Latest update...

Well, it looks like January 5th will be THE day unless something happens between now and then! The doctor's office was able to get me in at 9:30 this morning. Actually, it was more like 10:30 - Dr. Nyi had to go do an emergency c-section! So in the meantime, I went over to our family doctor to see if I could get something stronger for this horrible cough of mine. And guess what I have?? Bronchitis!! Isn't that awesome?! So I'm on 10 days of Penicilin (yes, it's safe for the baby) which I honestly wanted to hug the nurse practicioner when I left the office because I was so happy to have drugs. I've had this cold since Thanksgiving and it's become worse over the last week or so. Then when I got back to the OB's office (the two offices are just down the hall from each other) they were ready for me! Dr. Nyi tried to find every reason he could to suggest inducing me this week, but my blood pressure is fine, I'm not leaking fluid (well, I still leak pee), I'm not dilated past a 3, I'm not 100% thinned, the baby's heartbeat is perfect so we just wait. I go back Wednesday morning for another ultrasound just to make sure the level of fluid that the baby is living in is still ok and to check for some other stuff - just normal procedure for when you go past your due date. So it's still a waiting game!!

Change in baby plans :o(

Well, to start things off we ended up in OB again Friday night. I was having contractions 3-4 minutes apart so they monitored me for 3+ hours, but no more progress was being made. I was still dilated at a 3 and wasn't thinning anymore - the doctor said we could stay longer and see what the night brought or we could go home. We decided to head on home where it was more comfortable. Today was just more of the same - I did have a couple of contractions this morning that stopped me in my tracks, but that was it. I did have a lot of energy though I think because of the excitement of what was going to happen tomorrow! I mopped the floors, caught up on laundry (and even put it away which is the WORST part of laundry!) and cleaned the bathroom. The rest of the day we spent just relaxing and watching movies (If you haven't seen Stepbrothers yet - it is a MUST! We've watched it MANY times now and we laugh harder every time!). For supper, we ordered out and Travis even brought home a Pepsi for me - that was the bestest!! We decided to go ahead and go to Travis' cousin's wedding reception for a bit, but we didn't plan to stay for long since we needed to be up at 4:00am to get ready to head to the hospital. BUT I ended up getting a phone call from the OB department letting me know that we will NOT be induced tomorrow. WHAT?! I was caught off guard by the call so I didn't even think to ask why. Very disappointing though....but what good does being upset do? A great friend of mine that happens to be a nurse at the hospital looked into things for us and come to find out the hospital does not schedule inductions on weekends because they do not keep surgery "in house" (in case I were to need a c-section) and that our doctor absolutely should have known this before scheduling us for Sunday. UGH!! So I am just to call first thing Monday morning to schedule my next weekly appointment. Maybe things will just happen on their own - you never know! I'll keep everyone updated as best I can!

Baby news - the end is near!!

We had our weekly appointment this morning and it started off a bit frustrating. We didn't have the nurse that we usually have and that makes things frustrating because this nurse didn't know anything about us or where we were at with things. She told us that the doctor probably won't be checking me today which we both looked at each other like "What?!" We had to convince her to check us last week and were told that she normally doesn't start checking until 39 weeks which is how far along I am now. So when Dr. Ingram came in the room and saw that I still had my clothes on, she didn't look too happy. So she handed me my lovely little paper skirt and stepped out of the room so I could change. When she came back, she listened to the heartbeat which was in the 140's - where it should be and when she checked me, I was dilated to a 3! So she said we had two options: we could either plan to come in on Sunday to be induced or wait and see what next week brings. The only problem with waiting to see what next week brings is that our doctor is on vacation and is not on call at all so we would have Dr. Nye who we are not comfortable with. PLUS Travis is so worried that with this lovely weather we're having that something will happen and he'll be at the far end of the county with no cell phone service and I won't be able to get a hold of him. So we have decided to go in on Sunday morning to be induced! We are to arrive at 5am, but call first around 4am to make sure they have an available room (just in case other expectant moms went into labor over the weekend and hogged all of the rooms). If by chance they don't have a room for me then we will have to go with plan #2 and wait to see what next week brings. It's getting exciting!!!

In other news - our weekend was ok despite the nasty weather. Travis is getting a lot of OT in and was told to plan on working Christmas Day thanks to what it looks like we've got coming our way. Saturday night we were suppose to go to a wedding/reception, but I wasn't feeling the best so we ended up getting some movies to watch (all of our little people were at grandparents houses for the night). BUT power lines were falling all over the county thanks to the heavy ice that was on them and the MAJOR wind we were having; so Travis got called out to close a bunch of roads. I ended up going with him and we didn't get back home until 2am - talk about a long night! We thought maybe the bumpy ride in the truck would get something started, but it didn't. We had a couple of Christmas' back-to-back on Sunday afternoon at my in-laws house which is thankfully only about 1/4 mile down the road, but the wind was so terrible that I was a nervous wreck walking outside on the super icy ground! Not to mention that we didn't have power so none of us were able to take showers - that's always fun to be the stinky ones at a family gathering. :o) It all worked out though and everyone received awesome gifts (I got a Wii Fit so I will be one skinny mama after the baby is born!). Our power came back on finally last night, but now today it keeps going off and on (it just now shut off and came back on). So I've been trying to make a quick lunch for the kids while it's on and get stuff done - makes for a long day when there's no power!!

Keep watching for updates - there's still a chance that the baby could decide to arrive before Sunday!!

No exciting news to report :o(

We were really hoping to have some great announcement after our doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon, but we left there with an appointment card for our next weekly appointment. We had to convince the doctor to check me because we were just convinced that I had progressed since my last check thanks to all of the pains and contractions I was having over the weekend. So when she finally did, she felt as though I was only dilated to a 1 - not a 2 like Dr. Nye had thought. She just said that can happen when different people check. UGH. She even made the comment that we could have a New Year's baby which was NOT what we wanted hear. We just both looked at each other like "NO WAY." She likes things to happen naturally which is how I think they should happen too, but I'm getting a bit impatient I think! Travis is really worried that I'm going to go into labor during bad weather and he'll be at the far end of the county plowing and won't be able to get to me or the hospital in time. She did say that she won't let me go more than a week past my due date so at least we know we only have about 2 weeks left before the big day!

We were also worried about this round of antibiotics that I have to have. I tested positive for Group B Streptococcus (GBS) which can possibly be passed to the baby at birth; so I have to have 2 rounds of antibiotics through an IV the moment I go into the hospital to give birth. This also means the baby can't actually be born for 4 hours after my labor starts so that I can get both rounds in me! Now with this being my third baby - the labor could go really quickly (which would be great!) and they may not be able to get all antibiotics in me, but the chances of the baby getting sick are very small especially since he/she will be full-term. I just need to make sure that if my water breaks at home that I immediately get to the hospital so the IV can be started (yahoo for IV's). This whole process is new to me because once again, this was not something that Doc ever tested me for. Oh well - I'll survive, right??

We head back next Tuesday morning (if we're still pregnant) - watch for an update!

Happy Monday!

Only 10 days until Christmas - yikes! Actually, I think we're in pretty good shape. Travis & I headed to Bloomington on Saturday and finished up the last of the shopping. Now it's time to wrap it all!

We thought maybe this past weekend was going to be THE weekend. I was having some pretty decent contractions and back pains. We tried to stay close to home most of the weekend, but it all eventually went away. I'm curious to see if the contractions helped me to progress anymore though - our next appointment is this Wednesday afternoon. I don't know if she'll check me or not, but I think I'm going to ask her to anyway just out of curiosity. I have to admit that what I dread the most when the day actually gets here is the IV I'll have to have. Once again, that wasn't something Doc Hable did, but I guess Dr. Ingram gives you an IV no matter what. Yahoo....can't wait for that one. I must say that my body seems to be preparing me for some sleepness nights. I seem to wake up around 2:00 a.m. and am either up for the day or end up falling back asleep around 4:30-5:00 only to wake up an hour or so later to get Lexi & Kiegan ready for school. So this also means that I'm sleeping a lot during the day - so if you try to call me and I don't answer it's probably because I'm sleeping! :o)

Kiegan ended up coming down with something Sunday morning. He was running a low grade fever and had diarhea and vomiting to top it all off. He just sort of hung out all day Sunday and by the time he went to bed he was over it - so who knows what it was, I just hope he didn't share it with me! That would really stink....

This week isn't too busy for us - doctor's appointment on Wednesday, kid's Christmas program on Thursday, wedding Saturday night and 2 Christmas' in a row on Sunday (which by the way is my birthday so maybe I'll share my birthday with the baby). Ok, well now that I've listed it all out I guess we are a BIT busy. That's ok though - helps the time go by!

