Canceled

Just because they make me smile.
Even when I was looking forward to an evening without them.

Our baby sitter called..... her mom needs her tonight and can't babysit here for us. She offered to still have Jenna and Travis head over there, but they are running fevers. Jenna's got a doozy of a cold right now, but I'm hoping she gets lots better by the time we go up North to see that new baby Karmyn. So... I made a practical call ( I will admit I had to think about it for a few minutes) to not go on a date just Aaron and I. We'll probably still go out, but just shift the plans a bit and take the kids with. They'll still have fun, and I'm sure we will too, but I still can't help be be a bit bummed that it's not just the two of us. Oh well. Life happens, and there's not much we can do but go with the flow. Maybe when we're downstate we'll try and find a sitter ( I'm sure I could find a cousin or two who might be able to babysit if we needed) and go out for dinner down there without them. We'll see. If not, there is always that whole weekend in March that I can hog my hubby. :)

Free at last!

Hooray for Taxes! We are temporarily rich. :) Aaron and I just sat down and paid off some big bills that have been hanging over our heads for a while now. It feels SO good! It makes me just smile from ear to ear if feels so good. Our van was one of those bills, so now we can officially say we own our van. Us. Not the bank. :) Now watch it conk out on us. Murphy's Law, but hopefully not. So, I'm sure we won't be rich for long, but we will hopefully be considerably closer to getting rid of our big pile of debt. That is a goal of mine for the next two years. When I reach that goal, I think I will climb on the roof top and shout it to the world. But for now, I'll be just as happy to pay off those pesky bills that have been accumulating for the past six months. I have always hated money. I think we all have a love/hate relationship with it. We love it when we have it and can use it to our pleasure, but it can also rule your world in a bad way. I think we are in between. But enough about that. Today is a good day, and it's going go stay that way.

I have a date tonight with Aaron. We are planning on going out to eat at the new Border Grill in town, and then go to the hockey game tonight. School was canceled again today "due to inclement weather." In other words, we have another blizzard and visibility is awful. I would think that the hockey game would still be on, but should probably double check. We have free tickets to go, so I guess it's not a big deal if it's rescheduled, cause we are still going out tonight no matter what. And I can't wait. I love dates with my hubby. I recall mentioning that before, so I won't bore you by saying it again.

We got two books from the Dollar Spot in Target yesterday for the kids, and they LOVE them. We've probably read those books ten times.... each... for each kid. :) The two of them love books. They tend to have their favorites, and we get sick of reading the same ones over and over and over. But it's so hard to not look at them with thier eager little faces smiling up at you waiting for you to read them their favorite story. So, we read it again, and again and again.

Beautiful Baby Girl

Karmyn is grandbaby number four for my parents.

Loretta and Brad had a baby girl on Sunday. Karmyn Aili. She is a little dolly! Jenna was the exact same wt. when she was born. It's so hard to remember her being that small. But I did get to go and see her on Monday. I buzzed up there for a quick trip. less than 24 hours, but it was so worth it as it was great to see her and she is BEAUTIFUL. That was niece number nine for Aaron and I. We have two nephews. :) Congrats guys! You did a GREAT job!

It makes me kind of antsy to be done, and that's bad. I still have eleven weeks left to go. I hope it goes by fast, as we have a few trips planned before May rolls around. I think I have the winter blahs,so a change of pace is going to be much welcomed. I'm so glad that all went well for Loretta though, and that little Karmyn was born healthy. My turn will be here sooner than I realize I'm sure, but in the meantime, I'm going to write it for the record. I am sick of being pregnant right now! I am tired of clothes not being fitting like they should, my face breaking out, and the number on the scale climbing. I'm tired of the mood swings, and I'm tired of being tired. But on the bright side, one more month til it starts to feel a bit like spring around here.... then maybe I'll feel like this baby will actually come one day. I feel as if I've been pregnant for forever!

Why Why Why?

