Dave & Sarah

Happy Belated, Joshua

2012-01-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

We went to Colorado to visit my grandma on Joshua's birthday, so we didn't end up celebrating then. Then we had travel and new years to do. We didn't end up celebrating his birthday until the 15th! I'm really really starting to think we will celebrate his half-birthdays because two days after Christmas is just a busy time! We shall see.
To celebrate we just had immediate family over (those that could come...those that couldn't are permanently on our bad list) for dinner and had some cake, too. Here are some select pictures of that evening.

For some reason blogger insists that this picture should be sideways. It isn't sideways on my camera or in my folder on the computer. This is his cake. I made what my family calls "crater cake." It's just the chocolate cake recipe on hershey's cocoa powder boxes. For some reason the middle always falls. I also added some strawberry flavoring and half a bottle of red food coloring, but it didn't really taste like strawberry or look like red velvet cake. It was still yummy though. It had strawberries between the layers, and a butter frosting (I forgot to buy cream cheese the day before).

The birthday boy with his new toy wooden lobster. Thank you Grandma! (One of the pegs came loose so I will have to glue it and probably set it on a high shelf until he is old enough to be careful with it, but it is such a cool toy!)

We stripped him down to his diaper in case he got super messy.

He didn't get very messy. He is a pretty neat eater, considering.

All washed up and in his pjs playing with the cousins again.

Uncle Daniel was thrilled to be there, and had a really great time.

Dave played/supervised the kiddos in the nursery. He also helped them not get out every single toy that Joshua owns...or at least he put them away when they did. ;)

Aiden chased panda everywhere and tried to get her to chase him everywhere. She was so worn out by the end of the night! Thanks Aiden!

Like father, like son...playing on their new iphones for most of the party.

Cake Belly

Here is a video of Joshua eating his cake. I won't be offended if you don't watch the whole thing. I videoed most of it for my record and for relatives.

Christmas 2012

2012-01-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

It's about time!
We went to New Mexico for a week for Christmas this year. We drove down, stayed 7 days, and drove back. It was a good time and amount of time to be there, but that town sure is more interesting and fun when it's not freezing cold with snow everywhere. Unless you have an all-day babysitter loads of money to spend on skiing, then it's a blast...but we didn't and don't, and didn't. We also drove up to my grandmother's house in Colorado for a day so she could meet Joshua.
Ok, it was actually a really fun trip, but I'm just home-sick for warm, sunny New Mexico. Here are some select pictures with captions from our trip. There are more on my facebook page under the "Christmas in NM" album.

We took Joshua sledding at Pinon Elementary on Christmas Eve. He had a fun time until he got hungry and tired (maybe half an hour).

This is just a really great capture. It's his excited face! He is so excited for Christmas!

He had started pulling up on things right before we left for NM, but perfected it in NM.

Coming over to investigate again. I just couldn't not include this picture, he's just so cute!

I surprised Dave and Joshua with matching pjs that we opened on Christmas Eve, wore to bed, and changed back into after church.

Oh, yeah, I made myself some, too. Definitely a new tradition! It was so fun! (Next year I will make them fit right, though.)

Joshua ~~had fun~~ was somewhat interested in ~~Skippy~~ Scooter, and Scooter was actually interested in him, too, which he wasn't too sure about. Monkey usually gets up and leaves if Joshua comes near.

We tromped through the snow one day to get some fresh air for a while. We took all my favorite cut-through short-cuts and visited some of my favorite parks, even though they don't look anything like they used to. (Ridgecrest to Brighton, Brighton to Kimberly, Kimberly to Rover Park, Rover Park to Aragon, Shirlane to Submarine park and back)

Joshua liked playing Grandma's (his great grandma) piano just as much as he likes playing ours.

We tried to get a 4 generation picture, but really, none of them have all of us looking at the camera unobstructed and smiling. Oh well. :) It adds character to them.

I made a double batch of my cousin's ginger bread recipe and made enough forms for 4 ginger bread houses and a ginger bread and lots of ginger bread cookies. It took me all evening to make the bread, and then we didn't make the houses until 2 days later. It was a lot of work, but fun. I don't think I'll ever double the recipe again. I had to have my dad stir it because I wasn't strong enough. Maybe if we do ginger bread cookies as friend/neighbor gifts next year...
We also went ice skating, but I didn't get any pictures of that.
And then last but not least.........

We got Chili Works!...Twice!!!!! oh yum. I got a Sausage Red Cheese (Shrek) both times because it's the most delicious thing ever made. I wish I had a recipe for their red chili sauce.

First Fat Lip

2012-01-23T00:45:00.000-07:00

We discovered (were introduced to) a cool play area in one of the malls that is built more for younger children. Actually they have a rule about height limits for the children playing there, but every time I've been there, there have been several larger children breaking the rule. Oh well.
Joshua loves to crawl around on the cushy carpeting, slap the different plastic animals around the room, crawl through the tunnels, and spin the thing-a-ma-bobs on the wall. His absolute favorite thing to do while we are there is to make a break for it. I sure wish that area had a gate.
Since the cushy carpeting is so cushy, there is a slight ramp to the tiled rest-of-the-mall. On one of his escape attempts he tripped over his hands and face planted into the tile. Like any face/head wound, there was a lot of blood, but after forced cuddling and some apple juice from the sippy cup, he was ready to show off for the camera:

The next day, it looked super infected (splitting your lip on the tile in a mall...ew, the germs...) but didn't seem to bother him one bit. I think I ended up putting some sort of sanitizer or neosporin on it that day to hopefully ward off infection. Hard to do on a lip.

See, quite a happy busted lip guy.

Another moment

2012-01-21T23:37:00.001-07:00

(Disclaimer...no nyquil tonight) Tonight I made a quick run to the grocery store for some necessities. I checked out the manager special section when I was done shopping to see if there were any great deals. I got a few items and headed to check out. Since I was only getting a few things, I had one of those small carrying baskets on my arm. When I went to put it on the conveyor belt, I noticed that the hand with the basket had a big ol' box of Rogain in it. I have no clue where it came from or how it got in my hand! No, I didn't buy it. But the clerk and I had a good laugh about it.

Hair dye

2012-01-20T23:50:00.001-07:00

I can't sleep. I caught a cold from Joshua (as did everyone we know because I'm *that* mom), so I was exhausted today, so I took a nap, so I can't sleep now...even though I took nyquil. Anyway, I figured I would get some of my thoughts out of my head so at least they won't be contributing to my sleeplessness.
Of course now that I am up with the distractions of the internet I can't think of half of them anymore.
I decided I need to dye my hair blonde. Today after my shower no I didn't get dressed for the day at 5pm, I don't know what you're talking about I was brushing my hair out in my bedroom and I discovered that Joshua needed a diaper change. I went through the hallway to the nursery and changed his diaper. Somewhere between my room and the nursery I completely lost my hair brush! Gone! Vanished! In an empty hallway! I searched my whole room, lifted each layer of bedding, checked all my drawers even though I knew I hadn't opened them. I checked in the bathroom, even though I knew I hadn't been in there. "Maybe I was really brushing my hair in the bathroom and I'm remembering 5 minutes ago incorrectly..." I checked the shelves next to the changing table, I checked the closet above the changing table yes, it's an old house, it has quirky closets in weird places and it was nowhere to be found. Thus, I need to dye my hair blonde to match my spacey brain.
Dave eventually found it on a shelf I had already checked.
No, I'm not really dying my hair blonde.

Exercise/Health Goals

2012-01-04T20:58:00.001-07:00

For the first week of 2012, I have been a total slacker. Great way to start off the year! Don't worry, I have some great excuses for it though. Don't worry, I won't subject you to them here.

I figured I should write out a To Do List for each category and get going on them.

To Do for Exercise/Health Goals:

Make a monthly menu (check!)

Make a work-out schedule

Look up races to enter (5K, 10K, maybe 1/2 Marathon)

Any suggestions on work-out schedules or races to enter?

New Years Resolutions

2011-12-31T17:16:00.000-07:00

The end of the year has sneaked up on me again. I almost don't even want to look back at last year's resolutions to see how I did. I just want to start fresh, and go with it. That is what the new year is all about, right?

Since Christmas I have had my new years resolutions in the back of my mind, and I just sat down and typed them out. I was thinking I'd have enough to work on 1 per month, but so many of them go hand in hand that might not work so well. Here they are! (feel free to skim, I have bolded the interesting parts):

2012 Resolutions

Health/Exercise:

I got some new work-out clothes using Christmas money. (Ok, all I have so far is a new UnderArmour shirt, but I'm ordering 2 more online and some new sport shorts. No more using my middle school P.E. shorts!) Hopefully the lure of new clothing will help me along. (Maybe I should get new shoes, too...possibly later on in the year to give me a second jump-start.) I also got a gym membership months ago that I used for about a month. I need to make use of it again, and get my money's-worth out of it. (See Schedule section) I also plan on looking up and signing up for races to aid me in making goals.

There is nothing like the holidays to mess up your blood sugar levels. I have eaten so many sweets and drunk so many sodas in the past few weeks, I feel like I have corn syrup running through my veins. I am debating giving up candies and sodas for the year. What do you think? Anyone want to do it with me? Along with that I need to eat more fruits and vegetables. (See Schedule section)

Spirituality:

I don't usually make spiritual goals. Honestly it hasn't been a very important part of my life in a while. Well that needs to change. I definitely think it will help me achieve all the other goals I have. I plan to study (not just read) the gospel regularly. I want to study by topic and I am hoping the new tools on the lds.org website will help with that. I also want to share what I learn with my mother, so don't be surprised if you get an email from me. :)

Get on a schedule:

Since I quit work and Joshua was born my life has been very unstructured for the first time in my life. I think it is affecting my happiness, my productiveness, and my overall health. So here is what I am going to do about it. I plan to go to bed at 10pm and wake up at 6am every night and day, respectively (when possible). I will get up, go to the gym (See Health/Exercise section), come home, shower (if Joshua is still asleep), get dressed, feed Joshua/eat breakfast, and get on with my day. I can work on the rest of the day throughout the year. Don't worry, I'll keep the blog updated about it. ;) Then there are the weekly events to attend regularly: outings, errands, playgroup, etc.

Do craft projects:

I have several projects that were put on hold so I could get my Christmas stuff done on time, and now I need to just get them done so I can plan and do other new projects! Here is my list of projects needing to be done before I can do new ones (in order):

Rag rug for Christin

Hamper liners

T-shirt quilt

Fire quilt

Cardboard tube mirror surround

Other couch

Only add more when finished!

Help with house projects:

Now that Dave isn't running the company AND working a full time job, I actually get to see him every once in a while, and we have planned to tackle some more projects on the house we live in. Have I mentioned our landlords are awesome?! (In this section when I say "we" it is really mostly just Dave doing the work with moral support/unsolicited suggestions from me with bull whip in hand.) We put in a new front door before Christmas that needs to be finished up, and our bathroom medicine cabinet was torn out at the same time and is currently a hole in the wall. Those need to be finished first, but here is a list of the rest of what we'd like to accomplish this year (in no particular order):

Re-do kitchen with free cabinets from this blog (thank you!)

Replace windows (one by one)

Paint exterior

Re-do flooring in living areas

Turn upstairs hallway into laundry

Landscaping

We have some lofty goals in this area, huh? ;)

Organize:

I have a lot of crap. Dave has even more crap. It's all unorganized all over our house. I really really really REALLY REAALLLY REALLYYYY want to go through it all this year, throw out stuff we don't need (aka: sort it, donate it, throw it), and organize the remaining items. A lot of it is memorabilia that I would like to store properly (aka: binders, scrapbooks [eeeek!], photo albums, photo boxes, etc.) so that I can stroll down memory lane when I want to, instead of when I go through my crap. It really makes me nervous that I wouldn't be able to go and grab the important things in an emergency if I needed to. Hopefully if I can get that organized, the organization will spread and the whole house will be organized and clean!

Internet:

I have been on the internet so much less this year than last year (having a desk job will do that to you) and I plan to organize and schedule my time on the internet more this year. I would like to plan a time during the day dedicated to internet and computer and organize my time on the computer to be efficient. I haven't thought through this thoroughly yet, but I'm thinking a certain amount of time dedicated to social networking (facebook, blogging, etc.) and then a certain amount of time on "making my mark" on the internet world. Everyone these days seems to have some sort of money making idea or blog idea or both on a website, and I would like to join the ranks. I have some ideas, but I'm not going to share them here.

Congratulations, you made it to the end! I hope the skimmers got the gist of everything, and that the readers didn't poke their eyes out in boredom. See you next year!

Christmas Eve Sledding

2011-12-24T16:46:00.000-07:00

We decided to go sledding today with Joshua. I'm really happy that he got to go sledding for the first time where I probably went sledding for the first time (let's be honest, I don't remember my first time sledding). Here are some videos and pictures of his first snow/sledding experience. His snow pants were supposed to be a Christmas present, but we left them out so he could use them early. He enjoyed sledding and enjoyed crawling in the snow until he got too cold.

Christmas Lip Sync

2011-12-10T22:50:00.001-07:00

Hey! Another post about Joshua! :)
The other night Dave pointed out that Joshua was "singing along" to the music. I tried to get it on video that night, but it didn't really happen very well. This morning, though we got him to bob and lip sync along to Jingle Bell Rock. Here are the two (ok, three) videos:

Joshua Overload 11

2011-12-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Apparently blogger doesn't like uploading more than one video per post, (update: apparently blogger just hates that one video...used youtube) so here's another post about cars:
Over Thanksgiving, Joshua and Uncle Daniel had fun passing the car back and forth and I caught it on video! :) (pay no attention to my manly, congested cold voice)

Joshua Overload 10

2011-12-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Joshua's favorite toys are his cars. The other day we had him in the playpen while we cleaned out our old store location to turn it back over to the landlord, and he played with the same truck for over an hour and was perfectly content just rolling it around.

Here's a short video of him rolling around his car and making his car noise. I posted it because it also has "the face" at the end that people suggested I document. ;)

Joshua Overload 9

2011-12-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Joshua's tricks! These are the tricks that Joshua has down. We're still working on high five, fist bump, and some others. He's got a great wicked laugh ("ah ah ah ah"--think the count from sesame street) that I want to get on camera, but haven't yet.

Joshua Overload 8

2011-12-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

THANKSGIVING!

Uncle Daniel came to visit and he had such a cool toy that played music!

He also played with Joshua on the floor with his new car toy.

Joshua had so much fun!

On Thanksgiving day we went to Opa and Grandmas.

Joshua got to play with 4 of his cousins.

They all had a blast.

Nathaneal was being a bit camera shy.

Joshua got practice stealing his younger cousin's toys. :)

And to celebrate black Friday Joshua had his first ice cream cone....

yep, just the cone. :) Here's a cute video of him enjoying the cone:

Joshua Overload 7

2011-12-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

HALLOWEEN!

I made a skeleton out of milk jugs for the trunk-or-treat this year, and then hung it on our door as decoration as well.

I decided last minute that I would spiderwebify our porch again. I think it looks more spiderwebby than it did two years ago when I did it.

Who wouldn't love walking through those to get to the candy!?

And then we left and went trick-or-treating in a different neighborhood. :) We got 0 trick-or-treaters. Our street never really gets any. Everyone goes to nicer neighborhoods.

I made Joshua a pumpkin costume for Halloween this year.

We took him to Opa and Grandma's house for some pictures.

He loved the Sugar Babies the best because they made a great sound.

Candy!

Here is a full shot of his costume. The orange fabric was free off of Freecycle, I spent about $2 on the rest of the costume (the green fleece).

Ok, I can't put captions for all these pictures, so just here are some selections from the photo shoot:

Floating elephant!

Joshua Overload 6

2011-12-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Mid-October we took a trip down to St. George to fix some computers for one of our clients. I think we got them a new server and some new/used computers for their office. Here are some pictures from that trip:

Here is Dave's "work station." We go on vacation to work in our family.

This is Joshua's "work station." He put in a lot of hours on these bad boys.

"Don't interrupt me mom, I'm hard at work."

We even went swimming a little bit in the pool. It was plenty warm enough for it. We were both getting over colds though, so we didn't swim long. Ok, actually I just sat on the edge of the kid pool, and Joshua sat on my lap splashing away. He had a blast.

Drying off and warming up.

"Please, no pictures."

"Ok, actually I just want your camera." As you can see, now that he is more mobile, it wasn't as safe to leave him on the chaise longues...soooo...

