12 week countdown

Had my ob apt. yesterday. Have about 12 weeks left until we meet the last arrival for our family. Unlike my last pregnancies I feel very unprepared. Having a boy after 3 girls is a big change. Shane has very specific ideas of what a boy should wear and what his gear should look like. It's very frustrating. I know it will all work out in the end even if it means that Shane will be at Target day of buying his son all the necessary equipment to bring him home. I'm going to enjoy the last 3 months with our girls and savor the all girl childhood. Then when Riot comes home we'll settle down with our new baby and begin our new adventure:)

I have felt a lot of differences with this pregnancy. The morning sickness tapered off sooner than it did with the girls, but that was traded for exhaustion. Being pg this time is tiring. I hadn't felt this tired with the girls until the last month. Also I have felt him move differently than the girls did. Each girl parked her behind right by my upper right side and didn't move from that spot. They kicked some but not as much as Riot. I have felt him low in the stomach and he moves a lot. It's been pretty uncomfortable truth be told. The reason he has felt different is that he is head up. Thanks to having the previous pregnancies the uterus is larger and he has decided not to move down yet. I'm not looking forward to feeling that. My mom had the same issues when she was pg with Fred and she told me that she felt him moves into position. Not fun! Still better than having to have a c-section.

It's hard to believe that I'm at the beginning of the third trimester. I'm hoping to make it until the 18th of July (due date is the 19th and Kennedys' b-day is the 17 which I want her to keep alone ) but have doubts about that as well. Something tells me he'll be early like his sisters. Then again a lot has been different so we'll see. As long as he is not born on the 17th I'll be happy:) Here's to the last trimester I'll ever have to be pregnant again!

Crazy Mary

This is one of my favorite songs Eddie Vedder has performed. Shane introduced this song to me before we were married and it touches me to hear it to this day. The words are thought provoking because most likely you will have someone in your town that you think of when you hear it. I do. If not you should still enjoy it because no one sings like Vedder.

Crazy Mary

My sometimes arch enemy

For the past few weeks Shane and I have made a large switch to having a healthier lifestyle. Manly the focus has been on eating at home more and less processed foods, although I have always cooked from scratch at home but I will admit we ate out a lot. It's been a lot easier than I would have thought because like I said for us the main problem was the crap you get from the restaurants. But some things had been hard to do, like find ingredients without sugar or corn syrup. Today I wanted to BBQ chicken, as usual, I didn't get it set out in time to thaw for cooking. I had to run to the store so I thought I'd pick up thawed chicken and some bbq sauce without the syrup. WRONG!!! I looked through every single one and found nothing I could use. I then decided that I would do a dry rub, but not before the kids drove the other shoppers crazy. That and spending what I thought was hours buying curtains for the hall made me super ready to come home. After Shane was home I got the chicken ready (if your lucky I might one day share my secret seasoning but not today) and then set out to make the deviled eggs. Again I wanted to make a healthier version so I substituted plain natural yogurt for the mayo and added the other ingredients and was pretty happy with the results. Shane came in for the chicken and asked what the side were and I said our usual chunky garden salad, the chicken, and the eggs. He made a face like "Is that all" and I told him he could make asparagus. He said ok and got out the tin foil and snap peas, mushroom, asparagus, spaghetti sauce. I had my reservations about the sauce but decided to go with it and was pretty happy that he was sticking to plan for eating better. (The sauce also was sugar and syrup free!) Then, and I swear he does this to be my nemesis, I look over as he dumps a bunch of butter on the mix and closes the foil and take it to the bbq. He put is on and comes and tells me "I think it kinda neat that you took a normally unhealthy dish and make it healthy and I took a healthy dish and made it bad!" Ha Ha. (You have to picture him laughing with a sinister snarl. Like Boris. Shane = Nemesis

To think about...

This is copied from several locations and has been passed on to be shared. I posted on my blog because it expressed the outrage I have felt for the 8 horrible years of the Bush/Cheney administration.

You didn't get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.

You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate
energy policy.

You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got outed.

You didn't get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.

You didn't get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.

You didn't get mad when we spent over 600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war.

You didn't get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.

You didn't get mad when you found out we were torturing people.

You didn't get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.

You didn't get mad when we didn't catch Bin Laden.