Only one more week til we go on our much needed vacation. I'm SO looking forward to going. Just to get out of town for a weekend, and see some fresh faces. Not that we don't enjoy the old faces around here, but a change of scenery will be nice. This time next weekend we'll be visiting friends, maybe have gotten some shopping in, and will be enjoying not having to wonder where we're going to scrounge up the money to buy some new tennis shoes. ahhh..... sounds heavenly. I cannot wait.

My two darlings were up at 6:50 a.m. today. Why, Why Why??? Neither of them are ready to get up at that time, yet I have an extremely difficult time getting them to go back to bed! Travis was up at seven, and whined and cried and crabbed until we put him for a nap at eight thirty. Naps at eight thirty! That just sounds wrong. That made for a long day today. I got a nap in, thanks to my awesome hubby, but he didn't. So that made for a long day and a crabby husband. Jenna took a nap with me, but was still a little bit whiny today. I just don't get why they are getting up so early! I've tried keeping them up later, but that doesn't work, they still get up just as early. It's not like the sun shines in their room, as they are up before sunrise, and they have shades that close to make the room dark. I don't know.... it's like a bad cycle that just never ends. Any suggestions on how to keep them asleep longer? I've even thought about just putting them back in their room and locking the door if they are up before eight..... I remember when I thought nine was early.... then nine was late and eight was early. Now I'd take eight in a heartbeat and be pumped. Ten to Seven is just WAY to early for them to be up. Heck, it's WAY to early for me to be up!

I love sunshine!

I absolutely appreciate the sunshine in the winter. We don't get it hardly enough, but when we do, I can tell my mood gets an uplift. It feels like a taste of spring today. The snow is melting off the roofs, and the roads are wet and bare. Sigh.... too bad I have to go and spend the whole afternoon inside of Target working and looking at the sunshine from the inside. So, for now, I'll just open the shades, and not think anything of the sunshine being too bright, or in my eyes, because like I said. Our sunny days are sometimes far and few between, so I'm gonna take what I can get and love it. :)

Where has time gone?

And here another week has come and gone. Time is really flying by fast. Which is a good thing, as I now have twelve weeks left. I'm hoping my third trimester goes by fast like the last month has. I mean, where did February go? It's almost over!

I had a mixed up day..... like part good and part bad. The bad was, that we had a few checks bounce last week, so I didn't think a pre-arranged payment would be able to go through tomorrow. So I tried to be a good person and call the company that we'd made the arrangement with. I tried to explain that our checks weren't as much as we had been planning on, and have other payments that automatically go through every pay day, and that I would like to re-schedule for next week when I can just pay the whole balance of the account in full. But the person just transfered me to his supervisor who then proceeded to ream me out about it. I got so frustrated!!! This supervisor was really mean and condescending. I tried to tell her that we are getting our taxes back next week, and that I could just pay the whole thing. But she just yelled at me that I'd made the agreement on the 6th, and that I'd had all these weeks to come up with the money, and that I shouldn't of written more checks than we had money. GRRRRR!!!! Do they not get that we have other bills to pay besides theirs? Or that we wanted to bounce? Life happens! Unexpected and forgotten expenses happen! Obviously the world revolves around them. So.... I got nowhere, and ended up hanging up before I started bawling. That was this morning, and I'm still fuming about it. I can't wait to be done with them. They are by far THE worst company we've ever dealt with.

