One of those days

What a day.....
It started out with Aars waking up on the wrong side of the bed. Then Jenna majorly pooped her underwear and I had to scrub the carpet because she didn't let me know and sat down with poop leaking out of her undies. I know the best solution isn't to yell at her, but I got so frustrated today. So needless to say, I had a bawling two year old on my hands.

Once I'd regained my wits, I made a grocery list, got Jenna ready to come run errands with me, and left to go do my running. Well, the van was STUCK. As in the back door got dented from pushing so hard. I'd unknowingly parked on a hill on ice last night and the van was not budging. Well I wasn't going anywhere, so I called work and let them know I might not make it in, but I'd give them a call if I did get unstuck. Thanks to Rick and Jennie though, they traveled all the way from her mom's to their house, unloaded, and then came to my rescue and pulled us out with their Durango. Thanks Jen! And Rick! You guys are the best!

Once I was out, I decided to go to work for the second half of my shift, but had to run to the grocery store for supper first. On the way there I stopped to mail a letter. I got out of the van and promptly slipped on the ice in the parking lot and landed hard on my butt. It was so bad it took me a minute to get up, and still to this minute ( almost five hours later) hurts like the dickens. :(

It was just one of those days where I was thinking at noon that maybe I should go to bed and try to start all over. But I just kept trudging along, and made it through. Now here is to hoping tomorrow goes better....

The Ups and Downs of Vacation

Well.... where to even start. I guess I'll start by saying we are back at home after a fun crazy week with no schedule.
Christmas was fun. We didn't get to see all of our family which was a bummer, but Missy and Ted had family plans with Ted's family, and Kevin and Dianne went to her mom's in MN for Christmas. I guess we'll just have to catch them next time. :)

We left Tues night after I got off of work, so we pulled into town around 12:30 a.m. On the way up Aars ran over a garbage bag that he didn't see on the road. We thought nothing of it til our automatic sliding door on the van would no longer work, and some security light kept coming on in the van. He thinks the garbage bag took out some kind of wire or sensor under the van. It also keeps resetting our trip mileage every time the van starts which is a major pain as our gas gage doesn't work and we keep track of how much gas we have by mileage. So I guess we'll have to have it looked at.

We spent Christmas Eve at my mom's. Dinner was spectacular. That says it all. :) Everyone was home for Christmas. So, somehow we squeezed 10 adults and 7 kids ( two in pack n plays) into my mom and dads three bedroom house. It made for some interesting sleeping spots. I think some of my younger sisters ended up in the laundry room on the floor.

Christmas morning, fun and chaotic describes it. Travis wasn't feeling good, but other than that everyone was fired up off of what they got. Jenna called up to the ceiling to thank Santa Claus for her presents. She was slightly confused the next few days when there were no more presents under the tree to open. We just hung out at my mom's all day. Aaron got some quality hunting time in, and we went to church on Christmas night.

Friday after Christmas I brought Travis to the walk in clinic at the hospital. He had another ear infection, but this time it was really bad and was draining. The Dr. I saw kind of drove me nuts. He asked if we had any kind of drops for his ear. I told him yes, told him what kind, and that we haven't used them in seven months. He proceeded to ignore my last comment and said "Stop using the ear drops!" Then to bug me more ( this Dr. has a reputation of being kind of condescending) he wrote on the discharge notes to stop using drops even though we told him we weren't using any. But in the end we got the antibiotic Travis needed and he is now feeling much better. I hope this isn't the start of another string of ear infections like he had last winter though. If so, we will be seriously considering tubes.

The rest of the weekend we spent at Pete and Janet's where Jenna and Travis both enjoyed themselves, and went for a short snowmobile ride with their dad. We came home Mon. about forty five minutes before I had to go to work. I work all but Thursday this week, but only work two days next week, so i will just suck it up and not complain. :) Hope everyone else is enjoying the quiet after Christmas like we are!

Home for Christmas

It was fun to have everyone home for Christmas. :) We got up on Tuesday night at about twelve thirty and spent the night at Pete and Janet's. We enjoyed a short stint at the school for the P**er**n party and then headed to my mom's for a delicious dinner of potato sausage from MN, green bean casserole, and fruit salad. mmmmm...... I absolutley ate like a pig. It was wonderful.
I have to cut this short.... Travis just knocked Grandma's snowglobe off of the table and broke it.glass, fake snow, glitter and water everywhere. Doggonit! Oh well I guess.... Sorry Gramma!
Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Ten loads of laundry.

