"patiently" waiting

I found out Wednesday morning that the Memory Makers Idea Gallery magazine is on the shelves. My watermelon layout is in this one. I went out that day to try and find it. Well, guess what, I can't find it. It's driving me nuts. I do get 2 complimentary issues (when they deem it necessary to actually send them out) but I want to see it NOW!

I've never been a patient person. When I was growing up, I was that kid that snooped for the Christmas presents. I hate the waiting game. It almost killed me to not know the sex of my babies before they were born. The only one I knew before hand was Josh. And that's only because I made Nick promise (when I was pregnant with Nicholas) that I could find out if we had more children.

Speaking of babies, I have a doctor appt. in a week and 1/2. I will probably have the "big" ultrasound soon after. I'm actually doing pretty okay so far waiting for this one. I think it's because I am really nervous to find out what it is. Everyone wants it to be a girl (besides Rick, lol). Nick will be really disappointed if it's not. Of course, we will all love and adore a baby boy. But, man - we won't have a clue what to name him. ;)

Life lately

I tell you what, this baby is kicking my butt. I get a good day when I am able to do some well needed cleaning and then WHAM! - the next day I feel like total crap. I don't mean to dwell, it's just a bit frustrating. I don't do well when I don't have control of a situation. You should see my house, it's driving me absolutely nuts that it's not always clean. I thought that the second trimester came and just like magic I would be feeling better?! :p

Anyway, on the good days, life is good. The boys are back in school and are enjoying it. Josh is adjusting. I think he has a bit of separation anxiety though. Last night, we put everyone to bed and Nick and I started working on our budget. Well, when we decided to get ready for bed, I went to check on all the boys. Josh was missing. Now, this isn't necessarily unheard of but I am usually able to find him asleep with Nicholas on the top bunk. Upon further searching, he was found on my bed, surrounded by all of our pillows. Aww.

This weekend was interesting. I spent 5 1/2 hours at soccer games - in the rain - on Saturday morning. Fun, fun. The good part was that the boys' teams won all of their games. (Steve played 3 in a row.) Nick had to work but Carol came and kept me company for most of the time. Nick and Josh C. came and watched the last game before having to head to a co-worker's birthday party. The kids and I went to Dave and Susannah's for a cookout. It was fun, the kids really had a blast. Of course, we were outside and it rained for a time. There was a "tent" for the adults and fortunately it stayed warm enough for the kids to be able to just enjoy playing in the rain. I did feel sorry for Susannah and her house though. Just think - mud, kids and running in and out of the house for potty breaks. Yuck.

We left the cookout to go to Josh and Michelle's. It was Amanda's 5th birthday. She's such a doll. We ended up having a bonfire which was nice except for the darn mosquitos.

Sunday morning we received a phone call from Rick asking if we wanted to come over after church. It seems like forever since we've spent any time with them. The boys got to go swimming and Nick got to enjoy meatball subs and his all time favorite ice-cream sandwiches. lol! Jen had been telling me for the past couple weeks that she had something for me but we hadn't been able to get together. So, we get there and almost immediately she hands me two gift bags. She tells me that one is from her and the other is from Rick. I'm told to open the one from Rick first. It is a plain "kraft" bag. I open it to find a little baby boy outfit. Too funny. I opened Jen's gift, which is in the cute, flowery gift bag. It was a beautiful little dress. They crack me up. So, I am told that this is their way of telling us what sex they think the baby is. Clearly, Jen is my favorite in their family. ;) Oh, and just for future reference those outfits are the first thing that has been bought for the baby. I have refrained so far from buying anything. I'm in trouble though when we do find out the sex, especially if it's a girl!

We ended up not going to the evening service at church. Janel and Freddie invited us over and we went there. It's not very often that we get to spend much time with them. Josh and Gabi crack me up. Gabi got into a "tickle fight" with Jim at church and told him, "Whoever wins gets to keep Joshie!" She's just too cute sometimes.

Well, I suppose I should go and get to making my Greek Sausages for dinner. I guess my mom and Dan are coming over for dinner - a last minute surprise. That's okay though, it's been forever since we've seen them.

Kindergarten

Today is the boys' first day back to school. For Joshua it is his first day of kindergarten. He has afternoons.

He keeps asking me if I'm going to miss him while he is gone. Of course I will. He keeps saying he just wants to stay home with me. He's breaking my heart. The poor kid just got out of the bathroom. His little stomach is a nervous wreck. Nick passed on his nervous belly to most of the kids.

So, today I think we both may just cry when I leave that class room. My baby is leaving me and venturing out into the world all by himself. sigh.

jinxed

Yep, I jinxed myself. I had one maybe two days of feeling better. My all-day morning sickness had returned. Darn.

Some relief

I'm really scared to jinx it. But here goes: I feel better. It seems that the vitamin B6 is "magic". Of course I still have some mild nausea but nothing compared to what I have been feeling for about the last month. Yay!!!

