Anna's great new hair

Here are some better pictures of her hair, although it sort of blends in with the dark backgound. I just can't get over how different she looks! I love it!

SHE DID IT!!!!

She actually cut her hair 10 inches! Can you believe it!? I can't. Ginny came over yesterday and when I got Anna from school, I informed her that Ginny was waiting to cut her hair. She freaked out and ran to her room crying, refusing to come out! I finally bribed her out with some chocolates (thanks mom!) and talked her into getting it cut. I did the big 10 inch cut, and Ginny took it from there.
Doesn't she look SO cute? Her hair is super soft and so pretty! She looks SO much like her cousin Laura Catherine!
10 inches of hair that I don't have to brush anymore!
Just a reminder of what what her hair looked like before.

Yep, it's Strep!

Anna came home with a headache and zero appetite yesterday, so I checked her temp and it was more than 101 degrees. Red flags were going up everywhere, but her doctor was already closed. So, I tried the new Minute Clinic at CVS Pharmacy. There was no wait, and the NP was really nice. It was actually CHEAPER than going to my regular pediatrician! We had a diagnosis and prescription in about 45 minutes. Anna stayed home today with abuela and abuelo while I taught, and she did really well. She will be well enough, and germ-free, to go to school tomorrow!

Holy Crap!

On Sunday, Tommy's class talked about Daniel and the lion's den and they got these cute cut-outs that his teacher put in a plastic bag. I didn't even think about them when we got home from church, and they got left on the floor of the van. Well, this morning, since it was so windy, they almost blew out of the car when I took Tommy to school, and Tommy went after them. He caught them and showed them proudly to his teacher. She ooh-ed and ahh-ed over them and asked Tommy if he wanted to bring it to class to share! So, I was thinking, "Oh, crap, some parent is going to get wind of this and Tommy will be suspended and he's not even in kindergarden yet!" I guess I've spent too much time in Plano ISD, but I worried about it all day! I got home, and took out his folder to find this note from his teacher: "It was a blessing to us for Tommy to bring in the cutout of 'Daniels and the lion's den'! We loved hearing him tell us about the Bible story. Thank you!" Whew! I was glad that Tommy didn't get in trouble and that the teacher enjoyed it, but I will definitely be more careful about what is left in the car!

Gordon B. Hinkley

I was so sad last night when my mom called me and told me that Pres. Hinkley had died. I had had a bad day, but suddenly those things that were bothering me seemed so unimportant. President Hinkley will be missed, but he is in a better place, and finally back with his beloved wife.

Great new song!

I've never heard of this band before, but I think this song is pretty cool! It's called "The Last Night" by Skillet. It's a christian band, but they're actually good! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ejeCJpwChc This is the only link I could find to the song.

Semi-Charmed Life

I had a rough night last night. Tommy WOULD NOT sleep in his bed without me and everytime I would leave him, he'd wake right back up and come running to my room. I love the kid, but I'm NOT climbing into bed with him! I was up with him for about 2 1/2 hours! Tommy would scream if Danny tried to help, so I couldn't even use my back-up! Ugh. Danny only had to wake up with Eddie twice. Lucky. I was DEAD tired driving to school this morning, and trying to figure out how I'd make it through the day without caffeine (I'm not allowed to have any!) when one of my all-time favorite songs came on the radio! Semi-Charmed Life was my favorite song when I was a senior in HS and it always makes me smile. It's also not one of those songs that gets played very often! Yeah, I know it's all about doing drugs, but I guess you can say I'm addicted. (Ha! Ha! Don't you love the corny pun?) I was suddenly wide awake and singing like an idiot at the top of my lungs, and it helped make my morning SO much better! Ahh...the power of music!

Bribery

Anna's hair is ridiculously long, and it takes a long time at night to brush out all of the tangles. Sometimes, I don't have time to style it, so it goes up in a bun and no one can tell that it hasn't been brushed in days. It drives me nuts! I have finally resorted to bribery. Anna has way more than the 10 inch requirement for hair donation to Locks of Love, so I told her I would buy her ANYTHING, if I could cut her hair 10 inches. ipod, Barbie Dream House, you name it. And her answer? NO!!! I've considered cutting it while she was asleep, but she would hate me forever. Any ideas to get this chick to have a hair cut?

