Winter Beauty

Aaron and I took the kids to the park this afternoon. Earlier in the day I'd taken them for a ride along the lake shore and noticed the rocks and ice trees. So, we went back with the camera once we'd picked up Aars from class this afternoon. These are the results. It may be spring elsewhere, but we still have lots of signs of winter around here.

The rocks looked like they were chunks of glass with the sun shining on them.

The result from waves crashing up on the rocks

This picture pretty much explains itself.

I love how this looks, but I am SO ready for summer.

Thank You Honey!

Aaron and I did a co-effort for dinner tonight. We had steak and potatoes and peas. He did the steaks on our George Foreman Grill ( we sure get lots of use out of that!) and I did the potatoes and peas. It was pretty good, except I didn't pick out very good quality steaks and they were kind of tough and chewy. The kids weren't able to eat them they were so tough. My meal was lukewarm by the time I got to everyone else's' needs. Oh well. A perk of being a mom I guess. But it was worth it at the end of our meal. Aaron cleaned up Travis, so for a few minutes is was just Jenna and I at the table. Then she decided she'd had enough, hopped down from her chair and said " Thank you honey!" and went to play. The cold steak was worth a little thank you honey from my three year old. :)

Family Visit

Loretta and Brad called this morning and said that they were coming down for the afternoon if we were going to be home. It was great to see them as it's been a few weeks. We went out to Dinner and to Jeff and Heidi's for an ice cream social. I got to hold that little Karmyn for a while. She changes so much every time I see her. But it was fun for the few hours we got to see them. We also did a little bit of shopping. Also fun to do as that doesn't happen too often at this household with our kids. Mostly it was like a dose of home to have them down here. We miss our families up north with both of us having growing up there and then settling down there once we were married. So, thanks for the visit guys! It totally made my weekend! :)

Crummy

I feel crummy. As in head achey, sore throat, the inside of my ears itchy, stuffy and tired crummy. Seems as if the latest round of colds in this house has found a home in my immune system. And it doesn't seem to be in any hurry to move out. :( I don't hardly want to eat anything because it hurts my throat going down, and because of that I feel weak and tired all the time. I know I need to eat, but what won't hurt going down? I called into work yesterday, and today. I hate to do that and leave them short handed, but this cold thing has me beat. I go to blow my nose, and nothing comes out, I go to cough and my throat feels like it is burning and that my lungs are going to pop out of my chest. I'm glad Aaron is home today, but what a bummer, I am not even good company. I had a dr's appt this morning. 33 weeks, 7 left to go. It's coming up quick. I was twenty minutes late for my appt. I thought it was at 9:30, and it was actually at 9:15. oops. But everything went well, and I even remembered to ask all of my questions. Basically all I can do for this virus thing is take benadryl ( On the warning label it says to not give to children to make them sleepy.... novel idea.) and sudafed. Or plain old claratin. I can chow down as many cough drops as I want, and Vicks for at night to help the congestion. I hate to have such a negative blog, but I just really don't feel good . Hope everyone else's weekend goes better.

Another Late Night E.R. Visit

Why do kids always get sick in the middle of the night? Travis woke up at twenty after twelve (a.m.) last night just bawling. NOTHING we did worked. I gave him cough medicine, because he has the same "lovely" cough that Jenna and I are blessed to have at the moment. I thought maybe his chest might be hurting or something. It didn't work. Then we noticed him digging in his ears, and saying "owie, owie!" Aaron had the suggestion that maybe he had an ear infection. At first I wasn't so sure, but put numbing drops in his ears. That didn't work for almost forty five minutes. Poor kid. He was miserable, turning his blonde little head this way and that to try and relieve the pain in his ear. Finally, his kind of slow mom decided that we better just bring him to the ER.

So, at one a.m, we packed Travis and I got some halfway decent looking clothes on ( A long sleeved t-shirt, and my paint stained sweats. I always seem to be scrubby when we go to the hosp.) and we headed out the door. I realized when we got outside, that we had the Jetta, as the van was in the shop. No biggie right? Um... the Jetta is a stick shift and I hadn't driven a stick shift vehicle in over a year. Good thing Aaron parked on a slight hill, because I couldn't figure out reverse. So that means, we slowly coasted backwards, and I figured out what shift I had to be in to make the car go.

