see what was going on. When he got up there he noticed the rain gutters had filled up with gunk even though I had cleaned them this spring. Thankfully water wasn't gushing from the swamp cooler. We decided since he was up there already he could just winterize the swamp cooler (that may be broken, the motor seems to be having issues) since we probably won't need it again this year. We may have a day or so that we wished it was still working but we'll deal with it. We've also had a problem with wasps on our deck all summer. But we couldn't find the nest. So, sushi starts cleaning gutters thinking they may be the problem. He gets over to an s-curve that leads down and got stung about 5 times. Apparently, that's where the wasps nest was. So we had to spray the nest and string a hose up there and cut branches away from the roof and clean gutters out thoroughly, wasps nest and all. Now we just have to watch it carefully for the next few days so they don't build another nest. I really hate wasps. they're just pest in my humble opinion. At least a lot got accomplished. Too bad we had to pull the ox out of the mire.

I should be. . . .

Cookie's party is tomorrow, I should be preparing for that, you know, cleaning the house, finishing laundry, that sort of thing. But I really don't feel good today. I just feel light headed and short of breath and exhausted. So, I think I'll rest for a while. The six year olds won't care if I got the toilets cleaned.

Doctors visit today

I had a doctor's appointment today. All is well. However, I am measuring big. I am currently 27 weeks along. I'm measuring 30 weeks. The doctor scheduled an appointment for another month and if I'm still measuring big they'll schedule another ultrasound. I just think I have a freaking monster huge baby in here. My guess is that it will be at least 9 lbs if not 10 lbs at the rate it seems to be growing. We'll see how things are in a month!

Running, running, running, I just keep on running

Whew! I think we are finally getting into a semicoherent schedule. The last few weeks I have been running and running and running. I feel like I'm not accomplishing things but I suppose I am, just not things you can see around the house. In other words, it looks like a bomb has exploded in my house, just when I get things picked up and cleaned up, another bomb explodes. Sigh, one day I will have a clean house, it's just so stinkin' hard to keep up right now. Well, lets see, lets get all of you caught up on the exciting events of the last few weeks. Cakes had her first day of preschool on September 3rd. She loves it and it is great for her to be going to preschool. I love that I get to take a shower three days of the week without any burning microwave muffin incidents.




I decided to sign up for WIC again since sushiboy has cut back on hours and we could use a little assistance. The lovely thing about WIC is that they use the BMI charts to measure whether you are a healthy weight or not. These don't work for me. So, according to WIC, my prepregnancy weight put me into the obese category. NICE. They also told me I needed to only gain 15-20 lbs the entire pregnancy and since I've already gained 30 I needed to try not to gain any more weight. Well, since I've eaten pretty healthy and I don't think I look obese and my doctor tells me my weight gain this pregnancy has been good and I'll probably gain another 10 or so these last 13 weeks or so I think I'll listen to my doctor and not the nutritionist at WIC. It's always lovely to hear you're obeses, especially when you're not. Now don't get me wrong. There is definitely a few pounds to lose on my body mabey 10-15 more, I don't think that makes me obese. Probably just normal.

Cookie's birthday was on sunday. I can't believe it, six years ago I became a mom for the first time. The time really has gone by quickly. I'm so glad to have him for a son. On sunday we also had a huge regional conference for all 134 stakes in this area (a stake is a group of wards, a ward is a group within a certain area for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). It was obviously broadcast to all the stake centers from a building in the area. We had some speakers from the first presidency and quorum of the twelve speak. I was looking forward to it. I try to do the right thing and take my kids to church every sunday and teach them about the Savior and His life and to try to be like Him. However, church has been difficult lately. Cookie has been terrible. It's like I'm dealing with a two year old. He will make lots of noise, or bug all of us or just be a general skunk. It has been difficult. We've been taking away video game priviledges when he behaves this way. Sunday was the WORST. He lost priviledges for a full week. I guess it's time to change tactics because this obviously isn't working. My mom had some great ideas and we'll be trying those. I sent Sushi to take cookie to get a two wheeled scooter on Saturday afternoon and also something from the toy store with the money his grandma gave him. Sushi went nuts. He came back with two sets of legos plus the two wheeled scooter and another set of legos that cookie chose with grandma's money. He also came back with a small set of legos for cakes and a barbie for cakes. I just had to laugh. At least the two had fun. On sunday night we had one of cookie's favorite dinners, roast with mashed potatoes, corn, green salad, and scones. After dinner we had cupcakes and icecream. I think cookie had a good birthday other than losing video game priviledges for a week. He certainly got spoiled plenty! His friend birthday party will be this friday. I'm sure I'll have plenty to post about that day.