Movie Review - Hot Rod

Danny and I wanted to catch up on our movies, so during the holiday break, we rented about 8 of them. I'm not sure why we rented this one, but it was THE BIGGEST waste of my time. EVER. It was SO stupid! Yes, I laughed in some parts, but overall, this movie is just plain DUMB. If you haven't seen it, good! A big 2 thumbs down!

The Curse

I went to the doctor today and I was told that I have an elevated resting pulse and my heart is prone to excitability. Something about the adrenaline flow to my heart. He said that because of this, it's easy to get my heart rhythm out of whack. A diet rich in potassium, magnesium, and calcium will help, along with a full 8 hours of sleep. Now, I can change the diet, but the sleep thing will be challenging. I can't have any stimulants, and I have to watch what kind of over the counter meds I take because they will raise my BP along with my heart rate. I will have an echocardiogram (sp?) on Friday morning to rule out anything physical problems with my heart and make sure that there's proper blood flow, but he said it should be fine. So, my condition is not serious. Thank goodness! If the echocardiogram is normal, then I have the option of taking a Beta Blocker to help slow down my heart and return it to normal rhythm. I'll just have to play it by ear and see how I feel. Now, I was named after my aunt Virginia Marie, who died at the age of 35 of a heart attack (this is where the curse comes in). My sister, Ginny, was named after her as well. She named her daughter Caroline Marie to carry on the tradition and now all 3 of us have some type of heart issues! So, I can blame this all on my mother for naming me what she did! :) Now, I have another niece who has Marie in her name, and that's Anna's middle name as well! I'll be interested to see if they develop any heart problems! Knock on wood!

So Sad...

Yes, I'm sure everyone knows by now that our beloved Cowboys lost yesterday. I just had a feeling that it would happen, but I was still hoping that in the final seconds, SOMEONE would catch that ball, other than a Giants player! Sadly, the Cowboys have not broken THE CURSE. Which Dallas team will? The Stars, Mavericks, or FC Dallas? Maybe all 3? What are your predictions for the rest of the year?

Eddie's check-up

Eddie had his 4-month check-up on Friday, and for those of you that care, he was in the 50% for weight and 75% for height. Maybe he'll actually be tall! He was 25 and 3/4 inches long and 14 pounds 12 ounces. He's getting so big! Well, you know, in a little baby sense.

My 5.5 hours in the hospital

I posted this on the family blog, but some of you don't check that one, so I'm posting it here to cover all my bases. Yesterday, everything was going fine until I was feeding Eddie on the couch. I was doing nothing strenuous and I was watching cartoons with Tommy when I started to feel dizzy and realized that my heart had begun to race. I quickly put Eddie to bed and began trying to get my heart rate to go down by doing deep breathing and relaxation techniques but NOTHING helped. My heart would race, then slow down and skip a beat or two, then begin to race again. I realized that something was really wrong, so I hopped into the shower and quickly got ready to go. I drove to the hospital with Eddie and Tommy and called Danny when I got there. He quickly left school (it was 1:45) and came and got the kids. When I was called into triage my heart rate was still elevated and my BP was way high. 3 hours later I was able to get a bed in the ER and they did lots of blood work, an EKG, chest X-Ray and had me hooked up to a heart monitor. My blood work was great, my chest X-Ray was perfect, my heart rate had stabilized and my BP was great, but my EKG showed a suspicious dip that shouldn't be there. They were able to rule out A-fib, but they couldn't diagnose the problem in the ER so I am being sent to a Cardiologist. I will see him at the beginning of next week, and most likely I will be put on a 24-hour heart monitor to try to catch what's going on. My heart has occasionally skipped a beat, but it was nothing regular until after I had Eddie, and it got more persistent. Stress and lack of a good night's rest have probably not helped me at all. I will keep everyone posted on my condition, and let you know as soon as there's a diagnosis.