I was relieved to see the ER waiting room pretty much empty. In my head I was thinking, good. Maybe we can be home again by three a.m. And we were. The Dr. came in right away, looked in his ears, decided that the right one looked a little red, and put him on Zithromax. By then my previously bawling kid was all smiles and full of small talk. He made me look kind of stupid for bringing him in. The medicine I loaded him up with before we left must've kicked in. Then to top that off, they gave him jump start on his antibiotic, so he was probably pretty much pain free. He jabbered a bit in his crib when we got home, but I just ignored him, and he slept til eight forty five this morning.

Today seems to be a better day. Jenna had swimming lessons ( Loretta I took pictures, just for you. :) I'll post them either tomorrow or later tonight. ) this morning. She's learning a bit. She's getting better at doing what her teacher has been teaching her for the past three weeks. So that was neat to see some improvement. She had a little incident though. She got a little too excited waiting for her turn, and took off of the steps and went under the water. I was there, along with two other parents, the teacher and the pool lifeguard, so she was only under for a few seconds. It was enough to scare her though, and I'll admit, me a bit. She took a little time out, came and sat with me for a minute, and then went back into the pool for her turn. I hope she learned a lesson sit still when it's not her turn. Probably not, but we'll see.

Ready for Preschool?

I've been thinking about sending Jenna to pre-school. I'm not sure if I'm ready to send her to someone else to learn the little things in life, but I'm sure she would love going. So I called the local head start down here, and scheduled a screening for her. We'll see. At least if we get her screened, and if she's accepted, we can send her in the fall if we and if she wants. If I don't want to send her, I can keep her home and change my mind. Who knows. Maybe I'll be more than ready to send her somewhere for a few hours a day with a new baby and a busy toddler at home. It would probably be beneficial to her, as she won't start school til she is almost six because she's got a January birthday. I guess I do have the whole summer to decide and make up my mind.....

A weekend with NO kids

Aaron and I are skipping town for the third weekend in a row. But this time we are leaving our kids. Jenna is pumped to "get dropped off " at Rick and Jen's house for the weekend. She's going to have a blast. She's been bugging to stay there for ages, and now she finally can. Travis will probably be another story, as he is in this ( I'm hoping it's just a stage and will pass) shy stage of his little life. He BAWLS every time I leave him somewhere. Heck he even bawls if I leave him upstairs to go and take a shower. It's like he has separation anxiety. So, I am looking forward to a weekend without all of that. It will probably be heavenly. I pulled out my swim suit today from my pregnant summer with Travis...... it's kinda sad looking but will work for one weekend. I'm looking forward to a short soak in a hot tub and swimming in the pool. Heck maybe I'll even go for a walk on a treadmill..... we'll see.
Hope everyone else has a good weekend!

Glucose and Cheap Tires

My doctor will be proud. I finally went and had my diabetes test done today. For the record, I hate fruit punch, and the stuff I had to drink today was even nastier! But, I did get it done. It was a pain to wait almost two hours at the hospital , with Jenna and Travis, but now I don't have to keep thinking about it. The doctor wrote me a lab slip a month and a half ago to go and get the test done, and a mid pregnancy CBC count. It just was never a good time to sit and wait. Now I just wait to see if it comes back negative or positive. I'm guessing negative, as I have none of the symptoms, and it was negative for the last two, but I guess stranger things have happened.

I got two newer used tires today for the Jetta. We found this rinky dink tire and hubcap place two towns north of where we are ( Starts with I) that sells tires for cheap. This is our third time going to him for tires. I love being able to help " the little man", which is what we are doing when we buy tires from him, rather from some big hot shot dealer, or Walmart. He isn't ever open, but he has his cell phone and home number on the door. Every time we've needed a tire, he's either opened for us, or like today, used the honor system, and just left the tires outside when he was gone and I paid his wife next door. But for real, if you ever need a tire or two, let us know! We could probably get you some from there and find a way to get them to you. In the past six months, we've gotten four tires for our vehicles, and two for Alanna and Tony's and it's cost us less than two hundred dollars. Today I got two tires for thirty dollars. What a steal! :)

Boy Tough

I wish I could rewind and prevent these....

I know I posted once already today, but I just had to share these pictures of Travis's rough day.

The poor kid really had a rough one. We were getting ready to go outside and he fell out of our doorway which steps down ( I was looking for his other mud boot and he snuck out on me as Jenna left the door open when she was ready) onto a cement doorstep. That is what the big red mark is from. He scraped his nose and a bit of his upper lip with that tumble. Then, once I hugged him and calmed him down, we put his boots on and went outside to stomp in a few puddles. Well, he hasn't had much practice walking outside on uneven ground as he learned to walk in January. So, he took another digger, on the sidewalk outside. I heard this one. :( Poor kid. He had quite the goose egg from that one. I feel so bad for him, he wants to run outside so much, but he's not coordinated enough and isn't used to walking on uneven ground. I know they need to learn, but I'm not sure that today was a good experience for him. :( Poor guy. He bounced back pretty quickly this evening, but still looks worse for the wear.

