One Mama. One Daddy. Two Daughters & the Craziness that is The Clemmons.

Old McDonald...

2010-05-20T17:04:00.003-04:00

...had a farm... and he might just be the guy at the end of the road! :) Maybe I should back up a bit. We submitted an offer, they countered, we accepted. Wow... did I just type that? We are under contract for a farm! Well, I still call it a farm, it's so small it's really more of a "property" but in our hearts we'll soon have our farm! This vision is in its very beginning stages... but. This is step one. Get the land. Our closing date is scheduled for June 25. I need to get some pictures next time we're out there. If all goes to plan (which it rarely does, so this may change) we will officially own a farm by the end of June! How exciting! The *only* thing that might *possibly* change things is the Army Corp of Engineers, they have to come out and survey the wetlands to give us our boundry lines of where we can build & what we can't touch. If for some reason the wetland report would come back signifigantly more than what the current owners thought, we may have to look elsewhere. But, we know at least an acre of the property is wetlands... as long as its no more than 2 acres total we'll be fine & will love protecting our little piece of Charleston.

So about this farm... there's nothing but a lot of weeds, tree's and a big fat dream sitting out there right now... (the dream being my little imagination going wild with possibilities) In other words, its vacant land. The front 3/4 acre is cleared. The rest of the acreage is wooded or wetlands. The plan (which again, is very subjective) is to build a "cottage" for my Mother In Law to retire in. We should be able to complete the cottage within a year & our family will move into that while we work towards building our "big" house. After the main house is completed my Mother In Law (who will be retiring in 4 years) will move into the cottage. As to the farm side, we plan to move the first large greenhouse onto the land right away. The greenhouse is 96x30 feet (huge) which will give us a chance to put all 75,000 palm tree & Japanese Maple seedlings we currently have at our peanut of a house into pots so they can really begin their growth. At some point, hopefully by the end of the summer, we'll move a matching greenhouse next to the first which will be for our aquaculture farm. This greenhouse will be home to two large tanks of tilapia (about 2500 fish) which will then provide the appropriate nutrients on a hydroponics system to the rest of the garden plants in that greenhouse. This greenhouse will house all hydroponic plants which will enable us to have a completely chemical free organic garden which will hopefully be large enough in about a year to fully supply all our fruit & veggie needs along with regular donations to our church food pantry. (That's the goal anyways, we'll see how fast they reproduce) I can't wait. My veggie list keeps on growing, I can't wait to start the canning process & get some of the fruit tree's going as well! We'll probably have a miniature orchard somewhere close to the greenhouses for fruit/nut tree's as they'll grow too large for the greenhouse. We found some pear tree's that have 3 different kind of pears on one tree! And an avacado tree that produces avacado's the size of small footballs! WOW. Then we want orange, banana, plum, cherry, apple & a few pecan tree's as well. If we get all miniature tree's they'll only take up a small footprint while producing full size fruits. I'm super excited about that.

But I'm getting ahead of myself... the first step is closing. Once we've made it past the closing table we'll need to get the footers poured for the cottage, and that isn't a cheap venture. Oh, and did I mention we're going to try our darndest not to take out a construction loan? That's why this might take awhile... if we pay as we go it'll save us thousands upon thousands of interest money however the process will completely depend on how the tree business is faring. So as long as the tree business continues to thrive, we'll slowly put our vision into reality.

Sorry this was so long, but I needed to write these things down. I'm so excited & thankful... God is amazing. His timing is perfect and we are continually blessed. The process is slow, and its hard to be patient... but I continue to pray on a daily basis that we are in the center of God's will for our lives. That is above all most important. This farm is our mission, a vision... and a huge step away from the "norm" But instead of wishing the waiting period would fly by we've decided to embrace this moment. We're excited about the future, but also excited about this moment. Today.

As for this moment, we've had some fun times lately. I have two new girlfriends, Sue & Jane that I am convinced are angels in disguise. They are both the most incredible mama's and are raising their children in the image of Christ. Such a breath of fresh air. I adore these girls. Today we spent the day together at a playdate. Jane made a wonderful quiche that we all enjoyed and then made loaves of bread to send home with Sue & I. WOW! The kids had a great time as they always do together. I just love this crew. Their kids are precious, a perfect compliment to these beautiful women.

Also, Madeline got her first big girl hair cut this afternoon! Nothing too drastic, but we cut almost 4 inches off the back. *sniff* She was starting to look a little like an orphan child with her mop top hair always in her eyes. Now she has a cute little bob that looks adorable on her. So fun and exciting. :)

Elizabeth is beyond ready for Kindergarten. If ever I was worried, she has spent the week convincing me that she is eager to learn. I loaded up on some kindergarten/first grade work books this week & she has spent hours every day working on them. She is now confident in small word reading & is slowly getting the "sh" "ch" and "th" sounds down. She is also getting better at counting (something she was very behind on). I am confident that by the end of the summer I will have a full blown reader on my hands. She is such a stinker, but such a joy to be around. As she approaches 5 years old I find myself looking forward to times when I can take her with me on a mommy daughter date, just the two of us. She is maturing at an alarming speed, but still has some toddler left in her for mommy to enjoy & cuddle.

Speaking of toddler, Madeline is speaking in full sentances now. True, they are never proper sentances, but gone are the days of pointing and shouting 1 word. She'll now say "More outside time please!" or "Maddy need wipe for messy hands mama" which actually comes out sounding like "Maddy need wipe fo meshy heens mama" She talks from the time she wakes up, to the time she passes out for her nap or at night. And she runs. Everywhere. All the time. The child has one speed and it's full force ahead. My poor girl has more bruises on her head and knees from running into tables, walls & anything else that stands in the path of my little hurricane baby. But though I am one tired mama at the end (and sometimes beginning) of every day. My children are such a joy in my life. No matter how cloudy my outlook at times, a simple slobbery kiss from my toddler or a whispered I love you from my 4 year old can turn my entire day around. :)

So now that this post is approaching a novel length, I'll sign off. I'll be sure to update as we find out more on the farm! Pictures to come soon. :)

Waiting.

2010-05-10T22:42:00.002-04:00

Did anyone ever tell you not to pray for patience because God will send you problems to teach you patience? You know, patience is a virtue, it must be learned and cannot be given? Yeah... I don't pray for patience. Ever. Never ever ever. I know better. My children challenge my patience daily and I can honestly (and sadly) say that I have a long way to go before I'll have mastered the art of patience... however there's another area of my life where I'm being taught patience. The farm. Jay & I both felt like God was calling us to create a farm... over 2 years ago. We were (and still are) excited. We were (and are) ready. We said "Where God? Send us! We'll go!" We were ready. Or so we thought... we've prayed. and prayed. and prayed. God show us where you want us to be. Show us the farm you'd have for us. Teach us to wait on your timing Lord so we only go where you want us to be. Your will be done.

In case you didn't catch that... "Teach us to wait on your timing" can be translated to "teach us patience" oops. lol We mean it. Still do, and still pray for God's perfect timing. But the waiting process is admitedly hard. God is shaping our vision of the farm... a place where people can come and rest. A place to grow tree's instead of taking them down. A place to get back to our roots & grow our own food, make a smaller carbon foot print & build a recycled home. We are excited about our vision, and we know it's from God. Without a doubt we know that our farm will provide us a place for friends and family to come and just be... be quiet... be with family... be away from the city... be surrounded by nature... just... be. I long for those moments and am so excited to see what God has in store for us. I struggle with the waiting period. We've prayed and asked God what He's waiting for... then prayed for forgiveness for our impatience... then prayed again that God would show us where he wants us to be... then prayed once more for forgiveness for our impatience. It's a slow lesson to be sure but I know that somewhere out there the perfect place for us is waiting... a place where I can home school my girls, teach them to look beyond their front door and explore their world...

We've found a piece of land that we are prayerfully considering... it *might* just be the one.

If its not, we know God will open the right door in His time so that doesn't worry me... but I have to say, this property takes my breath away... it's so beautiful. It is truly like stepping into another world. A mix of Narnia, a beautiful rainforest and an empty meadow of lush green grass... all on one farm. It's small, much smaller than we'd envisioned, but again, God is shaping our vision to what we need and what He can use.... which is anything. We'd hoped for 15-30 acres close to town... this property is merely 5. Five small acres, part of which is protected wetlands and thus unbuildable. I don't know why my heart is so excited about this property aside from the fact that it is undeniably the most beautiful property we've looked at during our long 2+ year search... It is close to town. Close to our church. But also far enough from the city to see the stars, hear the crickets & smell the clean air in the morning. Lord I pray this is the one for us. If it isn't please give us the strength to walk away and trust in You completely to provide. If it is the one, please open the door wide open and give us peace.

We are submitting an offer in the morning... praying for guidance... thankful for grace, and looking forward to what is to come.

Updates!

2010-04-27T11:17:00.002-04:00

Okay, so I am SUPER excited and wanted to update a few things. First of all, all this dieting has REALLY helped my metabolism... my energy levels have skyrocketed which is crazy awesome. The last few days I have scrubbed my house to a sparkling shine & organized closets, caught up on laundry, etc. Lots of things I'd been behind on... it feels so good. AND I've officially lost 17.5 lbs this month! Hard dieting and exercising, not to mention the workout I get from scrubbing my house has really paid off! I'm almost half way to my goal!!!! I know the first 20 is the easiest and the next 20 (22.5) will be much harder, but I'm so excited that all my clothes are getting a bit baggy. Love it! I'm down 2 sizes in jeans already. Ahhhh feels good. So anyway, the kids are in shock. Mama has been getting up at 6:30 so by the time they wake up at 9 I'm already mostly done with my housework each day so we get to spend the whole day playing and goofing off together. They love it, I hope this energy thing lasts... I love having energy still when Jay get's home from work. It's been nice staying up and spending time with him. Usually when he get's home its dinner, bath, bed time for the girls & then I'm usually asleep shortly after they are. But the last few days I've been able to stay up, watch movies, plan our budget together, etc. Sooo nice. Anyway. Feeling good and slightly smaller! Just wanted to share! :D

Progress.

2010-04-15T09:20:00.003-04:00

Well, I'm down another 2.5 lbs. It's been a long week, but I do have more energy which is very helpful. We had our bi yearly bug spray yesterday which always makes for a crazy day... We have a pond/lake behind our house so the mosquitoes & palmetto bugs (aka roaches) are always plentiful in our backyard & garage... and when the weather warms up we start seeing them inside too. Gag. That's what you get for living in a 30 year old house with crappy insulation... So every 6 months we have someone coat our yard in an environmentally friendly layer of bug zapper, as well as the garage, kitchen and bathrooms. Which means on that day we can't come home until everything dries. However yesterday, he decided to do some new gloss under our sinks, fridge & stove to prevent any bugs from being able to live there, ever. Which is fabulous & I'm all for it (I have a pretty bad bug phobia, crazy yelling & chasing the mosquitoes around until I squish them is fairly common in the house... my kids refer to it as "ew buggy buggy mommy's crazy!") ...what I didn't realize is that we can't USE our sinks, dishwasher, stove or anything that will warm up the kitchen until the gloss sets... which takes 5 days. who what?! I just paid $ for someone to incapacitate my kitchen for a week. Crap. It was worth it I guess... I mean, no ants, no squitoes, no roaches ever again? I'll believe it when I see it... but for now, we'll be dining in the play room for a week on cold cuts & fruit. Yesterday was a loooong day. We cleaned in the morning, played at the park with some friends until lunch time, drove over an hour to meet daddy across town, ran a few errands for him, went to Ye Old Fashioned for yummy ice cream, picked up some Milk & Candyland 3D onsale for $3. Then came home, played the game, had dinner in the playroom (yep, you guessed it, cold cut sandwhiches) and then they both passed out at 6:30. Yes, we did the whole day with no naps. Eeks. Always a risk... but it worked out okay & they both slept hard and didn't wake up until 8:30 this morning. :)

As for my diet, I'm not working out nearly as much as I want to. Screw the 3-5 times a week with arms/abs in between... I'm lucky if I hit the DVD 2-3x's and remember my arms and abs once on my days off. But I'm trying. Having more energy is making me a braver mom, I take the kids out on longer play dates, am willing to wear them out and tolerate the melt downs when I cut it too close. Normally I don't play that game, we're very routine people but it's nice being outside & enjoying this weather more and letting the routine slide a bit. I'm looking forward to a summer full of park dates, pool time & sandcastles at the beach! I have the girls closet stocked for summer, and I've made over 75% of it myself from great deals on fabric! Woot!

Anyway, just wanted to update. My jeans are getting a bit baggy. And I'm perfectly happy with that. :)

Curveball.

2010-04-09T14:23:00.002-04:00

Granted this is public, but seriously, who really reads it? I'm about to take this blog to a new level of personal. That's right baby... it's diet time. I had a major curveball thrown at me last week while visiting the doctor. Well, let me back up first. Anyone who knows me very well (or knew me at all while I was pregnant the second time) is aware that I had some serious depression while pregnant with Madeline. I was miserable in my body, got sick way too many times, and had the doctors from hell steering my big behind in the wrong direction for 9 months... all that to say, while it improved after I gave birth, it was still enough that I was miserable, scared & needed some help. I went to my doctor and he suggested I try Celexa, an anti-anxiety/depression med that would help me mellow out a bit. I've now been on the Celexa for nearly 2 years and frankly, the difference in me is amazing. Where I was once so high strung I would snap at the slightest whisper of trouble, I'm now able to handle life in a more relaxed, take it as it comes way. I've thought about going off of it several times, but if a tiny pill keeps me less angry with my husband and kids, dude... bring it. I'd much prefer to be mellow. I've lived the high strung life, and maybe when my kids are older & I'm ready to tackle that hurdle when I don't think I'm going to scar them for life with my crazy high's & lows... I'll go off of it. But for now, the whole house is better off with mama chilled out. SO last week I went in for my annual check up & to renew my perscription when my doctor casually mentions my weight. God I hate when they talk about it... at the time of last weeks visit I was exactly 20 lbs less than when I gave birth two years ago, which is exactly the weight I was when I left the hospital with Madeline. Haven't lost a single pound since I gave birth to her. And yes, that's 45 lbs over what I was when I got pregnant with Madeline. I seem to gain ungodly amounts of weight when pregnant despite eating healthy for the most part. It's really ridculous, both of my pregnancies I gained 60-65 lbs in 9 months. After Elizabeth I was back to my pre baby weight minus an additional 10 lbs when she turned a year old. Madeline however was a different story. I've yet to bother dieting, preferring to play ignorant pretending we don't have a scale, and who needs it anyways?

Well... at last it's time for some decisions. My doctor said I really need to lose about 40 lbs to be in my healthy range. Ouch! I can't say I'm disappointed in myself because really, aside from hating dresses, shorts & swim suits... it really doesn't bother me that I'm the biggest I've ever been aside from when I was pregnant. However, when you mention health I'm a little more logical. I know I'll feel better about myself & my body if I lose some weight. My self confidence is pretty much shot, I prefer to mock myself before others get around to it... but I don't seem to mind it enough to actually do anything about it.

And there lies the problem. I'm now going to try to lose about 40 lbs simply because my heart & body will be more healthy for it. Everything else is sort of non important... but being healthy is a priority, I go out of my way to be sure my kids are in excellant health, yet somehow I've let my own healthy choices fly out the window. Not any more. Starting last week (the morning after my doctor visit) I put myself on a strict work out/diet routine. Yes I'm not one who will lose weight just by eating healthy... I need to diet. Strict, hard core, kick my butt diet. It's the only way for me... once I reach my goal I can maintain pretty easily... but the actual losing part will require lots of work.

I'm happy to report that 1 week in, I'm already down 10 lbs. Which, is mostly b/c I'm sweating off all the water that I normally drink. The first 7 lbs came off within 3 days simply by eating LESS. The next 3 lbs have come from taking in less calories than I'm burning. Dana recommended a great at home work out DVD which is kicking my butt. I'm only on level 1 and it leaves me breathless, exhausted & wanting more at the end of each work out. I was soooo stinking sore those first few days, but I'm getting better at it. My goal is to do a hard work out 3-5 times a week and at least work my arms & abs on the all the off days as that's where I need the most work. Arms & tummy. Ew.

Hopefully by the end of summer I'll have hit my goal weight. My goal is our anniversary in September... if I do hit my weight, I'll be in desperate need of clothes that fit as I have nothing saved from my smaller days. I guess that's not exactly a "bad" problem to have though. lol I love shopping so more motivation right?

I'll try to update every week or two on the weight stuff. It'll be good for me to be accountable to my blog. LOL Bring on the curveball! Let's lose this weight!

Easter.

2010-04-09T13:30:00.006-04:00

Easter 2010 happened to be an insanely gorgeous day for celebrating the resurrection. We made a weekend out of it, spending Saturday with grammy and Sunday with Nanie & Pawpaw. I had planned all week to visit the Summerville Easter Egg hunt at Azalea Park Saturday morning with the girls for lots of Easter fun. However we over slept, decided to work out & then hit the hunt in the afternoon as I thought it was at 1pm... nope. The kids hunt was at 10am. Oops. You can't just tell your kids "sorry guys, mom's mistake, maybe next year?" Nope. I had promised an egg hunt & gosh darn it we were going to have an egg hunt. So off to grammy's house we go where we hid 42 eggs filled with jellybeans & grammy had Easter presents waiting for the girls! Liz was thrilled to find the Princess & The Frog DVD in her grammy loot. Grammy also found matching outfits for the girls which made me smile... we all know what a fruit loop I am about matching my girlies. We followed our fun (no nap) day up with dinner at Wasabi. Now I realize most people don't think of Easter dinner involving Japanese food... but seeing as how I had a coupon, and Linda & I are sushi nuts... we decided Wasabi was a great place to celebrate together. Mm mm mm. Sooo delicious. Following our delicious food we rolled ourselves on over to church for the Saturday night service. It was amazing... our worship team is really incredible. They are such a talented group & never cease to amaze me. What a celebration it was & with tears in my eyes we ended our evening thankful for the grace we've been given so freely which cost so very much... He is risen... indeed! Sunday morning I left my girls devouring their Easter candy & playing happily in their new swim suits, flip flops & beach towels which I put in their baskets every year. (I figure I'm going to buy them new suits anyway, why not put them in their Easter baskets?) So off I go (in a dress no less, which is highly rare for me) to church to serve in the nursery all morning. What a great morning it was. We had 10 babies in nursery for one of the services and somehow I was lucky enough to get the 6 week old angel baby who was so tiny and precious I absolutely melted. He snuggled into my arms for an hour while I blissfully remembered those early days with my babies... such a special Easter gift for me. Who needs candy when you have a sweet little one to rock and love for an hour & then give back when they get hungry?! Not I! After nursery duty we spent the day at my mama's... which was more fun with the candy, clothes, big baskets, lots of thankfulness and amazing food. Whew it was a crazy weekend!

Here's a couple pics of the craziness!

Family pic...

Mommy & Daddy's Easter Basket goodies!

Easter Dresses - Sister lovin - 2010

Busy Weekend...

2010-03-30T16:26:00.006-04:00

Well the kids finally got over their yuckies... thank you Jesus... I think I did about 300 loads of laundry every day while they were ill. No fun. Last weekend Summerville hosted its annual Flowertown Festival where all the local crafty vendors get together with local businesses and restaurants & everyone puts on a good show. We had a booth at the festival so the girls spent 3 very long days with no naps staying with us from 8-5 each day. Sooo tiring. It was lots of fun though. They played in the grass behind our booth which happened to be on a hill so there was lots of fun to be had rolling down the hill. Grass stains and dirty hands galore! Liz got her face painted like a peacock and we all ate WAY too much amazingly unhealthy delicious food. I spent $18 one day on the best sushi ever but decided that was way too expensive to do more than once, the rest of the time we stuck with Italian sausages, cheeseburgers & cheap hotdogs. Blech. I made a maple honey glazed ham & garlic roasted mashed potatoes last night to counter all the picnic food of the weekend. I've got a couple great pics from the last few days... my girls are so crazy.

AND I have some news... there's a possibility that I'll be going back to work as an At Home Travel Agent for a Disney Only company here in Charleston! It's all in the works and nothing is final yet, but I've been searching long and hard for a way to get back in the industry that I love. And I'd really like to specialize in Disney Vacations. SO... I'll know more in the next few days as we sit down & chat more to be sure our goals/interests are the same.

So anyways, here are the pics:

Lizzy got her facepainted like a peacock!

My sweet girlies at Charlestowne Landing

Madeline trying out her bed with no rails!

It was a fun crazy weekend... my big splurge of the weekend was 4 bottles of organic muscadine juice. Heaven I tell you, at $7 a bottle it better be. LOL Every sip is like a mouth full of fresh grapes... no sugar or water added... just fresh squeezed muscadine grapes... Mmmmmm... As I type I'm sipping this deliciousness and savoring each mouth watering sip. Life is good. :)

Fevers. Fun. Frantic.

2010-03-19T22:34:00.002-04:00

My poor children. I swear I sometimes wonder when child services is going to show up on my doorstep & say "You know, this is just one time too many." I accidentally gave Madeline food poisoning yesterday... Worlds Best Mom Award goes to...

*sigh* I fed her some chicken soup for lunch that apparently had gone bad. I didn't taste it first, I don't warm up her soup usually because she just wants ice cubes to cool it until its cold. So I pulled it out of the fridge, stirred it up & served it with a smile. She gobbled it down and within 5 minutes was projectile vomitting. Yeah, apparently someone (*coughdaddycough*) forgot to cover the soup the day before.. and then popped a top on it early the next morning. Which was plenty of time for it to go bad. Anyway. Poor girl had it coming out both ends all day... and night... and off & on today. And right about the time she was back to normal, low and behold... Liz get's ill! This time I'm pretty sure it was not of my doing. She has an ear infection. This would be her 3rd one I think. Three in 4 1/2 years isn't too bad, but still. Poor girly is running a crazy high fever and hasn't eaten anything all day long. And then about 30 minutes after falling asleep she woke up and got sick all over her bed & pj's. So we had a late night bath & some new sheets & pj's. Unfortunately her "B" which accompanies her everywhere took a serious hit so it's in the washer as I type. Which makes for a rather miserable girly.

Anyway. Fevers are no fun. But I will say I love love love my temporal thermometer. Thank you Jesus for the (wo)man who invented that stroke of brilliance. Taking my kids tempature is no longer a battle and horrible experience, it's now so easy that half the time they sleep through it. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. If your kids have to be sick... this is a huge help. I recommend them to everyone.

Hoping my girls are 100% soon! I hate seeing them sick! We had a fun morning despite all the craziness. Maddy woke up feeling great (although she was filling her drawers at a rapid rate it didn't slow her down one bit) & Liz was fine this morning so I packed them up and we went to MOPS at the Longpoint Campus. It was lots of fun. Lizzy made a new friend in church a few weeks ago, and her mama is a super sweet gal. So we've been hanging out a bit. Sue has 2 girls, Cadance who's 5 (SUCH a sweetheart. Liz absolutely adores her.) and Lana her precious 13 month old (who Maddy's taken quite a liking to) and who has the biggest most beautiful blue eyes I've ever seen on a baby. So sweet. Anyways.. Sue & brought her girls (and niece) to MOPS and then we all went out to lunch afterwards. Lots of fun & craziness with 5 little girls. Two of which were in high chairs, the other 3 had a great time. Liz wasn't hungry and said she was tired, but I figured she was worn out from playing during MOPS... little did I know. By the time we got home she was running a 101.5 fever. She passed out for 2 hours and then woke up with an even higher fever, and this was after the Tylenol.

SO. 1 dose of food poisoning. 1 big fat ear infection. My 2 sweet girls are just havin a rough week(end). Madeline seems to be completely over her nasties now. I'm hoping Liz sleeps well tonight, I get the feeling we may be up quite a bit cleaning sheets & changing pj's. Oh well... such is the life of a mama.

On a very nice note... it was 72 here today! Bliss I tell you, BLISS! I broke out the sandals & sundresses for my little cutie pies. And we all enjoyed the gorgeous sunshine... Spring please come and stay... forever! Summer, Fall & Winter can just kiss my hiney. I'll take spring forever please. =)

Best. Article. Ever.

2010-03-18T17:04:00.002-04:00

For all my mama friends worried about those last few pounds... or in my case... 10's of pounds...

Parents Magazine April 2010...
Article on Butts. By Kari Anne Roy.

7 Stages of my New Butt
Getting used to your post-pregnancy booty.

Stage 1 - Denial. This isn't a new butt. It's the same awesome butt you had the day you got married.

Stage 2 - Shock. Well, it's technically the same butt, but for some reason it doesn't fit into the pants you wore last year - before you got pregnant. But there's no way your butt could be so drastically altered by having a baby. Could it? OMG!

Stage 3 - Anger. Fine. It's not the same butt. It has curves and divots and new places that sweat. It follows you wherever you go. Stupid, annoying butt and its stupid, annoying cellulite! Is it possible to get a restraining order to prevent it from stalking you?

Stage 4 - Depression. No dice. It turns out you can't get a restraining order against your own body. And if you inquire about it people laugh at you. And that makes you cry. As do the elastic-waist pants you just bought, even though you are nine months postpartum. Those lying liars who said "nine months on, nine months off" must have gotten to keep their original cute butt.

Stage 5 - Guilt. You are a grown woman. You have a degree. You know that women should be - and are - more than just hot bodies. You know objectification is cruel. You've read the magazine articles that tell you how awesome you are. You created life. And yet... this butt. IT WON'T GO AWAY!

Stage 6 - Fear. You probably have Flesh Expanding Butt Disease. It's very rare but if you get FEBD your butt will eventually consume your entire body, preventing you from leading a normal life. There is no cure for this horrible ailment. Best to just go buy a bunch of sweatpants.

Stage 7 - Acceptance. Right. So it isn't that bad, really. Your new butt does come with some nice features. It's easier to close the car door now. Your kids have something to hang on when you're at the grocery store. And your husband likes it. A lot. In fact, your new butt is kind of growing on you...

Blackmail.

2010-03-18T12:40:00.001-04:00

"Hey Mommy guess what?! Maddy's top teeth came in! She pooped really big and they came right in! Isn't that awesome mom?"

I'm saving this one for blackmail when she's 16.

Bizabis.

2010-03-18T11:02:00.002-04:00

Madeline used to call Liz sissy. Then she tried saying Lizzy but it came out Sizzy. Now she calls her Bizabis.

And every time I hear it I laugh.

"Bizabis owwww! Bizabis pway wid me. Wub oo Bizabis."

Chatter bug.

2010-03-18T08:24:00.004-04:00

I often wonder what goes on in Elizabeth's mind... somehow she manages to connect the most off the wall subjects & relates them to her ever day life. This morning she crawled in bed next to me & started telling me a story. It went something like this:

"Mama, when we say our prayers this is how we keep our eyes closed to listen to our prayers, it makes Jesus happy when we listen to our prayers. I pray to go to a hotel mommy, I want to visit the red hotel where we can choose 2 friends to go to Disney World & sleep in our hotel. You get to pick daddy & I'll pick Maddy. I can bring all my princess dollies to Disney & maybe we can get Maddy matching ones & maybe we can get princess shoes & maybe & I smell something funny, oh yeah I tooted, and maybe we can have Maddys little potty in disney. I can lift Maddy high & show her how to potty, we have to learn her how & we can all girls across & maybe we can make a tiny igloo for me & Mad & where would the door go? & maybe we can make a TV out of our house & then we can put the TV in our igloo & we can pick a movie out & see what one I like & maybe a cat movie with the color rainbow cats. Remember the girl from the place where the man filled the machine with crackers & took all the money?"

And on and on she goes. Where she'll stop, nobody knows. It's hilarious. As long as I look interested & nod my head appropriately she'll keep going. I wonder at the way she can go from talking about princess shoes, to igloo tv's & then vending machines. And that is just the beginning! Given the chance Elizabeth would tell you all the nitty gritty details of daily living in the Clemmons house from the way she stepped on a spider and squished it good, to how often she uses the potty & washes her hands. She'd tell you about the letter "E" which is her favorite of course and then tell you that A starts with Apple. (Yes, that's how she says it.) My chatter bug keeps us entertained that's for sure. I know I'll miss these moments eventually but when you cross the threshold to hour 4 of randomness I confess a small (but growing larger all the time) part of me wants to play the "lets distract her with ANYTHING" game.

I love my Lizzy. She really is a hoot to live with. She's growing so fast... she's so tall & leggy. While Madeline takes after me (a bit squatty with short legs) Elizabeth takes after her Aunt Bethy. I bought their swimsuits at the Gymboree Outlets the other day. They were running all their suits on sale for $12.99 - which is amazing. I can't find them that cheap at Target and these will hold up much better. I got Liz her first big girl 2 piece. It's very modest though... more of a tankini. (Jay flipped out when I told him over the phone about it being a 2 piece, he's VERY conservative when it comes to his little girls, nothing too tight or skin baring is allowed in our house, but once he saw it he grudgingly agreed to taking the tags off & keeping it.) Here's some pics of the girls who immediately had to put their new suits on the moment we got home from shopping.

Yesterday we got to see a vending machine man (hence that part of the story) take out the money and refill the chips. The man looked like he was down & not enjoying his day. But my girls were frozen in interest, watching the "behind the scenes" tour of vending machines. So we waited and watched. I explained each step of the process to them in quiet tones while we watched the man unlock the door, pull it open & empty the change box. Then he pulled out each shelf and refilled the items. All the while Liz & Maddy sat absolutely still watching his every move. I realized this must be very facinating for them so we sat for awhile & just watched. The man overheard me talking to the girls and all of the sudden he became more animated, asking them questions about themselves. Prompting them to ask questions about what he was up to. He showed them where the money goes & how the machine buttons work. And then at the end he let them pick out some crackers for a snack... while the door was still open. Boy did they think that was awesome. Lizzy was in near reverance as she picked out her cheezits & with eyes wide as saucers she whispered "Thank you sir... thank you for my special snack!" I could see the mans chest inflate as he realized his job had made a child smile that day... it was a neat moment for all of us. Lizzy later spent 20 minutes explaining to daddy the thrilling process of refilling vending machines.