But the good, my kids were good today, and I had a good day at work. Also, I cleaned this whole apt. upside down yesterdy, and just sat and enjoyed the cleaness today. :) We were kind of snowed in for a while, as we got hammered with another snow storm last night. The drift was up over half of our door. So it was a good day to just stay home. Only I had to work today. But it was only for four hours. The perfect amount of time. Plus I'm getting excited about our trip down state. I talked to Mary this morning, and she was so gracious to offer us a place to stay. Thanks Mary! :) We are trying to find tickets to go the Wings game that Fri, but aren't having much luck. We'll just have to keep trying, but I don't know. I'm not willing to pay a hundred dollars for tickets so we'll see if we make it there or not. I'm just excited for the change of scenery. It should be fun no matter what we do, because we'll be with a bunch of old friends. :)

Smiles from the Inside Out

I had a pretty good day today. A kind of productive day depending on what viewpoint you see it from. Creativly it was a very productive day. I got a page done for both of my kids scrapbooks. But..... my house still looks like a tornado went through it. So in that dept. I wasn't very productive.

I'm feeling pretty good, gettting to where my legs are bothering me more, and aching more often, but if I wear the ted hose, they help a bit. My last dr's appt gave me a clean bill of health, I just need to go get my sugar checked. Sorry if I wrote about that lately.... I have been very forgetful. I tell Aaron something and tell him again five minutes later. Oh well.

Aaron finished one of his classes that was only for the first half of the semester. He wouldn't want me to put it on my blog, but he passed with a 93%. I'm so proud of him! He works so hard to go to school and work at the same time, so it's nice to see his hard work rewarded.

We went and had our taxes filed the other day.... I'm just going to say we are happy with the results. We should be able to breathe again for a while, and hopefully save some for when I go on Maternity leave this summer. Makes me feel like I'm smiling from the inside out. It also lets us go for a trip to visit some of our friends who have moved about six hours south of us. We are hoping to go and visit BJ and Amy when they have their baby, and check on our other friends we don't ever get to see too often. They make it up here occasionally, but family is most important, so we don' t always get to see them. I'm excited to go and see all of them down there. We are planning on going in a few weeks, and I can't wait! We haven't been down there since we got married, so it should be fun. Jenna needs a new car seat though. She is too tall for the one she's in now and the buckles are getting rather tight. Anyone out there have any suggestions? She doesn't quite weigh enough for a booster seat, so I'm wondering if there are car seats that hold more than thirty pounds that would be a better option for her.

Toilet Baths

Jenna and Travis gave themselves a toilet bath tonight.... Gross. I noticed that they were missing and thought that they were rather quiet for a bit too long. I should've known. Quiet usually means trouble with two busy children. Then I heard the toilet lid slam shut.... oooh boy. So I went to go and check on them and they were soaked. Like they'd climbed into the tub with their clothes on. Only they weren't in the tub. They slopped in the toilet. The toilet paper was unrolled a little bit, and there were wet pieces of T.P. on the toilet seat. Also the floor was wet too. Yuck! I try not to think of how many germs are in a toilet, and that my kids were having a grand old time slopping in ours. I guess looking on the bright side I was thankful Aaron remembered to flush last time he used it, as he sometimes doesn't. It sure didn't seem to bother them that they were wet.

I think I will be glad when bedtime rolls around... seems like tonight they are way busier than usual. I think they are getting shack happy, and are taking it out on us. Is it eight yet??

It's Coffee Night!

It's Thursday and that means coffee night! I'm fired up to go. I had a busy night at work, and am more than ready for some female company with my girlfriends down here. I just love going and hanging out with the girls. No crabby kids, no crabby husband.... just us ladies. So... Applebees, here I come! :)

Unexpected/Forgotten About Company

It was Lia's turn to come and visit with Annie today. She was pretty fired up to finally see where we live.

Today was a better day, although I'm wondering if Travis is coming down with another ear infection. I hope not, but he was running a slight temp tonight and was kind of crabby. I gave him ibuprofin in hopes that will help. He went to bed great tonight, so hopefully he'll sleep well too

But today.... we made valentines today for all of our family that we miss like crazy, I made panukaku for breakfast (my kids loved it), and that had something other than p&j's for lunch. I tried really hard to have more patience for them today, and it seemed to work as I wasn't ready to pull my hair out by seven p.m.