Doctor's Appointment Update

We had our doctor's appointment this afternoon - nothing major to report - there's still a baby in there! The doctor simply came into the room and checked the baby's heartbeat and said it was perfectly fine. They still don't have the results of my 24-hour urine collection, but when they checked my urine today there was no protein in it so she's sure it'll come back fine. She didn't check me or anything and I guess she really doesn't do that until 39 weeks unless I've been having regular contractions or bleeding which I haven't been. We sort of wondered if she'd talk about setting a date to induce since our due date is Christmas Day. We figured she wouldn't want to be working on that day, but she made the comment that it looks like we're having a Christmas baby so I guess she doesn't plan to induce at this time! She did say to plan on the baby being around 8 1/2 pounds or so at birth which is MUCH better than 12!! We head back next Wednesday for our next weekly appointment unless I decide to visit OB again just for fun. :o)

Not much else is going on this week! Friday I head to Bloomington to have lunch with Miranda - a super good friend of mine from State Farm. I haven't seen her since our wedding so I hope I recognize her!! ;o) Saturday I think we're going to head to Blm. to finish up some shopping and then I have a dinner with all of my friends (yes, I have friends!) that night and Sunday we have a Christmas to go to at Travis' aunt's house and the kids are going with my mom to The Christmas Spectacular. So our weekend is actually pretty busy I guess!

Until next time....

OB visit again!

This baby is really something else! Yesterday morning, I woke up feeling just fine and decided to start baking some Christmas cookies. Lexi & Kiegan were home because it was a Holy Day of Obligation so they did not have school and Lexi was helping me start on some Scotch-a-roos. I kept having to stop and rest up against the kitchen counter because I was feeling really light-headed. Finally, I told her that I needed to just sit down and rest for a little bit. The kids went upstairs to play and I kept feeling worse and worse. It felt like there were a ton of bricks sitting on my chest - I had to work to stay calm and take good, deep breaths. My vision was also going all blurry and I felt like I was going to pass out from light-headedness. I stumbled into the bathroom and just sat on the edge of the tub because I didn't know if I was going to throw up or what. I had brought my phone with me and finally decided I needed to call Travis - I could hardly hold the phone up to my ear and could barely get any words out when he answered, but I was able to say "I need help." and that was about it. By the time he got to the house (Which by the way, he drove past an accident that involved his dad - all is well though - his dad is sore, but his car is totaled!), I was starting to feel a bit better, but told him that I still needed to go to the hospital. When we got there, they hooked me up to the usual monitors and the baby's heartbeat was fine and I wasn't having any contractions. The doctor thinks that the baby must have rolled over onto a nerve and messed with blood flow/circulation. He went ahead and checked me and said that I was 70% thinned out and dilated to a 2 so things are progressing! They also checked my urine and once again I was dehydrated, but they didn't give me an IV (thank gosh!). I also had some protein in my urine which can be a sign of pre-eclampsia and the only "cure" for that is delivery of the baby. So I'm also collecting my urine for 24 hours in this awesome red container that looks like a little gas can. The kids are just totally grossed out by it - especially about the fact that I have to keep it in the fridge! So I drop that off anytime after 1:00 today for them to test and see how much protein builds up over 24 hours or something like that, but I don't have the bad headaches or severe swelling that usually goes along with pre-eclampsia so hopefully things are fine. BUT the baby is considered full-term now so if we do have to deliver him/her, things will be just fine.

I was back home by 1:00 or so and Travis told me to get hopping on the Christmas cookies because he already told the guys at work he was bringing some in. So I made sure to get them done!! :o) Thankfully, I picked all easy ones to do! We also had the County's Christmas dinner in Odell - it had been rescheduled from last Monday. So that got me out of having to cook dinner!

We have our next appt. tomorrow afternoon so we'll see if anymore progress has been made since yesterday! I'll also update the blog as soon as I get the results of my 24-hour urine collection. Fun, fun!! :o)

Doctor's Appointment/Sonogram

Yes, it is 4:00 in the morning and I am awake. I decided that I was tired of tossing & turning and listening to snoring - so what else is there to do but update our blog! :o) I actually broke down and bought Travis this mouth piece thingy to wear at night and it actually seemed to do the trick the first night he wore it and I was so relieved, but now it keeps falling out of his mouth while he's sleeping so we'll see.

My cold is getting much, much better finally! I think I only had to take 1 cough drop throughout the night last night compared to taking like 20 of them. It's also nice to not be coughing my head off all night long. I ended up canceling our hair appts. that Lexi & I had Tuesday night b/c I wasn't feeling well and plus we need to save the money. Monday was suppose to be the Christmas dinner in Odell for Travis' work, but it was canceled b/c of the snow. Not sure if it will be rescheduled? Travis has been working a ton of hours plowing since Sunday morning which stinks for him, but the over-time is much needed right now! So this week hasn't been quite as busy as I was expecting it to be.

We did have our sonogram and doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon! The sonogram went well - we got to see that the baby has hair and VERY chubby cheeks. He/she was sleeping the whole time so that made the technician's job much easier. According to the measurements, the baby only weighs around 6 1/2 pounds which is a far cry from the almost 12 pounds we were told it could be! They say the baby gains about 1/2 a week from here on out so if I make it to my due date then the baby could gain another 2 pounds or so putting him/her around 8 1/2 pounds total (I knew those of you that were voting for 7 pounds or less were CRAZY! Unless you all were just wishful thinking on my behalf that I would deliver a smaller baby. :o) ) They also moved my due date up to Christmas Day - Merry Christmas! Immediately after the sonogram was my appointment with the doctor. When I got up to the waiting room, there was this old lady with a huge fancy fur coat on all slumped over in one of the chairs and I mean completely slumped over - her face was buried down in her coat and she was slumped over so far that her forehead was practically touching her knees. It had me worried about whether or not she was still alive, but then I heard her snore. I guess she was just really tired of waiting?! Anyway, I've gained about 1/2 pound since my last appointment, the heartbeat was nice and strong and she figures I'm dilated to about a 1. We go back next Wednesday at 4:15 - weekly appointments now! It's getting even more exciting now that we're this close to the end!!

Happy Turkey Day!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Ours actually started last Sunday with a Sancken Thanksgiving in Saunemin and we spent Thanksgiving day at Travis' Aunt Jill and Uncle Brian's house. Talk about GOOD FOOD! The only bummer part is that I can't fit as much food as I want in my belly. :o( We also went to my parent's house for dinner so we were all VERY, VERY TIRED when we got home!

Baby news: I ended up in OB again Wednesday night. I was on day 7 of a headache! The Dr.'s office had to really convince me to go - I was really hoping they could tell me something else besides Tylenol that I could take, but they said that I needed to be evaluated. Well, it's a good thing I listened! Apparently I was dehydrated (despite having just finished my 7th bottle of water for the day on the way to the hospital!) and I was having contractions again as well. They gave me some Imitrex (migraine meds) for the headache and an AWESOME IV for the dehydration issue. It took multiple jabs with the needle to get the IV started - first she digging in the top of my left hand and couldn't get it threaded so then she switched to my right hand and it took two attempts to finally get it going. Those of you that know how much I HATE needles can be assured that even though I was pretending to be brave, inside I was a shaky, sweaty mess and I wanted to punch the nurse!! Since I was also having contraction again, the nurse checked me to see if I had started dilating and even though I haven't the baby has definitely dropped. She said the baby's head was RIGHT THERE and she had to literally reach around it to check for dilation. We were released a few hours later. I felt fine during Thanksgiving Day, but that night was a different story! First of all, my heartburn was AWFUL - probably the worst it's ever been. I finally went downstairs at around 1:00 am to see if I could sleep sitting up in the recliner, but things just quickly went downhill from there. I started vomiting and running a low-grade fever plus I have a super bad cough so that wasn't helping b/c every cough meant that I was pee'ing my pants (which I am SO tired of doing by the way!). The last time I looked at the clock was 4:10, but then I fell asleep on the couch, woke up and went back up to bed around 6:00. So far today the fever is gone and I'm not vomiting anymore, but the cough is still driving me nuts and I have ZERO energy. Every time I cough I feel as though I'm going to cough the baby right out. Oh - and I am definitely waddling which is cute too! :o) I did make it to Walmart to pick up the last few items I needed for the hospital bags - I have a feeling we won't make it to our due date so that's put a fire under my butt to get the bags ready.

As far as the daycare goes, I'm done till probably February or so. As yucky as I feel and as often as I'm having "issues", we decided it would be smart to go ahead and close down. No reason for me to be lifting little ones and on my feet all day at this point. It'll make things rough financially, but we need to be smart about this!

Now that December is just a couple of days away (hard to believe!) we've got a lot of busy days/nights coming up. We'll see just how many we make it to! Tomorrow is my cousin's boy's birthday party in Towanda and I think I'm going to try to get a bit of Christmas shopping done as well while I'm still somewhat mobile. Plus tomorrow night we have a little gathering in town for my sister-in-law's birthday - she's 23 today, so young!! :o) Monday is the Christmas dinner for Travis' work so we'll be heading to that, Lexi & I have hair appointments on Tuesday night, we have our final sonogram and next doctor's appointment Wednesday afternoon and the list goes on and on! I should have more time on my hands to keep this blog updated so keep checking back!

