Fall(ing behind in my blogging)

 

As tends to be the practice these days, I got a bit behind--so I'm playing catch up! This fall has been busy though thankfully not as busy as it has been in past years. Aside from Seth hunting, most of our weekends have at least one free day in them which is nice! We got to carve pumpkins one night, which the kids enjoyed. 

 

 

We went trick-or-treating where the kids got a FULL two gallon bag of candy in about 45 minutes. Wowza. Addison went as a pirate (again...she did when she was 2, same costume even) and a ninja. It worked perfectly because we did not spend one cent on Halloween since these were costumes the kids already had anyway.

 ...and we had another incident in the van. Seth hit a deer one morning on his way to work in a 45 mph zone. So...it did some damage! We're thankful Seth is okay and that we have great insurance. Someone also hit us from behind back in August (also in the van...UGH!) -- we are still waiting for that claim to be settled with the at-fault party. So basically, the back of the van was rebuilt in August and the front is being done now. 

I'm not going to lie...I'm getting pretty excited to decorate for Christmas in two weeks!!! 

Life Lately

Life is crazy and hectic and we're aching for spring around here! Cabin fever is real, people. Thankfully, the weather has been spring-like lately and has allowed these little hooligans a chance to get outside a bit, and even wear short sleeves some days. 

Little Miss on her way to school! 

I often wonder how we've made it this long with no broken bones. Sneakily watching things like this out the kitchen window gives me a good laugh. 

Yesterday morning for St. Patrick's Day, Carter asked me when the leprechaun was going to bring his "prize." Whoopsie! A quick trip to the grocery store over lunch and "Lucky" was able to drop off a few little items for the cuties. :) 

They even got a little time by the fire with daddy, which allowed mommy to clean up the house. A pretty cute scene out there!! 

In other news, Seth and I recently joined a fellowship group at church, and formed a small group. We've had a great time with both and are thrilled about the new friends we're making. Our small group is made up of four couples--all with kids and all around 30 years old--so it's really awesome. We're on week three and so far, we're just rotating houses and letting the kids wreak havoc in the playrooms. Ha! 

This past Sunday, we also hosted the appetizer course of a progressive dinner for our fellowship group. We did appetizers for THIRTY PEOPLE in our ranch house. Interesting for sure, but it totally worked! 

Carter starts t-ball this week (and I'm team mom, of course!) and Seth starts softball in about a month. It looks like life won't be slowing down for us anytime soon! 

News and other stuff

First and foremost, Michelle and Jason had the baby today. Owen Michael was born at 8:51 a.m., and was 6 lbs., 14 oz. I'm going to see him around 3 p.m. before I pick up the kids. Yay!!!

Secondly, our laptop is being sent away for 7-10 days to be repaired (or have parts entirely replaced, in some instances). One super sweet and adorable little girl decided to get the stomach bug and barf all over it on Friday night. Oh, and it was while we were skyping with my mom, so she got QUITE the show. :) However, this computer mishap also means that I'm going to have a rough time showing people pics of Owen outside of cell phone ones. Sorry! :)

(sure is hard to be mad at this face when it's just THAT CUTE.)

We are mostly on the mend of the sickness, but some final prayers that we can kick this out once and for all would be appreciated. Addison has ONE. MORE. DOSE. of nasty Augmentin tonight and then praying all the side effects of that are gone, gone, gone. Augmentin diaper rash? Unreal. Carter finished his yesterday, so I'm hoping his "my belly hurts" comments are done too. Poor thing!! And poor mommy, too--sleeping on the floor of a toddler's bedroom 5 out of 7 nights a week is exhausting! ;)

And, because when it rains it pours, we had to purchase a new chest freezer last week when our upright decided to bite the dust out of nowhere. Good thing I craved a cookie that was in there or else we may have not discovered it until all of our meat was ruined!

The dryer is also on the fritz (well, or was, temporarily???) when it ran for FIVE HOURS without my knowledge but when I opened it, everything was cold and soaking wet. Super.

I'm attempting to schedule a hair appointment and color on Friday because, frankly, I look homeless. I seriously have zero time to do things like this with all the insanity at work, new babies, sick kids, sick me, sick Seth, dog sitting, cleaning, disinfecting, and repairing all major appliances in our house.

How's life with everyone else? (And how does that song go? Maybe trials of this life are mercies in disguise??) :)

Our nonexistence

Well. That was a little impromptu blog break. We've been MIA for a long time! We didn't intend for it to be like that but then with the hurricane, trick-or-treating, and one MISERABLE teething baby, I had zero time for blogging.

So yes. We fared perfectly fine in the hurricane save a few branches down in the front yard. Many family members were without power for a long time, and still are. I get sucked into the coverage of the hurricane and can't even fathom what some people are going through right now.