That brief encounter made me realize just how big this world is and how exciting it is for my girls to discover new things. The smallest things are thrilling to them.

Last night it occured to me that I have been guilty of skipping over Maddy's foundational education in favor of Lizzy's amazing progress into the world of reading. Every day I work with the girls on letters, sounds, and the exciting process of turning those letters into stories. But last night it dawned on me that while my 2 year old can identify the letters E & M without difficulty... she has no clue what a circle is. She can't color in the lines, and every crayon she picks up is "green". Oops. Big big oops. It was a sad reminder for me that I'm (accidentally) forcing Maddy to grow up far too quickly. She's 2, she's not ready to read. Letters which facinate her should not be on her radar yet. I skipped steps 1 & 2 in favor of the more exciting step 3 but what sort of foundation is that? So what if she can read if she can't understand *what* she's talking about? So back to the basics we go. Today I'm enjoying the smaller process of red circle, blue square & yellow triangle... and yes... the color green. The real one that is.

Rockin the 80's Prom.

2010-03-17T18:04:00.002-04:00

Life is full of moments... some of which you can only look back at and laugh at yourself.

Which brings me to my point: 80's Prom. So totally rad dude. ;)

Dear Friend.

2010-03-15T19:31:00.002-04:00

Dear Friend, I owe you an apology. I'd apologize in person except that I used the word friend loosley and frankly I'm not sure you could handle an apology in an appropriate manner. However, I'm sorry. When you rang me on the phone this morning, asking me if I'd just got up at 10 am when I'd actually been up since 7... and then proceeded to say how nice it must be to sleep in every morning and not go to work... I'm pretty sure I wasn't very gracious in my response. No, let me edit that. I know I was downright insulted. I realize my scathing reply to your not so kind question of "Do you ever think you'll start working again?" was not as gentle as it should have been. When I replied with "I'm actually working as we speak! I'm multi talented that way. I'm currently the Human Resource Manager for E & M Adventures, in addition to being a full time nurse & part time chef, I also drive a taxi & run a laundromat. In my spare time I babysit 24 hours a day 7 days a week. What was it you do again? Oh yes. Sit at your desk all day & go out to lunch with friends for an hour each afternoon. Gosh... I guess I should think about going back to work soon so I can take a rest!" You thought I was joking. You laughed & said "Yeah yeah I still wish I could sleep in every day." I apologize for hanging up after I replied: "Yeah, me too."

*steps off soap box* Seriously. Do people really think raising kids involves sleeping in every day & no work? Really? Is that what your mother did? Mine certainly didn't. My mom was up before all of us doing laundry before breakfast & after we all went to bed there was usually another basket full of clothes at her feet ready to be folded. Not to mention the never ending list of chores during the day, and finding time to spend with each of us kids. Good grief. Have some common sense please.

Oh well. Phone calls like the one my day started with make me appreciate my own mother, grandmother & the women before them who took the time to teach their daughters right. (Not to say I have it down... Lord only knows I am a far cry from the awesome housewife my mom is but still.) It shocks me how some people think of a stay at home mother...

1 in 5

2010-03-15T16:16:00.002-04:00

1 in 5 people in the world are Chinese. Since there are 5 people in my family, it must be my mom or dad... or perhaps my older brother Collin. It could be my younger brother Cho-Chow-Ling but I'm pretty sure it's Collin.

-Courtesy of Mrs. H. This made me smile this morning. Which I needed... ever had one of those days when your children are driving so far past the point of crazy that you consider locking them in the house while you run down and max out your credit card at the local liquor store to forget your troubles? No? Hm. Well maybe I'll leave the door unlocked...

Today is just a normal Monday. Kids are tired from our crazy Sunday. Jay is getting on my last nerve with his "Let's be super super productive today!" attitude while I'd just like to let my cold medicine take effect and chill out today. Dag gone productivitey. Whine whine whine. I've had a cold/allergy thingy for over a month now. It comes and goes in phases. Right now its giving me a horrendously sore throat from coughing... which is not fun. Fortunately the kids seem immune to my cold so they're floating right along in the world of 100 mile per hour energy bursts while I'm struggling to get over my little speed bump.

On the upside, I'm cleaning out my house and selling everything we don't currently use/play with/or wear on Craigslist. I saved a few of my favorite outfits of the girls but everything else is going bye bye! I *think* I will love this feeling once it's all sold... for now it just means lots of bags & boxes everywhere while I sort through everything. But when we move onto our farm it'll mean less "stuff" we have to take with us... which is good. Especially considering the fact that while we're building our big house, we'll be moving in to a 2 bedroom mobile home. You got it baby. I am the queen of our double wide trailer with the polyester curtains and the red wood deck. I'm going to have to find some of those tacky pink flamingo's to put out front in celebration of our hillbilly-ness. Should be an interesting year or so.

So I recently reread the Twilight series while I was sick... which makes me wonder, what the heck is in those books? Crack? They're so addicting! Once I start the first book it's like I disappear off the face of the earth until I close the fourth book and even then I immediately think of starting over. I have no idea what the draw is, but I surely love the books. Not the movies so much. Feels a little odd lusting after good lookin teenage boys. LOL But the books are another story. *sigh* I'm so weird.

Lizzy is starting to read (yes I realize how very random this blog post is, but I have a 2 year old yelling in her crib who doesn't want to nap so pardon me for being slightly distracted) where was I? Oh yeah. Liz. Reading. Thank GOD for Leapfrog. The Learning with Leap DVD's have moved Liz from barely being able to identify letters to knowing every letter & it's sound & even how to put them together. We worked for a solid year (I homeschooled her this year) on identifying letters and their sounds... and all it took was 1 week of those DVD's for everything to click. She loves to point at signs and sound them out. I'm searching for some of the old Dick & Jane books but we have some easy readers that she slowly sounds out. It's pretty amazing how fast she's learning everything. I'm also homeschooling her for Kindergarten this year... now THAT will be an adventure. Jay's already committed to helping me with the science parts. (he loves science while I'm more of an indoor girl) so that'll be fun for her. We're using the new online public schooling program called k12. My aunt used it with her 4 kids to great success, so I'm super excited about Liz having the chance to learn at home. As much as she drives me ape wall sometimes, I'm not ready to ship her off to school. I'm looking forward to our time together this fall. Madeline is really wanting to learn too so I may even start her on some of the basics this year. Why not? She's interested! This is partly why I'm not ready to have a 3rd baby. I want to be sure we figure out how to do this whole homeschool thing before I add in the craziness of another mouth to feed/mind to entertain. Anyway... signing her up next week for k12. Looking forward to summer time & laying by the pool!

Enough randomness for the day. I updated the look of the blog... looks kinda homey now. :)

I'm back!

2010-03-10T17:40:00.002-05:00

So I sort of fell off the face of the earth there for a ... well... a whole year, but hey. I'm back. It's been 1 year since I updated, life is crazy as ever. Liz turned 4 and started looking forward to her 5th birthday on August 30. Maddy just turned 2 a couple weeks ago, we didn't do a big party for her this year. However she had a great birthday with Linda & the boys on the Saturday before her birthday & another party with my side of the family on Sunday. Needless to say she was spoiled rotten. I'm not really used to this leap day birthday thing yet. It didn't really feel like she had a birthday this year. We celebrated on the 28th as the official day but it wasn't a trip down memory lane like it always is with Lizzy's birthdays. I guess I'll have to get it through my head that its the years that count, not just the actual day.

Anyway! Maddy is up to 26.5 lbs & Liz is right at 42 lbs. The girls are the best of friends and yet the fight every day... usually a half dozen knock down drag out fights a day... but they always hug and make up after them. It's kind of funny actually. Madeline is almost potty trained! I'm SO excited about that. She is doing so great, wakes up dry & has no problem going on command. She is a strange child in that she loves to be naked & play in her poop... not just once, but several times... every week. It's nuts. So we're learning to make her sit on the potty every day before nap time until she poo's in the potty then we're clear for the day. If however she's just not ready to go we inevitably have to clean up a big mess after nap time as she'll go, then quietly decorate her crib with it, then fall asleep and when she wakes up it's dried and nasty. Lots of fun times for mama.

I should be posting some new pics of Madeline here soon! I'm hoping to get her 2 year old pictures taken in the next week or so. I've got some cute idea's for some fun pics. And yes, I'll probably have Liz's taken at the same time... I love sister shots.

So that's it for now. I'll try to check in soon & not leave my blog sadly hanging for another year! :)

A Poor Excuse of a Blogger

2009-02-22T16:52:00.000-05:00

Well alas, its been another 2 months. How do I let this happen? Let me get right to the good stuff. Remember last post when I said Madeline would be walking soon? Well I was right, she is walking with the best of them! My baby is growing up so fast. Guess what next week is? Her FIRST birthday! Yes sometime between Saturday & Sunday my baby will turn a year old. Being a leap day baby she technically doesn't have a birthday this year but we'll be celebrating next Sunday afternoon with a big ball pit for the little ones, a tatoo station for the bigger ones & some double chocolate chip cream cheese cupcakes which are incredible yummy.

Anyway, it should be a good time! So what else is new? Well we're taking the girls on their first cruise in 2 weeks. Should be pretty amazing! My whole family is going (mom, dad, brothers, sister, brother-in-law, nephew & my gang) The girls have matching outfits for every day of the trip, as well as matching swimsuits, sandals, bows, & evening wear. Yeah I've had just a wee bit of fun shopping lately. I can't wait to set sail two weeks from today! Woot!

In other news, we have yet to find the perfect farm but we're trusting God to show us where he wants us to be in His time.

We've done two home shows in the last two months & thanks to the publicity from the shows business is booming in an otherwise slow market. Thank you Jesus for providing!

Elizabeth is growing more willful by the day. We butt heads constantly, much like my mother & I did for years. I'm trying to find ways to relate to her & not smother her exuberant personality. She is such a beautiful & sweet little girl but she definately has a wild side that drives me nuts. She still gets very jealous of Maddy, preferring to always be in the limelight. I know if I can steer all that energy in the right direction she'll be magnificent at whatever she puts her hands to. My hope is to find another dance school when we move as well as start her piano lessons & maybe even let her take gymnastics. She certainly has enough energy to do all of them well. I don't want to overwhelm her but she's a child that needs to stay busy or she gets in trouble. Jay wants her to take tennis lessons so we may encourage that instead of gymnastics. We'll see.

All in all Elizabeth is helping me develop more patience than I ever thought I would need. And she is also the sweetest part of my life. Her voice when she gets excited brings tears to my eyes. I am so in love with my girls.

Part of me is scared to have another child as my heart is already divided in so many directions, but another part of me looks forward to watching our family grow. Madeline is quickly becoming a toddler & leaving babyhood behind at a breakneck speed. She is still the most darling angel. She is so funny to watch. She loves her big sister with a wild heart never minding the many times Liz knocks her over when they're playing or being stuffed in a hamper or being picked up like a rag doll by the sister she adores. Maddy plainly prefers her sisters company to any one else in the whole world. She always has a smile for Liz & would follow her anywhere. I hope Lizzy comes to realize the treasure she has in her little sister, sooner rather than later. I know they'll always squabble but nothing would make me happier than to watch them grow up the best of friends.

That's pretty much it for now! Madelines 1 year pictures are on Tuesday, I'll try to post pictures soon!

2 Updates in 1 day!

2008-12-09T14:41:00.002-05:00

Oh good gravy, I just had to update. For those of you with weak stomachs, skip ahead to the next update for this is one disgusting story.

Elizabeth and I were watching a movie this afternoon and as always she got bored half way through and began to move around the room while watching. She loves the Christmas tree and enjoys examining each ornament closely asking questions and pointing out her favorites. So it was no suprise that half way through the movie she made her way over to the tree both watching the movie and looking at the ornaments. I heard her toot and then giggle. I ignored it. A few minutes later she tooted again. I told her to go sit on the potty but she assured me she didn't need to go.

Fast forward 10 minutes and it hits me. This oder akin to a sewer plant. It fell upon the room with a quiet calm. Lizzy was standing beside me. She plopped down on her belly next to me and I look over... And gag.

Understand that she was wearing underwear, tights, a skirt and shirt. As well as enough poop to fertilize a field. This child had exploded up her back OVER her shoulders, down her tights behind her knees. It was in her armpits, her belly button. It was everywhere.

But wait. Just when you're gagging in your seat and thinking "I'm so glad I wasn't there" it gets better. I rush her into the bathroom, turn on the water in the tub... But nothing happens. Yes, today. Of all days in my 3 year olds life when she just happens to have the biggest poop imagineable. Yes today is the day the water company is replacing pipes down the street. Our water won't be back on until 6. Brilliant.

So, I used an entire box of HUGGIES wipes cleaning up poo from all the various parts of my daughters body while she sat absolutely still not saying a word. It hit me that she must have had a sick stomach so I couldn't be upset with her but I don't think she knew that I'd come to that conclusion for she was being very very cooperative in the operation cleanup recovery efforts.

So alas, I bathed my arms up to my elbows in alcohol and lizzy is now sleeping reeking only slightly like a sewer plant but mostly like HUGGIES baby wipes.

Oh what a day.

2 months later...

2008-12-09T10:06:00.000-05:00

Wow I've been terrible at blogging lately! Sorry! Let me get right to it, two months have gone by and so have two holidays!

We all dressed up for Halloween and enjoyed the holiday with friends and family. Liz went as Minnie Mouse and Maddy was a super cute chicken. Jay went as Joe the Plumber even though we lost the election a few days later. And I cheaped out by going as a cat. (black pants, black shirt, $3 cat ears and some eyeliner on my nose. Voila! A cat.) lol

Halloween was great but the real fun was Thanksgiving where Jay and I took the girls to Ohio to be with all my extended family for the festivities. We left at 4 am on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving which turned out to be a great choice. The girls slept until 8 which put us 4 hours closer to Ohio before I had to start entertaining them for the last 7 hours of the trip. I drove the first leg then began the rotation of movies, toys, songs, threats, you know... Anything to keep chaos from breaking out in the back seat. Lizzy was a bit of a nightmare during the whole trip. But to her credit she didn't get a good nights sleep the entire time due to the four of us sharing one room at my aunts. You see, Jay snores. Like a freight train. Maddy kicks her bed while trying to fall asleep. And Liz usually chats herself to sleep. Meanwhile I slept on the bottom bunk of my cousins bed and knocked myself in the head every time I sat up during the night to settle the girls or threaten Jay (who blissfully slept solid every night sawing his logs while I was up every 30-40 minutes every. Single. Night.) So having said all that, poor Liz, who desperately needs a good nights sleep to function properly was a bossy, non listening little stinker the whole trip.

However... And this is a big however, I am SO thankful that my aunt allowed us to stay with them. It was so nice spending time with my awesome cousins and getting to celebrate the season with them. We had an absolute blast while we were there. Madeline was an angel the whole time which helped a lot. We shopped, played games, ate more food than I should have had all month (which explains the 3 lbs I gained back in one week). Thanksgiving day we piled 21 people into my aunts house. With some creative decorating and name placing we managed to get everyone seated with 3 tables set up for all the amazing food. My aunt Debi made 8, yes 8 pies. I made 2 pumpkin rolls so we seriously inhaled a bazillion delicious calories over the course of a few days.

Black Friday I woke up early and went shopping by myself, I scored a few good deals but missed out on the two things I went for (I didn't get in line at 4) but then the girls hit the town and boy did we clean up on bargains! I scored some super cute shirts for myself from Old Navy for $5! Love that!

Friday night we all went out to dinner for Aunt Jill and Bethy's birthdays. YUMMY! Marchella's (sp?) was insanely good. It was this great little Italian restaurant with the strongest (and perhaps coincedentally best tasting) cosmo I'd ever had. The food was incredible and we all left there wishing we'd worn elastic waist pants. LOL

Saturday brought both frustrations (we got lost in Mansfield for an hour) and so much fun! Jay and I gathered our girls in their adorable Christmas dresses and took off for Jeromesville to find the worlds largest Sycamore tree. (you know my husband and his facination with trees) And we found it! On a dirt road, over the river and through the woods. (not to grandmothers house, that was later in the day) No, nestled in the heart of some No Trespassing acreage which we trespassed on stood the worlds largest Sycamore. It was beautiful and worth the trip. However since we were trespassing and in a tiny little town in Ohio, we didn't stay long. (I wasn't about to get shot over a tree!) So on to the Gauls house! After getting lost in Mansfield (10 years of being gone completely erased all memory of how to get around in my old home town) we arrived at the Gauls just in time to pass around some hugs, say a quick hello then back in the car to head to my grandparents with mom and dad leading the way this time. All this was acomplished by noon and we arrived at my grandparents with ravishing appetites and a huge spread of Christmas foods for our first Christmas party! We had a great time, some of my cousins where there that I hadn't seen in YEARS! The Christmas party was fun but before we knew it it was time to make the hour and a half drive back to Dublin.

Sunday brought more Christmas fun, I got to sleep in a bit after being up ALL night with the girls. So Jay took pity on me and let me have a couple hour nap before the next Christmas party at my grandma's house!

Once again the food was overflowing with flavor and abundance. What a great time! We spoiled grandma with gifts and pictures of great grandbabies and enjoyed every moment of our time together! Sunday night we hung out at the Embassy Suites in Dublin (where my parents stayed the whole trip) free cocktails and movie madness made for a fun last evening with my family. Monday was a long ride home but other than a couple major blowputs by Maddy (I had to change her on the side of the road in the snowy mountains, poor baby was freezing but she didn't complain, she was happy to have clothes that weren't covered in poop anymore. LOL)

So now on to a few updates. Madeline is standing! She walks around furniture now and has this "O" face that looks like she's suprised, she makes this face ALL the time. Its so funny! She also has two teeth now! They're so cute, her bottom two teeth. She smiles with her bottom lip down to show off her little beavers all the time. She'll be walking in the next couple months I'm sure.

Lizzy is SO excited for Christmas this year. She's been helping me wrap gifts, playing with the nativity every day and in general learning what this season is all about.

Life is great but crazy. My girls make every day an adventure. Jay talks about baby 3 a lot but we decided to wait a couple years as we're trying to buy some land right now for our tree farm. We're running out of space at our house so we're looking for a growing field along with a place we can build our future home. With all that going on, I definately do not want to be pregnant right now.

We're planning on visiting Disney in January so hopefully that works out. It'll depend on how busy our business stays.

Anyway, this was a long overdue update. I'll be sure to post some pictures soon! Our Christmas picture turned out super cute! :)

Growing Pains

2008-10-11T08:36:00.000-04:00

Ever want to put your kids in a bubble so no one can ever hurt them? I do. I know its unreasonable and they have to learn and blah blah blah, but last night was extrememly hard for me. It was also a glimps of the future and how cruel life can be.

Lizzy is just entering the age of realization. She's begining to grasp that her words can hurt others and that she needs to be kind, not only because she'll get in trouble if she isn't but mainly because other people can be her hurt by her unkind actions. Because of this newfound realization I'm able to glimps a bit of who she really is and its both scary and neat that I see a lot of myself in my daughter. One thing I've noticed is that she reaches out to everyone. She loves kids the same age, younger and older. She sees no colors, hears no accents and could care less what a childs "status" is. That's not to say she doesn't notice the differances but as I watch her study people I can see her mind go from curiosity, to acceptance with no boundries to extending kindness. Now, having said that, she's 3. She does have bad attitudes and bad days but fortunately she directs those at me and rarely other people.

So... Where does all this lead us? Well, for all
her faults (and they are many) she is a kind child. And I absolutley love that about her. We were in Walmart on Sunday and there was a black woman decked to the nines in her Sunday best, pastel suit, matching shoes, big hat. Totally normal for Sunday around here. Anyway she was standing by us in line and Lizzy looked over and said, "oh mommy, oh she is beautiful mommy" it was completely unprompted and out of the blue. The lady said "thank you so much, really... Thank you" I have no idea what was going on in that lady's life but she was so appreciative that a random little girl thought she was beautiful. Liz often tells women they're beautiful when they're dressed up and it never fails to make them smile.

Anyway, these are just a few instances of how Liz reaches out to everyone.

And that's probably why it was so hard to watch her feelings get hurt last night when one of her dearest friends was continually nasty to her over and over. I really wanted to step in and say something but I wanted her to learn from it as well. But I have to say it hurt that nothing was said by her parents. I know I'm being sensitive, but its hard not to be, she's my little girl.

So here's what happened. I'll leave out names because these are our friends. So we get to dinner last night and Liz sees her best buddy and runs over to give her a hug. The girl pushed Liz away and said "I don't want to hug you." Liz was hurt but hey, they're 3 I chalked it up to a bad mood. So I go to set Liz by her friend at dinner and the little girl throws a fit and says "no! I don't want you to sit by me." Liz was completely confused... And hurt. But the part that gets me is instead of correcting the behaviour with telling her to be kind and identifying that she's hurting another childs feelings her mom (a good friend of mine) merely said "if you want to choose another seat you can" so she did! She moved across the table and at this point Liz had tears in her eyes. She wouldn't even eat her dinner. Now at this point I was getting annoyed... But I didn't say anything. After dinner the kids went upstairs to watch a movie while we had small group. About 30 minutes in I hear Liz crying upstairs so I go up to see what's going on and she's sitting about 10 feet away from the other kids crying. I asked her what was wrong and the gist of it was that the little girl didn't want Liz to sit with the group while watching the movie so Liz had walked 10 feet away and sat by herself. At that point I was getting mad, I said to the whole group "guys we need to be nice, everyone is included in movie time" I waited until Liz had gotten herself settled again (albeit a few feet away still) but she was watching the movie so I figured all was fine. Then as it was time to go Liz tried to give her friend a hug goodbye and the girl ran off and said "no" her mom was standing right there and said "we give her the freedom to choose if she wants to hug people or not" which, I respect... Somewhat. However watching my 3 year old with her arms out trying to give her friend a hug was heartbraking. All in all I was really bothered by the whole evening. I know I'm being sensitive but on the way home lizzy was very quiet. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "I'm sad... ___ doesn't like me."

*sigh* It made me cry. Jay was furious with the whole evening he wanted to say something so badly but these are good friends of ours and we don't want to sever that relationship so we figured we'd better cool off for a few days and then I'll mention how hurt Liz was to my friend. But watching Liz get her feelings hurt was awful. I wish I could put her in a bubble and protect her from the meanness and hurtful things of the world.

But... This is where I have to trust that God is watching over my girls. He alone can heal their hurts and shelter them through the storms of life. As mild as this was in the grand scheme of things it still broke my heart to hear my baby say "I'm sad."

Picture time! (Video below)

2008-09-23T10:19:00.004-04:00

Okay, here's what's going on in our lives... Princess dresses, scottish highland games, and lots of fun hanging outdoors in this beautiful weather! Maddy is getting chubby... just look at those cheeks! :)

The tail of Madeline...

2008-09-23T09:59:00.002-04:00

You know how it's funny to watch a dog chase its tail? Well this is kind of like that... but with my kid. And please excuse the laughter in the background... I was dying laughing and my goofy baby running in circles.

Enjoy!

Winds of change...

2008-09-10T13:36:00.000-04:00

Ah, so its been more than a little crazy around here lately. Maddy is up to 16 lbs and is trying to crawl! She gets up on all fours but then she just rocks back and forth and eventually face plants herself into the carpet before pulling herself back up and trying again. She's sleeping very well, most nights are at least 10 hours. Our only problem at the moment (and I mean that quite litterally as she's screaming in the other room as I type this) is that she HATES nap time. Hates it! It is so annoying! Once asleep she'll be out for 3-4 hours in the afternoon, but getting her to slow down long enough to actually fall asleep is darn near impossible! And frustrating to boot as she keeps Lizzy up when she starts screaming meaning I have two miserable nap needing kids every afternoon, which really, really sucks!

In between that last sentance and this one I finally gave in and rocked her to sleep, so now my house is blissfully quiet. For now anyways...

So what's new around here? I can't remember if I've mentioned Princess Charming but that's what Lizzy calls prince charming, which cracks me up. In school this month they're teaching the kids their parents names in case the kids would ever get lost they can tell someone who they're with. So lizzy likes to call us "Dessica Cwemmons" and "damie cwemmons" but they funny one is when you ask her Maddys full name... "Maddy Goose!" she'll reply. I guess I need to start calling Madeline Maddy Jane instead of Maddy Goose.

I ordered Jays birthday cake from Publix today, its the same flavor as Lizzy's cake but the theme is all green with a tree stump in the middle and a chain saw laying on the stump... I cracked up when I saw the picture of it in the Publix cake book. I just knew I had to order it for him! His birthday is on Friday so we'll be celebrating at small group. I'm making lasagna and we'll have garlic bread, salad and then ice cream and cake for dessert, should be fun! He told me he wants tools for his birthday which translates to a card from me and whatever he wants from the catalog of tools he always has laying around. Lol

Oh yeah, another lizzy moment: Liz got a camera for her birthday from her uncle, it came with a camera case. Yesterday Liz walks up to me and asks where her suitcase for her camera is... It took me a minute to realize she was asking about her camera case. Too cute.

Anyway! I need a nap, its been a looong morning. More updates to come!

New Stuff

2008-09-02T21:58:00.000-04:00

Yes I realize that's not the most creative title but the title "birthday parties, well check visits and other things going on in our lives" seemed a bit long. So it is what it is. Moving on!

Let's go in order, last Friday lizzy turned 3 which was lots of fun. We didn't do too much on her actual birthday as she got an upset tummy after her lunch (she wanted Chinese... Ew, I blame the chicken) so she had an accident (a very messy one) while we were at small group, in front of 15 kids. Was she embarassed? Not my kid. Nope, she merely said "I feel better mommy" when she was through ruining the carpet. Fun times.

Saturday morning however brought lots of stress for mommy and great times for Lizzy. The reason I was stressing was that we had 50 people RSVP for her party... Which I wasn't expecting, and most of which RSVP'd the night before. Oh and it was from 11-1 which meant we needed to feed everyone so I was stressing about that big time. Linda took care of the fruit which was wonderful (huge platters of watermelon, grapes, canteloupe, strawberries and honeydew. I made a big platter of cheese cubes and picked up 6 lbs of popcorn chicken. We added some goldfish and things like that and then topped it all off with palmtree coolers of capri suns, apple juice and bottled water.

The cake was vanilla with raspberry filling and whipped buttercream frosting which was the best cake I'd ever tasted. Seriously, better than our overpriced wedding cake... Lol we also had an ice cream bar with peaches, rasberries, chocolate chips, gummy bears, bitterscotch chips and sprinkles for toppings. That was a huge hit with the parents and kids both. I had some games planned but we had 25 kids there so we didn't end up playing any games as it was too chaotic. I did however have a rub on tattoo station for the kids which was a HUGE hit. The kids loved getting those and the parents sll thought it was fun as well. Due to the ginormous guest count the gift table was out of control. She got more than any 3 year old should ever have so I'm putting the things we got her, back for Christmas. And we'll be donating an old toy for each of the new ones she opens.

All in all it was a blast although both lizzy and I were overwhelmed with everything. Jay hung out with my brothers and Maddy had a great time with all the attention while lizzy and I tackled the mountain of presents. It took us 2 days to recover from all that fun.

Then today was Maddy's 6 month well check visit. Her head is in the 10th percentile, her height and weight around the 40th percentile. She's up to 16 lbs 3 oz now! She got 3 shots and only cried while she was getting them. As soon as I picked her up afterwards she started smiling at the nurse. It was sad and cute, big ol tears streaming down her cheeks and a grin on her face... That's my baby.

I have to say I am SO thankful that she is a good baby. Lizzy is proving to be a handful these days and I don't know what I'd do if Maddy was a difficult baby on top of that. Fortunately I don't have to worry about that. Maddy is angelic and so sweet to be around.

Lizzy's an awesome kid and I love her more than life, but I swear she'll be the death of me. She is so sassy these days and independant! (which is the nice way of saying she doesn't listen worth a darn most days and its driving me ape wall!) I'm working with her though, Jay says I'm too soft on her. I just say I choose my battles. If I were to correct her every single time she didn't listen or talked back I'd spend all day putting her in time out and taking away privledges. Instead I try to pick the things I most want her to learn (good manners, kindness, and listening skills) and I overlook the bossy boots comments or rolling of the eyes. (which I realize both of those fall under good manners, but seriously, she's 3. I'll take please and thank you even if its sometimes said more like "please I want that this very instant" or "please but I'm really just saying please because I know that's the only way to get what I want even if I don't have a thankful attitude at all right now" yeah, its a lot to put into one little "please" but trust me, they can do it)

I guess she's just really trying her boundries right now and is looking to me to set the guidelines for all future communication between us. Its hard, but no one ever said parenting would be easy. And its definetly not.

But to end on a happy note. Lizzys preschool is working on safety right now so they're teaching the kids their full names and their parents full names in case they ever get lost the kids will know what to tell a police officer. So tonight I asked Liz, what's your name? And she replies "Wizabeth Doy Kwemmons" then I asked her "what's mommy's name?" she replied "Jessica" I said "what's mommy's last name?" she replies... "mommy... Jessica mommy" so I tried two for two of that cuteness and asked what daddy's last name is... She said "daddy. Daddy's name is Jamie Daddy" lol gotta love it.

That's all for this update but I'll upload some pics soon. :)

Not so long ago...