Trying to love my neighbors

Our HOA Pres. last year was BAD. I really don't like this woman and was SO excited when she decided to not run for the board again. She didn't support the Community Crime Watch at all, and refused to be of any help at all to us. Thank goodness the rest of the Board was able to over rule her! She was way more interested in helping out her own causes than actually helping the community. She was also the Social Committee chairperson and I, along with a couple of other people in our community, worked hard to get her ousted from the position last year. I enjoy being a part of the Crime Watch Committee and we've done a lot of good things for the neighborhood, but I just found out that this woman has been made a Zone Captain! Which means we'll be working together on something she didn't want to support! I don't want to resign as a Zone Captain, but just the thought of serving with her gives me the heebie-jeebies! I know we must love our neighbors, but she makes it SO hard! Also, when Mr. Peepy and/or his wife are out the same time I am, I have a hard time smiling or waving back at them! I know his wife didn't do anything wrong, but I still struggle with being friendly towards them. Now, I'm not outright rude or anything, but I'm not as friendly towards them as they are sometimes to us. I shouldn't judge these people, and I know I will need to work on being kinder and more tolerant to those who drive me nuts. I'll be working hard on that this year, that's for sure!

Change is no fun when you're 3!

Our ward changed times from 8:30am to 2pm yesterday and the jury's still out about if it's good or bad. Tommy "graduated" from nursery yesterday and I was so happy for him as he waved goodbye to me on his way to the Primary room. I was thinking, "Wow! What a big boy! He's in Primary now!" when he came running back and wanted me to sit with him. Well, this just happened to be the week that the Bishop came in and did sharing time and brought his huge fishing spear that he was given on a trip to the Amazon. Tommy was fascinated with it, and wanted so badly to touch it (and probably spear someone with it)! It was torture for him, and I finally had to take him out and bring him back to nursery. On his way out, he hit his mouth on a chair and cut his lip, so he screamed his way back to nursery. Poor guy. He was also tired and a bit confused why we were going to church so late. He spent about 30 minutes in nursery before I sent him to his Sunbeam classroom. He wanted me to stay with him, but I had to leave him, and he was fine after a while. He's been really clingy lately and has been really needy. I'm not sure what's going on, and, of course, he threw a fit about going to school this morning, and I had to bribe him to put his pants on! (Which was no small feat!) Hopefully we'll get back into our routine quickly, so Tommy can have the structure he needs!

Nursery prompting

I was in nursery helping out a couple of weeks ago, and while I was there, I noticed how germy the room was! It was really gross, and I had the urge to get out of there as quickly as possible and scrub my hands with some surgical strength soap! So, I decided that I would buy some Lysol disinfecting wipes and donate them to the nursery. I kept on forgetting about it, but while I was at Wal-Mart one day last week, I found myself in that isle and something told me that I had to buy them. I dropped them off in the nursery on Sunday with Tommy and went to Primary to sub as the music leader (which was an eye-opener!). The Primary Pres came to me during the break and informed me that a little girl just threw up in nursery, and Tommy was exposed to her. Yuck. I went to the nursery and there were the nursery workers with my wipes disinfecting the room and all the toys! I am so grateful for the promptings that I followed!

Tommy firefighter

This is a picture of Tommy and the boys in his PPCD class dressed as firefighters. I think it's a really cute picture!

Anna's new camera

Anna got a cheap digital camera for Christmas to "practice" on until she's old enough to have a good one. Here are some of the first pictures that she took. Not bad for her first time. It doesn't have a flash, so that's why some pictures look dark. It's not great, but she doesn't care! She loves the camera, mainly because it's pink, but also because she gets to do whatever she wants with it!

Ouch!

I went to the doctor yesterday, and while I was there, she looked at my chart and informed me that I was way over due for a tetnus booster. I got it about 24 hours ago and it's still really sore! I now have a new appreciation for my children who get 2-3 of these shots at a time! No wonder they scream at the sight of a needle!

Yeesh.....

Good grief! I'm sorry I didn't take pictures at my party! I really didn't even think about it! The cookies were eaten shortly after they were decorated anyways, so it would have been difficult to get a shot of them! So, here's some pictures of Eddie to hopefully appease Gabby and Missy. I haven't been able to catch him in a good smile, yet, but don't you just love the fat lip? Danny was playing his trombone at the time, and Eddie wasn't too thrilled, obviously. I'll take some picture of my Christmas decorations, but Missy, I think you need to come over and see them yourself!

Cookie Party!

I'm a shy person, so I don't normally invite people over to my house or step out of my comfort zone. But, wards have changed, and I don't know very many people in my current ward, and we've been in it for about 6 months! So, I invited EVERY sister in my ward to a cookie party this morning. I knew that not all of them would come, and I was pleasantly suprised by the number of people who did RSVP! Unfortunately, half of them had sick kids so they couldn't come. I still had a good turn out, though! Tommy was a little weirded out by all the people when he got home from school, and was happy to see them leave! Why? So he could run to the kitchen and eat all the sprinkles!