Well, that's the major things that have been going on, I hope life has been simpler for you!

This excites me

I have to admit that I usually keep FAR FAR AWAY from politics on my blog. However, McCain's move today in choosing Sarah Palin as his VP choice excites me. I was not real thrilled with the choices for president we had. I didn't really like McCain and the more I hear from Obama I definitely don't like him. I find him to be very condescending every time I hear him speak. The more I hear from McCain the more I like him. His choice today was brilliant in my humble opinion. Palin seems to be a woman that I can identify with. This is a fiscally conservative woman who knows what it's like to raise a family. Who knows what it's like to live on a blue collar income. She wasn't educated at some ivy league college. She is a sportswoman. She has taken on corruption and won. I was excited hearing this announcement. Now, remember, we're all friends here and I don't mind conflicting opinions but there's no need to be rude if you disagree with me. We're all entitled to an opinion and my opinion is that this is GREAT.

TOO excited

This morning cookie woke me up around 6:30, talking to Sushi who was getting ready to leave. He also had a hard time falling asleep last night. I told cookie to come back to bed and try to get more sleep after sushi left. He tried. He tossed and turned and sighed and cakes came in at 7. At which point I gave up. They were both so excited about school. Cakes had a preschool orientation today at 9 am and cookie couldn't wait to see what the gingerbread boy had been up to. We went to the orientation and cookie bugged me the whole time about whether or not it was time to go to kindergarten yet. We had lunch and I took him to kindergarten. I had a VERY tired boy waiting for me when it was time to pick him up. Right now they are up in their rooms having 45 minutes of "quiet time". The 45 minutes has come and gone but I'm not waking the bears. Sigh, it all just makes me want to rush out and have a few more, uh, wait. . . sigh.

First Day of School

Lucky you! You get two posts from me today! Today was Sushi and Cookie's first day at school. I got the picture of sushi and cookie and then everything went to crap. I have had a crazy full day and I am exhausted! Here is the picture of the two.



After I took this picture I took sushiboy to the park and ride to catch the bus to school and came home for a few minutes before I went to the gym, I went to the gym, worked out, then came home with 40 minutes before cookie needed to be at school. In that time I needed to get some lunch for the kids and a shower. Not a problem if I hurry. The kids got some lunch and cakes wanted muffins for lunch, she likes them warmed up in the microwave. I needed to hop in the shower still so I did, of course, cakes wants another muffin, I tell her to have cookie help her. All of a sudden I hear her come running into the bathroom thrilled saying "I did it myself mom!" She's done this about a hundred times with my help so I thought she did. I try to finish my shower with the 3 minutes I have left. All of a sudden, Cookie comes bolting into the bathroom and says, "Mom, the microwave is on fire". He grabs Cakes and runs out of the house, I run out of the shower and stop the microwave and open the door and there is smoke pouring out the door of the microwave. The microwave wasn't on fire but the muffin was now a piece of charcoal. Here is the picture of it complete with the 13:05 minutes left when I stopped the microwave.



I had cookie open all the doors in the house and I finished my shower, put some hair stuff in my hair and told everyone to get in the car, we take cookie to his first day of kindergarten and I have to laugh because like every mom there I have my camera, it's like a freaking pauperatzi convention! I do take some pictures though because there is only one first day of kindergarten