2008-08-28T22:41:00.000-04:00

Not so long ago I knew this was almost it. The moment I'd been waiting for since I was a little girl who loved swaddling her cabbage patch doll. It was within reach, my contractions had started and in my mind I could picture this amazing little person. My first born, my Elizabeth Joy. There was no way of preparing myself for the mass of emotions that comes along with seeing a new life that God, my husband and I had by some miracle created but it was the most amazing feeling I'd ever had.

Not too long ago I was waking Jamie up with a panicked "this is it."

Not too long ago I got my first glimpse of the rest of my life. As she lay there in my arms flashes of first steps, backpacks, proms and weddings were dancing through my imagination.

Not too long ago those first steps became a reality as I watched the world come alive for my little girl. As she toddled over with an expression of one who recently won an Olympic gold medal, full of spirit and excitement as she mastered this new life tool, I knew this would change everything. And it did. We've moved on to backpacks and no more diapers. She has manners and attitudes, preferances and a voice. A beautiful voice which often grates my last nerve but can melt me in a heartbeat with a whispered "I love you mommy." or "want to play with me mommy?"

Today my lizzy will be turning 3. I'm so proud of her. Not only for her accomplishments, which are growing in number every day, but for her heart. She is a passioniate little girl who loves life and is full of laughter and sweetness. Not so long ago she was 7 lbs 11oz and relied on me for everything. Now she is growing more independent by the day, both breaking my heart and giving me hope that someday she'll be an amazing woman.

For now however she's my sweet angel, the voice I look forward to in the mornings with my favorite words in the whole world. "I love you mommy."

Its that time again!

2008-08-21T16:06:00.000-04:00

Back to school! Oh how I despise getting up at the butt crack of dawn to wake up my toddler who is 3 going on 13 with her little morning attitudes of "5 more minutes!" and "I don't wanna go to school." and all the drama that goes along with getting her up before she's ready. However, she needs to go to preschool, she learns SO much and she has a really fabulous teacher this year. First day back was a huge success, no tears when I left and she got a great report after school. Today they had a sub who was very sarcastic, and Liz doesn't do well with sarcasm so she got in trouble for pushing the subs hand away. When I asked her about it on the way home she said "well she pointed in my face mommy" which, I know Liz is the kid and should never push her teachers hand away but I'm not really cool with a teacher pointing in my kids face either so we had a light talk about it and hopefully her regular teacher will be back next week.

In the mean time, Lizzy started ballet and tap dance! She LOVES dancing. I worked with her all week on her positioning and pointing her toes, heel toe and all that fun dance stuff and last night her teacher said she came alive in class and did an excellant job. Yay! I love those reports!

Now for a Maddy update. We're fast approaching 6 months old and I still have to say I have never met such a pleasant baby. I know kids that are more advanced, ones that sleep longer and some that eat better but anyone who's ever met Madeline always comments on how happy, smiley and just generally pleasant she is. Its so great waking up to her smiles every day and watching her suck her bottom lip and grin at the same time. She's ticklish all over and completely adores her big sister, laughing and coo'ing whenever Lizzy looks at her. The girls are becoming fast friends sharing blankets while watching movies (yes Maddy watches movies with Liz) and talking to each other in the car. Lizzy's a huge help when it comes to entertaining the baby so I can make dinner or whatever.

Both the girls go in for their well check visits the first week of September. I can't wait to see how much they've grown!

I'll post some new pictures soon and update some more on our recent trip to Ohio. For now I need to go finish Lizzy's invites for her birthday party next Saturday!

Stranded.

2008-07-28T10:22:00.000-04:00

I feel stranded! We finally sold my car on Saturday and here I am with a bazillion things to do and no way to get around! What I *need* to be doing is cleaning my house instead... Which I plan to do... Eventually. Lol in the mean time I thought I'd update a bit. This was a crazy busy weekend complete with allergies for the whole family.

We're looking for a new van tonight when Jay gets off work, so I'm going to start packing for our Ohio trip. I sure hope we can go, we already decided on what we're willing to spend on what kind of van so I hope its out there! The market stinks down here for vehicle sales so I'm hoping to play that to our advantage and get a good deal on something.

Anyway! Not too much going on aside from that, we bought lizzys new car seat last week which goes up to 65 lbs with the 5 point safety harness. That makes me feel better about her safety. If the van we buy doesn't have a built in DVD player I'm going to invest in one of those dual screen ones so I can face one towards Maddy too as she is all about the movies right now. So cute! Lizzy and Maddy are sitting here watching Chronicles of Narnia as I type and both of them are glued to the TV.

Speaking of Maddy, she is a little fatty these days! She eats about a 1/4th cup of cereal every night and I swear it goes straight to her chubby little legs! My used to be tiny peanut is now a little marshmellow! I need to upload some pictures of her soon.

I've been searching for clothes for the girls on craigslist as all of lizzys old nine month items are summertime so I have no winter clothes for maddy, and lizzys legs are so long that she's in 4T jeans now. I found a gal last week selling 6 pairs of pants and 11 shirts for $20. They were all gymboree, childrens place and old navy so I was super excited about that find! I picked up another box of 3's and 4's fall/winter items for $15, there were several play outfits and preschool items in that lot. So Liz has a great head start on fall now. Thank goodness, the older she gets the more expensive her clothes get as well! I refuse to pay $20 for kids jeans, especially when she'll outgrow them in a couple months. Crazy!

I haven't had any luck with 9 - 12 month winter clothes for Maddy yet. But maybe I'll find some good deals while we're in Ohio.

This was a completely boring update but there you have it. I'll try to get some new pictures of the girls up soon! Maddy will be 5 months tomorrow!

VBS

2008-07-18T14:35:00.000-04:00

Every church has one, every kid loves going and every adult realizes that to volunteer during VBS (vacation bible school) week means submitting yourself to cleaning glitter out of your hair for weeks to come. And alas, this is our week for VBS. I admit I was hesitant to volunteer this week. I took a backseat when the sign up sheet went around and kept telling the director "if you need me, I'll come. If you don't, I won't." My reasoning for being so flakey is that I have 2 small kids who were too young to participate (its 4 & up) and didn't want to put them in childcare for a week. I thought that sounded like a fairly good argument but by the end of day one I was recruited, and now I'm so glad that I was. We showed up on day 2 and were blown away. Seacoast rarely does things half way and this was no exception. I walked into our sanctuary filled with 100+ kids praising God and having the time of their lives. The theme is Power Lab and the kids have been learning about how God gives us the power to be thankful, brave, strong, live forever, etc. (Aha!) the lessons have been fun and creative (the kids got to walk on water! Done that lately?) and lizzys had a blast. Oh wait did I forget to mention that? Staff kid privledge, she got to participate after all. Yes Lizzy has made goo, walked on water, learned what mentos do to diet coke (6 foot volcano of exploding soda all over the leaders... Did I mention I'm a leader?) and somehow we've brought it all back to the lessons of God giving kids the power to be ___ (fill in the blank with a different power each day)

Tonight is the final day and I'm both looking forward to it and sad that I didn't play a bigger role this year as its been a fantastic week. Its obvious that for some of these kids this is the first time they've ever heard about Jesus and to be apart of sharing that discovery with these kids has been amazing. So VBS rocks. Which reminds me, I need to go wash my hair before tonight, I keep getting sparkles in my eyes.

Depth perception.

2008-07-18T14:16:00.000-04:00

Most of what I post on here are blanket updates on my kids, which is what I intended this blog to be about. But there's so much more to our lives than milestones and growth charts so I plan on posting a bit more on what God is doing in our lives and some of the neat things we're up to.

One of the things I'm most excited about is the opportunity to begin mentoring one of the girls from our highschool youth group. The staff at Seacoast was presented with a challenge. 98% of all teens actively involved in church while in highschool go on to leave the church in college. But nearly 100% of teens who had a mentor while in highschool continued to be actively involved in church on through college and their adult lives. That is incredible, and touched me in a profound way. There are two girls I'm working with currently. One of them was "assigned" to me and the other is one of my nursery volunteers who isn't really involved in the youth group due to transportation issues. Both girls are awesome and I love talking with them. I'm only just getting to know them both well but am very excited about this opportunity. I wish I'd have had someone older when I first came to SC. In a way I did have an older friend take me under her wing but she passed away 5 years ago which proved to be the single most faith testing thing I'd ever gone through. However she made a lasting impression on my life and I can only pray that God works through me to these girls like He did through her to me.

Anyway, I'd like to see my blog take on a more personal level. Just a warning to any friends out there who read this.:)

God is doing some incredible things right now with our church, my marriage, and my kids lives.

little me?

2008-07-14T10:01:00.000-04:00

So yesterday we're sitting in the nursery before church started and Lizzy picks up a toy cell phone and proceeds to ask the 5 adults in the room to "be quiet please, lizzys on the phone" at first we all laughed and thought it was cute but then she takes it a step further and says "daddy scoot over by mommy and smile! I take your picture!" she hold up the cell phone and proceeds to "take our picture" at this point we're rolling. Is there anything this kid doesn't pick up?

Which got me thinking. If my 2 year old is reflecting the things she sees in me then why doesn't she pick up a random book and tell us Bible stories? Or tell people she loves them, often? I know why... Because she doesn't see me do those things nearly enough. She sees mommy on the phone, taking pictures and that's all fine and dandy, but I want my girls to see more than that. So today I vow to be less phone happy and more example worthy to my kids.

Just my random thought for the day.

My little character.

2008-07-12T13:54:00.000-04:00

Scene: Lizzy drying my arms off after we got out of the pool the other day.

Lizzy: mommy it won't come off!
Me: what won't come off baby?
Lizzy: dis!
Me: honey that is a freckle, those don't come off they're marks on mommys skin. Look you have one on your hand.
Lizzy: ohhhh (pause with thinking look on her face) speckles no come off mommy?
Me: (trying not to giggle) no baby speckles no come off.

Later that night when jay got home, very dirty and was about to climb in the shower.

Lizzy: Daddys speckles stink.
Me:*snort*

Scene: today while Lizzy was watching nanny mcphee she runs into Maddys room while I'm rocking the baby.

Lizzy: (yells angrily) You nebber listen!!
Me:excuse me?
Lizzy: (yells even louder) You nebber listen!!
Me:what are you talking about? I don't listen?
Lizzy: (perfectly calm now) dat boy just yelled at his daddy in dat movie.
Me: oh, was that a very nice thing to do? yell at mommy?
Lizzy: I jus kidding mommy sheesh. (rolls her eyes and walks away)

Scene:today at lunch.
Me:how old will you be on your birthday Lizzy?
Lizzy:(thinks for a minute) I be 23 mommy.
Me:*laughs* oh will you now? I don't think you'll be quite that old baby.
Lizzy: okay I be 21.
Me:*sigh* 2 going on 21 oh dear Lord save me.

What am I going to do with this child? She makes me laugh so hard.

Well it's been a month...

2008-07-09T15:33:00.002-04:00

I know, I'm terrible at this these days! Maddy has come so far and I haven't been on here forever! She's now rolling like crazy! She's eating a *little* (as in less than a teaspoon) of cereal before bed and getting so big! I wanted to wait on the cereal but she just hit a point where she was drinking 8 oz and still hungry so that little bit of cereal seems to help fill her up and hold her off. She sleeps on average 8-9 hours before waking up, eating, and going back to sleep for another 4 or 5 hours. She's up to 13 lbs 8 oz now at 4 months... she's 25% all the way around which is SO weird. Liz was always so big but Maddy is just a peanut. Lizzy will be 3 next month so we're starting our birthday plans now. Elizabeth is completely potty trained now! (Well, we still have some #2 accidents, but she is 100% day time, night time and nap trained!) That is very nice. We started the week before last and within 3 days she had it down. She was obviously ready, and didn't have any problems getting in there and just getting it done! She loves going by herself. (such a big girl!) And it was fun getting to pick out all her big girl panties which she thinks is just the coolest thing ever... and has to show them to anyone who will give her the time of day including all her uncles - which is pretty funny. We're working on being a lady. ;) Lizzys manners are getting better all the time, she still sasses me some times but on the whole she's good about saying "yes mommy" or "please and thank you" without being prompted. We haven't really done the whole ma'am, sir thing yet as she's still pretty young and I'm from the north so that still feels weird to me... but as long as she says the person's name (eg: Yes Mommy, Yes Aunt Angela, etc.) I'm okay with it.

Madeline is such a ham these days - Dani from small group nicknamed her Smiley. Maddy just grins and giggles at everything and everyone! Well... everything but the camera... the second the camera comes out she tries to figure out what that box is that's flashing in her face... but if it's a person she's looking at (or herself in the mirror) she is ear to ear grins.

Life is good, and crazy and amazing. My girls are the highlight of my life and completely draining. But in a good way... I go to bed exhausted every night but loving my life. Jay and I are doing really well. I'm blessed, he's such an amazing man. We have come so far in the last couple years and I'm so glad we came through together. Our 5 year anniversary is coming up in September! Crazy! I would never EVER have thought 5 years ago that I would be married with 2 children in just 5 short years...

Our business is growing by leaps and bounds, we've recently added 2 major pieces of equipment to our company which has made Jays life (and his guys that work with him) a thousand times easier. We're hoping to have our tree farm up and running in the next year and a half which will mean less danger for Jay. I'm all for that... in the mean time my car is up for sale. (I want a van, I know I know we just bought the Volvo but it drives me ape wall and is not enough room for our family so we're getting another van) Hmmmm... what else is knew... we're going to Ohio in August! YAY! I miss my family! Then Lizzy's birthday is right after we get back, Jay's turns 29 in September, then our anniversary is on the 20th, October Jay and I are taking a cruise with just the two of us... I'm looking forward to that, November is back to Ohio for Thanksgiving and December is Disney for Christmas with my whole family and then January is Disney for the marathon with our small group! *WHEW* That's a lot of craziness!

Lizzy starts school the second week of August, so we'll be doing her school shopping here soon. I bought some preschool work books from Target today. She loves them. I want her to have her letters down by the time she starts back... that gives us about a month to keep working on them. She's getting there slowly.

Madeline loves her blankies... she cuddles them close to her face so my mom bought her a mini one that she can keep in the crib with her... Oh yeah! Maddy's officially in her crib now! Once she started rolling really well it became very obvious that she'd moved past the cradle. She was getting stuck in the corners of the cradle where the crib presents miles (well miles to a 4 month old) of space to move around... and move she does! LOL It's so funny, she starts out in the middle on her back but ends up glued to one side with her face pressed up against the bumper every morning. She's so silly.

Anyway, this is my monthly update. LOL I'll try to post again sooner!

Madeline at 4 months...

2008-07-09T14:59:00.001-04:00

Here's a sweet slideshow of some of Maddy's latest pictures... thanks Abbie.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Summer Time!

2008-06-13T14:34:00.004-04:00

Okay, I know I've been crappy at updating this thing, but in all fairness - our lives are NUTS right now! Summer time is in full swing and we're having a blast. Madeline is getting HUGE! And yes, I've got plenty of pictures to show y'all! My baby girl is 3 1/2 months now and is rolling, giggling, and smiling all the time. Elizabeth loves her little sister and is getting quite big herself. At 33 pounds she's as tall as ever and is quite the sweetie pie... most days... well... okay she's a drama queen but she's a good listener, so it all works out. ;)

Lizzy's done with school now. This year she learned to count to 25 and often much higher, she knows all her colors, and shapes - even ovals and rectangles! She can draw circles and straight lines, and smiled all through her graduation ceremony. *sniff* She's moving up to 3 year old preschool! LOL We got season water park tickets so we spend at least every Friday there, and sometimes another day during the week as well. Liz loves playing in the kids area of the water park, she's even getting better at the slides! Maddy just hangs with me under her sun hat and splashes in the water. Cutie pie!

So we spend lots of time in Mom's pool, Abbies pool or at the water park... and because of that Lizzy is already getting a gorgeous tan, little stinker, all I seem to do is burn, peel, burn, peel, and repeat... even with my spf 50! Oh well... As I type Madeline is laying here next to me, kicking my arm and cooing at me so that I'll look over and tickle her... she's so fun!

I'm still nursing, but weaning... she only nurses one or two times a day - Aunt Flo isn't back yet, thank you Jesus! I'm sloooooowly losing weight - very very slowly... ugh. But I'm hoping by the end of the summer I'll be able to fit into my "skinny" jeans for fall. (I can wear my "fat" jeans already, but that's not saying much... they were pretty fat. LOL)

Okay, now for some pictures!

We took Liz, Maddy, and Jack to Portrait Innovations yesterday and had some new pics of the 3 kids taken together...

It's been awhile!

2008-05-26T15:13:00.003-04:00

Well we're back. :) It was a great trip but it took us a whole week to recover. LOL Lizzy had a rough time with being off schedule, and this was the first time she really realized we were getting off rides and had to go to the next one - every time we'd get off a ride she'd start crying and didn't want to get off... bleh. She drove me ape wall but after a few days she started to realize we were just going on to another ride and she got better about it. Maddy on the other hand was a breeze. She stayed in our baby bjorn for hours and hours every day and would eat, sleep and play while sitting in it. She was a wonderful child - much like Liz was on her first few trips. I guess 2 years old is the cut off, once they hit two they need to wait a year or so until they have more self control. All in all it was a fun but exhausting trip. We met up with lots of family and friends and all in all had a great time.

As soon as we got back both my girls got a cold/allergies/sinus stuff. The doctor couldn't really identify it. But they both have red throats and sinus stuff. No fevers or bad coughing though, but they put them on antibiotics.

Now for some Maddy updates. As of this past friday Maddy's up to 11 lbs 1 oz! Big girl! Well... no not really, she's actually a tiny peanut. She's in the 25% for her weight. So weird. Liz was always so big. Baby Jack, my new nephew is up to 12 lbs already and you can totally feel the difference in them, he's so sweet and squishy and she's so long and strong! She loves to sit up now, still assisted of course but she definately likes to be up. She can roll from her back to her tummy now - it's darling to watch, she can't roll back though... and get's super agrivated when she tries. ;) She's a little giggle box too, she smiles and laughs it's so fun to watch her. I have too many pictures to post here so check out our new dropshots page... www.dropshots.com/TheClemmons

More updates to come soon!

Almost Ready!

2008-05-06T09:01:00.002-04:00

Thought I'd post a mini update before we leave. Jay decided last night that he wanted to replace the brakes on my car before we left. So after we get home... At 11 PM... He takes my car apart only to find out at 1:30 in the morning that the parts store gave him the wrong parts. Nice! So he got up at 7 this morning and is still working on them. Then (because he's a wee bit OCD) he wants to go do 2 more bids before we leave. So! We probably won't leave Charleston until noon'ish putting us checking in around 6:30 or 7 as we'll be hitting Orlando traffic. Wish me luck! Driving with Lizzy at nap time will be a great adventure. Lol oh well she's running around the house trying to pack every Minnie she owns into her backpack. I'm letting her bring her 3 favorites but each time I walk by her room I see her stuffing one more in the bag. And how cute is this? She *had* to pack all three of her Bible's this morning. Crack me up. My funny kiddo.

So anyway! Just wanted to update. I might bring my laptop along so I can upload pictures. Maybe...

Catch up with y'all soon!

Almost Ready!

2008-05-06T09:01:00.001-04:00

So excited!

2008-05-05T18:26:00.002-04:00

What a fun week we've had! My cousins came into town on Thursday and we got to spend most of the weekend playing, swimming and cooking out with them! Love it! AND we leave for our vacation tomorrow!!! So fun!

Madeline had her 2 month well check this week... along with 5 shots - YUCK. Poor kiddo barely cried though - my little trooper! She's up to 10 lbs 11 oz now! Still looks petite though as she's in the 90th percentile for height and in the 50th for weight. Cutie pie is growing into all her 3 month sleepers at a whopping 24 inches!!! Baby Jack is 8 weeks younger but is keeping pace nicely - he's almost 10 lbs already and side by side they look about the same size! His sweet hands and feet are more boy like though, wider and chubbier while Madeline's hands are delicate and her fingers are long. They're adorable together. Its so fun having babies with my sister! It's great to just sit around together and rock our little people and talk about how fast they're growing... so sweet. It's so special to share this with my sis. She's such an awesome mommy! She already looks like her old self, so not fair!

So this has been a crazy crazy week! I've had a blast with my cousins - but I admit I am ready for a vacation! (Not from them, if I could I'd stuff them in my suitcase and bring the whole lot of them! I don't get to see them nearly enough...) But we do need a vacation - Business is out of control, thank God! But being so busy takes it's toll on Jay and I. I'll have a gazillion pictures when we get back... I already have about 100 I need to upload and I'm not sure I'll have time before I go - so it may be a couple weeks before I have another update. We get back on the 18th. My birthday is the 12th and we'll be eating at the Whispering Canyon! We're spending mother's day with my MIL and BIL at 1900 Park Fare and walking the Boardwalk, so it should be a great day as well! Looking forward to updating y'all when we get back!

Pray for safe travels and that no one get's hurt or sick while we're gone... a smooth noneventful vacation is what we desperately desire!

Love you all! See you in a couple weeks! :D

What to say?

2008-04-22T17:38:00.000-04:00

Y'all crack me up! I go for a week without posting and my email gets flooded with requests for more updates. Lol I love you guys too. ;)

The big news for the week?! I'm an aunt! Jack Bradford Singleton Joined the world late Saturday night making me the proud aunt to the most handsome nephew ever!!! Weighing in at 9 lbs 2 oz he's nearly the same size as Madeline! He is sooo handsome! Beautiful blue eyes and lots of blond hair! What a sweetie pie! Jack is most happy on his mommy's chest sleeping but he seemed to like his aunt Jessie too. Lol anyways that was by far the highlight of my week!

In other news Madeline is smiling and talking a lot now. She has a Minnie mouse rattle on her carseat that makes her giggle and laugh. I love her sweet laugh. It's so soft and just precious to hear. She's still sleeping well and nursing like a champ. I still suppliment too though as I'm lazy and like the feedom of whipping out a bottle in public instead of trying to find somewhere to feed her in private. But on the whole I stick with nursing. She's getting so big! I can't wait to see what she weighs next week at her two month visit! 2 months! Ahh! So crazy!

Well that's all for now. I need to take some more pictures of the girls together! And I'll get some good ones of baby jack to post too!

Baby Dedication

2008-04-18T16:18:00.013-04:00

Our girls were dedicated on Sunday... The girls were given their first bibles and then prayed over. The verse we chose to dedicate over our girls was Numbers 6:24-26 :

24 " ' "The LORD bless you and keep you;
25 the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." '

It was really special... there were also 16 other families dedicating children that sunday! (We've been a busy congregation.) :P LOL Anyways... after church we all went to Moe's with my family, my inlaws, and low and behold our whole small group shows up! So fun! We all had a great time, came home, napped ,then Jay, Linda, Bryan, the girls and I all walked the Aurthur Ravenel Bridge... for those of you non Charlestonians who read this - that's our new mega bridge... it's quite a hike, and excellant excercise with a great view.

This week was crazy busy and the weekend is only going to be busier... Tomorrow morning I'm going to Charli's garage sale... that'll be like shopping at a discounted Toys R Us - she has SO many toys! Then I have Danielle's baby shower tomorrow. Linda and I are getting her a swing. Then church Sunday, Shaun's going away party Sunday afternoon and a cookout on Sunday night with my family. AH! I'm tired already and it hasn't even started. LOL

Okay, on to the pictures from the weekend. :)

6 week..

2008-04-12T21:02:00.010-04:00

Not too much going on right now. We had Mya's birthday party today! So cute... it was princess themed at the park. Lots of fun. We spent the week moving in Abbie and Shaun into their new house. Holy cow is that thing big. 5 huge bedrooms with an office that could be a 6th! Crazy!

I found a couple good deals on Craigslist for outdoor play things for Lizzy. So daddy got up early today and drove to Mt. P to pick them up in the truck. We got a picnic table with a bright colored umbrella for kids, and a Little Tykes slide and swing set. Lizzy had a ball with it this afternoon. I put the picnic table in the living room this afternoon while Liz was napping, I set up her tea set and a coloring book with her markers and crayons... she was ear to ear grins when she woke up. So we had a tea party with gold fish crackers when she woke up. Then we colored pictures for daddy. I may leave the picnic table in the house for a couple weeks until it really warms up more. It was 82 today but is supposed to drop to 65 tomorrow.

So tomorrow is the girls dedication. I'll post pictures...

Here's a few from this week and today...

Mommy & Maddy

Daddy & Maddy
Mommy & Maddy again...
Angela and Sammy... or Calvin... or Sammy...

I can't keep the twins straight. LOL
Mya Grace! The birthday girl!
My swingin girl...
Lizzy's new playset out back... ignore the messy back yard...
My long legged beauty headin down the slide...

That's all for now... more to come soon! :)

Picture Time!

2008-04-02T11:04:00.011-04:00

Okay... y'all didn't have to wait too long. I took some pictures last night and this morning so here you go! Oh and I'll sneak one in from her first bath... it's quite obvious how much she just Loooooved her bath. Ha. Enjoy girls!!!

Life...

2008-04-01T14:32:00.004-04:00

AH! She's a month old!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!! Okay, crazy yell over. But WOW has this month flew! I have been SO bad about taking pictures the last couple weeks... I PROMISE I'll get some of my one month old (*sniff* I'll just keep saying 4 weeks... it sounds younger.) :P some time this week!

Life is just simply insane right now - but I have to say I'm loving every moment. Well... most moments, the middle of the night moments when Both... yes BOTH of my girls are up isn't so fun. Lizzy's still getting up in the middle of the night about 2-3 times a week, but we're making progress. Maddy however has been sleeping great - we're up to 7 1/2 hours some nights! And she's only up for 15 minutes or so before giving me another 4-5 hour stretch! WOOT! Love this kid.

The training for the 1/2 marathon is going well. I'm not a great runner by any means, but I'm working my way into it. My lungs still feel like they're on fire after every run but I guess that's normal. Last night was the first time the 4 of us ran together... I so love my small group girls! They're so awesome! Abby and Dani ran circles around Angela and I, but then again, they've been doing this for awhile so I figure eventually Ang and I will work up to their speed. For now, I'm just proud that I didn't pass out. :P The running part is miserable, I admit, but the feeling of getting my butt back in shape - along with spending time with some of my favorite people makes it totally worth it. I also joined the gym this week so on our 3 days off from running each week I can do some core training. (Hopefully I can make it to the Body Pump classes, that will REALLY help this weight to come off!) I weighed myself yesterday. *barf* LOL I'm down 25 lbs since I had Maddy, my goal is to lose another 25 - hopefully 15 or 20 of that before WDW. That's a lot I know but I'm really watching what I eat, and with all this exercise it shouldn't be too unreachable.

Anyways. I'm officially hired at Seacoast! LOL Even though I've been working there for a few weeks now, the paperwork came back and made it official this week. I love my room too. One of these days I'm going to remember to take pictures of Hidden Cove (it's Birth through 12 months) Granted I'm partial, but my room is my personal favorite amoung all the kids rooms. It's just beautiful. :) Tomorrow is First Wednesday, we have service once a month on the first wednesday night of the month - it's mostly all worship and includes a message by our campus pastor. (the weekly messages get tuned in from the main campus in Mt. P - so it'll be special hearing Pastor Phil speak.) Well... I may not get to hear much of it, as I'll be working, but just a glimpse of our church pulled together on a Wednesday night has me pumped. It's such a great place to be! I love these people!

On another note... I've noticed a shift in my personal style as of late. It sounds frumpy, but I'm really enjoying my tshirts, jeans and tennis shoes right now. LOL Jay loves it, I dressed like this back when we were dating and he says it makes me look sporty - but it's funny to see that style naturally coming back for me. The last few years it's been lots of heels, black pants, dressy shirts on casual days etc. And now it's all coming full circle. LOL Anyway, just something funny to note.

Oooooh! I think I'm getting my hair cut this week... remember when I was pregnant and wanted to chop it all off but didn't b/c I thought i'd get chipmunk cheeks while pregs and didn't want to look like Violet? Well... my cheeks (though always a bit chunky) have lost their swolleness. haha that sounds funny. Anyway, they have so I think I'm going to go get it chopped off. I'm excited about something different, though I'm sure I'll miss being able to put it in a pony tail while I'm running.

So what else is new? Lizzy got chosen as the start student of the month! They choose one kid each month who has good listening skills, played well with others and had respect for the rules... and amazingly my child was chosen! (*whew* at least she behaves well in public!) ;) So today in her little chapel she was given a certificate, a gold medal to wear all day and a special pencil with a bit star earaser on top. LOL So precious. I filmed the whole thing... it was really special. Although it has to be said the poor child saw me as she was filing into the chapel with her class and burst into tears when she couldn't come sit by mommy. *sigh* poor kid. Broke my heart... "Mommy pleeeease, come get me mommy! I wanna sit by you me mommy!" (Yes that's exactly how she said it.) But eventually she calmed down and was able to stand up on stage to receive her medal and certificate. Such a grown up girl I have...

The girls are being dedicated at church on the 13th! Should be a very special day... full of pictures! :D So that's it for now... watch for pictures to come soon!

Maddy's 1 Month Wellcheck.

2008-03-25T19:42:00.003-04:00

Well, my little peanut had her one month well check visit today... and she's growing!!! Not that I doubted that... but she's grown an inch now placing her in the 25% for height, 25% for head, but 50% for weight! She's up to 9 lbs 2 oz already... I can't believe she's already 9 lbs! So crazy. My growing lady bug is getting all kinds of cute little rolls all over her arms and legs, and she's even got a bit of a double chin now! LOL I need to take some pictures of her tomorrow.