Concern

Should I be concerned if Anna's 1st Grade teacher sends out an e-mail that says: "where your tennis shoes on Thursday"?

Good News!

Today is my birthday!

Anna was the Student of the Month for the month of November! For some, that's not a big deal, but for us it is! She struggled at the beginning of Kindergarden, and we were afraid that she would not catch up to her peers, but she has!

My only high school student, Veronica from Plano East HS, came in 2nd in the Region and she's going on to Area! Plano's East cluster has the best Euphoniums in the Region and they made up much of the top 10, so her competition was fierce! Way to go, Veronica!

Let's Go Mavs!

Danny and I went to the Mavs game last night and had a lot of fun! The last Mavs game we went to was at Reunion, so it was fun comparing the differences between the 2 venues. The seats weren't that great, but we could still see pretty well. The Mavs won, of course, but we got a little nervous there at the end when they gave up their 20-point lead! For those of you who are wondering, the drumline had only 6 guys on it. 2 snares, 2 tenors, and 4 bases that were played by only 2 guys. It looked like Brandon was the leader, Dodge was the other snare, and, from what we could see, there was no LJ. Yeah!

6 Things

A while back, Missy challenged me to post 6 things that you guys don't know about me. I was shocked by her Phil Collins confession! =) Considering almost everyone who reads this is family, finding something you don't know about me makes it hard, but here it goes:
1. I hate doing laundry. Absolutely hate it! The chore of cleaning the clothes is pretty easy, because the machine does it all, it's the putting away that I can't stand! I'll leave clothes in the dryer for a day or two just so I don't have to put them away! But, it eventually drives me crazy, and I take them out of the dryer and put them away. I'm NEVER done with the laundry! As soon as all the clothes are clean, we wear them, and they get dirty again! Sigh....
2. I love rice crispy treats! I have to be careful when I make them or else I will eat them all! When I was pregnant with Eddie I made a pan of them while Danny was in school, and ate all of them before he got home!
3. I am so glad that Missy has a good sense of direction, because, I swear, her and Mandie were going to get us lost somewhere between England and France! I had no idea where we were going almost the entire time! I miss London, and hopefully, I can take Danny there someday!
4. I don't have a favorite color. Nope. Not a single one! Some days I like red, others blue, but I can tell you that whatever color is in Tommy's or Eddie's diapers is my LEAST favorite!
5. I love reality shows and NFL football. I don't know what it is about them, but I love to watch them. Amazing Race is my favorite reality show, and it almost doesn't matter who's playing, I love to watch football! I have always been a Cowboys fan, so of course, Cowboys' games are my favorites to watch! I also love Gray's Anatomy and Ugly Betty. I can't watch crime shows because I have nightmares and trouble sleeping when I do.
6. I love looking at model homes, and going to Open Houses! I have recently discovered that Anna does, too! So, we have taken up the hobby of driving around looking at houses! Maybe when I grow up I'll be a real estate agent.

Okay, now it's Mandie's turn!

Catch-up

I haven't blogged in a long time, and I have a lot to catch up on! Here's some pictures from the Patriotic Parade a couple of weeks ago. Anna's school has this awsome coach that is a DJ in her spare time, and she brings her stuff to school for big events like this. She played great music the entire time and Eddie, of course, slept right through it!

They also had a wall of remembrance for those who served in the armed forces who have passed on. Anna and Tommy are standing next to Papaw's name on the wall.

Go Mavs Go!

Oh, wait, I mean, Let's Go Mavs! They killed the Spurs last night with a commanding 105-92 win. One of my favorite players, Devin Harris, completely dominated Tony Parker. Uh, World Champions? Really?

Thanks Mandie!

Mandie watched my kids for me yesterday while I judged Middle School All-Region and earned a little Christmas money. Of course she took great pictures of my kids, so here they are! Mom was also there to help out with the babies while Mandie took the kids to the park. Thanks Mandie and Mom!