Yesterday Nick had his first soccer practice. Steve's starts on Friday. We are now committed every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from now until the middle of October. This conflicts with AWANA on Wednesday nights and I'm not quite sure what to do. I am supposed to be in the nursery by 6:30 and practice is until 6:30 or 7 than I still have a 25 minute trip to church. I guess I'm going to have to talk to Susannah. Maybe I'll end up taking him out of practice 1/2 hour early. Ugh.

Today I have to go get allergy shots. No fun. I get to spend the rest of the day itchy-armed and sniffley since I can't take my Allegra.

Tonight we go to Carol's. I haven't a clue what we're having for dinner. I hope it's something yummy. :)

Dr. appointment

I just got back from my OB appointment. It was a pretty long one. I had a bunch of questions and also had my pap and bloodwork done. I am about 11 weeks now. Dr. says my uterus is growing fine in relationship to my due date. My blood pressure has been high every time I've gone in but seems to go back to normal by the time the visit is over. I guess I'm just super nervous when I get there. Could be due to the fact that with one of my miscarriages (the one at 11 weeks) I went in for a normal check up to find my baby had died. Scary stuff that I'd rather not have to deal with again.

I also lost 2 pounds in the past 3 weeks. I guess that's a testament to how I've felt. Dr. told me to take Vitamin B6 every 6 hours and if that doesn't work he gave me a prescription for Reglan. If that doesn't help then I have to call him and see what else we can do. I have never had this much trouble with any of my other pregnancies. With Jimmy I was sick in the evenings, with all the others it was in the mornings. This one I am sick ALL the time. It's getting to be really hard to cope with. My only choice is to sit on the couch or lay in bed, otherwise I'm throwing up. I'm bored and getting pretty upset about my house being such a mess. Thank God Nick has been supportive and very understanding. I don't know what I would do without him.

So, I also talked to the doctor about my C-section scars. My last one was pretty bad. I had a really nasty wound infection. Dr. looked at my belly and said he would probably cut out a portion of the old scar. I hope that it will help. He is going to get the records of my last surgery to see if there was anything that stands out to warn him of any potential problems. I know that they wanted me to have a blood transfusion but wouldn't tell me why. I ended up refusing it.

I also asked about having a tubal ligation done during the surgery. Unfortunately the hospital I will be at is Catholic and prohibits it. I really don't know what we are going to do for birth control. Nick doesn't want to get the big "V" done and I really don't want to go back on the pill. I definitely don't want any more babies either. Oh well, I guess we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

as promised...

Here's the photos from our little vacation this week.

This is the monument at the Battlegrounds in Tippecanoe.

The suspension bridge in Delphi.

The boys skipping rocks and finding shells (the Delphi Historical Trails).

The well pump at the park in Delphi. Josh had to have a little help to get the water going. :)

John G. Shedd Aquarium

The guys outside of the Shedd.

The Chicago view.

A little fun on the teeter-totter in Culver.

I so had to take this picture and boy did I get the look when he realized I had! I can't wait to hear about it when he sees I put it online. heehee

What a week

We have been on "vacation" this past week. It's been wonderful. We had originally wanted to go to Indianapolis but decided that financially it may be hard to pull off right now. Our second pick had been to go to the Jellystone in Plymouth (we love it there) but I really didn't want to go camping. I was scared that I would be sick most of the time and end up in the camper by myself.

We finally decided to just "play it by ear" or by the day if you will.

Sunday night we went out to eat after the evening service with some of our college aged friends (Chris, Josh, Bethany and Sam). They all came out to the house and we watched a movie (Joy Ride).

Monday morning is when we had our big family "meeting" to decide what we were going to do for our vacation. Monday ended up being the day that we went out to the Tippecanoe Battleground. It's a neat place. Nick and I had been there on an Oasis camping trip a few years back. We also went to Delphi and hiked on the "Historic Trails". The kids really enjoyed the suspension bridge and the shell collecting on the river bed.

Tuesday we went to Chicago to the Shedd Aquarium. It was a great time other than the crowd. People in general are really rude. Lots of pushing and shoving, that sort of thing. We ended up buying a family membership and hope to go again in the "off'" season.

Wednesday we drove out to Culver. There is a beautiful lake there with a really nice park. This is the day I ended up not feeling very well. When I started getting sick we decided to try and go get lunch to see if that helped. Culver has a wonderful old rootbeer stand. I ended up getting an italian beef and it was soooo good. Anyway, I was feeling a little bit better and the boys wanted to go back to the park. I stayed in the van and took a little nap. On the way back though I just kept getting worse so I asked Nick to take me home. Him and the boys dropped me off and then went out to a car show.

Every summer before school starts, Nick takes each one of the boys seperately on a day to do pretty much whatever they want to. It's really a great tradition that they all enjoy. Nicholas had his "day" last week. They ended up bike riding, fishing, at a car museum, and at the Dunes. Jim had his day yesterday. Unfortunately they weren't able to do the bike riding and take the boat ride they had wanted to. It was raining and storming most of the day. For me, yesterday was a bad day. I woke up and ended up on the couch trying not to vomit for most of the day. We did go to Carol's for dinner (pork chops in mushroom gravy w/ mashed potatoes...mmm...). I felt so-so for most of the night.