We had unexpected company today. My Dad, Annie and Lia showed up at my doorstep this morning around eleven thirty. Annie has an orthodontist appt. once a month, and the office she goes too is only up the road from where we live. I knew last week that they'd be coming down, but totally forgot about it til they knocked on the door. My kids were pumped to have company. It seemed like a teaser though, as they were only able to stay for a few hours, before heading back to help my mom at the bakery. It was probably great for Jenna and Travis to see other faces besides my own. We miss those guys, as we were used to seeing them sometimes four times a week, and now we're lucky to see them a few times a month. But we'll take our family fixes where we can, and today was nice even if it was short. :)

Hopes for a Better Tomorrow

It's hard to imagine that these innocent looking faces can make me feel either so great or so guilty at the same time, but today they did.

It's late, I'm tired, and a little bit crabby to be honest, but I can go to bed knowing I got things done today. Also, I can go to bed knowing tomorrow is another day, and that no matter what happened today, it will be history and we can start fresh.

For whatever reason, tonight my kids just drove me nuts! I felt like such a horrible mom, for having little to no patience, and not being any fun. I was making sugar cookies and Jenna was helping me. Well she accidentally knocked a cooling rack with freshly frosted cookies onto our carpeted floor. I lost it, yelled at her and told her to go and play. Then I instantly felt terrible and guilty as she burst into tears. She was just trying to help, and didn't mean to knock over the cookies. So I let her come and help put sprinkles on the rest of them. Why am I so crabby with them when they are whiny lately? I got a nap today, and a halfway decent night of sleep. Yet I still find myself counting to three when they are so crabby. I still love them with all my heart, and found myself feeling like a rotten person tonight. Is it because I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with the thought of a new baby coming? I still have three months to go, so I hope not! I don't know. I still feel bad for being such a grump tonight. I guess I'll just sneak in and kiss them when they are sleeping, make sure they have their covers on when I go to bed, and hope tomorrow is a better day.

On the bright side however, I got my house cleaned, cookies made and nine loads of laundry put away. So tomorrow I can just relax and enjoy my children. :)

Little Bump, Busy Day

We had a busy busy day today. I literally was only home for a few hours this morning. I had to do laundry (I did nine loads), than had an appt for the kids at the health dept., and a dr's appt for myself this afternoon. Then we helped Jeff and Heidi move into their new apt. tonight.

I'm officially 26 weeks! Only fourteen to go! :) I was wondering about how much my wt. gain would be, cause lots of people have told me I've "popped" in the past month or so. And to top that off, I stopped at B.K. on my way to my apt and ate a Jr. Whopper. It was very good. :) While I was standing in line, I could see the lady next to me checking out my belly. She must've decided it was safe to assume I'm pregnant, because she told me " I like your little bump!" Then she proceeded to tell me her little bump is going to be 18. I told her thank you, and got a little chuckle out of it. It made me feel good. Today was a good pregnant day. Yesterday was not. I'm not so sure why, but it just was a grumpy day where I felt like a beached whale.

But back to my apt. I only gained four pounds this past month, which puts me at about 12.5 pounds so far. My Dr. was very pleased with me and said " Good job on the weight gain!" I thought it was going to be more as I ate about a quarter of a chocolate cake in the past week or two. A little piece here, and a little piece there, and soon half the cake is gone! Also, she measured my belly. I was curious as to what it was, and asked. She said "You are right on track! Your measuring 26 inches." So.... I'm doing well, and so is baby. It's heart beat was in the 150's range. I'm supposed to get my glucose test done within the next week or two. I'm pretty sure that I don't have gestational diabetes, as I have no signs of it, but you never know I guess. It runs in the family. I know a few of my aunts and cousins have had it. ( Leanne I think you had it for your boys if I'm remembering correct.) One more month til I start going every two weeks. Seems like the rest of the pregnancy begins to go faster once you begin going every two weeks. I'm looking forward to it! :)

Jeff and Heidi moved into their new apt. tonight. The boys did all of the hauling and Jennie, Heidi and I did some of the unpacking. Mostly we just visited. :) I'm glad they moved up, it's hard to get to know those cousins who live downstate. Also, it's fun to have a little bit of family near by. We got them all moved tonight, so now they just have to unpack. They seemed pretty pleased with their new home. It's a cute little place, and will suit them well til they outgrow it.

