#199

This is my 199th post. Maybe next time I will post 100 random things about me or something. Right now I am just in need of a vent. I have been having stupid contractions all day. Not anything major, I am thinking, but they are so very annoying. Every time I get up to do things, I have one. Every time I move, I have to pee and that makes me have one. I mean they are not hurty kind, just braxton hicks kind, but no matter what they are getting in my way! I have things I need to do! I was planning to organize in my scrapbook room, a little, or go in my room and get my little nursing corner dusted (its really dusty, YUCK)nd ready to sit there, or whatever. So I am good sitting here but when I get up to go the bathroom in a sec, it will bug me again. Grrr. If I was ready to have a baby, I would be moving all over the place, but I just really want March to get here first :)

35 Weeks

I am actually 37 weeks, but these pics are from 2.12.2009, when I was 35 weeks.

The next time I take pics, I will upload them as well. I had DR appt today and of course, baby has not turned, but that is okay. I know where his head is, so I will definitely know when it is NOT there any more! I am actually glad for some concrete plans. I don't have to decide anything, I don't have to prepare for either way. I am glad to have a firm direction. Now I just have to wait and have a baby. I was maybe dilated to one. Those were her words. Well that could mean to some people that I am a long way off. Those were the words Dr Lawrence said to me the day or two before I had Sydney too. So who knows. Maybe next week? If not though, at least I know a sure birth date after that. I like the element of surprise, so I am truly hoping to go into labor before that day. I don't like choosing the birth date :) But whatever happens, happens. I think I am ready. I have everything washed, everything set up in my room, car seat in my car, my bag is half-packed (missing stuff I use daily), and I am mentally getting there. I even have the announcement mostly done, just needs a pic and the details. I don't want to sound like I am "sitting and waiting" cause I am not, I have too much to do for that. But when he comes, I think I have prepared myself enough for now! I just have to stop thinking about other anxieties I have (like will this nursing experience be good or bad? Will I hate it? How will I handle two kids, one of which I hold all the time, in addition to the new one and just have had surgery? Will I be able to take my pain killers? I know, sounds silly and I am not an addict, I just DO NOT like pain! Will I feel like doing anything? This pregnancy has been such a hormonal rollercoaster, will I have PPD? Am I going to be able to go the store again? HAHAHA I go by myself with the kids often enough. I am a get up an go kind of gal. I can't just wait till Jody is home. He has a weird schedule. Anyway some of my thoughts...much longer than I had planned!)

Boys Boys Boys

I am not sure what it is with my boys, but they apparently like to be carried the same way. I found out today that I may in fact not have a choice whether or not I have a repeat cesarean. This baby's head is under my ribs, rather than down low. When my Dr asked me, a couple weeks ago, if I had thought any more about what I wanted to do, I said that I was kind of waiting to be checked and then I would make a more firm decision. I guess that is why! I had just kind of decided that it might be okay, I might survive (hahahahaha) labor again and firmed up my hope in a smoother delivery, since this baby is #2 through the birth canal. Kind of funny how things like that happen. I just decided its okay one way and then the decision is taken away. Well I am silly because originally I just did not want to have to choose, so I was kind of hoping for this to happen, so it was "easier" for me. But, being the hormonal mess that I am, now I am sort of sad to not have the choice (kind of like I was happy with boy or girl before I found out but once I did, I was like, ohhhh I wanted a girl blah blah blah). There is a chance that he could flip himself around, but I don't really even think that will happen. I mean Ethan was nice and content in his position, and he did not move, and even came a week before the Dr attempted the turning. So for now, I am having a c-section. If he moves, then I will have a VBAC. I decided, finally. LOL. I can officially change my dates and say the actual birth date is set now {any psycho people reading this planning to steal babies when people announce things like this-- have you see the movie Taken? I am Liam Neeson. :) } so no matter what, I will have a baby on or before March 11th. That is 3 weeks from today. I have never made it to the 39th week, so if you go by that, then sometime in 2-3 weeks. Who knows. Kids are unpredictable, aren't they?

