Random Thoughts and Pictures (because I have a problem with blogging)

Yes, I do have a problem with blogging. I enjoy doing it, but it is just one more thing that I don't have time for. I feel like I don't have time for anything anymore. It's kind of lame. I swear my students have been eating straight sugar for lunch since Christmas Break. They are so hyper that I come home exhausted every day. Saturdays are then consumed with doing all the housework that I've been ignoring during the week. (Along with taking as long of a nap as possible.) It doesn't help that I do not sleep well when I'm pregnant. I have strange dreams when I'm not pregnant and gets even worse when I am. So even when I am asleep, it doesn't feel very restful.

Anyway, on to some random thoughts about my kids. Remember when the Pillow Pets commercials first came on tv and we all thought they looked like the stupidest toys? Apparently my kids do not feel that way. They sleep with them every night and play with them all day. They are even good for riding.

Also, I love that my kids love clothes and have so much cute clothing to choose from. I particularly love Sundays. Eddie now refuses to wear anything that doesn't make him look like Daddy. I had a hard time convincing him to wear the vest, because Daddy doesn't wear vests and I am still working on the bow-tie. But aren't they so cute?

Emily and Edward are amazing. They are complete opposites and it cracks me up. Emily is a perfectionist. She will not do anything until she knows that she can do it right. She's been this way since she was born. She never crawled and didn't walk until she could do it right. Eddie on the other hand, is going to do what he wants, whether he actually knows how to do it or not. As a result, they are probably going to learn the alphabet at the same time. Emily dislikes the alphabet because she can't remember all of it, so she refuses to try. Edward says what he knows over and over and over again.

I realized a little while ago that I have never posted much about Edward learning to talk and at this point it would take me all day to try to list the words he can say. If he wants to say something, he tries over and over again until he gets it right. And he wants you to stand there and repeat it back to him each time he tries. It's pretty cute. He is starting into some basic sentences, most of them starting with "Wanna". I think his current favorite sentence is "Wanna watch sheep" (He wants to watch Shaun the Sheep). My favorite is "Wanna sleep". Some days I think he is a 2 year old teenager. I have had to wake him up several times recently to get to church or the babysitter's. Whenever I wake him up, he says, "No Mom, wanna sleep!" After which, he rolls over and plants his face in the pillow.

Every night when he goes to bed, he makes sure he has doggy (his Pillow Pet, and don't call it a puppy, it's a doggy) and his beep (blanket) and some stuffed animal, which changes nightly. Sometimes he wants his stuffed trains and other days he wants bears. A few nights ago, Jacob was putting him to bed and he kept saying 'bear', so Jacob gave him a bear. He did not stop, but continued to say "want bear, want bear". Jacob couldn't figure out what he wanted and was about to leave when Edward said, "Dad, want bear on floor!" Sure enough, there was a bear on the floor. The boy knows what he wants and he is good at getting it!

My kids sure are cute and I can't wait for summer to get here so that I can spend some more time with them!

2 Year Old!

Eddie's birthday was a while ago, but I am just having time to post about it. I can't believe that he's already 2. He still feels like my baby, even though I know he's not.

He got to celebrate his birthday twice, which he was definitely not opposed to. We were in Henderson visiting Jacob's family on his actual birthday. We went out to Applebee's (waited a ridiculously long time to get food) and he ordered his favorite chicken. He loves chicken strips. They also sang happy birthday to him and the look an his face was adorable. He was so excited about it. I wish I had remembered to take my camera.

After dinner, we went to Jacob's sister Amelia's house, which she had decked out in Thomas the train supplies from party city. He was again in heaven. He is just a little obsessed with trains. Grandma even gave him some more of the Sodor trains, including the Edward and Emily trains. Just in case you were wondering, he can name all the trains from Thomas (All the main ones). He also got a remote control Geotrax train from Amelia, Darren and Tyler and has been loving that. He especially loves standing over the track and having the train go between his legs.

(Sorry about the lighting, there was a window right behind him)

When we got home, we had another birthday party for him at my parent's house. I decided to be crafty and to attempt making a train cake. For someone who is completely uncrafty, I don't think it turned out too bad. I will be eternally grateful to my friend Elizabeth for letting me use her mold, or it would certainly have ended in complete disaster.

We also used the party as an excuse for my dad to try out the new smoker he got for Christmas. Smoked turkey was a huge success, I don't know why we've been eating it any other way.

He again got another exciting round of birthday presents and discovered that a ball will not bounce while still in it's packaging. Grandma and Grandpa got him a new ball (which he has been playing with any time he isn't playing with trains) and Jacob and I got him a pick-up truck. It's pretty awesome.