Errands

Today I have this big long list of things that need to get done.... and all I want to do is stay home. Not gonna happen. This is what I have to do today:

• Get Insurance for the car
• register the car with public safety so we don't get a parking ticket
• get plates for the car
• set up an alignment appt for the car
• get the van estimated for fixing the brakes
• get two tires for the car
• return books to the library that were due in January
• get my glucose test done
• do laundry
• call maintenance about the shades in the living room that are jammed
• buy mud boots for Jenna

And the list goes on..... oh well. It's all stuff that needs to get done, but I just wish I could go alone and get done in half the time. But it's not gonna happen, so I'm just hoping the kids behave.

Oh yeah, I'm thinking I might attempt the "bare bum" method of potty training. It worked for cousin Jen's little boy, and other people have said it worked for their kid. It seems like I've tried almost everything else, so hopefully this works! I'm getting awfully tired of changing her diapers when I know she knows how to go on the toilet.

Puddle Jumpers

I have two puddle jumpers. :) Aars and I brought Jenna and Travis for a walk outside when I got off of work this afternoon as it is BEAUTIFUL outside. It makes me wish we had a grill so we could grill hot dogs out there for supper. But we don't, so I'll try and get over that wish.
Anyway, back to my puddle jumpers. At first we tried to keep them out of the puddles, but soon figured it to be a lost cause. So.... we let them jump. What the heck, why not. They haven't been able to do anything outside because it's been so cold. So we just let them go. The water had to be freezing as it's all melted ice and snow, but it didn't seem to bother them any. By the time we came in they were both soaked up to their knees. Jenna up to her thighs. She kept unsuccessfully trying to jump over the puddles, but her jump isn't very good, so she would land in the middle. But they had fun, and sometimes you just have to get over that instinct to cringe whenever they go near a puddle. It was worth it to peel their clothes off of them when they were done to see the grins on their faces.

Preschool Swim Lessons

So we signed Jenna up for preschool swim lessons at the YMCA about five minutes from our house. This morning was her first lesson. She goes every Thursday morning for half an hour. I don't know if she was quite ready to be done when they were, but she did tell me after " That was fun mom!"

She did pretty well, except she has the attention span of.... well... I guess a three year old. :) Everything was so new and exciting, and there was lots going on all around them. There are five other kids in her class. Her teacher was teaching them how to blow bubbles in the water, kick their legs, and "scoop" water with their hands and arms. When she asked who wanted to go next, Jenna hopped up off of her step in the water and said " Me do!" And she did it eagerly. She really tried and did a pretty good job. So.... we'll see. I think it is an eight week class, so we'll see if she can swim a bit by the time she's done. :)

Belly Up

BEAUTIFUL ME..... HAHA....

THE BELLY.... 7.5 MONTHS ALONG

I too was tagged for the self picture. Except I had my hubby take it for me. I generally don't like most pictures of me, so it took a few tries before we got one that I deemed suitable. This belly of mine seems to be only going outwards. The weight I've gained seems to be all in the belly as of now. I shouldn't say that or I'll jinx myself. So far, my weight gain has been under twenty pounds. Last month I gained two. I've been meaning to take one of my belly anyways, and I thought that seven and a half months pregnant would be good... so... here you are. :) I tag Loretta, Leanne, and Sarah.

Remnants of a Circus Peanut

My kids are scheduled for pictures at Walmart tonight at five o'clock. I made sure that they had baths, their hair is clean and I washed behind their ears. I made sure of that one because I noticed when Travis woke up this morning he had some remnants of a cirucs peanut on his earlobe.

So.... I am hoping that they co-operate and the pictures turn out to be darling. They both had a nap, and just had a snack so they shouldn't be hungry..... shouldn't being the key word. They shouldn't be alot of things that I tried to take care of today, but being three and one and a half, there is quite the wild card that could still be played. So I'll dress them up, make them look cute for an hour, so when I send the pictures out, people will think that my kids are darling all the time. That they never have chocolate around their mouths, or circus peanuts stuck to their earlobes. And not remember that Jenna's white sweater will probably be not so white by the time we leave the store, and her hair will be fuzzy in the back. Or Travis will probably have gotten something on the knee of his pants and have spilled juice on his sweater.
No.... we'll look at those pictures and remember how cute my kids can be for at least a short period of time, then we'll smile and remember what they look like the rest of the time, and how cute that really is too.

