You know what really made me feel warm and fuzzy?

The whole grill grates debacle where I ended up paying like double what I'd thought I'd pay in shipping and all that? I emailed the buyer and let them know that it would be shipping by a slower method and I was going to eat the extra shipping cost because it was my own stupid mistake.

After the grill grates arrived, I got an email from the guy saying that he didn't realize I was in Washington and that him and his wife love it here after spending time stationed at Ft. Lewis. He also said that he was going to send me extra money for shipping. While I was really touched by this offer, I told him to please not send me the money... my mistake, he shouldn't have to pay.

Yesterday I got a $10 bill in the mail and a note saying, "Sorry, I don't listen very well". How nice is that?

We have two sick kids.

Well, I don't know how sick they actually are. Neither is feverish. Gwen threw up a massive amount at about 9:45pm last night, then has been dry-heaving every 1-2 hours all night. Ethan threw up once at 2am (very small amount) and again at around 5am, which Jason handled, but Ethan tells me was a "little bit". Gwen is acting sick, but Ethan is chipper, talkative and his normal self.

Me thinks I might have food poisoned them actually. The vomit was brown and I couldn't figure out what they had that was brown until sometime in the middle of the night when it occurred to me that yesterday morning they pulled an old chocolate muffin from the freezer and had me heat it up for their breakfast. It was the only dark colored thing they had all day. I saw them still nibbling on the leftovers around lunch time too. The rest of those old muffins are going in the garbage.

Now I have to try to find something to give them that won't cause problems. Gwen has been begging for food and water for many hours (I HATE that... its so hard to listen to) and Ethan is hungry too. Maybe plain oatmeal? Off to raid the cupboards.

Oh, and yesterday we found out the kids have been exposed to chicken pox. Ethan to be exact. One of his good friends at school had the vaccination, but still caught it and it didn't show up until last Thursday. So Ethan was exposed last Tuesday and the classroom wasn't disinfected until Friday when they found out from the Mom. Part of me hopes they catch it and we're done with that. But the other part of me is SO not into dealing with this when I'm in my last month of pregnancy. If they have it, I want them to just get it and get it over with so I don't have to worry about the new baby catching anything.

Yay! You know what worked for us last night? I set Ethan's alarm clock and told him he couldn't get out of his room until it beeped. I did the same for Gwen. Now for some reason Gwen's went off at midnight so that was a bust, but Ethan's went off at 6:15 (yes, right now that is our "reasonable" waking time) and he waited in his room until it beeped!

You cannot imagine how happy I am that this might actually be a solution to the "lets get up at 5:15" routine we've been in lately.

Today I finished working on a cute dress for Gwen. I bought the pattern a few days ago on a whim from http://youcanmakethis.com for the Belle Elysse Tiered Dress. These are patterns that are made by individuals (not businesses) and you can buy them online and download them immediately after purchase. They have lots of fun stuff!

This dress was easy, it used up the scraps of my patchwork fabric and was a good test. Now that I have the sizing down pretty much and the technique, this is very much a 2-3 hour project that could turn out cute dresses. The best part is that the sizing is from 6 months to 8! That's a huge range... Now only if it came in my size.





I did make some boo-boos. Like on the last pink tier I somehow managed to put my side seams near the middle. Pregnancy brain! It doesn't help that patchwork has about a million seams and its hard to distinguish a side seam from a patch seam. The trim is supposed to be a ruffle, but I got lazy and made it flat.

In other news, I took the kids for the yearly pediatric appointment. All is good. Their stats are:

Ethan
Height - 43.5 inches (97%)
Weight - 40.6 lbs (97%)

Gwen
Height - 36.5 inches (40%)
Weight - 28.8 lbs (25%)

We did get a referral for pediatric allergy testing, and we'll be doing that at some point. She did not find any sign of infection in Ethan and thinks that he might just be getting sick a lot because he's in pre-school now and being exposed to lots and lots of germs. When I thought hard about this, it did occur to me that many other kids in his class have been sick this year too. She did say that next time he gets highly congested, feverish, etc. to bring him in and they will see if they can treat him. One thought was that perhaps there is a low lying infection that is being flared by the allergies or when he's weakened in some way. I really like our pediatrician because she is always hesitant to prescribe antibiotics or things like that. She never gives us hassle about delaying vaccinations and is prudent in her approach to care. Well worth the drive to Kirkland in bad traffic!