We finished drying off in the grass.

Joshua Overload 5

2011-11-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of Joshua and his daddy. These are from October. Captions are below each picture.

Joshua got all bundled up in his marshmallow coat to go outside with Dad.

We read a bedtime story to Joshua every night. Sometimes Dad gets a turn to read.

He loves story time, but it's hard to sit still so long sometimes. I love Joshua's expression in this one. :)

Spring in November

2011-11-29T16:20:00.001-07:00

Today I decided that Christmas decorations would look so much better in a clean house. So I started cleaning...which turned into a spring cleaning type endeavor.
I moved everything out of the dining room, even the rug, and vacuumed and mopped. (Joshua's hands have been turning black from crawling around--it was way past due.)
I had leftover mop water, so I figured I'd clean the baseboards while I was at it...I don't think they've been cleaned in a decade (literally, that's my estimate). I know *I* have never cleaned them in the last 3 years and the people who lived here before us never cleaned _anything_ based on the state of the house when we moved in. Plus the house was vacant for a while.
Anyway...to give you an idea, I made it about 5 feet before I had to change the water. It was gross.
But now it is so clean!
Ps: Joshua has been SO much easier to take care of now that he can crawl (I've always heard it is the other way around usually). He keeps himself occupied and therefore content until he gets hungry or tired. Yes, I have to still make sure he doesn't get into anything dangerous, but that is easy.
I was able to do all of my cleaning while he was up and about! Such a relief!

Break time is over, time for decorating!

Joshua Overload 4

2011-11-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Joshua is going to be a break dancer when he grows up (this is from September). I swear he was going to learn how to jump from his back to his feet before he learned how to crawl.

Joshua Overload 3

2011-11-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

This is from August as well. Joshua loves music. Here he is dancing in his car seat. :)

Joshua Overload 2

2011-11-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

Joshua likes to "sing". Here is a video of him "singing" in the high chair.

Joshua Overload 1

2011-11-26T11:44:00.001-07:00

I just realized how lacking this blog is. It's lacking in Joshua pictures and videos. So for the next while, I'm going to be posting a TON of pictures and videos of cute little Joshua! :) He's my favorite! (Translation: I finally got around to taking pictures and videos of my camera, and now that my house is somewhat clean I don't feel guilty getting on to blog. Joshua is my favorite!)
Here is the first gem of a post. These are from August. Captions below each picture:

Joshua loves bread.

Maybe he just likes tearing apart the bread. Usually I just give him pieces, but I thought it'd be fun to see what would happen with a whole piece.

Josh-o-lantern.

How'd this one slip in here!? Sarah-o-lantern :)

Joshua playing with his friend Spencer at play group in the park. They were "sharing" Joshua's Tonka truck.

Whoops, Spencer fell over trying to crawl away.

Henry comes over to play.

Joshua can look up to Henry and say "ok, in 3 months, I can do that, too" They're best buds.

What to say?

2011-11-21T22:12:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted because nothing really has been happening. Nothing worth documenting really. I even installed a blogger app on my phone so I could post easier without getting my laptop out, but meh. Here are the highlights from the last few weeks:
I got this new app on my phone called Pocket Frogs that is really fun.
I read the Hunger Games series (loved it! food for thought.)
I read The Help (loved it! also food for thought, and giggles)
I picked a million green tomatoes before it froze
I haven't picked my grapes yet
I'm working on my secret project (almost finished! I really need to finish, like yesterday!)
I got the nursery, hallway, hall closet, bathroom, and our bedroom mostly baby-proofed.
Joshua started to crawl (hence the above) - ok, this is worth blogging about, but i need to get a good video and pictures of it first.
I read "Goodnight Moon" to Joshua almost every night because it's the only one he will sit still through patiently (maybe because we read it so often?). He sometimes makes an "ssss" sound after I say "and a little old lady whispering 'hush'"
We have company stuff and Dave's job stuff going on, but that needs to be on the D.L. until later notice.
Currently - I have a cold. My nose gets clogged when I sit still or try to sleep (usually one nostril or the other...never evenly) and today it turned into a cough and now I sound like a man when I talk. Lovely. Feel sorry for Dave because I'm a huge whiner when I'm sick, especially if it involves clogged nostrils.
Now I need to go empty the trash cans because it's trash day! (oh the things I get excited about these days...)

Copy Cat

2011-10-29T09:29:00.001-06:00

Joshua has entered his copy-cat stage and it is so cute! He has picked up a few tricks and will do them when someone else does them...sometimes...and usually well after the fact. It is still fun.

He can:
Clap
Wave (Two different ways. Waving his whole arm with open hand and opening and closing his hand. He usually does both hands at once but sometimes only one.)
Sniff with his nose
Click his tongue
Make a popping noise with his lips
Make raspberry noises with his lips
Fake laugh

In St. George last week we would watch shows like The Price is Right and when all the people would clap, Joshua would clap. If we watched a show with a laugh track, he would laugh loudly, too.

Speaking of copying, I just yawned and he looked over and opened his mouth wide, too. I'm glad he is so stinkin' cute!

Oh, Crap!

2011-10-26T12:28:00.001-06:00

Since the hum-drum trip to St. George didn't really seem to inspire comments, here's a post that might:
Yesterday I was changing Joshua's diaper (yes, it's going to be one of those stories) and as soon as I took it off he peed everywhere. He doesn't do that as nearly as often as when he was a newborn, but it still happens occasionally. Since it was 7:15 pm and he had had brief naps all day, I decided it wasn't worth cleaning him up, re-dressing him, just to strip him down for a bath in half an hour. So it was time for an early bath. I would just let him play a bit longer in the tub.
Usually for bath-time, I fill the tub, then I go get Joshua ready for the bath. Yesterday had to be backwards based on circumstances. So I plopped him, stark naked, on the bath mat and his towel while I filled the tub. While I was filling it, I looked down to see the face.
All mothers know the face and some non-mothers can even recognize it. This one was unmistakable. He was grimacing and bright red. Yep, it was happening.
All I could do was gasp, "AH! don't poop! don't poop! don't poop!" I wisked him off his towel just in time but I didn't save the bath mat. I am so glad it's washable. It also sounds a lot worse that it was.
After that whole experience I had to wonder, "Why didn't I just hold him over the toilet literally inches away from me?"
I hope there is never a next-time to learn from my mistakes.

St. George

2011-10-23T22:16:00.000-06:00

We go down to St. George about every 3 or 4 months for business. I usually tag along because I can and then we stay at the timeshare resort that we are members of down there.
This time I was really excited about bringing some of my projects and not feeling guilty when I work on them because there really isn't much that I'm procrastinating down there (nothing to clean up/out, no mounds of laundry or dishes to do or put away).
Unfortunately, our first day there Joshua and I woke up with a cold. To top that, Joshua had a diaper rash from the drive down. To tippy top that he is still trying to get those darn molars in. (He has the front 8 teeth and the bottom two molars are making him miserable.)
Needless to say, I got nothing done the first two days we were there besides changing lots of diapers and slathering on the diaper cream (or should I spell it creme?).
That's ok though, he started feeling better and we had a blast the rest of the time. We went swimming and had my cousin and his wife came over for dinner one night and I sewed some stuff.
I will have to post pictures later though.

Dream Weaver

2011-10-22T22:15:00.001-06:00

I have the strangest dreams. I have always had the strangest dreams. Pregnancy did not make my dreams any more vivid or strange--I'm not sure that is possible.

Anyway, I've had a few lately that have been really cool and would make great scenes in a movie or a book or something. I have had some like this in the past, too, but I never wrote them down and as time passed they faded a bit.

Last week I decided to keep a dream journal. I now have a document on my computer that will house all my dreams. Someday I'd like to go through and look at the possibility of turning one or more into books. Isn't that how the Twilight series was started?

You can like the Twilight series or not, but you can't deny that it was a successful seller. Maybe that's how I'll make my millions and have my 15 minutes of fame.

I don't want to post my dreams on the internet anywhere in case somebody steals my idea and publishes before I do, but last night had to do with morphing from human to animal...it was pretty cool.

Crazy Neighborhood Take 2

2011-10-16T22:56:00.000-06:00

Remember in August, 2009 I posted about the crazy drunk lady that came to our door, and the police came, and there was all that excitement?
The previous February there was a fire across the street from us.
We have paramedics on our street on average about every other month or so. We have some neighbors that have some serious health problems. I can't imagine what their medical bills are like.
A while ago someone tried to rob the grocery store up the street and was shot by police.
A few months ago my brother-in-law wrecked his bike up the street on his way home from work, so we had flashing lights for that.
Yesterday morning there were fire trucks at the fabric store on the corner near our house and the alarm was going off.
Honestly, it gets hard to keep track of all the times law enforcement, fire fighters, and paramedics come to our street.
Last night we were coming home from the grocery store and saw flashing lights down the street. We took in the groceries and then decided to walk down the street. As we got closer we could see there were a LOT of police cars, and the whole street was blocked off with caution/police tape. There were people standing all around, so we started asking around to see what was going on. Of course the stories varied...even the people who were out there when it happened had different accounts. I can see how difficult being a detective could be when even eyewitnesses don't witness the same thing.
What we could gather was that there was a car that had been chased/followed by police and that car had run into 3 or 4 cars along the side of the road, was sitting there idling with a sheet draped across it because the driver had died somehow or another.
The people living near there said they heard the crash or the police loudspeakers and looked out the window to a whole bunch of cops running down the street with guns out. People that were outside were ordered back into their apartments at that time.
Anyway, after chatting with our neighbors for a while, we went home, scoured the news for any information (no news crews were there that we could see), and then went to bed. In the morning I found this article posted about it. What a sad story.
What a crazy neighborhood.

You know you're out of shape when...

2011-10-14T16:08:00.000-06:00

You drive to a campus you used to walk to, you walk around a little bit, and drive home, and are sore for two days.
On Tuesday, I decided to go up to campus for the Dance Devotional. I figured it would be fun to watch and a good excuse to get out of the house. Besides, while I was there I could visit my old work and professors.
The plan was to walk up there, make the stops, and then walk home, but Joshua decided it was nap time at 10, so we didn't leave the house until quarter after 11.
Even though we were late, we got to watch more than half of the devotional. Joshua was enthralled the whole time even though we were sitting up in the nose-bleed bleachers. He didn't make a peep.
After that was over, we drove over to where I used to work and brought some cookies to my old coworkers. I got to chat a while with some of the people I used to see almost daily and realized how much I don't see people now that I stay at home all day. A lot had changed. Some of the desks were rearranged, and a lot of the people I worked with no longer worked there.
I also went to go check out the damage caused by a crane tipping over. They are building new dorms around my old office, and one of the cranes tipped over onto the building. I forgot to check out the damage while I was there, but here's a picture someone took of it: (Link to facebook picture)
Then I drove to another part of campus. I dropped off a Milka bar to my aunt at her office since it was her birthday. Then I took the rest of the cookies to the German department to see if any of my old professors were there.
*Note: I was planning on bringing my little travel stroller with me, but I forgot it, so I was carrying Joshua, the diaper bag, and a plate of cookies the whole time.
The professor that went on study abroad with us to Vienna in 2006 was the only one around, so I stayed and chatted with him a little while. It was fun to see him and catch up a bit. I really should go visit more often.
After that I had to book it back to my car since I had parked in a 30-minute zone. I'm not sure why I didn't just park in the visitor lot. "Old Habits," I guess.
It was a fun little visit to campus, but I need to get out and do that more, for sure.

Yard Sale

2011-10-03T10:03:00.000-06:00

Last week I tried to go through my whole house and purge all my junk. Well, I did some, but I didn't do my whole house. Remember how I posted that I was going to finish up the living room by doing the magazines? Well, I never got to that.
The next day (Tuesday?) I was cleaning my kitchen and decided to attack it. So I went through every cupboard and got out all the things I never use (e.g.: lime press, tiny frying pan, old frying pan, extra turkey baster (who needs 2!?), extra knives not matching set, old water bottles) and put them in a box. I also cleaned off and around the microwave, which is my "hot spot" in the kitchen. I put all the baby bottles, sippy cups, garbage, pots (for flowers), etc. away or in the yard sale pile that was accumulating. I even cleaned off the toaster and toaster oven! My kitchen is so clean now! :)
Last time I posted, I had decided to postpone my yard sale because of General Conference. I later realized that I have plans for this Saturday that I can't postpone or multitask. On Friday, I decided to go for it, so I bought some poster board for signs and put them up. I had to have a yard sale now that the signs were up. (I put the signs up on the busiest streets at 5pm - Friday evening traffic and game day traffic! Win!)
After Joshua was in bed, I gathered up all my thrift store and yard sale stuff, labeled it all, told my neighbor/sister-in-law about the yard sale and invited them to sell stuff, too, and got to bed by 2am! I thought I was going to take all night. At 7am I got up, set everything set up, and sold stuff all morning!
I have some great stories about people offering $2 for $100-never-been-worn-leather-reeboks (seriously!?) and other things. I never realized how cheap yard sailors are. I didn't sell as much stuff as I had wanted, but I made more than $200!
I'm thinking I'll have more yard sales next summer!
As for this year, I still have a ton of stuff that I'd like to get some $$$ for if possible, so we're going to have another yard sale in two weeks, weather permitting. I still have a whole storage room of stuff that I need to sell (the people that lived in the apartment below us left all their stuff and owed us money...long story, not for this post.)

9 Months

2011-09-28T15:29:00.000-06:00

Whoops I skipped the 6 month update with doctor stats and all. Oh well. Here's the 9 month one.
Today was Joshua's 9 month well-check appointment. I'm thinking with following children I may skip this one. It's kind of pointless unless there's something that you're really worried about. They poked his heel and his blood levels look great. They looked in his ears and listened to his heart and the like.
He weighs 18 lbs 9 oz. and is 29 inches long. I can't remember the %'s so I'll have to update that later. He's waking up from his nap currently so off I go!

By Request

2011-09-27T15:22:00.001-06:00

I've had requests to bring back the sink chronicles. Well, if you read my novel from yesterday, you know I'm not sink chronicling any more. Does that mean I'm not trying my darnedest to be cleaner, de-junk, and organize my life? No...I feel that is a talent I was not blessed with and have to work every minute to perfect it and will probably have to keep perfecting it even in my mansions above...or get a house keeper for my mansions above.
I've decided to postpone the garage sale until next week, weather permitting. Weather not permitting, I'm not sure what I'll do. Maybe I'll wait until next Summer. Isn't there a saying about garage sailing after Columbus Day? "In 1492, Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue. If you garage sale after Columbus Day...?"
To get ready for the garage sale, I need to go through all my stuff and get rid of things that I don't need, don't use, shouldn't need, shouldn't use, etc. This is very difficult for me. I always get the feeling, "Well, someday I might need it" or "What if I go looking for this tomorrow and realize I got rid of it?" or "I can't just throw it away, someone could use it!" I'm not sure if it is nature or nurture or a mixture of both, but it's a real problem.
Yesterday I started my house purge. We had some neighbors (Google wants me to spell it "neighbours"...I'm not going to!) who were moving so they went through their house and took bags and bags and bags of stuff to the thrift store. It makes me anxious just thinking about it.
I'm starting small. I don't know if you know, but my hamster, Squirt, passed away last month while I was out of town. I guess furry little rodents need air conditioning in our oven of a house just as much as we humans do. Poor guy. So I packed up all the hamster stuff, even the stuff from when I had a pet rat back in the day, and it is ready to go!
I got some new books for my birthday, so I went through my book shelves in the front room and nursery and rearranged and made a stack of books to get rid of.
I figure I've got a start on the living room, so I will work on that room again today. All I really have left in that room (the least cluttered room in the house) is magazines.
All day yesterday I thought about going through my box of hair-things (bands, clips, bows, etc.) but never got around to it. Today is the day for those as well!
Random thought: Can one sell vitamins at a garage sale?