While cookie is at school and I only have one child (ok, one and a half) with me I decide to track down more documents for cakes and get to the post office. I dropped off my stuff at the post office then I go to the school where cakes had preschool last year and get copies of all her documents and request they transfer her records to her new school. Then I decide to try to get to the doctors office to see if they can get me some documentation for the social security offices that will prove that she is indeed living and she is who I say she is. (I found out yesterday that a birth certificate doesn't count as ID for a four year old, apparently I need something that proves she is still alive and who I say she is. I either need a letter from the school district saying she is enrolled in school or a letter from her doctor saying he has treated her and she is living. The social security offices say that too many people have stolen the identities of children who are deceased, crazy eigh???) The doctors office is closed and since her new school doesn't have her in the system yet they can't give me the note I need until tuesday when she starts school. I'm basically caught in a gigantic beaurocratic loop. After that I take the copied documents to her new school and tell them they should have her documents by friday. WHEW, all that was accomplished in about an hour. I come home, have lunch and go pick up cookie who had a GREAT first day. The highlight of the day is that they made a gingerbread boy who escaped and is causing havoc all over the school. I think it might take a week to catch him! Anyways, I am exhausted. By one o'clock I had a full day. The rest of the day we have all rested. Cookie is tired and grumpy and I'm just tired. If you made it through this post you deserve a nap, like me!

Cakes' Birthday Party

This happened a few weeks ago but things have been busy so this is the first chance I've had to post! Cakes had a great birthday party. She had about 6 of her friends over and we painted fingernails and toenails, played dressup, had cake and icecream and opened presents. I kept is simple. I figured for girlies between the ages of three and five that was plenty and it was. Enjoy the slideshow!

Star sightings at the Social Security Office

We had a great day today, after the gym and a shower, the kids and I met up with Sushiboy and we went with him to get his books and student card and go to lunch together. It was a lot of fun. After that I figured that since I was in the bigger city with all the offices I would try to replace some of the documents that I seem to have lost. Somehow, I have misplaced Cakes' ssn card, her birth certificate and her immunization record. So I went to the birth and death records office and got a new birth certificate for her and I then went to the social security office. I walk in, get our number and notice a very short black man sitting next to us. Cookie proceeds to stare at him, I tell cookie it's not nice to stare and look again. Yep, Gary Coleman was sitting next to cookie. I wish I could say he was nice and gracious but nope, he just seemed like the "angry elf" on ELF (you know the movie with Will Ferrell). He seemed suspicious and about to lash out at anyone and very grumpy. So, there you have it, my exciting star sighting at the social security offices.

Kindergarten Orientation

Cookie had his Kindergarten orientation on Wednesday and his assessment on Thursday. He did pretty good. I have noticed he has a tendency to freeze up when he is in a testing situation, a lot of the stuff he knew he couldn't answer for the teacher. She seems to be a good teacher, this is her first year teaching kindergarten, she has taught first, second and third grades and is now trying her hand at kindergarten. I'm sure she'll do fine. I had to shake my head at one of the mothers at orientation, the teacher was explaining that one of the disciplinary measures she would use if necessary would be to take away recess time. Sounds fair to me. However, one of the mothers, in front of everyone (her child and all the other kids there included) starts arguing that the teacher can't take away recess time. State laws say you can't and kids need outdoor time. The teacher calmly replies, actually, recess is a privilege and NOT required, I won't take away the whole time and any motor development that kids need CAN be done in the classroom. I was floored. I can tell who the pain in the butt mom will be. I just hope she isn't the room mother, I certainly don't want to work with someone like this. I would have signed up to be the room mother except I think my life will be a lot busier come December. I couldn't believe that this mother would undermine the teachers authority like this in front of her child. Not surprisingly, she was also arguing and upset with the teacher when the teacher explained that school starts this coming Wednesday. I guess she didn't read the letter she got??? Cookie did great on his assessment. I had to laugh when he told the teacher that we read books backwards (like anime books, can you tell sushi has read a few to him!??) and I was very proud of how well he did with numbers and patterns. I have a very smart boy on my hands!

Cookie Monster's pet

Cookie monster has been saving his money for a lizard. I told him he needed to earn the money himself because one, I wanted to procrastinate getting the lizard and two, I wanted him to realize that a lizard cost a lot of money. Today we went by the pet shop and he decided he wanted. . . . a hampster instead of a lizard!!!!! I told him that was a great choice. It is a lot easier to take care of and a lot more fun. He chose a dwarf hampster and it is absolutely adorable. It's about the size of a thumb and so cute. I googled a picture because I didn't want to wake up the boy to get a picture of the one we got, it pretty much looks just like this.



Now I hope it doesn't escape. . . .

Rude people

I posted this on another blog that I contribute to but I thought I could use your advice too. Let me know what you think.

