What a Girl Wants

Do you know what I want? One of these:

Except in red. And it is nowhere to be found. I saw a girl wearing a red trench coat nearly 3 years ago and have been on the hunt ever since. And you know what I have found?

Nothing. Because IT is nowhere to be found. Why can't I find myself a red trenchcoat? Why didn't I ask that girl that I saw wearing one where she got hers? Sometimes I think I am silly. I have found a blue one. A green one. A black one. A classic khaki one (of course). A purple one, for heaven's sake. But no red.

If you see one somewhere under $50-let me know. Thanks :)

This Is What Happens...

When you've been sick in bed for a week and a half and your hubby works 12 hour days:Your kitchen turns into a disaster and looks like a tornado hit it. Actually, this was only about day 3 and it did get A LOT worse, but I wasn't willing to share more than this :)

I am finally on the mend after several days (about 10) of fever, aches (both head and body), chills, neusea, dizzyness (OH the dizzyness!), nearly falling several times, a trip to the ER, lots of medications, prescriptions, fluid, etc and etc. and a diagnosis of vertigo (Horrible-if you've ever had this, I feel so so sorry for you. Really). It does run in my family, but I had never experienced it and I hope I never have to again.

I just wanted to write this post to remember how incredibly wonderful my husband, as well as my "family away from home" (my ward) has been. My husband has taken up every household duty there is, as well as working his tushi off at work, as well as helping get kids ready for school in the morning, making lunches, dinners, doing dishes, laundry, and more. He is honestly the greatest and I could not ask for more. I love him more than he could ever know.

And my ward. Wow. They have been incredible! Especially my visiting teachers who have coordinated meals for us, one of them came and cleaned my entire house top to bottom, taken my kids, called me numerous times just to see if I needed anything, and more. Other friends in the ward have brought over little gifts, meals, taken the kids for the day, driven them to appointments/preschool, just called or stopped by to see how I was and if I needed anything, etc. I have never felt such an outpouring of love and kindness for my little family. I truly love the gospel and how service-oriented it is. I have never thought it was a big deal to do things for other people, but when you are on the receiving end, it makes all the difference in the world. I feel so blessed and so grateful for my ward and for the church as a whole. What an amazing thing the gospel is and that it is the same wherever you go. I love it and I am so happy to be a part of it :)

Now...if I can just chug through these next 4 1/2 weeks and get this baby out of me, I think I'll be good!

Terrible Two's Are Oh So Terrible

My two year old is terrible. The most terrible two-year old I have, in fact, ever had the pleasure of mothering. Half the time, he is the most charming, adorable, sweetest little thing you've ever come in contact with.... and then....WATCH OUT! Like the flip of a coin, he's.... well... quite horrid. I have had some sort of time adjusting to this while being nearly 8 months pregnant, in addition to having AS and being stiff and very uncomfortable/in pain pretty much 24/7. It renders me quite incapable of even picking up the 40 pound kid, not only when he's happy and just wants to be held, but mostly when he is acting like a fish out of water and flopping himself all around the floor in some sort of frenzy induced tantrum.

Exhibit A: This picture, which is the most current picture I have of him. This was at Jonah's football game where I asked Baron and Daphne to smile so I could take a picture of them. And the crying fit you see ensued. Yes, I am quite mean and understand that posing for a picture is pure torture, but I don't think it needed to be responded with by a temper tantrum throwing tizzy by the boy-which lasted about 20 minutes. Whatever.

My favorite is when I ask him to do the simplest of things, but we just happen to be in public (classic example-church. Or the store. Or the doctor's office. All great examples :) and I try to take his hand and gently lead him to do what I want done, but he throws himself down instead, and because I cannot possibly lift him, I end up dragging him by the hand to whatever task I have for him. The looks, not to mention the comments (Oh, the comments!) I get from people are just so priceless. Sometimes I just end up leaving him and walking away, calling over my shoulder "Okay, I'll see you later Bear!" but the scream that follows sounds like I have possibly stabbed him with a knife, so I try to avoid that route, if at all possible.

Although I know this is just a stage, and it will pass (well...maybe in a few years. If the 2's are this bad, what will the 3's be like?! I remember them being worse somehow...) but it is quite difficult and frustrating for me right now. Especially when The Dad comes home and is immediately obeyed in every request that is made. Why is that? I swear I'm the nicer, more patient, better looking of us... haha ;) Maybe it's just because of my current state. Either way, I'd like to have record of it so one day I can use it against him. Or something like that. I dunno. I'm pretty tired right now.

I Love you Bear. You're the cutest/naughtiest/most confusing little 2 year old I know. But, like I said-I sure do love you. And I think you're worth it.

A Craving

Autumn is official in 5 days (Yay!). One of the things I will really miss about summer is this:Oatmeal with blueberries. My dad is just going to die laughing at me. It was kind of a joke between us growing up how gross I thought it was that he liked oatmeal. He would cook it up with brown sugar and raisins and offer to make me some EVERY TIME. I always said "Oh sick, no way!" and he'd say "Are you sure? It is so good!" And I would decline. Every time. My mom never made it growing up and I never could get over the texture. SO I decided to make my kids eat it from the time they were little because I know it is very healthy, and I wanted them to like it. And they do. But I could never eat it. It was just too gross to me.

Until this pregnancy. I tried it one day because it just looked good to me. I love it now. It is delicious. I crave it. But only with fresh blueberries. Which are now unavailable and out of season (or $8/oz. Either way... )

I have never really had any "weird" or "out there" cravings in any of my pregnancies. But this one, to me, is pretty weird....