Post Title

2011-09-26T10:44:00.000-06:00

I couldn't think of a title that would be an appropriate thesis of this post...
Well, I bet you have noticed I haven't posted in a while, eh? Yup. That's me. The blog slacker.
Good news though, my sink is still clean...but that's about it. I decided that the flylady stuff just wasn't for me. I mean, I like some of the things, and there are some good principles, but my life just isn't routine enough to have a routine like that. Possibly when all my children are older and in school and not teething I can do a morning routine. Possibly I'm just making lame excuses.
Anyway, I'm still working on making my life more productive. I just am not very productive at doing that very often. Arg. Oh. Well.
Right, well here's an update.
I have been trying to spend less time on the computer, which is one of the reasons I haven't blogged in a while. Some days that means I wander around trying to figure out what I'd like to work on that day, until the day is over, then I try to hurry and do something, and then I end up staying up late and hating myself the next morning. My goodness, I must be in a mood. This post wasn't supposed to be so whiny.
Joshua has 6 teeth now and has been working on the 7th for. ev. er. It's to the point where it's almost through, and hurts him a lot, but that seems to be all the progress its willing to make. His 8th tooth is coming in, too and may surprise us and make it in before the 7th...which would make it the 7th, and the other one the 8th...uhhh. I have my suspicions that his molars may be coming in, too because he's been chomping on his fingers in the back of his mouth lately. The silly kid doesn't chew on teething toys at all, but he'll chomp on his fingers and chew on his wrist any time of day. Today I resorted to giving him some ibuprofen because he just seemed to be in so much pain that it would be worth it.
Besides teething, Joshua has some fun tricks that he's been working on perfecting. He will sit anywhere and play with toys and turn around and around on his bum. He's been reaching further and further, which sometimes means he dives head-first for things and ends up on his tummy, screaming to be rescued. I think crawling may be on the horizon finally.
Side note: this is another reason why I need to get my house cleaned up and out! baby proofing!
While he's happy and playing with toys that little boy can jabber up a storm. It used to just be "mamamaamamamammm" or "blablablablablabbblab" (yes, he says blah blah blah, it's cute.). Now he's working more on the "Guh" sound and the "th" (voiced and unvoiced) and "V" sounds. He'll slip in a "Da" every once in a while, too.
His favorite toys are toys with wheels or toys that rattle when shaken. His favorite foods are anything but baby food meats (gross, who would eat those!?). He loves fruits like peaches and pears and can eat them well un-mushed.
He bobs and dances, smiles, laughs, and sniffs with his nose (see video here) when he's excited. He will also kick his legs like crazy while on the changing table. I think he's trying to go from lying to standing like a break dancer. I have yet to catch it on video because he stops doing it whenever I try to video him.
(KNOCK ON WOOD!) Joshua has been sleeping wonderfully for a week or so. He's starting to sleep on his tummy, and I think that's one reason why he sleeps so nicely. His naps are still less than an hour long, and he still has 3 of them per day, but at night he will go to bed between 8 and 9pm and will sleep solid until about 6am, nurse, and go back to sleep until 7, 8, or 9am. It's heavenly. The funny thing is that he'll roll over onto his tummy while he's sleeping, but once he wakes up and realizes he's on his tummy, he screeches and squeals and hollers until I come rescue him.
Is this post getting too long? mind if I keep writing? no? great...
Dave has had a change in his work schedule. He's working one more shift per week and does a double shift on one of the weekend days. The residential tech support store that we acquired is moving locations next week or so, so that will make him a bit busier for a while with the company. It's tough being apart so much, but we make do.
It was my birthday last week and I got food poisoning the day before. I was in bed for almost 40 hours straight (minus trips to the bathroom), it was miserable. Luckily I started feeling better at about 3pm on my birthday, and felt completely better by my party the next day. I had a few friends over on Friday and family over on Sunday. It was great to celebrate my birthday with people. I'm thinking we need to have people over more often. Our house is clean and the back yard is presentable!
Right, well, I better get going on my day (confession: still in pjs!). I'm hoping to have a yard sale on Saturday of all the things that we don't need in our house, which means I have quite the week ahead of me. I'm a little worried it will be poorly attended because of General Conference. What do you think? Do people still go Garage Sailing (spelled like that on purpose) on GC weekend?

Sink Chronicles: Day 16

2011-08-23T14:33:00.003-06:00

Click here for today's baby step

Day 16: Read an Email from Flylady

Creepy...how did they know I had stopped reading the emails? I mostly don't read them because I have to get on my computer to read them because on my phone they get all jumbled up when I open them because of all the links included in the emails. If I open my computer I usually get distracted by facebook, blogs, recipes, new running tracking sites, etc...I'm doing that right now actually!

That's why I usually try to shut down my computer as often as possible so it takes more time to get on it, meaning I'll usually go do something else instead. I guess for the good of the cause I'll go read an email. ;)

One thing I've really liked about having a shiny sink is that when I'm cooking, or washing some fruit to eat, if I drop some food in the sink, I know that it's clean and sanitary enough to just pick it out, rinse it off, and eat it! I know it sounds like a gross concept, but that's just how clean my sink is! ...the kitchen floor, not so much.

Sink Chronicles: Day 15

2011-08-22T23:59:00.002-06:00

Click here for today's baby step assignment

Day 15: Make Your Bed

YAY! I like making my bed! It makes the whole room look so much cleaner! I figured this was coming because it was mentioned in the emails from flylady, so I've been practicing. Is that cheating?

It says in the description, "If you will do this as soon as your feet hit the floor you are less likely to forget it." I have two problems with that. Problem number 1: My feet hit the floor multiple times in the wee hours of the morning, and when they hit the floor for the final time in the morning, I am usually on the run to get crying Joshua out of bed. Problem number 2: A lot of times, our bed is still occupied by a sleeping Dave when I get out of bed. He seizes the opportunity to cocoon himself in the remaining covers until he gets up. I'll have to figure out when to fit it into my routine so that I don't forget it. Any suggestions?

Sink Chronicles: Day 14

2011-08-22T10:41:00.003-06:00

Click here for Day 14's baby step.

Day 14: Read an Essay that Kelly Wrote

First beef: why isn't the description more accurate? It should say "Learn How to Use a Calendar" in my opinion. Ok, the only assignment for Day 14 was to continue doing what I've been doing, and read this essay about how to use a calendar. I currently have 8 calendars in my house. I like calendars. I like that they are art that I can change monthly, I like that I can glance at them and tell what day it is. I like that I can write things on them. 7 of my calendars are just art for me. I have one in my bedroom that's a dry erase calendar for scheduling things. One thing I don't like about it is that I can only schedule one month at a time.

At work I used to have one of those giant desk calendars to write everything on. I didn't take it with me when I quit though. I should have. Today, inspired by the essay above, which I actually read last week but hadn't blogged about yet, I bought this calendar to replace the dry erase one. I'm excited for it to come on Wednesday!

Now on to today's (Day 15) baby step assignment!

Sink Chronicles: Where Did You Run Off To?

2011-08-15T21:05:00.003-06:00

How is one supposed to keep up a routine if one doesn't have a routine life? Does anyone work 9 to 5 anymore? What happens when you go on vacation, say...to Lake Tahoe...again?

Well, I thought about bringing my sink shining supplies to my grandparents' house at Lake Tahoe, but I didn't know how they would feel about me shining their sink. Plus, it's kind of hard to keep a sink shiny when there is a house full of people who are used to putting their used dishes in the sink.

I tried hinting to my family members the first couple of days every time I put dishes into the dishwasher, saying things like "Hey, look! It's an empty dishwasher! what a great place to put my dirty dishes!" or "Look at this! This dirty dish fits RIGHT HERE in this dishwasher! AMAZING!" For some reason it didn't stick.

I didn't want to lose the habits I had created just because I was at someone else's house, so I tried to keep up with the things that I could. I brushed and flossed my teeth every night. I got up and ate breakfast and got dressed in the morning. I emptied the clean dishwasher in the morning. I tried to keep the kitchen cleaned up. I did Joshua's night routine (diaper, [bath], pjs, nurse, story, bedtime).

Well, now I'm back, and I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things and continue with the baby steps. Tomorrow is going to be Day 14! Dave cleaned off a few of my hot spots while I was out of town, so I'm hoping they'll remain cleaned off with my hot spot attacks.

Sink Chronicles: Day 13

2011-08-06T00:12:00.003-06:00

Click here for today's assignment description.

Day 13: Pick One of Kelly's Missions and Do It

I've been reading about "Kelly's Missions" in the Flylady email digest that I get every day, but I haven't looked more into it than that. Here is where Kelly posts her missions. This week she's focusing on the entry way and dining room. The baby step description said to pick one of the missions, so I picked Thursdays mission to clean up the things that accumulate near the front door like shoes, jackets, bags, etc. Only in our house, it seems to be computer parts that accumulate near the front door. In order to move the computer parts, I had to make room for them upstairs near the office.

Two birds with one stone! I de-cluttered upstairs outside the office for 15 minutes, getting rid of old boxes, and stacking the leftover computer parts neatly. Then I went downstairs again and moved what I could upstairs. I know it's just moving clutter from one area to another, but it's so much closer to where it goes than where it was before.

With those things gone from the entry we actually HAVE an entryway again! There is still more to clean up, but isn't there always?

Sink Chronicles: Day 12 (Pictures from yesterday)

2011-08-05T11:16:00.004-06:00

First, here are some of my hot spots all cleaned off:

My pocket unloading station is all cleaned off! I even put away the spare change!

Here's my bedside table all cleaned off. I need to figure out what to do with all those cords, especially as Joshua gets older. The main problem is that I move the baby monitor all over the house throughout the day, and the lamp has a switch on the cord, so it needs to be accessible. Ideas?

Here is my pantry "before". I actually forgot to take a picture before I started doing anything, so see how at the bottom there's a little blank space, and there aren't grocery bags tumbling out? They used to be there before I started.

I threw away all the expired and stale food, gave away some of the food, and threw some other things away (including a broken dust pan...I had 4 dust pans...how many do I really need?! I usually vacuum!). I also put a lot of the canned foods up with my food storage.

Here's the "after" picture. It's still pretty full, but now it's organized and I can actually tell what's in there. I showed Dave where everything was, but I still am planning on making little signs.

Sink Chronicles: Day 12

2011-08-04T22:33:00.002-06:00

Click here for today's baby step assignment.

Day 12: Delete All the Emails From Flylady

I liked this assignment. It was nice and simple. I got it done in about 30 seconds.

Then I had the rest of the day...why couldn't I get this assignment on one of my busier days? So I tackled the pantry, in 15 minute intervals of course. I'd do one or two shelves and then take a break. I threw away all the expired food, put some of the unopened food up with my food storage, gave away food we didn't eat but was still good food, cleaned the shelves, and re-organized. It helped that there was once-upon-a-time a system in place. I just restored that system.

It is amazing how de-cluttering can help you find treasures. I found some delicious food I didn't even know that I had. It made me want to plan out menus according to the food that has been hiding in my pantry, but I didn't want to burn myself out, so I saved that for another day. I also saved the fridge for another day. Yikes. That's the stinky stuff that I don't want to open.

As a result, we had pesto alfredo pasta and peas tonight. I'll post pictures of the de-cluttering job tomorrow. I have to go to bed now!

Sink Chronicles: Day 11

2011-08-04T10:53:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was Day 11. Click here for yesterday's assignment.

Day 11: Add Inspirational Page to Your Control Journal

Honestly? I didn't do this. I'm not one for "inspirational phrases." I think it's cheesy. I don't have any quotes up in vinyl on any of my walls, I don't have a favorite saying, and I don't have little tiles and blocks with my favorite song lyrics on them sitting around my house. I'm not going to start collecting phrases and quotes to "help me be organized" because all it will do is add one more thing I have to do to my list. Isn't the point to help me get things done? Not spend my time searching for cool phrases.

Ok, I lied. I do have ONE little tile type thing that is sitting on my bookshelf with a quote on it. You're going to laugh at this one. It was given to me by a friend for my birthday and it has a phrase that really describes me to a T. Are you ready for it? "Organized people are just too lazy to look for things."

Oh the irony.

Sink Chronicles: Day 10 (back from the dead!)

2011-08-02T20:35:00.003-06:00

I disappeared for a few days...did you miss me? I missed me. I was sick as a dog, out of town, and tackled by hormones. Today I feel back from the dead, although not yet 100%...does that make me a zombie?

Click here for today's assignment.

Day 10: You Can Do Anything for 15 Minutes

I actually really like today's assignment. If you haven't noticed, I'm a little A.D.D. (example: all the projects I've started, and haven't finished, all the tangents in my life) so I like to search for ways to help me focus better. In high school I took the generic of Ritalin for a while, but it didn't help much and just made me grumpy, so I decided to figure out ways to focus without the assistance of drugs. This timer idea really helped me get things accomplished.

Honestly I haven't been timing myself for the 2 minute hot spot attack and the 5 minute room rescues before, because I just do it for a little while, and that works fine. Today I timed myself doing things with a timer on my cell phone so that I knew I had to stay doing ________ until the timer beeped. I noticed that my attention span has shortened to about 5 minutes. I'd check the timer thinking it should almost be done, and only 5 minutes had passed.

On the baby step description for today it gives the example to go gather up garbage for 15 minutes and take it to the trash outside and then take a break for 15 minutes. That's what I did. I grabbed one of the many computer boxes floating around, took it up to the office (messiest room in the house), and emptied trash cans, dug under the desks for garbage, and attacked the shredder (which always gets overfilled and jammed because someone forgets to check the tub under it...coughDavecough...not that I'm pointing any fingers.) ;) Don't worry, there are many things I forget to do, too. My timer went off in the middle of the shredder ordeal, so I finished that up and took the box of trash out to the can. Then I read my book for 15 minutes.

I've noticed it's just as hard to stop working when you get into the swing of things as it is to stop relaxing when you're reading a good book. I was able to fit one more 15 minute timer job (folding laundry) in before Joshua woke up from his nap. Unfortunately a whining, teething, hungry baby doesn't you do 15 minutes of anything without interruption. I guess I'll be doing this baby step during naptime.

Sink Chronicles: Day 9

2011-07-29T22:11:00.003-06:00

I fell off the sink wagon yesterday. WHOOPS! It's mostly because I was so busy and got home late and was soooo tired, and then Dave was sick, too. I'm ok with it. It happens. I made sure to do it today though so I don't completely scrap this whole project like so many others.

For today's assignment, click here

Day 9: De-clutter a Few Minutes at a Time

So I'm supposed to add a "5 minute room rescue" to my morning routine. There are a few problems with that. I don't really have much morning left after my morning routine because it's peppered with interruptions from Joshua. That's the name of the game with a 7 month old. Problem number two, I don't know what a "5 minute room rescue" is. It doesn't say anything else about it on that page, and the only link there is this one which doesn't say anything about a room rescue. All it talks about is decluttering. What's the difference between a 2 minute hot spot and a 5 minute room rescue, besides the minutes, anyway?

So what I did tonight is just worked on cleaning up some stuff. I have a laundry basket in my bedroom with stuff that goes in other rooms, so I cleaned that out and put the things away where they belonged. Then I organized my baby food jars up with my food storage. Now I can use that laundry basket and close my pantry door again!

Sink Chronicles: Day 8

2011-07-27T23:05:00.002-06:00

Click here for today's assignment.

Day 8: Get a 3 Ring Binder and Put Paper In It

Sounds like the easiest assignment yet, huh? Well I didn't get around to it until 10pm tonight!

Ok, so I didn't actually get a 3 ring binder, I just grabbed a notebook, because Joshua was already asleep, and I didn't want to dig through my office things to find a 3 ring binder and some loose leaf paper. I wrote down my morning and before bed routines as I've been doing them. Here they are for your reading enjoyment.

Morning Routine

Get up
Feed Joshua
Breakfast
Brush Teeth
Get dressed for exercise
Exercise
Shower
Get dressed for day
Lunch
Put out Hot Spots for 2 minutes

Before Bed Routine

Put Joshua to bed
Put out Hot Spots for 2 minutes
Relax & Computer if time
Clean up dishes
Shine Sink
Brush & Floss teeth
Lay out clothes for tomorrow
PJs
Go to bed

Speaking of going to bed...here is a wonderful article about going to bed earlier, which I need to do (as I type this up at 11:45 pm....arg). Ever since I went to Lake Tahoe, my body hasn't gotten used to the Mountain Time again, plus I stayed up late at Tahoe, equals I go to bed super late, which means I'm exhausted in the morning when Joshua decides it's time to wake up. Here's to trying to go to bed earlier!

Sink Chronicles: Day 7

2011-07-26T23:27:00.002-06:00

I'm so sleepy. I couldn't sleep much last night. (Took a nap during the day, too hot, too hungry, Joshua waking up several times) So this entry is going to be short, but I'll possibly add to it tomorrow.