Jason and I joined this challenge that his company is doing. Basically you wear a pedometer and if you can get 1 million steps by October I think it is, you can win all sorts of different prizes. Its interesting to see how many steps you take in a day. Today was my first full day (though perhaps not totally accurate since we spent much time in the car) and as of 7:17 pm (I put it on at about 5:45am this morning) I've walked 3033 steps equaling roughly 1.29 miles. That doesn't seem like much considering how sore my body is today! We each have an account online that we upload our step data to and it tracks all the info and any weight loss, etc. I figure I'll probably do pretty good on the weight loss in about a month or so after I have the baby. Last two times I came out a good 10-15 lbs lighter in just one day. Boo-yah!

Today was our last Bradley class and we brought the kids with us. Our instructor has a great house for entertaining kids and they did pretty good. There was an incidence of Gwen stripping, and a few other "that is not my kid" moments, but overall they did really great.

We are so glad we took the class. Today we reviewed a lot, did a bunch of reenactments and practices and just prepped for what we'll be going through in just a few short weeks. I hope we can remember it all. I'm going to write a cheat sheet for Jason before we forget all the basics.

After we got home, and realized that yes, the sun was still actually shining and, wow, its kinda warm, we did a bunch of yard work. I pruned, weed-whacked, dug up two ferns, pulled lots of weeds, and fumed that my body wouldn't let me do more. I'm very much a "once started, hard to stop" type worker and it irked me that I couldn't do as much as I wanted.

The kids went down easy for nap after all the work, and I colored my hair. Uh huh, I colored it :) My gray has been driving me NUTS! I'm not even 30 for heavens sake. So I got some Clairol Natural Instincts Toasted Almond coloring and took the risk. Its semi-permanent so it will be gone completely after about 28 washes.

Here's my before (aren't mirror self-portraits fun?). You can see the lightness right around my part area. That's where most the gray is, and some around my temple area too:


Everything went well and it was super easy to do. I think I should have left it in a bit longer, as there are still some gray strands that are, well, gray!

This is in a different light (it was much darker when I took the pic and I had to use the bathroom light) so maybe tomorrow I'll try to get a natural lighting shot for a better comparison. The color is maybe a shade darker, there is a golden type glow. Its not bad. I think if I do this again I'll pick the cooler shade (Suede I think its called) and not the warm shade. As is, its close to my original color, and Jason said that no one would even notice if I didn't tell them. I agree and that's what I wanted. The gray coverage was more for me than others :)

Happy Birthday to my little baby girl Gwendolyn!

She's three today and is she ever happy about it :)

I need to get some pictures up. Blogs are boring without pictures.

Ethan and I are still sick. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired! Next Monday we have our well child visit at the pediatrician and I'm going to ask her about Ethan's persistent battles with sickness and maybe get him scheduled for allergy testing. Its time that we did something about it... we waited a long time on the allergy stuff but now it seems to be affecting him more.

Tomorrow I'm 35 weeks. 5 weeks until the due date folks. 2 weeks until I'm "full term". Yikes. The closer the day draws, the less prepared I feel. We have a routine here, a way of doing things. The kids are old enough that we have been able to do "big kid" things with them, and now we're starting over. Not totally, but in a way. It seems very overwhelming and I think, "Why did we feel the need for more? We are fine with what we have". Little too late for that now I guess :)

Because of my uber-scattered mind and inability to remember or do anything in a timely manner, I've been having Jason tell me 3 things to accomplish each day. I know that sounds weird, but having him tell me what to do seems to motivate me, and I like that it makes him happy too. Its not been anything tough, but I do find it interesting that the stuff he'd like me to do is different than I would have picked. It reflects our different priorities when it comes to the house, and also the fact that I'm here all day and he isn't. For me, the infrastructure stuff, like getting the dishes and laundry done, are top priorities. For him, he likes to see things... so for instance, the house being swept is much more satisfying than knowing I did two loads of dishes.

Speaking of, I must drag myself off the computer and motivate myself to do breakfast dishes and clothe my children, both of whom are currently riding their bikes around the house naked.

Two quick things that I think warrant a mention before I collapse into bed and try to sleep off, once again, this nasty nasty cold.

One, we have broken the kids of their daytime binky habit! Well mostly. They only get them for naps and bedtime now instead of anytime during the day when they were cranky, or just asked for it. We have a "binky bowl" that they throw their binkies into (they find it hilarious to throw it and try to have me catch it with the bowl) and then at bed or naptime they can retrieve their binky. I started it on a whim right after we got home from Mom's and it stuck with relatively little fuss. Here and there we have some complaints or squabbles about it, but overall its gone very good.

