Two big, yet random thoughts...

1. Beware - cool chicks procreating. My first pregnancy was a dead heat with my best friend Ingrid. But the next two were mostly flown solo. Now I'm working overtime at the baby factory with some pretty cool company. Breeding roll call: Me, Sarah, Ryann, and Practically Perfect. Am I forgetting anyone? This is officially my last shift at said factory, so its cool to be there with friends. Meg and I always wanted to do the preggo thing simultaneously but decided that in case she gets as sick as me, there would be no sense in doing that together. So when that day comes I'll be the cool Aunt-to-be holding her hair back when she pukes. Anyone ever wished they'd be pregnant at the same time as their best friend or sister?
   
   
2. Change gears. As a previous poll suggested we are in the process of planning our first ever family vacation to Disneyworld. And I have to admit it has become quite soul consuming. I know nothing is easy to plan - but add four kids to the mix (yes four since we are planning this vacation for the fall.) It has been on my mind all the time.
   So far we want to go in September (value season) and stay at the All-star family suite (value hotel) see a pattern here - I LIKE THE WORD VALUE. The rumor mill via our travel agent (who specializes in getting you the best value) is saying that Disney is going to possibly offer free dining packages in September - which would save us $900. So I remain obsessed. Anyone have Disney experience? Mind if I pick your brain? give me a shout!!
   
   I WANT SPELL CHECK BACK, AND I WANT TO KNOW HOW SOME OF YOU ARE KEEPING SPACES IN YOUR POSTS - ALL MY STUFF KEEPS GETTING SMUSHED!

More...

My Valentine gift - I love my man!!!!!!

More musical performances!

Hodge Podge...

"Is it that painful to take a picture together?"
I just had to post this - how sweet, this dad brought his second grader flowers for her performance

Valentine Parties at school

For you Mom!

100 Day Celebration at school - You had to attach 100 things to your shirt - So Ella went as "Peppermint Patty" She came back with 100 empty safety pins - She said the teachers took the most!

Hey - there is a baby in there - I have even felt a couple of flutters. The big ultrasound will be on March 10th - so stay tuned to see if Gummy bear is a boy or girl.

Benjamin's 'overly enthusiastic' performance - he said after he saved the concert because twice people around him stopped singing and he sang louder to save everything! - gotta love it

I thought I had made that really easy...

Answers:

1. Independence Day


2. E.T.


3. Princess Bride


4. The Sixth Sense


5. Sleepless in Seattle


6. Napoleon Dynamite


7. Poltergiest


8. Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Bored?

Play our made up movie game - go to http://www.imdb.com/ search random fav movies of your husband - see if he can guess the movie from the "Tagline" - sometimes they are so bizarre you can't even tell that its talking about your favorite movie.
Here's a few for ya:

1. We've always believed we weren't alone. Pretty soon, we'll wish we were.
2. He is afraid. He is totally alone. He is 3 million light years from home.
3. Scaling the Cliffs of Insanity, Battling Rodents of Unusual Size, Facing torture in the Pit of Despair. - True love has never been a snap.
4. Not every gift is a blessing.
5. What if someone you never met, someone you never saw, someone you never knew was the only someone for you?
6. He's out to prove he's got nothing to prove.
7. They're here
8. Some journeys take us far from home. Some adventures lead us to our destiny.

answers later...good luck

Where have all the Girl Scouts gone?

So I hear this rumor that it is cookie season but I have had no order forms thrust upon me. Kyle got hit at work, but he figured Meg and I had already placed orders somewhere too so he only ordered two boxes. This will not stand - so I plead to my audience - send me your little ones with order forms or better yet with boxes of Thin mints and Samoas - I will be an easy sell.
I am pregnant, I won't even pretend to have self control.

Don't get too excited...

The "rebate/refund" checks we are all hearing about and some are getting excited about - well - its actually an advance. According to Dave Ramsey's show today - the checks which will start going out in May are only advances on next year's tax return. So this may make some people even pay some taxes next year if their deductions are not adjusted accordingly. Classic government. Get us excited and think we can thank them for something - TOTAL CRAP - Kyle woudn't ask for an advance on his pay. This is like his company doing it anyway and punishing you later. People need to stop blaming the government for the stock market being down - and stop praising the government for "giving" us money back. The stock market is the way it is because of tons and tons of people making bad decisions and getting into more debt than they can handle. - Lets call this what it is. RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

The newswire is recalling that info currently - but we'll see...