Today is Steven's "day" with Nick. I'm really not sure what all he wanted to do. I know swimming was one thing though. I hope I feel okay today because the rest of the boys are at Carol's and I have the day to myself. Unfortunately the house cleaning fairy has not come to visit and my house looks like a tornado hit it.

I'm not sure what we are doing tomorrow other than going over to Bruce and Donna's. She's making us pizza, yummy. Chris is leaving to go back to school so we're gonna get together. It's always sad when he goes. He's really become part of the family to be honest. We love him. :)

(Well, I have been trying to post photos with this entry and blogger is being a pain. I will try to upload them later.)

Thankful

Here's a new page I did for the Scrappin Trends Contest, which by the way I didn't make it to the last round. That's okay though, because I love the layout I made. It was really fun to scrap about this family joke. I made the mistake once of commenting on the many shoes that can be found on the side of the road and such. Silly me for wondering about stuff like that. Now my entire family makes fun of me when we find a shoe. Steve found this one on the beach last summer and pointed it out, "Look mom, here's one of those killer shoes, it's going to get you!" Now, I have no clue how my wondering about "lost shoes" ended up being taken as a fear of them but I guess it gives everyone something to laugh about. - Mom's fear of attacking abandoned shoes!

So, I've felt really bad for complaining about not feeling well. My life could be so much worse. I thought I would make a list of things that I am very grateful for. (in no particular order)

God and his love for me
My faith
My husband and children's faith
My health - After several years of many meds for migraines and asthma I am surviving on nothing more than prenatal vitamins.
The health of my family (we used to be sick ALL the time)
Our church
Our christian friends
Our home
God's faithful provision - we take for granted all that we are given sometimes
Our new baby - I may be sick, but baby seems to be strong and healthy.
Joshua is fine after a scarey episode last night...

I could go on and on.

About Josh and last night. We were at Carol's and Josh and Danielle were playing around. She threw a pillow at him and I guess my dear son had something in his mouth at the time. He ended up choking. We finally got him talking and found out he swallowed a coin. Carol said there was a "really big" foreign coin floating around and thought that was what it was. Josh was crying and the coin was still stuck in his throat. We had to take him to the ER because we were scared that the coin could turn and end up suffocating him and if it did make it's way to his stomach we were afraid it could cause a blockage. So, anyway, we made it to the hospital (Josh gagging the whole way) and during the registration he vomitted and up came a............penny.

I don't know what it is with my kids and sticking things where they don't belong. I think it was Steve who did the same thing with a penny. Don't even get me started on all the wonderful things my youngest two have stuck up their noses. Ugh. Well, I'm just thankful that all ended up okay last night. Poor kid, on the way to the ER Josh timidly asked this question, "Are they going to have to cut it out of me?"

Oh, and yes of course I got the penny back. It's sitting here on my desk in a baggie along with his hospital ID bracelet, just waiting to be scrapped. :)

MIA

Sorry I haven't been around lately. I really don't have much to say really. Not much going on. I'm sick and I'm tired and I get sick of complaining. I've been spending a lot of time at home on my couch for the past couple of weeks. (Well, more time than usual at least. I guess I have been out and about some.) It seems that if and when I venture outside my home I end up really sick.

Friday was Mary's funeral. It was a beautiful service.

Friday evening we went to the fair for the demolition derby with Rick, Jen, the kids, and Chris and Eric. It was a fun time. I was thoroughly disappointed that fried food didn't appeal to me one bit. I always look forward to greasy fair food!

Saturday morning was Becky and Allen's wedding. It was beautiful but oh so miserable. It was soooooo hot. I think everyone there was drenched in sweat. Steven ended up sick with the stomach flu and I had to stay home with him during the reception. :(

Saturday night Nate and Kara stopped by and we went out to Chilli's for dinner. I ended up having to excuse myself during dinner to go and get sick in the bathroom. How embarassing. I came home and headed straight for the bathroom. I then fell into bed.

Sunday morning I was still just as sick. I had a migraine on top of my "morning sickness". I wasn't even able to swallow a pill for the pain. Believe me, I tried, couldn't keep it down. I stayed home from church in the am and slept off and on until about 4 pm. I did make it to the evening service though. I really wanted to be at Jen's b-day party afterwards.

Steve has officially started band. He is playing the trumpet. From now until school starts I have to take him to the school for practice every Mon. - Thurs.

Last night we ended up going to Plymouth to eat Mancino's. (Nick's fave.) It was really nice to get out of the house and eat something that didn't end up making me sick. :)

I so hope that I'm going to be over the constant nausea soon. I have 3 weeks left in my first trimester and am crossing my fingers. In all of my pregnancies I was never this sick ALL the time. With Jim I was sick in the evenings and the others just in the mornings and then it would go away. With this one it just never ends. Maybe I'm gonna have that girl. ;)