Click here for today's assignment.

Day 7: Pick Out Your Clothes

My sink has officially been shiny for 1 week. I find myself trying not to use it as much, which I'm sure will save on our water bill, but it doesn't get very high anyway.

I worked on the living room couch hot spot tonight before bed.

I have both outfits picked out for tomorrow morning (gym and day clothes).

Now I'm ready to crash. G'night!

Sink Chronicles: Day 6

2011-07-25T14:28:00.004-06:00

Click here for today's baby-steps assignment.

Day 6: Hot Spots

In Flylady's definition of Hot Spots she mentions that Hot Spots will grow and take over the whole room and that clutter attracts clutter. I think that my whole house is one big Hot Spot. Yuck.

Now it's time to bare my soul to you. I have nothing left to hide. Here are some pictures of my worst hot spots. Some of them don't look too bad, because I cleaned them up in the past month, but they can get just as bad as the worst ones. Here goes!

Bedside Table: This is where my hair ties, bobby pins, etc. end up as I take them out before bed. Note: The juice, cup, and water bottle were added to the stack right as I got online to type this up.

The table beside the rocking chair. Books, toys, and clothes get put here when I'm stuck in the chair nursing Joshua.

This is the classic "stuff that needs to go upstairs" and "quick, hide this pile behind the curtain when guests are coming" hot spot.

This one is a new one, living room couch right inside the door.

Coffee table, of course. Some of it is still from our trip to Tahoe.

This is the worst one in our house. It's the dining table, but we hardly ever dine on it. It's just a great central flat surface in the house to put things when you're on the way from one place to the next, especially mail.

This is Dave's hot spot. It's where he empties his pockets when he's changing. Receipts, money, pay stubs, business cards, keys, hats, oh my.

This is my pocket emptying station. I don't usually carry a ton in my pockets, but there are some deposit receipts, cash, lipstick, usually bobby pins, safety pins, jewelry that didn't quite make it into the jewelry box right above it, etc.

So those are the worst spots. Today I'm supposed to work on one of them for 2 minutes, and I think I'll tackle the dining table and I might cheat and work on the living room a bit, too.

Sink Chronicles: Day 5

2011-07-24T23:02:00.003-06:00

Click here for today's assignment.

Day 5: Write Down What You Hear

On Sunday I go to church in the morning/early afternoon, nap or cook in the afternoon, and spend time with family in the evening. Since today is Sunday, I didn't get on the computer until late tonight, so I didn't really have a chance to even know about the assignment until I was ready for bed (right now). I did the previous 4 things, and I will post about the Day 5 assignment tomorrow.

Sink Chronicles: Day 4

2011-07-23T17:22:00.002-06:00

Click here for today's assignment.

Day 4: Write These Things Down

Ok, the more I look into this site, the more it bugs me, honestly. I think the principles are good, but it's just a messy site and I find more and more typos and things that aren't explained well. Today's task is a good example of this. What exactly am I supposed to write where? It also says that this will become part of my "Control Journal" but doesn't explain what that is, nor does it have a link to anything. You'd think that a site about organizing would be more organized.

From what I understood that I was to do to day, building on the previous days, I was to add notes in the kitchen and bathroom to remind me to do the tasks from Day 1 and Day 2. I had a busy day running errands so I didn't get around to making notes until this evening, so I'll have to report on how they function on another day. One thing that I'm worried about is that they'll just become another piece of paper around my house.

I thought I wasn't receiving any emails all day today, but it's still my blackberry messed up. Like I said, I just got a "digest" version in one email daily, so I'm not swamped by millions of emails all day distracting me from what I'm doing and pulling me back to the computer.

There is a ton of stuff to read in the emails. They also include links to more reading material on the website. It's a bit overwhelming, but there's a note at the bottom of each one to remind readers that they're not supposed to feel behind, and just to jump in. The only problem with that is, that I'm still on "baby steps" and now I'm supposed to read these emails that have a full daily, weekly, and monthly schedule, with tips on how to do some of the things. Hmmm. They really need to figure out how to tailor their emails to where the people are in the program.

Not to be too negative, there are a lot of good ideas in the emails, and I've only read half of the first one so far! I'm excited to get to the point where I can implement more of the ideas from the emails. Now, I need to get off my tush, fold my laundry, then get on my nightly routine (including shining my sink!).

Sink Chronicles: Day 3

2011-07-22T15:50:00.003-06:00

Here goes another day in the Sink experience!

Click here for today's task description.

Day 3: Do What We Have Already Done

Ok, I find myself peeking ahead a few days to see what tasks I have coming up. I honestly was a bit disappointed by this one. Do I really need to take a break in improving after two days!? So the goal today is to get all the way dressed, and keep the sink shiny all day, and shine it again before bed.

Well I showered and got dressed, and my sink is still shiny. Check. Ok, it also says to go sign up and check out "big tent." I guess this is where I start receiving bucket loads of emails. So far I've gotten two. I signed up to get 1 daily digest so I don't get 10-12 emails per day. When I did this, I used my "spam" address that I use for signing up for things like coupons, advice, etc. I noticed that I had to change my password and forgot to update it on my Blackberry, so I had a bunch of emails sitting in my inbox that I didn't know about! Luckily there wasn't anything too important.

Bring on the emails Flylady!

Side note: It's Laundry day, so I've already changed the towels, sheets, and run 3 loads of laundry! I also got our special dishwasher detergent/cleaner in the mail so I'm currently "shining" our dishwasher as well. Woohoo! Isn't it nice to have appliances that do most of the work for you!? Now I just need to get my garage key back so I can mow the lawn. Too bad it's not a riding mower.

Sink Chronicles: Day 2

2011-07-21T14:34:00.005-06:00

Click here if you missed Day 1.

Like I mentioned before, I'm cheating a bit by calling this Day 2 since I only finished Day 1 this morning. I'm OK with it though, are you?

Day 2: Get Dressed to Lace Up Shoes

Here is today's task description.

Honestly I think the way she labeled this is a little strange, grammatically. Oh, well. This morning (I think it was still morning...maybe noon) I showered and got dressed. I did not, however, lace up my shoes. It's summer, so I pretty much wear flip flops unless I'm mowing the lawn or exercising. Luckily I've been pretty good about this lately so it wasn't much of a change from my usual.

The purpose of these baby steps is to build a routine, so naturally, on Day 2, I still have to do Day 1's task and this will continue through the rest of the 31 days. Day 1's task was to shine the sink. Luckily I don't have to do the 3 hour process daily, or it would never get done. On Flylady's Shiny Sink 101, she also had some tips on how to keep the sink shiny. My favorite tip was to keep a towel by the sink to dry out the sink every time you use it or leave the kitchen. (Change the towel daily.) The idea is that you'll get into that habit, as will the rest of your family. Also, don't put any dirty dishes in your sink! Put them in the dishwasher. If you don't have a dishwasher, put a dish tub under the sink and put them there.

We tend to stack ours on the counter next to the sink anyway, so it's not a change for us to not put them in the sink. How can you use the sink if it's full of dishes? Also, they get all slimy and gross when you put them in the sink. Our problem is that the dishwasher doesn't get emptied when the load is finished washing, so the dirty dishes can't go in until the clean dishes are taken out. Today I will be emptying the clean dishes so I can put the dirty dishes in. Tonight before I go to bed, I will wash the few hand dishes, and then windex my sink again.

Update: I just found this page on Flylady's website. Apparently there's more to putting on her shoes that she lets on in her baby steps pages. Not sure if I'm up to wearing tie-up shoes every day.

Sink Chronicles: Day 1

2011-07-21T13:19:00.005-06:00

In an effort to try and get my life and house back (was it ever?) in order I decided to try out this flylady that I've heard people talking about. I've been referred to her website by multiple people in the past, but whenever I went to it, I just didn't have the patience to figure out where to get started. This time I delved a bit deeper to figure it out.

I finally found a page called Baby Steps and it has a day-by-day plan of how to get into a routine. I decided to follow this routine and blog about my experience each day! How fun. When I'm done with the baby steps, I might just see if I can figure out a way to get her a better/cleaner website!

Day 1: Shine Your Sink

Day 1 for me was yesterday. I was reading her website after Joshua went to bed and thought I'd start today, but the more I read, the more I wanted to get started right then. So at 10:30pm I started the sink shining process. The process takes 2 1/2 hours! Ok, I only did one side of my sink before I crashed. I shined the other half this morning.

Here are her tips on how to shine a sink, revised/edited by me:

Shiny Sink 101

This process is to deep clean your sink and get it to its shiny potential. This is not an everyday process. Once it gets to shiny, all you have to do is keep it shiny.

Supplies:

Bleach
Comet/Ajax/Baking Soda
S.O.S. pad (if stainless steel sink)
Scrubby sponge
White Towel
Windex

Take all the dishes out of the sink. (Put them anywhere you need to, even on the floor if you have no other place.)
RINSE SINK (I used my dish brush to get rid of any food residue.)
Fill one side with hot water and 1 cup of bleach and let sit for 1 hour. Pull plug with tongs, or don some long rubber gloves and pull plug by hand. (You can remove some of the water to the other side if you can't reach the plug.) Be careful not to get any bleach water on you or your clothes.
RINSE SINK (Again, be careful not to splash the bleach water on you or clothes.)
*Stainless steel sinks only: Use an S.O.S. pad to scrub sink. It polishes the finish and will have it looking like new (do not use on faucet, sprayer, or inside of drains, it will scratch them). RINSE SINK again.
Scrub sink with cleaner (Comet, Ajax, or baking soda) and scrubby sponge. Use an old toothbrush to scrub around faucet and hard-to-reach areas.
Take a sharp edge and clean around the rim of the sink, just like you would clean dirt out from under your fingernails. Be careful not to remove caulking or sealing around sink if present.
RINSE SINK (This time it's very important because you don't want to mix bleach cleaners with ammonia cleaners, it causes harmful/deadly gasses!)
Dry sink with clean towel.
Clean sink with a window cleaner, like Windex.
Put all your cleaning supplies away. It's counterproductive to leave a mess when you clean something.

You can see why it takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours to do, huh? When it's done, it looks so nice! In fact, I just ate my PB&J lunch admiring my shiny sink.

Before. Left side is full of water/bleach, soaking.

Before and after: Left side after, right side before.

Another before and after...pretty obvious which is before and which is after. Mind you, we didn't have a filthy sink, those are just water deposits!

After. Both sides shiny.

Lake Tahoe Trip 2011

2011-07-19T12:54:00.003-06:00

We went on our annual Lake Tahoe trip for the 4th of July this year. We got there very late on June 30th and stayed until July 7th and had a really nice vacation.

Day 1: We took it pretty easy the first day. We slept in, ate a nice breakfast, packed a lunch, took a walk to the park, and had a picnic. At the park, Joshua slept in the stroller while we ate and then we played some ping pong and there were some little bitty lawn chairs and a baby swing that we put Joshua in.

Day 2: We slept in again and eventually headed down to the beach (it's amazing how long it takes to do something when you get all ready to go and then it's time for Joshua's nap). At the beach we mostly just played in the sand. The water is really high this year so it's FREEEEZING cold. Needless to say, Joshua wasn't a fan of going into the water at all, not even his feet. That night my cousin and her boyfriend (Sylvia and Frank...and Burley the Bulldog) came and we had enchiladas for dinner. yum! I made them with rice in the sauce and rolled half and tore the other half.

Day 3: We went on a hike around Spooner Lake (Dave, Joshua, Sylvia, and me). It was more like a nature walk, but a pretty area, for sure. I was wondering why people didn't swim in that lake, since it's sure to be warmer than Tahoe, but then we saw a sign warning of Leeches. Blech. That evening everyone else arrived: My aunt and her boyfriend (Karen and Greg), my mom's cousin and his wife and daughter (Darrel, Deia, and Mayara), his wife's nephew and his girlfriend (? and Mayara). It was a full house! That night we had Lasagne made by Sylvia with thinly shaved carrots and zucchini in it. Yum again!

Day 4: Sunday, so we went to church, took a nap, went on a walk, and then Darrel made ribs for dinner. oh. my.

Day 5: Independence Day! We woke up early to go to a ceremony at the lake (can't spell the word...revaly? revally? revely?) I spent the afternoon making a birthday cake, someone decorated the golf cart for the parade, and then there was the parade and the picnic. Tons of food as usual. We stuffed our faces with BBQ chicken, hot dogs, and MORE RIBS! At the end we snatched up extra left over drinks and food (and my grandmother snatched a few extra bottles of wine and hid them in a bag - as usual. hehehe. silly.). Then we headed home to eat cake for little Mayara's 5th birthday before the fireworks started. We debated going to watch the fireworks from the shore, but decided that it would be too loud for Joshua, so we ended up watching them from the deck and Joshua was fascinated...until he fell asleep.

Day 6: Darrel and company left early, before anyone else was even up. We bummed around a bit and then went to China beach (Dave, Joshua, Sylvia, and I) and played in the sand and water (it was warmer water there, since it's shallower and has black sand). Joshua was covered in sand, and even ate a few grains...crunchy! Frank had been working to get a bolt on his motorcycle loose all week and finally got it off that morning, so once he got it fixed, we all had an early dinner of burgers and hot dogs and then everyone else headed home again.

Day 7: Dave and I watched a movie in the morning while Joshua took a long nap, we went hiking up Shakespeare Rock and planned to have lunch at the top, but noticed some menacing clouds, lightening, and thunder rolling in, so we headed down quickly and almost MISSED getting poured on. We enjoyed the storm from the deck instead of going to the beach again like we planned. Then we had dinner of lemon cod with my grandparents.

Day 8: We washed sheets, vacuumed, and cleaned up after ourselves, and then headed home. They were fixing some scratches on the driveway which made it a bit complicated to pack up, but we got it figured out. On the way home, we noticed that Joshua had a fever ("Ding!" oh, that's why he's been taking long naps...), which turned into a pretty nasty flu/cold bug and was passed on to me, and then Dave, and it's almost finished running its course, two weeks later.

Besides getting sick, which is almost a given being around so many different people for a week, it was a wonderful trip and it was really refreshing to spend so much time together and not have to worry about a lot of things.

So Cal and Vegas, Baby!

2011-07-18T13:00:00.001-06:00

My cousin got married on May 7th in Redlands, CA. I also had a friend getting married on May 13th in Albuquerque, NM, with a reception the following weekend in Las Vegas, NV. I also have a bunch of friends in Vegas and NM. So I had a choice to make. I obviously couldn't go to all three of them (three road trips in three weeks, no thanks!) I figured family should come first, and I could make a stop in Vegas and see friends, including the one getting married, on the way.

So my brother Alex, little Joshua, and I (Dave had to work *sad face*) packed up the car on Thursday morning, and headed to Vegas. That night I had a blast chatting it up with girls I love, while Alex did homework. Friday morning I hit up my favorite store EVER (H&M) for some new clothes (hadn't bought any new clothes - except maternity clothes - since the last time I was there...two years ago).

Then we headed down to California. We got there in time for dinner at my Aunt and Uncle's house, and had a delicious dinner made by Aunt Emiko: Rice, spring rolls, and orange chicken (was it orange? sesame? sweet and sour?...it was delicious).

Alex, my dad, Joshua, and I shared a hotel room in Redlands that night and hop-skip-and-a-jump-ed over to the Redlands Temple in the morning for Cynthia's wedding. I stayed in the waiting room while Joshua ~~screamed~~ slept peacefully during the ceremony. After the luncheon, we all crashed for a bit on couches until the reception that evening where Joshua got passed around from relative to relative during the festivities. We left early from the reception, which is unusual for us - we're usually the first to come and last to leave, but Joshua had been patient enough with us keeping him up way past his bedtime already.

Sunday morning we packed up, went to Sacrament meeting, and then drove all the way home. The last half of the drive was peppered with screaming Joshua (he wasn't a fan of the changes in altitude), and then a torrential downfall of rain, so the drive home was longer than planned, but we all made it home in one piece...physically.

I came home to a spotless house with a bouquet of flowers and a stack of girl scout cookies on the table - happy mother's day! (best. gift. ever.)

Gerber Generation Photos - PLEASE VOTE NOW!

2011-06-28T22:03:00.002-06:00

Ok, so I'm one of those moms who enter their babies into baby contests. Of course I think he should win all of them! Anyway...I'm entering Joshua into the Gerber Generation Baby Contest (could win a $50,000 scholarship!!!) and I need help picking the photo to enter because I can just pick one!

