Hospital Tour

Today I had my 36 week doctor's visit which means from here on out I go every bloody week. Seems like we are moving right along. I decided to tour the hospital where I will probably have baby boy x. Is it bad that my main concern was the food? When I had Emelia I went in at 6:00 am and did not have her until that evening and they never once let me eat which means by the time I did eat it had been almost 24 hours. Are ya kidding me with that? I have learned my lesson and will not go to the hospital without eating first.

Emelia has a little bit of fever that I am watching. I am not sure what it is but I know it's making her crabby. UGH! Is it nap time yet?

Just another manic Monday

whoa, wish it were Sunday whoa, that's my fun day.... Not really I mean Sundays are great but they aren't my "fun day" really. Mondays however are pretty manic. I try to cram as many chores in to Monday as I can stand so that I can slack a little the rest of the week. There is a method to my madness. I am always pretty energized on Mondays. I feel refreshed after the weekend and I am ready to get to it on Monday morning. (note: except when I am eight months pregnant in which case I am not really raring to go at any point in time.)

Today I stripped all the beds including the two guest beds, washed the sheets and remade the beds. I did six loads of laundry. I cleaned the kitchen. I made banana bread for tomorrow's Bible study. I baked a loaf of honey wheat bread for Jeff's breakfasts this week - in the bread machine, I am not that good! I vacuumed the downstairs and had movie Monday with Emelia where we had popcorn and watched Finding Nemo yet again. Phew, now I am tired. You see there is a little bit of a selfish motive for all my hard work. I am hoping I will e so exhausted tonight that when my head hits the pillow I will fall asleep and stay asleep and wake up refreshed.

Only four more weeks to go, yippee.

My new obsession

I really want a freezer. I am determined to find a way to move stuff around in the garage to fit one. Then I have to find one I like on Craigslist or on serious sale at the store and then I will have my freezer and love it!

She's crafty!

I have to confess the Beastie Boys tune runs through my head whenever I break out the hot glue gun or the needle and thread. I am pretty sure that isn't what they meant but that is how it applies to my life now. With this new baby on the way I was inspired by my crafty friends and decided to see if I could stretch my nursery budget by repurposing things and making things myself. I have to say I am pretty proud of myself, I only used about 2/3 of my budget. I bought an end table at goodwill and painted it. It is not flawless but it will do.



I painted a shelf and used receiving blankets that matched my bedding to create wall decorations. I also bought vinyl lettering to make a mini-mural type thing. I even decorated a lampshade with ribbon and found a lampstand at the resale shop to make a coordinating lamp.



And last but not least I painted a bookshelf that was my mom's and bought storage cubes and glued monkeys on to them to make this. I also made a nightlight with this same little monkey! My nightlight budget was $10 (yes I made an excel budget and yes I allotted $10 for a dumb nightlight mostly because I had already seen one I wanted) but then I saw someone selling one on ebay and figured out how they made it - LED nightlight from Walmart $1.43 and wooden prepainted monkey from Hobby Lobby $.69 - and I made one myself.





You see the big space above the crib, that is where the babies name should go but at this moment in time I am not sure what that will be. I thought we had one picked out but it may have to be a gametime decision that is made in the hospital so if you have any great ideas let me know!

I am pretty sure I am going to take what is left of my nursery budget and get a bottle of champagne and a spa day once this baby gets here. : )

Things I never thought I would say...

You see if you have known me for awhile, like since high school or college, you may be shocked at how I turned out, who I turned into or where life has taken me. Lord knows I often am. Recently I have been reflecting on that and here are some things that I find myself saying that really just make me giggle.

1. I got a really bad burn from the hot glue gun today!

2. Hummm, what can I make with a rump roast?

3. Holy cow I can't believe I got eggs for 77 cents!

4. Omaha is a great place for our family right now.

5. I enjoy being a stay-at-home mom.

6. Honestly, I would rather have you rub my back than make me a bowl of ice cream. (No really, my back constantly hurts these days.)