I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day!

Doctor's Appointment Update

We had another appointment yesterday afternoon. It was another quick in-and-out one - I think we were in the waiting room longer than the exam room! I've gained 3 pounds since my last 2-week appointment and the heartbeat was nice and strong (around 160 bpm). She said the contractions that I am having are probably due to being on my feet so much during the day. I feel like I'm sitting all the time, but I guess I'm not sitting enough! I am starting to notice some swelling in my ankles which is expected as we get closer to the end. We go back on December 3rd for our final sonogram (we're hoping to find out what the baby is this time!) and our next regular appointment is immediately after that. Then we'll start going weekly - the end is drawing near!

Here are a couple of pictures - the first one is one that I attempted to take of myself at about 32 weeks and the second one Lexi took last night and I'm 34 1/2 weeks. Enjoy!

Already a trouble-maker!

Travis and I ended up in OB last night around 9:00 or so. At about 7:45, I started having sudden severe lower back pain. After talking with a close friend who also happens to be a nurse, we decided that we better play it safe and head to the hospital. When we got up to the OB department, the nurses had me pee in a cup to make sure that the back pain wasn't from a urinary tract infection and then they asked me 100 questions and hooked me up to a couple of machines. One was to keep track of the baby's heartbeat and the other was to monitor any contractions I might have been having. Come to find out I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes! The first thing the nurse had me try was drinking 2 large cups of ice water and then emptying my bladder. Sometimes just doing this will make contractions stop, but of course it didn't. She also went ahead and checked me to make sure that I hadn't started dialiting which I haven't. Apparently there is an outer and an inner cervix (?) and my outer cervix is dilated to a 2 which is of no concern and my inner cervix is still completely closed which is good. Finally, they decided to give me a shot of Terbutaline in the back of my arm to try to stop the contractions which didn't work - I was still having them every few minutes! They could give me 3 shots within a 60-minute time span so 20 minutes later she gave me another *awesome* shot in the arm and this seemed to do the trick! We were back home around Midnight or so and today I went ahead and closed the daycare just so I could rest. My back is killing me again and the nurses just think it's par for the course so a heating pad is my new best friend! Our next regular appointment is next Wednesday so hopefully there will be no more excitement between now and then. Lexi said she would pray for me and the baby today - I told her to pray that the baby keeps on cookin' because it's not time for the timer to go off yet!

Time for an update

We survived Halloween! Lexi was with her dad and Patrick was with his mom; so we trick-or-treated with Kiegan. He was Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean this year. We also were 'wild' and let him walk around a few of the nicer subdivisions this year instead of just sticking to family member's houses. So needless to say we have TONS of candy and that makes me a very happy pregnant mom!! I would post some Halloween pictures, but guess what...we never even thought to take any. :o)

Lexi has had her first Brownie meeting and I think she really enjoyed it! It sounds like they may be going to Medieval Times on the 15th and since that is Kiegan's birthday I'm thinking about also taking Kiegan and Patrick because I know both of the boys would just love it. If you don't know what Medieval Times is all about, check out the website: http://www.medievaltimes.com/home.aspx

Baby news: I'm 32 weeks now! We had an appt. yesterday afternoon and Dr. Nye actually measured my belly for the first time. His immediate reaction? "You are going to have a very BIG baby!" He made the comment of it being a 12 1/2 pound baby - I assume jokingly, but that's all Travis needed to hear to be a proud daddy and want to tell everybody! We have our final sonogram at 36 weeks which is when they'll be able to get a better idea of just how big the baby is and the position that it's in. Dr. Nye said that if it looks as thought the baby is really going to be as big as he thinks it's going to be then they'll offer me the option of having a c-section, but if anyone knows me at all - I'll quickly say 'no thank you'. I prefer to try to do it all naturally (no drugs, epidural, etc.) if possible - I was able to with both Lexi & Kiegan so hopefully I can with this one as well. Travis also got to thinking last night that he hopes it's a boy if it's going to be such a moose (which by the way is what he wants to name it - 'Moose' - yikes!). I have also not gained any weight since my last 2-week appointment so the doctor said that I'm doing a great job of staying on track as far as weight gain goes. I'll admit that I am getting to be very uncomfortable and my energy level is quickly going down. A part of me wishes that I could go ahead and close my daycare earlier than I'm planning because I feel bad that I don't have the energy I need to for my kids, but it's going to be hard enough not getting paid for the time I already plan to be closed! Also, my lower back is ON FIRE especially at the end of the day - turning from side-to-side during the night is extremely painful for me. I hate to complain so much b/c I really do enjoy pregnancy, but these last few weeks are going to be rough I think! I suppose if the baby is as big as the doctor thinks then it's probably hogging every bit of possible room and making me feel so uncomfortable. We have our next appointment 2 weeks from today and then we should be having our final sonogram 2 weeks after that - I know I plan to find out what the baby is (it drives me nuts not knowing!) and I think Travis is wanting to know as well. We probably won't post anything on here if we do find out because we know that a lot of people will want to just be surprised since it's so close to the end anyway, but if you want to know just ask us!!

(I usually keep my political opinions to myself, but I have to say YAY OBAMA!!! I knew he'd smash McCain and I feel a positive change is finally going to happen.)

New pictures!

Ok - finally! Here are some pictures of my ever-expanding waistline. Of course I wore a black shirt today to help make me look "slimmer". :o) I'll be 30 weeks (7 1/2 months) this coming Sunday. Enjoy!!

What an easy week!

The chicken pox still have not hit Kiegan, but they've blessed four of my daycare kids so far and a daycare parent! So my days this week will be very easy which is nice to have sometimes. I told Lori that she doesn't even need to bother coming this week since the most I'll have at one time is three maybe four kids (not including our own).

Last Friday I had an all-day DCFS training. It was ok - I did win a FREE banana split from DQ! They had different sessions throughout the day that you could pick & choose to go to, but most of them I felt were geared more towards teachers. I wrote on my survey thingy that it would be nice to have more topics that were geared towards issues that daycare workers have to deal with. I also put my name down as someone that was willing to help organize next year's training. So we'll see if I get a call!

In baby news - all is well! I have some sort of a skin infection that is driving me nuts - itchy, itchy, itchy! So I've got some meds I have to take for that. I did put together a note to my daycare parents letting them know my plans for maternity leave. Assuming all goes according to plan, my last day will be December 19th and I'll open back up on February 2nd. I'm also sending a survey home with my parents for them to fill out about how they feel things are going within the daycare. I figure my time off will be a good time to re-vamp things or consider new ideas for when I open back up in the new year.

I gave Travis his Christmas present early - a new recliner - this thing is a MONSTER! We had to re-arrange the living room to make it fit better. It sure is cozy though! I thought I'd be able to sleep in it at night when SOMEBODY is snoring or hogging the bed, but for some reason it's not very comfortable for sleeping. Travis said my Christmas present this year is going to be him finally putting up the automatic garage door that he got me last year for Christmas. That's fine with me, but I'll believe it when I see it! :o)

That's really it for now - the kids have their weekly tutoring at The Achieve Center tonight. Oh and Lexi is thinking about joining Brownies this year which I think she'll enjoy!

P.S. - The batteries on our camera are dead, but once they're charged I promise you'll get to see a picture of my big ol' belly!

Back to school

Lexi headed back to school yesterday although she woke up pretty sad in the morning because she wanted to stay home with me some more. I'll admit that it was nice having her home! Her face has really cleared up and only has a few bigger scabs that need to go away still. Her back and front are still pretty covered though. I guess some of the kids in her class were saying/doing stupid things to her because of how she looked. Kids can be so mean! Kiegan is still showing no signs of having the pox and I haven't had any kids in my daycare get them either, but I guess if any of them are going to then it will start to show up sometime this week or next.

We had a doctor's appointment this afternoon. Everything seems to be fine....I guess....the doctor was in the room for maybe a good 3-4 minutes this time, but that was only because I had a question for her and I had to remind her that I was suppose to get my Rhogam shot at this appointment. I also had to ask her about my blood pressure because the nurse thought it was a bit high and after she looked at it, she agreed that it was border line. I have a feeling she wouldn't have even bothered looking if I hadn't brought it up. I just can't get over the difference between this doctor and my old doctor. Dr. Hable would have been checking me for swelling, asking me questions about how I was feeling and if certain things were ok, etc. - I was very spoiled by him! So anyway, because there was some confusion about my Rhogam shot, I wasn't able to get it today and have to go back another day this week. My next regular appointment is in two weeks (yep, we're already down to our two-week visits!).