I sat Joshua down (new thing--sitting on his own!) on our bed and snapped some photos while trying to get him to giggle. Please comment or like the photo you like best on facebook (I know it's hard to pick just ONE...you can pick multiples if you want...just not all of them, mmmkay?).

The deadline is June 30th! (Thursday!) so please do so ASAP so I can have one picked by Wednesday!

LINK TO FACEBOOK PHOTO ALBUM

Homes

2011-06-16T21:23:00.007-06:00

I had the opportunity of going to a few of the parade of homes today with a friend. I'm definitely planning on going to all of them next year with Dave. It's so fun to look at average houses, super green houses, and ueber expensive houses. The only problem is that whenever I look at something and think, "oooh, I like that" you can almost always guarantee that Dave is looking at it and thinking, "ewww, I hate that." So someday when we have oodles of money and want to build our dream home, we'll probably have to have his and hers houses so we can both be happy with the design.

Here are some quick snapshots I got with my phone camera:

This is a master bathroom, believe it or not...the first door on the right was the shower, tub, toilet, counters, etc. Then there was a closet in the second door, storage and a little bench on the left (perfect for putting shoes on!) and at the end of the hall...can you guess?...my friend and I both thought this was a brilliant idea...it's a nursery! Probably the quietest area of the house, still close enough to the bedroom to be accessible in the middle of the night but far enough away that everyone can sleep well. Brilliant idea. And when you don't need a nursery anymore it can be a little reading room sanctuary or something.

This is the master bedroom of that same house. I just liked the window above the bed.

Again the same house, this is a cute little reading nook at the top of the stairs. Wonderful idea.

Ok, so turns out I just took a lot of pictures of the same house (the super "green" house). These were bamboo wood floors and I really liked the way the dark wood was set in the light wood in that pattern. Simple, yet enough to make it interesting.

This is just an inspiration piece. I like the way they used smaller glass tiles to separate the tile from the carpet. I'm not sure if I'd pick those tiles, but something similar would be nice.

Finally, here's a great view from a $1.5 Million house we went through. It had a ton of windows and lofty ceilings. There was so much natural light even all the way down into the basement. This was also a really nice house but I didn't get any pictures of the house itself. Next year...next year...

T Minus X Days

2011-06-14T17:20:00.002-06:00

Every year we go on vacation to Tahoe. Now to keep some anonymity I'm not going to post when we're going and how long it is until then. But just know that it's on my mind and I'm SO EXCITED!

Since I've been thinking about Tahoe, I realized that I'm not so ready for it yet. I mean I'm ready for the vacation and time with Dave and extended family. I'm super excited about that part. However, I'm not physically ready.

I've been using giving birth as an excuse for too long, and it's time to give it up. I am on a mission to get back into shape. No, I'm not considering myself fat, I just consider the fact that I huff and puff after going up a flight of stairs a little pathetic. I can't take very big steps any more, Dave always has to slow down his gait for me, and I get headaches from my bad posture.

So today I joined the gym! I even worked out for a little while!

I'm not used to being away from Joshua yet, so it was only a 20 minute workout (plus I left him with my in-laws who were also watching a 6-week-old and a 14 month old as well), but it's a start! I've also found that even though I didn't get to the gym until 10:30 am, it was still a good start to my day and has made me much more productive.

I had found myself in a downward spiral where I'd sleep in, feel bad about sleeping in, bum around, feel bad about bumming around, so I'd surf the net, feel bad about surfing the net, etc. until it was Joshua's bedtime, and then I'd try and hurry and accomplish something to make the whole day not a complete waste, which means I'd stay up late, and sleep in again the next morning...

Not any more! aHA!

Project Finish Projects

2011-06-10T19:02:00.004-06:00

We got lovely shelves to put up in the side of the Nursery/Office/Craft Room that's the Office/Craft Room side so that I could get the boxes of stuff everywhere organized and out of the way.

Once I started going through things and putting them on the shelves, I realized just how many projects I have started but not finished. Including: some skirts I tried to make in high school, a fire inspired quilt, a jeans quilt, a wool blanket quilt, my couches, curtains for the dining room, curtains for the living room, too-short pants to make into capris/shorts, etc.

So I decided to dedicate some time to finishing up projects that I've started.

On Monday I had a friend come over to borrow my cutting mat and rotary cutter. I figured while the stuff was out, I might as well do something with it. So I got out the jeans I had started cutting up into squares.

Tangent - I started cutting up these jeans into squares a few weeks ago when I put up the shelves and somehow spending two days holding the ruler in place while cutting squares injured my wrist, and it still hurts! boo...hiss...I need a gypsy gripper!

Getting some inspiration from the zig-zag quilt on my cousin's really cute blog (don't be fooled by the pinwheels in the first picture). I set to work. I matched up all the dark squares with all the light squares to make the zig-zags. What I forgot to take into consideration was that by making a 7" square into a square made of two triangles with a 1/4" seam I lost half an inch, so I had 70 squares that were 6.5" and 60 squares that were 7". Whoops.

But hey, it's my first quilt (rag quilts don't count), so I figure what the heck, who cares!? I'll just try not to look too closely at it whenever we use it for picnics, fireworks, camping, etc.

So all week I've been hard at work sewing the squares into strips, and then the strips to each other and I finished today!

Now the problem is that I don't have fabric for the back or binding, nor do I have any batting...but that will have to wait. So I really just got further along in the process of the project, but I'm considering that done!

I can't decide on what to work on next. I have two of the three curtains in the living room done, so they're unmatching and obvious. The couch takes the cake on unmatching and obvious. I only have one pair of shorts currently and it'd be nice to have another. Shall I put it to a vote? (See poll on right)

Toof!

2011-06-06T13:24:00.001-06:00

Today I was feeding Joshua and he fell asleep while eating and chomped down. Owch! Yep, there's a little razor sharp tooth poking through his gums!

Teef

2011-06-04T23:29:00.002-06:00

Joshua is officially teething.

I mentioned that he woke up screaming at night at playgroup and a lot of other mothers said that their children did that during teething, so I inspected his lower gums with my finger, and sure enough, there are two little bumps that make him squirm and squeal when I rub them.

I'm not sure how long he's actually been teething, or how long they take to break through, but he's been more chill than usual as long as they're not aching too much. He chomps down on anything in sight though. I was doing dishes while he was in his walker toy and I looked over to see him leaning over munching on the steering wheel. He sure is a cutie patootie.

5 Months Old!

2011-05-31T11:24:00.002-06:00

Joshua turned 5 months old last Friday. On time for once, here's an update:

He's getting more and more active. He reaches for anything he can grab. This makes eating with him on the lap quite an experience. We haven't been doing too many "solid" food meals lately, although we have been trying a spoonful of sweet potatoes every day for the past three days. He doesn't seem too excited about them yet, so we may go back to rice and pears. He tried a bite of applesauce the other day and it made for some classic facial expressions.

As far as stats go, I'm going to have to guess. He's about 16 lbs, and probably around 28 inches long. We just packed up the 3/6 month clothes and got out the 6/9 month clothes, although some of the 6/9 month sleepers are already almost too short! I'm excited to dress him in cute summery outfits so I can see his thigh rolls more often to pinch them. :)

Joshua babbles a ton, especially when we're on walks with the baby bjorn and sometimes in the regular stroller, too. The tireder he gets, the louder he gets. Speaking of louder, he's learned how to yell and scream when he's happy, which makes his sad yells and screams that much louder. Time to invest in earplugs?

Joshua still goes to bed at 8:30 or 9 and will sleep solid until 4, 5, or 6am, wake up for a feeding, and then go back to sleep for another 3 to 4 hours. Lately, though, he's been waking up at 11:30 or 12 (or both!) screaming his head off and writhing around. So I have to go in there and pick him up to calm him down and then he'll go right back to sleep (I don't feed him then, though). I'm not sure what that's all about, but I'm not a huge fan except for the cuddling with him once he calms down.

He's still not rolling over yet, but he'll roll onto his side from his back sometimes, but doesn't seem to have any desire to go past that. He's almost sitting up on his own though, and when sitting in a lap, he'll usually strain to sit up (as in, not leaning back against you).

He's a very social baby and loves to be held by anyone. He grins and anyone that gives him any attention and will laugh his head off at people, too. In the carseat, he loves to tell his hands and toy's what's what, especially right before he drifts off to sleep. It's really funny to see him get that stern look and hear him grumble at his hands.

I think that's about it for the update, so here's a great video of his new yelling and screaming fun.

Eating and Raspberries Don't Mix Well

2011-05-24T07:12:00.002-06:00

I tried feeding Joshua rice cereal and pears when he first turned 4 months old (end of April), but then we went to California for the weekend and we took a break from eating "solids" and didn't pick it up again until this week. Between then and now, Joshua has learned to blow raspberries with his tongue (you know...sticking your tongue out and making a "thbthbthbthbthbthb" sound...). Well, today we tried rice cereal again, and Joshua thought it was SO fun to do that with food in his mouth...I thought it was pretty funny, too. So I ran to get the camera to catch it on video, but then, of course he stopped doing it. If you watch to the end, he does it a few times though. This is actually the first eating experience I got on video, too.

The Bee's Knees

2011-05-23T19:00:00.002-06:00

Last year a bumble bee flew into our fireplace (I'm assuming from the chimney) and got stuck there, since I have our fireplace covered with that plastic shrink-wrap stuff for windows to help weatherproof them, since we can't use our fireplace anyway. Yeah, last year we got three truckloads of firewood for free, then got our chimney inspected and were told that if we had a fire in the fireplace, our chimney, and then roof would catch on fire. So I covered it with shrink wrap to keep the drafts out in the winter.

Anyway, that poor bumble bee died and I never got around to taking off the shrink-wrap to get it out. The other day a whole hive of honeybees decided to pay their respects to the dead bumblebee. There were probably about 10 bees in there humming and buzzing around. Half of the honeybees got out one by one through a tiny hole at the top, and I caught them and put them outside. The rest died within an hour :( R.I.P.

And here's a video of the bees with me mumbling about something in the background

4 Months - Doctor Appointment, Stats, Shots

2011-05-14T16:41:00.005-06:00

And by "tomorrow," I really meant "in two weeks." You have no clue what I'm talking about?...I thought so.

Joshua had his 4 month check up at the doctor's office on April 28th. I'd love to say it went off without a hitch, but then entered the insurance woes. The woes that we don't have any. Doctors sure are expensive. Long story short, we thought we were getting one insurance at his 2 month appointment, so we told them so, and so they gave him his shots, etc. Then I got the bill for like $800 because we didn't end up going with that company because they denied Dave coverage because he has back problems related to Spine Abifida Acolta. Soooo since we had told them we were getting insurance they gave us the "expensive" shots at his 2 month appointment. After many stressful tears on my end, we applied for CHIP and went to his 4 month appointment assuming we wouldn't get it, so they gave us the "cheap" shots (expensive and cheap shots are exactly the same, but the state gives them the cheap shots for those without insurance) and gave us a discount on the other fees ($14 to give a shot?! lots more to look in his mouth and ears and say he's growing great?!...I need to switch careers!).

Was that short enough?

Joshua is growing wonderfully, which is what any mother loves to hear and brag about. He's 27 inches long (95%ile...we're not surprised), he weighs 14 lbs 15 oz (50%ile), and his head is 43.5 cm (75%ile).

Joshua started eating "solid foods" the day before his appointment, because the doctor suggested that. He has eaten some rice cereal mixed with breastmilk, and some blended up canned pears. We did rice cereal for 3 days and then pears for 3 days. I wouldn't suggest feeding your baby pears 3 days in a row. I have pictures of the results if anyone feels so inclined (email me). He gobbled it all down like a champ (once he got used to the spoon idea). That was put on hold when we went to California last weekend, and hasn't been picked back up again yet.

He sleeps like a champ as well. He has been going to bed around 8:30 or 9pm every night and usually sleeps solid at least until 3am, but sometimes we can push it to 5am or 6am. If he wakes up at 3am, sometimes I can get him back to sleep with just a binky, but sometimes he's just too hungry to sleep. Then he'll wake up again around 5 or 6am and I'll feed him again, and then he'll go back to sleep until 7:30 or 8 or 8:30. Then he's usually up for the day. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. Now I just need to work on getting myself in bed at a decent hour and sleeping the whole night through.

I got Joshua a playmat for $10 or $15 (can't remember) and ever since he has been very grabby. It's like he just needed that mat for him to realize that he has hands. He grabs at anything in his reach - toys, hair, fingers, cell phones, food, plates, computers, burp cloths, etc. Then whatever he is strong enough to lift (e.g: cell phone is too heavy), ends up in his mouth (unless we take it away first). However, he hasn't figured out how to turn an object the correct way, so it's usually just his hand in his mouth, with whatever is in his hand facing the other way.

He also enjoys his bumbo and walker, and the new views that they bring. I spend most of the day trying to make him laugh. Some sure fire ways are "sneezing", making funny noises, lightly tossing him in the air, and swinging him back and forth by his hands and feet (that one always always always gets him giggling).

Every time I put him in his crib to sleep, he always grabs his blanket and pulls it up close to his chin. I have had to figure out a way to get it so it won't cover up his face when he sleeps. It takes some tricky tucking.

And that's it for his 4 month update.

Firsts

2011-04-28T22:37:00.002-06:00

Today was the first time Joshua walked...er...I mean...let's start over.

Today was the first time Joshua was babysat. Yes, Dave and I finally had a date night with just us! I've been a little paranoid about leaving Joshua with someone. I'm more worried that he'll scream his head off the whole time and they won't know what's wrong, and will never want to watch him again (which I know from experience is really a rough thing to go through). So we picked the most baby-savvy person we know to watch him while we went out: My brother Alex.

Ok, I'm exaggerating again. I don't think he's even ever changed a diaper before. But not to worry, Joshua goes to bed at about 8pm, and we left at about 8:30pm, meaning all Alex did was, literally, sit.

To be posted tomorrow: Joshua's Doctor Woes

4 Month Preview

2011-04-27T18:36:00.002-06:00

Joshua turned 4 months old today! To celebrate I moved him up to size 3 diapers and brought up the walker from storage and wiped it down. Yesterday we tried "solid" food (aka: rice cereal) and today some of it actually was swallowed!

Joshua Giggles :)

2011-04-20T17:25:00.001-06:00

Crick

2011-04-19T20:54:00.002-06:00

The last little while I've had a crick in my neck and my whole left side from the top of my spine, out to my shoulder, and down behind my shoulder blade. I blame it on nursing and holding Joshua all the time. But it's probably also from simply bad posture.

Since it has been hurting on my left, I've been stretching my left side of my neck, shoulder, pec, etc. to no avail. Last weekend I went to a Women's Expo/Fair thing with some friends and we stopped by a chiropractor's booth. I had the straightest neck, but I had the tightest muscles (we got free neck massages...heavenly). I noticed that the massage therapist worked mostly on my right side, and yesterday I noticed that I always seem to have my head tipped or turned slightly to the right.

I put two and two together and realized that I need to be stretching my right side to get my left side to stop hurting. As I type this, I am looking more to my left, and as I do other things throughout the day I try to pull my shoulders down, tip my head a bit to the left, and stretch my right muscles. At night I try to sleep with my head facing the left whether I'm on my tummy or my back.

Hopefully all that will help me have better posture and help my neck and shoulder stop hurting. We'll see how it goes.

St. George - The Windy City?

2011-04-18T14:20:00.004-06:00

Last week we went down to St. George. We went mostly because we have a client down there for our tech support company but Joshua and I tagged along as well for a little mini-vacation.

We drove down on Tuesday. Joshua slept for two hours in the car, then I woke him to feed him, and then ten minutes back on the road he fell asleep again for the remaining two hours. He had a little stuffy nose last week so I was glad he was able to sleep the whole way to help him get over his cold. We stopped by our clients for a bit and then went to dinner at Pancho & Lefty's. Then we crashed at a Howard Johnson hotel for the night because there was no room available at our timeshare that night. Joshua spent his first night in a pack & play and slept like a champ.

Wednesday Dave worked on computers and talked to a few of the other companies nearby to see if they would be interested in our services. While he did that I window shopped at the outlet mall and went a few other places to find a swimming suit for Joshua. I ended up finding a really cute suit, swim shirt, and sunglasses at The Children's Place in the outlet mall.