I'm headed to a BF class tomorrow, should be interesting, they weigh the baby, then we nurse, then they weigh them again to see how much they ate during that feeding. I'm curious to see how much Maddy's gained... BUT I still suppliment during the day after each feeding and I admit I'll be embarassed to pull out a bottle at a BF class. LOL So I hope Maddy can hold off until we leave. I'll let her nurse as long as she wants but I won't pull out that bottle until we get home. LOL

Anyway, just wanted to update! Little Miss is doing well! I'll post more pictures soon! :)

Mail & More

2008-03-25T12:33:00.002-04:00

Well to answer the Disney question y'all have been asking... we're going to Disney over Mother's Day this year, with my MIL. Then the day before we leave my family is coming in for a week, so we'll be spending some time with them as well... it's going to be slammed pack with family, fun and craziness! YAY! I can't wait to take Maddy into the parks - and my MIL hasn't been in years! We'll probaby be at the hotel alot, since Madeline is so little still. But I'm looking forward to getting to spend some good time with Lizzy and Jay. I swear we all kind of high five each other hello and goodbye these days. Jay is staying VERY busy - which is great, but also means we can't plan an extended trip because he can't be gone too long since we're already backed up with work. So I'm really looking forward to seeing my hubby for a few days with no work interuptions (though I'm sure he'll be on the phone a lot booking appointments... but I'll take what I can get. LOL)

SO! I've been stocking up on fun outfits for the girls (I think I mentioned that yesterday, but I can't remember.) Anyway, I went to BRU this morning and found some great deals! I had a couple gift cards that I was planning on saving for diapers - but seeing as how I still have several hundred diapers waiting in the closet, I decided to splurge a little and do some shopping for the girls. Now, Madeline really truly doesn't *need* any new clothes - but that doesn't mean she didn't get any. ;) I got the girls two matching outfits from the Disney Pooh line at BRU. One of them is bright orange and yellow, Maddy's is a one piece sunsuit and Lizzy's has a shirt that matches Maddy's and then jean capri's with Pooh on the bottom cuff. SO CUTE! The other outfit matches exactly, I got them both lavender tank tops with white shorts - the tank has a big sparkly Pooh on it. Then I picked up a couple more outfits for Liz - they had a ton of them on sale for $7.99 - Love that deal! Lizzy needed new summer clothes as she really only had a couple of dresses so far.

Okay, onto the Mail part of the update! I've received 4 really fantastically fun gifts in the mail the last few days (weeks)!!! 6 if you count the two cards filled with giftcards and money from my Uncle Jay and Grandpa Fagan! But the gifts came from Chrissy, Nibbs, Aunt Jill and Aunt Sharon. (The Aunts being *my* aunts, the girls great aunts.) Chrissy got Madeline this wonderful Mustela gift set full of bath goodies for Maddy. Mustela is my *favorite* baby splurge. It all smells SO good and works SO very well! I love it! And she put in an adorable little lamb as well. Nibbs sent us a box filled with fun goodies as well, an adorable bunny hat and bunny slippers to match, some duckie bibs (which I found out match the one's she got Anya! So fun!) and Maddy's very first bunny rabit! (It even says that right on the bunny.) ;) And my favorite part of the gift, a note from Nibbs herself. :) Love you Nibbs! Aunt Sharon sent a box full of baby clothes she's been collecting, including some really cute sunsuits and a little red sailor outfit which I can't wait to put Maddy in! And a check for Madeline as well! :) Aunt Jill sent a huge box of goodies for both the girls, including a giant Minnie Mouse for Liz which *must* sit on her pillow every night right beside her head. Aunt Jill, Ally and Abbie put in a really cute Gymboree outfit with strawberries that I think I'll get Madeline's 3 month pictures taken in - it's SO cute, some carter's sunsuits, a ton of coupons and some socks for Liz. All in all our mail lady has been visiting our door a lot and Lizzy and I have had SO much fun going through all the wonderful things y'all have sent us! So again, a BIG THANK YOU! I love you all so much and your gifts were so thoughtful and sweet!

One little update about our lives as well... I've been having a hard time balancing my time between Elizabeth and Madeline. Lizzy needs sooooo much attention right now, more for her to mentally grasp the whole sharing mommy thing than anything. While Madeline actually *needs* me, but doesn't complain when I leave her in her seat to play with Liz. It's been a struggle for me as Lizzy has been acting out a lot in hopes of gaining any attention at all from me, be it negative or positive. She doesn't care - and now it's carrying over into her sleep habits as well... the last couple nights in a row she's woken up in the middle of the night coming into our room, slamming the door, waking up Maddy, Jay and I with yells of "I pee'd!" or "I can't find B!" (her blankie) it's been very frustrating and is causing her to behave even worse in the mornings because she's so tired all the time. She wakes up telling me she's tired and sleepy and wants to take a nap - but she won't go back to sleep. I spend SO much time with her, but it just never seems to be enough. I hate this. Any attention I give Madeline when Elizabeth is around turns into Lizzy doing something very naughty to get my attention... eg: emptying an entire bottle of lotion all over herself and then begging for a bath, making huge messes and then pretending to be hurt so I'll put Madeline down and go comfort Liz instead... and on and on. It's a constant battle. Liz will look at me while I'm feeding Madeline and say "Stop feeding her mommy. Put her down. Talk to me." It's heart breaking to hear and I feel like I'm doing something wrong. There's got to be a better way of communicating to Elizabeth that while mommy loves her SO very much, I *have* to feed, change, rock, etc. Madeline too! I fall in bed exhausted at night and most days just work my way through it. Elizabeth doesn't act out towards Maddy though. She always directs things at me. I'll pick up Madeline and Lizzy will rush over and yell "MY MADDY!" Another thing is that she's been having trouble when I drop her off at school. Remember those days at the begining of the school year when I would tear up because she would run off to play with her friends without so much as a backwards glance or goodbye mommy? Well those days are long gone... now I have to pry her off my leg every morning that I drop her off with major tears when I leave. They say she calms down within a minute or two and then is fine - but I hate seeing her so upset like that. Another thing is that when she get's up in the middle of the night, usually Jay's the one to put her back to sleep - we made a deal that I'd get up as much as needed with Madeline at night but that if Liz get's up, he'd get up with her so that I wasn't up ALL night long. Well Lizzy will lay in bed and cry for me until I get up and go tuck her back in bed. It's frustrating Jay, wearing me out and making for a generally miserable family.

Now... this isn't all the time, not at all. Just now and then. Most days we pull through just fine, and the time I spend with Lizzy seems to be adequate in that her acting out is mainly just when I'm feeding or changing the baby. But it's still the constant battle of "when will she go off next?" and "am I doing a good enough job?" or "what's wrong with my parenting skills that my toddler is doubting my love for her?" Those are the things I think about constantly...

3 1/2 weeks already?!

2008-03-24T10:08:00.002-04:00

Dear Lord this is passing so quick! AHHH! My baby girl is getting so wonderfully big... and yet she's still such a peanut! She still has the baby curl... that sweet back arching, knee pulling, curling themselves into a ball every time you pick them up. I adore it.

We're pretty much functioning just fine as a family of four - though it still seems weird at times... thinking that just a couple weeks ago I was biting my nails in aticipation for her arrival - and now nearly a month later it feels like she's always been here!

Our Easter was crazy, I had to be up at 5 to be at church by 7 - and didn't leave until almost 1:30 - I was sooooo tired. Three services and 30 babies later with just a handful of volunteers and I was yawning my head off, tummy grumbling and I desperately needed a nap. lol BUT After church we went over to Linda's and she spoiled me (us). We had a delicious ham dinner with these amazing cherry cheesecake chocolate chip cookie dessert thingies. I followed it up with nursing maddy and then passed out for an hour on her sofa. Bliss. ;) Woke up, cuddled with Maddy for a couple hours and we all watched Hook on TV. It turned out to be a very relaxing afternoon... which I was very thankful for.

Elizabeth scored 3 easter baskets this year! Woot! Nanny filled hers with summer socks, flower goggles, color wonder coloring books, bunny play dough, and some other goodies. Grammy got Liz two outfits, a color wonder coloring book and a chalk board table. Mommy and Daddy (and the Easter Bunny) got Lizzy some new froggy rain boots, snow white sunglasses, a float for the pool, princess bubble bath and some princess sippy cups. :) All in all I'd say she hit the jackpot this weekend. LOL Maddy got a new bunny, some clothes and a piece of chocolate from Uncle Bryan which mommy sneaked. :P

OH! And I found some new outfits for the girls for our Disney Trip - SO CUTE! They're Minnie Mouse and just precious. I can't wait to see them in their new clothes on our trip! Yes, I'm that goofy mom who thinks it's fun to buy new tennis shoes and clothes for my kids on vacation. LOL So I'm stocking up Maddy and Lizzy. I can't wait!!! 43 days until we leave. :D

Hmmm... other news? Well, I started training for the WDW half marathon next January! I'm not sure that I'll actually make it TO the marathon - but some other girls in my small group and I decided we'd give it a good try! Right now we're starting off at just 30 minutes on monday, 45 on wed and thursday and an hour on Saturday - and then working our way up over the next 10 weeks. Our goal is by week 10 to be able to run 180 minutes at aprox a 10-12 minute mile. Which translates to aprox 15+ miles. Obviously we're in no rush- we just want to be able to finish.. 13 miles baby. :D I can't wait! I've never been much of a runner but I love the idea of getting my butt into shape with my girlfriends and having Disney in January to look forward too! :D It'll be a great time I'm sure. :)

So anyways, life with two girls is busy, (which can be seen by me severe decline in posting updates.. sorry!) but wonderful. Lizzy is talking up a storm now, very rarely does she have trouble communicating something. For the most part she tells us what she wants, when she wants it and to hurry up if we're going too slow for her taste. Ha. My 2 y/o is a budding hormonal preteen most days, full of drama and suprises. But so funny to watch.

Nursing...

2008-03-18T16:23:00.013-04:00

Well, I made up my mind to completely change my diet. (While still dieting) LOL So far it seems to be helping... though it's extremely bland. The last two days have gone better as far as the gas. Yesterday I had one of my 100 calorie snack pack's for breakfast with a bottle of water... crackers and water... easy enough on the belly.. then I had a bowl of oatmeal with skim milk and raisens for lunch... again... bland but perfect for her belly. Then for dinner I had a turkey sub and apples. Today has been similar, except I had a soup in hand and toasted cheese sandwhich for lunch to give me some dairy. SO... now that I've updated my boring diet. lol The nursing has been much smoother... and I've commited to nursing her for every feeding right now to get my milk supply up. Which has made me one sore mama... but I have a content baby who hasn't had any bad gas in 2 days now! That makes it all worth it. :) AND, if I can keep to this diet I should start shedding the pounds in no time. BIG YAY!

So that's where we're at for now... Madeline slept last night from 9pm to 2 am - nursed, and took 2 oz of formula (I wanted her FULL so she'd sleep for another long stretch.) Then from 2:30 - 6:00 am, then she slept till 10 this morning when I woke her up to give her a bath... so it was easy to nurse that middle of the night feeding as I'd gone to bed the same time as her and had a nice 5 hour stretch... LOVE THAT!

Okay, on to the fun stuff... I had some pics taken at Penney's last week of the girls... I don't like them - compared to the Portrait Innovations one's I had done of Liz - these suck, but still.. here's a few shots of my kiddo's! :)

Sleepy...

2008-03-16T20:55:00.002-04:00

Just thought I'd update and say WOW I am tired. I knew it would hit me eventually... and boy has it ever. Madeline is sleeping well, but I'm still pooped all the time right now. It's crazy... I go to bed early but I have a hard time getting back to sleep after Maddy wakes up to eat, so I just toss and turn a lot - and Liz get's up at 7:45 on the dot every morning right now... so there's no catching up on sleep in the morning... and Lizzy's having a hard time napping right now - I am doing everything I can think of to get her to nap but she just plays and comes out of her room about 30 million times... it's so tiring.

It's not a depressing kind of tired though... just a weary one. I'm in good spirits, my girls are doing well as far as health and appetite go so that makes me feel like I'm doing something right. Madeline is a PIGGY. Good gracious she eats eats eats... she's on a schedule but man is she a hog when it comes time for a meal, snorting and grunting the whole time she's eating. Seriously. She sounds like a little piglet. LOL It's hilarious.

Nursing is proving to be more complicated than I originally thought... while she's a great nurser, has no latch problems at all and would easily nurse full time if I wanted to - EVERYTHING I eat gives her gas! It's SO annoying! She has no gas with the formula, she doesn't even burp after drinking a 3 oz bottle! But man every single time I nurse my child get's an upset stomach. It's so frustrating. I feel so bad for her - I'm trying to just keep at it but it seems like I could eat nothing but bread and water (which I've tried) and she'd still get a tummy ache about an hour after she nurses.

*sigh* SO I don't know how much longer we'll be doing this... It's just too stressful knowing that I'm going to have a grumpy baby on my hands - and what's worse? She doesn't even cry when her tummy's upset... she just sort of curls up in a ball and whimpers... it's heartbreaking to watch and listen to. I was really excited b/c it's been so much easier this time than it was with Lizzy - but while Liz had latch issues, Maddy has gassy issues... definately not any better in the long run. I'm sad about that but i want to do what's best for her... I'm torn, is it best to keep going? Knowing she'll keep having tummy aches? Or best to just give her formula, knowing that I *could* be breastfeeding... I don't know... I'm going to a bf class on wednesday. Maybe they can give me some tips.

And I officially start my diet tomorrow! YAY! I'm SO ready to be rid of this baby weight! I've got at least 30 lbs to lose and it's driving me mad... nothing fits me right now but I refuse to buy new clothes. I'll fit into my old one's eventually... for now I have one pair of jeans and a couple pair of capri's that were my "fat" clothes before I lost weight last fall - so I'm wearing those in rotation right now. LOL

Anyway. I taking over the nursery room at church. The previous nursery leader moved to Atlanta so I'm going to fill her position. It definately does not help with my fatigue - but I love giving back and helping out... I adore our church so it's great to feel apart of things. It makes for a long Sunday though - I have to be there at 8 and don't leave until 1'ish... by the time we had lunch and got home both my girls were exhausted but neither one could nap as they were both overtired so they just grumped on me all afternoon. Jay and I are going to have to figure out a system to make this work for the whole family.

So... all in all, I'm joining the gym this week and hitting my diet hard and heavy (and safely as I'm still nursing) but all the same, I should start looking like the old me soon! :D Sleepy... but still me. ;)

New News?

2008-03-12T16:13:00.005-04:00

Well I know I've been MIA lately - so sorry, it's been hard getting time to spend online... the transition from 1 to 2 kids has been really fun, but definetly has its challenges. My girls are so amazing... Lizzy just loves Maddy to pieces and Madeline is a dream child. She's an incredibly mellow baby and has the best temperment. She sleeps like a dream and is a joy to be around - yet she never complains if I need to put her down to spend time with Lizzy.

I had Lizzy's pictures taken today - they turned out SO cute! Here's a couple of my favorites...

Tomorrow I'm having some pics of Maddy taken.... I actually had both girls taken on Monday but I didn't like how they turned out - I paid $60 at JC Penny's and compared to these of Lizzy - they were crappy. So I want a good one of Madeline. Anyway - so that's that. :)

More pics to come soon. Madeline is gaining weight like crazy... she was 8 lbs 3 oz on Friday and I'm sure she's pushing 8 1/2 lbs by now... she's getting some chunky little thighs on her. lol so darling.

Aaaaaand I'm getting Disney fever... bad! We want to plan a short trip in May. Lizzy overheard Jay and I talking the other night and now every night before bed she starts asking if we can see Mickey tomorrow. Bless her heart... I can't wait to take her back. I just keep telling her soon... lol 8 weeks til' May! ;)

I'll try to update more I promise!

Mail Suprises!

2008-03-06T14:30:00.002-05:00

Ooooh how I love mail suprises! Our post gal delivered a package today from a little blue bird (or shall I say bunny! :D) and it was stuffed with goodies for Madeline!!! Thank you Krystyna! I'll have to post pics later of all the fun things, but the crib toy is already a big hit with Maddy... she stares at it with this half smile while it's singing to her.. soooo sweet! The package also had the cutest pair of bunny pants - very perfect for upcoming Easter! And an adorable 9 month outfit... (thanks for thinking ahead!) not to mention a teether and a dozen or so awesome coupons. Yay! The gift that keeps on giving! LOL So fun... thanks girly. :)

So Madeline is doing very well. She is seriously the most mellow baby I've ever met... I know I've already said that - but I am in awe every day at how good she is! She doesn't complain about anything! The only time she ever fusses is when she get's hungry... aside from that she is one very mellow little lady. And even her fussing is nothing loud or long... she just let's me know it's time to eat mom and that's it! She is an absolute cuddle bug, ooooh how she likes to snuggle. She must be swaddled in order to take long naps - and she just stays all bundled up in her blankets for around 3 hours between feedings... during the day she'll stay awake after eating for 20 minutes to an hour, and at night we've figured out a good routine, she'll wake up hungry, I'll nurse on one side then she'll start falling asleep after 15 minutes or so - so I'll change her diaper, bundle her back up and then she's awake again to finish nursing, then she just passes out for another 3 hours. It's SO nice having an easy going baby... I'm counting my blessings every day.

She's growing! We had her bilirubin tested yesterday and she did fantastic... no high levels (though their methods of testing her broke my heart... that's another post for another day) and she's already gained back her birth weight plus an ounce! Go girl! My peanut weighed in at 7 lbs 14 oz yesterday and is starting to get a cute little double chin. LOL Enough that we've already started with the neck gunk. She wiggles during her baths but doesn't cry at all.. she's got so much hair I have to wash it every other day or it get's super oily from everyone's hands petting her all the time. She can't fit into any of her newborn clothes yet - but she can wear newborn sleepers, so that's what she's been wearing this last week... pj's every day. LOL Fortunately we have some adorable sleepers that could really pass for outfits so it doesn't look too odd.

I can't believe she's already been here almost a week! Tonight at 12:31 my angel will be a whole week old... *sob* wow how this week has flown by. I need to slow down and spend some more time at home just enjoying her newborn phase - I know it'll be gone before I'm ready... I've been running around like a mad woman these last few days getting back into the swing of things, but I'm realizing that i need more rest during the day... Madeline is so good she'll nap anytime anywhere but mommy needs to catch up on her rest too - I keep thinking I'm back to normal, while I know that my body is still healing and adjusting from a pretty major event just 7 days ago. I guess it just feels so good not to be pregnant anymore that I'm going a bit overboard with the rushing around and getting out and about. Anyway, slap on my wrist - I'll work on it.

More pics to be updated soon! Elizabeth is still loving her new sister - she helps me with everything and loves to check on her when she's grunting or fussing... she'll run in and say "What wrong with her mommy? She poop?" I think in Lizzy's world that's justification for a good cry or at the very least a good bit of grunting. LOL

Madeline Jane, you are a joy to be around girly. Mommy is loving every single moment I have with you. :)

Ready to see Maddy?

2008-03-03T12:33:00.011-05:00

Okay everyone, here's some pics of Madeline Jane! :) I'm getting a new photo page for the family soon - so I'll post a link once I get everything uploaded... but for now, here's the latest addition to our family!

Lizzy loves her sister!
Mommy with her 2 girls...

Madeline just chillin in her swing.

Back of the head shot... love all that hair!

Mommy and Maddy (Very swollen from the IV)

Sweet baby toes...

Talkin to my angel...

Big eyes!

My cuddle bug

FINALLY!!!

2008-02-29T13:16:00.003-05:00

Well boys and girls... Madeline JANE officially joined our family last night (well, technically this morning) at 12:31 am. She's beautiful, healthy and QUIET. Good grief - I'm not used to a quiet baby. LOL She just eats, sleeps and stares at us - I have yet to hear her cry since they gave her a shot at 1 am this morning... since then she's been the most mellow baby, just cuddly and sweet and adorable.

She's much fairer than Lizzy in that she has blond eyebrows and light brown hair - but she's very pink where Liz had more splotches from being pushed out for so long.

Okay... so what happened you ask? Why didn't I update before I left the house? Well... I didn't think I was in labor. LOL I woke up yesterday at 2 am with a very hard contraction that brought tears to my eyes... I was so frustrated as we'd just gotten home from being checked out at 11 pm... I knew it wasn't the real thing just 3 hours later so I just waited... and struggled through some very hard contractions continually until lunch time. My contractions were about 7-8 minutes apart still... no suprises there, and as of the night before I hadn't dialated ANY since last Friday's induction.

I was so frustrated... finally around 3 I told Jay I had to go in... it was just hurting too bad... call me a ninny but I was in way too much pain for normal contractions - so we pack up Lizzy, drop her off at my mom's and head over to the new hospital. I didn't even bring my bag. I figured I'd beg and plead for some pain meds to help me hold off until my contractions sped up and became regular so that I could be admited. They put me into a room immediately and I had the sweetest nurse EVER. She was a doll. She checked me and then looked up at me and started laughing... she said "Girl you are not going home, you are having this baby - probably in just a couple hours!" You're 6 centimeters and 90%.

Say wha?! Clearly my goal of laboring at home as long as possible had been reached. I just didn't know it. They checked me in immediately and warned that if I dialated too quick I might miss my window for an epidural... uhhhhh, then let's hurry this up shall we? She was such a sweetie - she got 2 liters of IV fluid in me in RECORD time. It was literally pouring into me... it skipped the sensor and went straight from the bag into my arm - in fact, she needed to go call in my antibiotics to the pharmacy and told me to page her as soon as the the IV reached number 8 (it only goes to 9) I looked up and watched a baby commercial... looked back and the bag was empty! CRAP. I paged her and she ran in and shut the IV off with about 2 1/2 feet of fluid left in the cord - otherwise I'd have been getting straight air in my veins. Nice. LOL So when she got back I asked her to check me again - it'd only been 20 minutes but the sporadic contractions were now about 3 minutes apart and were most undoubtedly the worst pain I'd ever been in... she checked me and went "WOAH girl! Slow down! You're 8 centimeters already!" So I was up to 8 centimeters with no epidural or IV drugs... no wonder it was the worst pain I'd ever felt! I had an epi with Liz at 4 centimeters! Anyway, the anisthesiologist came in shortly thereafter and in less than 5 minutes I had my epidural. Bliss I tell you, Pure Bliss. I have to say I'm definately over my fear of needles, I didn't flinch at the IV and barely winced at the Epidural (while my husband stood in front of me staring at the needle - his face was white when he saw how long it was) ;) I was proud of myself - I used to nearly black out at the thought of an IV - now I've had 3 of them in the last 3 weeks, so I'm pretty much over that.

ANYWAYS! The epidural doctor was awesome and I felt very little of the whole process - after having those strong contractions for so long a little epidural felt like mosquito bite. (Okay for the record I typed the above yesterday at the hospital then lost my connection and had a thousand visitors so I'm picking back up today now that we're home. LOL)

Moving on... The epidural kicked in and slowed my labor - which was a good thing as I need my 4 hours of antibiotics... not that it happened - but they tried. lol At 8:30 my water broke on it's own, and I was ready to start pushing at 10 - but they kept telling me to hold off... hold off... let's try to wait until midnight so you can finish up your antibiotics... so I ignored the pressure and urge to push - and finally around 11:55 the nurse said "give me one push just to see how long this is going to take..." She decided I was ready to start pushing but figured I'd take awhile since Liz took so long and got a little stuck... fast forward 15 minutes and she said "STOP! I have to get the doctor in here! Do Not Push or she's going to come out before he makes it!" Dr. Martin was working with another patient so it took him 10 minutes to get there - in which Madeline patiently waited just mere inches from arriving... doctor walks in - sits down and she's out in 3 pushes. Head. Shoulders. Body. lol Cord was wrapped around her neck twice but it was no biggie... same thing happened to Liz... Madeline was officially born on February 29th, 2008 at 12:31 am. She was the very first leap year baby at the hospital. She weighed 7 lbs 13 oz - 20 1/2 inches long. The laid her on the warmer and then cleaned up the delivery area and she just rolled on her side and watched us... no tears - no crying, just opened her beautiful blue eyes and stared at us while the doctor was finishing up. The nurse kept commenting that she hadn't found her voice... but as it turns out - 2 days later, she's just a very quiet natured baby. (Who in the world does she get this from?! Not me!)

I had no tearing, no episiotomy, nothing. I was so happy about that... and still am - it's made healing SO much easier. Other than feeling swollen I was on my feet 2 hours later and walked around.

We had to share a room that first night as they were slammed. We didn't realize that and had asked the nursery to keep Madeline until 8 am (this was at 3:30 - I had to stay in the delivery room until the epi wore off) but the other couple in the room had their baby with them and when we walked in she was screaming... eventually she did go to sleep but between the nurses checking my vitals every hour, and the other mom's vitals every hour, the other baby's vitals every hour- and none of these at the same time - our room had the lights on all night and I got NO sleep whatsoever. Jay however laid down and knocked out for 3 hours- the other girls husband was snoring too, while she and I were just laying there... I almost had them bring Maddy back in but figured it would probably get worse as the babies would just play off each other and holler every time the other one woke up.

Madeline arrived in our room at 8 am and the nurse said she'd been the sweetest baby all night long - just laying there watching the nurses, she'd catnap and then wake up and look around - they didn't feed her until 5:30 am (I'd nursed her at 1:30) and only fed her then because it was "time" not because she was crying or showing any signs of being hungry! And that has continued on until now... this baby is SO mellow! About every 2 1/2 hours she'll start rooting - but she doesn't cry, so I've been holding her off and feeding her every 3 - 3 1/2 hours instead to start getting her on a schedule - this also helps as she'll stay awake for each feeding and get a whole feeding in, instead of nodding off as soon as she get's a little in her tummy.

We were discharged this morning and both Madeline and I received a clean bill of health! All in all I got the birth experience I could only hope for... it was so smooth and the doctors and nurses were So sweet. I'm thrilled that we switched hospitals - Trident was fantastic and I really truly loved being there. I'm on the mend and have very little swelling now - enough to keep me from running around, but you'd never know it by how I walk or anything. I still look about 4-5 months pregnant - yuck. But I'll lose it eventually...

On to her name... we named her Madeline Jane as Jane was the middle name of my grandmother (daddy's mom) - my induction date two Fridays ago was my grandma's birthday (she passed away a few years ago) and we had decided then to switch the name in honor of my grandma... well even though she didn't make it on that day - we liked the idea of Maddy having a family tribute name like Liz, so we decided to stick with Jane. My grandma was a very special woman so this will be a great reminder of her.

For now, my peanut is sitting her all snuggled next to me, I'm going to try and start a new dropshots page soon so I can upload all her pics... for now - here's a couple of Madeline Jane.

An Ode to Jess

2008-02-25T09:57:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to post this in my blog. This is the first page of my wedding album and makes me laugh/smile and think back to a different day every time I read it - so I thought I'd post it here...

2 of my Bridesmaids in my wedding wrote this for me while driving down from Ohio to share in that special day with Jay and I. It's priceless and reminds me of them continually so here you go,
They took turns writing so I'll post it as they wrote it...

An Ode to Jess

On the coast of Charleston
Far Far Away

Lived a girl Named Jess
At least, that's what they say.

No other had found
Had not yet discovered.

The legend of Jess
Remained sadly uncovered.
But one day she called,
Her voice full of glee;

"Hey How ya been?
"Good"
"I'm getting married!"

Jess' story was passed
To Fort Wayne and L.A.

And the legend of Jess
Is now here to stay.
So now the two bridesmaids
Are well on their way.

To rejoicing with Jess
On her special day.
Oh the bells will be ringing
There's love in the air.

And everyone's happy
For the newlywed pair.
Someday we'll all have
Spouses and Kids

Ugh the diapers and crying
And food crusted bibs...
But for now let's relax
And feel nothing but joy!

For Jess Lewis
Has a real nifty boy!

~Kelly
&
~Maura

LOL Anyway, fun times... Maura is heading towards her second baby soon - so this is all the more special to me right now. :) I love those girls...

SO. I'm headed out today to walk walk walk at the Citadel for a little while - hopefully this baby arrives SOON!

Still Here...

2008-02-24T17:36:00.006-05:00

I think I've had that title about 30 times but what else is there to say? LOL We went to the Charleston Home Show today and I walked and walked until I felt like my feet were going to fall off - the contractions picked up and were marvelous for about an hour -get in the car to come home and they go right away. Figures. lol Anyway... still waiting for my peanut to arrive. Jay spoiled me with Chili's today! SOOOO YUMMY! I love that place. I'm able to eat a bit more now so that's good! Just waiting for the whole process to move along naturally... my suitcase is still packed and waiting.

Jay's putting in our new kitchen sink as I write - I can't wait to see it all finished it's beautiful! (White coated cast iron) I'm super excited to get rid of our stainless - it was junky looking. Anyway, we got the matching Mohler faucet, sprayer and soap dispenser to go with it so it's all a matter of getting it hooked up and I'll have a sink again! (We took the old one out over a month ago so I've been washing dishes in the m/bath sink. Soooo over that. LOL)

Anyway, I bought the girls their Easter dresses today! They match! SOOO Cute!

It's kind of hard to see but they're pink gingham with a smocked rose bud front and tiny rose buds on the colar. I'm going to look for a cute white sweater to go over it since Easter is early this year and it'll probably be chilly... Of course - this is assuming that Madeline arrives BEFORE Easter. :P Good Lord she better. LOL

My mom bought these shoes for Liz the other day - I'd seen them in Stride Rite and loved them but didn't want to pay $40 for toddler shoes! Mom found them at the Stride Rite Outlet for half that! WOOT!
Soooo now I just have to find some cute frilly'ish socks (I'm not big on major frills, just something sweet - perhaps a scallop?) Anyways... cute socks for the girls and then make their bows - Liz will probably have a head band, not sure what I'll do with Maddy's hair - depends on if she has any! We may just do a fitted headband on her.

It was so fun getting them matching outfits! Gosh I am so going to be *that* mom. LOL The one with the matching little girls. And who can help it? Girls clothes are SO cute these days! So there's my little update... can't wait to meet Madeline - sure hope Pink's her color! ;)

Nothing New

2008-02-23T15:18:00.003-05:00

Well for the simple purposes of updating and having something too look back at and hold over Maddy's head when she's 16 and I can say "See what I went through to get you here kid?!" Here goes my update from my day yesterday...