My Latest Random Thoughts and Ramblings

• Bought going-home-from-the-hospital outfit for baby yesterday. It is cute-- The Osh Kosh store in the Factory Stores Mall has the cutest clothes! They are having a great sale right now as well. Everything I bought was under $5 except the baby outfit I actually went there for (haha) and that was $8.
• I am feeling more ready. I am still freaking out as to how I am going to handle 3 kids. Jake has a vet appointment in March and I am thinking, picture this: me, holding baby carrier, hand of two year old, and leash of a crazy pug. All 5 of us in an exam room. This should be interesting. I think I may make Jody take Jake to the Vet.
• Yesterday and today, I will have washed and/or folded about 12 loads of laundry. I know, there should never be twelve loads to wash at the same time. I hope to clean the kitchen and get all the dishes put away and do something with my floor as well. We will see how much energy I can muster up...
• I did make bread yesterday too. I really like this recipe that I was given. The place I learned how is http://www.pantrysecrets.net/. They have a class, though you do not necessarily have to take it to make the bread. Each recipe makes 4 loaves. With those loaves, you can put in a loaf pan and make bread, make cinnamon rolls, pizza whatever. I made a half recipe (2 loaves) of white bread and made pizza for dinner as well as an Italian bread (tried to imitate La Vigna/Ottavio's bread, but without the oil, I am sure) and then I made a full recipe of whole wheat. I am getting better at wheat, though it still could have risen better. White is so easy, I think, but the whole wheat is tricky and I am DETERMINED to master this, since I plan on making that most of the time. I was not in the kitchen all night (well, I guess I was, since we were eating dinner too) -- this bread is simple, all the ingredients can be stored for years and is good for you and best of all inexpensive! Start to finish is to take about 1 hour. I am slow and get distracted very easily (IE putting away baby things, doing laundry, making dinner), but it still is fast and does not take half a day.
• I think I have decided on a name. I just need to make sure Jody is on the same page as me :)
• Jody has 39 lbs to his goal weight, which is less than I weigh right now. Hopefully that will change in a couple weeks and I will get back to a weight that is less than him. I have spent 7-8 years weighing significantly less than him and there is no way he will weigh less than me when I am not pregnant! This idea makes him happy (that he may weigh less than me). Jerk.
• I will just have to figure something out, but I will not do triathlons, so that is out. Does not appeal to me at all and I really think that if you want to be a decent parent, there really is only room for one major athlete in a family. I am not a vampire, I need to sleep, so I can not dedicate the time to training for them (and the trillion other things going on), like he can.
• I love homemade pizza. I love my homemade pizza. It is so good and I will say it is way better than anything you can buy in the store or have delivered :) At least I think so. Its also easy and cheap :)
• I am really liking digital scrapbooking. I have also decided to try and do more regular kind. I am at least 10 years behind. Too bad most of that time is printed photos. It would be so much faster if they were digital! Can you say quickpage?!
• Our first ward activity of the year is on Friday night. I hope people come! We are square dancing. This is always a good time!
• I love Del Monte Fruit naturals cups. Actually, the only one I have ever had is the Red Grapefruit. And I love love love them. I wish they weren't so pricey, but if I can eat that instead of ice cream, I guess that makes up for it ;)
• I am at a point where clothes are annoying. I am lucky in that I can wear most of my normal clothes through out pregnancy, later on just altering pants with a rubber band. This is a large advantage when thinking about money and spending lots of it on maternity clothes (though if I would have bought more when prego with Ethan, I would have gotten some great use out of them at this point). Well, here are the downsides. For one, the normal clothes I did wear, after pregnancy they feel like maternity (haha) and the biggest downside-- at this point, I only have a couple weeks left, but they really just do not fit anymore! So if you see me out and about in a velour track suit, its cause my one pair of maternity jeans are dirty. I mean this for my whole wardrobe. I like things tucked in, if you catch my drift. The top does not reach the bottom. Its bugging me to DEATH. So I get away with it for 35-36 weeks, and then the last few kind of suck.
• I am looking forward to normal bodily functions. Enough said.
• I am really grateful to have my babies at the AF hospital. I really its a great place to be and so far I really have no complaints about their services for me. Plus my Aunt works in the Women's Center too.
• I really love my car. I feel safe in it, I am comfortable in it, we have been through so much together (hahaha). It is not very wide compared to others it is similar to, so three car seats were not going to fit. Well, E and Syd have pretty wide seats, so I ditched his and bought him a booster seat. HE LOVES IT and feels like I just gave him a ticket to grow up and not be "little" anymore (and Syd is waiting for hers lol). So since I did that, they fit! It will be interesting, to say the least, to have all three kids so close together. There is NO extra room at all. In fact, its an inch from unsafe, I am sure. But we prob could not get rid of our car, and we don't want to, and really, we can not afford a new one/don't want to look for the really old one we can afford, so I am VERY VERY VERY happy with this solution. Especially when I am outside and its snowing and 4 wheel drive comes in handy. I am really not emotionally ready to adjust to what may be in store (a van) for us. I know, I know, everyone who ever has made the transition has loved it. I need to adjust my thinking and get there, its just I am not there yet and we won't be able to buy the awesome van everyone loves. We will be stuck with some old ugly clunker, that sucks I am sure. Just know, if you live on my street and in the winter I can not get home and you hear me swearing at the top of my lungs as I haul my three kids up the hill, cause I no longer have a 4wd car, that is why. I apologize for my language and attitude ahead of time. I love my SUV and its going to be a sad sad sad time for me when I no longer have it. I do not worship it, by any means, but I haul a trailer around with it. Go to grandma's cabin. Pack it full of crap to go everywhere. Have slept in it. Use the 4WD a lot, or at least often enough. You know, I will cry when I have to get rid of it no matter what its replaced with. I sound psychotic so I will move on. Its a freaking car for crying out loud. One I could live in... okay moving on...
• I am so proud of Jody and his hard work. Just to give you an idea of his training, today is an "easy" day, and that consists of about a half hour of swimming and the same of running. The other day, he did something for 2 hours. He is working hard. Don't tell him, but when he reaches his goal weight, we are going to have a huge party (with healthy and non healthy food, lol). I am hoping for May, but who knows?
• I am hoping to have my baby on a certain day, cause then the Jazz have like ten days they will be gone and Jody will not have to go to work and he can stick around here with me :)
• You know how I said I made bread yesterday? Well, a giant 4 year old RAT ate half a loaf of bread (rat style- bites all over the place with no rhyme or reason except shoveling it in). I was trying to get mad at him when his dad was teaching him how to smooth things over by saying stupid (but nice) things like "you make the best bread mom, I could not keep my hands off it" and things like that. Anyone who knows Jody knows he is the king of "save face" lol.