Waiting for me to try on shoes.

I was hoping to be able to get in a swim while we waited for Dave to finish up, since it was nice and warm, but it got super WINDY (55 mph gusts), so we opted against swimming. Then we met my aunt for dinner at the Bent Fork, which is a Italian Southwest Grill (italian food infused with a southwestern flair, a.k.a. green chile). It was delicious and we had enough leftovers for dinner the next night, too.

Thursday Dave went fixing computers again while Joshua and I stayed at the resort. We got ready for swimming, and Dave came home and hung out with us at the pool for a little while. It was still windy, so we didn't stay long. That night we went down to the hot tub though. Joshua sat in the bumbo on the deck while we soaked. I wish I had gotten a picture of that.

Friday we headed back home so Dave could go to work that evening. Joshua slept most of the way back again and I definitely think it helped him get over his cold completely.

Busy Day

2011-04-11T21:09:00.004-06:00

Today I had a ton of things to do, and I did a ton of those things. Now I'm taking a break before I do the rest of those things.

I...(*inhale dramatically*)

Got up at 9:15, fed Joshua, took a shower while Joshua was in his cow chair, put him down for a nap, drove up to North O to get my Safety and Emissions check on the Nissan (which has been dead for 6 months and is now among the living again but expired), remembered I needed Dave's pay stubs from the Tahoe (which he took to the body shop, but was stopping by to get some stuff), drove south to find Dave (he wasn't answering his phone), found out Dave was more north than I was, drove north and met Dave at Target, discovered he could only find one of the pay stubs, drove home to find the others, made a huge mess looking for the stubs, left without the stubs, discovered some checks that needed to be deposited, deposited the checks, got Joshua's birth certificate, fed Joshua, went to a WIC appointment, got approved without the pay stubs, drove south to where I thought the DMV was, looked up the DMV's address on my phone, drove north to where the DMV is, tried to register the car (it failed emissions), got a temporary permit so I can drive legally, went home to take my antihistamine, got my allergy shots, picked up some swim diapers from a friend where I used to work (THANKS!), fed Joshua, stopped by home again to get baby bjorn, stopped by body shop to get Dave's sunglasses from the Tahoe, went to Walmart to buy swim trunks (they didn't have any smaller than 12 months), pacifier thermometer (to test for baby fever), baby tylenol (to reduce possible baby fever), baby orajel (to soothe baby teething pain?), and humidifier (to reduce baby stuffiness), drove home, fed Joshua, bathed Joshua, put Joshua down for the night.

Meanwhile poor little Joshua is being toted around with me everywhere, naps interrupted, being undressed, weighed, measured, in and out of the car, etc. all with a stuffy nose, possible fever, crying, chewing on everything, and slobbering. The poor little guy just wanted to sleep, and I sat in the car and let him sleep some for a while longer when I got to a destination (he'd fall asleep if I drove more than 5 minutes).

Right now I'm taking a break from my productive day but my pillow is calling me louder and louder, so I may just go answer it instead of finishing up my long list of to-dos today. Zzzzzz....

E.A.S.Y.

2011-04-06T13:32:00.003-06:00

So I've been following the EASY (Eat, Activity, Sleep, You) schedule from the Baby Whisperer book.

His schedule usually goes thus: Eat for 10 minutes; burp for 5 to 10 minutes; play, be toted around, tummy time, etc. for about an hour until he gets sleepy; nap time.

The only problem is, that he gets hungry every two hours almost on the dot, meaning that his naps are only about half an hour long before he wakes up starving. Or, if he stays awake longer, when it's time for him to go to sleep, he's hungry and doesn't want to go to sleep until he's fed. If I get him to go to sleep without feeding him, his nap is even shorter and he's even MORE hungry, and MORE vocal about it, when he wakes up.

What I'm wondering is, should I switch it around to be AESY so he gets better naps, or should I just tough it out for another month and hope that solid foods will keep him full longer? Or should I scrap the whole thing and just feed him when he's hungry, and let him sleep when he's tired?

3 Months Old!

2011-04-01T20:17:00.002-06:00

Here's a collage I made on Picnik of some pictures I took of Joshua today. He's technically 3 months and 5 days, but who's counting?!

Stats: I haven't measured how long he is lately, and that's going to have to wait because he's currently drifting off to dreamland for his final nap of the day (see sleep, below). I did the weigh-yourself-then-weigh-yourself-holding-baby-then-subtract trick today and it equaled 15.5 lbs! I'm guessing it's a little off though. I guess we'll see next month how much he really weighs at his next doctor appointment.

Eat: There's not much to report in this area. He's still breast-feeding. He still eats every 2 to 3 hours during the day and 1 to 3 times at night. He's obviously getting bigger, so it must be working.

Sleep: He takes a 40 to 50 minute (sometimes up to an hour and 15 minute) nap after being awake for an hour and a half or so. At night he gets a bath as late as I can push it (between 8:30 and 9:30 usually) and then usually sleeps a good long 6 to 9 hour shift followed by 2 to 3 hour shifts until about 9am. The biggest update is he's sleeping without being swaddled now! (as of about a week ago).

Poop: Nothing to report.

Other: He sucks on his hands a lot now, and likes to look around a lot more. He hates being in the Baby Bjorn facing me because he can't see anything. He can sit up well in the Bumbo now, and loves to sit on my lap and he still loves the cow chair, too. If he gets really upset and nothing will calm him, the swing will usually do the trick. We don't do a ton of tummy time, so he isn't rolling or anything, however today I put him on his back on the ground while I threw a load of laundry in, and I came back and he had turned 45 degrees. His favorite toy is his burp cloth. He doesn't really grab for anything else, but once that burp cloth is on his lap, he pulls it right up to his mouth to chew on.

Today was a great day without too much screaming (on either of our parts...me, into a pillow, of course). Even on days that don't go so well, I love toting him around with me everywhere. He is seriously the cutest thing I've ever known.

Goals Update

2011-03-28T15:26:00.002-06:00

Clean house up and out - Our bedroom is almost completely de-junked. Only Dave's dresser and one small box of knickknacks on my bookshelf remain. Currently it's a disaster zone of things out of their places (clothes, towel, diaper bag, bed un-made, etc.), but it's one room that I can look at and know that there is minimal extra stuff. The living room, dining room, and kitchen are also similar, however the mail and dishes tend to pile up around. I need to figure out a system of keeping that clutter away. The nursery/my office isn't really functional right now because Alex, my brother, is staying with us in his post-mission limbo, and his things are residing in there currently. The biggest challenge is still the hallway (stuff stash) upstairs. I hope to tackle that this week (which I've said the last 4 weeks).

Craft - this has been put on hold a bit. I have been collecting toilet paper tubes to make a frame for the mirror in the dining room, though, and I'm excited to make that.

Develop schedule - Well, I still do laundry every Friday. That's really the only stable thing in my week. I have been consistently going to bed around 11pm and getting up at 9am though (including a few interruptions during the night).

Save money - I've been making more food instead of buying food, and I'm happy to report that we're spending a couple hundred dollars less per month on food because of it. YAY! I'm excited for Spring to finally decide to stick around, so I won't use the heater as much (it's currently snowing outside...yuck). I'm also hoping that I can convince Dave to remember to turn off as many computers upstairs as possible, whenever possible.

Get back in shape - Well last week I walked up to campus to go to the Marriott Center to see Mark Zuckerberg and Senator Hatch have a discussion about technology. I just about died hiking up the big hill by the tennis courts. Then I had to hoof it up and down the full flight of stairs a couple of times to take crying Joshua out to feed him. Man, I was huffing and puffing. On a bright note, that was a definite step toward getting in shape, but I do know I'm nowhere near there yet. On good-weather days I try to get out and walk (or run HA!) with Joshua in the stroller. I'm hoping to run/walk the Stake Easter 5K this year. I went to Stake Aerobics a couple times, but I wasn't a huge fan.

Read lots - I've been reading the book club book every month. I will also be reading more as I have sworn off facebook and blogs except once/day, so while I feed Joshua, I plan on reading instead of checking those.

Adjustments- I'm wondering now if I should add some goals in different areas of my life. Any suggestions?

Stau

2011-03-17T13:04:00.003-06:00

One of my favorite German words is Stau. I learned it when my host-mom in Vienna told me a story about when she had her second child. She got so much Stau, or congestion, or a clogged milk duct, that she had to be hospitalized for a week. To this day I'm not sure why she told me that story. It was very out of the blue. But after that I always remembered the word Stau and started to hear it on the radio in traffic reports, too.

I've had a clogged milk duct twice now: about a month ago, and yesterday/today. It's miserable! It was too painful to have him eat on that side, so I pumped about every two hours and I put a heating pack on it the rest of the time (this includes during the night...Zzzzzz...soooo tired...). I also popped the ibuprofen whenever I could and drank lots of water and massaged the area, which is all pretty textbook for relieving clogs.

Nothing happened though! Almost nothing would come out when I pumped, and there was no pain relief. This morning I took a nap with a heating pad on it, and thanks to some advice, let Joshua eat from that side again.

Immediate relief! I've decided to rename Joshua...Drain-o.

2 Months - Doctor Appointment, Shots

2011-03-05T16:34:00.004-07:00

Joshua turned 2 months old on Sunday. He had his 2 month appointment on Thursday. He had to get his first round of shots at the appointment, which made him quite sad the rest of the day, but he seemed to be over it by the next day.

Stats: He is 24.5 inches tall (90%ile), 12 lbs 4 oz (55%ile), and his head is 41 cm in circumference (75%ile). His height percentage went down 5%, his weight went up 30%, and his head went up 25%. He's sure a growing baby. It makes me feel like I'm doing something right.

Eat: I think Joshua has gotten a better handle on eating, if that was at all possible. He's always been a down-to-business eater and finishes in 10 minutes or so. Now it sometimes even takes him less than that, and then he lets out a few LARGE burps (sans spit-up usually) and sometimes will eat a bit more after them, and then he's full. He doesn't seem to react too badly to things that I eat, even if it is spicy Indian food. He eats about every two to three hours during the day, and slightly more often after 5pm until bedtime.

Sleep: In the last week Joshua has really been sleeping well. He takes a few naps throughout the day, never longer than an hour and a half, usually only 45 minutes or so. He'll fall asleep if I swaddle him, pop in the binky, and put him down. If he doesn't I hold him swaddled, binky in, until he calms enough to fall asleep on his own, and then I put him down and he does so. (Of course there are exceptions when he just won't calm down enough for a nap unless he's in the swing with the music on.) The past few nights he has been sleeping a lot longer. For example, last night, he slept from 10pm until 7am, and then again from 7:30am to 10am. That's right, I got a ton of sleep and feel great! I hope he does it routinely. I think bathing him at night helps him to this.

Poop: Don't worry, I'll be brief. I think a lot more about his poop than I ever thought I would. I worry about the fact that his poop is green most of the time, but the doctor said not to worry about it. He told me that once his wife ate Trix and the baby had very brightly colored poop for a while thereafter. He seems to be getting less gassy and/or dealing with it better. I've noticed he usually lets a few rip when he's doing tummy time.

Other: Yesterday when I was getting my allergy shots, I fed Joshua because he was past the point of waiting for food. When I sat him up, he let some very large, loud burps out, and the 12 year old boy and his dad sitting across from me had quite the giggle about it. He burps like a man and could put anyone to shame in a burping contest.

I love having him around all the time, and he's smiling more and more. He even started to giggle a little bit (kind of a "huh huh huh" sound). I'm hoping he'll start learning to play with toys soon.

Goal Update

2011-02-26T19:49:00.002-07:00

Remember how I made a post about the goals I have made? I just thought I'd do a quick update on how I'm doing on those goals.

Clean house up and out - I have started with this. I went through my clothes as I put my summer and maternity clothes away and as I got a new dresser. I also went through the shelves above our closet when we got the new dresser. My brother is living with us for a few months as he is in post-mission limbo. That should motivate me to go through the junk upstairs so that he has an actual place to stay rather than just on the couch in the living room. I started to go through the stuff upstairs last week.

Craft/Decorate - I made two curtains out of 5 for the front room. I haven't gotten anywhere on the couch cushions. I found our family picture (Dave's family), but discovered that the frame I had set aside for it was too small. I still need to hang my yearly calendars up. I did a lot of stamping and card making about a month ago, but haven't picked it up since. It's a start.

Develop schedule - If you count sleeping in every day a schedule, then I'm set. Joshua pretty much sets my schedule, yet I have a little control over his. I follow the Eat Activity Sleep pattern more or less. I have started doing laundry every Friday, which corresponds with my TV shows being on hulu, so I can watch them while I fold the clean laundry.

Save money - I guess I've done some of this. We're working on getting the heater fixed so we don't spend as much on gas every month. We discovered a gaping hole in the main duct coming from the heater, so we're heating two rooms in the basement that don't need heating rather than our house.

Get in shape - I've been trying to eat better and make healthier foods for Dave. This includes some Indian dishes I've been trying out. We've also been having better breakfasts to start our day. I literally just made an exercising group on facebook to hopefully get some moral support in getting in shape. Also I was introduced to this website by a friend, although I'm a bit intimidated by it when I get out of breath walking a few blocks these days. I bought a stroller last week, which should also help motivate me to get out and exercising.

Read lots - Check. I've been reading the book group books as well as a few from my own shelves including Hunger Games, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and...uh...that's it.

Hopefully by this time next month, I will have more to report.

Stroller!

2011-02-22T22:49:00.003-07:00

Ok, so I check my email, facebook, and blogs that I follow almost daily, and I usually click the "new post" button about as often, but for some reason I never get around to actually posting.

I'm biting the bullet and posting about SOMETHING to hopefully get myself back into the groove.

Today I bought a stroller. I am very excited for it to come so I can go out on walks and *gasp* even runs. I'm a little nervous about getting back into shape since I'm the least in shape I've been since ever, literally. So far this year if I walk anywhere, I do so slowly, since I'm usually carrying Joshua, either in my arms or in my baby bjoern, and I don't want to jostle him too much.

I was super excited for my new stroller to come on Thursday so I could test it out. Turns out I forgot to click the final "place order" button on amazon until about an hour ago, so it won't be arriving until Friday. At least the shipping is still free!

So, here's the link to the stroller that I purchased. (Thank you Grammy and Papa, who never read this!...yes I will write them a thank you note, too.)

And here's a picture, if you don't feel like clicking on the link.

Giveaway

2011-02-22T15:32:00.001-07:00

Ok, I know everyone loves reading posts about giveaways, but I'm really hoping to win this one. (I never win any!) I get an extra entry if I blog about it. Here's the giveaway:

http://windhula.blogspot.com/2011/02/novica-giveaway.html

Go check it out!

6 Weeks

2011-02-08T21:30:00.002-07:00

Dear Tuesday,

I thought that you would be the day that my life started to look normal again. Isn’t life supposed to get easier after 6 weeks? Well you are the exact day after the 6 week mark. I guess my hopes were too high, yet not unfounded:

Sunday and Monday night, Joshua slept 6 hours at a time, followed by a 3 hour nap and helped me notice that morning is that foggy time frame that happens between when the sun comes up and noon. I actually got up, out of bed, showered, and breakfasted before 11am! I felt great. It was sunny even.

Joshua ate at 11pm last night, went to sleep at midnight, and didn’t wake up until 6am. (Silly me didn’t go to bed until 1am though…I have to work on that.) I’m really hoping that Joshua sticks to this schedule so my body gets used to not producing milk at night. I woke up completely full and soaked; it was fun. That’s the main reason I got up and showered, so maybe it’s a good thing that I get drenched.

The morning and early afternoon progressed well with Joshua sticking to a nice schedule of eating, burping, pooping, being changed, playing for a little while, fussing a tiny bit to signal nap time, being swaddled, and falling asleep on his own in his bassinet and sleeping for an hour or so.

*menacing music*

Then the actual afternoon came. He started into his “grouchy” or “gassy” routine which involves falling asleep on me, scream crying when he woke, eating some, farting some, burping after a long time, scream crying some more, eventually calming down enough to fall asleep on me again (don’t. move. a. muscle. or. he. might. wake. up.), rinse, repeat, sigh, throw something, punch the pillow, cry a little, eat chocolate, mope.

My only thing to hope for, as Joshua is still asleep on me, is that he will wake up soon, eat, poop (this is crucial to the following), and go to sleep for a good 6 hours. I was also hoping to get some cleaning done as our house looks more and more like a disaster zone. It doesn’t help that Monkey’s favorite toy is a rope that she tears to pieces all over everywhere.