3:30 am. I get a phone call to say "We're over full - don't come in, call back around 9 and we'll see about possibly getting you in late afternoon for the induction." Great... well who's going back to sleep after that? Not I... or Jay... and poor Linda who decided to stay at her house and come over early got up at 4 - I sent her a text but she never got it... then just in case I called her at 5:30 - good thing I did, she was about to head over. I called back at 6 am (impatient woman that I am) and just asked how things were going - they said call back late morning and they'll update me. Fun. 10 minutes later I get a call back from my doctor saying, "I go off duty here soon so go ahead and shower and come on in, I'll have a room ready for you in an hour." Woot! That made me smile... phone call back to Linda and I jumped in the shower, trying to take my time. All that moving around got my contractions going again and they were about 7 minutes apart. My thinking is this is going to be pretty smooth since I'm already in mild labor!

We get to the hospital at 7:30 - check in, everything's going well... they saved a room for me (waiting room already had 2 overflow patients) but my doctor wanted to get me started so they booked me in, hooked up my IV and I was on pitocin and antibiotics by 8.

The contractions picked up immediately... which I was fine with... within 30 minutes they were about a minute apart and lasting a little over a minute each. OUCH but it was worth it. They offerred me an epidural pretty quickly since I was laboring so hard but warned that it might slow down my progress so I held off. I continued breathing through the contractions for the next 4 hours while we waited for my body to start dialating more... didn't happen. By 12:30 my doctor came in and started on the whole c section thing - I told her plainly that 4 hours of labor wasn't even close to enough and that I wasn't going to a c section until I reached 10 centimeters and at least TRIED to push her out. She seemed a little annoyed but went along with my decision - then 10 minutes later her attending came in and the hell started. Her attending tried her best to scare the crap out of Jay and I telling us that there was a 15% chance that Madeline was going to have a limp arm from the shoulder distocia... making us sign a waiver saying we wouldn't sue the hospital and that we'd been counseled on choosing a C section and declined it. I was so annoyed... I asked her WHY she thought I had a shoulder distocia? I never have gotten a clear answer - Lizzy was a dream pregnancy and dream delivery- sure she got stuck for an hour and I had to push for 2 1/2 hours straight - but so what? Isn't that normal for first time babies? Nooooo getting stuck for an hour is too long - and blah blah - I asked her to show me the medical records from Lizzy's hospital b/c I just wasn't buying it. And I was tired of people making us feel like bad parents for wanting to go natural. She said she'd go get them... came back and said they didn't have them. Uh... what?! Why not? I signed the paperwork WAY back in the begining of all this weeks and weeks ago saying you had permission to get my records. They just never did. They based the whole entire shoulder distocia off of my verbal recollection of labor back on my first visit. Apparently when I said she got stuck that set of red flags... then when I told them a nurse had to help push on my stomach/pelvic bone to help transition Lizzy that sealed the deal. Instant shoulder distocia. (Said my RESIDENT doctor... not attending - she assumed. Same girl that shouldn't have ordered the amnio 10 days ago.) Not bothring to check the actual records, all this time we've been scared and worried about the baby getting stuck again and having all these horrid problems that the doctors made us feel like would definately happen should we go natural.

Anyways. I told her to call the hospital immediately and get my records. I was having none of this - if I had truly had a SD then that's fine, we'll go from there - but I just had a very strong feeling that my doctor had goofed up again. And I was right. An hour later when the paper work came back saying I had a very smooth delivery, the baby had gotten stuck but with a few different positions they were able to work her out with no problems... it listed that she'd swallowed meconium and had the cord around her neck twice - but that her apgars came back high and that it didn't cause anything to worry about and she went home 24 hours exactly after delivery, a very healthy baby.

So all these weeks of worrying - and it was for no reason... SO now they're mad that they induced me. Great. Without the worry of a high risk pregnancy they were ready to wash their hands of me... didn't matter that I was sitting there in active labor contracting like crazy - nope. They asked me immediately to go home. I refused... it was only 5 - I didn't see any reason why I needed to put my body through the hell of stopping labor early (or at least reducing it without the pitocin) just because I was no longer high risk. I'm due tomorrow for pete's sake! Give me a freaking break. No, I'll stay thanks. Well that just pissed off the doctors plenty... they said fine and left me alone - but immediately ordered the nurse to reduce the pitocin... which caused me to stop dialating, and in turn slowed down my labor.

Here's the kicker, had I taken the epidural when they offered they never would have sent me home... but no, I try to stay strong and tough it out so my labor keeps progressing - and I get the boot. Lovely. By this time it's getting close to 7 pm and a new attending comes on call... no sooner had they let me know I was changing doctors than he comes waltzing in with the worst attitude I've ever seen in a doctor. He took one look at me and said "I want you to go home. I'm taking you off the pitocin completely so theres nothing you can say or do about it. There are patients out there in labor that are futher dialated and they're higher priority than you... I want your room for them and you're being selfish to want to stay when other people need the room." Jerk. Guess what buddy? I've put in my time... I've been the one stuffed in the oxygen closet for 8 hours with no pillow, no private bathroom, stuck with another patient and no privacy... the one with no designated nurse b/c that's not considered a real room - yeah. I've been there. I'm over it. If I leave now, you're telling me there's a strong chance I'll go into labor tonight and I"ll have to come back and sit in the waiting room or oxygen room in labor? Uh. Thanks jerk.

Of course, I didn't say that... I just started crying. My nurse got really ticked at the doctor for being so rude - the whole time we were there she was very supportive of having a natural birth... every time they'd suggest a c section and I'd turn them down, she'd stay in the room and say she was rooting for me and would do whatever she could to help me go naturally. Bless her heart she was the only reason I didn't fall apart any earlier than I did.

Anyway. He took me off the pitocin, my labor slowed down and we got sent home. It was an awful day - 12 hours of HARD contractions... no epidural, just working my way through the contractions. Our nurse would come in and sit with me during the late afternoon - she'd hold my hand while I was breathing hard and always offer me ice after the contractions so I could keep my energy up. She was precious. So to nurse Arlene, I say thank you. Were it not for you I think I would have gone crazy yesterday.

To the rest of the screwball doctors to you I say... screw you. I'm going to another hospital. And I am. I called Trident this morning and had my paperwork transferred there... technically I wasn't supposed to go there as we still owe some money for Lizzy's delivery when we were self pay but the nurse was really sweet when I explained everything to her - she said by law we can't kick you out and we have to take your insurance - so while we can't register you - you will receive no less than 100% good care while you're here.

That made me feel SO much better... I had a great experience with Lizzy's birth - and at this point since every single report says Madeline is healthy - I'm not worried about her being born at a hospital with a NICU (Trident has a level two nursery but they have to transfer sick babies to MUSC for NICU care.) And since I'm no longer worried about the shoulder distocia I'm much more comfortable letting her come naturally. Turns out they said I shouldn't have a problem delivering her even if she's a large baby. Soooo unless something goes horribly wrong - I'll be having the natural birth I want - even if she doesn't arrive until 41 weeks... which if she's anything like Lizzy -that's probably exactly what'll happen.

So be it. While I was looking forward to having her yesterday... more than I can say, and I'll admit last night I didn't sleep a wink I was so angry and frustrated... I sat on the sofa for several hours in the middle of the night just thinking and wondering, asking God why??? But... today, after some rest - my uterus is slowly going back to normal... I'm having trouble still b/c my body thinks it's in labor but my contractions are sporadic and not nearly as hard as yesterday - however I'm having a hard time eating anything as it all makes me sick, so I'm just drinking water waiting for my body to realize the pitocin was only temporary... and that I'm not really in labor right now. My arm is bruised from the IV - and I'm not looking forward to getting another one of those in a few days... but I figure even if she doesn't arrive for another 10 days - I'll live. It sucks, and she'll be huge - they're thinking she's over 8 lbs right now - but... she's healthy. And she'll be here before I know it. So I'm holding on... trying not to think about yesterday too much... if I'd agreed to a c section or epidural I'd be holding my baby right now - but I stayed strong - and I'm paying for it today with no baby. That's the worst part of all this for me.

Anyway... that's my update. Yesterday was probably hardest on me mentally - though my body took (and is still taking) a beating - mentally dealing with multiple doctors who didn't support me was exhausting... dealing with a jerk doctor at the end of a long hard day only made it worse... but knowing that I won't have to see him again makes things a lot easier on my mind.

So Madeline... little girl... you have caused your mommy so much stress and anxiety the last few weeks - I know you'll be worth every minute of it when you arrive, but sweetie, please please please do your mommy a favor and make your way south soon. Please? I'm pretty much over all this pregnancy stuff kiddo - if you never have a younger sibling - don't blame me. You are one major slow poke.

Internet...

2008-02-20T16:20:00.001-05:00

Okay, MUSC apparently DOES have wi-fi in the recovery rooms - just not the labor and delivery rooms SO if I'm feeling up to it after she get's here, I'll be able to post pics on my blog of baby girl when she's just hours old! YAY!

So, I'll send out a text when she get's here - and then either Jay or I will upload and post some pics hopefully by Friday night! :D

Thought you'd like to know girls. ;)

Two new pics.

2008-02-20T15:25:00.006-05:00

Okay so I just realized I never uploaded Lizzy's Valentine's day Pics...

I got ONE shot of her smiling all day. *bangshead* She was laughing and playing the whole day but every time I'd turn the camera on her she'd get serious. LOL Soo here is my one single shot (and not even a great one) of my stinker with her Valentine's day lips she got in preschool... wearing her "Queen of Hearts" hat and her cute heart shirt. :)
And the second one is my 39 week shot... probably the last being that I'll be delivering in 2 days! LOL It finally hit me in the face - so here's me - chunky monkey that I am these days with a girlfriend of mine who's due in a few weeks, Heather. :)

That's all the pictures for now! Nothing new on the pregnancy front - still contracting like crazy but the darn things won't speed up so I doubt she'll make her entrance before Friday. :)

GAH! Doctors!!!

2008-02-19T17:34:00.003-05:00

Well good grief, so my doctor called me yesterday... she said I'd been on her mind all weekend so she went straight to her attending (she's a resident) yesterday morning and showed her all Madeline's charts, her monitor reports, amnio results, etc and said the attending was not happy that she gave me an amnio 7 days after I was diagnosed with the flu... Nice. The Attending Doctor told her she should have waited until Monday to test as Maddy didn't stand a chance of testing in the high range just 7 days after I'd been so sick - they usually count on 14-21 days minimum for babies in utero to overcome sickness... HOWEVER. She said that her testing as high as she did (even though it wasn't quite high enough to induce) is a very good sign that she is a healthy baby. She said after looking at her monitor reports her heart was doing everything it should, she's using her lungs like she should, and she weighs a very healthy amount. All in all the attending doctor said she feels that Madeline is a very healthy little girl and had we tested her Monday instead of Friday she would have tested MUCH higher as she was already out of the sick range on Friday...

SOOOOOO. My doctor was very sweet - I know she's still learning and though I hate being the guiney pig - I know she's doing her very best and wanted to do what was best for me... the attending doctor told her to have me come in on Friday morning at 6:30 am - they're going to go ahead and induce me! My doctor said she told the attending how much I did NOT want a c section if I could avoid it... the attending replied "Well let's give her a fair shot then, tell her to come in on Friday and I'll oversee the delivery." YAY!

So, wow. I was stressed, frustrated, grateful and completely excited all in one phone call. haha. Anyway, if she doesn't arrive sooner (which she just might as I'm bustin at the seams right now - I've had contractions for the last 24 hours about 7-10 minutes apart but they won't speed up or get stronger... similar to how Lizzy's birth went - 3 days of contractions before they finally sped up into the real deal) so we shall see... If nothing in the next 2 days - she'll be here on Friday! :D

It's so hard to believe that I'll be holding my baby by this weekend! WOW. That really puts things into reality! I'm sitting her staring at the cradle, all ready with a soft sheet and blanket just waiting for Madeline to arrive and I can picture her laying there all sweet and soft, cuddled up sleeping peacefully. (*giggle* Yeah I know, that's a nice picture but not much in the way of reality. LOL) But that's okay - she's almost here!!!!

Lizzy woke up from her nap and was in a cuddly mood - I was holding her close and she put her hands on my tummy and looked up at me and smiled... I melt every time she does that... it's like she knows, but yet has no clue. She's going to be such a great big sister... she's so loving. I'm sure she'll have her moments where she'll be wishing Maddy was back in mommy's tummy - but over all I can see her being such a wonderful sibling to Madeline. She loves to point to my belly and tell me her sister is in there... and she'll look over at my sis and say "baby Jack!" It's so precious.

Okay, so FINALLY... a VERY good news update! I've been waiting and hoping to post one soon! So there you go! Madeline's on her way, Elizabeth is excited about her baby sister! Jay and I are sort of fumbling through these feelings but can't wait to meet our new daughter very soon!!!

Emotionally Drained.

2008-02-16T10:41:00.002-05:00

Well I'm feeling a bit better this morning... yesterday was very hard on me emotionally and reading back... I really should have just kept all that to myself. I was frustrated, angry at myself and I'm glad I didn't answer any phone calls as I'd probably be making apologies today.

Having said that... I'm still down - but realize that I need to look at this differently, while I can't do anything for Madeline right now except keep her in there - I can enjoy these last few days with my Lizzy. I'm planning on taking her out to lunch and for ice cream here in a few minutes - (she LOVES ice cream. LOL) silly girl. She's been such a trooper the last few weeks, always coming in when I was sick and kissing my forehead saying I love you and then reading quietly or just playing by herself while I napped - my precious baby is growing up so fast... I want to make the most of these last few days with her.

Our house is HOT, dear Lord is it hot in here... they say the new AC unit will be in within a week... thank Goodness. It's insanely hot in this house (probably 85 or higher?) And there's nothing I can do about it except wait for the new unit to be installed soon...

So in the mean time, I think we'll head to the park for an hour or so and then go get some lunch.

I've made up my mind not to let this get me down any more - though I have decided that I doubt I'll ever get pregnant again. It would have to take some pretty huge circumstances to convince me otherwise. For now - I'm ready to have my life with my 2 girls. I dream of all the neat things we'll be able to do with them and that's helping to get me through this emotionally draining period of wait wait wait.

Anyway. I felt the need to update. Lizzy is healthy, she's beautiful and so strong - and I want to just focus on her right now and enjoy her being a single child for a few more days. :)

Bad News...

2008-02-15T18:14:00.003-05:00

We had the amnio this morning... while painful it wasn't as bad as I was expecting... the wait for the lab test was horrible...

And we just got the phone call... Madeline's lung fluid is showing that she's still fighting some sickness so we've canceled the induction. They want to retest her in 7 days...

Frankly, I'm mentally a mess right now. I feel like such a failure as a mother - as if I've failed in my most basic duty of providing a healthy environment in utero. I realize part of that is hormones talking... but when they told me she tested as a "sick baby" though close to the healthy line - just not quite there - I immediately started to cry... so now I'm on bed rest until my uterus stops cramping as that could send me into labor if I don't take it easy. *sigh* My poor baby is sick... and there's nothing I can do but lay still... not exactly the most proactive feeling.

And to make things even better... she's measuring at 7 lbs 10 oz. My doctor was nice enough not to make me schedule a C section - but I do have to have my second amnio next Friday... and now we'll be waiting for her to arrive on her own. Which translates to emergancy c section. Lovely. As my friends around me are having their HEALTHY baby's EARLY left and right - I admit... I am really really struggling right now. I prayed so hard that I wouldn't have to go past 40 weeks again - but here we are at 39 weeks and they want her to stay put for awhile yet... *sigh* What a sucky day. :(

And I *know* she'll be okay... I know this is where she's supposed to be... I know this is all for the best... I know. I really do. As selfish as it sounds - it doesn't matter that I know all that... I still hate it. I hate hearing she's sick. I hate hearing I'll be pregnant and not able to hold her or take care of her for at least another 10 days... I just hate this whole process. I was really really trying not to count on her being ready on Monday - but my heart was counting on that more than I could have ever imagined...

I'm not answering my phone right now. I had a friend (who just had her baby last week... at 39 weeks... healthy.) just call me and say "I know how much you want this to end... I really do." I'm so glad I didn't answer. Because No... no I'm afraid that's crap. Having a healthy baby a week early is what I dream of. What I've got is a sick baby whom I can't take care of and a recommendation that I stay pregnant for another 10 days if not longer. No... just... no.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T09:42:00.002-05:00

I'm still here... but just had to share, Ooooh how I am in love with my sweet daughter. I just adore my baby girl. (Well, my BIG girl I should say!) We spent yesterday afternoon working on her Valentine's for class today- and nothing will melt a mommy's heart like watching your toddler carefully pick out cards, sign and decorate each one, then seal the envelope with a heart sticker - for all of her favorite people. Daddy and I got about 8 cards each. hahaha... she was soooo precious. With only 7 other classmates and 2 teachers, and a box of 36 cards - you can imagine how much fun she was having. LOL She was SO excited for her class party today that she didn't get out of bed ONCE last night! (Yay!) We told her she'd have to get a good nights sleep before we could get up and go to her party - so she rolled over, squeezed her eyes shut and didn't make a peep all night... until 6:30 this morning when she woke up and ran in our room yelling about how excited she was that her party was today! Ooooh how we laughed, she was all grins from the moment she woke up. She put on her new Valentine's Day outfit (which I WILL get pictures of at some point today) and her big red bow - and grabbed her backpack - all before 7 am! (We don't leave until 8:15 for school.) LOL So precious.

I am going to miss these mornings where she and I can cuddle all we want and spend time together just her and I. Ooooh how I'll miss them. I know something precious is coming to a close with my first born and I'm already missing these days... I pray she understands just how much I love her even after my affections are split between her and Madeline.

So I'm headed back to the school in just a minute to prep the kids room for their party. Should be a good time with all the kiddo's. :)

THEN my mama is picking Lizzy up from school and spending the afternoon with her while I go to lunch with my Mother In Law, get my hair done and then get a pedicure this afternoon! Woot Woot! Some fun ME time! Jay suprised me with the pedicure idea this morning as my Valentine's gift... he's such a sweetie - he heard me complaining on the phone to my mom about how hard it is to reach my toes to paint them right now - so I'm going to go get the royal treatment this afternoon!

Anyway, I'm still here - and having a wonderful day... I'm full of love for my darling daughter, sweetie pie hubby and soon to arrive baby! I hope you all have a blessed Valentine's Day too! :)

Still here...

2008-02-12T16:18:00.000-05:00

Well those contractions are still coming, but no worries... they're not getting stronger or longer so I think we're good for now - I'm still hanging in there. SLOWLY starting to feel a bit better... yay! I'm all stuffed up still, but even that is making headway - (I've only got it on the right side - which means I can breathe out one nostral! YAY!) haha sounds dumb - but it's been nearly 5 weeks since I could breathe out my nose - I'm grateful for that. LOL

So anyway, my mom brought over some fun gifts today - a new robe for the hospital and some PJ's for the day after baby when everyone's visiting... along with some cute flip flops for those miles I'll be traveling between the hospital bed and bathroom. ;) SO I guess I'll start packing my bag tonight. haha - it's been a long time coming but I'm finally feeling motivated to do it...

We also got a fun gift in the mail today! Laura, JR and Austin sent us a beautiful Wendy Billismo (sp?) Blanket for Madeline along with a Doc Brown's bottle gift set! I'm so excited about both of them! The bottles will come in VERY handy (I had just put "more bottles" on my shopping list this morning!) and the blanket is the softest thing I've ever felt... I can't WAIT to wrap Madeline in her new blankie! It's brown and pink (go figure) LOL and ooooh so soft. :) Anyway, that made my afternoon finding that fun box on the porch!

So for now, I'm still pregnant - with a brighter outlook now that I can breathe a little. I'll hopefully be updating soon!

Contractions.

2008-02-10T20:50:00.000-05:00

Who knows if this is it or not... but these puppies are not going away. I've been having contractions all afternoon and evening - about 10 minutes apart - although the last 3 where only 6 minutes apart - and no matter how much water I drink, or how long I lay down they're not going away. Although, to be fair, I had contractions just like this for 3 days with Lizzy before they finally decided to speed up and strengthen - these aren't too strong - I can breathe my way through them just fine with no wincing or needing to grip anything.

Anyway, on the off chance this is it, i thought I'd post this while I was still able to. :) Chances are I'll be here another couple weeks with all this - but you never know...

(And I still have the flu. I spent today doing much of nothing - needing to do a lot but just not being able to. I haven't had much of an appetite but I think I'll get some cereal before I go to sleep so I can take all my meds soon.)

Annnnyway... just wanted to update.

Yesterday.

2008-02-09T09:21:00.000-05:00

So. Where do I begin? Yesterday was a LOOOONG day. I woke up with a high fever and went in to my OB - it was a pretty good visit - we scheduled an induction for Monday the 18th. I spoke with her attending physician and we worked through everything they were having trouble with before... but, I told her - I'm still not feeling good. I'm trying not to complain but seriously. I feel like crap - she wrote it all off to pregnancy so off I went.

Met my mom, grandma, and sis at mom's house and the 5 of us (including Liz) went out to lunch together and then came back to the house where Mom, Aunt Jill, Grandma and Beth all had baby gifts for Madeline. Everyone got us a TON of diapers and wipes - which is awesome... I'll be set for about 3 months with all this!!! So exciting. Let's hope Maddy doesn't grow out of newborns too quickly as I've got 3 big packs of them... along with that they got the baby some new clothes, so it was wonderfully fun - but I was waning fast - I knew I had a fever the whole time we were out so I took Liz home to nap around 3 and I passed out too.

Here's where it get's interesting... I'd taken 2 Extra Strength Tylenol around 1 when I picked Liz up to go to my mom's... hoping that would break my fever. It didn't. So when I woke up from my restless nap - my fever was over 102. I had no idea what was safe or not safe for pregnancy so I called down to my doctors office and they said "Get to labor and delivery NOW" Apparently anything over 100.5 I'm supposed to go in for - 102.5 was WAY too high. *sigh* So, Lizzy's still napping, Jay's at work - and I'm way to sick to drive myself 30 minutes downtown. I call Linda and she rushes over to stay with Lizzy... 11 calls to Jay's cell - no answer - he left his phone in the truck. UGH. About 30 minutes later as I'm freaking out at the house - Jay pulls up right behind his mom, his phone got bumped to vibrate and he couldn't hear it. Stupid cell phones. SO he freaks out when he see's me sitting in the car with my head resting on the window - Jay's mom goes inside to stay with Lizzy until she wakes up - and Jay and I head off to the hospital. My fever was getting higher and higher and I was getting more worried by the second... Madeline had stopped moving all together about an hour previous and I was freaking out.

We get to labor and delivery - and they're completely packed/overbooked. There's no place to put me. Fun. So they put a stretcher in the oxygen room and get me hooked up to the monitor, it felt like I was camping. I was in a supply closet for Pete's sake! They found Madeline's heart beat right away - but it wasn't good - her heart rate was going between 185 and 205 - WAY too high for a newborn - My heart rate was averaging 160 - (supposed to be between 70 & 100) But the nurses wrote it off to the fever. So then we had to figure out - why is my fever so darn high? Do I have a uterine infection? Am I in labor? I had the doctors stumped. No infection (that they could see) I was having contractions about 30 minutes apart - but that's not enough to give me such a high fever... so more tests... At this point I wasn't allowed to have any water/ice/nothing. And I was so dehydrated I was starting to lose my vision - not to mention all the drawing of blood wasn't helping. Then they came in and had to do an "exam" - but there's no stirups on a stretcher... so back to primitive times, I had to prop myself up on a bed pan - OUCH. They did a few more tests checking for fluid and whatnot - before they finally said "let's give her some tylenol and water and see if that helps." FINALLY. I drank an entire 24 oz cup of water in less than 30 seconds and was begging for more... the nurse's eyebrows were up so high she realized I must be REALLY dehydrated - so they started me on an IV. 2 more big cups of water, ice, 2 cups of OJ, and 2 liters of IV fluid later I was finally feeling like I wasn't going to black out on them anymore. However - my fever wasn't breaking. It took almost 4 hours for both bags of IV fluid to go through me and that was what helped finally kick the fever... finally around 10 pm Madeline's heart rate dropped to the 160's which was finally in the normal range again. Mine was still high, but my fever wasn't completely gone either - it was hovering between 99.5 and 100. SO we wait some more. Around 11 pm they came in and said they were admitting me... I have an active Flu virus. The bloodwork came back and said both I and Madeline have the flu. Well that's just great. I've been to the doctor every week for the last month and a half and you'd think they might have checked for that at least once right? Nope. It took the flu nearly kicking my butt for anyone to finally test me for it. But back to the admitting me thing - I asked them what they were going to do... is there any drugs that help? No it must run it's coarse, SO.... I asked if I could go home and sleep in my own bed - I was so tired from being on a stretcher (2 inch mattress) for 6 hours with no pillow (they couldn't find one), no private bathroom (fun times in a hospital gown hooked up to two monitors and an IV) I was miserable and just wanted to come home and sleep in my own bed. I promised to steer clear of Liz and Jay (though what good is that now? I've been around them nonstop the last 3 days when my fever was so high) and they finally agreed. With strict instructions to stay away from people. Great.

My sister's baby shower is today - you know, the one I've been planning for 5 months now? Was so excited about? My grandma even flew in to be with us? Yeah. that's today. *sigh*

I just knew it though... my luck is just that rotten - I knew I wouldn't have the baby before the shower - no that would be far too convenient, but I knew something would happen - and sure enough. The flu.

So here I am, laying in bed, fever still hovering just under 100 - strict instructions to come back to the hospital if it rises above 100.5. I can't breathe b/c of all the fluid on my ears, sinuses, glands and now lungs. And I'm pretty freaking miserable... when I should be with my family celebrating my new nephew - but no... I'm at home stuck in bed. :(

At one point last night they told me to stop drinking as they were considering a c section to deliver the baby right now - but they had to test her lung fluid first - when it came back that she had the flu they decided to wait as she'd definately be in NICU if she came now - where if I wait and get better, she has a better chance of not making a trip to the NICU.

So anyway... that was yesterday. We finally got home around midnight - I was up every 4 hours taking Tylenol. This morning I realized I hadn't eaten anything since yesterday at lunch so I had a bowl of cereal and OJ. I can tell my fluids are getting low again so I'm drinking like crazy.

I can't wait for a happy update. *sigh*

Quick Update...

2008-02-07T13:03:00.000-05:00

Back from the doctors, I have fluid on my lungs. :( Not a ton, but it's from all the fluid on my ears, sinuses and glands, doc said it has no where else to go so it's been draining into my lungs which is what's making me cough so hard. And my throat is overly irritated from coughing so hard which is what's making me cough up blood.

Anyway, I'll live. Just wanted to update - Madeline's fine and fortunately what I have isn't contagious - it's just an excessive amount of fluid - which they can't fix until after I deliver. He gave me Tylenol with Codine to take to help me sleep (UGHHHH I refuse to pull a Heath Ledger and die from overdosing on too many perscription drugs! AH! That's what it feels like anyways... though he assured me all was fine) so I'll try the Tylenol tonight and skip the Ambien - maybe it'll help my throat enough to where I'll sleep better...

*sigh* Prayers that Maddy comes quick. I know y'all are gettin tired of me whinin, Lord knows I am.

Yucks.

2008-02-07T07:37:00.000-05:00

Well the positive part of this is that Maddy's been moving more - definately heading south for the big day, she was kickin and squirmin all night long so that made me feel good...

On the other side of things, I started coughing up blood and running a high fever last night so I'm on my way into the doctors as soon as they open. Jay didn't sleep at all and kept waking me up from whatever little sleep I was getting to take my temp - it really freaked him out, he said he could hear my lungs crackling. Yay. So off to the docs I go - I'll update later.

A little worried...

2008-02-06T12:50:00.000-05:00

It's 1 pm and I haven't felt maddy at all today - I poked her a couple times and I can move her legs, but it's me pushing on them... not her kicking or anything. Coupled with the fact that I developed a nasty cough last night which makes me feel like I'm pushing Madeline out every time I cough. It hurts so bad! (My throat hurts yes, but it REALLY hurts down there.) UGH. I'm wondering if I haven't traumatized my baby with all this hard coughing... it tightens my stomach and probably pinches off her air supply every time I cough - which is about every 30 seconds. *sigh* I drank some apple juice a little bit ago - if she doesn't start wiggling soon, i'm afraid we'll be headed to the doctors office... which is downtown - meaning we'll get stuck in all kinds of lovely traffic on the way home. *sigh* I hope she's okay. :(

EDIT: I did get one little jab earlier when I was poking her... it was obvious she was annoyed as it was a fast kick and then she moved to where I couldn't really get to her. LOL Guess she just wants to rest and be left alone... *sigh* I'm so tired of worrying about this little person that I can't see.

Nursery Update. :)

2008-02-03T21:59:00.000-05:00

Here's some pics from the nursery... it's not done yet - no name on the wall, artwork is just sitting around in the crib and on the changing table instead of on the walls, and I haven't made the curtain yet... BUT I did recover the glider, finish the artwork (though it still needs framed) and semi arranged the nursery so it's not such a mess anymore. :)

Here's some pics!

I'm very proud of my glider! It went from

worn out light blue to this! :)

Here's some of the artwork I made. :)

These two will go by her name over the crib.

Oh what a day...

2008-02-03T05:36:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's 5:30 in the morning... but I can't sleep so here I am. ;) First news of the day, my friends Amy and Matt had their little boy last night - a month early (*grrrrr*) at 6 lbs 2 oz. Hopefully I can arrange a visit sometime today to go see him, I'm sure he's a handsome little guy -their daughter is beautiful. Anyway, So I'm a raging ball of emotions for them... so happy - and so jealous. But whatever, we've all heard me gripe enough about that.