7. I really only listen to Christian radio.

8. I am so sick of winter. (I normally love winter but not in six month increments.)

9. Are you poopy?

10. I have been to Hobby Lobby three times this week.

I am a price matching fool

i have become one of those women. For those of you with two incomes and more money than you ever thought you would have, I am the women you hate. Today at Walmart. I set down one item with a free coupon (which means the cashier has to write the items price on the coupon) and four price match items. I got Duncan Hines cake mix for .79 and cereal for $2.50, before you took of the .35 coupon for the cake mix and the $1.00 off three for the cereal. Jeff was dyeing.

Grocery shopping has become an art form for me. I spend about an hour preparing for it. First I look at the grocery ads for every store in town and circle extra good buys or things I need. Then I plan my meals for the next two weeks based on what is one sale. Then I look through the recipes for everything I am going to make to see what I need to make each meal. Then I check off the items I need on my alphabetized excel spread sheet grocery list. Then I go through my coupons to see what matches the items on my list. Along the way I am making notes on my list about who has what on sale so that I can make sure to compare Walmart's price and if it is not as good I can price match to the other store. Then I organize my coupons by aisle to match my grocery list. That way if I decide generic canned corn if cheaper than my Del Monte coupon I can put the coupon back in my file for use at a later date. It is a complicated process that gives me great pleasure. Today I saved $5.00 in coupons and $3.00 in price matching not to mention the savings from buying sale items. I got shredded cheese for $1.50 and that was Kraft 2% incredible!

I am a dork!

Is it really April first?

Because it snowed yesterday. It was only a little and it didn't stick but still it was snow. Seriously what is the matter with the weather here? Today the high is supposed to be 55. Just when I get out my flip flops I have to put them away for my boots and just when I leave my boots out it starts to get nice. I have to say I would really like some consistency.

FYI - I am officially 33 weeks which means I have seven weeks to go. I had this crazy dream last night that all the calculations were off and I really only had two weeks. Then I was panicking because the nursery wasn't done and I still had baby clothes to wash and well you get the picture. Clearly I have some repressed anxiety. I am really anxious about this baby for some reason. I am so much more ready to be done than I was with Emelia.
I think I sort of feel like life is going to be really rough for about six months and so the sooner I get on with it the sooner I will get through it. I am ready for the lack of sleep but every day I think of new scenarios that will be a challenge. Like yesterday I was in the Target food court and I saw a women with a four year old son and a 9 month old girl I am guessing. Well her son had to use the restroom so she leaves her table with her food and her cart and grabs the baby and they head for the restroom. Now she had her purse in one hand and the baby in the other and I just thought how does she help her son with his pants? (I am guessing he still may need help who knows maybe they don't.) See my mind starts to reel when I think about actually trying to live life with two. Forget about when one is crying or being naughty, I am just talking straight living, like trips to the store or the doctor or whatever. I am sure you just figure out a way but it still makes me nervous. Okay I am working myself up in to a frenzy and I have not had any coffee yet so I better go get my single lonely cup of 1/4 caffeinated coffee that I allow myself.

By the way Emelia has begun to quote Beauty and the Beast - yesterday at Bible Study she burst out with "My father is not crazy, he is a genius!" So she loves a good princess movie and can quote movie lines at the age of two, she is definitely half Jeff and half me.

I mean really?

Emelia let me put pigtails in her hair today and I loved it. I mean seriously, I almost couldn't look at her because it hurt. She was so stinkin' cute I could just melt. Needless to say we had McDonalds for lunch today because, well, really I couldn't say no.

The shortest month casts the longest shadow

I sort of dropped off the blogosphere in February and I think I pretty much do it every February. It is just a really rough month for me. My mom died February 14. It has been four years and sometimes it seems like yesterday and sometimes it seems like a lifetime ago. The funny thing about it is if I really objectively look at my life, it is worlds better now than it was before she died. I am living the life God intended for me and am closer to being the person I want to be. Yet I miss my mom so much. I know God uses all things for his glory and I can truly see that in the loss of my mother but that doesn't make it any easier to swallow. Then this year Jeff's dad died on February 6. He was ill and he was 85 and we believe he is in a better place but that also does not make it any easier to go through the loss. Jeff and I are pretty sure we are destined not to celebrate Valentine's day because we had to cancel our date this year to bury his dad. This was really the first year we were going to celebrate since it is such a painful time for me. Maybe next year.