Two, well, Ethan has been using the toilet for #2. Gross, I know, but such a relief for us. We were not thrilled with either the diaper or corner of the room or outside as had been being done. Yay!

Well I was able to avoid it yesterday since we were busy and I have a nasty sinus cold, but there is really no getting around it.

Yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of my Grandpa's death. I can remember the day perfectly. I had slept terribly the whole night before and I woke up early and was surfing on MySpace. I saw a post from my sister Becki and my brother Michael. Michael was recounting how he'd been with my Grandfather when he'd passed, and Becki posted about going to see his body in the hospital. That's how I found out, and that was a good way. I was able to read it without getting tied up with the emotions ahead of time, like I would have if my Mom had called. I felt at peace for him but, and the same thing that still gets me today, is thinking of my Grandpa's strong body, his hands, his eyes, everything being cold and lifeless. Even now it strikes me as particularly horrid... the physical changes of his death.

I really miss him. It still seems so unfair and probably always will. I'd trade in a lot of things for him to be back here with us.

Here is the video I made for his memorial. You know, I haven't been able to watch it since his service and I can't now. Its still too painful.

My Grandpa


And his obituary...

Dean R. Likkel

Dean Ray Likkel passed away peacefully surrounded by loved ones April 20, 2007, at the age of 70 after a brief battle with cancer. He was born May 1, 1936 in Grangeville, Idaho to Albert "John" Likkel and Helen Haveman Likkel. He and his twin sister were the youngest of six children, growing up in Lynden, Washington. In 1954, he married Carol Barber and had three daughters.

He began his career as a mechanic for the Ford Motor Company, then worked as a heavy equipment operator doing road construction. Eventually, his talent for working with people led him into investments and insurance sales. In 1974, he married Marlene Johnston Hollenbeck and, with her, he owned and managed a court-reporting firm doing legal video work and record retrieval.

Dean was committed to his church and community. He was a member of Smokey Point Community Church since 1973, and was a charter member of the Smokey Point Chamber Of Commerce, serving on the Board of Directors for over 18 years. He was on the Snohomish County Economic Development Board, member of the Board of Directors of Forward North County, and an organizing charter member of Marysville Toastmasters, using his public speaking skills as a motivational speaker.

He served both the youth and seniors of his community, as well, by volunteering on the Advisory Council for the Marysville Alternative High School and on the Board of Directors of the Stillaguamish Senior Center. He has been a certified instructor for the AARP Defensive Safe Driving program for six years. Dean believed strongly in being involved in the political process. His involvement included, among other projects, supporting the Pro-Life movement, and serving on Jack Metcalf's campaign for State Senate and U.S. Congress for several years. He had a love for auctioneering and used his skills and abounding charisma to conduct hundreds of auctions for churches and charitable organizations.

Dean had an unwavering faith in his Lord, Jesus Christ, and leaves behind a lasting legacy in the many lives he touched and in his loving family, including his wife, Marlene; his three daughters, Debra Miller, Deanne Guthrie, and Daralyn Hollenbeck; his two step-sons, Gregory Hollenbeck and Jeffery Hollenbeck; his thirteen grandchildren and his five great-grandchildren.

He passed on to join his parents, John and Helen Likkel, and his twin sister, Fay Griffith.

As an opportunity to celebrate his life, a memorial service will be held at Smokey Point Community Church at 2:30 pm Sunday, April 29, 2007. 17721 Smokey Point Blvd. Arlington, WA. (360) 659-2844.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests any memorial donations be made to Providence Hospice of Snohomish County or a favorite charity.

My cousin Holly wrote this poem about my Grandpa and its just so right.

I Hold On.

I hold on to dignity with playfulness
I hold on to strength
I hold on to respect for others
I hold on to pride with humility
I hold on to belly laughs
I hold on to crushing hugs
I hold on to eternal youth
I hold on to great wisdom
I hold on to mischievous grins
I hold on to happy tears unashamed
I hold on to encouragement overflowing
I hold on to big hands scarred in service to others
I hold on to crisp silver hair always in place
I hold on to love shining from blue eyes
I hold on to the last moments
I hold on to our goodbye
I hold on to our reunion
I hold on.