On to our shower last night! As of yesterday morning only 2 people had RSVP'd so I figured it'd be small and family oriented. Ha. It ended up being HUGE and was SOOOOO fun! All in all I think we had close to about 40 people including the munchkins. Linda and Aunt Marianne made TONS of food and it was all super yummy. (FYI, Publix makes the BEST cakes! I could have ate half of it myself... but of course, I didn't.) :D They set up a kids bar with a basket of gold fish, grapes and cheese where the little one's could come grab what they wanted as they wanted it, they had mini apple juice boxes for the kids that were a huge hit! Beer, wine, soda's, water etc for the adults - a nice touch as they even played a game where 4 of the guys had to drink 8 oz of beer from a sippy - whomever drank it fastest got a prize... I wish I'd have had my camera out for that one. LOL I think Aunt Marianne got some pics though. Fun fun times. :)

Everything was decorated so cute, and it was so great having all our friends and Jay's family come celebrate with us! All the mom's told me several times that it was such a great party and so much fun having their families along. Everyone was relaxed - there was nothing for the kids to get hurt on or in to, so they just snacked, played and roamed all night long. The shower was supposed to be 2 hours but ended up lasting 4.

Anyway - I had no idea so many people would show up. It was truly a blessed night for us. :) Just having everyone there was so fantastic... but the gift table kept us busy for nearly an hour as well. It was all so wonderful! Linda went all out and bless her heart made it such a memorable night. She really is such a fantastic Mother In Law. Every time I'd look around the room and see what she pulled off - I was nearly brought to tears. Brooks came and set up his DJ equipment so we had some really great music all night long. (A true lowcountry mix of beach, shag and country) LOL

I'll try to remember everything off the top of my head that we got for gifts - but I may have to go back and update in the morning when there's enough light to find the gift list.

Linda put together a basket of 4 lotions, 4 bathwashs, a star sponge, diaper sacks and refills, 2 cradle sheets, a hanging musical elephant (which I am in LOVE with... it sings and whistles just like Jay does - Jay's whistling always calmed Lizzy down when she got fussy in the car - so this will be like having daddy all the time!) a six pack of burp cloths, and I'm sure more things that I just can't remember right now. LOL She also got us our diaper pail (PINK diaper champ!) So adorable.

Aunt Marianne got us a huge pack of diapers.

Grandma and Grandaddy gave us $25 to use on the baby. (Which I think I'll be getting a blanket that I'm in love with at Babies R Us.) It'll be special and remind me of them when I use it on Maddy.

Anna and Nathan got us a baby gym! YAY! I really wanted to get one of those this time... it's also a travel bed for baby (for the days before they start rolling) it's all soft and cushy around the edges so they don't scoot off. And has a really cute hanging gym that can be taken off and attatched to the crib too! They also picked up an "I love my big sister" bib... So adoable. And our first! :)

Rae and Casey got us a big pack of diapers, 3 GORGEOUS receiving blankets - they're all modern and adorable, a baby hat and baby booties!

Tiff and Abbie got the sweetest outfit for Maddy... it's light brown and cream striped pants and a soft pink dress to go over them with the matching brown stripe ribbon across the chest. I can't wait to see her in it!

Kay and Bruce got Madeline a sweet baby lamb cross to hang on her door, so precious, and a 6 pack of Minnie Mouse socks that are SOOOOO cute! (They come in all different colors, I can't wait to see Maddy in them!)

Brooks and Jacquie gave us a beatiful bedding set for the cradle... it's off white scalloped cotton, and will look so sweet in there. They also gave us a high chair cover for Maddy when we go to restaurants and a 4 pack of receiving blankets!

Denise got Maddy the matching pillow to her nursery! I can't wait to finish recovering the glider so I can set it on there! :) SO cute! She also got us a BIG pack of diapers, 3 waterproof lap pads and some baby q tips.

Heather and Patrick got a blanket for Maddy that I'd been dying to get... it's pink, white and brown polka dots on the front and brown chunky fleece on the back. It's SO soft and thick and warm - perfect for covering Maddy's carseat on these cold mornings!

Donna and David (our neighbors) came and got Madeline a toy for the carseat which lights up and makes music - and has a remote control so I can turn it on when she get's fussy from the front seat! They also got big sister Lizzy something... (so thoughtful!) An adorable outfit with red and white polka dot (very minnie mouse looking) pants and a white top with hearts on it... very cute! AND it came with a red and white polka dot journal and crayons for the big sister. ;)

Ashley and Emery came (I threatened her that I'd kick her out if she brought anything for us as she was the one who did the big basket with Charlie at our suprise shower the other night.) LOL

We had such a great time with them... I know I'm forgetting some people/gifts but I'll update later when my brain is working better. I'm SO tired, but we truly had a wonderful evening.

Marianne took all the pictures so I'll have to wait until she get's them to me so I can post pics... I think I have one shot of Ashley and I (she was goofin off wearing the game prize of one of the games we played - family man boxers. LOL) but aside from that, I'll have to be patient for aunt Marianne's pics to arrive! :)

I left there exhausted but thrilled - blessed and so ready for Maddy to arrive! :D I decided - tomorrow and Monday I'm getting this house ready for her and then I am going to start walking 3 miles (at least) a day until she get's here.. no joke. This baby is not going to 40 weeks if I can help it, between the doctor ordered sex (fun times at 9 months pregnant) and walking til I'm blue, somehow or another I think she might arrive a little sooner than the 24th... we shall see!

Stink.

2008-02-01T12:30:00.000-05:00

Well, what else is there to say other than... MUSC is out to make a living, and frankly today they proved to me that they're not so concerned with my wishes or best interest as much as they are a bottom line. They have instituted a new rule across the board for all doctors - no scheduled inductions for any reason aside from high blood pressure. Being that I have very LOW blood pressure - this excludes me completely. And means that there's about a 90% chance that I'll be having a C-section. Furthermore, she so sweetly offered to go ahead and schedule me a C section not caring one lick that I told her I wanted to avoid that at all costs. She looked at me like I was crazy for even suggesting that we take precautions to help insure that I don't HAVE to have a C section... Yeah, I guess I'm just weird for prefferring NOT to be cut open like a Christmas freaking turkey.

She did the ol' "baby butt grab" (felt Maddy through my tummy) and in that very scientific method assured me that she wasn't even 6 lbs yet... the ultrasound tech measures her bones and says 6.5 lbs a week and a half ago - but clearly, this method is more effective... my child has a small tush so that must mean her whole body is a pound smaller than the measurements. UGH. I looked at her and said point blank... "So you're telling me that you're going to let me go to 40 weeks, knowing that Madeline has tested ready to come already with fully developed lungs, knowing that my body can't handle large babies and KNOWING that I'm going to HAVE to have a freaking C Section - for no good reason aside from the fact that there's a new rule???? WTH. I don't care about your stupid rules. Rules don't apply to pregnancy - there is no rule book - each baby, each woman and each pregnancy is different, so who are they to say they'll schedule a C section (which makes the hospital thousands of dollars more while commiting the doctors to less than half the time spent with a patient) but not schedule an induction which would result in a natural birth instead of a C.

Yeah. Rules my butt. I'm ticked... (obviously) If she'd have told me that it was for the baby's best interest to wait another couple weeks, I wouldn't have uttered a freaking word... but to tell me that it's in the HOSPITAL's best interest just ticks me off. Not mine, not Madeline's - but some money hungry jerk who decided to place this rule into effect knowing good and well it'll result in more $$$ for the hospital b/c it'll result in more C section births.

Nice. I'm half tempted to call the other hospital I was looking at and see if I could find a doctor who would take me this late in my pregancy... is that over reacting? Should I just suck it up, schedule a c section and be done with it? When it's compeltely against anything I wanted for me or Madeline... or Lizzy for that matter... if I have a C section there's a minimum 72 hour stay over period from time of delivery - that means I'm away from Lizzy at night for 3 additional days instead of just one night. I've never been away from her overnight... I can tell you right now that I (and probably her too) WON'T deal with that well... I'm having a hard enough time thinking of leaving her for 1 night - knowing that my chances of having Maddy naturally are so slim now, this is making me want to go back on this whole pregnancy thing. Why couldn't the doctors have told me this WEEKS ago? I mean, they know all the same info back then... they talked with me about an induction if the baby got too big - and now thanks to some rule, they just can't follow through? UGH UGH UGH UGH UGH!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah, AND to top all that good news off... they informed that if I don't have AT LEAST 4 hours of antibiotics for the group strep B in me they won't let me deliver her naturally even if i could... so on the off chance she does come early, if I have a fast labor - they STILL won't let me have a natural birth. But plan an induction so that they KNOW I'll have all the meds first? No, that would make sense so we just can't have that.

*sigh* I can't tell you the last time I felt this depressed and helpless. I hate this.

Needs Good Vibes!

2008-01-31T23:21:00.000-05:00

Or prayers, your choice! :) But I'm off to the doctor tomorrow, with being so close to "full term" (Technically 2 days from now) I'm really hoping she has some good news for me tomorrow... I'm in full blown "Severe Pregancy Congestion" mode, and let me tell you - this is NOT fun. I blow my nose - literally - every 2 minutes. All. Freaking. Day. LONG. Oh, and all night long too. AHHHHHH. Benedryl does nothing, Sudefed does nothing (yes I tried a dose even though it's class C - anything to help at this point... but nope, nadda.) *SIGH*

So here's my thoughts on it all, Lizzy was 7 lbs 11 oz... my doctor that delivered her informed me that had she been any bigger I would have had to go to a C section as my body was not made to deliver big babies - she got stuck on my pelvic bone for 2 1/2 hours and we nearly had to have an E-Ceserean. No fun. Having said that... Madeline measured 6 1/2 lbs last Tuesday - nearly a week and 1/2 ago - and if memory serves me right, babies gain about a 1/2 pound a week the last 5 weeks... well... if thats true (and from her most recent "bruise the heck out of mommy" events, I think it is) then that means she's approaching 7 1/2 lbs... which is fast approaching Lizzy's weight - which means, should I go much longer, I'll likely have to have a C. And I REALLY don't want to. Sooooo I'm going to beg and plead that they remeasure her tomorrow - if she's 7 1/2 or so then I'm hoping the'll plan an induction soon... very soon. I really want a normal delivery if at all possible.

AND I tested positive for group strep B this time... (odd as I didn't last time) so they want me on the antibiotics for a few hours before I deliver... I live about a half hour from the hospital and would likely take a few hours getting there when I go into labor as I'd need to get Lizzy to my MIL's (Opposite direction 20 minutes adding on 40 minutes to the trip) meaning if they don't induce and I go naturally, then there's a good chance I'll have Maddy before they have a chance to get all the antibiotics in me... which would be bad for both her and I.

AND (not that this really amounts to much) I'm ready to have her. I'll be full term on Sunday so seriously, let's just get the show on the road shall we? I'm going to beg... and plead... and beg... and plead... and beg some more... so lots of prayers and good vibes would be wonderful. Let's hope she (my doc) gives me good news tomorrow. :)

Jay gave me free reign today to go pick up everything else we needed for Maddy... that was FUN! :D I also shopped for my sister today, but I won't post what I got her as her shower's not until next week and she reads my blog. LOL (hi beth.) :D

Anyways, got all my shopping done for sis, and I picked up a diaper depot (it attatches to the changing table - or for right now the cradle) and holds diapers, wipes etc. It's great for keeping things handy and will be very useful for those middle of the night explosions that are soon to come. :) I got some ribbon and finished Maddy's artwork for her room - I need to take some pics and upload it, it turned out SUPER cute. I can't wait to see it on the walls! I got our changing pad, and some other small things like cradle sheets, lap pads etc. Nothing too big... (our shower is Saturday so I'm going to see if we get anymore blankets or our diaper pail before picking those things up) but it was nice finally feeling almost ready for Madeline. I'm so excited to meet her! I think about it constantly. LOL

So that's that... y'all pray for me tomorrow! Thanks! :)

Over it...

2008-01-28T22:33:00.000-05:00

Can I just say that I'm pretty much over being pregnant? Yeah, Madeline is more than welcome to come tonight... would I be prepared for her? No. But at this point. I just don't care. LOL I haven't packed my bags yet (What for? It's only going to get my hopes up.) We have lots of things we still need... the cradle is set up by my bed but is full of books and bedside items... with no sheets. We don't have a stroller yet (though I could make due with my Snap and Go as long as Liz isn't with me.) And I have one small pack of newborn diapers - yep, that's it. However... I am very excited to meet my little girl... I worry constantly that something might go wrong in the next few weeks and I have such a hard time dealing with that. I'd just rather have her here where I can check her breathing, make sure she's being fed, and know that she's okay, rather than keep reading and hearing about late pregnancy losses from other mom boards. Ooooh how I struggle with that. I just read about one mom who lost her baby at 38 weeks, and they have no idea why. Still born, perfectly formed, beautiful baby at 38 weeks... I can't even begin to imagine. I woke up this morning shaking and worrying that I hadn't felt Madeline move much over night - fortunately she answered my thoughts with a swift kick to the ribs as if to say "if you want me to give you something to feel mommy, I can certainly do some damage."

So anyway, I know that sounds like a very selfish thing to say - I should be grateful that I'm holding this little miracle... but I admit. I'm very very anxious for her to arrive.

My Chunky Monkey

2008-01-23T19:46:00.000-05:00

So today was a fun morning! We had a 3D ultrasound at MUSC this morning, just a final check to make sure everything's looking good. Madeline is reported at being a little over 6 1/2 lbs already - WOAH. 4 more weeks and she'll be a horse!

Everything is looking great and the girl even said she's fully using her lungs now which means she can come at any time now and under normal birth circumstances won't need any NICU care. Awesome news! She has a good bit of hair they said - it's almost touching her neck on the back - same as Liz. All her measurements look good - due date looks to be some time the 3rd week of February still...

now for the fun part... Look at my big lipped baby! The girl couldn't get enough of those lips - she said her nose is squished b/c the cord was in front of her face - but those lips alternated between pouty and a half smile while we were there... So no premie clothes or diapers for us! If she came today she'd be in newborns - if she comes in another month we'll be out of those 0-3 month things in No time at all! LOL

Suprise Shower! :D

2008-01-22T14:02:00.000-05:00

So Charli invites us over for Dinner last night... it HAD to be last night. And we weren't allowed to bring anything because she came up with this long story about inviting her family to dinner and them not showing up so she had Tons of food to get rid of... yeah. sure. ;) Turns out we had a suprise baby shower last night! We showed up at Charli's and the whole house was decorated with It's a Girl stuff...
Ashley and Charli had spent all day decorating and making food just to surprise me! It was so much fun!!!! The girls wanted to plan something for me but didn't know want to wait around for everyone who kept talking about planning something - so they said heck with it, we'll just suprise her. LOL

Anyway, here's a hilarious pic - right before Jay was going to take it our kids all started bickering so here's the 3 mom's yellin at our kiddo's...

And here's the pic 10 seconds later after the mom's have had their say. ;)

I love these girls... these were the two that brought us dinner after I spent the morning in the hospital 2 weeks ago - love them love them love them. Such sweethearts!!! They got us this HUGE basket over flowing with baby items - it was so great, everything we could possibly need when Madeline first arrives - all the little things you rarely think of but they covered! I was seriously so blown away...

Here's some other pics from last night...

This is Lizzy and her cupcake - notice the cupcake part is still there while the frosting is mysteriously gone. ;)

Charli's son Trev and Lizzy eating dinner and chatting away... so funny to listen to our little people carry on a conversation now. LOL

Okay these cupcakes were SO yummy. I almost sneaked a second. :P

This last one is Emma Jane - the kids broke into the fridge right before we left... Liz and Trev were probably looking for sweets but cutie pie Emma just went for the carrot. LOL

When It Rains It Pours...

2008-01-19T21:11:00.000-05:00

Well of course, since Jay got hurt, I got sick, and Madeline was having issues - Lizzy just couldn't be left out. Last night was Mom's Night In, Ashley brought Emery over to play with Lizzy and Linda (MIL) came over to help Jay take care of the girls while Ash and I enjoyed a mom's night out with no kiddo's in tow... Ashley ended up making dinner for Linda and Jay - so sweet - she brought meat loaf and corn over, Jay asked if we would go out more often. LOL Anyway, so Ash and I had two parties last night- the first, a baby shower for Jacquie from small group (she's due the week before me) and then we scooted over to the Mom's Night In where we all brought appetizers and got in some great conversation for a few hours. The baby shower was fun, and the MNI was a blast... but when we got home I noticed Liz was really warm - Linda had left about an hour earlier and Jay had just let the girls play and run around so we thought it might be because she'd been running so hard. I put her to bed as it was 11pm and she knocked right out... 45 minutes later she woke up screaming. I ran in and she was on fire... 103.5 tempature... I couldn't find the Tylenol (it's been a LONG time since she's needed it and I couldn't remember where we put it in the move) so Jay went to go pick up some Tylenol at midnight... he finally got back about 45 minutes later as he had to drive all around to find some place open that late at night and as soon as we gave her the meds she projectile vomitted all over her bed, pj's, hair, carpet, blanket, ect. So I had to give her a bath at almost 1:30 in the morning, she screamed and shook violently the whole time. I called the pediatrician's after hour service and the nurse told me we HAD to get Tylenol in her or else bring her into the ER if it got to 104.5... great. I pulled her out of the tub and wrapped her in a towel and rocked her for almost 2 hours until I saw the red starting to leave her face - I kept a cool towel on her forehead and that seemed to help a bit... I finally put her back to bed around 4 and then got up every 30 minutes to check on her... every time I'd walk in she'd sit right up and talk to me as if she hadn't been sleeping at all - but then I'd tuck her back in and let her sleep for 30 minutes before checking on her again... around 5:45 she woke up crying really hard so I put her in our bed (a first for her since she was about 2 weeks old) and she asked for some milk, while she was drinking I sneaked in some Tylenol and Benedryl as she was also all stuffy... she didn't throw it up this time, instead she just rolled over and fell asleep - so we all piled in our bed and knocked out until I woke up around 8:30 - Jay slept for another 2 hours and Liz slept until 11:30. I can see why some parents do the whole co-sleeping thing, there's something comforting about having your baby right next to you where you can just roll over to check their breathing and make sure they're all right... but it would never work for us on nonsick nights - not to mention I like having room to stretch out. LOL

Anyway, I kept her on tylenol all day and she seemed to be alright - her fever broke about 45 minutes after she took the first dose this morning (6'ish?) as I noticed her sweating and finally all the heat left her hands and neck... I never gave it a chance to come back today as we were pretty faithful with keeping her on the meds... SO hopefully she'll sleep better tonight - she went right to bed and seemed to be in good spirits. We shall see...

*sigh* My family needs to get better... ALL OF US!!! We're all on meds now - GEESH. All I want to do is get us all better so we can function and have a life again - it seems like all we do right now is try to rest and take medicine. I'm trying to keep this in mind: This too shall pass... I'm just hoping it passes sooner than later.

Health Update.

2008-01-17T15:04:00.000-05:00

Okay, so back from the doctor. Boy am I just a mess. LOL At least we figured out what's going on... I have a viral infection in my ears. (Basically an ear infection but not really???) I have what's called "Pregancy Congestion Illness" aka... super bad sinus infection that reaches the ears and can't be cured with anything safe for pregnant women to take. Great. So all they can do is treat the symptoms not the infection... sooooo I'm on some sort of seasickness drugs to help the neausea and diziness, and ear drops to help with "pain relief of the throat and ears" and Ambien to help me sleep. Geesh.

lol I'm in pretty good spirits though I'm really sick and tired of being sick and tired. Seriously. The last two nights in a row I've slept aproximately an hour and a half each night... and for some reason I can't nap during the day anymore, so basically I'm running on virtually no sleep during the day. I'm not supposed to drive until this thing has cleared up as I keep having dizzy spells that take away my vision and all I can see is spots...

SO. The baby has a viral infection as well... which makes no sense to me, as I thought they were surrounded in fluid anyways??? So what would a little more fluid do to her? But they said it was a residual effect and that's why she's so lethargic right now. Whatever. They're also going to be watching me closely for preclampsia as my blood pressure has gone up, I'm seeing spots and I've noticed an increase in swelling in my hands, face and legs... all warning signs - fortunately none of it is too high at the moment, so they're just going to watch me carefully and then we'll go from there.

Oh and the only cure for preclampsia? Delivering the baby. *sigh* I'll be 35 weeks on Sunday, so my next visit is next Thursday as long as the swelling and vision loss don't increase... when I go in on Thursday if my blood pressure has gone up, they might induce next week... or once again, if it all stays the same - I might be pregnant for another 5 weeks. UGHHHHHHHHH.

BUT the good news is, tonight I'm taking Ambien so I WILL be sleeping whether my body likes it or not. YAY! I need sleep... I've cried twice today over the most ridiculous things - my doctor telling me to hang in there... *bawl* and Jay telling me he was going to go pick up my meds *bawl* again... no clue why either time. Stupid hormones. I know it's also because I need rest... Jay even took Lizzy to run some errands a little bit ago but when I lay down my brain starts thinking of all the things i have to do before Madeline get's here and I'm wide awake again... Tonight I'm cutting of my liquid intake by 7 so that I can take my meds at 8 and sleep as long as my body will let me...

All in all, I'm just glad to I know what's going on... I'll watch all the symptoms carefully and call my doc if anything get's worse on the P-C stuff, and next time I post I'll hopefully have had a good nights sleep... (so please excuse any spelling errors and rambling. I blame my body for those.) ;)

My funny kiddo.

2008-01-16T10:57:00.000-05:00

Well this is a fitting post for my 100th post on this blog... it's an upbeat and positive post. I figured I need more of those in all the messes that have been going on. LOL

So here's my funny kiddo moment for the day... Lizzy was running around the house in her PJ's this morning playing with her Little People, (she's at the age where she's really into imaginative play... so cute!) Anyway, so I was sitting on my bed checking my email, just relaxing when she walks in with her hula skirt and crocs on over her pj's... she didn't realize I was sitting there so I just watched her, she walked over to my sink - looked over, nodded her head, walked back out of the room where I hear her rustling in the hall bath, she walks back in with daddy's step stool and plants it in front of the sink, steps up, grabs her toothbrush and toothpaste, flips on the water and proceeds to brush her teeth... I was dying inside - she's never done this before, usually it's a fight to get her to stand still long enough to brush all her molars but here she was just a scrubbin like a big girl. The funny part came when she had to rinse - she looked around, mouth all foamy and didn't see a cup to rinse with so she just bends over the sink and sticks her head under the faucet...

She still had no idea I was behind her so I grabbed my camera and snapped a quick picture before I finally had to bust out laughing. She quickly dried her mouth and looked over at me to see if she was in trouble, when she saw me holding out my arms she ran over and said "I hada bwush my teef mommy." It just melted my heart... I realize a little more every day how grown up she's getting... my 2 year old, brushing her teeth all by herself. *sniff*

So to update the last few days, I swear I have the best friends ever. After reading my blog one of my girlfriends called a couple other girls and they made us dinner the last two nights in a row... that was SO sweet. I appreciate being off my feet and just resting as much as possible right now and they just blessed me to tears suprising us with dinner, not once but two nights in a row! Part of me feels bad when someone reaches out like that but the other part of me is learning to be humble and say thank you. It's helped me so much... I'm not sleeping well at all right now and I'm afraid if I was to cook for my family we'd all end up in the ER with food poisening. LOL These last few meals have been a welcome change from all the fast food we've eaten lately.

Madeline is moving more, though I still worry about her constantly, she was moving enough that I didn't have to go in on Tuesday - but I go in tomorrow for my regular scheduled visit, they're going to retest my iron and take a look at her on the ultrasound again to make sure she's still breathing right and using her lungs like she should. It makes me so nervous - but I know I'm at the best hospital in the area so if anything should happen - no one could take care of my baby better than these people. Still... I'm praying hard that nothing happens and she continues to grow like she should. I've been feeling better from all the OJ and milk I've been drinking, so I'm hoping that her body is responding as good as mine. I think it is as she's given me a few good kicks and jabs the last couple days - definately a good sign. I'll update more once we get back tomorrow, but for now I'm just trying to enjoy my last few days alone with Lizzy and not fall on my butt from sheer exhaustion. I literally sleep less than about 3-4 hours a night right now - the rest of the time I'm wide awake with a ton on my mind... oh, and that's with 2 Tylenol PM - if I don't take those I'm up every hour on the hour without fail.

SO I'm definately ready to have this baby as soon as she's done bakin! I'll probably get more sleep after she arrives than I do now. haha. (Yeah, sure... lol) Life is crazy, but good. Charlie came over with her kids last night to drop off dinner and said (and I quote) "Your house looks beautiful!" I almost started crying - we still have SO much to do on this house, but to hear someone really appreciate all the hard work we've done to it lately just meant the world to me. It made me proud of my house, which is something I've not really had before - we've always been blessed, but often times we've lived in not so hot neighborhoods or tiny little peanut houses that are terrible for entertaining. Spreading out in this house has been so fun, and the neighborhood is great too so together that makes me excited to host some great parties in the coming months, be it birthday, just for fun or whatever - I love to entertain, so I can't wait to finish up these last few projects and host a big get together for all our friends who've supported us during the last month or so of craziness in our lives. :)

Anyway, that's all for now, I'm headed out to dinner with a friend tonight - just us 2 girls. I'm looking forward to a couple of hours of me time with Karen. :)

Bad morning.

2008-01-13T17:18:00.000-05:00

So I woke up this morning at 6:30 thinking I heard Elizabeth's door open, I went to stand up to go check and got really weak and dizzy so I layed back down - 20 minutes later I heard it again, so I made myself get up and go check on her. Sure enough she was waiting outside my door - we don't get up that early, so I escorted her back to bed, tucked her in and then went and layed back down. I was feeling really weak and jittery but I figured it was just low blood sugar so I let myself fall back asleep until 8:30.

Well when I woke up at 8:30 I knew something was wrong... both of my arms felt like dead weights and I thought I was going to be sick. Jay got me some OJ and I waited for about 20 minutes hoping it'd pass, but instead it got worse. I realized at this point that I hadn't felt the baby move since last night... So I called the OB on call at the hospital, he told me to eat something sugary to try and wake Madeline up, wait 20 minutes after eating - if I still hadn't felt anything he wanted me to come in just to check on her though he reassured me it was just a check and she was probably resting. I ate some Lucky Charms... no movement. Still felt sick, and very very weak. Called my dad to come get Lizzy and we headed down to the hospital. When we got there I was white as a ghost and feeling like I was going to pass out - they checked me in and hooked me up to a monitor to hear the babies heart rate... they couldn't find it. They switched machines and tried again and they finally got a faint heart beat, I was sobbing at this point, scared out of my mind that something was wrong with her - they took some blood to check my blood sugar and iron levels... all the while listening to her heart. She wasn't moving still... though her heart rate was regular, it was faint.

Anyway... Madeline has a virus they think, they asked if I'd been around anyone sick lately, and I don't think I had... they never did get her to move, but they weren't worried as they watched her on the ultrasound and said she's breathing regularly with her lungs (they like to see 30 seconds of lung movement for every 30 minutes - she did about 5 breaths but they said that's probably b/c she's not feeling well) and her heart beat is nomal, they tried and tried to wake her up and get her to use her reflexes but she never did - after almost 30 minutes on the ultrasound and over an hour and a half on the monitor they told me to go home, take it easy, drink tons of OJ - my iron was low so they put me on a perscription for that, and said count those movements.

Oh yeah, and I had a few contractions while i was there - they were mild but showed up on the monitor, and I'm a finger tip dialated... but again they weren't too worried.

Since we left she's wiggled around a bit, nothing major - but she is moving... I'm supposed to rest a lot the next few days. They said if I fight it hard with OJ and pick up my appetite (something that's dwindled over the last week or so) I'm hungry - but never eat much right now... they want me to eat 6 small meals a day and snack regularly to keep my blood sugar up and try and drink 3-4 glasses of OJ a day - hopefully I can kick this virus and neither her or I get any worse... I go back in on Thursday for my regular visit, if her movment doesn't pick up by tomorrow, I'm supposed to go back in for more tests.

UGHHHHHHH. All I want is a healthy little girl... i hate that she's sick and I can't hold her or take care of her other than drinking OJ til I pee orange. But I'm glad her heart and lungs are doing well... fluid levels were okay so that's good too. All in all they told me to pack my bags now as it's all in the air as to when she might arrive - could be as soon as tomorrow if she slows down again - or I might go another 6 weeks... fun times.

34 Weeks.

2008-01-12T10:06:00.001-05:00

UGH. I almost decided no more pics - but I know I'll want them later... so here's my ginormous belly at almot 34 weeks. I am SOOO ready to not be pregnant anymore!

Slowly Getting There

2008-01-11T16:30:00.000-05:00

Well, a wee bit more progress. We picked up the swing and cradle yesterday so now both of those are set up and looking ready for baby! We moved the other sofa in, so now that's finished as well. I think we'll be getting our kitchen cabinets next weekend... that'll be a HUGE project. We're still plugging away at the kids bathroom as Jay's back can only handle so much right now, but all the bead board is up - now we just need the corner trim and crown molding. Toilet should go back in tomorrow, so then that bathroom will be functional though not painted yet as I want to do it all in one coat when the trim/molding is up. But functional works for me.