Let me start this post by letting those of you who don't know that I am expecting. I'm almost 6 months along. I'll have a c-section Dec 2. I am NOT one of those cute tiny pregnant women, I have a host of issues that make it so I look huge. I have big babies, (my first was 9lbs,4oz, my second was 8lbs,5oz and she was two weeks early) I have two hernias, I have a tilted uterus and I carry all out front, there's not much inside me. There is a woman (who I also visit teach) who EVERY week in church goes on and on and on about how huge I am and then says "I hope I didn't offend you". Quite frankly, this week was the last straw, I'm not sure if I'm particularly grumpy today or what but I have had enough. I really am a little angry. I realize I am big, I know it more than she does. I have this happen not only by her but by complete strangers at least once a day. My question to you is, how do I tell people that I'm aware of how big I am and I am indeed only having one, not multiples without sounding like a complete B****. I am really amazed that people think they can tell me how huge I am simply because I'm pregnant. You wouldn't say that to a woman who wasn't pregnant and just big. Shouldn't they have some manners too???

My Secret Olympic Dreams

One of the unknown facts about me is that I swam for 10 years of my life. From the time I was 8 until I graduated from HS at 18. By the time I graduated I was tired of it. As a young kid when people would ask what I wanted to be I would tell them I wanted to be an olympic swimmer. This is a common dream and about on par with wanting to be a superhero or a policeman. Watching the olympics has literally made me itch with wanting to be in the water again. Feeling the water stream by your body as you glide through it and it feels and looks so effortless. Being able to close your eyes and feel the rythm of your arms and legs kicking in perfect harmony. Watching the athletes win and lose has brought back the wonderful and sometimes painful memories of the end of the race. When you hit the wall and immediately look up at the scoreboard to see if you won or not. If all those thousands of hours of gym time and pool time have paid off. Sometimes it didn't matter if you won, only if you did your best. I miss all those things. I mentioned all this to sushiboy today. Now is not the time to get back into swimming. I have a little bit of a problem with drag (lol), I have no one to watch my children while I go to the pool for two hours a day. I think it would be great to get on a masters team and get back into that competition, especially when you see such great inspiration as Dana Torres, a single mother who is 41 and getting olympic gold. I don't think I could win olympic metals but I could feel that thrill of knowing I won the race again. Perhaps when this child goes to preschool. . .

My first award

My first award! I feel so special! Thanks hoosiergirl!



We are home and thank goodness. The funeral was different than I'm used to, a little more country to be specific. The drive was LONG, about 26 hours in two days. My feet were swollen up about as much as I've ever seen. It has taken two days of not doing much to get them better. I skipped the gym on tuesday and only did a half hour today because I was feeling light headed and nauseaus. Hopefully I can get back to my hour to an hour and a half soon. I am just so happy to be home. Now for the ABC's of me

Attached or single? Attached forever to Sushiboy

Best friend? HMMM, my oldest friend is Al, I have lots of great friends, not really one in particular at this stage of my life that is my BEST friend, I have lots of wonderful friends.

Cake or Pie? Bananna Crème Pie (yummy)

Day of Choice? Saturday, the day sushi is home and we spend time together as a family, unless I have Pampered Chef shows to do.

Essential Item? My laptop

Favorite color? Green

Gummy bears or worms? Bears.

Hometown? Salt Lake City, Utah

Indulgence? Sweets, things like candy bars (Skor bars, I love toffee), apple or peach crisp, or chocolate chip cookies

January or July? July - my birthday month!

Kids? Yes. Cookie monster, Cakes, and baby in the tummy

Life isn't complete.... without my family, all of them (extended too)

Marriage Date? May 13, our five year anniversary was Friday the 13th. People were freaking out when we told them when we planned on getting married. I guess we’re not superstitions.

Number of Brothers and Sisters? 4 brothers and 4 sisters. I have to giggle when people talk about their “large” families of 4, I know what a large family is!

Oranges or Apples? Apples
Phobias? Ugh, spiders.

Quote? If you don’t want temptation to follow you, don’t act as if you are interested.

Reasons to Smile? My kids, sushiboy, our parrot baby, our beautiful home and yard, how incredibly blessed we are.

Season of Choice? Spring, I love it when everything comes alive again.

Tag Seven People? Sushiboy, Licorice Stick Lady, Karen, Michelle, Big Sis, Merritt, Fantastagirl. ALL of you receive the Brilliant Weblog Award, and we get to learn more about you! Yay!