Folks, it is snowing. Snowing in mid-April, in the Pacific Northwest. What has gone wrong with this world? My garden starts arrive in 10 days and its snowing!

Ridiculousness.

Pic of me, Holly and Lindy. Hol and Lin are due in August. I, most obviously, am due much sooner than that!

Excuse the poor appearance. I didn't know I'd be in a picture and that was on oh... day 4 of no sleep. I rolled into my Mom's in the most shabby of shape and of course, got my picture taken!

I'm 34 weeks here.

Well we just arrived back "home" at my Mom's. What a busy day.

When I blogged earlier, I was at our house where I picked up the infant car seat and installed it in our car. Yesterday I cleaned out our car (ick) and re-installed the seats in what we think will be the final configuration until baby grows out of the infant seat. Ethan is in the middle (his seat will require a tether when he's 50 lbs which will be soon and two seating positions in the car have one). The other middle seat is folded down. Gwen is in the back, hooked up to the second tether just because its good idea. The baby sits behind Ethan. I figured that the baby was the easiest to get in and out (as they can be buckled in before being placed on the base) so having easy access to the older kids was preferable. Gwen loves sitting in the back with the baby seat. She insists on buckling in her dolly and tending to it while we drive.

I also picked up the grill grates to send off at the post office. That was an... um, adventure and disappointment. Loooong story short (including tears on my part, luckily shed after I returned to the car), I somehow misunderstood the USPS site and shipping was TWICE what I'd had listed in the auction and basically my entire return on investment was eaten up by shipping the stupid thing. AND I had to ship it a much slower method, which I've yet to mention to my buyer. If I had shipped it the way I'd said I would, it would have cost more, just for shipping, then I received in total for the item + my estimated shipping. I'm such an idiot. I'm never doing this again. NEVER! Or at least not when I'm pregnant and apparently brain-dead.

The midwife appointment went well. Blood pressure a smidge high, but not concerning. Urine was good. Baby is "very low" and measuring right on schedule. She predicts that this baby will be Ethan-sized, meaning, around the 7lb mark.

Off to go get dinner prep started. For some reason Cincinatti Chili sounds good. Perhaps because Jason is there and he had some last night :)

Sorry its been so quiet, but things have been really hectic since my last blog. Jason is still out of town and will return on Friday.

Basically between Thursday night and last night, I barely slept 2-4 hours a night, which is very very very bad for me. The first nights were because I was home alone, but we've spent the last two nights at my Mom's and I sleep better there. Unfortunately, Ethan got sick yesterday and so I was up and down with him all last night but generally last night was my best sleep since last Thursday.

Saturday we had Brynne's bridal shower and it was so fun! She got lots of cool stuff too :)

Monday we packed up and came to my Mom's and were lucky enough to find my Aunt Daralyn, Holly, Tim and Lindy still there. My Aunt Deanne was also there visiting. I was witness to a very painful thing... the distribution of my Grandpa's things amongst his daughters (my Mom and Aunts). My Grammy had set aside things she thought would be good for memories and we went through the box. Some of the items were notes, cards, letters and pictures that we (his grandkids) or his daughters had sent to him. Those were really great and returned to their original senders. The harder items were his jewelry, particularly his "attitude" pin that he always wore on his suits and his rings. There was no shortage of tears as these were split up. The only way we could figure out to do it fairly was by drawing names. While this was fair, and right, and the best way it was not easy. It sounds like everyone will be putting these precious items into shadow box displays so we will be able to view them when we visit. Seeing these items on a regular basis will help I think.

Today I have my 34 week appointment. Thank you Grammy for letting me drop the kids at your house so I don't have to take them with me. What a relief :) I've been having tons of Braxton-Hicks, some quite painful. I can only hope that my body is slowly dilating ahead of time so my labor is short! After this appointment, I'll have my 36 week visit, then move to weekly appointments. The time is really drawing near. Its both a relief and a little mind-boggling to imagine that its quite likely I could have a baby here in the house within the next 3-6 weeks.

Oh, I also sold those danged grill grates that I spammed many of you about. Finally. What a hassle that mistake turned out to be.