I admit... I am SO overwhelmed right now. And not really the good kind... things are falling into place, but I just stress all the time about how much we still have to do and how much we want to get done before Maddy arrives, and how much we still need to do to the old house. UGH. I just stress too easily right now. Brooks (the electrician) is coming by tomorrow to rewire the stove (it has 1 aluminum wire and that's not up to code) so then we'll have our stove, and I think he's installing some new can lights over the showers and in the living room if he has time... it'll be pretty - but it's just one more project ya know? Whenever I start thinking about it all I just sort of freeze up. It freaks me out that we have a gazillion projects left to do... I'm tired. Just... tired. I feel huge, look huge and did I mention feel huge?

I worry about Jay constantly. I wonder when his back will act up again, if he'll ever heal completely, when and if we'll ever get back to work regularly... it's all just taking a toll on my emotions. I'm not depressed or anything, just overwhelmed.

And I'm stressing over this lunch/shower thing my mom and sister are planning for Madeline. I feel dumb, it's my second baby and it's another girl, just 2 years after the first. I love the idea of celebating Madeline... but aside from that the whole thing feels pointless and rude... idk. I guess I stress too easily these days.

So, didn't mean to make this a downer post. Just a lot on my mind these days. I can't decide how I want to organize the living room - so for now it's all jumbled up with no organization - and that's driving me mad. We're not using the kitchen right now so we're living out of the fridge with a couple bags of dry goods to get us through so we're not constantly eating out. AHHH. I'm just ready to skip past the next month and have Madeline in my arms with all the projects finished and behind us. Can I just snap my fingers and do that please?

(Still waiting...) lol

Oh well. Reading back I sound like an ungrateful brat... I'm just overwhelmed... grateful, but overwhelmed.

On a positive note, I'll take pics of the swing and cradle next chance I get and post them... they're super cute. :)

Madeline Update!

2008-01-08T22:44:00.000-05:00

So I got back from the doctor today with some interesting news... they've officially moved my due date up to February 24th! And she said chances are I'll go before then. AHHH!

Madeline is measuring at 34 weeks 4 days... so that was pretty exciting! Doctor said as long as everything goes smoothly the next few weeks she'll give me the Friday evening induction on the 22nd I was hoping for! (So Jay won't have to work all weekend and can be with me and the girls.) And I finally had my gluecose test today - just about passed out in the chair as they were taking my blood. lol I seriously got all glassy eyed and the nurse had me lean my head back - I had to lay there for a minute after she was done as everything was spotty and foggy - scared Jay - but I kept saying, "just give me a sec, this happened last time too." LOL

After some apple juice and crackers I was fine though. I swear they have got to come up with a better method of checking for gestational diabetes... making preggo's go 12 hours with no food and then spiking their sugar just to make them sit for an hour just cannot be the best way to test that. I swear that test was made up by a man. ;)

Anyways, just wanted to update! Madeline's officially A LOT closer than I originally thought! LOL I adore my doctor, she's a real sweetie... and I'm officially on weekly visits now. Sucky part about that is that I have to get the cervix check every week from here on out... NO FUN. (Especially since mine is tipped... ooooh the pain... my doctor was actually apologizing as she knew I was in some mega pain from that.)

They did a 2D ultrasound today to check fluid levels and I have one more ultrasound next week (3D!) to do one last check on Madeline. Can't wait to see what she's looking like now!

Anyway, needles and doctors aside... I realized that 5 1/2 weeks is not long at all to get the rest of our house ready for baby girl!!! I've got some work to do the next couple weeks! Yikes! Mom and Beth are planning a baby "sprinkle" for me the first week of February - not a shower as I really don't need a lot, just a fun luncheon to celebrate Madeline. I'm really looking forward to that. :) That's all for this update! Hopefully I can talk the girl into giving me some pictures at next week's 3D ultrasound so I can upload them!!!

New Location!

2008-01-05T15:24:00.000-05:00

Posting for the first time from our new house!!! Boy this has been a crazy week. Jay's continuing to feel a little better - though his back still really hurts at times, his pain meds are doing their job, MRI is in a week. We spent the week prepping the house so we could move in this weekend and spent our first night in the house last night!!! Right now we have no cable so I'm "borrowing" the internet from a neighbor and it's not all that stable, so until Comcast can come set us up in a week or so, I won't be online all that much. Hmmm... so what's new? Well our Home Group leader called us on Thursday and said "Just wanted to let you know, we cancelled group for tomorrow night, instead we're all coming to your house to help you with any projects you have left so be sure to make a list and have everything ready!" I was floored. I kept telling her over and over - y'all don't have to do that! And she replied, "I wasn't asking... I was just letting you know, have the projects ready as WE ARE COMING!" LOL She wasn't about to let us off the hook - and what a HUGE blessing that was! First the husbands showed up, our friend Brooks did all the electrical stuff we had left - outlets, hanging lights, etc - tons of projects that would have taken us days, and they were things Jay shouldn't be doing - he got them all done in half the time it would have taken us! (Brooks is a licensed electrician so he had all the right tools which made it a snap for him to do!) Then Abbies hubby Sean and Mr. Bill came over and moved a ton of furniture in the house for us - so now our sofa's, entertainment center, beds, etc are all in! Then all the wives showed up and they all grabbed paint brushes and helped me give the dining room/hall/foyer a second coat as well as attacked the trim that's been haunting me. My back starts killing me when I get down on the floor to paint the trim - so that was SO nice! The guys then finished most of the shoe molding in the dining room and the girls painted it... I attacked the second fridge with Lysol (ours has a leak in the freezer so we're using the off white one that came with the house until ours get's fixed) and cleaned it all up so we can store milk and basic stuff until our other fridge comes back. The guys also moved the stove and fridge back in the house (we had to take them out when we put in the floors)

All in all we got about 2 weeks worth of projects done in about 3 hours. Not to mention it was really fun having everyone there and chatting with all our friends. It made all the tasks fly by - things that would have taken me days on end to finish up - are all done now!!! I still can't wrap my mind around that.

All the girls loved Madline's room - and it still has a long way to go - but everyone got a kick out of her fully stocked 4 foot closet. LOL We will not be wanting for clothes for this child! Diapers, wipes and bottles maybe. I have a lot of shopping left to do in that dept. But definately not clothes. ;) Lizzy did well staying up and entertaining everyone until almost 10 last night.

She did have a hard time sleeping, the heater shut off for some reason (the whole HVAC unit is being replaced in a few weeks as this one sometimes shuts off randomly) and last night was not a good night for it to shut off - it was 36 outside and only 58 in our house - and I didn't have the space heaters here. So she woke up at midnight, one and three crying and saying she was cold. (She hasn't quite grasped the fact that you need to stay under the covers to stay warm, yet.) So I went back in every time and tucked her in, warmed her up and then sat with her until she fell back asleep - by 3:30 this morning I'd slept less than an hour straight and was EXHAUSTED. I woke up at 5 with pregancy bladder and then was up at 7 for the day. So I'm going to nap here in a little bit. I need some sleep!

It feels weird being in this house, we still have TONS of stuff to move over from the other house - storage things, christmas things, picture frames, mirrors, etc. But all the big heavy things are over so now it's just several car loads waiting for us over the next few days. It's overwhelming while we're at the old house, but feels good to be in a clean new house. Jay and his brother are attacking the beadboard this afternoon in the hall bath. It already looks SO good with the new pine floors and the little bit of beadboard they've done. I can't wait to see the finished product - I need to take some before and after pictures so y'all can see just how ugly those walls were before we finish the beadboard. LOL

Anyway... enjoying our new house - anxiously waiting Madeline's arrival! My gmail ticker finally moved to the second to last baby! Just abou 50 or so days to go until she arrives!!! I'm hoping for fewer but seeing as how Lizzy was late, I'm not counting on it. Since I'm with a doctor this time and not a midwife, they said they'd induce me the week of or before if I want... and I definately want that if they're offering! I'm hoping to schedule it for late evening so I can tuck Lizzy in at my mom's and then go to the hospital around 8'ish, labor all night, deliver some time in the early morning and have all day to enjoy visitors and such - then pass her off to the nursery so I can get one last good nights sleep before she's all mine to take care of! hahaha... wishful thinking? Probably. But I'll see if I can't swing it. It sure would make things a lot easier that way. It's funny when people ask me when i'm due and I can now say, next month! Love that!!! (Of course saying "any day now" will be great too)

Our French doors go in on Monday... hopefully in the next week or so we can start on the new kitchen cabinets. We'll see, gotta wait until Jay goes back to work and we start making money again before we'll be buying all those. Either way - we're here! And I'm loving it! :D

Stolen Meme 2008.

2008-01-02T16:51:00.001-05:00

1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before? Refurb'd a house. Got pregnant with a second child.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Become a better wife and mommy... i'd like to think that i made some small progress in that area - but along with losing all my baby weight - I'm adding in the same one again.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Krystyna had Anya, Ashley had Emery, many of my new mom buddies had kiddos this year, including the newest baby Connor was born to Erica and Chris last month!

4. Did anyone close to you die? No. It was a year full of life and living for all.

5. What countries did you visit? None. Unless you count Epcot.

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Nothing really spectacular happened this year on any one day - it was more of a generally good year.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Moving... then repacking and moving again while pregnant(the latter part isn't quite complete yet however)

9. What was your biggest failure? Not being a better housewife... I still suck at that.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Not unless you count morning sickness.

11. What was the best thing you bought? I'm pretty excited about our new house and all the fun things that are going inside!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Watching my husband grown into the man he was meant to be has been pretty amazing. My how a year can bring about such signifigant change.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Meh. Other than my FIL who is a constant embarassement to our last name - no one really.

14. Where did most of your money go? Hmmm buying a house, fixing up a house, buying a new house, fixing up the new house, getting pregnant, buying a new car, - gosh no wonder our savings isn't looking too hot. LOL

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Madeline!!!! And being all moved into our new house... and Christmas. :D

16. What song will always remind you of 2007? Rodolph the Red Nose Reindeer... Lizzy's favorite song of the moment and she knows all the hand motions - that will stay with me forever!

17. Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder? More confidant - and happier I suppose... though I'm pretty over being pregnant at the moment.

18. Thinner or fatter? Uh.... last year i was the smallest I'd been since high school - this year I'm back up to the biggest I'd ever been - so definately fatter. HUUUUUUUGE in fact. LOL

19. Richer or poorer? Definately poorer - that's what happens when you buy 2 houses in one year - espcially when you have a knack for picking fixer upper's. *bangshead*

20. What do you wish you'd done more of? Organizing - I wouldn't have such a giant project on my hands if I'd have kept everything neater from the begining.

21. What do you wish you'd done less of? Eating out.

22. How will you be spending Christmas? I spent 07 with a head cold - I'm hoping 08 goes better as I'll have two girls to spoil with presents and fun! :D

23. Did you fall in love in 2007? With the heartbeat of my second child... absolutely.... and more and more every day with my husband.

24. Any one night stands? LMAO at K's response... I'll copy hers - I've been meaning to buy new night stands for our room and Lizzy's room - I need to get on that. LOL

25. What was your favorite TV program? Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy.

26. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Nope.

27. What was the best book you read? The Christmas Pearl. Good but too short.

28. What was your greatest musical discovery? The radio. Seriously. I'd been slack with the radio the last few years - I've quite enjoyed it this last year. :)

29. What did you want and get? Pregnant! (Although once again... I'm ready to pass the torch on to someone else at this point and just have my baby. LOL)

30. What did you want and not get? What I asked for on Valentine's day and my birthday, and our anniversary last year - maybe for this Valentine's Day... (it's not to his lack of memory or for not trying, it's just kinda expensive so we haven't had the money up to now - I'm keeping my fingers crossed... I'll let y'all know what it is when I get it.) :D

31. What was your favorite film of this year? No clue. We didn't see many at all this year.

32. What did you do on your birthday? I can't remember... nothing too big obviously. LOL

33. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? It was a pretty satisfying year... I can't think of any one thing that would have made it Immeasurably more satisfying. Maybe winning the lottery? LOL Idk....

34. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007? Classic me combined with no more zippers for the last half of the year. (I'm not exactly Mrs. Fashion. I'm definately more in the world of "classic" over modern.)

35. What kept you sane? Knowing Madeline will be here in less than 2 months!!!! :D

36. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Captain Jack is my favorite hottie.

37. What political issue stirred you the most? Hilary Clinton. What a royal PITA.

38. Who did you miss? My grams. I haven't seen her in way too long... I miss her all the time.

39. Who was the best new person you met? I met lots of amazing people this year!

40. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007: God really can do anything. And he can handle all my problems... often times with way better results than I could ever imagine. All I have to do is hand them to Him. Which is hard for me... but when I give it over to Him - things have a way of working themselves out in no time.

Little Better...

2008-01-02T16:16:00.000-05:00

Well Jay's making progress. He's semi mobile now, we went in this morning to the doctor, they put him on 3 MORE different meds, so now he's up to 5 pills every 6 hours. Crazy. But they're working, as he's not been in near as much paint. However the downside of him not being in as much pain is that he thinks he can do too much. Currently he's at the new house painting our new doors, this morning he installed a new light in the m/bath and ripped off the countertops so we can replace them this evening when my brother comes over to help carry in the heavy new one. Adding to that list he's given the hall bath 3 coats of polyeurothane today so far (2 more to go before we're finished) and worked on the dining/foyer/kitchen floors as we have to go over the whole thing with mineral oil b/c there's lots of little glue spots left over from where we glued the floors down. Think he's overdoing it a bit? Considering he still can barely walk? *sigh*

I'm just hoping we don't have to go back to the ER any time soon. That was awful watching him go through all that pain. His pain killers are certainly helping in that deptartment...

Anyway. In addition to all that craziness, I semi set up the nursery - or at least the crib and changing table - wait until I post pics of Madelines new closet. LOL It's hilarious... and full. I've got it all in order though so I'll have a good idea of what I still need. Right now I really need socks (I didn't save any of Lizzy's as she wore them all out as she grew), sleepers (i have a couple from Liz but she wore those winter sleep sacks most of the time as it was cold by the time she fit into sleepers well), diapers (I have one tiny pack of newborn diapers - that ought to get me through about 2 days. LOL), wipes (no wipes yet) and I need to make her bumper for the crib, recover the glider and make the curtain over her window - those are late January/early February projects. But it'll get done eventually. Lizzy's room is pretty unfinished at this point... it's painted with new outlets and blinds, the closet shelves are up but no closet doors and nothing on the walls yet - I'm leaving the decorating until after we move in. I wanted to have it done before but I'm just too pooped right now. We're hoping to spend our first night in the new house this Saturday night! Once the hall bath floors dry for 72 hours we can put up the beadboard and it'll be ready to move in!

We decided to replace ALL the cabinets/countertops in the kitchen as they're just too nasty to paint and use in their current condition - so it'll be paper plates and plastic spoons for a month or so until the kitchen is finished - hopefully not too long though. It's an expensive project but will really make the kitchen stand out when it's finished.

ANNNYWAYS! Doctors apt. for me next week, more blood work and a tour of the hospital on the 10th! I can't wait! It's feeling closer and closer as each day goes by! I need to get Lizzy on film saying Madeline. It's so precious... she half butchers the name and it ends up sounding a bit French.... lol it's so sweet. So that's that. Jay has to go back in 10 days for an MRI on his back, the xrays showed 2 slipped disks but the inflamation is going down which was the main cause of his pain. He can visit the chiropractor for a quick fix for the disks - surgery is still in the future but the MRI will tell us how soon we have to go that route... I'm hoping not until at least summertime so Madeline will be sleeping through the night and it won't be such a big deal to take off 3 or 4 weeks of work. I'll update more as we know more.

When Crap Happens.

2007-12-30T15:35:00.000-05:00

Well crap. Bad news ahead.

My hubby got hurt yesterday - we spent last night in the ER as he can't walk or even stand up right now. After dozens of x'rays they found that he strained/sprained his back and has 2 slipped disks that he will most likely have to have surgery on. He's on a ton of pain meds and will be out of work for at least a week. (not good as we're self employed... no work - no pay for us) so just keep us in your thoughts and prayers please - if he ends up needing surgery soon I may end up getting a job - and at nearly 8 months preggo we all know how hard that will be.

I'm so overwhelmed right now, just trying to take it one day at a time. We won't know much more until Wednesday as to the surgery and if it'll be right away or in a few months/year or so. I'm scared for him, he's such a "mans man" Mr. I can do it myself... it's hard seeing him struggle through this. They discharged him from the hospital with orders to not get off the sofa or do anything to strain himself whatsoever in the next 48 hours. He can crawl and walk hunched over - but he can't stand up or walk normally. Poor guy is really struggling with this.

Lizzy doesn't understand why daddy can't play and rough house with her, so I've had to keep her away from him a good bit - which is all the worse for him. He hates not being with us... MIL watched Liz for us for awhile and I just spent time talking and sitting with him today. *sigh* He's staying at my MIL's right now in case something spasms again and he has to go back to the ER - that way his brothers can help load him up into a car and get him there... as there's just no way I could help get a 200+lb man into a car right now. That part stinks too - I'm not with him or able to take care of him as much as I want...

To top it all off, I rolled down the windows in my car yesterday and the back window got stuck... in the rain - so fun. *rollseyes* It just couldn't have gotten stuck any other freakin day when Jay would be able to fix it... so I had to use an umbrella last night sticking out of the window to keep water off the back seats - then today when I was taking Liz home to nap... there was a yellow jacket in the car. Fun fun times. (I'm terrified of bees)

AHHHHHHHHHH *&$*#!#$!@*&^!*&@^!!!!!!!!

Okay, I feel better. lol Jay thinks this is Gods way of telling him to slow down... he said he knew he shouldn't have been working so hard - pulling 50+ hour weeks in the tree business and then going straight over to the new house every night until 11 or later was taking its toll - but he just kept on pushing himself.... and now we have about 4 or 5 big projects left to do before we could move in... and we're at a standstill.

Anyway... sorry - just needed to vent and get that all off my chest. We'll figure it out, I know God will provide for us, he always has before... it's just tough when we're in the middle of the crappy times.

But a friend once told me the only way to get to the otherside of a crappy situation is to keep walking forward and not stop.

I'm hoping and praying that Madeline stays put until her due date - I was hoping she'd get here early but now I realize, life is much simpler while pregnant with a toddler than with a newborn and a toddler and a hubby who's injured. I'll definately take the aches and pains and have her stay put awhile longer...

I'll update more as the doctors give us info... for now, I'm tired. Jay's hurting. Lizzy's napping and Maddy's doing loop de loops. Prayers needed.

Christmas Update:

2007-12-27T14:15:00.000-05:00

Well goodness, Christmas is long gone but we all had a wonderful time and ate way too much. LOL Christmas Eve service was wonderful, our worship team was just fantastic. They really made it an evening to remember... after church we went to Linda's (MIL's) for Christmas Eve Dinner of pot roast with all kinds of goodies on the side. After that we went home and I passed out early leaving Jay to ready the tree for the morning since I was sooooo exhausted. As of Christmas Eve my cold had moved onto a nasty sinus infection - fun fun times... so I slept little that night and was wide awake by 6 am... however my husband and daughter slept until 8:30 - well... actually i woke both of them up at 8:30 because I was bored and wanted to get on with our day. LOL My sleepy kiddo would have gladly slept another hour...

Morning Liz! :D (I'm so rotten!) Anyway, once awake she was thrilled to dig into the big pile of presents, she just *had* to be the one to hand them all out, we got a good kick out of this... "Who dis one for mommy?" LOL And she got stuck on every single present for a LONG time. It was hilarious... the smallest of books would have to be gone through before she could move on to another present, every toy had to be taken out of the box and played with before another gift could be opened... it had us in stitches and also made Christmas last for quite awhile.

Jay and I got each other some much needed clothes (thank goodness Motherhood was running a few sales before christmas!) along with a few "fun" things, and we all enjoyed our overstuffed stockings as well. This is her "Cheese" face... Anyway, fast forward a bit... while we were opening presents, my Cream Cheese Breakfast Casserole was in the oven and making the house smell heavenly. We hauled our breakfast over to my MIL's house where between 5 adults we polished off a 9x13 pan of the casserole in no time, before digging into our second Christmas of the morning. Lizzy was spoiled rotten by her grammy this year, receiving some VERY cute clothes from the Carters store, as well as a Leap Frog learning pad with a few books, a 9 foot tunnel to play outside with daddy, lots of games and books and smaller toys too, AND a Disney Princess Trunk of dress up clothes... good gracious! Jay and I got more clothes and a wonderful gift card to Target with the instructions to go purchase the girls new bathroom accessories. (SO FUN! I had a blast picking it all out last night... ) Anyway, Christmas at Linda's was great fun, Ashley and Emery came over to have lunch with us since Seth had to work all day.... poor guy. We had a huge ham with all the fixins ;) and lots of fun. After lunch we went home and napped and then woke up and went over to my mama's house. Mom and Daddy spoiled Lizzy rotten as well, Liz got a new Baby Alive doll that coo's, cries, eats, pees, poo's, giggles, sucks a bottle, etc. She's really cute. They got her a stroller, some diapers, clothes, etc to go with the new baby...

Lizzy has had SO much fun the last few days walking "baby Abby" (that's what Liz named her) around the house in her stroller, changing her diaper - every 5 seconds, and feeding her a bottle whenever she cries. It's super cute and she's learning how to hold the baby gently, burp the baby after she drinks, etc. I'm hoping this will all help gear her up for Madeline's arrival. Mama got Lizzy a ton of clothes, leap frog toys, art things etc, and got me yet MORE maternity clothes (I'm set now with lots of winter clothes!) as well as a ton of things for Madeline. Mom made Beth and I baby boxes full of diapers, wipes, paci's, bottles, toys, clothes, socks, lotions, bottle cleaners etc etc... it was SO much fun going through all the fun new baby things - and I just had to open the newborn diapers up - and ooooooh how I'd forgotten how tiny they are! It put tears in my eyes seeing those tiny little things and knowing those first few days, those diapers are actually BIG on the baby! Mom also got me the crib blanket to match Madeline's nursery. SO cute. And a fun splurge - I was planning on buying that really soon as it's quite adorable, but now I have my blanket. AND she got me the matching diaper bag!!! Brown and Pink polka dots with pink and brown toile as well. Soooo adorable!
So it was a wonderful Christmas... we all enjoyed our day and everyone was blessed with TONS of new things. More importantly though... it was really special being pregnant over Christmas Day... it was a great reminder of what a special gift I have inside of me, and how amazing Mary of so long ago was to give birth in a stable to Jesus... I can't image the thoughts and feelings of travleling on a donkey in my 9th month of pregnancy... I can't help but wonder what was going through her mind when everyone turned them away with no room in the inn's... and yet she gave birth to Jesus - right there in the middle of a barn... no bed... no drugs... no mom around to help, just her and her unexperienced husband. So scary, and yet so amazing. The birth of Christ really came to life for me this year... which gave the holidays true meaning and made it quite special to be pregnant over such an important day.

Anyways, since Christmas Day, I've exchanged a few things that didn't fit Jay or I, picked up my new bathroom set for the girls room. Here's a picture of the line we went with (from Target's website) we added lavender towels and a huge lavender bath rug for the floor:

All in all, our goal is to try to move in on Monday and Tuesday - hopefully completing the rest of the house rennovations by Sunday night... I went over today and hung 3 blinds. Not a huge deal I know, but anything I can do to help makes me feel like I'm pitching in. (And hanging blinds is TOUGH!) LOL Easy enough for Jay but it took me awhile to get used to the drill, not to mention Lizzy was busy holding on to my legs and begging me to pick her up the whole time - so on the whole, I think 3 blinds was actually quite good. hahaha. Lots of little projects left to do, and still a couple big ones... (beadboard both bathrooms, install new sinks and countertops, finish the pine floors in both baths, and finish "refinishing" the kitchen cabinets... aka... sand, paint, sand paint and paint some more until they look new again.) Not so huge that we can't do it, but it'll definately take awhile considering Jay's got work booked up through Saturday during the day - so it means lots of long nights while we finish all this up. But we're getting there... and by next week this time hopefully I'll be updating from our new house. :) That's all for now!

Christmas Eve!

2007-12-24T14:32:00.000-05:00

So, it's 2:30 and we've already had a fun filled day! We woke up this morning and all cuddled together on the couch (it was in the 40's outside! And not much warmer inside! LOL) So we huddled under a blanket and all watched Evan Almighty together. Cute movie, and Liz loved the animals. Then we went over to mama's house for our Christmas Eve party. Mom had a chocolate fondue fountain - YUMMO - and cheese fondue along with tons of little appetizers. Wow that was good... then daddy read Luke 2:1-20 - our Christmas Eve tradition and then we opened all the kids gifts to each other. It was a great time. Everyone bought Madeline presents this year - that was super special. She got baby toys, some receiving blankets to match her new room, and an adorable hat to wear home from the hospital! Lizzy got an Aquadoodle for the bathtub, 2 My Little Ponies, a Little People Opposites book, and Christmas PJ's from Nanie. (Tomorrow we'll open all of Nanies gifts to the girls, but for today it was just sibling gifts.) I got a new maternity shirt, a gift card to O'Charlie's for dinner, a wallet and some new Christmas PJ's. LOL Love that Christmas Eve tradition!

Now we're home so Liz can nap - our Christmas Eve service is tonight at 5 and then we're having dinner at Linda's afterwards. Then tomorrow's the big day! :) I'm *finally* getting into the Christmas mood! Took me long enough!

I've got a head cold that's driving me nuts, and the moved Suedophed to the class C list so it's not really safe to take anymore - so I'm pushing through with as little meds as possible... I hope this clears up soon, I hate feeling yucky during all the festivities. Anyway, I'm off to nap - I did get Jay to take a pic of my belly this morning - so here's my 30 weeks shot: (not sure why it's so grainy though)

Anyway, that's all for now... Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Almost Christmas!

2007-12-22T10:35:00.000-05:00

So amidst all the craziness of this house... there's also a very special holiday approaching that I'm *finally* finished shopping for! LOL I did more than I said I would... I always do that... I'd been collecting things for Lizzy's stocking for quite awhile now - and when I finally sat down to see if I needed anything else to top it off, I realized - I could have filled up 3 stockings for her. LOL I have a huge bag of stocking stuffers left over. Since we're refinishing her new desk, I bought her lots of art things - crayons, washable markers, chalk, colored pencils, construction paper, coloring books, washable paints, etc. And a couple organizers to keep it all neat in her desk! I'm so excited to see her sitting there making art. LOL So cute! Aside from that I filled Jay and Lizzy's stockings to the top - with no room left for so much as a candy cane. I just love stockings! :D My favorite part of the gift giving process... fun to shop for, fun to stuff, and fun to open! LOL

On top of all that, I picked up the last of my holiday baking/cooking things this morning. I'm making a cream cheese breakfast casserole on Christmas Eve so all I have to do is pop it in the oven on Christmas morning... suuuuper yummy! And then, since we're having dinner at my MIL's on Christmas day instead of my mama's... I figured I'd bring a few of my favorite Christmas Dinner dishes along so it still felt like home for me too. So I'm making a sweet creamed corn casserole and Waldorf Salad. *lickin my lips already* Yay! I do need to go pick up some seedless red grapes from Publix - they were all out at Walmart this morning. And boy was that place crazy - stupid me for waiting until the Saturday before Christmas to finish up my shoppng - but oh well... they had tons of people stocking shelves, and 3x's that many people loading up their carts just as fast - there were several things I got nearly the last item of, off the shelf. It was just nuts! The line wasn't too long - fortunately they had almost every aisle open instead of their usual 3. So I was only 2 back and made it through the line in under 20 minutes.

Last night was our annual Oyster Roast. It was super fun. Grandma and Grandaddy Clemmons got Liz, Jay and I EACH a $25 gift card to Walmart... so my $100 shopping list this morning only cost me $25. :D Gotta love that! I stocked up on milk and OJ too so we won't have to go back until after Christmas. Now we can focus more on getting the bathrooms and kitchen finished so we can move in next weekend! I can't even begin to believe we're moving already... I've yet to pack almost anything. I guess it'll be one car/truck load after another until the house is empty.

Anyway, back to the Oyster Roast - G&G Clemmons celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, so we all sang to them and smiled as Grandaddy showed an uncommon kindess to grandma all night. (Usually he's an old codger to his saintly wife.) But last night was a special treat for all of us. Aunt Marianne made it a Hawaiian Christmas (having just got back from Hawaii) so we played a big gift exchange game where everyone went home with something from Hawaii - Lizzy ended up with a Hula Rag doll, I ended up with a Hawaiian calander and a set of oven mits, dish towels etc with sea turtles on them, and Jay found himself with two necklaces - one of a turtle and the other a fish hook made from the bone of some exotic animal whose name escapes me at the moment. All in all it was good fun for everyone. We all came home stuffed to the brim (though I didn't have a single oyster *sad*) I managed to fill up on grapes, veggies, summer sausage, and punch. LOL Jay's dad was a weirdo last night... telling me how "beautiful you are when you're pregnant." *shivers* He creeps me out. Bryan seemed to be doing alright considering Ashley's out of the picture now. He has his bad days but seems to be managing - that stupid girl keeps screwing with the family which is really starting to tick me off - but I'm trying to stay out of it all as much as I can. We spent way too much on Bryan this year - but I figure since he just came out of a breakup, we'll help make up for what he'll be missing on Christmas morning. :)

All in all I found some huge deals this week... I got my whole family shopped for and finished up and managed to stay under budget! So fun! I'll post the list just so I have this to look back on - for those who read my blogs - skip ahead as this will be boring. LOL

Daddy~ Lizzy picked out some tools from Lowes... actually, she grabbed this big gift set right off the shelf and said "Pawpaw!!!!" very loudly. LOL I took that as a sign, they were in our budget and it's a nice set so that's what we got pawpaw.
Mama~ I found a really pretty sweater the day after Thanksgiving for her, then topped it off with some bath salts and lip balm.
Beth~ Super cute maternity shirt, bath salts and lip balm (different scent from mama's.)
Jamie~ Hess gas card. He's in college.... mom said he could really use it. LOL
Caleb~ Black and Grey striped thermal knit shirt with a white belt with big X's on it. Hard to explain but it looked like him.
Linda~ A Tempurpedic pillow (she asked for this) and a Tupperware Pot that you use in the mircrowave to make cakes or just store things in... I went to a tupperware party and got one for myself and one for her. LOL She's like me, I know she'll get a kick out of making a cake in the microwave in 8 minutes. LOL
Bryan~ A cologne gift set. (The boys love their cologne) A Button up Shirt and a Pullover to match it.
Chris~ A cologne gift set. (Different set than Bryan) A book on Architecture and a book on Wood Working. (His career, and his hobby)
Grandma and Grandaddy C~ Dinner at their Cary Hilliards (their favorite restaurant)

And then everything else for my family we've already given out at previous parties...