Happy Birthday Aunt Beth!!!!!

The Meaning of American Pie

When I am sick and bummed out I you tube my favorite songs for me and the kids - found this and thought it was really neat if you are into the meaning of songs and bizarre facts

Getting better enough to be depressed about it - two weeks ago I was just praying for the days to pass or death to come. Now I am better, I can sit up, Maiya and I chill watching cartoons and eating in the living room. But I am still nauseas and I am well aware how messy the house is - and I get more frustrated everyday that I can't/don't do anything about it.

I am tired of this pregnancy making me into Eeyore

Eeyore, the old grey Donkey, stood by the side of the stream, and looked at himself in the water. "Pathetic," he said. "That's what it is. Pathetic." He turned and walked slowly down the stream for twenty yards, splashed across it, and walked slowly back on the other side. Then he looked at himself in the water again. "As I thought," he said. "No better from this side. But nobody minds. Nobody cares. Pathetic, that's what it is."

I know it will get better soon. I am excited that I am starting to show a bit - I mean skinny girls wouldn't notice. But my fat belly beats out my boobs a little, and none of my jeans button. Anything that makes me feel pregnant instead of just sick is encouraging. I can't wait to feel gummy move and I really can't wait to find out if gummy is a boy or a girl.

I was sick until 18 weeks with Maiya - so if this follows protocol I have three more weeks. Hopefully I can kick out Eeyore before then and Janie can move back in.

I am having a temper tantrum:

I want to vote today!
One of my biggest pet peeve's in life is people who are completely apathetic to politics - and if you regularly don't vote, PLEASE don't tell me - it would greatly affect my opinion of you. - Gosh I am a jerk, huh? Anyway, I have largely left out my opinions about this election out of laziness and surprise, surprise, to avoid controversy - see I am very opinionated like that. Then I got to thinking will everyone think I am like one of those people who do not participate at all in the political process? So here goes my concise opinion. I did have a long blog in my head that was fun and informative but I am too tired so here goes: GO MITT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - And not because he is Mormon, but because he is a true Republican. And I only voted democrat once and regretted it for quite a long time, but I would like Obama to win the primary. And in case you are wondering McCain is not even a close backup wish for me - he is a democrat as far as I am concerned, and I worked on his campaign in 2000 - and was very displeased with some of his tactics. If Huckabee wins - I may vote democrat twice in my life!

A blog for me

So I have often thought about how my blog is my backup journal and I am a little sad that it only started after Maiya was born. I would love to look back at my blogs of Benjamin and Ella as a babies but those memories are not digitized yet - those photos remain in shoeboxes and memories in actual journals. So I have been thinking that toward the end of this pregnancy I would blog about Benjamin, Ella, and Maiya's birth stories so that when I add number four's everyone's story will be there. I don't know if your kids are like mine but they LOVE me telling them about "the day/night they were born" and I remember loving to hear my story when I was younger. This post today is inspired by Ryann who is going through the initial shock and then excitement that follows a big fat positive pregnancy test. I thought I would write about how we found out the same thing four times. From this point on feel free to be bored, move on to a more exciting blog or go surf the web - like I said this is a post for me, and maybe one day the kids would like to read it. Here is how we found out about our babies - Story number one: Halfway through our first year of marriage and still living with my mom - not an ideal time to start a family but the desire was strong nonetheless, I had a feeling we might be pregnant. The idea was a little scary but terribly exciting as well. I heard somewhere you should test first thing in the morning, so without planning well, I woke up, skipped the bathroom, and went straight to the store. The pee-pee dance started as I went into the store and by time I got to checkout it was a painful dance - I knew there was no way I would make it back home so I took the test right there in the Ukrops bathroom. I put it on top of the paper towel dispenser washed my hands and then reached up and picked up two pink lines - I rushed home rereading the directions at every light. I woke up Kyle who had worked the night shift, was exhausted, and told him we were pregnant. To which he replied "wow" and fell right back asleep, dozed for a few seconds then sat up and said, "what did you say?” The following May we had an adorable fat baby boy!

Pregnant with Benjamin - about 35 weeks Lots of love to go round!
Welcome to the world little man!