Well, I might have officially grown up today. I just purchased a 2 year monthly planner. Its a tiny little thing, cheap. But its a calender that I will carry in my purse. I know, you're probably thinking, "Uh, so?". Well, I've always resisted carrying a calender. Don't rightly know why... it just seemed excessive as my social and appointment schedule was hardly packed and the calender on the fridge sufficed. Lately though, with two kids in various events, midwife appointments, all the events we have going on with the family this year, I was losing track. I tried printing out a calender and just keeping it my wallet, but it keeps falling out. There was no other place to go but to a planner. It feels like such an adult thing to do. Perhaps my hangup is because I still think I'm 18 in my mind :)

Jason left for Cincinnati today. This is one of his longer trips, 8 days I think. Due to my cousin's bridal shower this weekend, we aren't immediately going over to my Mom's. We're doing a combination of things... staying by ourselves (eek), Jenni here for two nights, then eventually over to Mom's for the last 4 days or so. I hate being home alone at night. Hate. I'm hoping that a Tylenol PM, my heaviest rolling pin and a long line up of reality shows will help me sleep tonight.

Do you realize that I'm now 1-3 weeks away from being at a point that if I went into labor they probably wouldn't try to stop it? I'm not sure exactly what Providence's policy is, but I've read anywhere from 34-36 weeks they won't attempt to stop labor if one starts. Obviously I don't want to go into labor this early because of side effects to baby Scarlett (though emotionally I'd be totally down with being done early!), but its just another one of those milestones you reach and say, "Uh, wow, this is almost over".

So all my strips are finished for my patchwork skirt and now I need to sew them together. I was going to serge all the seams too, but we'll see. That's always something I can come back and do later if I want. I'd just love to have the skirt done by this weekend, but again, we'll see. With Jason gone and us being busy every single day, I don't know if I can pull it off.

Yesterday we went grocery shopping and I bribed the kids into the store childcare by promising them I'd buy them a movie. They're really getting into movies. They adore Toy Story, so I bought Toy Story 2 and also Cinderella. Classic Disney movies are almost impossible to find in stores so I grab them when I can.

We had to watch Toy Story 2 right away. Ethan loved it! After nap and right before dinner, we watched Cinderella, which they both really liked as well. I was tucking Gwen into bed and said that I hoped she dreamed about mice and birds making her a pretty dress. She responds by taking out her pacifier, crossing her arms, rolling her eyes and saying, "Yeah, but my sisters will rip it apart and ruin it!". I said, "No no, those were eee-vil stepsisters, not sisters". She replies, "No! I hate sisters, they ruin pretty dresses". I'm like, uh.... great. She thinks sisters are horrible now.

Well, we're halfway into my second day of lots of crying. Yesterday it was thinking about my Grandpa and how its been nearly a year since he died.

Today its because when we went out to leave for school/gymnastics I found that my car had been broken into and my cell phone and charger stolen. "Broken into" is a relative term I suppose as the doors weren't locked (we sometimes forget. Oops). This, on top of a major headache, no sleep and nausea kept me on the verge of tears all morning.

The project I'm working on now is my patchwork skirt. I'm making a large square peice of fabric (70in x 70in) which will be cut into the skirt pieces. That's 14 squares by 14 squares, in other words, 196 squares! That's a lot of cutting and lots of sewing of squares together. I've discovered that patchwork is done out of thriftiness (using up scrap fabric) and not ease. I've used up 2/3 of my scrap bag, but its bunches of work, especially the cutting. Today however, I was able to whip out 7 rows with fairly little effort. See? Each strip is folded in half for easier photographing



My biggest problem is stressing about the randomness of the patches. I mean, the whole point is that it be random and that means me not organizing them into randomness. It just means that they are randomly sewn together. This is VERY very hard for me to let go. I want to count of how many of each patch I have, then divide them equally between each strip and space them equally. Usually I'm not a perfectionist, at all. For whatever reason, this project is bringing it out big time. 90% of this fabric is designer... Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Robert Kaufman, Joel Dewberry, etc. I'm really glad that I'm getting full use of this very expensive fabric that I was addicted to for a few months :)

April is a hard month for me, emotionally.

Three years ago, my great-Grandma Hazel passed away a week exactly before Gwen was born, on April 18th. Though her death was not unexpected, or even dreaded (she was so ready and willing to leave this world and be with Jesus), it was a sad day to see her joyful and caring spirit leave us.