Anyone else have odd cravings of things you never thought you'd eat??? Do share :)

Football.... of the Flag Variey

Jonah wanted to play football instead of soccer this fall, but he was too little. You have to be 8 to play football, so they have a developmental flag football league for kids who are 6 and 7. Andrew decided to coach again, and he has enjoyed it for the most part. He says it is A LOT harder than coaching soccer because you have to teach the kids' different plays and they have to go over and over them so they can memorize which play is which. They've been practicing for over a month and last Saturday was their first game. They seemed a little lost the first few minutes and the other team was really gung-ho and scored right away. They got the hang of it quickly though and got down to business! They ended up losing 13-7, but they did great. Jonah loved it and I loved watching him. I have never really enjoyed football, but I love watching my kids do something they love, so I was cheering and jumping up and down and screaming. It was so much fun and I can't wait for this Saturday's game!Jonah was ready to defend that quarterback! He was so good at distracting the other team and getting in their faces (because you can't touch them :)

Huddle up!

Good job Jonah Boy!!

Huge

Thought I'd do a little preggy update. Here's the update:

I'm huge. Ginormous. Whale-like. Pretty much any term you can think of that means "enormous"-that is me. I will be 32 weeks on Sunday and for the past 2 weeks, all I hear is "Aren't you due ANY day now?" or "How much longer do you have? You look ready to pop!" One of my favorites though is, "Are you sure there is only 1 baby in there??" Yes, people, I get it. I do own a mirror and I know that I am quite large, especially for having 7 weeks to go. But thanks for letting me know just in case you think I somehow missed it every morning as I struggle to roll myself out of bed.

Anyway, although I am close to 32 weeks, at my last appointment, I was measuring 35 cm. I always start measuring ahead as soon as the 3rd trimester starts. Here's a funny story. At my 29 week appointment my doctor measured me and then told me to come back in 2 weeks and that we'd do the strep test. I thought that was a little odd because I'd always had it done around 36 weeks with every other baby. But, what do I know? Anyway, when I came back 2 weeks later they took me to the room and did the usual stuff (I've only gained 27 pounds BTW.... pretty good for eating whatever I want and excercising like, once a week :) and then I asked if I should strip down. The nurse looked at me funny and asked why. I told her the dr. had said we were doing the strep test. She looked at my chart and started laughing. She said I had been measuring 34 weeks at my previous appointment and he just assumed I would be 36 at my next one (without checking that I was, in fact, only 29), so we would need the strep test done. Ahhhhhh.... right.

The only comfort I can give myself is that I do have extra amniotic fluid. They said that was probably causing me to measure ahead also, but I know better. It's these gigantic babies I have that make me enormous. I am so curious to see how big this one will be. Even more so than finding out the sex.

Here is something to give you an idea of my predicament. My hubby can barely get his arm around me anymore:

And this was even taken a week ago! Haha :)

Well, hopefully these next few weeks go by quickly. I am really feeling it in my lower back and also my hips and pelvic area. I feel like someone beat me up with a bat every morning when I wake up. But as soon as I get walking around it fades. Until dinnertime. Then the pain is back and I cringe as I walk around the kitchen getting dinner ready. At that point it starts to feel like my lower vertebrae are grinding together. It is a yucky feeling.

I'm almost done though! I can't wait to hold this baby in my arms and I know every minute will have been worth it. I love babies. Especially when they're mine ;)

New Under-Roos

With fall and back to school comes shopping and new clothes-obviously. That also includes "under"clothes and all the kids were in need of some new undies. We picked out several packages at Target one fine, "family date night" evening and the kids were ecstatic to get them home and try them out.

After we opened them all up, we went through underwear drawers and discarded old, outgrown, and beginning to show wear-and-tear undies. After we were done I went upstairs to rest.... until I heard quite the commotion downstairs. Come to find out, old underwear is good for something....

Wrestling masks. Kind of gross wrestling masks, but wrestling masks just the same.

Ehhhh...... at least they were clean from the drawer and not from the dirty hamper :)

Preschool for Daphne!

It came! It came! It finally came! Daphne's first day of "real" preschool!! Oh my goodness, I cannot tell you how many times over the last 6 months that Daphne has asked me when she is starting preschool. And since the other kids started school 2 weeks ago, it has just been pure torture for her to have to wait those few extra days.

Well, today was the day. I got Daphne a cute new outfit, but she was adamant about choosing her own and wanted to wear something she already had. She told me she'd wear her new outfit on the "real" first day of school which will be Friday (today was orientation-not a regualr 3 hour day). She also HAD to have her nails painted hot pink and of course asked for this as we were ready to walk out the door. I did it super fast-good thing she has tiny fingernails :) I think she was most excited about her new bookbag that can also be switched to a backback-amazing :)

Even though it was just orientation today, it was still an hour long. They had the children go into the classroom to work on a project with one of the teachers while the other teacher took the parents into another room and went over the schedule, various papers, field trip info, etc. for the year. When we were done I took her out to lunch. It is so much fun for me to get to have one-on-one time with my children. I just love it.

I know Daph will have a wonderful, fun year-she already loves it and can't wait to go back on Friday!

CTR

The other day Jonah came home from school and began talking about how great his teacher is. He said she always tells him his lunch looks delicious and she always tells him what a great job he is doing on his schoolwork and how cool his hair is. He loves her. He had worn his CTR ring to school that day and he said she told him what a cool ring it was. She asked what CTR meant and Jonah told her it stood for Choose The Right. He told me she acted very impressed and said that was a great thing to do and she really liked his ring a lot. He then came up with a great idea. He said "Mom, I think we should get my teacher her very own CTR ring." I had to hold the tears back, I was so proud. And I think we'll do just that.

I also think he'll make a great missionary in 13 years or so ;)