You didn't get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.

You didn't get mad when we let a major US city, New Orleans, drown.

You didn't get mad when we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich.

You didn't get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark.

You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans...oh hell no.

You didn't get mad when the president ignored the clear and timely warning that terrorists were going to hijack planes and fly them into the WTCs.

You didn't get mad when the weapons inspectors, who said there were no WMDs, were ignored.

You didn't get mad when hundreds of thousands of people died in Iraq.

To Kindle or not to Kindle

I am making this new post from my first "own" computer. Someone has caused havoc on Shane's computer (wonder who) and I think he thought it was time that I get the heck of it and have my own. So I picked out a relatively inexpensive but sweet one. My criteria was a bigger screen and a pretty mouse. "Pretty" almost always being the main criteria. But the point of this post was about the Kindle and I'm going to get right to it. Last night Shane was standing near one or a generic version and asked me if I had considered getting one. I said no immediately and he began to explain the pros of one. He is so used to me resisting all technology, (you should have heard the conversation between he and the ATT rep regarding my refusal to get an IPhone) that he knows it takes me a while to embrace new gadgets (unlike himself). So I patiently waited for him to explain about the readers and then when he was done he looked to me and I told him my reason, "I like books with pages you turn and are made of paper." That's it. I like going to the bookstore, picking up a book and turning it over in my hand to read the back cover. I like feeling the pages in my hand. I like flipping through the pages to determine if the writing is a style I like or not. I like everything you find in a bookstore such as the fancy notebooks, the stuffed animals, the coffee, the music, and most of all the ambiance. You simply cannot get that from a machine not matter how fancy they are. I understand all the pros like many books in one, quick access to books, cheaper rates but the pros, for me, are not good enough. So I'll keep my many books that are stored in every possible place at our home, and in storage and I'll leave the Kindle to the rest. Give me a used bookstore, a comfy chair, and a good cup of coffee and I'll give you a perfect afternoon.

For thought

I used one very similar to the one pictured when Kennedy was born. I didn't use it very long as she outgrew it quickly and I was very paranoid about her suffocating in it (this was almost 5 years ago before the outbreak of stories related to this product). She did sleep very peacefully and I loved that I could easily breastfeed her in without a fuss. However I can easily understand how these children can die in them. Very sad.

story

New but not really new.

When I went back to work in August the agreement between Shane and I was to try it for a year and if it didn't work for the family I would stop working. It was a scary time for me, finding daycare for Kennedy and Nova and not being there after school to pick up Ava but I was determined to make it work and I did. The daycare, Monte Vista Day Nursery, was great in so many ways. The staff treated the girls wonderfully and I felt very blessed to have found another great place to have my kids in. But then the cold/flu season hit and it hit hard. I knew that the girls would catch a few colds but I was no prepared for the amount they did catch. In general it's not uncommon for kids in daycare to catch between 8-10 colds a year and yeah they mostly happen in fall winter. This is a good thing though as daycare kids tend to miss less school due to colds than those who are new to environment with multiple kids. That being said it's not a good thing when your new to a job and can't get your sick leave built up quick enough. I also didn't expect to be pregnant again so soon after I began working. I will say that everyone at the HSD was wonderful and understanding even when I gave my notice 3 weeks ago. As of March 5 I have once again become a homemaker. This decision was pretty hard for me but the right one for our family. I had been thinking about resigning after the 4 or 5 cold but didn't until the second to the most recent one the girls had. I had to miss another week of work (Shane took of a day the week before and it took him a weekend to make it up) Then after I gave my 2 weeks notice I had to call in sick for the week as the girls and I got the flu bug and Nova ear infections. Talk about being stressed. Now this week was been my first week at home and in a way it's been hard readjusting (6 months of working took it's toll on the housework) plus cramming in the dentist and doc apts we got behind on and a parent teacher conference it's been a busy week. Not to mention the kids adjusting to new schedules (they love sleeping in) me adjusting to less morning stress (I love that part!) and Shane coming home to dinner being made and a clean house. (I think he might be the most happy). For now it's a nice time for the family. I don't regret going to work, I learned a lot about social work and made some great friends and one really great friend and now I look forward to having summer with the kids and getting ready for the new baby. I also look forward to not having to call in when the kids get sick:)