Unknown Fact? I am not used to falling asleep at the same time as sushi, in fact I can’t, he either needs to go to bed first or I need to go to bed first, I’m sure this comes from all the late night study sessions sushi has had and being a light sleeper. Hopefully I can get used to having him around again once he graduates.


Vegetable? Carrots

Worst habits? I can chatter on and on, and on.

X-Ray or Ultrasound? Ultrasound, definitely.

Your favorite food? Chocolate, fettucini alfredo, fresh veggies.

Zodiac sign? Cancer - the absolute worst sign to have: a disease no one wants followed by a grouchy animal.

Work Party

Sushiboy and Dadguy had their work party today. Sushi won an IPOD nano, he's pretty excited! I thought it would be fun to get a picture with Bon since we are both due around the same time. I asked sushi to take our picture and he seems to have this uncanny ability to catch me with funny faces. Perhaps I should ask someone else to take pictures for me from now on! Well, they are what they are and it's fun to see both of us belly to belly even though I have a pretty funny expression.





Cakes' birthday party is tomorrow as well as a party for the women's group in my church (the relief society) it should be a busy day. After cakes' party we are heading up to Sushi's cousin's house for HIS birthday party and to drop off the kids. Then, early Sunday morning we will head out of here, pic up big sister and big grizz and head up to Idaho for the viewing on Sunday night and the funeral Monday. We should be back late Monday night. I am once again grateful to my friend licorice stick lady who is once again helping me by teaching the music for me in church on Sunday. What a great friend she is I appreciate that she is willing to help me. I'm also so grateful to Sushi's cousin's wife who is willing to watch our kids for us even though she is pregnant with twins and due a month before me. We owe her BIG time. Well, I'll be back on tuesday with great stories of the crazieness of family and traveling and three parties in one day. whew, here we go. . .

Boise again

Well, looks like we'll be heading to Boise again this weekend. Sushi's grandmother passed away around 6 this evening and they're thinking of having the funeral this weekend. We should know more tomorrow. I'm glad she was able to pass on quickly and not linger in pain. I know she is happier where she is and is back with her family and friends. We will miss her here but I firmly believe that those in our families who have passed away look out for us and protect us. I'm sure she will be another guardian angel in our family.

My new front yard

I thought I might post some pictures of the new front yard flowerbeds. I still can't believe my Mom and I moved a dumptruck load of topsoil to where we wanted it in the front yard. Unbelievable and while I'm pregnant, mabey I have inherited some of my mother's amazingness (she hiked a major hike here in Utah when she was seven months pregnant with my brother, crazy!). Unfortunately, I have had to take it easy once again for two or three days afterwards. Hopefully I'll be back up to speed tomorrow. The first picture here is what started the whole thing. The old flowerbed and grass were horrible, I couldn't even water because it would flood into our cold storage through the window. So, we put in a windowell extension, took out all the old flowers and stupid lavarock (I really, really, really hate all the lavarock around our yard, apparently, people around here LOVE lavarock, not me), and filled in the hole where the grass used to be. Then we extended the flowerbed out quite a bit and replanted the flowers. I do plan on planting grass seed here one of these days. I purposefully planted all the plants away from the house, the old owners had planted everything right next to the house and I couldn't water and it's just a bad idea to have plants right next to your foundation.



This next picture is where I connected two existing flowerbeds. There was a big space between the two and the pressurized irrigation was right there, it was such a pain to mow around the stupid pressurized irrigation. So, I just filled it in with a long flowerbed that wraps around the front to the side of the yard. It should be a lot easier to mow, you'll have to ask sushi if it is when he finally mows the lawn! I think it looks so much better, it looks a little bare right now but I have some daylilies and coral bells and iris' that will fill in nicely as well as some mums, anemomes, and other perrenials. In a year or two it should look really nice and filled in and I don't have to spend tons of money and time every year on annuals!



This last picture is just a shot from the front looking in to see it all together. I'm quite proud of myself, perhaps I can make this yard look great after all!


As a side note,sushi's grandmother is not doing so well, we may be going to a funeral sometime in the next week, I'm glad we spent as much time as we did with her. If it is the Lord's will she will pull through, if not she will finally be able to rest.