In the days leading up to Hurricane Sandy, we jumped on the preparation train in a big way. All I could think about was "Dear God, please don't make us lose power with two small kids." But, darn it, if we were going to lose power, we were going to be prepared!! We put away everything outside that could be blown away, took photos of the cars and the house, bought looots of bottled water and filled our huge camping thermos, filled the grill's propane tanks and our cars' gas tanks, bought lots of ice and stashed it in the freezer in case we needed to move our refrigerated food into coolers, did ALL the laundry, cleaned, etc.

And then we buckled down and waited. While we certainly DID get effects of the storm, it was nothing like I had envisioned, and the power only flickered once! Aside from many, many cold and rainy days, we escaped unscathed.

Trick-or-treating was moved to Saturday afternoon and it was FREEZING. I literally think I have two pictures while we were out because we were trying to keep things moving along. But, Carter was the sweetest little turtle I ever did see. I never did put Addison in her costume because it was SO cold and she was wrapped up so much in the stroller anyway, so it would have been useless!

And finally, our sweet, precious, laid-back baby girl has been anything but. She's a doll, but ohmyword, the teething makes her incredibly miserable...so miserable, in fact, that I took her to the doctor on Wednesday JUST to be sure it wasn't her ears. It wasn't, but they said she's about to get four (FOUR!) teeth, and to use all the standard comfort measures (Trust me, honey, I already am.). Well, little girl isn't looking to eat or sleep, so it's been interesting.

Thankfully, last night, I broke down and re-swaddled her. We had been working on breaking her of it for the last few weeks but I remembered back to the golden days when she slept all night when swaddled and VOILA!, she did it again. So, needless to say, she's rockin' it baby burrito style tonight. Please, Jesus, please. Let that be the answer!

Is it bad that it's only 8:29 p.m. but since it feels like 9:29, I'm tired and want to go to bed already?

We're alive.

It's been a week, so I thought I'd give you a very high-level update on what's going on and why I've been MIA. 

1.) I'm tired. Like, really tired. Addison must think that those 11 straight hours she was sleeping for a full month were no fun anymore, and now gets up at least once, sometimes twice, per night. And Carter, our already not-so-stellar sleeper, began once again getting up at 5:15 a.m. I'm super pumped for daylight savings time when that turns to 4:15. Hold me.

2.) As part of my baby weight removal program, I began the 30 Day Shred (to go with my Weight Watchers). I'm VERY sore. I'm impressed that I'm able to lift my arm high enough to type this right now. Because those were pretty much my only free 20 minutes in a day, I haven't had much time to update. :)

3.) Full-time job. Mothering. Wife-ing. Cleaning. Cooking. Crafting. But I couldn't skimp out on something cute for the kids' daycare Halloween parties, and created s'mores kits for Carter's class and wrapped up some baby food for Addison's (sorry, couldn't be creative there, not sure what else babies could even HAVE! ha).

 

Hoping to have a low-key weekend and, most importantly, TAKE. A. NAP. Is it bad that I'm thinking about that days in advance?? Don't answer that. 

Crying over spilled milk.

We're still chugging along at this breastfeeding thing. Some days, it's for us and sometimes, I want to bang my head against a wall. :) She is an inpatient little girl, for starters. AND - working full-time and pumping is hard. Really hard. Last week, we had to start giving her one bottle of formula a day at daycare because I just can't pump enough to entirely feed her at daycare the next day (she outdrinks my efforts!!). SO, needless to say, every ounce is precious.

Cue Wednesday after work.

I walk into the house with my peasley amount of pumped milk from the day (I had work events all day and had hardly any time to pump!!). Knowing it's not enough, I grab a bag of frozen milk out of the freezer and lay it on the counter.

While loading the dishwasher after dinner, I noticed that the entire bag of thawed milk was all over the counter--a teeny, tiny hole in the bag the culprit. Crap! I was so irritated about this loss, but grabbed another bag out of the freezer and began to fill up her other bottles for today with what I had brought home.

AND I DUMPED IT INTO BOTTLES THAT I HAD NOT YET PUT LINERS INTO. Two more bottles worth of spilled milk.

I almost cried right then and there. Now down THREE FULL BOTTLES.

Through my stress/anger, I go to the freezer and pull out two more bags from the stash and put them on the counter. We go about our [insane] normal nightly routine, and go to bed.

You know where this is going, right?

While in Addison's room feeding her at 5 a.m. today, a light bulb came on and I remembered we never. put. the. stinking. milk. into. the. fridge.

I almost screamed. Literally.

A quick sniff proved them spoiled and I KID YOU NOT, had to pull out all entirely new frozen milk to send to school today. That means we used nine--NINE--bottles of milk to feed her for three feeds today.