The Worst Doctor's Visit EVER

Today I took Eddie to his 2-month check-up. Not a big deal, right? Um, not so when you have Tommy with you! I picked him up from school and we went straight to the doctor's office. Tommy had a snack and milk on the way and was pretty good in the waiting room for the first 15 minutes, but then he turned into a total monster! He pulled all the toys in front of the glass doors and refused to let anyone in, he kicked the doors and rammed them with the ride-on toys, he screamed at the top of his lungs (apparently because he likes the sound of his own horendous screeches), and kept "falling" off everything, then immediately errupted into big, fake wails complete with crocodile tears! I kept apologizing to all the parents in the room, and I tried to keep Eddie ,and every other kid, safe from The Monster. We waited in that room for 45 minutes! Come on! Seriously!? By that time, I was completely frazzled and grateful that the nurse came. We then went to an even smaller room with only 2 toys and one rolling chair. Tommy escaped from the room about 10 times during Eddie's exam and twice it took me and another nurse to drag him (literally) kicking and screaming back to the room. He kept trying to play on the rolling chair, but that's a big no-no for kids, and he just didn't understand why. The nurse finally put it in the hall. Thank goodness! Tommy screamed and cried for much of the time, and threw the 2 toys that were available to throw. Finally, it was time to go and Tommy didn't want to leave the exam room! When he couldn't leave, he tried to, and when he couldn't stay, he wouldn't leave! We finally got in the car, and sanity returned. How was Eddie? He slept through most of it, and cried pitiously when he got 4 shots, 2 in each leg, but as soon as his clothes were on, he stopped crying and went back to sleep. Eddie is now 12 pounds and 23 3/4 inches long. Sigh, I have been blessed with such a sweet baby... for now! Tommy was just VERY tired and hungry. He went to bed late last night, woke up at 3:30 freezing because he took his clothes off (why do kids do that?), woke up pretty early this morning, and he's ALWAYS hungry. After some french fries and a quick nap in the car, he was fine. I have learned that it's hard to discipline a tired, hungry kid at the doctor's office, and I will find a baby-sitter for Tommy for Eddie's next appointment!

Okay, here's some of Eddie.

Okay, here's some pictures of Eddie. He's not very photogenic at this age because the flash startles him and he makes weird faces. As you can see in the second picture, he kept on wiggling, so we didn't get a good shot. He looks pretty funky. I also don't have a great camera, or camera skills, so it's harder to capture the right moment. I'll try some more, and hopefully I'll get some really good ones.

Happy Halloween!

As you can see, Anna dressed up like Cinderella last night. It's not really what she wanted to be, but it's what I bought her, so she had to deal with it. She ended up loving it, though.

Tommy was Spidey, of course. We saw about 100 of them last night! He hated the costume, and I had to force him in it last night, but he realized that, in order to get candy he had to wear it. So, he did. He completely refused the mask, but I didn't mind. Eddie didn't have a coustume, but we did put a cute jack-o-latern bib on him. All of his pictures were pretty funky, so I didn't post any. We went to our Trunk-or-Treat last night, where the kids got A TON of candy, but was that enough? Nope. We had to go Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood, too! At first, it was just going to be me and Anna because Tommy had shed his costume as soon as we got in the door, but the prospect of more candy enticed him to put it back on. We only did a small part of our street and the street behind us when the kids decided that they had enough candy and we went home. They ate a lot of candy last night, but they were both asleep before 9pm! They didn't even fight it!

Grrr...as a side note, my creepy next door neighbor was handing out candy with his wife and kids last night!! The nerve of that guy! So far, the charges against him are pending, and we're still waiting to see if he'll be prosecuted. Stupid, slow legal system!

I WON!!!

I hardly ever win anything, but last night, at the Fall Festival at Anna's school, I won 2 tickets to a Mav's game! I am SO excited to go! The last Mavs game we went to was at Reunion Arena, so Danny and I are both looking forward to seeing them play at the AAC! Finally, going to PTA meetings has paid off!

Bad Picture

Here's Tommy's school picture for his PPCD class. I scanned it from the black-and-white proof the school gave me, so that's why the quality is so bad. I completely forgot that it was picture day,and I let Tommy pick out his shirt. He chose a plain ash-colored shirt. I also didn't comb his hair that morning, either. We got to school and his teacher took one look at him and said "Um, did you remember it was school picture day?" Of course I would have, had I not stayed up almost the entire night before with Eddie, but I didn't. Pictures, for some insane reason, were to be taken AFTER snack time, and, of course, Tommy spilled water all down the front of his shirt durning snack time! He has a set of clean clothes in the classroom for accidents just like this, but did the teacher think about that? No. She decided to turn his shirt around backwards for his picture! His hair is also sticking up weird in the back so it looks like he has an awfully mis-shaped head! His face is cute, but everything else is all wrong! Sigh...I hate to say it, but he certainly LOOKS developmentally delayed in this picture!