I could just keep adding randomness all day, so I am posting now.

To Answer Some Q's--

I use Adobe Photoshop Elements, 5.0. I really wish that I could just fork out the moula for the best ones (CS3???), but this works fine for me, right now. The paper I used for the last page is Summertime designs (limeade), the frames are actually brushes by Rhonna Farrer, whom I LOVE LOVE LOVE. I love Summer too, she designs awesome things and I am still in awe that she does not charge. I actually printed my first few pages, and I need to pick them up at Costco. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to see them in print! I love the scanner too. I must say though, I love regular scrapbooking as well, and I feel like I am getting better at it. I used a Cricut this past weekend and was really amazed at how much I loved to use it. I definitely will continue to do both types of scrapping. Especially past stuff, and then future stuff that has programs or other things to go along with it. I also found a print shop that I may check out that prints high quality and it would not be on photo paper, it would be on a thicker paper. So I am going to try that out (oh and it costs less than 2.99 a page). These are my recent purchases. I really feel the brushes are worth it, cause you can do so many things with them. You can change colors, etc. make frames. borders, just designs, etc. You can also print them out on transparencies and then use them for regular scrapping. The two paper packs, I just could not resist. I made the card from a kit that I bought as well, but I had a $20 credit from completing that challenge I talked about a couple weeks ago(?). I am really into owls these days, so the whole reason I actually did that challenge was to get that kit free (even though it was only $4). At the end, there is another pager that I have done. I actually accidentally regular scrapped it this past weekend as well! Funny thing about that is, I was looking for a quote to put on that page and we were watching the Moulin Rouge (one of my very favorite movies) and I decided on one from that movie-- the greatest gift is to love and be loved in return-- and it turns out that I put a quote VERY similar on the page I digiscrapped. All without even realizing it. CRAZY. I will not take credit on those valentines-- the only part of it that was "my" idea was the pic. I copied the valentine kit (I bought the whole kit, but copied the valentine kit that she has for sale). I love it and I am so excited to actually give them to people. Jody thinks I am mean for not letting Ethan get Ironman or something. WHATEVER! Plus I can only do this for so long before he won't let me, right (I made these for preschool too, they just have his photo on them. I was worried it was cheesy but Hailey pointed out that its good cause then they will actually know who its from since they can not read)?

Then and Now

*A note for posterity's sake-- Allyson and I are both expecting in this "now" photograph.

I don't normally do THIS (reveal my names before hand), but which name do you like best?

Drew
2 (9%)

Max
4 (18%)

Aidan
5 (22%)

Parker
2 (9%)

Connor
5 (22%)

Liam
4 (18%)

Votes so far: 22 Poll closed

I did not state that the name I like best is Aidan Connor. Jody likes Connor the best, and Ethan has taken up that stance as well. I like Connor, but I love Aidan. It is really growing on me.