Story two: When Benjamin was eight months old I got my first real job as an OT, we moved to Va Beach, I started working full time and made plans to go on birth control as soon as my health insurance kicked in. One month later, I wondered when I would be regular again since I was still intermittently breastfeeding. I decided it had been long enough and I took a test - only one line - HUGE sigh of relief! The next morning Kyle had already left for work, and I was taking out the trash and lo and behold in the trash can lay two pink lines - I called Kyle in a panic, "I have to take another test" to which he rationally responded we don't have the money. And we didn't, there was like 30 cents left in our checking account. By noon that day, I couldn't stand it. I left on my lunch. headed to CVS wrote a hot check for two tests and went back to work and straight to the employee bathroom - now this part is familiar, I took the test, set it on the paper towel dispenser, washed my hands, and proceeded to pick up a test with two bright pink lines. Disbelief and fear set in - how could I handle this: brand new job, one baby already and two in day-care? But like life happens I had a calmness wash over me by mid-afternoon and I got home in time to make "I am a big brother" onesies for Benjamin and he met Kyle at the door wearing one. Eighteen months after welcoming Benjamin we welcomed a beautiful baby girl.

A few days before we found out about Ella

Pregnant with Ella - 41 weeks

Meeting the little lady - and finding out Benjamin is a wonderful big Brother!

Two babies!

Makes one tired mom.


Story three: Feeling especially fertile after Ella, we took more drastic measures to slow things down and I got the Mirena IUD - I highly recommend it! It was exactly what we needed until Hurricane Isabel hit and changed my life for the better. The week before the hurricane was becoming very, very stressed at work they wanted us to see as many patients as possible - hopefully even double our normal load so that they would not lose too much money if the hurricane knocked us out of commission for a while. Well the next day, three days before the hurricane I woke up to two kids with pink eye, couldn't take them to Ms. Margaret's and couldn't take them to work. So I called in and got CHEWED out by my boss. She thought I was lying so we could leave town early. Which is what we did actually. On the long drive to Danville, I fumed about my job and made plans to quit no matter the costs. I worked my last day the following month. And despite major financial problems and other fears, we removed the IUD shortly. I was ready for a baby. Despite previous fertility records it took a while for number three and by time I suspected my period was late we were in escrow on our first home - a fixer upper for that matter. This time I had gone through many negative tests - very discouraging. So I was forcing myself to be nonchalant. On a weekend away to housesit for Aunt Beth I did a little math in my head and decided to test - the pink washed over and I only saw one line. I left it on the counter and went back to bed. Meg woke me up a half hour later screaming in the bathroom. Yep two pink lines, and if you are keeping track Kyle has not been present for a single one so far. We moved to the new, messy, in need of major work, house and struggled through a particularly difficult pregnancy and welcomed an adorable tiny baby girl on the summer equinox.

One year before I became a stay at home mom.

Pregnant with Maiya - 37 weeks

And then there were three - Welcome to the world Maiya

Worst pregnancy = calmest baby

Story Four: Maiya was followed by debates about having more, a move to Texas, and several different methods of birth control, which made me grumpy and gain weight. Finally, we decided on the groundbreaking "let nature take its course" plan. By time Maiya had her second birthday I was a little annoyed nature was taking so long. By September I did something I had never done before - took a set of ovulation tests - all were heart wrenching and very negative. I was sure nature had decided for me so I set about the task of being emotionally ok with that. Very busy with planning for the Nativity exhibit I was a little late noticing I was late. I realized and got a dollar store test. Understandably, Kyle insisted on being present for every single test taken. This time as the test sat on the counter I was quite over the rejection - months of negative tests and a week of negative ovulation tests I walked away. I sat on the side of the tub and Kyle continued to stare, after what seemed like a lifetime he says barely above a whisper, "I see two lines" Before he could finish his sentence I had already sent Meg for another test - three tests later, all with double lines, we celebrated. Kyle was very happy to be present for this one.
Now for the weird confession - I have recapped, washed the outside and saved at least one pregnancy test for each - Yes, under my bed in a plastic box are four positive pregnancy tests. I never really intended to keep them, I just saved the first one for quite a while because I just didn't feel pregnant and it was fun to slide out the box and look at it - eventually I couldn't throw it away and by the second one I couldn't keep Benjamin's and not the rest - so there they are and now you know the rest of the story. If you are still reading.