We are recovering though and sailing through March. I can't believe the baby will be here in two months. I am still working on the nursery and getting things together. I swear with Emelia I had everything washed, steam sanitized and in place by my second trimester. Oh well, life is different now. I am tired of being pregnant. I itch pretty bad and I feel like a huge tub of goo. Sleeping has become difficult which makes my energy level low during the day and well, I am just ready. I am grateful to have a healthy pregnancy and know I shouldn't complain, I am just ready to be done.

So anyway, I am back at the blog and will try to do better at keeping up with the world.

Here are some new Emelia pics that make me smile. Her two new loves are painting and dress up clothes. The trick is she has to wear all of the dress up clothes at once. If one necklace is good then five are better. Jeff calls it her Mr. T started kit. As for the paints thank goodness they are washable because she ends up with paint all over herself. I am currently in love with the coolest thing ever - Color Wonder paints from Crayola. They only work on special paper, not on clothes or faces or the dog.

Fat and Sassy

Okay so maybe just fat. I have gotten my four pounds back and I swear nothing fits - overnight. Things fit yesterday and today nothing. I am trying to refrain from buying clothes because well I won't need them again and I don't have a ton of need to dress cute but I have started to feel SOOOOO frumpy and dumpy. I know that there are other things I should be worrying about and that there are people who have real problems that I could be praying about but I can't help being just a little bit sad about how I look and feel right now. I just wish my thighs had not gotten so much bigger. I have worked really hard to get to a place where I sort of like my body and here I am again hating it all over. I know I am pregnant and therefore fat for a reason but still I just wish it was all in my belly. Instead I think it is all in my head. I am my own worst enemy right now. It is like a snowball rolling downhill turning in to a class three avalanche with every check in the mirror. UGH!

"I am one good stomach sickness away from my goal weight"

I distinctly remember this quote from he Devil Wears Prada because I thought it was so funny and yet for some women probably really true. I am pretty sure I have even thought something similar at one time in my life or another. I have always struggled with accepting my weight so ridiculous things like this seemed reasonable to me. Then you actually get a stomach sickness...

On Monday Emelia had diarrhea, not great but not the end of the world especially since she is still in diapers it is not horrible to clean up. At this point I would take that over puke any day because she can not control or aim puke so it is a far bigger mess. Alright let's gut back on the grapes, add in some bananas and wait for a solid poop. Fine. Well then on Tuesday around midnight that creepy little stomach bug had migrated to the mommy. I throw up nine times between midnight and 8 am. I figured it was just a bug but I was a little worried about getting dehydrated with the baby since one sip of water down equalled one sip of water up. I called the doctor, they said to come in, I did and it all went downhill from there. They said I was really dehydrated and wanted to call a home health nurse to administer some iv fluids and an anti-nausea medication. Okay fine. I went home and went back to sleep and stopped vomiting. Yea! As the day wore on I waited for this home health nurse to call, she did at 5:00 p.m. By this time I had kept down some gatorade and five crackers - wahoo! When she gets to our house she goes through all of this stuff with me (a 24 hour iv which I will have to get up in the middle of the night to change since she is arriving so late and blah blah blah.) Then she tries to start the IV , no go. Three needle sticks later, which brings my total needle sticks for the day to six since we had trouble finding a vein to draw blood at the doctors office also, i have nothing. At this point all the sticking and the anxiety has made my stomach hurt again and I have started to wretch. The nurse decide she will call another nurse out to try to stick me some more. (How long will that be I wonder - it took six hours just to get you here.) So finally I say no thank you I am just going to drink some more gatorade eat a piece of toast and hope for the best. She says she has to get a doctor to approve that, i say fine, use my phone. Voila, two minutes later she is gone and I have a sinking feeling I am going to have to pay for this whole fiasco anyway since she came out and opened all the supplies and now they can't be used on someone else. You know I should have listened to my instincts and called the whole thing off earlier in the day when I stopped vomiting. Oh well, lesson learned. The moral of the story is the baby is fine I feel world's better today and i lost four pounds. I have to say I would have rather gained four pounds than lose it the way I did.