Lexi Update

Today has probably been Lexi's roughest day yet. Her temperature still jumps up to 103 when the Tylenol & Motrin wear off plus she has spots absolutely everywhere, including the bottoms of her feet and other not-so-fun areas that are making it difficult for her to walk. I was hoping to get some pictures of her today to post, but the camera is still in Travis' truck from vacation and he's been gone all day in the field. Lexi went to some garage sales with me at 8:00 this morning and just hung out in the van while I walked and looked around. I think she just wanted to get out of the house for a bit, but it wore her out. She laid down on the couch as soon as we got home and dozed off. Then my mom stopped by and Lexi decided she wanted to go to Mamaw's house, but it sounds like she slept most of the time she was there too. She tried to take an oatmeal bath tonight, but I think most of the spots are starting to burst open so the bath did nothing but burn her so that didn't help any! Needless to say there have been lots of tears today. :o( I wish there was one more day to the weekend so she could rest before having a house full of noisy kids.

On a Kiegan note - I decided to try to do Travis' job and give Kiegan a hair cut. I knew that Travis just used his beard trimmer and that he put it on setting #5; so I grab a chair and outside we go. I took a first "cut" at his hair and I practically scalped him!! I called Travis in a panic to make sure that setting #5 was what he used and he said it was, but apparently I forgot to put the attachment onto the end of the trimmer. Crap!! So I had to finish the haircut without the attachment and the poor child is pretty much bald now - great haircut with the cold weather that's suppose to be coming this week, huh? He has swimming in PE this week so I told him he'd be the fastest swimmer because of his bald head. That was my attempt at finding the silver lining in the situation. Dumb mom.

In other news, I'm 27 weeks today. Only 13 more weeks left - hard to believe! We go back to the doctor on the 7th. I've been feeling good - the heartburn is definitely kicking in and my back and pelvis are sore most of the time. Flipping from one side to the other during the night is NOT an easy task anymore. It also doesn't help that I haven't been sleeping very well because Travis' snoring is so horrible. It doesn't matter if he sleeps on his back, stomach or either of his sides - the snoring is there. Plus he's so oblivious to the fact that I'm even in the bed with him that he tries to sleep on the entire bed and I'm left with a sliver of an edge to sleep on. So the past two nights I've ended up sleeping on the couch which is not at all comfortable. I know he feels bad. :o( I certainly don't think I've put on as much weight this time around as I did with Lexi & Kiegan which is nice! I gained 40 pounds with Lexi and 60 pounds with Kiegan. I'm sure it makes a difference that I'm doing daycare now which requires me to be on my feet most of the day compared to back then when I was sitting most of my day away at State Farm.

I hope everyone had a great weekend - I need to plan my menu for this week before going to bed!

Beware the pox!

As some of you may have heard, we thought Lexi came home from school with the chicken pox last week. She was feeling yucky and had a few spots on her, but after a warm bath (which is suppose to bring the bumps out faster) the spots were gone! Well, yesterday (Wednesday) morning Lexi woke up saying she wasn't feeling well - I just figured she wanted a day home from school b/c her brother was home sick on Tuesday so I convinced her to go to school anyway. After she got off the bus that afternoon, she looked terrible and was running a low grade fever. She went up to her room to lay down for awhile and eventually the vomiting started. She slept through the night and I kept her home and in her room today. WELL....she came downstairs around 3:00 this afternoon saying that she was starting to feel really yucky again and she showed me this spot on her wrist. It looked kind of like a blister/pimple type of a thing and then I noticed that she had more of the same spots on her neck, cheeks and even in her ear and on the roof of her mouth. I took her temperature and it was 103 so I pretty much knew that she officially had the chicken pox! I called the doctor anyway just because I wasn't 100% sure what chicken pox looked like and she has an appointment tomorrow morning, but the nurse said that if her temperature doesn't go down (we have to alternate Tylenol and Motrin) or if she gets more spots in her mouth then I have to take her to the ER. I guess because she already has some in her ears and mouth then they're already going internal and that can cause problems such as her throat closing up so she can't eat, drink or swallow. Yikes! I told Kiegan to give her a great big hug when he got home from school - I'm hoping he gets them too so that they'll get a natural immunity to them (I'm not one that goes for that chicken pox vaccination stuff). I'm sure the next week or so will not be the funnest! If any of you have kids that you want to get the chicken pox, just bring them on over and Lexi can give them a great big hug. :o) I did have one of my daycare mom's that wanted her kids to be all around Lexi before she took them home b/c she wants them to get it. I also have other daycare families that won't be bringing their little ones until I give them the all clear sign which is fine - I told them all it's however they want to handle it.

So that's our update for now! Off to bed!!

I have an assistant!

After receiving 35+ calls from the ad I placed in the Pontiac paper for an assistant, I finally settled on someone. Lori Boatman started working for me on Monday and boy has she been a big help, especially since I'm not suppose to be picking the children up! She comes every day from 9:00-1:00 - quiet time is from 1:00-3:00 and there's just no reason for her to sit here for 2 hours doing nothing. Maybe in the future there will be a need for her to stay longer. She also belongs to St. Mary's Church and has a daughter in 6th grade - the fact that she's older is very reassuring to me because she's much more reliable than most young people these days. She has also volunteered the past six school years at St. Mary's so she has plenty of experience with large groups of children. I'll admit that I didn't interview everyone that called me. I decided that it would have taken me WEEKS to get through everyone and I already had one family in my care that was in desperate need of help transporting to/from preschool. Lori and I clicked right away during her interview and her experience with children and the comforting feeling I got from her made me realize that she would be a perfect fit. Not to mention the fact that she wanted this job as something to fill her time while her daughter was in school AND the fact that she didn't have little ones that she would have to bring with her was a big plus too! (Most of the others I interviewed had babies or toddlers of their own that would have been a part of the daycare which means they would have taken up spots that I could have used for paying families!)

In other family news, school is going ok for Lexi & Kiegan. They both struggle at times - Lexi always has and Kiegan we think is just lazy and doesn't put forth much effort. I think their lack of interest in reading books has something to do with their lack of interest in school. This is VERY frustrating for someone like myself who LOVES to read and who took school very seriously and graduated in the top 10 of my class! How in the world did I end up with two kids that don't like to read and that don't take school seriously?! SO - one idea I came up with was for us to hit the library on Friday nights. I found a book list of recommended books for 3rd and 5th graders that I think they'll both enjoy and this is what we're going to do at bedtime instead of 1 hour of TV. It's a starting point, right? We're also considering enrolling them in The Achieve Center tutoring program again - extra tutoring never hurt anyone.

Lexi has suddenly had a huge interest in science which I think is just awesome (the fact that she shows an interest in anything is awesome!). So I signed her up for an all-day program that ISU puts on at State Farm called Millenium Girls. It's on October 4th and is for girls in grades 5th thru 8th. They do such things as create 3-D models, extract DNA, design new animation and learn how to make good money choices (which Lexi desperately needs - just ask Travis!). They also provide the girls breakfast and lunch. She is really looking forward to it!

Kiegan has been talking about playing basketball this fall at the Boys & Girls Club. We really hope he still wants to when sign-up comes around. The kid's been packing on the pounds due to his lack of movement and his ability to sit on the couch for hours and do absolutely nothing. The exercise would definitely be good for him!

In some sad news, Patrick's grandpa on his mom's side passed away suddenly last weekend from a heart attack. Kids seem to handle tragedy so much better than adults do, but we know he'll miss his grandpa terribly.

Not a whole lot is going on this coming weekend. Travis & I have our make-up Catholic class thingy that we were suppose to take BEFORE we got married and get this - the name of the class is Christian Sexuality. So imagine the looks we'll get when we walk in and everybody notices that I'm obviously pregnant! Oh well, maybe we can give a few pointers or something. :o) On Sunday, Travis is heading up north to go muddin' with the guys. We decided that it probably wasn't a very good idea for me to go this year so instead my mom, Kiegan & I are going to go to Jones' Country Garden so I can get my pumpkins. I love decorating for Fall! Lexi will be at her dad's unless she calls and decides she wants to join the fun!

That's all for now - all of my daycare kids will be waking up shortly so I better get ready!

Doctor's Appointment

We had a doctor's appointment this afternoon. I had to arrive 15-20 minutes early for the glucose test which I've never done before. I had to drink this really sweet orange drink within 5 minutes (the lab chick said it's basically liquid sucrose with orange flavoring to make it somewhat tolerable to drink) and then come back an hour later for them to draw my blood. I guess this tells them if I'm at risk for gestational diabetes. During my hour wait I had my regular appointment with Dr. Ingram. I've only gained four pounds since my last appointment and this still only puts me about 7 pounds more than what I weighed before I became pregnant. Everything was fine and I asked Dr. about the pressure I was feeling and about my pubic bone being so sore. She said that that baby must be putting a lot of pressure on my pubic bone and that we'll have to keep an eye on that because we don't want my pubic bone to spread (?) too early. In the meantime, I'm suppose to try to relax with my feet up (she said simply sitting down won't cut it) and I'm to no longer carry my daycare children which could make things interesting. It seems like I've always got one on my hip! So back we go in 4 weeks.....