But now I'm going to go to bed. I missed my nap today, and was up early with Travis this morning before dawn. He eventually went back to bed, but it still wore me out with all the running we did today. So... .goodnight!

It's a Date!

Aaron and I went on a date last night with a few friends of ours. We went out to dinner at a delicious Italian place just down the road from our Apt, and then went to visit after. It was so enjoyable! Granted we spent alot between dinner and a babysitter, but it was SO worth it. We decided that we need to get out just the two of us more often. Not that I don't love my kids, but it was so nice to have Aaron to myself and not have to worry about if the kids are crabby or tired. So, we might try to do that once or twice a month. It was definetly a treat! I highly reccomend it!

My 2 Joys

They really do make my days. Sure sometimes, they probably break them too, but I just someitmes look at them in in awe and wonder and marvel that I am a mom to these two. It never gets old. I am very thankful to have them in my life. I have no regrets of not finishing school and getting married. I consider myself to be lucky and blessed with such a wonderful little family. I can't wait to meet baby number 3 in about 14 weeks.

Jenna and Travis. I hope they will always be as good of friends to each other as they are now.

It Won't Always Be This Way

I heard a country song on the radio the other day that really made me sit down and think. I don't know who it's by, or really what it's even called. I know the chorus says "It won't always be this way" and it's a male singer. It talks about how your kids sometimes hate it when you leave when they are little, and he sings about how some things they do won't always be this way.

So it got me to thinking about my two little joys. How sometimes at the end of the day I'm just so ready for a break from them that I just toss them into bed, tuck them in and kiss them goodnight and shut their door. No matter how much crying and bugging they do. Lately Jenna and Travis have both been wanting to "cozy me" when they go to bed. Well a couple times I just told her no, but then I heard that song. And I thought to myself, she won't always be this cute little three year old who wants to cozy before bed. Soon she'll be starting school and becoming more independent with each passing day. I'm sure there will be a day where she will be embarrassed to be with me ( i hope not though!), and then she'll be grown up, and moving away from home. So for now, I'm going to just sit down with her and cozy her. I'm going to try and cherish the little moments where she just wants to be loved by her mom.

I'm sure these years are going to fly by, and I'll miss the days where she just wanted to bau bau (rock in a chair with me) before bed. Or, she won't need me to sing her her favorite song before she goes to sleep. Travis will do the same thing. He won't need his favorite blanket to go to bed, and he won't always need me to read the same silly little book about five times in a row. He'll turn into this big teenager, and probably tower over me. He'll be asking to go hang out with the guys, and asking for the keys to the car. So I'll gladly read Go Dogs Go five times before he goes to bed next time he wants me too, and if he just wants to sit in my lap, I'm going to let him. Because "It won't always be this way".

Honey and Dear

Today I was downstairs and I heard a little voice calling from the top of the stairs..... " Honey, honey what are you doing?"
It was Jenna and she was looking for me. Then she finds me and says " Mom, I called you honey." She thought it was pretty funny. She must've heard Aaron call me honey or something somewhere along the line. We don't use endearments like that all the time, but she must've picked up on it somewhere.

Then at supper time, I told her " Go tell dad it's time to eat." So, Jenna being Jenna, walks over to her dad and says " Come and eat Dear!" :O)

Binocodiles

I had to chuckle at the way Jenna was playing today. She was looking for her animals in her "binocodiles" ( binoculars). I'm not sure how she got binocodiles from binoculars, but I thought it was cute. She was looking through them backwards to boot. I wonder if she found what she was looking for? :)