It was a terrible night for the breastmilk in our house...and literally had me crying over spilled milk.

A day in the life {maternity leave version}

I saw this on another blog and thought it would be a good idea to write down what life is like at this stage of our life so when things get crazier (because I know they will), I can look back and say "Eh, that wasn't so bad."

Disclaimers: Carter started back to daycare full-time this week, so during the day, it's just Seth (who is still home for summer break from teaching until tomorrow), Addison and I. I really should have done this when Carter was home because THAT was chaos, but oh well... :)

12:00 a.m. - Hearing cries from the nursery, Seth runs in as fast as humanly possible (to avoid waking Carter, who has begun to sleep lightly) to begin changing Addison's diaper while I go to the bathroom and get a drink. I nurse her for about 20 minutes, swaddle her, rock her, and get her back into her crib. She is a chronic "grunter" and my mind cannot settle until I know she is fully asleep, so I plop back in the rocker for some Pinterest surfing while she works out the 10 or so minutes of grunting.

12:35 a.m. - Finally back in bed. Lay there with my mind racing for what feels like an eternity, though I'm guessing it's only around 15 minutes.

3:07 a.m. - Crying from the little girl. Here we go again. She has hiccups and is breaking out of her swaddle. I run in, fix the swaddle, and attempt to nurse her. She eats, albeit not well, and we begin the "get her back to sleep" routine. It is usually not hard, but tonight, she wants to give me a run for my money. Thirty-five minutes in and she is still restless.

4:00 a.m. - Finally back in our room, and I clonk out quickly.

4:30 a.m. - Crying from Addison. Hmm, not a typical night. She rarely ever cries out in between feeds. Seth goes in and gives her a paci.

4:45 a.m. - Paci fell out. In my exhaustion, I tell Seth to just put her in the swing (our God-send). He does and comes back to bed.

6:00 something a.m. - Our door flies open, slamming into our closet door, and Carter comes in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I pull him up into bed with us, but it's not a settle back down kind of day.

6:30 a.m. - After a brief you-get-up, no-you-get-up, Seth heads to the living room with him, which is a task in and of itself since A is in there sleeping in the swing.

6:42 a.m. - A is crying, C is whining for milk and snacks. Up and at 'em--so much for "sleeping in." Dress Carter for school, pack his breakfast and lunch in his lunchbox, and Seth heads out to drop Carter off. I inhale--and I do mean inhale--some cereal before A is truly awake for the day. When I'm done eating, she's shockingly still sleeping, so I speed shower, trying my hardest not to slice my leg off as I shave as fast as I possibly can. Get out, dry and straighten my hair and apply make-up. I pump and then quick! Feed the dog while there's a second!

7:30 a.m. - Change her and nurse her, though it's not a good one. She's such a grazer and would be content with sips throughout the day. Her first and last feeds of the day are a mess, but we push through. Play time for A, cleaning up, emptying dishwasher, doing laundry, etc. for us. After a while, A is getting fussy, but I'm keeping her awake so she falls asleep in the car while we run errands (she HATES the carseat so this is the way to avoid crying).

9:40 a.m. - Off to run errands - we go to the bank and to Babies R Us for supplies for daycare, which she starts in two weeks.

10:47 a.m. - FINALLY out of BRU. What kind of baby store doesn't carry girl versions of the bottles they sell?!?! We spent way too much time mulling over swaddlers, but found two when all was said and done. We're STARVING already, so we head home for lunch.

11:05 a.m. -  Nurse a very tired baby, who didn't sleep much in the car. Eat lunch. Yes, this early, but we eat when there is peace. More play time and tummy time for A. Diaper change, swaddle, rock, rock, rock. Into the swing for a nap around noon.

12:30 p.m. - I (Danielle) am BEAT so I'm going to lay on the couch for a nap while Seth ran out to visit with a friend at Messiah.

2:00 p.m. - Time to prep dinner! Tonight, it's beef brisket, so I get it all started and tidy up the house. Not much time to prep dinner and a little girl is up ready to play (and eat). Annnnd I pump again, storing up for going back to work in 2 weeks. Seth childproofs our snack cabinet, finishes off the bathroom "remodel," and we do some other odds and ends.

4:00 p.m. - Pick up Carter from school, meet Addison's new teacher, and come home to prep more dinner. Addison is BEAT, so we swaddle her and get her down, but she cries every 5 or so minutes for about 30 minutes until she is finally asleep. I'm prepping dinner, Carter is playing/screaming with joy in the garage, playing with his new Little Tykes house. Seth is back and forth between shushing Addison and playing with Carter.