Jay and Lizzy are going to have great Christmas's this year. There's lots of great things under the tree for both of them and I have a feeling my hubby will spoil me as well... he always does - even though we said to take it easy on Christmas... I know him well. LOL

Lizzy's stocking included: bubble bath, bath markers, a princess mirror and chapstick set, new sippy cups, toothbrush, toothpaste, flash cards (for colors and numbers) crayons, markers, chalk, candy necklace, candycane filled with smarties (her favorite) and I can't remember what else - but there's more stuffed in there. LOL

Jay's stocking includes: 3 pairs of socks for his birk slides, some boxers, a new razor, candy, 3 kinds of cologne, toothbrush, and I can't remember what else in his either. LOL

Anywho this is mostly it... It's been fun shopping for people I love. And I since I managed to get so many amazing deals on things, we still have enough left to work on the house this weekend. I'm headed to Lowes in a few minutes to pick up some high gloss white paint to finish painting Lizzy's new desk, and also the kitchen cabinets need a fresh coat. Jay's going to try to get all the sub floors laid in the bathrooms today. We found a KILLER deal on Craigslist for flooring - a lady in downtown charleston had just refinished her dining room with wide plank natural pine flooring and had 100 sq. feet left over... she was selling all 100 sq. feet for $25. Yep - it's $7 a square foot at Lowes. So this was a HUGE Deal. Granted now we have to do more work than just laying a new floor, as they have to be sanded and stained and then sealed since it's in bathrooms - but they'll be gorgeous when they're finished. And Jay was thrilled to get them - so that's what we'll be working on tomorrow hopefully, getting them laid and sanded and maybe the first coat of stain. We'll see. Jay woke up with a sinus cold this morning... poor guy feels miserable, but he took some cold meds and wants to go work on the house rather than lay around all day... so we may not get a lot done since he's kinda out of it - but that's okay... we've been working our tails off, we'll just do the best we can and move in whenever it all get's finished. :) No worries.

I can't believe Christmas is almost here! OH OH OH!!! AND We got our new insurance which covers EVERYTHING. So Madeline is officially 100% covered for all the hospital bills... which means we can go to MUSC after all! I really wanted too, but it's more expensive than other hospitals in the area so unless the insurance came through we weren't going to go that route... so that's very exciting. I can't wait to take the "tour" sometime after the new year. It'll be really neat getting to deliver in this amazing hospital!

So if anyone other than myself managed to read through this whole thing, Thanks! and Merry Christmas to you!

Flooring.

2007-12-18T23:34:00.000-05:00

Well, we finally finished the floors! The carpet is in, and it is GORGEOUS!!!! And the hardwood is done... it almost put tears in my eyes - (stupid, I know) but it just made me SO excited! We've always had laminate - or in this current house refinished hardwood but it was never very pretty, this was rustic... however our new floors are nothing short of beautiful. I'm in love! LOL I spent the evening sitting in each room imagining how I'm going to arrange all the furniture. I decided to switch Maddy's and Lizzy's rooms for now. I was going to give Liz the bigger room - but since we're using part of the nursery as a play room for the next long while, I realized that's silly as all Lizzy will have in her room is a bed, dresser and desk. All of that will easily fit in the smaller of the two rooms - with room to spare... while the nursery/play room will house a crib, glider, dresser, toy chest, kitchen, bookshelf, etc. Definately needs to be the bigger room.

Anyway, I worked out how I want my living room - and we're getting very close to the final run to Lowes for one last major load and then we'll have everything we need to move in!!!!

So anyway, the carpet people did an amazing job - they stayed all day and did it perfectly. I can't wait to take my vacuum and mop over tomorrow afternoon and make those floors sparkle! Right now the carpet has lots of fuzzy stuff and the wood floors look great, but have glue bits and dust on them from all the cutting and such. Just wanted to update - the new flooring has made this house look brand new. SO FUN!

Little Update!

2007-12-18T17:55:00.000-05:00

Well after much looking, bargaining, looking some more, pricing everything under the sun, calling contractors and basically spending way too much time on it... the French Doors have FINALLY been ordered! :D Today is the 18th - they said they average 18 days to come in - putting us well past the new year before installation - but there's a very very *slim* chance that the doors may come in before the warehouse closes for Christmas week... if that's the case, we'll have them before New Years! *Crossing my fingers and praying hard* I hope they come in soon - I'd hate to be living in the house with the back door as it is as there's a broken panel in it so it's super drafty, and just plain ugly. LOL

The reason we did so much leg work on this is because those doors are EXPENSIVE. I was bound and determined to get a better deal than anyone was offering us, and in the end, I did. From Lowes none the less! It's still way more than Jay or I would have ever paid - but since the previous owners agreed to pay for a new door, I wanted to find them the best price. And now I'm confidant that I have - and the doors are paid for, ordered and should be shipped soon! I can't *wait* to see them! :D

Here's a pic of the one's we ordered...

Getting There!

2007-12-18T12:53:00.000-05:00

Okay, I know these updates are getting old - but I like to be able to look back and see how far we've come over the last week, and this helps me keep my sanity about the whole thing. LOL

Yesterday was a loooooong day - for the guys anyways... it was hardwood floor day and they started at 3 in the afternoon and didn't get home until 1 in the morning!!! AND it's not done yet... SHEESH. It's almost done though - they ran out of glue so they had to stop or they would have stayed all night! CRAZY BOYS. Anyways, what the do have done looks amazing - it's really really beautiful, I can't wait to see it all cleaned up!

As for today... the carpet guys showed up bright and early so they're hard at work right now putting in our carpet. Super thrilled about that! This means that from now on I don't have to drop Lizzy off at anyone's house! :D lol It's now safe for her to come inside while we work and play with her toys/books/etc. again! Yay!

So we decided not to get the table and chairs for her for Christmas after all... because... the people who previously owned the house left this really beautiful desk that will be perfect for Liz... I'm going to repaint it and put on some cute knobs and we'll get her a cute chair to match - it'll be perfect for her room. We're going to take the legs off of it so that it sets about 7 inches lower, which will be the perfect height for a toddler to sit and color or whatever she wants to do - which also gives me more stocking ideas, I'm going to add in lots of artsy stuff so we can fill her desk with fun things for her to play with! SOOO exciting!

AND I found the chandelier that I want for the dining room - at Lowes today! LOL Weird place to find a chandelier I know, but it's wrought iron and very elegant, but not overly huge - and it's on sale. Gotta love that. :D Now that the carpet is in the house we can get to work on the bathrooms and kitchen this week and weekend and then we'll be ready to move in! I cannot believe how fast this all went... or how hard we've been working! LOL But it's finally all coming together. We're hoping to have a New Years party at our new house if we can get all moved in and the boxes all put up in time. :) We shall see... I'm not pushing it.

The backdoor won't be installed until probably after the first of the year as it's a custom order so they said it'd be a couple more weeks. Bummer on that as the current back door is drafty and ugly - but I can always hang curtains in front of it until we get the new one so it doesn't uglify our house. LOL

OOOOOOH and today was Lizzy's Christmas Pagent. Crack. Me. Up. They dressed the kids up in heather brown sweats with reindeer antlers and a fuzzy cotten tail - then they sang 3 songs up on stage - (well the other kids did... Lizzy preffered to dance with the banister leading up the steps to the stage - she seriously just goofed off the whole time, but then again - none of the 2 year olds sang. LOL They mixed them with the 3's and a couple of the 3's sang but for the most part all the kids just stood there with blank expressions on their faces.) SO Cute. None of my pictures turned out great because the church had bad lighting - but I got a few moments on video - not that it's interesting at all, unless you count seeing my kids backside a good video. haha

The baskets I made for the teachers came out beautiful. I wish I'd have gotten a picture of them... all the parents chipped in $10 (8 kids) so we were able to get both the teacher and the assistant a $40 gift card to California Dreaming (a great restaurant on the water in Charleston) and then one of the other mom's and I bought and filled up baskets for the teachers. We put in Christmasy dish towels, a jar candle, christmas ornaments, some soaps, a mug, some hot chocolate along with the gift cards and then placed it all in pretty baskets. It really turned out pretty... the teachers were floored and I was pleased that we were able to do a "big" gift instead of all of us doing our own little things... they ended up with something really nice. So that was fun. Liz is officially on Christmas break! She wore her Christmas dress to school today - along with all the other little girls... they all looked so pretty and festive! One of the little boys (Cole) had on a reindeer sweater - TOOO Cute! All in all It's barely 1 pm and I'm already pooped. LOL It's been a busy couple of days - but we've gotten a lot done and it feels good.

Tomorrow I'm going to attack the rest of my Christmas shopping - I cannot believe it's less than a week away and I have practically NOBODY finished! Seriously. It's sort of sad actually. lol But I'm hoping to knock out a big portion of it tomorrow. :)

So that's it for now, i think I'll try to catch a nap before Liz wakes up and we head over to see the new carpet! :D

Feelin good. :D

2007-12-16T23:57:00.000-05:00

We got SOOOO much done today! We skipped church... (but we're watching the online sermon tomorrow so it's all good.) and went straight over to the house this morning. And boy did we get A LOT done today. I worked on the trim while Jay finished replacing all the new subflooring... then I went home and napped Liz, while Jay stayed and painted the M/Bedroom ceiling. (Looks AWESOME) then we all went over to Rae's house for Grey's 1st birthday party - he's such a cutie pie! It was great getting to spend some time with everyone - we chatted, ate and played beat the hell out of Elmo... aka, Elmo the pinata... Liz was so confused. "Take a hit at Elmo" She turned around and gave us the hairy eye. LOL Poor kids... today they learned that Elmo is stuffed with raisins and little bottles of bubbles... and that it's okay to hit our favorite Sesame Street Star... just in time for Sesame Street to come to Charleston next week. hahahahaha... I can see it now... Lizzy walking up to elmo and sucker punching him expecting bubbles and sweets to fall out of his back hatch. It was a great time... truly hilarious watching the kids get so puzzled over being allowed to hit something with a stick!

Anyway, after we left we dropped Liz off at mom's house around 6 and then went straight back over to our new house. Jay got to work on painting the vaulted ceilings in the living room, Chris came over and painted all 3 bedroom closets and I got to work on all the trim and the floor in the dining room. All in all we finally left about 11:30, feeling like we FINALLY got something done! It was wonderful.

Tomorrow I have a doctors apt in the morning and then the guys are putting in the hardwood floors tomorrow afternoon while I paint the rest of the subfloors to seal it all off - then carpet goes in on Tuesday! :D YAY!

After that we can attack the kitchen and finish up the cabinets and countertops, then the hall and m/bathrooms but that's not too bad as that's all we have left! So today felt really really good. Like we might actually make this work! LOL Let's all keep our fingers crossed that business stays busy so we can afford to do the rest of this stuff before we move in and not afterwards. ;)

It's 31 degree's outside... and after midnight... so I'm off to bed, sore as anything but happy that we managed to accomplish so much today.

Pooped.

2007-12-15T22:57:00.000-05:00

Well, Jay got tired and came home around 8. (Liz and I came back at 7) But since we'd barely touched my list of things to do today - I drove back to the new house by myself and painted the m/bedroom. It took me a little over 2 hours and I am SORE as crap but at least it's done. I made a list of things we need to get done tomorrow - and there is just no way it's going to happen. Oh well... we're doing the best we can.

Anyway... I'm sore and pooped... but at least I got something done. :) Now I'm sitting at home sipping my apple juice slushi from Sonic. Gosh I am addicted to slushies right now. LOL It's a good craving as far as cravings go - at least it's not donuts again like last time. I'm still under 30 lbs total weight gain so far! (With Liz I'd gained nearly 50 by now) So that's nice, I'm still in all my Mediums - the larges are swimming on me. That feels great. I feel SO huge but at least I know I'm not as big as I was last time around. LOL

Confusion...

2007-12-15T16:05:00.000-05:00

Well, I got Madeline's room is finished. Ashley came over and helped with the second coat. Today I planned on getting a million things done... but I forgot, I had to go to Beth's graduation and then we had Grey's birthday party... except, I just realized that Grey's party is tomorrow. *sigh* I hate preggo brain. It's ridiculous. I rushed home from the graduation, woke Lizzy up early, put her in a dress, got her in the car and then looked up directions online... and realized it's not until tomorrow. UGH. Jay threw on some work clothes and went back to the house for an hour... this is just getting stupid at this point. I cannot believe I'm confusing EVERYTHING right now. Stupid stupid stupid preggo brain.

I don't think we're going to be able to get everything done before Tuesday morning... we have SO much to do and SO little time to do it. Darn it. AND it didn't help that I woke up with bad cramps this morning... I guess it was my body saying slow down, but I actually thought I might be going into labor for awhile there... it was like Madeline was tring to claw her way out. So Jay wouldn't let me paint today. UGH That's just one more thing to do tomorrow...

Anyway, enough with the negative stuff... I know in a few more days we'll get it all figured out... I just hope we manage to get most of it done before the carpet goes in otherwise it's going to be a MAJOR pain finishing up the painting with carpet in the house.

So that's that. Just venting a little. I'm so tired all the time right now - and finding a place for Lizzy while we work has been tough... all in all between me not being able to do as much as I'd like, and having a toddler in tow - poor Jay is doing almost all of this on his own. Well, I better load my kid up and go over there and see if I can at least hand him tools or something, lol makes me feel useful. ;)

Baby Stuff...

2007-12-13T07:46:00.000-05:00

Let me just tell you, that while I thought baby 2 would have less in the way of new things (especially considering we just did all this 2 years ago) I was wrong... oooooh so wrong. LOL A friend of mine who has a 4 month old daughter handed me a trash bag yesterday with TONS of new baby clothes in it. (And I don't mean a small trash bag, I mean one of those giant - I really shouldn't be lifting it - black trash bags.) And it was stuffed to the brim with newborn gowns, bibs, burp cloths, onsies, sleepers, adorable outfits, summer dresses, hats... and on and on and on! Much of it was new still with tags on it! WOW This was her last baby and her only girl, so everything was in pristine condition that had been used... not a single stain on anything...

And what's more, at the Christmas party the other night, Aunt Jill and Grandma Harsh bought Madeline tons of new girl clothes as well! I have SO many things in her closet now... and I haven't even pulled out a single box of Lizzy's yet!!!! CRAZY. And so fun. :) Holding baby Connor the other night when I dropped off dinner at Erica's house was beyond special, he's SO tiny - weight right under 7 lbs right now - about what Liz weighed when we brought her home - I'd forgotten just how tiny they really are at first... soooo sweetly tiny. He smelled new, he was just so beautiful and TINY. Gosh did I mention that? His whole body fit in the crook of one of my arms... amazing...

I cannot WAIT until Madeline get's here! Gosh this all has me so excited to meet my baby girl now! :D And it's helped me redouble my efforts to get this house done in a timely manner... a few things got pushed back - the carpet isn't going to be installed until Tuesday now as we still have a lot of painting to do, and Jay's packed with his work and can't take off today or tomorrow... on the upside - being slammed with work means we can afford to do our countertops and lighting BEFORE we move in now! Super thrilled about that! :D I really want to get Maddy's room finished soon so that right after the carpet goes in, I can start bringing all these new clothes over and hanging them in her big closet. :) SO fun! I realized today that I haven't bought a single newborn diaper yet either though so I better get on that. She's going to arrive and I won't have done anything in the way of diapers or lotion! I guess I still have 2 1/2 months so I've got some time... as long as she doesn't show up too early. If she ends up arriving about like she's measuring I've actually got a little less than 2 months! WOW that would be awesome - but we shall see... she'll get here when she's good and ready, I know that. :)

So anyway, fun updates on baby!

Projects...

2007-12-10T09:47:00.000-05:00

Okay, so yesterday we stripped all the rest of the carpet out of the house, gave the living room another coat, ripped up the foyer floor so we can put the wood down this week, put in most of the outlets in the rooms we've painted so far, and then painted Lizzy's room last night. Thankfully Linda took Liz after her nap yesterday so she had a good time with grammy while mommy and daddy worked their tails off... however... we stayed at the house until 10 and didn't get Liz home in bed until closer to 11... poor kid was TIRED. Still up at 8 this morning though. LOL Like clockwork. Today's a bit crazy, I need to get my tush to the store, I'm taking a friend who just had a baby some lasagna and garlic bread tonight, and I'm going to make an extra one for us. Then I drop that off at 2, come back to Ladson where I'm meeting the guy who's doing our carpet, he's going to take a final measurement so we can order it this afternoon and then have it delivered and installed this weekend hopefully! THEN we're having a Christmas party at mom's tonight... and then tomorrow Liz has school and the house goal is to clean out the garage (an all day project I'm sure), Wednesday is the Mommies Cookie Swap so I have to bake on Tuesday night, Thursday Liz has school again and then Thursday night is Mom's Night out! :D That'll be fun. Friday we're laying the floors and Friday night is small group, then Saturday the carpet goes in! CRAZY!!!! Sometime in there I have to find time to paint Madeline's room and our Room, bathroom and closet. After that the painting will pretty much be done! Oh and I need to give all the trim in the house a fresh coat of paint before they deliver carpet on Saturday. I get the feeling this week is going to FLY by. LOL Then next week we'll deal with the new countertops, sink and cabinets in the kitchen. If we have the $$ I think Jay and I are going to go in on a flat screen TV for each other for Christmas. We really haven't had time to shop and I only have a few small things for him so we agreed that this would be a great joint gift this year. We'll see... if business keeps up until Christmas we'll be able to do that... if not, we may wait and try to do it in January. So anyway, just putting all my thoughts in order... I need to get my butt to the store... I have to do some cooking this afternoon!

Larger than Life.

2007-12-09T15:23:00.000-05:00

My ankles that is. And here I thought I'd be able to escape that nonsense this time around... no such luck. The last 3 days I've spent around 12-15 hours on my feet... basically sun up to sun down working on the house... we really want to finish all the big stuff before next weekend so that we can have a week or so to really enjoy Christmas once it's all completed... but that means lots of work, little rest, and falling into bed exhausted... only to wake up still exhausted and do it all over again. And why am I typing this at 3 in the afternoon? Because I took Lizzy home to nap, thinking I would nap too - but my brain is too wired thinking of all I should be getting done right now rather than just sleeping. *sigh*

Oh well, just thought I'd share. Sorry I haven't uploaded any pics lately. My belly is certainly huge lately... I *finally* bought a battery charger today, after searching my house 10x's over and still not finding my old one. So as soon as these charge I'll get a picture up... hopefully in the next couple days. Madeline has been rather patient with me lately... I can tell she's getting bigger as she's slowing down on the loop de loops and concentrating more on just shoving her feet between my ribs when she gets uncomfortable. Or maybe it's her way of saying "Hey! Get out of these paint fumes mommy! I'm feeling woozy in here!" Who knows. ;) She has the hiccups right now... lol it feels funny seeing my belly jump every few seconds. haha

Well I suppose I'm going to go try and lay down again... hopefully I can get a few minutes of shut eye before Liz wakes up and we get back to work. :) Anyone want to trade ankles? Mine need to be put on a shelf until they deswell. :P

Hard At Work.

2007-12-07T23:12:00.001-05:00

Well, as if this time of year isn't busy enough... we decided to take on a major move in 3 weeks. So Christmas will be on quite the budget but we're thrilled with the hope of finding a new home that we love. We spent yesterday ripping out carpet and painting. Today I got to go to Lowes and drop a couple hundred bucks on paint, outlet, outlet covers, more paint, more paint supplies, new registers for the AC, curtains, curtain rods (yes I purchased both from Lowes as I just wanted a plain and simple rod and taupe floor length curtain), blinds for the windows, etc. etc. And that's just for the dining room, kitchen and foyer... we haven't even started on the living room or bedrooms yet! Yikes! And we have to go back and pick out our counter tops here pretty soon... It's going to be a crazy time of year but we are truly grateful that this door opened for us. We're trying to enjoy each step and not feel overwhelmed. All the painting has to be done by Tuesday, then the garage get's cleaned out Tuesday afternoon, the pest guys are coming in to spray before we put the new carpet down just as an extra precaution, followed by the Electrician coming by to fix a couple things in the breaker box on Wednesday, then the hard wood floors go in on Thursday, followed by the new carpet on Saturday... *whew* After that we'll need to tile or hardwood the bathroom floors (i still haven't decided what I want in either bath) and then start on the light fixtures and bathroom countertops. Oooh and did I mention the kids bathroom has funky fishy wallpaper? Liz goes in there and just stares at it... *bangshead* all that has to come out some time next week so we can paint as well. In fact... now that I think about it, my BIL is coming over tomorrow to help finish pulling out the rest of the carpet and he hates painting so I may stick him on wallpaper duty if he doesn't mind... hmmmmm... is that mean? LOL I hate taking down wallpaper - my most recent escapades from February have taught me that it's a royal pain in the rear getting in there and scraping away at everything. Well anyways, that's one more thing that has to happen before we move in after Christmas. Our French Garden Doors on the back of the house will be installed the week between Christmas and New Years... gosh it's all so much! I'm going crazy thinking of all these details but I'm super excited as well. I sort of feel bad because Christmas is my favorite time of year. It's almost over and my brain just can't slow down long enough to truly enjoy it right now... I need to fix that. I love my Christmas tree, it sits right beside our nativity so as I type I've got the glow of the tree in the background and a manger scene in my corner vision... nothing beats this time of year. I really need to sit back and enjoy it more and let the house stuff just happen. I'm trying... I really am.

But hopefully by next weekend all this major stuff will be done and then we can settle in to a last week before Christmas to enjoy Elizabeth as this is the first time she's ever really been able to enjoy and understand Christmas.

Speaking of Lizzy... I just have to update... she is so precious to me. The last couple of days she's really started to sing more, her favorite song? Itsy Bitsy Spider! It's so cute to watch her sing all the words... she stumbles over the first few lines but then loves "WASH the SPIDER OUT!" then she'll go on and few more lines but always comes back to "wash the spider out" That's my girl! LOL Another thing that makes me smile is how much she loves prayer time. At night she'll often continue praying after we leave the room... I'll here her in there talking to Jesus "Bwess dweams... bwess mommy and daddy... tank you for minnie... " and on and on... it's heart melting and oh so precious to hear. I just love her sweet voice. Granted there are times when I wish she'd quiet down (most often in the car when I hear "mommy?" What? "Mommy!" What? "MOMMY?!" WHAT ELIZABETH?! "Airplane!" LOL an on and on and on and on and on and on and on.... lol her questions are never ending... and it's so funny if you're not paying 100% attention to her when she speaks she'll tilt my face toward her and say "Look at me!" Cracks us up. lol And to top it all off, she still loves to dance... but she's much less shy than she used to be. Turn on some music and no matter where we are this kid will start dancing all around. It's hilarious to watch, she's actually pretty good! You can tell they work on dancing in preschool as she has great rythym. LOL

Okay, so this is getting really long and I'm getting really sleepy so off I go. But that's my update for now. Lots going on, and not much time to chat or spend online, so my updates take place during nap time or waaaaay after bed time after I've sorted through Lowe's website and decided on what to do the next day on the house. LOL I still have some Christmas shopping to do too, so I better get on it or else I'll be shopping with all the men on Christmas Eve! ;)

Jitters

2007-12-04T10:28:00.001-05:00

Well whoever was praying for us... it WORKED! We aimed for the stars last night asking for everything we really wanted (while still being fair) and they agreed! To EVERYTHING! What's more we found out they want to sell it for signifigantly less than we thought they would. They just came right out and said this is what we need to walk away with, so instead of bargaining and all that jazz, if you're okay with XXX price then we're fine with walking away knowing we're selling it a bit under market. *swoon* WOW. They are so easy to work with!!! We sat for 2 hours going over every single detail so that there is no confusion or anything left worrying about... I had broken our Propsal down into 3 parts, and we managed to work through and get exactly what we wanted/needed on every single part. So amazing. God was definately watching over that deal. I prayed before we left - "If this is supposed to be... please let it be obvious." And boy was it ever!

So wow. We're moving. In 3 weeks. Right after Christmas, and we have a TON of work to do. Thankfully not as much as we budgeted as we had planned on them refusing to do a few of the things we mentioned... but nope - they agreed to all of them. So basically it's all the "little" stuff we need to do (new outlets, update GFI switches, replace a couple doors, paint the ENTIRE house including trim and ceilings, lay new/better flooring in bathrooms, kitchen and entry way.) But they're handling the big stuff, replacing the AC unit, putting all new carpet in the whole house (we get to pick what type/color), replacing the back door with french doors (it was an older style and has a badly fixed pane that was ugly), etc. Those are the big ticket items that would be hard for us to budget out - but fortunately they okayed everything with no problem.

Sooooo it'll be a tight Christmas this year. We'll be putting out a lot the next couple weeks (Paint alone is going to be really expensive as we decided to only use Kilz paint b/c it's guarenteed to kill an bacteria, seal off any smoke stains, etc. It's really really thick.... and almost twice as much as the usual brand paint I use at Lowes) But it's worth it to me to move into a house that smells brand new, new paint, floor, etc. It already had new appliances... but eventually we'll want to replace the countertops - they're rather cheap looking. However that can wait for now. We also don't *have* to but want to replace most of the lighting fixtures as they all look rather dated. (Eg: Master bath has hanging globes for lighting... SO not my taste. LOL) But again, it works and that's something we can tackle come January or February while I'm waiting for Madeline to make her entrance and going stir crazy.

The good part to all this painting is that I'm starting to get that whole Nesting thing going on anyways... I was planning on painting the playroom (or as I'm now calling it the playroom/Madeline's room) pink to match Maddy's bedding... and i wanted to repaint this current kitchen (if we were staying) as the color irritates me. (Which I just picked out back in February. *bangshead*) But now I get to start all over and pick out all new colors for everything! But did I? Haaha... nope. I picked out the same saige for the living room although I'm also going to use it in the diningroom and kitchen to make it uniform... pink for both girls rooms... however I think I might go with a different color for the master bedroom. Idk.

Anyway. Bottom line. We got the house - or at least, we all agreed that we got the house - I won't believe it until we have keys in our hands - but nonetheless... it's looking like it's all going to work out. :D And that makes me one happy mama!

New House. No Sleep.

2007-12-03T16:16:00.000-05:00

Well last night stunk for sleep, somewhat because Madeline must have really taken a growth spurt lately as she has figured out how to put her little foot right between two ribs and PUSH... boy does that hurt! Liz would press against my ribs, but this gal feels like she's bustin them in two! Anyway... adding to that one of our house appointments went REALLY well. In fact... we have another meeting tonight in a couple hours to go over some details, and if it all works out - we'll gain a bathroom, and about 400 square feet, AND it'll be cheaper than where we live now! It has a garage, a huge back yard and backs up to a lake - OMG I'm so excited about this. Please pray that this all works out for us. If this house works out, we'll be able to put up our green houses and "officially" start our tree farm (it's a 3 year process) in the back yard as the house sits on over half an acre. And better yet... we're not moving out to the boonies! We thought the only way we'd be able to afford a half acre and house is to move WAY out, but upon further digging we might have found the perfect solution. Same city, still close to my mom and sis... and only an extra 5 minutes away from Lizzy's preschool! I *love* the layout of the house - the master bath is nice and big and the girls bedrooms are tucked away in the back of the house so that if we entertained, they could go to bed and never hear anyone in the main living area! Did I mention it has a garage? Huge plus for us. And a fireplace... and a two story living room with the old ceiling beams and a drop fan. The kitchen is smaller than our current one, but that doesn't bother me at all... our kitchen is too big for me to keep 100% clean all the time. Drives me nuts actually. LOL

Okay now the downside... it needs to be completely repainted and the garage is full of junk that will be coming with the home - so it'll take us a few weeks to get it up to shape before we can move in. And that's a bit depressing since we just went through that with THIS house... but the foundation issues here have proven to be too big to handle, so we're going to cut our losses and move on. This new house has a perfectly stable foundation (#1 priority at this point) If I wasn't pregnant and Lizzy was a little older we'd tackle the foundation stuff no problem, but it's causing some issues inside the house that none of us can handle right now - and with us getting ready to bring a new baby home in less than 3 months, I want her to come home into a comfortable home and be able to adjust without a major move in her very near future.

I hate to pick Lizzy up and move her again (this will be her 4th home in 2 years!) But it's necessary and we're hoping to be able to stay in this home until we get our land in Florida for phase 2 of the Tree Farm stuff.... which will be at least a couple years - and even then, we found a way that we may be able to handle the Florida farm from Charleston with a little extra work and then just visit several times a year to keep up with it. Which is a win win for everyone. :)

So anyway... if you're the praying sort - I'm asking for it! This house could potentially be a HUGE blessing for us, I'm so hoping it all works out. The couple selling are absolutely precious, we stayed and chatted with them for an hour past our appointment and they seemed to like us to, so I sure hope we can make this work! I'll know more later tonight... but just wanted to share. I couldn't even take a nap today - way too wired. (Although that probably stemmed more from the Mt. Dew I had at lunch as I just wasn't in a water mood.) LOL

I'll update as we know more later. :)