Bye bye brother, and yep, that's by our house

My brother graduated with his chemical engineering degree and is off to bigger and better things. We had a going away party for him and his wife last night we'll miss them they have been a big part of our lives. But I wish them luck in Texas. I hope they find great success. As a (big) sidenote, we came home to a big fire just up on the mountain by our house. It's not too close to our house but it still was a little close for comfort. I had heard that there was a fire up the canyon when we left for the party and was shocked when we saw it in the dark. It was pretty large and pretty close to some houses. I'm glad we're where we are and hope that no one lost their home.

Here is the link to the story if you want to read more

Well, it's not a puppy

We had our ultrasound today, apparently, the girl in the office wrote the wrong day on my reminder card (so it wasn't yesterday, like I had written on my calendar). It looks like we have a very healthy baby. The profile looks the same as my other two kids and the ultrasound tech kept looking at the baby's heart and saying how perfect and beautiful it was. So, it has a very healthy heart and other organs and that's about it. It is very active and likes to have it's hands right next to it's face. I am measuring right on and the really good news was there is only one. I always worry due to how large I get that there may be more than one. There's always only one, I shouldn't worry. I'll try to get some of the ultrasound pictures up another day. My mom was here the last two days and we did some major work on our yard, I'll have to get pictures of that as well. I do seem to be feeling a ton better and I'm not swollen at all. I think being home in my own bed, not traveling in a car forever and eating the right foods has made all the difference.

Happy Birthday Cakes!!! And we're home, we're home!!!

Happy Birthday Cakes!! We are so glad you are a part of our family, it just wouldn't be complete without your cute happy face.



Our trip went pretty well. We left around 7 am on thursday and got there in about 7 hours with stops. The kids did pretty good up until the last hour or so. Then they were done. Sushi was about done by then as well. We got to the hotel and checked in and went to visit Sushi's grandma. Then we went to dinner with his Aunt and Uncle and two of his cousins. After that we went back to the hotel and the pool then bed. The next day we had lunch with Sushi's family then visited with Sushi's grandma again and went to see Wall-E. Then we had a BBQ with my cousin and her kids and my Aunt. Saturday we went to Sushi's family reunion and visited again with his grandma and then went back to the hotel and played in the pool with Three of Sushi's cousins and one of sushi's cousin's daughters. It was really nice for the kids to meet some more of their family. Sunday we woke up late (we were going to go to church with my cousins but everyone was up way too late the night before playing in the pool) and went to visit with Sushi's grandma one more time and while we were there, Cakes started puking, we had planned on having lunch with my cousin and her family but our plans obviously changed. We had left Cakes' blanket at my cousin's house so we stopped by K-Mart and got a bucket, a couple of pairs of PJ's and some childrens tylenol (she was running a fever). Then we got her blanket and started driving home. Thankfully, no more throwups on the way home but a very sick little girl. We got home around 10:30 sunday night and put everyone into bed. I have had to take it easy the last few days because I am exhausted and my legs and ankles are crazy swollen. My ultrasound is tomorrow and I'll be letting you know how that goes tomorrow. Sushi took his camera and it wasn't pulled out too often but I will post what pictures we have when I get his camera. Well,that pretty much sums up our very exciting trip, we're glad to be home but it was fun to meet family I haven't met before and visit with Sushi's grandma, who knows how much longer she will be around. I'll let you know how tomorrow goes!

Are we there yet????

Sushiboy, Superwoman, Cookiemonster, and Cakes will be gone until Sunday night. Meeting them at their location will be Big Sister and Big Grizz. They don't have the state holiday off that sushi does so they will be coming up later. We are going to a family reunion. . . yeah, we were hoping for something more exciting too but that's why were going. This is the one time of year that we take our kids to stay in a hotel and the kids are SOOOO excited. There is a pool and cable and anything you want for breakfast. I'm not real thrilled about a 6-7 hour drive in my current condition but what can you do??? It should be fun, the reunion is for sushi's family and I will get to meet a lot of family that I haven't met in the last eight years of marriage. We also will see my Aunt and Uncle as well as my cousin and her kids. That part I am looking forward to, I really enjoy their company. So, I know, I know, you are wondering how you will carry on without my presence but, you will just have to figure it out. I'll be sure to take pictures and update you on how the trip went! See you monday.

Half Way Done!!!!!