5:00 p.m. - Dinner time. - beef brisket, corn, and pasta with cheese. Strawberry shortcake for dessert. As always, we inhale, knowing A might be up at any time. But, alas, we make it through dinner interruption-free. I clean up from a very messy dinner, pack Carter's breakfast and lunch for tomorrow, and Seth goes right out to mow the lawn while A is still sleeping. Carter, thankfully, plays outside while I get stuff done.

5:20 p.m. - Just kidding. Carter's freaking because the mower is too loud, so I'm on a hunt for noise-canceling headphones in the garage and holding a screaming child on the deck.

6:22 p.m. - A is still sleeping so it's time to wake a sleeping baby! Gotta get a feed into her to stuff her full before bed. :) Carter is now, for real, happily playing with Seth out back now that the mowing is done. Then, lots of playing in the garage again while Seth and I clean it up and Addison coos in her bouncer.

7:30 p.m. - Bathtime and wind-down time.

8:00 p.m. - Bottle for Addison (who has been refusing to nurse at the before-bed feed for a week now - no idea what that's about?!?), I pump again, and then bedtime for Carter. Forty-five minutes later, Carter is still not asleep, but Addison is and it's time for relaxing time for me (that is, after I clean up the kitchen and living room).

9:30 p.m. - BEDTIME for me. I realize that's early but in just 2.5 hours, it'll be time to do it all again!

Things that are funny now, but weren't at the time.

This week has been exhausting and overwhelming, mostly because I've been planning a work event, our dog has a tumor in which we have no idea the cost of removal (but will find out first-hand tomorrow!), and a few unplanned things happen. I'll highlight just two for you for your Thursday night enjoyment.

1) We learned a very important lesson last weekend--Carter gets carsick. He and I went to a craft fair near my parent's house in Millersburg. We decided to ride with Michelle and McKenna (and my mom) since we could use Eli's seat for Carter and all go in one car without switching over any carseats. Well, they have DVD players on the headrests for the kids and my sister asked if Carter could watch a movie. I, of course, said yes. Not even 10 minutes from their house on the way to the fair, Carter "spit up" a little. I didn't think much of it, and wiped it up while we drove.

A few minutes later....he exploded. He projectile barfed everywhere, and a lot. We had to pull over and do a MAJOR car and Carter cleaning, including stripping the poor kid down in a Subway parking lot, using about 147 of the 150 pack of wipes I just happened to grab on the way out the door. The car didn't smell so hot, but he was totally fine after. We decided that it HAD to be because he was watching a movie and just got carsick. Such a stinker! My sister wasn't fazed by it (guess that happens when you have twins??) but I felt horrible he barfed in someone else's car. Sort of funny to think about now, but not so much then.

2) Driving to work yesterday, I was sitting at a red light (STILL). Well, apparently I zoned out, looking all around me at traffic and whatnot and was drifting without even noticing, and rear-ended the car in front of me. How does that even happen?!?! I didn't even really realize it until the nice taxi driver got out and started walking back to me (and by nice I mean not at all). He threw his hands up in the air and dramatically said "Oh no! Now what?!? Should I call the police???" I was like "Um, I don't really think we need to but let's pull over to check." He told me to back up, looked at his bumper and mine and said "Nevermind, everything is fine. Goodbye." and quickly got back in and drove away.

Thankfully, he was right--I checked when I got to work and everything was fine, but stressful nonetheless.

Anyway, tomorrow is Bentley's surgery in which we may dole out like $2000 for all we know. Maybe that will be funny after the fact too. HA!

A Crazy Weekend!

Wow, things have been fairly nuts around here. The past few days have been jam-packed with all sorts of things.

One of my best friends, Elizabeth, got married on Saturday. On Friday night, we had the rehearsal and the dinner afterwards. Carter surprised us by being pretty well-behaved for a tired, hungry little boy. Bravo, little man! After the dinner, Seth went home with Carter (Oma and Opa were almost there for the weekend), and I went and stayed at Elizabeth's house to help keep her calm before the big day. :)

On Saturday, we got up and began the festivities - hair being done, make-up...all the normal "works" before a wedding. My friends and I were joking around that if she wasn't our best friend, we'd "hate" her (not really) because she looked THAT gorgeous. Like, out of a magazine gorgeous. The wedding was lovely and we had lots of fun at the reception. Aside from the migraine I was rocking by 11 p.m. from my hairstyle (and my gobs of hair), everything was perfect. You looked stunning, Liz, and your day was so "you!" :)

On Father's Day, we woke up fairly early and headed out to breakfast with Seth's parents. Carter was in a serious mood...and not a good one. Seems as though the teething is finally starting to take its toll. After some Tylenol, things calmed down a bit. We headed up to my parent's house for swimming, fishing, shooting, and lunch. We made mountain pies for lunch and they were sooo good. I haven't had one of those since the last time we went camping.