Turn it up!

I do a lot of driving when I teach, so to make it more bearable, I love to listen to music. Who doesn't? Sometimes I turn it up really loud and sing along, depending on the song. I don't get a chance to do that at any other time because I have kids in the car. My most recent faves are: Matchbox 20 - "How Far We've Come", Avril Lavigne - "Girlfriend", Maroon 5 - "Makes me Wonder", Evanesence - "Wake me up Inside", Fall out Boy - "Thnks fr th Mmrs", Timbaland/One Republic - "Apologize" and, of course, anything Green Day. There are a ton others, but this gives you an idea. What are your favorites?

Left Behind

I got a frantic phone call from Tommy's PPCD teacher this morning telling me that she forgot to put him on the bus! There are 2 PPCD classes in a row, so when Tommy's class gets picked up, the next class gets dropped off. Tommy got put in the group of kids for the next class, and no one noticed until they got into the classroom! The teacher was so apologetic and frazzled, I almost felt sorry for her. Almost. I was peeved that this could happen, and grateful that nothing worse happened to Tommy!

10 Things

1. I love it when my kids are in bed and I can veg out on the couch with Danny.
2. Sleeping babies are so cute!
3. I love it when Eddie lets me know that he needs a diaper change. Tommy can go all day without telling me, and the only way I know is by the smell or the trail that he leaves behind. I know, yuck.
4. Finding the things you need at the store and they're on sale!
5. A clean house is a happy house. I have a hard time dealing with big messes. They drive me nuts!
6. Ahhh...cooler weather! Isn't it wonderful?
7. Anna got 20 out of 20 correct on her last math test!
8. Candy corn! Yum!
9. I love making home improvements! Even small stuff like putting up a motion-senor flood light in the back. It makes me feel safer.
10. Free baby-sitters!! They are the best!!

Ketchup Connoisseur

Yesterday, when I gave Tommy his hot dog, I put Hunts ketchup on his plate instead of Heinz. He took a bite, and refused to eat any more of the ketchup. He went straight to the fridge and got out the Heinz bottle and insisted that I put it on his plate. I thought that was strange, so I tried the Hunts again today, but this time I didn't let him see me put it on his plate. The results were the same! Who would have thought that a 3-year-old would have a ketchup preference?

Sleep

Sleep is a wonderful thing. It really is, and you don't truly appreciate it until you don't get enough of it. Eddie loves to sleep. He is a wonderful sleeper during the day, but at night, he just doesn't do it! We've tried to flip his schedule, but nothing has worked. Tommy has been sick with awful allergies and congestion and hasn't been sleeping well at night either. Last night, Danny got up with Eddie, while I was up with Tommy. We barely got any sleep at all! I miss sleeping....

My Craig's List Find

Danny and I wanted to get Tommy a scooter for Christmas, and we found this great Spiderman scooter at Toys R Us, but we didn't like the $40 price tag! So, we went looking on Craig's List for something similar. Well, we found someone selling the EXACT same scooter, new in the box, for only $20! The seller was pretty close, Sachse, and I was able to talk her down to $15! I love Craig's List!

My Two Boys

Aren't my two boys so cute? In the pictures below, Tommy is first and Eddie is second. They are definitely brothers!

2-Week Check-Up

Eddie had his 2-week chek-up on Thursday and he is now 8 lbs, 5 oz, and 21 1/2 inches long! He has gained 1/2 a pound and 1 1/4 inches in only a week! He's a good eater and sleeps really well during the day (we're still working on the sleeping at night stuff).

My doctor visit

I went to the doctor this morning for a blood pressure check, and everything looks great! My BP was 132/68 which is actually on the low side for someone on blood pressure medication. I now just have to make sure that my BP doesn't get too low, and if it does, they'll pull me off the meds. I have another check-up in 4 weeks, and if everything checks out okay, I'll be off the medication for good!