Back from vacation!

Travis & I have safely returned from Ohio. We left last Friday evening (8/29 - my mutha's birthday) and headed to the Fairbury race track with the camper. We camped there Friday night, watched the Prairie Dirt Classic Saturday night and then pulled out Sunday morning for Ohio. Billy Moyer, #21 late model driver, had himself quite a money-making weekend! He won $5,000 Friday night at Farmer City, $10,000 Saturday night in Fairbury and another $3,000 at Eldora Speedway in Ohio by winning the Baltes Classic. Can you imagine winning $18,000 in just 3 days by driving really fast in a circle?! Maybe I should let Travis buy himself a race car.....YEAH RIGHT!

We arrived at Eldora Speedway early Sunday afternoon. Travis & I had every intention of taking pictures while we were out there, but for those of you that don't know this yet - we are AWFUL at remembering to take pictures of anything! We decided to find a camping spot at the usual site that we camp at, but apparently we were one of very few people that didn't reserve a spot this year because the closest we could get was 17 rows back which put us about a mile and a half away from the track. Now that is a long, long way for my pregnant self to walk, but we set up camp anyway because we were told that we could drive up to the track and walk from the parking lot. Ok - I can handle that! We relaxed that first afternoon and watched the Baltes Classic that evening or at least I tried to relax - my allergies were awful the entire time we were there. I either carried a handful of Kleenex or the whole box everywhere I went. By the time we headed home yesterday, I was on my 5th box of Kleenex!

On Monday we decided to try to find Walmart to buy our meat and other cold stuff that we needed for the week. That was quite an adventure! I certainly had no clue where we were going and Travis was trying to remember from the one and only time he had been there a handful of years ago. Travis finally asked one of our buddies where it was and wouldn't you know it was probably the only turn in this nearby town that we didn't take. Once we found it, I noticed a Bob Evan's Restaurant right next to it and convinced Travis to take me out to breakfast just this one time while we were out there. Yum-O! (That's my Rachael Ray reference for Travis who just LOVES her - ask him about it!) While we were at Walmart, we decided that Bruiser needed a bigger kennel in the camper (yes, he came on vacation with us). At home he's use to a kennel that's about 100 times bigger than he is and in the camper he can't even turn around in the one we've been using and he hates it - not to mention that he's learned how to break out of it. So Daddy got the spoiled dog a new kennel a size smaller than what we have at home and then decided that he also needed a cozier pillow to sleep on. Bruiser seemed much happier with his new home, but I think he still ended up sleeping with us about 1/2 the time which was fine with me. He was such a great dog the whole time we were out there - we very rarely had to put him on his leash. He would always stay right next to us - particularly Daddy who he is so attached to and it was quite a sight to everyone out there to see big ol' Travis babying this little 5 pound dog - kissing him, carrying him, talking baby talk to him - they were quite the pair! Bruiser did get quite a bit of attention from our friends out there and even strangers who couldn't resist coming over to pet him. He was also very protective of us and would growl and bark at anyone he didn't recognize. Daddy was very proud of him!

Eventually, we ended up packing the camper back up and heading over to another area where the rest of our friends were camping. We were getting lonely all by ourselves in the other spot and there's only so much the two of us can talk to each other about. So our new spot was within walking distance of the track and we were surrounded by all sorts of people we knew. We also ended up hitting Walmart a couple more times and the laundromat. With me sneezing 500 times a day, I was pretty much pee'ing through all of the shorts that I had brought! The baby is sitting really, really low so a cough or a sneeze usually sends me straight to the bathroom or leaves me with a trail running down my leg (cute, huh?). At first we bought a couple more pairs of shorts at Walmart, but I was going through those quickly too and finally we hit the laundromat to wash a load of clothes (definitely all of my shorts) and Travis won Bruiser 3 new "girlfriends" from one of the video games they had there with the crane that you had to use to try to pick up stuffed animals. Let's just say that Bruiser is not shy about showing his love for his girlfriends in front of other people! He was quite entertaining and is really not very nice to his girlfriends - one of them even lost an ear during one of the escapades. Oh and we also found this awesome soft-serve ice cream shop at a little town just a few miles away - I think we went there 3 times or so? They had 24+ flavors of ice cream to pick from! Travis, being the wild man he is, got himself a chocolate/vanilla twist (oh boy!) and a Andes Mint blizzard type thing. I tried the Black Cherry ice cream, Bubble Gum ice cream and had a warm apple dumpling with caramel sauce and vanilla spice ice cream on it. SO GOOD!!!

The rest of our time there was nice and relaxing. I hung out in the camper quite a bit of the time while Travis was at the track - it must be an only-child thing with me b/c I thoroughly enjoy being by myself. I read some cookbooks, watched movies, played on the laptop, finished a book - it was nice! I did go with everybody to watch the big race Saturday night and I have to admit that the heat races were more exciting than the actual 100-lap race itself, but it was fun.

We had plans of getting each of the kids a t-shirt while we there, but instead they received an even bigger gift! We drove by this one corner many, many times while we were out there and the go-kart sitting there with the For Sale sign always got our attention. Finally, we decided to call the number listed and the guy that was selling it said that he bought it brand new about 2 years ago and only drove it maybe a dozen times so it was in pretty much perfect condition! It even had a roll cage on it and a seat belt (safety first!) and his asking price was a steal compared to what a new one would cost us. So, because our kids are not spoiled at all, we decided that the go-kart would be a nice addition to the collection of toys the kids have in the shed (so far it's just bicycles and a 4-wheeler) and we bought it up and slapped it in the bed of the truck. They were all excited about it when we got home and of course about 3 laps around the yard and it ran out of gas and our gas cans were all empty. :o( Travis has to figure something out so Patrick can drive it - the poor kid's so small that he has at least a foot to grow before he can reach the pedals! But he has no problem with the 4-wheeler so at least he has something he can drive around.

Although vacation was nice and we enjoyed our time away, I was happy to come back home. Travis felt like he could cry as we were pulling away from the track - he's in Heaven when he's there, but there will be next year!

In other news - I have my next doctor's appt. on Wednesday afternoon. I have to arrive early to drink this really sweet drink and then an hour later they check me for gestational diabetes. I never had to do this test with Lexi & Kiegan so it'll be something new for me. It's hard to believe that I'm already 6 months along - the time is really flying by!

Maybe some day I'll get some more pictures on this thing.....but don't hold your breath for them. :o)

Time to play catch up....

Let's see - what all has happened since my last blog? I had a doctor's appointment on the 20th - just my usual monthly appointment. Everything must be ok! The doctor is in the room with us for about 2 1/2 minutes which I admit is frustrating to me. We don't really have any questions or anything for her and I'm sure if we did that she'd stay and answer them, but I'm so use to the doctor I had when I was pregnant with Lexi & Kiegan. Dr. Hable would spend so much time asking me about how I was feeling or if this was ok or that was ok and it didn't matter to him if he had other patients waiting because he wanted everyone to have that personal attention from him. I also felt like he took time to check me and the baby over - the doctor I'm seeing now hasn't even started measuring my stomach or anything. All she does is listen to the heartbeat for about 30 seconds and says "Have any questions? No? Ok - see you in a month!" Oh well - I know she's good at what she does and I suppose that's all that matters. Fancy doctors are just very different from small town docs. Oh - I did have Lexi take a picture of me at 21 weeks so I'll try to post that picture soon!

Travis & I leave for Ohio early Sunday morning - we're ready for some time away! We're staying for a whole week this year. I've got our menu planned out and everything (I needed to make sure that I was going to be able to eat good!). Most of the food I'm going to make Friday night to cut back on preparation while we're out there. I think we're taking the camper to the Fairbury race track either Friday night or early Saturday morning and camping there all day/night Saturday for the Prairie Dirt Classic and then we'll pull out of there bright and early Sunday morning to head to Eldora Speedway in Ohio. It'll be nice to be able to just sit and relax for a few days without having to wait on people hand and foot! :o)

Our kids have all started school by now and they seem to be doing well so far. Patrick doesn't have a whole lot to say about 1st grade and somehow he still never remembers what he's learning when I ask him about it! :o) We're just really hoping that the new teacher this year will help 1st grade be a better experience for him than Kindergarten was (we don't want him visiting the principal's office as much). Lexi & Kiegan of course had homework when they came home on the first day of school, but I told them that once you get up into the higher grades (Lexi - 5th and Kiegan - 3rd) that you can probably expect to have more homework! So far they've both been great about sitting down and getting it done with no fussing - hopefully that will last. :o)

My daycare is really booming! I finally broke down and put an ad in the paper for a part-time (eventually going to full-time) assistant and holy cow - the response has been unbelieveable! My ad started last Thursday and since then I have received over 25 phone calls which is GREAT, but it is somewhat overwhelming at the same time. So I interview someone every night this week and every night the week we return from vacation. AND to top all of that off, one of my daycare moms works at the hospital and she said that just about every day for the past week and a half she's had people at the hospital ask if I had any openings (which I don't) and just yesterday she had FIVE new people ask her about my daycare. Oh and I've got 2 families "on standby" for me to hire an assistant so that they can start bringing their children here. So Travis and I are excited about the prospects of all of this interest in my daycare and are looking into possible options in the future to expand my business!