I heart Costco

Costco is seriously the greatest place on earth. Because I had mom's group at church yesterday and Murphy had a vet appointment I did not get to do my grocery shopping yesterday like I normally would on a pay day Friday. So today Jeff and I divided and conquered. He hit Fareway for the chicken breast that was on sale and Target for the cat litter that was on sale and I hit Walmart for my normal groceries. Then together we all went to Costco. First let me just say what a lovely gift it is to grocery shop without your child. I love Emelia but she adds at least a half hour to any grocery shopping trip and does not allow for a ton of extraneous time like calculating how much Tide is per load. Today I got to do that and what I found out was shocking.

I compared Walmart, which is the best price in town, against Costco and Costco was always cheaper. The trick is you have to be able to store it and have some extra money up front to buy it. Yogurt was literally .20 cheaper per yogurt cup. Tide was .13 cheaper a load and don't even get me started on Kleenex. Some things Walmart will always win because the generic is so cheap. A can of white beans for instance is .62 which you can't beat because they are generic and by the time you throw them in a pot of tortilla soup no one can tell the difference but on name brand items Costco is just such a good deal. The real reason it is the best spot on earth is that Emelia, Jeff and I can each have a hot dog and drink for $4.50. As Emelia said today "It is a beautiful day to sit down and eat a hot dog."

The name game

I think I have Jeff talked out of Ananias - thank goodness but we still have not really come up with a name. I am very much a believer in instincts when it comes to this process. With Emelia I loved it from the start and I still love it even though I say it five hundred times a day. Even though I have been through a million baby name sites and made a list of names I like, there is nothing I LOVE so far. Jeff said we need to make a list of final contenders and then mull over those choices. That sounds logical and all but there is no gut reaction that way which makes it hard for me. Maybe it is different the second time around I don't know. It is not like there was a girl name that i was loving either so maybe I just need to stop looking for that lovin' feelin' and start mulling.

New Year New Me?

So usually when the new Year rolls around I drink some champagne and make a list of all of the ways i will improve myself in the coming year. This year is different. I am already working out. I have no hope of losing weight until after May 20 and I have finally learned that I don't do well with New Years resolutions. Instead I made a list of projects for January. I do well with a list of small tasks that I can actually accomplish. I believe this is known as short term goals. I have already crossed three things off the list. Yeah me! It will be interesting to see what this year brings. I know life will be crazy for awhile and I know I am going to need to potty train Emelia but that is really all I can plan at this moment in time. If you know me you know that the inability to plan is like an inability to breathe. i am working on that for January and will probably be working on that straight through December's list.

Here are some things I am struggling with at the moment (besides the inability to plan)...

I feel fat. I know that I am pregnant so that is to be expected somewhat but I wish I could be one of those women who keep their shape and just look like they swallowed a ball. I do not look like that. I look like I swallowed the women from the before picture at Jenny craig. Everything has gotten bigger. Why is that?


I also have terrible pregnancy acne. Now I will confess there is some vanity in my distaste for my chin's new friends but mostly it HURTS. They are big cystic, you can't pop me pimples and they hurt. The bummer of it is that y ou can't use acne meds when you are pregnant. Isn't that just a big cosmic joke?

We are having a boy. Yes I will be caring for a baby boy. How does that work? I feel like the little boys I know are so different and I can't possibly begin to comprehend what to do with a boy. I have already begun to pray that God will help me to not compare them and to just love him for him and be content with who he is whoever that may be. Yikes! To top it all off Jeff and I are not even close to on the same page about names. I like Bennett and he likes Ananias. Yep you read that right...

Um okay I suppose that is about it for now. Time to make some supper.