Ok, so maybe I just needed to vent a little. Sorry. I’m posting it anyway. (No, Carrie, I don’t think I’m one to reserve blogging/journaling for good moods.)

Sincerely,

Post-Partum Me

1 Month Old

2011-02-01T15:06:00.004-07:00

Joshua turned 1 month old last week. I figured I'd do an update on how things are going.

Stats: I don't have any official stats this month, but I should have some next month, since he has a doctor's appointment. I did weigh him by weighing myself and then weighing myself while holding him, and according to our scale, he's 9.5 lbs! I know our scale isn't completely accurate, but even so, I knkow he's more than 8 lbs, which is about where he was at 2 weeks, so at least he's growing. I put him on my cloth cutting mat to measure him, and according to that, and my unprofessional opinion, he's 23 inches long, which is only 1/4 inch longer than at 2 weeks, so a) he isn't growing length-wise (yeah, right!), b) the doctor's office wasn't very accurate, or c) my measurements weren't very accurate.

Sleep: He's always been a pretty good sleeper (for a newborn). He seems to have his night and day figured out. He doesn't sleep as long, often, or deeply during the day--usually only an hour or so, tops. During the night he will sleep 3 to 5 hours straight, wake up to eat, poop, be changed, and then will go right back to sleep, unless I haven't gotten all the bubbles out. He's getting pretty good at falling asleep on his own. He'll toss and turn and grunt for a few minutes, but will eventually fall asleep if left alone.

Eat: He definitely has the hang of nursing. He never eats longer than 10 minutes. I think that has to do with how my milk supply comes. If he stops eating at all during that first 5 minutes, he gets sprayed all over his face. It's actually really funny. After he's done eating, it takes anywhere from 1 minute to 30 minutes to get the burps out. If he falls asleep while being burped, it usually takes longer, which means he's more unhappy about it by the time they surface.

Poop: Ok, I'll be brief about this one. He's been gassy lately, which means more fussiness, and more blowouts. I'm trying to avoid dairy products this week to see if that helps him digest better. It's going to be a long week. I'm hoping it's related to some caffeinated beverages I had last week, and not the dairy.

Other: When he's awake, he's awake. There is no in between stage for him. When he's awake during the day, I try to make sure he's mentally stimulated. I've been putting him in his cow chair. It has a vibrator on it, and when he's in it with the vibrator on, he blows lots of bubbles.

He had his first official tummy time today. He gets plenty of "tummy time" because he takes so long to burp, so he has already been developing his neck muscles. Today was his first flat-on-the-floor tummy time, proceeded by some time with the boppy pillow. We only did a few minutes of tummy time today, but here are some videos if you really want to watch them:

Lullaby

2011-01-21T14:49:00.003-07:00

I get this song stuck in my head every time I put Joshua to bed. I think I might learn the words so I can sing it to him. I've never seen the whole movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou, but I know this song on the soundtrack.

Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby

Chatty Cathys

2011-01-15T20:40:00.002-07:00

It's no secret that Dave talks a lot in his sleep. He usually talks about what's been on his mind a lot lately. He used to sell his roommate furniture when he worked at the furniture store. I've had him talk like he's in a cops & robbers situation. He has also talked about computers and restaurant stuff a lot lately.

Since Joshua was born, he still has the occasional mid-night-sleep discussion with me about the usual topics, but there is definitely evidence that baby Joshua is on his mind a lot lately.

The other night, he woke me by pushing me over towards my side of the bed concerned about the baby I was squishing. Of course I told him he was dreaming and that he should go back to sleep, but he looked directly at me and said, "No, I'm AWAKE! There's a baby right here...it was...uh...right...uh..." (He wasn't awake.) Usually when Joshua starts stirring, Dave will start stirring as well. The other night Dave wakes me up and says, "Aren't you going to check him? He's got throw up on both sides of his face!" To which I reply, "He's fine, go back to sleep." (He wasn't awake, and Joshua didn't have anything on his face, much-less any throw up.)

I'm pretty sure Joshua has inherited this trait as well. He's quite a little chatty baby when he's sleeping. He mumbles all the time. I can't wait until he's actually talking to see what he's saying. Maybe one of these days I'll catch his noisy sleeping on camera (Joshua's, not Dave's).

The Thing to Do

2011-01-11T21:46:00.003-07:00

It's that time of year again when everybody seems to be making goals and associating them with the New Year holiday. I used to make goals every year, and can guarantee that they almost always included floss daily, write in journal daily, and read scriptures daily. If you look at my journals/diaries through the years (please don't), they have a plethora of entries in January, but seem to be devoid of entries for the rest of the year. It's really a shame, since January is a rather boring month: "Today it was cold."

For the past few years I've just skipped making goals because I never reach any of them anyway. However, this year, I've just completely changed my life. I've made a full 180. I feel like with a change like that, why not start new and try to make some progression out of it?

Thus, here are my goals. I intend to keep at them by making daily, weekly, and monthly goals based on the larger goals below. Who knows? Maybe I'll even keep track of some of them here on this blog (Oh, how fun!).

Clean house up and out

De-junk
Deep clean

Craft (stamp, sew)

Finish couch
Make curtains for all windows (see save money, bullet 3)
Decorate house, hang pictures

Develop schedule for sanity's sake

Chores
Projects/goals
Fun time

Save money

Budget
Eat healthy/schedule meals
Save energy in house

Get in shape again

Walk Monkey regularly (weather permitting, otherwise walk at indoor track? Buy stroller!)
Stake Aerobics

Read lots

Unread books in bookshelf and sequels/series
Book club
Book of Mormon & New Testament

2 Weeks - 1st Doctor Appointment

2011-01-11T16:24:00.003-07:00

Yesterday was Joshua's 2 week mark. I thought it'd be fun to do updates on his developments, but I make no promises of being consistent.

So far all Joshua does is sleep, poop/pee, and eat. He is starting to be more aware though when he is awake during the day, and he'll stare at things for a good 15 minutes or so before resuming the sleep, poop/pee, eat cycle. I could cuddle with him all day and night, especially when he curls up like a tree frog against my tummy, but I put him down in his bassinet to sleep most of the time. Right now he's snoozing un-swaddled for the first time and is doing well (getting up to check on him right now to make sure that's still the case...yup, we're good).

This morning he had his first doctor appointment since the hospital. That also meant that I got to leave the house! YAY! It was a whopping 10 degrees this morning, so we all (Dave, my mom, Joshua, and I) bundled up to brave the cold. 3 adults and one 2-week-old infant squeezed into the exam room, and then the nurse and doctor squeezed in, respectively. I hope Joshua appreciates that his first doctor appointment was well attended.

All in all the appointment was pretty routine. They measured him (22 3/4 inches - 95%ile), weighed him (7 lbs 14 oz - 25%ile - 2 oz more than birth weight), poked his heel for the PKU thing, and then asked if we had questions.

The End

Baby is Here! ("Short" Version)

2011-01-07T19:02:00.008-07:00

**Updated - Added water breaking and birth stats. On Monday, December 27^th, Dave and I were running some errands and he joked that the baby’s lease was up and he needed to be evicted, but I had to go into labor before 1pm so that it’d be before he heads to work.

12:30pm:

Our last stop was Smith’s to get a few groceries. As soon as we got into Smith’s my contractions actually started hurting…a lot. It felt like cramps and painful gas both at the same time. We finished our shopping and decided that I must be in labor, so we went home to pack the car for the hospital.

1:30pm:

We got to the hospital and were admitted and everything. I let them know first off that I was a big fan of getting an epidural as soon as possible. They checked my dilation (I was at a 2 and 90%) and realized that there was definitely a foot or a hand down instead of his head. So the rolled in the ultrasound machine and found his head lodged firmly in my ribs.

The doctor said that it’d have to be C-section. I asked him for some time for the baby to turn, since he had somehow turned just fine in the last week. He gave baby until 5pm to turn.

3:00pm:

It’s finally my turn for an epidural. The anesthesiologist showed up, gave me some local anesthetic, and then put in the epidural with the numbing medicine. It was like warm fuzzies! Literally my feet and legs got really warm and tingly (not like when they fall asleep), and the pain melted away. I could still feel when the contractions happened, but, like I said, no pain.

While we waited, Dave and I tried to play skip-bo, but we kept getting interrupted. Then I had Dave read me information about C-sections online to help me to not freak out as much about it.

5:00pm:

The team came in to prep me for a C-section because he hadn’t turned and the people who usually do the turning of babies weren’t in that day. The Anesthesiologist gave the epidural more juice so I was completely numb, they gave me some meds to empty my stomach, they gave me a super strong antibiotic to help fend off infections, and gave Dave an awesome outfit to wear. This is about when I started shaking a lot. Oh, and at about 5:30 my water broke. I mean, baby boy kicked and it broke, "splash!" It was a strange feeling.

6:00pm:

They wheeled me out to the O.R. and got everything set up in there. It was freezing in that room, and very bright lights were everywhere. It’s not dark with a few spot lights like they show it in the movies. The Anesthesiologist gave me some anti-nausea meds and put a plastic tube thing with warm air flowing through it over me to help control the shakes.

6:14pm:

After some strange conversations between the doctors as they cut me open (including “hmm, not much body fat here”…thanks!), they pulled baby boy out of me kicking and screaming and pooping. He was holding on for dear life and didn’t want to come out, and then he pooped all over the doctor. He was 22 inches long and 7 lbs 12 oz.

6:30pm:

Baby and Dave go to the NICU team to get baby’s esophagus checked out, among other things. The doctors start cleaning and stitching me up. Now their conversation is more centered on what they’re doing (“hold here, and I’ll stitch there”…“Hmmm, two cavities. Did you see that there are two cavities?”). The Anesthesiologist (who was awesome, by the way) then tells me that I have a heart shaped uterus, which is probably why baby was able to turn so easily and often.

7:00pm:

This is about where times get a bit hazy. I go to the delivery room I was originally in to “recover” for an hour. My parents keep me company for this because Dave was at the NICU with baby. Then I get to go by the NICU to meet baby (other than a 1 second peek over the curtain during surgery… “Here he is!”). Then they wheel me off to my Mother/Baby room and I wait, shaking, some more.

Meanwhile at the NICU, baby’s esophagus is fine, but his lungs aren’t staying inflated right, so they put him on a breathing machine thing for a little while and then take him off and observe him. Then, once he’s doing fine on his own for a while, they take him down to the nursery to do their thing and bathe him.

8:00pm: (ish)

Finally Dave and Baby show up, and I get to meet him for real. Dave’s parents show up a little while later to say hi.

We stayed at the hospital until Friday, mid-day. I had some good nurses (Ann, Misty) and some bad nurses. When I first saw my incision all stapled up, I almost hyperventilated. There’s something about seeing a 6 inch cut on your abdomen held together by staples that is very unsettling. I think I did quite well at recovering (didn’t get dizzy while I walked the first time, was able to pee normally, etc.), but I got a sore throat on that same Monday, and it made everything a lot harder. (It’s still making everything a lot harder.) I've been ordered by my doctor to stay home for two weeks if at all possible (except for doctors appointments) so that I don't slip and fall or get in a fender bender and pop open my incision. I'm already getting cabin fever.

Ready to head home.

Joshua's First Hiccups

2011-01-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

Phone Phobia

2011-01-04T15:45:00.003-07:00

Today I added little baby Joshua to our insurance, which involved calling our insurance company. I also set up his two week doctor appointment. Yesterday I called my OB's office TWICE with questions about my ... ah ... digestion ... problem.

I'm so proud of myself.

Phone calls I still need to make:

Hospital billing, utilities, WIC, I'm sure there's more I've been putting off

Don't forget to give me your email address. I'll be going private tonight or tomorrow.

Uncomfortable, Unbequem

2011-01-03T10:32:00.002-07:00

There were some discomforts I was ready to deal with after having a baby, but there were some I just wasn't ready for because I didn't know about them. Honestly, they shouldn't even exist.

Probably the biggest discomfort is having a cold after having a C-section. Nobody should have to go through that. Somebody needs to find a cure for the common cold. It would make the world a happier place. It would foster world peace!

Not that I'm complaining...wasn't 9 months of discomfort enough!?

Now that I've cleared the air, on another note, don't forget to send me your email address so I can add you to the reader list when I go private.

Happy Monday. One week!

Changes

2011-01-01T14:54:00.002-07:00

Just a quick note to say...

Yes, I had a baby on Monday, December 27th at 6:14pm.

I will be making the blog private before I post more on the subject, so please let me know your email address so I can invite you to view the privatized blog.

Leave you hanging

2010-12-23T10:54:00.002-07:00

You may notice my countdown ticker thing on the side has been getting to very small numbers. For example, right now it says "2". 2 days until the baby is due. 2 days until Christmas.
Well, instead of leaving you hanging, I thought I'd do a quick update. There is no baby yet. I'm not done Christmas shopping yet, either.
On Monday my mom got into town and we've been going, going, resting ever since. We have done a lot of shopping, which means walking and being on my feet a lot. On Tuesday evening after our longest day out (Smith's, Old Navy, Harbor Freight, Taco Bell, Target, Nordstrom's), I was having more Braxton Hicks contractions, and stronger ones, but they didn't develop into anything. Yesterday I took it a little easier because I was exhausted, and my hips were actually a bit sore from all the walking on Tuesday.
We did go up to Temple Square to see the lights last night. Tip: If you ever want to go enjoy the lights in peace (without millions of people that you have to try not to run into), go while it's raining. It was so nice and peaceful to have temple square so empty.
So that's the update. Today we'll probably do more shopping. Right now (11 am) Dave and my mom are still sleeping. I should probably wake them up.

Pregnancy Update - Week 38 2/7

2010-12-13T19:52:00.003-07:00

I had another doctor appointment this morning. I had to wait for an hour in the waiting room because it's Monday, which is their busiest day and the doctor is going to be out of town so they had to cram in more people. Unfortunately I didn't have much choice as far as scheduling since I'm on a weekly appointment schedule now.

Finally it was my turn. They took my vitals, and my blood pressure was lower than last time, which is good (it wasn't super high, but on the high side of normal). I opted for not getting checked for dilation, because there's really no point unless I'm in active labor.

When the doctor actually met with me, she listened to the heartbeat, which was fine, measured my belly, which was a belly, and then she squished around to make sure he was still head down, which he was. She did say that his head is really high (not down in my pelvis), which isn't news to me since the rest of his body is very solidly lodged into my ribs (hard not to notice).

She then asked if she had already told me about going out of town. I said, no, but the receptionist mentioned something...wait...out of town...SHOOT! Yeah, my doctor is going out of town on Friday and won't be back until the 30th! WHAT!? She scheduled me to meet with her dad, with whom she shares a practice, for next week's appointment.

Let me tell you something about how I choose my doctors. I opted to drive an extra half an hour and wait an extra month to get an appointment with a female dermatologist to get my moles checked/removed, only to have her male assistant do the actual mole removing...gee thanks. I picked my OBGYN the same way. I looked up OBGYNs on my health insurance site, and picked the female one.

I'm pretty sure that once I'm in labor I really won't give a hoot about the gender of the doctor as long as they're competent and get the baby out safely. But, I'm kind of hoping he either comes in the next 4 days or hangs out until the 30th.

I got to work and went to the work calendar to put my next appointment on it...but then I realized I'm not going to be at work that week...weird.

No Version

2010-12-07T15:11:00.002-07:00

Baby boy cooperated and turned himself the right way as I slept last night. I had so many great suggestions on how to get him to turn, but I was so exhausted when I got home that I threw a load of laundry in the washer and went to bed. I didn't even pack my hospital bag (which needed to be done in case I had the baby today).

I went to the appointment this morning where they briefed me on everything that would need to be done (ultrasound to check baby and fluids, non-stress test, IV inserted just in case, medicine to relax my uterus that would make me feel funny, doctor turns baby). Then they got the ultrasound going and HE WAS HEAD DOWN!!! YAY!

Since I was already there, they did a non-stress test today instead of on Thursday when I was scheduled. Everything looked ok. I had a few more contractions during the test, but none of the real kind.

Now it's just a waiting game until I go into labor, I guess. Dave was kinda bummed that I didn't have the baby today because he didn't want to go to work. :-P

Version

2010-12-06T16:03:00.003-07:00

At my OB doctor appointment today they determined that little baby is still turned wrong, so they scheduled me for an external cephalic version (where they try to maneuver the baby around to be the right direction by pushing on my tummy). According to my coworker, it's VERY painful, and they'll probably give me an epidural for it.