I still can't believe my boy is so grown up. He went to the doctor for his two year check up this last week and the doctor told us what we already knew, he is so smart and he's quite the little tank. He is the exact opposite build from his sister. His weight is at the 40th percentile (about where her height always is) and his height is at the 5th (her weight). So, she's tall and skinny and he's short and round. It's ok, he's pretty darn cute that way! The doctor said that he should know 250 words by his 3rd birthday, but I'm fairly certain that if he doesn't know 250 words right now, he will within the next month. That boy is talking our ears off. Most of it is one word at a time, but he can say pretty much any word he wants to.

Happy Birthday Sweet Edward!

Merry Christmas

As always, it has been a crazy, but wonderful, holiday season. I have to say that with me working until last Wednesday, it does not feel like Christmas should be over already. I was just starting to actually get into the holiday spirit! Since my last post, I am feeling much better. I was on the Zofran pump for about a month before I got to pack it in a box, send it away, and throw all the leftover needles in the garbage (my favorite part). I have had occasional moments of nausea since, but nothing terrible. Last Friday we had an ultrasound and found out that we are getting another boy! Another very wiggly boy. He was moving around tons during the ultrasound! We are very excited and are almost positive on his name, but are still thinking it over.

We spent Christmas Eve with my family, eating all our traditional foods, plus a few very tasty additions. For the first time eve, I totally failed at boiling eggs, so my deviled eggs got trashed and replaced with a quickly made batch of spinach and artichoke dip. Not a bad replacement at all.

On Christmas morning, Eddie coughed himself awake at 5 am. He was not very happy that he had to wait for his sister to go open presents. He sort of watched a couple of Christmas shows in our room, while he waited very impatiently for her to wake up. Finally, at 6, we let him go wake her up. She woke up coughing and sniffling as well.

After a little exploring, they got to open presents. They both loved their 'snuggle pets' that Emily has been asking for for about 2 months now and their art sets.

They also each got one big present, that took up Dad's whole day, trying to put them together.

Today has been a fun day of playing with everything Santa brought. We have played Memory, painted, stamped, played
lots of trains and eaten lots of plastic meals.

Eddie has been cracking me up all day with his trains. Up until yesterday, he had 3 trains: Thomas, Percy and the caboose (which he calls a boose). Thomas is a little chunkier than the other trains and doesn't fit through the mountain tunnel on his new set. We tried convincing him to just play with his new trains on the table and not Thomas. That was apparently a bad plan. He has hooked all the trains together and just takes the mountain off when he gets to it so that Thomas can get through.

Emily got a cupcake cookbook from Santa and has been using that to help in her plastic meal making. She is also trying very hard to decide which one she wants to make first, for real. Mom did not consider checking the recipes and making sure that we had all the ingredients to make at least one thing. I don't even have a cake mix. But she is happily planning for our next grocery shopping trip.

Jacob and I both had a wonderful Christmas as well. I got some very fun new shoes, lots of books and movies and a piano lamp (yay! I can see to play the piano!). Jacob got some fun games and movies and new clothes. Mostly, we just enjoyed the time together as a family, which does not happen often enough these days!

What Is Up With Me

It seems to be the common question that everyone wants to know the answer to. So, now that I can sit up long enough to blog, I thought I would explain exactly what is up with me.

First you should know that pregnancy and my body are not friends. They do not get along well and do not like each other. This time started out with the normal morning sickness routine. Lots of nausea, very little eating, lots and lots of dizziness (more than normal). After a few trips to the emergency room for re-hydration, my doctor decided the enough was enough. She ordered something called a zofran pump and set up an appointment for the home hospice company to deliver it and show me how to use it.

This is my lovely pump. (Please excuse the quality of the pictures, I think our camera is getting worse)

The syringe on the top is filled with zofran (a nausea medication) and is slowly injected throughout the day, through a site in my stomach. The pump is my constant friend. I carry it in a bag that hangs over my shoulder. I even have a water-proof bag so it can come in the shower with me. I still occasionally go to set it down and then remember I can't do that.

Yes, I do have to poke myself with a needle every other day to change the site. I thought that I was going to be making Jacob do this and would never be able to poke myself. Much to my surprise, I can actually do it by myself. Jacob put the first one in, but when it started hurting and needed to be moved for the first time, he was at work. So I figured I would try and I did it! Still not my favorite thing, but oh well. The hard part now is finding a spot on my stomach that isn't sore. Turns out, this medication is pretty hard on the tissues.

I also now have a bio hazard container sitting by my bed. Ok, so it's a Gatorade bottle with a bio hazard sticker on it.

I also have boxes of hospital supplies by the front door, but that picture is loading sideways for some reason, so we will just skip that.