Fun Times with DirecTV

So we had some pretty crappy weather last night including freezing rain with a little snow on t op. I have a serious weather paranoia. I don't like storms, I get scared to drive on t eh snow and ice and I don't want anyone to go anywhere until the streets clear. So today we are hunkered down hanging out at home. Well about mid day I discovered that some of our channels are not coming in. I called DirecTV (who we love) and the nice gentleman walked me through a test which I apparently failed. He said it looks like your high definition channels are not coming in. I knew that part but ok why - because either the satellite is no longer angled correctly or there is snow or ice covering the dish receptor. He said you will probably need to wait for the weather to pass. Newsflash - it is December and I live in Nebraska. The average high for the next week is 12. So we may be talking about March before this crap melts. All I could think was dear lord please let all of teh good bowl games be on regular channels.

The Definition of Bitter Cold

When I listened to the weather forecast this morning Rusty Lord (yes that is his name) told me that it was currently -4 but not to worry it was going to warm up to 8 degrees by late afternoon. Oh good, something to look forward to!

Where Does the Time Go

Emelia is two years old today. I just can't believe it. She constantly amazes me, sometimes in not so good ways but mostly I just marvel at how she has become this little person. I love her so much and I could never have imagined that I would feel this way. I have loved a lot in my life. I love my husband more now than I did in the giddy first months of our courtship and I loved my mom more than I can say but I have just been blind sided by my love for Emelia. It is so powerful and unexpected and it just creeps up on you.

Yesterday she said hey mom and I turned around and said "what honey" and I could distinctly "hear" that same exchange between my mother and I and it took my breath away. I am now the mom. I don't know that I thought I would never be a mom but it was not something that I spent a lot of time longing for. Now that I am I can not imagine ever not being who I am today. As I think about adding another child to our family my fear is t hat I couldn't possibly love this new baby the way that I love Emelia because my heart just doesn't have room for that much overpowering love. I know God will fix that but it still nags at me none the less.

I remember so distinctly when she was little and I couldn't wait to see who she would be. i wanted to see what sort of personality she would have and it is slowly emerging. She loves animals and is very passionate about things - ELMO, books, jelly beans. Often she will tell me "Mommy I NEED jelly beans." She likes to cuddle and does well with a routine. (Thank goodness!) She likes to sing and hates to be confined, like in a shopping cart for instance. (Whoa is me this is a new and really tough challenge.) She is so smart and has a terrific memory. Yesterday we were looking at an alphabet picture book and she turned to the page for x and declared "look mom a xylophone." I mean really where did she learn the word xylophone? Currently if you ask her what color something is everything is green. Jeff is convinced she is colorblind. She likes to swing at the park and asks to do so every day. She is just a terrific child. Yes she gives me fits sometimes and yes there are days I miss the freedom of being a dual-income-no-kids couple but I would never go back.

I can't wait to see what the next year brings.

License Plates

If anyone has license plates for my friend Stephanie's map project can you please send them to me? Here is a link to her blog so you can see her project...


http://svajglfamily.blogspot.com/

Oh the weather outside is frightful....

No really, I am not kidding. It is suddenly really cold here. What I don't get - should have paid more attention in Mr. Kelley's science class - is how yesterday the high was 30 and today the high is supposed to be 50. Oh and tomorrow the high is 29. What makes Tuesday so warm? I know I have officially adjusted to the weather here because when I found out the high was going to be 50 I thought "hum maybe Emelia and I can go to the playground." Really, when did 50 constitute playground weather?

In other news, I have been able to return to the gym. I am just in time for the "12 Days of Christmas" promotion. If you work out 12 times between Dec. 1 and Dec. 24 you get a free t-shirt. What is it about free stuff that is so appealing? When I saw the sign on the door to the gym I was soooo excited. I really need another free t-shirt because the bag to take to the Goodwill is not full enough. I mean I don't need that shirt but sure enough I signed up at the front desk and darn it if I won't do it. I guess if nothing else it is good incentive to go to the gym.

Allright I am off to Super Wal-mart to grocery shop, spend ten minutes looking at the aquarium section (Emelia's treat for grocery shopping goodness) and complain about how expensive food has gotten.

Back to Work

None of us want to go back to work today. Jeff was running late, I was not running at all and Emelia is just now getting up. Hope that doesn't mean she is getting sick. What a delicious weekend - food, shopping, football and lots of block building. Maybe Em will be an architect or a princess handler because man my girl loves her princess figurines. I love that she like Pocahontas the best.