The risks involved are premature labor, premature rupture of the membranes, a small blood loss for either the baby or the mother, and fetal distress leading to an emergency cesarean delivery, or the baby might turn back to the breech position after the external cephalic version is done.

So...at 9:15 tomorrow morning (I'm not allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight) I may be at the hospital to have the baby. I hoping to not have him tomorrow, but I better be prepared. If he doesn't come tomorrow, I'm pretty sure he'll hang out for a few weeks, because I'm not even dilated to a 1 yet.

Thursday's Doctor Appointments

2010-12-04T11:49:00.002-07:00

On Thursday I had another appointment with the Perinatologist. They did another ultrasound. At this point, the baby's bones are starting to calcify, so they cast shadows on everything. They weren't able to see much, but they did measure the usual things like his head, belly, femur, etc. They could still see his stomach and bladder, and my fluid levels are still fine. According to the measurements, they estimated him to be about 7 lbs 1 oz. I am 37 weeks along today, and he's already 7 lbs! That means he's measuring about a week ahead of schedule, which isn't really a huge difference.
The Perinatologist said to go ahead and deliver here. The NICU and Neonatologists know about the situation, and will be ready to stabilize him if necessary. She told me to remind people when I deliver that he could have a problem, because everyone tends to get excited when a baby is born, and they may forget.
One thing that they discovered during the ultrasound is that he's breach! The naughty bob flipped since the last ultrasound a month ago. She said to take lots of walks and he should turn back how he should be, since he was sideways, which isn't a position babies tend to stay in. His head was on the right, his back was up, his bum was on the left, and his hands and feet were together, down. He was grabbing his feet with his hands, and it was cute.

They weren't able to get a picture of his profile nor could they get a 3D picture, because there wasn't much fluid around his head (perfectly normal at this point). I also have a big pocket of fluid at the bottom, so that should help him flip the right direction as well. Now I just have to muster up the energy for some walks.
Tangent: Both of my doctors are pregnant, too! How funny!
After the ultrasound, I did a non-stress test (NST). They had me sit in the most comfortable chair in the world. I could have sat there all day. Then they strapped a heartbeat monitor onto my tummy, and a uterus monitor below it (like how they do when you're in labor, I guess). Then all I had to do was sit there and relax. Best medical procedure EVER. On the screen they had a red line where his heartbeat was (how many beats per minute, not showing each beat), and a blue line to show uterus activity.
The idea is that if the baby moves, his heart rate should go up, which means he his getting enough oxygen from the placenta. If I have a contraction, the heart rate should stay about the same. Well, the baby moved a few times during the 25 minute test, and his heart rate did go up when he moved.
Also, turns out I had like 4 contractions while I was sitting there. I'm pretty sure they're the Braxton Hicks kind, because they don't hurt at all. My tummy would just get tight, which I thought was the baby pushing out on my tummy all this time. Now that I saw exactly which was which, I can tell the difference. During a few of the contractions, his heart rate slowed some, but during others, it stayed about the same. From those results they can tell that the placenta is still doing its job, but it may be slowly losing its functionality, which makes sense, since I'm 37 weeks pregnant (aka: 8 1/2 months).
I'll be having two doctor appointments per week from here on out. I have another OB appointment on Monday, where they'll probably check for dilation, and if the baby is still breach, they may schedule me for an appointment to have the doctors try to turn him. I'm really really really really really really really really really hoping that he turns before then, because the appointment would involve me getting an iv, a shot to the uterus to numb it, a heart monitor on my belly, and a C-section room prepped, just in case. I'm not a fan of those things.
My next NST is next Thursday. I'm super excited to sit in that comfy chair again!
All the results on Thursday made me a bit scared that he might actually come early, which I hadn't really considered much before. I haven't even packed my hospital bag yet!!! "Don't stress out, Sarah, he'll come when he comes..."

Thanksgiving

2010-12-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

If you've read the last two posts, you'll know that I spent Saturday evening out picking/gathering grapes, Sunday making grape pie, Monday making grape juice, and Tuesday making that juice into jelly.

Well Wednesday night I spent the evening preparing the turkey and making pies. And Thursday, well...of course half the day was spent cooking as well.

Let's start at the beginning. I was supposed to work on Wednesday, but campus got closed for this blizzard of a century to come in and knock out power and dump feet of snow and be negative degrees. Ok, it was cold, but we only got a dusting of snow and no power outages, and not even very high winds. I guess they got more snow up north though.

So I got to spend the day with Dave, YIPPEE! I honestly don't know what we did all day.

That evening Dave helped me pull out the insides (or "instructions") from the turkey. I prepared a brine for the turkey, thanks to Sarah Brazee from Tennessee's suggestion. I already had most of the ingredients, and the turkey had been thawing in the fridge since Monday (it was still a bit frozen, next time I need to thaw it 2 1/2 days instead of 2). We dunked the turkey, stuck it in the fridge, and then I got to work making pies.

I made the pumpkin pie recipe on the back of the can of pumpkin and realized it was for two pie crusts, and I only had two. So I improvised. I chopped up vanilla wafers in my food processor and put them in cupcake liners (the foil kind, not the paper kind). I forgot to get a picture of those, but they weren't much to look at. They were tasty though.

Thursday morning we got up, stuffed the turkey, sewed it up, and put it in the oven for Baby and me...and Dave. We then spent a good portion of the day going through boxes of junk mostly from the office that will be a nursery soon. Then at about noon (after 2 1/2 hours of turkey cooking at 325) we made the other parts of the dinner according to our plan. The turkey was probably done at about 3 hours, but we took it out at 3 1/2 hours. It was so moist and tender that it was falling off the bones as Dave tried to carve it. By 2pm Thanksgiving Dinner was ready! Everything went according to plan, and it was perfect. Well, Dave had requested extra stove top stuffing, but we ended up not even having a single bite of it. (I'll probably make it into a cassarole.)

Of course I took pictures of the results:

Grape: Part 2

2010-12-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

So far in the grape saga we have Saturday grape picking/gathering, Sunday grape pie. Now we're on to Monday and Tuesday. Here are the remaining grapes:

On Monday I mashed and cooked the grapes for a while.

I then ladled out spoonfuls into a strainer and smooshed them through with a spoon to "juice" them.

I think if I do this next year, I need to get some sort of grape processor that can separate the peels from the insides, squish the grapes to prepare for cooking, and juice the cooked grapes. It is very labor intensive to do those things, and everything you use during, turns purple, including your hands.

Purple Spoon!

There was about a bowl of juice from two bowls of grapes. I let the bowl sit, covered, in the fridge, over night.

On Tuesday I got the juice out and poured it into a strainer lined with a double layer of damp cheese cloth to get out the gunk in the juice (pulp). I didn't read that you were supposed to let it sit like that for two hours for it to come through more clear. Whoops. Oh well, it doesn't affect the taste (I don't think).

Then I cooked the juice (5 cups) with a package of pectin and 6 cups of sugar. Then I ladled it into little cute jars and canned it! (First canning experience ever. It's not too hard. Thanks Jodee for letting me borrow your water bath!)

Here are the results:

I haven't tried the jelly yet to see if it tastes good. I canned all of it, and now I don't want to open any of the jars! There's one that's only half-full that I'll probably end up opening and tasting.

Grape: Part 1

2010-11-30T16:29:00.000-07:00

Remember last year when I picked our grapes and made grape jam? Well, honestly, it wasn’t very good, and I didn’t even finish the tiny bottle that I made (it got moldy!).

This year we got a TON of grapes. I was just hoping for twice as much (last year I got about 3 cups of good grapes). There were probably 10 times as many grapes this year. Unfortunately I was a slacker and only got around to picking them on Saturday. All the leaves had fallen off the vine, and a lot of the grapes had, too. Probably half of them had been sucked dry by something (dry air? bugs? birds?). I spent a few hours going through them to separate the good grapes from the bad grapes. I ended up with 3 colanders full of grapes!
I used most of one colander (4 ½ cups) to make this pie recipe. I used the pie crust recipe from that red checkered/plaid cookbook that everyone has for the bottom crust. I was super nervous because of the jam turn out last year.

Here’s how it turned out:

Beautiful, huh?

Well, I didn’t get a chance to try it that night, because we were already late for dinner, and then had a birthday party to go to afterwards. So I had some for breakfast this morning, of course.

IT’S DELICIOUS!!!!!

Who ever thought grape pie would be so good!? I was a doubter. It tastes like cherry pie (consistency-wise) but flavored grape. I want to make another one, but squeezing the skins off each individual grape seriously takes forever. I’m going to try to make grape jelly with the rest of the grapes. I hope it works. Stay tuned for the results.

Turkey Week

2010-11-22T13:26:00.001-07:00

Happy Turkey Week! :)

This year, it's technically my family's turn for Thanksgiving, but I'm not travelling anywhere 8 months pregnant, and my parents are going to Denver for my cousin's wedding.

So Dave and I decided that it would be fun to do Thanksgiving by ourselves this year. I bought a 10-12 lb turkey for $6! I bought other things, too.

I figure the best way to approach this is to have a plan of attack so everything gets ready at the same time. Here's my plan of attack. Let me know if you see anything terribly wrong or missing!

Menu:
Turkey
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Gravy
Stuffing
Stove Top Stuffing
Rolls
Peas/Corn
Cranberry Sauce
Pumpkin Pie
Sparkling Apple & Cranberry juice

Monday:
Get Turkey out of Freezer to thaw in fridge
Buy final supplies from grocery store:

Celery salt
Stove Top Stuffing (check pantry first!)
Peas/Corn (check freezer first!)
Cranberry Sauce

Tuesday:
NOTHING!

Wednesday:

Make pumpkin pie
Make stuffing, set aside in bowl to dry out
Call Daddy for turkey cooking advice

Thursday:

Stuff & dress turkey
Put turkey in oven
Set rolls out to thaw/rise

(a few hours later)

Set table
Peel potatoes & sweet potatoes
Boil both potatoes
Dave mash potatoes
Sarah prepare to candy sweet potatoes & set aside
Make stove top stuffing
Take turkey out
Bake rolls
Make gravy
Take out rolls/butter tops
Cook sweet potatoes
Make peas/corn
Open cranberry sauce

Waffle Dreams

2010-11-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to bed at 9pm and it was heavenly. I could have gone to sleep at 6pm, but I didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night, so I made myself stay awake for a few more hours.

Since I slept for so long, I had multiple dreams. I can't remember most of them, but the one this morning before I woke up was very influential.

I dreamed about waffles! (One of my co-workers has a hamster named Waffles, but that's not what I dreamed about.) When I woke up, I really really wanted waffles. I got up and checked the pantry for Bisquik, but we didn't have any. So I got out my red checkered cookbook and looked up the recipe, and I made waffles!--from scratch! Have you ever put vanilla in waffles? It's yummy. I didn't have time to make the whole batch since we only have one waffle maker with only two waffle slots. I also dreamed that there were fresh blueberries all over the waffles, but we didn't have any of those. It's still a treat to have waffles for breakfast though! :)

**UPDATE** - Now that I've tasted the waffles, there's definitely something wrong with them. I thought at first I may have put the wrong amount of salt in, or maybe I need to sift together the dry ingredients instead of just stirring them. After thinking about it for a while, I may have used baking soda when the recipe called for baking powder. Whoops! I guess I need to work on reading recipes and ingredient boxes more closely.

Dream Documentation

2010-11-11T10:02:00.000-07:00

Because I should write them all down:

Last night I had two dreams. The first dream I dreamed I was in St. George or somewhere warm and desert-y, and I was with a family from home at their house in St. George that they were trying to sell. (No, they don't really have a house in St. George, but the are trying to sell their house.) Anyway, I suddenly gave birth (no pain! that's strange), and he was so cute and perfect and wonderful. Then they all left, and I was at their house all alone.

In the second dream I gave birth as well. This time I was in the hospital with doctors. The baby came out and he kind of looked like a gremlin or E.T. and he was missing his feet. My first thought was "whoa, why does he look like that?!" and immediately felt like a horrible person for thinking my baby was creepy looking. Then these teenage boys came in the room and started squirting him with squirt guns, and I chased them around like a mad mama bear, yelling things like, "GET AWAY FROM MY BABY!"

I was a grump when I woke up.

Goings On

2010-11-09T16:11:00.001-07:00

I feel like all I write about on here is pregnancy. It is a huge part of my life right now, but there are other things going on as well. For example I go to work every day and sit in a cubicle for 8 hours or so. I then come home and look at the mess gathering in our house. Usually I then plop myself on the couch and watch TV or read.

Sometimes I get ambitious and tackle a project. For example, on Saturday, I cleaned the kitchen. All the dishes were clean, the counters were wiped, the garbage was taken out, none of the food in the fridge was growing penicillin, and I even mopped the floor.

When I have a clean kitchen, I always get ambitious in my cooking. On Sunday (fast Sunday, sorry Dave!) I made two things I’ve never made before: bread and soup. I made banana bread with some ripe bananas I had put into the freezer and I made Sausage Corn Potato Chowder. Both were easy! Now the kitchen needs to be cleaned again.

Yesterday after work I made some cards for the stamping club I’m in. I even cleaned up my mess when I was done.

Let’s not think about the other huge projects that are still staring me in the face (cleaning out junk/clutter, the dust gathering on everything, rearranging the old office to be a nursery, finishing that couch project, etc.) I said, let’s not think about it!

About a month ago, my car died. Background info: We have 4 cars and a scooter currently. The Jeep is Dave’s toy that he’s owned since he was 16, but it doesn’t run right now. The BMW runs rough and would cost $millions to fix. The scooter’s starter is broken and the kick start is stripped. I drove the Nissan, which is a salvaged title, and Dave drives the Tahoe, which is technically a “company vehicle.”

Like I said, my car died. Today we found out it needs a valve job, new timing chains, and some gaskets. Yeah, it’s Greek to me, too. But I bet you’ve never seen an engine all torn apart before! Here are some pictures of my car all torn apart:

This one is of the inside of the engine block. The third one down is the one that needs to be re-machined because you can see light through those little circles, and that’s bad.

Here is what the engine looks like with the top taken off.

In this last one I accidentally found the parts that were taken out of the engine when I popped the trunk to get my stuff out.

Anyway. Turns out it’ll cost about $500 to $600 to fix it, which is what about half of its worth (because it’s salvaged). But then I’ll have my car back! YAY!

Pregnancy Update - Perinatologist Appt. #3?

2010-11-04T12:45:00.000-06:00

I had the long awaited appointment with the Perinatologist this morning.

As usual, the ultrasound tech did the usual measurements. I made sure to ask for pictures this time. I even asked for a 3D picture, which I wasn’t able to get because baby boy was being a stinker. She said that according to his measurements, he’s about 5 lbs 1 oz, which is in the 65 percentile for 32 weeks and 5 days.

Then the Perinatologist came in and did some more ultrasound and explained a bit more about what’s going on. She said that he has a big head and a very long femur, which is really what pushes his weight up. (Surprise! Our kid has a large head and a long femur…who could have ever guessed!?)

On to the more important things: She tried to look at his neck, but he was shielding his face and neck with his hands, arms, and umbilical cord (which is why the 3D picture didn’t work).

She was eventually able to look at the neck from the back and the esophagus looks smaller from one angle, but about the same from another angle. She was able to clearly see the vocal chords, his swallowing, his stomach, and my fluid levels are still fine. Based on that she told us that we could deliver here locally but only if we go to that hospital, since it’s the biggest and they have a great neonatology, nicu, etc. However if we still want to deliver up at the U just in case, she can arrange that.

I’m scheduled for another ultrasound in 4 more weeks, and then non-stress tests weekly thereafter until I deliver to make sure that my fluid levels remain stable.

So now the big question is, where do I want to deliver? I think there are definitely pros and cons to either choice. If I deliver here, I can just go into labor when I naturally go into labor. If I deliver at the U, I have to be scheduled and induced. If I deliver here, there’s a chance he will need to be taken to Primary Children’s, and then I’d be transferred up to the U for recovery. If I deliver up at the U, I will be further away from home with a doctor I don’t know, and I’m not a huge fan of that.

I think I am leaning more on the side of delivering locally, but if needs be, I still have time to change my mind.