For Father's Day, Carter gave his daddy a crayon drawing and a card, and I got him two magazine subscriptions (for hunting and fishing magazines) and a date night to a place he's been talking about in Reading for a long time! We might even have a babysitter for the little guy. We'll see. :)

I'm thankful that, on Father's Day, I can show Seth how much I appreciate him and Carter can show him how much he loves him. He's a great dad and I can't imagine parenting with anyone but him. I love you, Seth!

Now, it's back to the grind today - Carter started his new daycare, so I've been watching the clock and wondering when it will be socially acceptable to call and see how he's doing. And my car made a lovely squeaking sound the whole way to work. Happy Monday, right?

Have a good week!! :)

What's shakin'? One for the baby book.

Today, I got to experience something I never thought I would living in central Pennsylvania: an earthquake. Yes, you read that correctly. This morning at 8:25, Carter was napping in his swing, I was watching TV, and Bentley was sleeping beside me. All of a sudden there was a really loud rumbling sound and the entire house started to shake. My decorations were rattling and things were moving on the walls.

I actually for a brief second thought it sounded like there was about to be a truck into our house. Bentley jumped up and his hair stood on end. He went NUTS barking. Basically, I had no idea what was going on. I looked out the window and saw a few neighbors looking out of their houses too, so I knew I wasn't the only one who felt it.

The shaking lasted about five or ten seconds, and then everything was quiet. I called Seth at work and told him that I knew he was going to say I was crazy, but that I was pretty sure we just had an earthquake. We live near Dillsburg, and they often have small ones so it wouldn't be unheard of.

Within a few minutes, several of my facebook friends had things on their walls about it too, and a few hours later, Seth sent me a link to the local news where it was confirmed that a 3.1 magnitude earthquake hit our area.

Nothing big, obviously no damage, but a pretty cool addition to Carter's baby book -- that he "survived" (haha) his first earthquake at 4 weeks old! :)

Happenings this past week

Aside from waiting for our little bundle of joy with an impatience that is indescribable, life seems to be sort of in a routine. Here are some things that have happened the past week or so:

*We have been slowly transitioning Bentley out of his crate in hopes of having him crate-free shortly after Carter arrives. It will give us so much more space in the living room and will eventually allow us to travel with less stuff. He's been doing SO WELL - in all, he's been out of his crate for 2-3 hour stretches for about 5 or 6 months now and has never once done a thing. The past 3-4 weeks, we've been letting him out during the workday (after the Messiah student comes to let him out over lunch, he is then out the remainder of the day until we get home from work). He has literally been an angel every day - some days, there isn't even a single toy out of his basket so we know he's lazy bones and just sleeps all day. Well, last Thursday, he has his first minor setback. He ate a small 4 x 6 photo album and its contents (well, most of them at least...the rest were strewn everywhere). He knew he was in big trouble and sucked up to us all night. Aside from his poop being laced with NYC memories of Seth and I, he's been fine though. Seth will call me the pet psychologist, but oh well...I think he only did it 1) because I left it on a stool at his level and 2) I had the pet sitter put his rawhide up on the counter when she left so he wouldn't eat all of it in one day so I think he was angry about that and found something else to chew!

*I made letters for above Carter's bed. Pretty self explanatory. Except that I used a hot glue gun for the first time in a very long time and literally burnt the tips of every single finger on my hands while doing so. Good thing that just last week, I had read on a blog that toothpaste and a band-air on burns works way better than ice or ointment. I did it and it TOTALLY worked. Keep that in your back pocket!

*We hosted a birthday gathering for my dad's 54th birthday. We made homemade pizzas on the grill, which were super yummy! It is SO EASY and way quicker than in the oven. Basically, you just take the dough (in small portions for personal sized so everyone can top it as they want), put it on the grill for 3-4 minutes, flip and top with whatever you want, shut the grill lid and grill until the bottom is crispy and the toppings are hot/melted.

*I have kicked up the hormonal emotional wife a notch, but Seth is taking it like a pro. I cried like a baby last week when I read a story about a woman whose dog died, and I have major separation anxiety from Seth when he isn't around. I seriously worry like I have never worried - that he won't hear his phone when I'm in labor, that he'll be in an accident, and on and on. I'd prefer if he was just attached at the hip to me forever and ever. Amen.

*A stranger in an elevator told me that I'm going to be overdue because the baby hasn't dropped yet. Um, thank you. Please be quiet now. And then someone else told me "wow, your baby is going to be SMALL. You have the tiniest belly." Huh?!?! She might need glasses :) But hilarious to me how people's perceptions can be THAT different.

