Our family snowball fight.....

Non-Crappy Starring You! eCards on JibJab

Breakfast with Santa!!

Sunday was breakfast with Santa at my parents club. We all had a great time stuffing ourselves and the girls were very exited to get into their Christmas outfits and have a visit with the "Big man". Wouldn't you know it 20 minutes after we get there my camera ran out of batteries so I didn't get the greatest pics, but you can tell they had a great time.

Well the last couple of weeks have been a bit sluggish. I am finally getting over my illness that had me knocked out on the couch coughing my lungs up:) Thanksgiving went by in a blur and then at work we have our AZA (American Zoological Association) inspection that is done every 2 years. Work has been very hectic in preparation for this and I have put in a lot of overtime. Oh and I passed the 3 hour glucose test so I don't have to worry about gestational diabetes and I can enjoy my holidays!!! I also realized I was a little anemic and started taking an extra iron supplement so hopefully I will just be regular pregnancy tired instead of feeling wiped out like I have been. It is getting so close for this little boy to be born. I don't know if it has really hit Adam yet..............I am thinking about setting the crib up this weekend so that might bring on a reality check:)

Thank you.............Ricola

Well the title says it all, after going to the doctor on Friday and learning that my white blood cell count is fine (meaning no infection). I think the cold or ick or whatever it is that has taken up residence in my body the last week is finally on it's way out. I just want to give a big shout out to Ricola..........what a life saver. Who would have thought that this little herbal lozenge would bring so much relief to my throat that literally felt like it was being torn apart. Sigh.........what will I complain about next? Oh yeah, I get my glucose test results back tomorrow :)

When it rains..........it pours!

So basically I jinxed myself with everything I wrote in my last blog. Remember that glucose test? Well I failed the one hour, which isn't strange in and of itself but then I went on to say at least I am healthy..........well Sunday morning I woke up with a heaviness in my chest and a little bit of a tickle in my throat. By Monday it was a full fledged cough and feeling like I had been hit by a sledge hammer. It was difficult to make it through the day, that was also the day I learned I had failed the glucose test and had to go in Tuesday morning for the three hour. So fasting for me:) The test is grueling, get blood drawn as a base line, drink 100g of glucose solution and wait an hour, get blood drawn again, wait an hour, get blood drawn, wait an hour and then get blood drawn again. I got the added bonus on the last draw that she couldn't get blood out of the vein she was digging around in so I got stuck 5 times instead of 4!! Yeah me!. So the whole time I have an empty stomach (except for that fabulous glucose), baby is going crazy in my tummy AND I feel like I have the flu. Fun morning! Things haven't been to much better ever since and here I sit at work on Thanksgiving.............I dragged my butt in. That's enough for my complaining. I should find out the results on Friday, but before that hopefully I can enjoy a little of Thanksgiving that I have left. I will make that a separate and hopefully happier post.

**By the way, that's not me in the picture :)**

28 Weeks

Well time it seems is flying by and I had my 28 week appointment today. This appointment is the wonderful time in pregnancy when you have to take the one hour gestational diabetes test.....the only thing worse is if you fail the one hour and have to take the three hour!! Yikes! It basically consists of them making you fast past midnight, then within 5 minutes drinking a sugary concoction that tastes of flat Sprite. YUM! Then you get to go have 3 huge vials of blood drawn (did I mention this is all on a pregnant lady empty stomach?!). Well I made it through. Weight: 161lbs. Yeah, I am not too afraid to put it out there. I have gained about 16 lbs so far in 7 months. Little Bubba's head is down (now stay that way!) and the heartbeat sounds great! So now I get to go every 2 weeks. It is getting so close now.

Well I have been battling pelvic, thigh and back pain really bad for about a week and a half now. My neighbor mentioned to me last night that the pregnancy bands really help. I thought they looked tight and uncomfortable but I am willing to try anything to help me make it through my grueling days at work so I went out and bought one today. Aside from looking kinda creepy it feels, well, I don't know yet. I will have to "test drive" it on a day when I am working for 8 + hours to see how it really performs. Isn't it amazing what pregnant women will go through for a little relief?

Other than that I have little else to complain about. This pregnancy is flying by and little Bubba is moving and kicking up a storm. He appears to be healthy and so do I so who can really complain about that huh? I just know February is going to be here before I know it, especially with the holiday's right around the corner.

Coming to a salon near you.................

Yes Isabelle showed us her budding interest in becoming a hair stylist this past week when she got into her sisters scissors. She grabbed a good one inch chunk from each side of her face and gave it a good whack. Surprisingly enough she managed to angle downwards so it really did have an almost layered or feathered look to it but unfortunately it wasn't even and I had no idea how to fix it on my own so off to get a haircut! It is shorter than it has ever been before but I think it is very cute. The first thing she said after the hair cut was, "I look like Sound of Music!!". Meaning Julie Andrews. I regret not getting any pics of her handiwork but I thought about it too late. Her defense when I asked why she did it, "but mommy, I didn't cut my fingers!". Well, the kids gotta point. Lets just hope she doesn't get the scissors again because she may have to get a buzz!

Pizza Night!!

Well today was pretty normal around here. Get up make lunch for Jenna, make sure all her school clothes and bags are together, put clothes out for Isabelle, throw on my uniform and rush out the door. Work overtime and finally get to leave only to sit for 1/2 an hour on the interstate........finally get off to pick up Isabelle only to sit for 1/2 hour on LaGrange road because of railroad construction. Phew!! So 1 1/2 hours after I got off work we finally got home.

I love Paul's Fruit Market and one of the great things they have in their frozen section are premade balls of pizza dough. Just thaw, roll out and it's your very own pizza night! I thought the girls would love this after a hectic day. What do you think?

Halloween 2007

Well things in my life always seem to be hectic and Halloween was no exception. The day started with of course Isabelle climbing into bed at an inappropriate hour, usually before the sun has come up. We then went and got some goodies from the grocery for the evenings festivities. Belle even got to play for a bit and have lunch with her cousin Spencer for a short visit.

Then it was party time at Jenna's school, I went to help and all the kids had lots of fun. After games, cupcakes, chips and party bags full of sugar it was time to send them home!! But on the ride home I got a call from Adam that he was not feeling well at all and that he was sure he had another kidney stone. So between juggling trying to figure out what he wanted to do (all the doctors office would tell us to do is to go to the emergency room) and getting the kids ready plus making appetizers it was a very busy afternoon. Adam decided to miss out on the Halloween festivities and wait till we got home. We were sad to leave without him and it was so hard to see him in that much pain.

We arrived at Aunt Tirzah and Uncle Larry's neighborhood just in time for trick or treating. Jenna was my spooky corpse bride and Isabelle was sweet little Alice in Wonderland...........she definitely looks the part! The girls trick or treated till they were exhausted and we made our way back to the house to check out the haul. Both girls got ample goodies! Unfortunately I learned through a cell phone call that Adam had decided to go to an Immediate Care Center due to the pain he was having. He had called a friend to take him. It was a tense hour or so making calls to find out where he was and we learned that he had been taken by ambulance to a local hospital. So mom came over to watch the kids and I headed off to the emergency room. Adam had passed a couple stones but still had one remaining...........bummer. Poor guy is in a lot of pain! I don't have to go into the gory details for those that have been through this before!!

So our night ended somewhere around midnight. We are all tired and glad the day went well for the kids.............