Eddie Update

As some of you know, Eddie left the hospital jaundiced, so we had to do a follow-up visit on Sunday afternoon to the Biliruben Clinic. His levels were still quite high (75%), so we had to go back yesterday. His levels were then only 35-40% (low-risk) but he still has to follow up with his pediatrician tomorrow. We have to keep him eating, but high levels of biliruben makes you sleepy, so it's been hard to get him fed every 3 hours. He has only lost 2 ounces of his birth weight, which is really good, and hopefully, he'll start to gain some weight and get all of the excess biliruben out of his system!

My baby?

Anna and Tommy were playing in my room one day, and Tommy decided to climb into the cradle and lay down. Anna thought this was hilarious, so she grabbed a pillow for his head and his blanket and proceeded to "tuck him in". But she didn't think that was enough, she felt that he needed some "milk" and found one of her play bottles to "feed" Tommy.

Before and After

I needed a new dresser for Tommy's room because he would be sharing with the baby, and his old one was super small. Mom found this "lovely" piece at a garage sale for only $10.

I sanded, painted, and replaced most of the drawer pulls, and this is the final result! What do you think?

First Day of School

Ahhh...it's that time again! The first day of school! This was much different than last year because I have 2 in school now! Tommy only goes from 8-10:30, but it's still school. He thinks his backpack is SO cool, as you can see in the picture below. He had a great day today in his PPCD class. I wish I could have come in, but to make the transition easy, his teacher met me at the curb and took him straight to class. She said that it took a little while for him to warm up to everyone, but as soon as he did, he performed wonderfully! When I picked him up, he ran to the car with a huge smile on his face and actually talked all the way home! I couldn't understand half of what he said, but it's a big step! I'm not sure if he knew exactly what was going to happen this morning, but he's a trooper and did great! Tommy's school is only about 8 minutes away, and is surrounded by $500,000+ homes on 2 sides, and on the third side are million dollar, absolutely amazing custom homes. It makes for a nice drive!


Anna is now in first grade and she gets her own locker! She's been SO excited about school starting! She's been counting down the weeks, then days until the first day of school. Both kids went to bed on time last night, so they woke up on their own, and fairly happy, and both actually ate breakfast. It wasn't until after we dropped off Tommy and were driving to Anna's school that she admitted that she was a little scared. There are no kids in her first grade class that were in her kindergarden class, so it's a little intimidating for her. I walked her in and helped her put away her stuff, and gave her lots of hugs and kisses! I know she'll do great today!

"Pool Party"

Tonight was a Primary Pool Party that Anna was super excited about, but it started pouring rain soon after we got in the car to go . Anna was really disappointed, but I promised her a "pool party" when we got home in my big bathtub. Tommy, of course, couldn't resist, and the kids had a great time! I love the picture of Tommy. If you look closely, you can see the bubbles in mid-splash!

Quick Baby Update

This is baby #3 for me, so this should all be routine, but I don't think it ever will be! Baby is looking healthy and strong, and is in the right position. He just refuses to drop. Ick. I am dialated to a one and 50% effaced. I only have 2 weeks to go!

WOW.

Yep. That just about sums it up. Wow. I found Nathan Fowkes' blog today and it is FILLED with his artwork, and it is AMAZING! You guys need to check it out! I am happy to say that I'm his cousin!
http://nathanfowkes.blogspot.com

Movie Review - "Shrek the Third"

Today Anna and I went to see Shrek the Third at the dollar movies. Anna had never been to the movies before, so it was an interesting adventure. This latest installment of Shrek is definitely not as good as the first two. In fact, Anna had a lot of trouble sitting still through some parts because they were a little slow and boring. It wasn't near as funny, and I found myself outright laughing only a couple of times. The plot is not that great, and some parts were stretched thin, and others not developed enough. For what it is, though, Anna and I gave it two thumbs up. It entertained us, made us laugh, and it had babies in it (we're all about babies at my house right now). This is definitely one to rent, but keep your expectations fairly low, and you'll probably enjoy it!

We're putting it to a vote...

Danny and I can't agree on a name for this baby, which will be born on August 31 (I go to the hospital on the 30th at 5pm to start some drugs, and the next morning I'll be started on pitocin), so we're putting it to a family vote. Now, just because the name wins, doesn't exactly mean that's what we'll name him, but we'd like to know what you think. Just let us know which one you like better, and why, in the comments section.

Name 1: Henry

Name 2: Eduard