*I got a pedicure. A heavenly, fluffy-massage-chair pedicure. I loved every second of it and sometimes wish I had a best friend who owned a salon and was willing to give her friends free pedicures all the time. While I was there, the Chinese girl giving me my pedicure (maybe 16 years old) said "wow, he big" as she pointed to my belly. And again I say it.....perceptions.

*My best friend, Allie, and I were able to solidify some plans for her to visit from GA to visit baby C!!! YAY!!!!!

Well, I think that's it for now. I'm sure there will be many more stories of complete and total strangers who feel the need to say inappropriate things to me at my most vulnerable times. Stay tuned. :)

A list...because my mind is wandering and has not come back yet.

Blogging has become almost non-existent because life has slowed down a bit over the past few weeks. Plus, when it is busy, I am far too tired or in "outer space" (if you know what I mean) to write something that others would comprehend.

So, for now, a list of stuff. Stuff that has been happening and a few of life's going-ons:

1. Carter kicks so frantically sometimes that it makes me feel nauseous. And one time when the baby is asleep right before I go to bed, I will probably come up with a terrible idea to be silly and do a funny dance to "wake him up." Which it will. Which will prevent me from sleeping because he'll kick me in the cervix. Hypothetically speaking, of course. ;)

2. I napped at 10:30 a.m. yesterday, the second I walked in the door from church.

3. We registered this weekend, which was fun and slightly overwhelming. Probably because I was hungry and thirsty (what, am I FIVE?!?) and there were too many people around me. And then when I came home, saw that things we specifically scanned "boy" came up girl on the registry. As in "2 pack pacifier - GIRL." No, no, no. We scanned BOY. All has been fixed now though, thanks to some handy-dandy registery updates from home.

4. We went to the farm show yesterday. So did 134,000 other people. Seriously, we waited in line to go up the steps to the second floor. It was crazy.

5. I have a new niece, Emily Lynn!!! She was born yesterday at 10:47 a.m. and looks EXACTLY like her big brother. Well, for now at least. We're very excited to meet her!!!

6. I am craving hot dogs and cheese fondue. Separately, of course.

That's about all for now! What's new with you? :)

Happenings of Late

Again, I have nothing intriguing or exciting to say. Well, except congratulations to Phil and Bethany on the baby!!! I came home and checked your blog and sure enough, she was here. Very excited to see pictures!

Here's what's been up the past few days:

- I purchased a pair of maternity dress pants and absolutely fell in LOVE with them over the past week. I wish it was acceptable to wear the same pair of pants to work every day, but I'll settle for wearing them to all kinds of places where the same people don't see me (i.e. work, then church, then jury duty) Elastic stretch waistbands are like God's gift to women. Can I get an amen from the pregnant ladies out there?! :)

- I was summoned for jury duty and was there yesterday and today. No lie, on Monday they had about 150 people crammed into a room that was about the size of 2 conference rooms side by side. As soon as I walked in, I was scanning for the nearest exit should I begin to feel faint. It was like a thousand degrees in there!

- I was rejected and then chosen for my very first jury case ever. Unfortunately, the one I got rejected for was a more exciting one but I had a tiny little inkling that because I work at a hospital, the lawyers weren't really going to want me on their jury for a medical malpractice case. I'm just sayin'...good thing I got picked for slip and fall. Boy, are court cases humorous.

- In the process of cleaning up our house and prepping it for the holidays, we decided that rather than blocking the pre-lit, artificial tree in the storage area, we'd just move it out into the family room now, but not turn it on. Yeah right. I turned that puppy on in .2 seconds. And then I found a small bag of ornaments and hung them on the tree. And left it on all night. It makes me SO happy. And it looks SO GOOD in the remodeled basement.

- I officially now have a belly bump, hence why maternity dress pants are so lovely.

That's about all in Ran Land right now. What's new with you?

Life's Going-Ons

It seems like I've been awfully tongue-tied and/or too tired to write anything lately, so it has been like a ghost town around here for sure.

Do not be lead astray. Please, oh please, allow me to grace you with the Ran happenings this week:

- We made a little visit to the ER last Friday night because Seth hurt his shoulder playing dodgeball at school. Nothing too serious or dramatic, but he was in pain and it was the weekend, so he needed the drugs. He got the drugs. The end.

- My parents came over Saturday while Seth was at work; my mom fixed the new slip covers to make them look lovely and not ghetto and my dad painted baby's nursery. Yes, I know we aren't due until May, and yes, I am impatient. But we had 5 gallons of leftover paint from the basement, and it happened to be the perfect color that would go with pretty much any single baby bedding I we would choose. And I knew my dad had nothing better to do with his time. :)The room looks lovely (but empty) and I can't waiiiiit to get furniture for in it!!!!!!