No big baby news....

So we had our sonogram this afternoon and of course we were hoping to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl, but the sonogram tech. couldn't really tell. We just know that there's a baby in there! She said that at 20 weeks, boy parts and girl parts look pretty much the same on a sonogram so she didn't want to guess at what it was and then be wrong. It weighs about 13 ounces which is a few ounces heavier than average babies at 20 weeks (not surprising I suppose considering the size of Travis). We see Dr. Ingram next Wednesday for our regular monthly appointment, but from what the tech. seemed to say everything looked good! We will have another sonogram closer to the end of the pregnancy so I suppose if we still want to find out we can then. :o)

Weekend update....

Well, our weekend was fairly busy as usual! Friday night was spent freezing corn - that's a fun job! There's just no way to speed up that process. The kids went with my mom to the Relay For Life at the high school to do the Youth Lap and eat dinner there with her. When she brought them back home (and was nice enough to bring us dinner), they BOTH decided that they wanted to spend the entire night there with her. I knew that would be an interesting ordeal; so I slept with my cell phone right next to me in case one of them (Kiegan) wanted to come back home, but I never received a phone call! BUT they were both completely ate up by mosquitos - especially on their faces!

Saturday afternoon was the St. Mary's Golf Outing - we had a really good time! I was worried that it would be rained out since it was raining when we woke up that morning, but it cleared up by the time it started (but we did get poured on at the very last hole). Trevor and Michael partnered with us which I think made it much more fun than it would have if we were partnered with people we didn't know. It's kind of hard to play pranks on strangers, but family is another story (needless to say Travis & I out-pranked the two of them.) We stayed for the dinner afterwards, but not the prizes since we knew none of us were going to win one anyway - plus it was getting late. Travis & I were suppose to go to a party that night, but after stopping to visit with his parents who just got home from Sturgis, our old bones were ready for bed.

The rest of this week has been pretty uneventful. I did close the daycare today due to lack of sleep last night. Lexi apparently came down with something and was vomiting most of the night and most of the day today. We spent our night on the couch and got very little sleep; so I decided that it probably wasn't the best idea to have a house full of kids on zero sleep plus Lexi running to the bathroom puking. She did finally fall alseep around 11:00 and slept for about 2 hours or so, woke up and soaked in the tub and has been doing much better since - thank goodness! Tomorrow will be an early day for the daycare anyway since we have our BIG appointment tomorrow afternoon to hopefully find out what the baby is! For those of you that want to be surprised, I won't put 'boy' or 'girl' in the title of the post, but something like 'Sonogram results' and then you all can decide for yourself if you want to read on and find out. :o)

Reunion....or was it?

So Saturday night was Travis' 10-year class reunion. Dinner started at 7:00 at Baby Bulls - the two of us are big fans of Baby Bull's food (especially the Gyros), but this food was NOT GOOD. Neither of us could even finish what was on our plates - I think the roll with butter was the best part of the whole meal! It was also sad Travis' class was one of the bigger classes and only about 50 people showed up and half of those were guests! After dinner some of us went to Bob & Ringo's for a couple of drinks (my water was AWESOME!) - there were a few more of his classmates there that didn't attend the dinner. Then we went to the Corner Junction for the remainder of the night. It was really pretty sad the number of kids in his class that are still into drugs and partying all the time. I mean we like to hang out at the bar with our friends every now and then, but there's a time when everybody needs to grow up, right?? Plus it really isn't much fun to be the sober one at a bar full of loud, drunk, obnoxious people. I'm surprised I still have my hearing after being surrounded by people that felt the need to yell louder than the person next to them!

Yesterday we were able to get Carol & Ike's bedroom furniture - I've never owned such nice stuff! In fact, I've never slept on a bed that had a headboard and footboard - I'm use to just plain ol' mattresses. It feels like we have a whole new bedroom - I just love it!

Well, Monday is done and over with. I've been getting a lot of emails off of my website lately for people looking for daycare which is good for me, but I don't have the room to take on anymore kids right now. Don't get me wrong - it's nice to be full, but I do wish that I had a part-time or full-time assistant to help me and then I'd be able to help more parents out. I'm hoping to be able to work with the high school co-op program - I figure it'll help the girls that are taking the daycare class because they'll be able to get the experience and it'll benefit me because I'll have their help! So we'll see what comes of that!

Ok - Travis & Kiegan just got home from checking the roads to see if they need chipped; so I better head out there and see if we're gonna start on corn tonight. Later! :o)

I'm a liar.

So I lied to everyone - we did NOT get the table & chairs. I guess the lady's husband already promised it to a co-worker and didn't tell her about it. I was pretty bummed - so now we're back to looking for something cheap again! It wouldn't be that big of a deal if DCFS wasn't all over me about the table/chairs we have now possibly hurting a daycare kid. DCFS....don't even get me started on them......

Oh and I also lied about going to the tractor pulls! They canceled them due to poor track conditions so that was another bummer!

Looks like we've got some HOT weather coming over the next week! I've been trying to get my daycare kids outside in the a.m. when it's still decent, but the past couple of times the kids have been complaining of the heat and asking to go back inside where it's cool.

Here's a chicken tip: I have a lot of recipes that call for chicken that's already been cooked and shredded. Usually I pull out the George Foreman Grill and cook them in there and shred them up, but I read in one of my daycare newsletters to cook a couple of whole chickens and have that on hand. So I bought a couple and after throwing up in my mouth while taking the nasty stuff out of the inside of it (neck bone and giblets), I put them in the crockpot with a cup or so of water and let them cook all day. By the evening, I could hardly get the chicken out of the crockpot because it was just falling off the bone! I picked it all apart and put it in freezer bags in 2 cup portions so now when I need already cooked chicken, I can just pull a bag out of the freezer! One chicken gave me about 6 cups when shredded.

New craving!

Some of you may know that I am in love with The Food Network - there are very few shows on there that I don't like to watch. I do have my favorites and Paula Dean is definitely one of them - there's nothing better than good southern cooking. Sure it's not the healthiest, but that's what makes it so good! Anyway, the other night she made a Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich - I was craving it immediately! She puts honey and cinnamon in with the peanut butter and then dips the sandwiches in cinnamon & sugar after they're fried. Of course we were out of bananas so I picked some up the next time we were at the store and fried up a couple of sandwiches for me & Kiegan. His first reaction was "Yuck!" until he tried a bite - we are both addicted! I want to eat one for every single meal and between every single meal! Here's a link to the recipe in case any of you want to be brave enough to try one - the recipe makes 4 sandwiches:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/paulas-fried-peanut-butter-and-banana-sandwich-recipe/index.html

No other news this week - I've been sleeping in Lexi's bed while she's at her dad's because SOMEBODY is having some serious snoring issues this week. I never knew how uncomfortable her bed was!

We also broke down and bought a dining room table and chairs - it's from back in the "olden" days (the chairs are all slingback chairs), but it was only $50 and should do the job until we can afford to buy something nicer. Plus it seats six which is what we need! The table and chairs we have now are just falling apart everywhere and I don't think there's much more Travis can do to keep it all together - Gorilla Glue and nails can only do so much.

I think we're going to the tractor pulls at the McLean County Fair tomorrow night. It's dollar day so Travis thinks you get in for $1 and everything costs $1. Cheap night of entertainment other than the gas it'll take to get there! Travis was wanting to see the demolition derby, but it's Saturday night at 7:00 which is when the dinner starts for his 10-year class reunion (he's getting so old!). I'm sure I'll be the DD that evening. :o)

All for now!

Future Golf Pro?

You just might be reading the blog of a future golf pro...........YEAH RIGHT! :o) We broke down this past weekend and bought a set of golf clubs for me and broke them in Saturday morning at Wolk Creek. It was a really fun and relaxful morning for us (even though neither of us are that good at it). We signed up for the St. Mary's Golf Outing on August 9th so we thought it'd be a good idea to get some practice in before it rolled around. The kids were hitting some balls around in the yard and really seemed to enjoy it - Kiegan even said he'd like to learn how to golf so we'll see!

Our whole weekend was pretty relaxing. Travis & I rented some movies yesterday afternoon and just stayed home all evening watching them and eating and eating and eating some more. It was nice to just be able to sit and watch an entire movie with NO interruptions! We would both recommend Mr. Woodcock - FUNNY MOVIE!!