It is now ten after twelve and I am officially pooped. I had a crazy busy day at work today. LOTS of last minute shoppers coming through. They make me tired just being their cashier!
We are headed to S**d*r B*y on Wed. morning after Aars goes to work and donates plasma ( thank goodness for that! It has been such a big money helper!). But I have worked the last five days in a row, and work tomorrow night. So my house, you can only imagine what it looks like, is just soaring. Ugh. I also just put ten loads of laundry going. It is never ending! At least I can do it all at once. I don't usually stay up this late to do laundry, but my to do list for tomorrow is a mile long. So I thought if I got my laundry done tonight when I got home from work, that I'd have gotten a jump start on my work load.
This is what I have left to do before five thirty tomorrow night:

• fold and put away clean laundry
• wash dishes (I'm going to have to invent a new dish rag, as they didn't make them into the laundry baskets from the kitchen )
• pack Jenna's and Travis's bags for six days
• pack mine and my hubby's stuff for six days
• finish wrapping gifts
• scrub bathroom and kitchen
• go to the library to get more books by Clive Cussler for Aaron ( he read two of his books in three days over the weekend! :)
• go to the grocery store
• clean bedrooms
• take out garbage and recycling bags

I'm tired just thinking of how tired I'm going to be tomorrow. I hope I can get a nap in. I was going to do the library thing in the morning, but maybe it'll be put off til afternoon.

I had an ultrasound today, the baby was looking good. I didn't find out what gender it is, although I was very tempted as I loved knowing what Travis was. But knowing that the heart was beating, it had both kidneys, the heart, two hands and feet, and a full spine and brain was good enough for me this time. The lady doing the ultrasound was able to get a good picture of the face, and baby was profiled. He/she has a cute little button nose just like Jenna and Travis. It was so neat to see. He/she was even opening and closing it's mouth like it was smiling for me. I don't remember Jenna or Travis doing that when we had our ultrasounds for them.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Here Comes Santa Claus

I guess I didn't do a very good job of hiding presents from Santa...... Jenna found one of her gifts in the closet on Sunday. So I got kind of smart and re-hid it. Well, good thing I did cause this morning she went to the closet looking for her "water bottle backpack." I did some quick thinking, and told her that Santa knew she saw it so he brought it back to the North Pole, and if she is a good girl til Christmas, maybe she can get one just like it.

One good thing out of that little scene is that I know at least one of her gifts she'll be fired up off of. It is actually a backpack with a kids sleeping bag, flashlight and water bottle all in one. Totally right up her ally as we plan to be doing some camping next summer.

Aaron and I went to Target with the kids to do some more shopping today. We were looking for one thing that went on sale on Sunday. Monday they didn't have any, and we went back today and they had one more left. Needless to say we snatched it up. I did it when Aaron had the kids in the aisle next to us. Travis doesn't have a clue, but Jenna is just starting to get old enough to grasp the whole Christmas concept. It should be lots of fun with her this year.

Only one more week til we head to my mom's. I can't wait. We haven't spent Christmas Eve with my family for the past two years, so I am looking forward to it. I'm not sure if Loretta and Brad will be there, but I'm hoping, as Alanna, Tony and Teija will be there. I haven't been able to visit much with them as they've been busy with the new bakery and their own lives every time we're up there. I miss my sisters. :0) I'm not sure if we're leaving Tuesday night or Wed. morning. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what next week brings. Aaron can work on Wed, so I'm thinking maybe it might be good to just leave Wed. as neither of us will be working the rest of the week. It would be the smart thing to do, but we don't always do the smart thing........

snowman friends

Yesterday after work I decided to take Jenna outside to play. The snow was Perfect for making a snowman. So, we went out for about a half an hour and made two of them. Jenna was totally impressed..... so much in fact that she wanted the snowmen to come in the house to play with her. She got a little upset when I told her she couldn't bring them in. She just couldn't grasp the concept of them having to stay outside where it was nice and cold. :0) I love the way her mind works sometimes.