One year ago, 5 days before Gwen's birthday, on April 20th, my Grandpa died. Long time readers will not need a recap on what a terrible and trying event that was for my family. The last time I saw him alert and awake was April 8th, which was Easter. I remember what he was wearing and the few words that we were able to pass between us. Ethan was very sick with pneumonia and so I didn't get to spend a lot of time with my Grandpa. I regret that. I am so happy that the kids remember their Poppa and speak of him often. Just a few nights ago, Gwen told me that she really missed her Poppa and wanted to see him. I reminded her that one day we'd see him in heaven, but she sorrowfully told me that she did not want to wait... she wanted to see him NOW. I told her she could ask Jesus to pass along a message to Poppa, but that didn't soothe her either. She wanted to play and talk with him and have him here. I couldn't agree with her more.

Its only 11am, but man, have we been working hard!

The kids got us up at 6:30 and we had a huge breakfast of homemade waffles, bacon, grapes and lattes. Ethan didn't eat much, but he ate some, and best of all, he didn't throw it back up!

After eating and cleaning up, we all got dressed and headed out to the hardware store where we got a bunch of soil, some planter boxes for my square foot garden (peas and tomatoes this year, my starts arrive end of the month) and a pair of kid sized shovels, which greatly thrilled the children.

We cleaned up the back yard of all the toys and stuff that had accumulated and then used the dirt to create a smooth transition from the edge of the patio to the grass. We also filled in various holes and the muddy spots from where the concrete peeps made ruts in the grass. I then put down grass seed all over those areas. I need to go back out and put a bit more soil on top to keep the seeds in place, but my body wore out before I could do it.

The yard and gardens need WORK. Lots of work. In my defense, there really hasn't been much opportunity to do much... the weather has been SO rainy and damp this year and that doesn't encourage the gardening bug. Its mainly weeding and reorganization of some materials (like the edging bricks that were removed for the patio. I know there is no rush. It could even wait till after the baby is born, but once I get the itch to do something its hard for me to ignore. If the weather is nice at all this week, I may just go out there and do it. My body will hate me for it though!

Gwennie is going to be the flower girl in Michelle's June wedding and to match the bride, she needed to have red shoes. After doing a lot of looking, I found these very cute shoes



I hesitated showing them to Gwen because she's a little shoe horse, but I did want to try them on and see how they fit. They are large for her (I got them about 1 size too big on purpose), but she adores them. Just LOVES them. She was all, "Ohhhh.... Mommy... they are so pretty. I love them. Thank you! Thank you!".

She didn't like the idea of me taking them off. In fact she clutched them to her body when I tried.



So I told her after their movie was over they'd have to come off. Then I will hide them!

We had a great time last night with April and Gregg. She has some pictures up of what we ate and a group pic. We had just enough energy to finish watching our movie after we got home, and then zonked out for the night.

We headed out early for our Bradley class and ate at Patty's Eggnest in Monroe. We've been to the Mill Creek one before and thought it was decent. The Monroe one was too, and we were able to get in and out in 30 min, which was really great (we were running short on time because Toby ran away right before we left).

Right after we arrived for our class, my Mom called and left a message saying that Ethan had been sick all night and wasn't doing so well. Our teacher graciously hurried through the class and let us out 45 min early. We immediately went to Mom's and found Gwennie pretty perky and Ethan dead asleep on the couch. He'd been throwing up constantly since last night :( Poor baby. We packed everyone up and came home. Ethan was begging for food and water, so we gave him a few crackers and a wee bit of milk. We thought all was well because he didn't show any signs of sickness for a long time. Then we put him down for nap and he did eventually throw it up. He's such a trooper. Not even freaking out, just matter of fact. He said, "Mom, the crackers and milk wasn't a good idea". After that he took a huge drink of water before I could get his cup away and then zonked out. There's been no word since.

Mom, Dad, Jenni and Shelly, thank you so much for watching the kids and dealing with the grossness. You guys are awesome.

Since this is Jason's birthday, I made a lemon tart for him while the kids napped, and will be making a dinner he's fond of tonight. The kids picked out a gift for him earlier this week so he'll have a present to open as well.

I also finished my other sewing project. A nursing friendly nightgown. Now this item is relatively pointless. I usually just wear one of J's tees to bed. But I wanted to make something and so I did! It was based off Simplicity 3573, but I modified it. I made the sleeveless version without the lace or ruffle. My button-hole foot seems to be broken, so instead I put snap tape in and sewed buttons on top so it still had the look of the original piece. Looking back, I wish I'd used Velcro or something else that opens more quickly (perhaps instead of snap tape, just 2 or 3 snaps). In any case, it came out well. It fits now, even over the tummy, so it'll be big for me afterwards. But that's not a terrible thing, as I like my nightclothes to be loose and comfy. And since I used the uber-cheap fabric from the local craft store, it was good practice if nothing else!