Ick. Ick. Ick.

We made it home today from our trip down state. It was pretty easy going. There were a few "sunday drivers" that we zoomed by, and some not so sunday drivers that Aaron actually beeped the horn at. But we made it in just under seven hours.

The trip went well except that Jenna puked when we were about an hour from home. We aren't sure what caused it. She complained of a stomach ache, and two minutes later came the upchuck. Ick. I hate vomit. I don't think I will ever get used to it. And being seven and a half months pregnant, my sense of smell is ten times stronger. It made me almost want to puke myself. So, needless to say, we pulled over and cleaned her and her car seat up the best we could with wet wipes. Her pj's, and Travis's blanket went into a bag til we got home, and the immediately into the washer. I had to take apart her new car seat to wash it, and decided to do Travis's at the same time. What a pain. I got an unpleasant surprise when I did Jenna's. She got puke on the van seat. I scrubbed it with wet wipes, but am sure I should use something else. But I don't really have any supplies here. Any suggestions? I really don't want to smell that in my van. :(

She seems to be feeling better though. She hasn't complained of being sick, and didn't feel as if she was running a temp, and kept some juice and some cheese down. Hopefully it was a one time deal and we're done.

It's Travis Joseph for my brother.

Travis is named after a brother I've never really gotten to know. I hope to meet up with him again some day up in heaven. Fifteen years ago to the day, March 4, 1994 my mom had a little baby boy who was a stilborn baby. He was named Joseph Elden. I was ten, just kind of old enough to know what happened. I don't remember much, like Loretta, just bits and pieces. I seem to recall running up to my room and being really upset up there til my Dad came to talk to me.

I remember being so torn in half with sorrow, and not wanting to go to my mom at the hospital. But we all got to go. The thought that still stands out in my mind is I was so confused at how come he was so much darker than the rest of my brothers and sisters. We were offered the chance to hold him before we went home. At first I didn't want to, but to this day I still remember the feeling that came over me when I held that baby in my arms. It was a sense of peace. Like not to feel sad that this beautiful baby got to go to heaven and not home with us. I won't ever forget that feeling. Never.

Every Memorial Day the marching band in high school would march at the cemetery where Joseph is buried. And every year, I would stop at his grave with a friend and I would think. As I got older, I understood a bit more what my mom went through and how hard it must have been. I'd bend down and brush the mowed grass off of his grave and find a few wildflowers and leave them there to let anyone walking by know that this little grave is loved.

Now that I am a mother I could never imagine the grief and sorrow my mom must have felt. To carry that little boy for nine months, actually go over your due date, only to go home empty handed. No little bundle to cozy and to love unconditionally. It must have been awful. I hope to never have to experience that kind of grief. People are always saying a parent should never have to bury their child. It's not natural. So, every year, on this day, my mom is in my thoughts, and I sit and cuddle my own two beautiful children for an extra minute and say a little prayer that my mom has a good day, and that her sorrows get a bit easier every year. My sisters and I usually send her flowers. When my Travis was born, I knew I wanted to name him after Joseph. I believe he is our little guardian angel watching over all of us, and keeping us safe. It's a nice thought, and it's one that I will tell my own kids when they get old enough to understand about the uncle they've never met.

A Break from Laundry!!!!

I know I'm always complaining about how I hate doing laundry. Well, we only do it about once a week because it's such a pain to pack it up and haul it to the laundry room. Well I must've complained enough about it this morning, and about how sore I was ( I have been really achy again the past few days. I think it's the way the baby is sitting in this belly of mine.) today. Well, Aars said he'd do the laundry today. Yea!!!! Woo Hoo! A break from laundry! :) What a treat! It's not like I don't mind doing laundry, I just hate the process of getting it to the laundry room. So, today I am going to enjoy the break. It's the little things in life like that he does that make your day. I don't always need flowers and candy, just do my laundry and I'll love him. :)

We are headed up North tomorrow, staying at my in-laws til Wednesday morning, coming back home just to unpack, do our laundry, and repack the van. Then Thursday we are headed downstate for the remainder of the week, and coming back home on Sunday. It'll make for a busy week, but I'm looking forward to it. It'll be fun. Our friends that we were hoping would have their baby did have it. Last night they had a boy. We are looking forward to seeing them and their new little bundle of love. So, to our friends who read this and know we are coming to visit, we can't wait to see all of you!