I had a Dr.s appt. this morning. I am 18 weeks. Everything looks good, and the baby's heartbeat is great. I got a bit perturbed though, I thought I was seeing a Dr. Hubbard, but apparently was scheduled for a Dr. Hubert. I don't know. She was nice, but I have yet to see the same Dr. ... also, she walked in and asked if I have had any more bleeding. When I told her I haven't had any bleeding of any sorts she seemed sort of surprised. Then she asked what some other Dr. that I'd never heard of had to say about my placenta from, my first ultrasound. When I told her I'd never heard of that Dr. and didn't really know what she was talking about, she seemed sort of surprised. Then she proceeded to tell me not to panic. How do you panic over something you don't know anything about? I don't know. I am confused and kind of annoyed. It made me really miss my Dr. and hospital up North where they know who I am and keep me well informed. I left the office thoroughly confused and kind of crabby. I just don't think the three Dr's I have seen have been communicating....... which is frustrating cause I've had a few issues with this pregnancy, and would like the Dr. I am seeing to kind of know a bit about me before I come in. Oh well..... maybe I am overreacting.

6 Things about Megan

This seems to be the latest thing. I too have been tagged. Six things about me..... hmmmm.... this might take a minute. I had to chuckle at Heidi's blog about the on and off switch. That totally related to me. :) I love the not having to feel like the dishes need to be done or the main level picked up before bed. Some days I do that, and enjoy the cleanliness of it in the morning, but it never lasts long because my kids always tear it apart anyways.

But six things about me:

1. I would love to have a dog. I always had one growing up, so I would like my kids to experience the same thing. Aaron and I agree not to have one in town though. We both would like to live in the country some day. We disagree on what kind of dog. He wants a little dachshund, and I have always envisioned having a golden retriever. If we do get a dog, it will be male and it's name will be Jake like the country song that goes something like " If I die before I wake, feed Jake."

2. My wedding ring was a size 3.5 when I got married. After I got pregnant with Jenna my fingers swelled and I had to have it made a size bigger, so now it is a size 4.5

3. I LOVE being a mom and wife. Sure there are times where I wonder what life would be like to be single, but then I think of my kids and wonderful husband, and then realize no matter how tough things might be right now, I wouldn't trade them for anything because they are my world.

4. I still have trinkets I saved from High school. I just went through one of my boxes, and threw alot of things in the garbage. One of them was a crown from Burger King that had the names of the people I was there with on it. I don't think I have seen or talked to half the people who were with me that day since I graduated. I will admit I am a pack rat and probably WAY to sentimental.

5. Aaron and I went to Alaska for ten days for our honeymoon. I loved it. I didn't know if I would and it was never really somewhere that I'd dreamed of going. But I would love to go back again someday and explore it a little further. We only got to see parts of the Kenai Peninsula, and it was gorgeous. It reminded me a lot of home here except that they had the mountains.

6. Summer Sunsets. I have probably seen hundreds of sunsets, and each one is just as beautiful as the last. I take pictures of them, and think everyone is just as unique as the last one. It is one of the things I miss the most in the winter is the sunsets that we see at the camp all summer long.

I guess that's all for now, I think everyone I know who blogs has been tagged to do one. If your reading this and haven't written six things about yourself, go for it! And have fun!

A day of all sorts

Today was a day where just about everything happened. Travis's tooth finally popped, so he was much happier today.... but Jenna came down with a fever of 101.5 tonight right before I was suppopsed to go to work. Not sure what her deal is, but her head hurt and she wanted a bandaid on her forhead. Needless to say, she got a bandaid and she said her head felt better. :) I wish it was that easy for us. I was an hour late for work though cause Aaron had a study group he was required to attend for his history class and I couldn't bring Jenna to the neighbors as she had that high fever. I didn't mind. It made for a quick night at work.

We had a productive day at home today. I got my kids bundled up and out of the house before noon to bring Aaron lunch. Then we came home and hit the sheets and took a nap. It felt sooooo good! I love naps. After our nap I was thinking this place could use a little bit of christmas magic. Well, it got some! Jenna and I made red and green paper chains ( the kind we made in elementary school) and hung them on the window valances. Then when I was gone to work, Aaron got the extra Christmas lights up around the windows, and set up my light up house. Just looking at them makes me smile. It looks like a Christmas elf came and worked their magic in here. I think I want to make paper snowflakes tomorrow. We'll see.

I had the cutest customer tonight. Actually, he wasn't even my customer. I had really bad gas tonight that just wasn't moving and causing a big pit in my stomach, so I asked a fellow cashier if she happened to have any tums. She didn't, but this kind gentleman overheard and felt bad. He was actually on his way out the door when he stopped at my registar and said here, hold these I'll be right back. He came back with a little travel pack of tums, bought them and said here you go! Hope these help. How nice was that! :)

Supper, I even got supper made! Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and peas. It was pretty good. :) Go me. :) Oh yeah! I even got to talk to my mother today. :) I miss her and it's always fun to hear from her.