Ok - off to bed so that I'm ready for Monday morning....

Baby Update

We had an appointment Wednesday afternoon. Everything's looking great! Oddly enough I weigh less than I did BEFORE I got pregnant - which is ok I guess. :o) Lexi & Kiegan came with us to hear the heartbeat - they thought that was pretty cool! We go back on August 14th for our 20 week sonogram and hopefully we'll find out if it's a boy or a girl. We're not real sure if/how we'll post the "results" of the sonogram - we don't want Grandma Carol to find out before the baby's born!! ;o) Then our next monthly appointment is the week after. Once I hit 20 weeks, I'll have Lexi take another picture of my belly for me to post.

Lexi's Home!

We got Lexi home last Saturday afternoon! She was happy to come home and we were happy to have her back home - it's strange not having her around for such a long time. Travis and I don't think we'll be sending her back to camp next year and after hearing her stories, Kiegan no longer wants to go! (In fact, the first words out of Lexi's mouth were "I don't want Kiegan going to this camp.") I think she enjoyed the activities that they had going on - she said they went trail riding on the horses, had an all day hike where they saw all sorts of cool things, learned how to shoot guns and more.....BUT the other girls at the camp sounded awful. I realize that there are girls like this at every camp, but I was honestly expecting a higher caliber of young ladies to be attending a church camp (especially with as expensive as it was). Lexi said there was stealing, bullying, yelling, fighting and she also came home knowing more about a certain ADULT topic than I care for her to know about which I have a serious problem with. My understanding was that there would be a camp counselor sleeping in each cabin with the girls, but apparently they all slept in a seperate cabin. I'm hoping they send home a survey or something for me to fill out, but I've already decided that if they don't then I will be sending them my thoughts anyway! It was hard to hear her talk about how she would cry a lot at night because she wanted to come home. SOOOO we learned our lesson, but now she's back home. :o)

We have movement!

So I've been feeling these little movements in my belly lately that feel more like gas bubbles, but this morning I CLEARLY felt baby movement on the left side of my belly! This is the part of pregnancy that I love the most. I still can't feel anything on the outside of my belly, but it's exciting that I can feel it all going on inside. Oh and best of all - I think the sickness is completely gone! I don't even feel sick in the mornings anymore! My biggest complaint now is that I pee just about every time I sneeze. Our kids really get a kick out of that....

We had a good weekend - Friday night Travis & I ate at Olive Garden. He's so funny when he's at a "fancy" restaurant. He had a rough time pronouncing a lot of the stuff on the menu (he said he's use to just saying he wants a #2 Super Sized), but we both loved what we ordered! Afterwards, we went to Home Depot to check out the showers they had. We found a couple that we liked, but decided that first we need to tear out the old shower and fix the walls and the floor first. So we'll see when this all happens.

Sunday morning we took Lexi to Bloomington to meet her camp bus, she was not the least bit hesitant to tell us bye and hop on! They don't let the kids call home unless there's an emergency or a bad case of home sickness; so I'm assuming things are going great because I've received no phone calls! We've sent her a couple of notes this week and I know a few of you have also sent her notes which I'm sure she is just loving all the mail!

We have Patrick all week and I think the boys are enjoying having Lexi out of their hair. In fact, I really don't see them much during the day - their bedroom seems to be where they stay. The daycare kids are always asking me when 'the two boys' are going to come down to play.

Not much is going on this coming weekend - I'll just be excited to have Lexi come home! Maybe I can convince her to post something on the blog about everything she did at camp? Or maybe she'll at least narrate something to me and I'll do the typing for her. :o)

Pictures!!

Lexi had a great idea to take a new picture of my growing belly every month. So here is a 16-week belly shot!

And here is what the kids THINK my belly is going to look like because "Travis' big baby"is growing in there. :o)

And THIS photo is Lexi's fabulous make-up job on Travis while he was sleeping. You can't really tell in the picture, but his beard and mustache are FULL of black mascara. He was very purty and he took the shock of his new look very well. :o) Oh and yes, he does have pink lip gloss on too - he's not one of those lucky people with naturally pink, pouty lips.

Here are a couple of pictures of Bruiser and one of our cats, Hailey. (Delicious is not a very picture-friendly cat.) As you can tell, they have pretty rough lives! Bruiser spends most of his day sleeping - unless he's being poked at by one of the daycare kids. We don't usually see Hailey during the day, but when we do she seems to like sleeping on top of the dryer or INSIDE the dryer. So I've learned to always look in there before throwing clothes in!

Weekend Plans....

Is it Friday yet? Today has not been one of the best daycare days. First of all, I woke up at about 2:00 this morning with a super sore throat and a stuffed nose which has led to one of my awesome headaches that I seem to get just about every day now. On top of that, one of my daycare mom's brought her son (who I watch a few days a week) along with her other four kids (who I never watch) without even bothering to call and make sure I was ok with it. Which if she would have called first, I would have told her 'no' because having all five of her kids was not what I agreed to and it puts me WAY OVER the number of kids I'm allowed to have. So I didn't say anything when she dropped them off, but I will say something when she picks them up! I was suppose to go with Joanne, Aunt Janet and the kids to see the play "A Jungle Book" in Pontiac, but instead I think I'm going to go to bed. I'm exhausted, my brain feels like it's going to ooze out of my ears and it's only 1:15 in the afternoon.....

Our only major plans for the weekend are to take Lexi on Sunday morning to meet her camp bus in Blm. Friday night, Travis & I are going to Blm. to eat at Olive Garden and then to shop around Menards for a new shower. The one we have now is literally coming apart from the wall and drywall is falling out into the shower. The entire bathroom needs a lot of work from the flooring to the walls to the shower; so we'll see what we find and what we can get done!

Camp Ondessonk

This coming Sunday Lexi leaves for church camp down in Southern Illinois near Ozark (www.ondessonk.com). She is SUPER excited and I am too, but I'm also a little nervous. She's going to be pretty far away from home! We meet the camp bus in Bloomington at 9:00 Sunday morning and she's on her own from there until she comes home the following Saturday afternoon. This year I signed her up for the all girls camp and they'll do things like horseback riding, hiking, swimming, etc. I bought her a couple of disposable cameras so hopefully she'll take some good pictures of some of the stuff she'll be doing and the friends she'll be making. If anyone would like to send her a note or a postcard, here's the address:

Lexi Ziegler
Girls-1
Camp Ondessonk
3760 Ondessonk Rd.
Ozark, IL 62972

Update on Baby Sancken

This coming Sunday I will be 16 weeks already! The morning sickness has been getting better - it seems to happen on Monday mornings (explain that one) and nights that I stay up way too late. So that's better than every day! My belly seems to have really grown the past week or so - I definitely can't wear my regular clothes anymore.

Our appointment last month went well and my due date looks to be December 28th. The doctor is concerned that I keep getting these horrible headaches almost daily - she thinks it's my body trying to tell me I need to rest more. So I try to sit when I can during the day, but that's not easy with a house full of kids! She would actually like me to cut back on my hours/days because she doesn't like that I'm on my feet for 15+ hours a day, but I'm not ready to do that quite yet. Travis has been doing a good job of taking over the laundry and keeping our kids entertained in the evenings so that I can sit or lay down early. Our next appointment is July 23rd and our next ultrasound will be around 20 weeks and we should hopefully be able to find out what we're having! If the baby's anything like it's father, it probably won't cooperate. ;o)

My cravings are apparently sweets which is not like me at all! It seems like I am always baking or making something that's a sweet. Today I made party mix covered with melted white chocolate....oh....my....gosh is it GOOD! The only problem is that I'll probably have it all ate before I can get it off the wax paper and into a bowl!

So overall, things are moving along fantastically!

So it's been awhile....

Ok - so I've failed miserably on keeping our blog up to date. It seems as though my daycare kids go home, I make dinner, we eat and then I go to bed. Tired, tired ALL the time!

We survived our vacation to the indoor water park in Indianapolis. In fact, I think the kids have found themselves a new home! All of them at one point or another said that they wanted to live there. :o)

We started our Saturday morning with the breakfast buffet at the hotel we were staying in. All of the kids could eat free so we figured it wouldn't be that expensive for us 5 adults to eat - boy were we wrong!! The bill was around $90!! The buffet itself was ok - I mean it had a good variety of food, but it was certainly not worth $90. And of course this whole weekend was my mother-in-laws treat so she wouldn't let anybody give her money to help cover the cost of anything.

After breakfast we headed to Castleton Mall where Libby Lu's and RIDEMAKERZ were located. The girls took off for Libby Lu's where they could change into dress up clothes, get their hair done in whatever style they chose, get their nails painted, get their makeup done, etc. Afterwards, they were asked if they wanted to put on a little show which they all agreed to until they learned that they had to do it in the middle of the mall! Then they quickly changed their minds (I would have to).