Super Bowl forty snooze

So we prepped the kids for the super bowl, psyching them up about how big the game is - moments later seated with potato chips - Ella says "So you mean this is only football?" eyes roll and she goes to play - I soon had the same sentiment. Boring game, lame commercials - It only warmed up at the end when I was stressed out for the Giants, but they pulled through and beat the undefeated! So two thumbs up for the last five minutes...

What an awesome man!!

"Faith in something greater than ourselves enables us to do what we have said we'll do, to press forward when we are tired or hurt or afraid, to keep going when the challenge seems overwhelming and the course is entirely uncertain.” - Gordon B. Hinckley

Hey Sarah we are Bert and Ernie LOL

You Are Ernie

Playful and childlike, you are everyone's favorite friend - even if your goofy antics get annoying at times. You are usually feeling: Amused - you are very easily entertained You are famous for: Always making people smile. From your silly songs to your wild pranks, you keep things fun. How you life your life: With ease. Life is only difficult when your friends won't play with you!

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

Pregnant Jamie Lynn Speaks Out

another funny one

Made me laugh

some people...

long sigh...

So yes I have not been blogging. I was holding out on the day I could say "I am all better now" and yet I have not reached that location. I am doing ALOT better. I went to the movies and dinner with Sarah - By the way JUNO is a great movie - its nice that something was hip and pro-life without being overbearing. I went to church on Sunday - all in one weekend that was tons for someone who has only left the house for doctor appts since November. I feel like I am recovering from agoraphobia as well.
And despite respite here and there it hasn't ended yet. I'd say I hover at a 2-3 nausea on a scale of one to ten with bouts of fierce heartburn and mind boggling exhaustion. I have these really nice dreams of doing all the laundry and vacuuming and making beds - then I wake up and see the house and realize no not yet, that will have to wait. I thought about filming a panoramic of the house and blogging it, so all of you could feel utmost satisfaction about your house - but I rethought that - someone might call CPS on me.
Finding the silver lining my mind wanders to this:
THANKS GOODNESS FOR SISTERS:
First my sister - She has gone above and beyond and under and sideways to help me through this - Fixing anything that I think I might want to eat, helping clean, helping with the kids, taking them places, abandoning her social life (which means a TON), getting up early with the kids (which means even MORE) and making late night runs places when what she did fix me to eat was not what I wanted after all. I LOVE YOU MEGGIE
Second Relief Society-
Meals without asking, nice visits despite me looking quite scary, and one half muttered sentence "I will need help with Maiya" was an organized schedule of who could watch her everyday plus back up in my email. I love my church - the charity of the RS rivals anything else I have ever seen. Thanks so much everybody.
Other news that has not been blogged:
Benjamin's Baptism will be May 24th - so mark your calendars everyone - he is SO excited.
So at church you can start scouts after you are 8, so I got his application on Sunday and it made me cry - they grow up too fast, I remember when I was nursing him my mind would wander to dates like He'll start school in 2005, will get baptized in 2008, will graduate, so on and so forth. It all seemed soooo far away then, and a blink of an eye later I am filling out scout applications. WHOA
Rest in peace Princess Sparkles and Firecraker we lost them a day apart of each other and many tears were shed depsite previous attacks - Daddy orchestrated a lovely funeral for each in the backyard.
Maiya is talking more, funny thing is she has had very little speech therapy while I have been sick, maybe she has had the need to communicate more, but whatever it is sentences are finally emerging as well as sarcasm I believe.

And I have not updated about Aunt Beth - Details were slow to follow the first news, but she is in the hospital recovering from surgery to have a tumor removed from her ascending colon. It was a complicated surgery and many prayers are being said from this home that the recovery will be easy and that good news will follow from the doctors. A good friend told me to never tempt fate by asking if this is enough. But the sentiment is strong in our family that we have had enough to deal with - especially cancer in the last year. My mom is still trying to recover from her cancer treatments. Aunt Beth does not deserve this - but she does deserve the best treatment. It is not a good feeling to be so far away from loved ones. We love you Aunt Beth!

So I don't know if I will be quite my blogging self again yet - but for the record I missed it.

Missed saying this yesterday but we all thought about you:

Happy Birthday Uncle Tommy!!!

You are very missed!

Happy Birthday Mom