Just like me

You just never know when you might meet someone who's life is very similar to your own. I was at work tonight when a customer came through my line. Somehow we ended up talking and I found out that she is expecting too. Much to my surprise when I asked her when she was due, she said May 17. I'm due May 15. This too is her third baby, and she has a girl and a boy. I asked her how old her other two were and was told 3, and 1 1/2. What are the odds? My Jenna will be three and Travis is almost one and a half. I got a kick out of that tonight. I mean how often do you meet someone due two days after you? We aren't going to the same hospital though. She is going to the MGH and me to BMH. So, I won't be meeting up with her in the labor and delivery dept. But I still thought that was pretty neat.
Loretta only has 13 weeks left. Crazy! Seems like her pregnancy is going by WAY faster than mine. :) But I guess that is how it always is.
I seem to be on the same baby schedule as Hans and Brita. Our last two babies are the same age and I saw her at work tonight and she told me that they are expecting again in July. Her Eddie and Jenna are the same age, I think weeks apart, if even, and Travis and her Charlie are also a week or so apart. :) Funny how that goes. You seem to have babies at the same time as a few people you know so all of your kids are the same age. But Hans and Brita have a few more than we do. ;) We have a bit of catching up to do. But congrats to them! Not sure if I said that tonight or not.
We went swimming this morning. Pete and Janet were down for the weekend again and stayed at a hotel. So we skipped church this morning ( I know.... terrible) and brought the kids swimming. They had a blast and I thoroughly enjoyed the hot tub.
Travis just popped a bottom tooth. FINALLY. He's been acting like he was teething for the past two weeks, and I thought to look again this morning and a third bottom tooth was poking through. We were out of Tylenol, so I ran some home on my supper break. Poor guy. It hurts to get teeth.
I guess that's all, I was just going to write a little paragraph and look where that got me. :)

It's official

I guess it's official. We have renters living in our house. Crazy. They're from southern Texas so I'm sure it was a bit of a culture shock for them to wake up this morning in the house and it was only ten degrees outside compared to the higher warmer temps of Texas. The dad is working as a surgical tech at the local hospital by the house, and they seemed pretty fired up to be in the U.P.
Aaron is headed North this weekend to sand a house for Kevin. I have to work all weekend so it kind of put us in a bit of a pickle, but I think we kind of have it figured out. I had a dream about it last night, so I must've really been stressed about it. But we really could use the extra funding right now, so we made it work. He will get a ride home on Sunday before I have to go to work.
I ordered some Christmas cards last night, they should be ready today as I can pick them up at Target, and ordered the other ones off of Shutterfly and those will be directly shipped to my apartment. We have had a few cards trickling through in the mail. I love receiving Christmas cards. It's actually the one time of the year I look forward to picking up the mail because more often than not there are cards in there. It's not all junk and bills.
But I suppose, if we are going to have a babysitter over here, I should get my house cleaned up a bit. I am finding that a mother's job never ends. I can clean something up, and every time I turn around the kids just undid what I did! Oh well. I'm getting better, but I am by far NOT a perfect housekeeper. Maybe eventually when we have no kids around, but that won't be for many years so don't count on it anytime soon. :) It wouldn't be so bad if I could just get it all done in one shot, but that's near impossible when these two are awake. I guess I will just have to putter at it and get as much done before I leave for work this afternoon.

the renters are coming!

Our renters are coming! I guess they called and said they were in Duluth tonight and have plans to meet Pete at four tomorrow to get into the house. Crazy!It seems so wierd that someone is moving into MY house. I won't be able to just drop by the house to walk through it and remember the happy times we had in there. I'll just drive by and maybe see a family living there. I'm glad to have renters, don't get me wrong, it just seems wierd to have someone moving in that we have never met. It was different when Loretta and Brad were going to move in. I would still be able to go in when they were planning on moving in.
Maybe I will send them a Christmas card so they know who they are renting from. I guess they have six kids and one on the way. I'm glad the house will have a family to keep it company. Call me wierd, but I get sentimental about a house. I felt the same way when my mom and dad rented out their house, even though I wasn't even living at home anymore.
It sure will be nice to not have to worry about the house payment though. One less thing to think about.
Just a note, I have one gift I bought off of ebay for Jenna for christmas, other than that I still haven't started my shopping.