20 weeks down, 20 weeks to go. That's right, I've reached the half way point. Too bad I look like I should be delivering any day now. I'm starting to get the "are you SURE you're not having twins" questions. To which I smile even though I feel like smacking the person and say "nope, it's just one, I just have huge babies and carry all out front and have two hernia's that will need to be fixed after baby comes". Let the fun begin. On the bright side I'm starting to get sympathetic smiles at the gym instead of looks like "man lady, you come here every day and you just keep getting fatter". It's a good thing these kids are worth it because I gotta tell ya, I don't love the process to get them here. You would have thought that going to the gym every day would be showing more!!! Enjoy the pics, more will come in the future and I guarantee you will be amazed!

Memory Game

Memory Game

Picked this up at my friend Lisita’s blog. Thought I might join in.

1- As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn’t matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember
2- Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It’s actually pretty fun to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I’ll assume you’re playing the game and I’ll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don’t want to play on your blog, or if you don’t have a blog, I’ll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Stupid Pregnancy Dreams

Ugh, I really hate pregnancy dreams, they make no sense and just creep me out. I always have very vivid strange dreams and I really don't like it. Last night I dreamed that my best friend Ally was marrying my old high school boyfriend. For some reason Sushi wasn't there and I had to be right in the thick of things, dealing with her, his parents, their friends, etc, etc, etc. all by myself. And I think I was pregnant. My most beautiful state. (stated sarcastically, I really am not the cute tiny pregnant woman, I get huge, and puffy and NOT cute) The really crazy part of this dream is that both people, Ally and the boy are happily married, I don't care that he's married, I'm happy for him. I'm really glad I didn't marry him, Sushi is perfect for me and I couldn't get anyone better. WTH???? I hate dreams like this. Yet another thing I love about being pregnant.

Long week and weekend

WHEW! Some weeks just wear you out. Last week we took my sisters back, then I left the kids at my mom's because Sushi and I had won a free nights stay at a local bed and breakfast. We used to go to B & B's all the time, the more kids we get, it seems the less often we go. But I digress. There is a restaurant that we have wanted to try for a long time but it looked a little swanky so we hadn't. We decided to give it a try. It was SO good. So expensive but good. Sushi tried duck for the first time. I had a bite, wasn't that impressed but I am a hard person to impress with meats. He loved it. I had a chicken cordon bleu type dish that had proscuttio instead of ham. We also decided to try the crab cakes. They were quite possibly the best crab cakes I've ever had. We spent about $100.00 with the tip and decided we'll have to go back when Sushi graduates or something. Like I said expensive but it is so fun to do crazy things like that every once in a while. After our nights stay at the B&B we headed up to my parents house so I could go with them to a reunion in Idaho. I did have a show scheduled for saturday so I wasn't going to be able to go but she canceled at the last minute. It drives me a little crazy when people cancel at the last minute without a really good excuse (I'm sorry, I had a long week and I'm too tired isn't a good excuse, I take time out of my schedule and plan to be there for you, you should have the same curtosy after you commit to a day). Anyhow, her cancelation allowed me to go up to the family reunion. When I got to my parents I did some marathon cooking. I cooked sloppy joes, chocolate chip cookies, strawberry pie, fruit salad, and pasta salad all within about an hour and a half. These were the things my mother needed help with so I did this while she cleaned her house. This is usually a really fun reunion, we stay at a very primitive cabin the night before and then we all get together and have lunch the next day at my aunts house. This time around, it was extremely cold, I was sleeping on an air mattress on the ground and my kids were grumpy little skunks. It was really hard to get enough sleep. I did have fun but have spent the last few days trying to recover. I was so grateful to Licorice Stick Lady for stepping in at the last minute to cover me for my church calling. I teach the music for the primary kids (ages 3-11) and at the last minute she prepared and took care of music for me. What a great friend I have! Oh and BTW, 19 weeks down, 21 to go. Almost half way there!