- My clothing is starting to get a bit snug. I bought a pair of maternity jeans a week or so ago and fell in love instantly with how comfortable they are. And then prompty got caught on our screen door and ripped them the 2nd time I wore them. Wonderful. Just what I was hoping would happen to my overpriced preggo jeans.

- I got paged during the night while I was on call about H1N1. Seriously. I'm going to get on my soapbox here for a second because I am about to go out of my mind with it. H1N1 is being blown out of proportion by the media. It is basically just.like.the.seasonal.flu. The H1N1 vaccine does not cause paralysis. Everyone is missing a very important part of that story. The 1976 vaccine (as well as the seasonal vaccine) had a few cases of people developing guillain-barre syndrome, a disorder which can cause paralysis. The number of instances was so low, health officials cannot even clearly link the 2. And yes, I am getting the vaccine when it becomes available for pregnant people (unless it is a waste because it takes so long and flu season is over). Though a fairly simple type of flu if treated, it can be bad for pregnant people because of not being able to take much of anything -- the CDC, the American Association of Ob and Gyn, and all 3 OB/GYNs I have talked to say absolutely 100% pregnant people should get it, no questions asked. Off my soapbox.

- I gave out glow sticks for trick or treat, and I was hands down the coolest lady on the street. Who would have thought tkids would be so enamored by them?!

- I totally finished the twins for Christmas today. That means I'm done with like 6 people now! Woo hoo! And also, one night when I got bored, I really wanted to break out my cute new wrapping paper so I wrapped Logan's and the twin's gifts already.

That's about it -- what have you been up to?

Mondays.

Mondays have been pretty ho-hum around here lately. I thought I'd kick it up a notch this morning and back into the garage door when I was leaving for work. Always a fun way to kick off a week, right? Oh you mean you haven't tried that?!?!

The neighbor boy down the street is coming to let Bentley out today after school. When he does this, we usually give him the garage door opener to get into the house. We decided to give him mine since it is a bit more reliable, and then I would take Seth's for the day to be able to get in and out of the garage without having to get out of my car to shut the door.

When we did the exchange last night, a husband who shall remain unnamed Seth threw his garage door opener into my car.....on the driver's seat. Yes, he told me he did that and no, I did not remember that this morning.

So basically, I left the house, pushed the button on the wall to open the door, got in (and thus sitting on the button), threw the car into reverse, and CRAAAAASH. I covered my eyes because I was certain that I had just backed into a car in our driveway (not sure whose car because Seth was gone, but work with me here, it was only 6:30).

When I finally looked, I saw the garage door in my view. I quickly pulled forward, gasped (and almost threw up) and jumped out, at which point the garage door began going up, then back down to the point of impact, then back up, and so on.

The car was not damaged other than the scuff marks on the back window from the bottom of the door. The door appeared to be slightly damaged based on the fact it would not go all the way down anymore. I gave it a little punch to put it back on the tracks, and it went down. And then wouldn't go back up. After some praying and a panicked call to Seth at work, it magically went back up.

I backed out CAREFULLY and put it down. It did go all the way down, but I fear that it is just going up and down at home and Bentley is about to kill himself thinking someone is home, someone is not home, someone is home, someone is not home.

So just a little piece of advice (or irony as I like to call it): if your garage door opener is unreliable and requires it to be smacked to go up or down, it will NOT require those things on the one day you sit on it in the car.

Write that down.

We're Back!

I'm back! It's been a long time since I've really written anything, but it has been a stressful couple of days/weeks. My mind is still not ready to compile a post that is "all there," so a list of what's been going on seemed to be fitting. That's acceptable, right? :)

- As you know, my grandfather passed away on February 10. Without going into too many details, he is most certainly in a better place now and is happy reunited with my gramma and Jesus! His passing could not have been more peaceful, which was a blessing for the family gathered around him. We will miss him and his antics dearly! Thanks to everyone who sent e-mails, cards, flowers, etc. We greatly appreciated your prayers!

- I am overloaded at work. So much so that I have developed what I have described in the past as some freaky peripheral vision/flashes of light cocktail o' fun. Fortunately, I chatted quite in depth with my ophthamalogist on Friday, and he pretty much diagnosed me with optical migraines, which has said are classically presented exactly as I described. He said I can relax in knowing that the chances of it being a brain tumor is about .01% of 1%. To be 100% sure it is optical migraines and nothing else, I will be seeing him within the next few weeks to rule out any other options. It is not uncommon for these things to pop up when stressed, he says.