There is just one more pending project to finish then I'll be done... oh wait, make that two. But I have a better idea of how to put them together and they should go fast. I also am modifying them, which I find somewhat exciting. Its fun to really stretch my mind and ability and try to make things look like I want. Its also very frustrating when it doesn't turn out. Wish I had my sewing room back!

Last night we went to P.F. Changs and had a good dinner. It didn't seem like we ate much, but we both felt so stuffed! After coming home we watched half of Casino Royale and then fell asleep.

I didn't really roll out of bed till 8, which is major sleeping in for me. Around 11:30 I left the house and ran some errands in the pouring rain. After getting home I sewed a skirt for a friend of mine (she made me a beautiful baby sling in exchange for the skirt) and I can't believe how fast I whipped that thing out. Generally any project takes me two days at minimum. Perhaps having the kids out of the house and feeling like I could really concentrate explains how I did the skirt in like 2 1/2 hours :)

Tonight we're joining April and her husband Gregg for dinner, which will be really fun! Maybe we'll be able to finish up our movie tonight too.

Tomorrow is our Bradley class, then we'll get our windshield filled (I didn't mention it yesterday, but a stupid rock hit my windshield and left a big chip. Breaking windshields seems to be a thing for me) and then go pick up the kids from my Mom's. Tomorrow is also Jason's birthday and the kids picked him out a present and I'll be making a lemon tart and nice dinner for him.

Thanks for all the name suggestions! We still haven't found a Rose name that really hits us as "the one", so perhaps we'll just let the kids call the baby whatever they want and eventually they'll come around to our names :)

Yesterday it was so nice outside, so I took the kids to a great playground at a local school (spring break so it wasn't in use). Ethan met up right away with another little boy and they ran around like crazy the whole time. We had lunch there, and although it was pretty cold, enjoyed the sunshine.

I only got two shots. They were hardly still enough the entire time to get any more.



Grammy, that's the Transformers hat you got him!


Later that night, we headed out to Providence for the hospital tour. I was really surprised by how different it was than Evergreen. For one, its very very spacious. And extremely quiet. I'm sure maybe during the day its nosier, but it just wasn't what I was expecting (but not in a bad way). I was thrilled to find out that every room has wireless internet access. You know you want it... Live Webcam Birth! I bet those last three words will bring a lot of traffic to my blog, hehe. In all seriousness, no. There will be no live webcam birth. Sorry to disappoint.

Today I brought the kids over to my Mom's where she will be babysitting them today through Saturday. Woo hoo, freedom! The funny thing about it is, I don't really know what to do with myself. My house is messy, so I should clean, but then I feel like I shouldn't waste my free time cleaning! However, if I don't clean, then I feel like I'm not being responsible. There are like 1 million and 1 things I want to do, but I can't decide which would be the best use of my time.

After dropping off the kids, I went to my 32 week midwife appointment. Everything was stellar. Really, it was. My blood pressure was 117/70. I'm measuring exactly dead-on 32 weeks. I gained two pounds (total weight gain: 7 lbs), and perhaps best of all, the baby was head down. YAY! I didn't even have a trace of protein in my urine, which I had last time.

Well I suppose I should go and clean a LITTLE bit, at least until I can figure out a better way to enjoy my time.

Does anyone have name ideas that include the name Rose?

The kids flatly refuse to refer to the baby as anything but Rosie. If I say, "Say hi to baby Scarlett (or Elsa or whatever)" they say, "Hi baby Rosie!". If we ask them what name they like best, its always Rosie.

We don't really like Rosie as a name, but perhaps a nickname. So we need some suggestions!

Something has been going on with my body the last couple of days. I'm not sure what, but I haven't felt right. There isn't one thing I can pin down. The baby is moving fine (in fact moving like CRAZY) and I don't have a headache or any other sign of obvious malaise. My brain is mushy (Kristi-speak for cloudy and hard to concentrate) and there have been a few bouts of dizziness, but other than that, nothing. I just feel wrong in some way.

Today we went grocery shopping after gymnastics and I took my blood pressure. It was 140/80 which isn't bad, but isn't great compared to majority of readings I get at the doctors (115/70 or so).

Bleh. I'm going to go lay down. Perhaps there has been a hormonal flux or something that is throwing me off.