Water Park exhaustion

My two teenage sisters are staying with me because my Mom is in Michigan helping my sister with her new baby. We decided to go to our local water park yesterday. The kids and I have season passes and so we go quite often. Usually for a few hours, mabey three or four and then we go home. I don't feel bad going for just a little while because we can go back tomorrow if we want to. Well, since we actually had to pay the outrageous price for my two sisters and cookie was actually able to go on the slides (pregnant women can't go on the slides and besides, what would I do with cakes while I took him? She's too short)we stayed a little longer than usual. By a little longer I mean ALL DAY. We seriously got there around 12:30 or so and left around 7:30. Then we came home and reheated my birthday dinner (roast, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, rolls, leftover salads from our july 4th picknick.) and washed the chlorine off our bodies. After dinner, baths, reading books and stuff we all got to bed late. All of us slept late today. All of us are walking around like zombies today. All of us are sunburned (even though we kept putting on sunscreen). We had a great time but as my mother says, "he who dances must pay the fiddler". I guess today we're paying the fiddler.

Happy Birthday

Yeah, Happy Birthday to me. It is on this day around 30 years ago that my mother finally gave birth to me. She went into labor watching the fireworks on the 4th and the nurse proceeded to say "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is". Yep, that's right, my birth was immediately followed by an alkaseltzer commercial line. Makes you feel good right? Happy Birthday also to my friend Karen who also happens to have married a man by the same name as sushiboy, gotten married on the same day as sushi and I and also has a boy then a girl and is currently pregnant as well. I'm pretty sure though that she didn't have an alka seltzer commercial quoted at her birth!

Happy 4th of July!

I am so thankful we live in the wonderful country we live in. We are so blessed to have the freedoms we have and I am gratful to all the men and women who have given their lives so we could have them. Happy Birthday America!

Tagged

Eight Things I Have A Passion For:
1. Cooking- but not if I HAVE to, I hate having to make dinner, if I GET to make something fun then I love it.
2. My Family – all of them
3. Music-I love to sing and would love to one day take some lessons. I’m not so sure I have the greatest voice but I think I could be pretty good with some training.
4. My home- I really feel it’s a reflection on me. I want it to feel comfortable and welcoming at all times. Of course right now it reflects that I’m a mess but that will change in a few hours!
5. Gardening- I want my yard to be a heaven on earth and I love a well kept up yard. I guess this comes from my mother who has accomplished this feat.
6. Dancing- love love love to do ballroom, luckily, sushi does as well!
7. Foreign Cultures and Cuisine
8. Reading- not enough time to do this, when I read I get totally sucked in and I pay for it by playing catch up for a few days.


Eight Things I Would Like To Do Before I Die:
1. Travel the world – what an amazing place! I want to see it all
2. Finish my degree- I worry what we would do if something happened to sushiboy, how would I support three kids?
3. Have no debt , die with all my bills paid
4. Become a Pampered Chef director and help our family with income.
5. Be able to do crafts again- I love to crosstitch and I recently discovered quilting, I also love to tollpaint.
6. Contribute something meaningful to the World, doesn't need to be big, if it is a legacy that helps out my kids it will be enough.
7. Get my stomach muscles back as well as get to my healthy weight. I weigh more that I look like I do, got to change that as much as is healthy.
8. Do the expansion on our house, either that or get our dream house, it could happen very easily in our current house with an expansion, just not sure it would be worth the cost. We don’t want a huge house, just a tiny bit bigger.


Eight Things I Say A Lot:
1. "I guess I need to take away priviledges"
2. "I said stop"
3. "I love you"
4. "I’m tired"
5. "I must be crazy, why are we having another one?"-(we really do love our kids and are glad to have them, this is only when one is throwing a tantrum.)
6. "Is it 8:30 yet?"
7. "I guess I better get going"
8. “Hello, this is Superwoman with the Pampered chef, I was just calling to see if you would like me to come to your home and host a show so you can earn free products” – at least three or four times a day.


Eight Books I Have Read Recently:
1. Twilight
2. The Book of Mormon
3. The Host
4. Lord of Chaos
5. New Moon
6. Eclipse
7. Two different childrens books every night
8. Conception, Pregnancy and Birth


Eight Movies I Have Seen Eight Times:
1. Pretty much all the Disney Princess movies- mabey not in full but they are on once a day.
2. Happy Gilmore
3. The Princess Bride
4. Any barbie movies same as #1, cakes watches one or the other.
5. White Christmas – with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, great show.
6. A Muppet Christmas Carol
7. Fiddler on the Roof
8. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers


Eight Bloggers I'll Tag
1. Bon
2. Cheer 34
3. Scarlet Spider
4. Amy at Mishmash
5. licoricestick lady
6. Karen
7. Mel
8. Whoever else wants to.