- Bentley was neutered on Wednesday, February 11. They told us to keep him calm, not to lick the stitches, and to keep him on a leash when possible. Apparently, they forget that Bentley is an 8 month old male boxer. Needless to say, you would never know that he had any type of surgical procedure. He is so hyper and rarin' and tearin' to go at all times. We stayed over at Michelle and Jason's last night, and he never stopped playing with their 2 boxers the entire weekend. The vet would totally yell at us right now.

- For Valentine's Day, Seth and I went to the Melting Pot with our good friends Mike and Sarah. We had so much fun and pulled out all the fondue stops since it has been declared the "special event restaurant" due to the prices. :) We had the classical cheese fondue course, lots of meat and veggies, and the milk chocolate dessert fondue. It was de-lic-ious. They then spent the night and we went for lunch the next day and Sarah and I went to see Confessions of a Shopaholic. It was a great movie and a great Valentine's weekend with the love of my life and great friends!

- I appear to be losing my mind. I got a text message from our pet sitter today that said "Hi. I stopped by, but Bentley and the crate were not there." Whoops. Guess I should have mentioned we wouldn't be home and we had Bentley with us. I'm sure pet sitters love to show up to houses and have it look like the dogs have been kidnapped.

Anyway, that's just a bit of what's up with us right now! I hope to be back to writing more consistently...what's new with you?

Blog Break

It may be a few days until I get a chance to write anything. My grandfather passed away last night, Bentley is being neutered today, and I'm swamped at work. Needless to say, I'm on an emotional rollercoaster.

Murphy's Law

Remember when I shared my Murphy's Law baking fiasco? Well, today, Seth and I got to experience the Murphy's Law home ownership fiasco. And only 15 days into the year. Super!

Ever since we got that sleet and freezing rain last week, our heat pump outside has been a little weird. A nice little mix of noise and inefficiency. About 2 days ago, it looked like a big giant block of snow, which was completely inhibiting the air flow through the unit. I knew something wasn't right but I like to live in denial when it comes to home repair.

So Thursday night, when the unit sounded like an army helicopter from inside, I did what any good money saving housewife would do. I bundled up, grabbed a flashlight and wooden spoon and went to work. (Yes, I said wooden spoon. Go-to google said that when scraping the unit, do not use anything sharp. I figured it doesn't get more blunt edged than a wooden spoon). I scraped off what I could but decided that to really clear it off, I would dump hot water on it. (What?! Like you wouldn't try that!?) I was so pumped when I realized it worked and instantly quieted the machine. SUCCESS! ON! MY! OWN!

Too bad that when Seth came home at 10 p.m. and I went to show my handywork, the unit was no longer enclosed by snow, but it was enclosed by a block of 1 inch thick, unscrapable ice. Crap.

Anyway, the home repair man is here right now. He told me I have two options. One, replace the defrost something or other as well as this frickity frack thing for $1040 and two, because the unit was getting old, replace the entire indoor and outdoor unit for the bargain price of $10,000. I may or may not have said "or use an electric blanket for the remainder of the winter." Whatever, I picked option 1. Because at $10,000, that thing better be bedazzled in diamonds.

Now I realize that $1040 for a major heat problem isn't that big of a deal. Except, my friend, that Seth and I decided that we would not renew our home warranty this year because why would we pay $500 a year for something when we didn't even use it last year?

Yeah, you get my point.

Men, Listen Carefully...

Yesterday, I kid you not, a MALE asked me if the baby was kicking yet.

I think you can imagine my (and also his, rightfully so) horror as I said "I am not pregnant."

His saving grace? He thought I was someone else (one of my co-workers). Who recently began telling people she's pregnant.

Lucky him, huh? :)

So here's my advice men: unless you are 100% positive that you know the person you are speaking to and 100% positive that she is the one who is pregnant, do not EVER bring that up. Ever. Seriously, ever.

Just Another Manic Monday...

Let's recap my morning, shall we?

• Slept in for 15 minutes on purpose because I was dead tired. Fifteen minutes can't mess up a morning, right? The answer is yes, yes it can.
• Woke up with the beginnings of a sore throat and ear ache. Excellent, I love those.
• Bentley ran down the steps at 5:55 a.m., woke Baxter, and knocked the gate over at the bottom. I can only imaging that Matt and Erin thought someone was robbing us.
• Could only find one shoe from every pair I considered wearing with my outfit. Maybe the sock thief runs around with the shoe thief.
• Couldn't find my keys. This is nothing shocking, as this happens about 18 times a day. Just not usually at 6:15 a.m....on a Monday....when we're already running behind....while we have sleeping guests.

The good news? I made it to work on time, Bentley willingly went into his crate when he got in trouble, I found one complete pair of shoes for work, I found my keys in Matt and Erin's van, and I am only working a 1/2 day today.

Has your Monday been as manic as mine?