For the first little while, it felt like my life had been taken over completely. Every morning, I have to weigh myself and pee on a stick to check for keytones (I know you wanted to know that), which tell whether I'm dehydrated. I then have to call the home hospice nurse and report in for the day. She asks for my weight and my keytones along with a million other questions like how much I've had to eat and drink, how much I've thrown up, etc. They monitor all this to make sure I'm not losing too much weight or getting too sick.

I also have to be careful to watch how much medication is in the pump and be ready to change it when it runs low. At school, that means I frequently have to have an aide come up to my room while I go get the medication out of the fridge and change it. My class thinks it's pretty funny when the pump starts beeping and me.

When the home hospice nurse came, I found out that along with the pump I also got an IV pole and bags of fluid. Which of course, meant she had to put the IV in my arm. I tried to still function normally by unhooking myself to go to church and to school and then hooking it back in when I got home. Unfortunately, my body didn't think that was such a good plan. Monday night, I kind of crashed. Here is me on Halloween, hooked up to all my machines, while my kids were getting ready to leave for trick-or-treating.

I ended up at home, in bed, for the rest of the week. It was kind of miserable. During that time I started testing positive for keytones, so the nurse came back and moved the IV into a bigger vein, which happened to be in the back of my hand. Not very comfy. She then had to come back a few days later when that vein blew. Also, not comfy. My wrist looked broken, but it was just full of IV fluid. The good news is, the nurses started looking into what was triggering the morning sickness and one of them discovered that motion is one of my main triggers. I hadn't noticed because even the slightest motion sets it off. This is why I was so much dizzier than normal. They got me put on an over the counter motion sickness medication called bonine. It tastes terrible, but works miracles.

I am finally back to being a functioning human being. I made it through work every day last week and have actually accomplished some things around the house this morning! I have even gone through all of Eddie's clothes and packed away all the summer things. It only took me two hours, one box and two garbage bags. Hopefully Emily's will be a little faster!

Pregnancy Counter

Take a look at my lovely pregnancy counter. I think I hate it. Looking at it just makes me depressed. 'Only 209 days left', really? I have to do this for that many more days! I was in the ER yesterday, for the second time this pregnancy because I couldn't keep anything down and got dehydrated. So far, today is on the same path. Nothing staying in the stomach. Blech.

Hello Again

I hate it when I go for so long without blogging. I come back with no idea what to write because there are so very many things that I have skipped over!The past few months have been absolutely insane. School is taking nearly all my time and energy, leaving very little energy for things like cleaning my house. So of course, blogging has been pushed even further back than the back burner. I suppose I will go through a brief overview of the most important things I have skipped over.

The Pregnant: Yes, for anyone that hasn't heard, we are now expecting #3. I don't remember why our friends started calling pregnancy "the pregnant", it makes it sounds like a disease. But for me, it feels like a disease, so it works. Actually, I have only been in the hospital once so far and the past few days have been really good. Here's praying that it will stay this way and this pregnancy will be easier than the last two. I had my first ultrasound on Tuesday and everything looks good. As the doctor commented, there is only one baby in there and he or she is measuring exactly right for what I estimated my due date to be, May 21st. The good news is, I should only have to take a week or two of maternity leave at the very end of school.

My Birthday: I am now 1/4 of a century old. It was a good day. We watched conference with Dave and Amy, while eating the lovely homemade cinnamon rolls they brought and then had a party with my family. I was even able to eat my birthday dinner without throwing up!

Scott & Kayleen's Wedding: My little brother got married last week! Hooray! Kayleen has been an unofficial part of the family for about 5 years, so it's nice to have it official! It was a really good day. I need to go to more weddings, they are fantastic.



Today: Right now is fall break, so today my mom and I took the kids to Superstition Farms. They were having a free day, so we went to see the animals and went on a hay ride around the dairy. We also got to briefly see a newborn calf. The mother cow was not thrilled by our presence though, so we didn't stay long. Edward is now sleeping away the entire afternoon, I am trying to find the will to do some cleaning and Emily is taking care of her wala (koala) baby. It's nice to have some time at home! Jacob is gone on our stake's youth trek, which is not helping my laziness. I have a feeling I'll be doing all my cleaning for the week on Saturday morning, right before he gets home.

Life Truck

The last 2 days, Eddie has had meltdown when I picked the kids up from the babysitter. Today he didn't even want to come home with me. He calmed down on the drive home, but when we pulled into the driveway he started screaming again. As I was getting him out I said, "What's your big problem buddy?"

Emily's reply, "His life is gone. His life truck needs to come back." (Very serious face)

I have no idea where that came from, but it gave me a good laugh!

Other than the meltdowns, the first two days of school have gone really well! I'm enjoying my class so far and am feeling very organized, which is monumental for me.

Now, if we can get all 4 tests done that we're supposed to do tomorrow and get them graded....yeah, right.