The boys were taken to RIDEMAKERZ where they could design and build their own remote control cars. This place was AWESOME! They could customize everything from the body of the car to the decals to the tires to the rims. They had an awesome time! Tyler, my sister-in-law Tracy's youngest, was so attached to his car that he didn't let anybody else carry the box it was in even though the box was almost bigger than he was!

So the bummer thing about the girls getting their hair and makeup done that morning was that afterwards we were heading back to the hotel to hit the indoor water park. Bye bye hair and makeup!! But obviously none of them were too upset about it. The indoor water park was a BLAST and believe it or not I actually put on a swimsuit and went swimming too! I loved the lazy river of course and I even hit the water slides with Lexi & Kiegan. Two of the slides you have to ride down on your back - one was faster than the other and Tracy & I didn't care for either one. We both felt as though we were going to have panic attacks! They are completely enclosed so you have no idea which way you're gonna turn or when it's gonna end and it's so hot and humid that it's impossible to breathe. BUT the 3rd slide is one that you can ride a tube down and you can even ride a double tube down with someone else so the kids and I hit that one quite a bit!!

We got home Sunday at a fairly decent time and all in one piece, except for the van! It ended up getting a flat tire, but we didn't really notice it until we were already home. :o) So all-in-all it was a great trip and everyone had an awesome time! If my computer loaded pictures properly, I'd put some on here, but guess what....it doesn't! Sorry!

Weekend Getaway!

Tomorrow the kids and I leave for a fun weekend getaway at Caribbean Cover Indoor Water Park in Indianpolis, Indiana. (http://caribbeancovewaterpark.com/) This is a treat to us all from my mother-in-law - it'll be me and my three kids, Nicole, and Tracy and her three kids. We are SUPER excited to go!! The hotel is attached to the indoor water park so the kids will be able to swim until they can swim no more. Saturday morning Nicole and the boys are going to a shop called Ridemakerz where they can build & design their own toy car or truck while us girls are going to Libby Lu's. I'm sure after that the rest of the day will be spent at the water park. :o)

Not much else is new here - my daycare has no openings left now that I have a family of FOUR starting on Monday. I really enjoy having some older kids that enjoy doing crafts and stuff plus this family of four is all girls - finally I have some girls!!

I've been feeling ok - pretty nauseous most of the day still. I'm hoping it'll end soon - I'm 10 weeks now so hopefully just a few more weeks of throwing up. I'm still tired as can be all day, every day - there's not even words to describe how tired I am. I'm so glad that school is out and Lexi & Kiegan are here every day to help me out. They do a great job of entertaining the older kids AND helping with the babies. My next doctor's appt. is not until the end of this month so I'll have more news then.

Blah....

UGH - I have been sick with the FLU for the past couple of days. I'm feeling a bit better tonight, but it's rough not being able to take most medications because I'm pregnant! Thankfully, Monday at lunch time I made a huge batch of spaghetti which is what we've been having for supper every night since then. I'm afraid we'll all turn into spaghetti if we have it one more night!

Today was Lexi & Kiegan's last full day of school - they are very happy about that! They have tomorrow off and then Friday they go just long enough to get their report cards and go to Mass and that's it! They've both been attending the Achieve Center on Thursday nights for some extra tutoring, but during the summer they only see kids during the day which is pretty much impossible for us. So I think they'll have the summer off from that as well and we'll try to do some extra practice work here at home (hopefully).

Friday is our ultrasound appointment - the kids are going to go with us so that will be fun for them! I'll post what we learn as soon as I'm able to. We're heading to Dawson Lake right after the appointment and won't be back until sometime on Monday; so I may not post again until late Monday or Tuesday night.

Surprise!!

Well my friends & family......we're gonna have a baby!!! This was WAY sooner than we had planned, but God must have decided that now is as good of a time as any. :o) We are both VERY excited - Travis was immediately thrilled, but it took me a bit to feel the excitement because I was wanting us to wait for awhile. We had our first doctor's appointment last Friday (5/16) and they figure that I'm about 8 weeks along with a due date of December 27th - Christmas baby!! We'll have our first sonogram next Friday which will help to determine a more accurate due date - exciting stuff!!

To let our mom's know the good news, we had the nurse at the doctor's office run 2 tests for us and we brought them home and wrapped them up as gifts. I think they were both very surprised at first and then excited. My mother-in-law has already bought me a SUPER cute maternity shirt and my mom emailed me last night saying that she has already bought the baby a sleeper! As far as the kids went, the boys didn't have much of a reaction. Kiegan just said that we need to have twins so that he & Patrick don't fight over who's going to hold the baby. :o) But Lexi was so excited that she suddenly became obnoxiously hyper!!!! She's hoping for a girl of course, but I think that's because we won't let her dress up the dog anymore and she's hoping the baby will be the replacement.

That's all for now - I'll post more later!

Mother's Day Is Near!

I can't believe that we're into May and I had to wake up this morning and turn the furnace back on! Our house was down to 50-degrees and I can't have it that cold with little ones here. Even Bruiser came out of his kennel this morning only to wrap himself up in a blanket that was on the couch.

Mother's Day is just 3 days away! Travis & I had flowers delivered to our mom's today - we just didn't know what else to give them when they've already got everything! They both loved them of course - they were pink/purple Tulips & Iris'. We were hoping to take the kids camping at Dawson Lake, but this weekend will just be way too busy. My aunt is getting married in Minier Saturday afternoon, we'll be in Towanda for a Mother's Day lunch at another of my aunt's houses and then back to Pontiac to Travis' parents for dinner. Another weekend of getting NOTHING accomplished around the house! Oh well - it'll still be there next weekend. :o)

Lexi wrote me the best Mother's Day poem tonight and of course she had to give it to me right away. Enjoy:

I LOVE THAT LADY by Lexi Rose Ziegler

She is kind
She is all mine
My mom
I love that lady

She is always in a hurry
Being late puts her in a fury
My mom
I love that lady

She makes a lot of money (not sure what makes her think that)
She is very funny
My mom
I love that lady

She never has lice (Shoo! That's a good thing!)
She hates the mice
My mom
I love that lady

She is always rich (surely she's not referring to money)
When I'm hurt she kisses it
My mom
I love that lady

She was a pretty bride
She is always by my side
My mom
I love that lady

She bakes a lot of cakes (I think I've baked maybe 2 cakes?)
I love everything she makes
My mom
I love that lady

It doesn't take her awhile
She is always right in style (sweatpants & t-shirts are always in style, right?)
My mom
I love that lady

She makes me smile
Once in a while (I guess that's better than never!)
My mom
I love that lady

She is so sweet it's true
To me and to you
My mom
I love that lady

:o) Mother's Day can't get any better than that!

Off to bed....I'll have a house full of kids tomorrow; so I need to get my rest!

My First Love.....PEPSI

Those of you that know me well enough also know that I LOVE PEPSI! I dream about it, I sing about it, I long for it - ok so maybe I don't do all of those things, but I sure do like it. Well, I've finally decided (and a lot of you will be shocked) to end this relationship. I don't mean that I'll never ever drink a Pepsi, I just mean that we're going to try to not have any at the house to tempt me. What am I drinking instead? Well, plain ol' water is just too boring for me so I've switched to Propel - it's a more expensive drinking habit than Pepsi, but it's certainly better for me in the short term and the long. Not only does it cost more, but I tend to drink about 6 or 7 of them A DAY....seriously! In fact, I'm already on my 3rd one today and it's only 11:00 am! So we'll see if this helps me lose some of this weight I've added on....or maybe it won't make a bit of difference....hmmmmmm.......

What have I gotten myself into?!

So....I see these crazy friends of mine doing these things called "blogs". At first I was like "More power to them, but no thank you!" However, the more I read what they post, the more I realize what an easy and creative way this is to keep those closest to you (although they may not live close to you) informed about the goings-on of life. So why not add one more "to do" to my list! :o)

To start - married life is GREAT! Actually, not much has changed for Travis & I except that now we both have a ring that we need to remember to wear every day! The house seems to be somewhat back to normal. I would love to have clean and clear countertops, but I've stopped holding my breath for that to happen. I took Monday & Tuesday off after the wedding to clean the house back up and Travis took Monday off. It was quite a task!

Pictures....wonderful, awesome pictures! We got our wedding photos back from our photographer yesterday. Perhaps some of you know her - Miranda Kemp?? :o) What a wonderful job! She did exactly what we wanted - easy & simple. She got a nice number of us in our "fancy" clothes and a lot at the reception where everyone was having a great time in their jeans & sweatshirts! I wouldn't have wished for anything different.

(Ok - so I tried to put a couple of the pictures with this post, but I'm having issues. I'll keep trying though!)

Enjoy my first post - I'll do my best to post as often as I can!