Halloween fun?

This morning I had the cutest little boy you have ever seen.  No really.  He wore a navy blazer with navy pants, a white shirt, and his navy bow tie to church and it was amazing.  No pictures, so you'll just have to believe me.  The kid wouldn't wake up for church, so finally I did it for him at 8:30.  Then he didn't want to eat breakfast.  I packed him a snack for the service and we headed out. 

He didn't want his snack during service.  He ate just a few goldfish and that was it.  I figured he would just eat a good lunch.  He didn't want lunch.  What is wrong with this child?!  I just laid him down for a nap thinking he would not sleep very long and wake up starved.  Wrong again.  It took him an hour to fall asleep, and when he got up he still wasn't hungry.  Good thing too, because we needed to get out the door to Trunk or Treat.  Nothing like barely eating all day and going out for candy!  Before we left, I managed to get a good picture out in the front yard.  I present......The Highway!

Meh.  Whatever.  His little face is cute enough to carry the costume.  We got to trunk or treat, quickly helped decorate the truck, then headed inside to play the games before it got crowded.  He did a little better this year than last.  He played them all except for the bean bag toss and the wiffle ball toss.  And he only cheated at two of the games- the putt putt (where he started out more like shuffle ball

and ended up just picking the ball up and dropping it in the hole)

-and football throw (once again he couldn't be stopped from just walking up to it)

Then it was time to work our shift at the trunk to pass out candy.  Luke was more interested in playing with the props.

After our 30 minutes shift I took him around to all the trunks to get candy.  He did okay at first.....

until he wanted to eat the candy half way through the process and let me know how he felt about my "not right now" reply

Which is about how he looked in the group photo of all the kids in our group.  Can you spot Luke?  Hint- look low.  He wasn't too happy about being there. (A bigger group than last year!)

Finally we went over to Mom and Dad's trunk, where they had a live pony.  Mom got a good picture of Luke and the pony, but some how I didn't.  Then I sat with their group while Dad took Luke in to get a hot dog.  He only ate half of it.  Seriously, what is wrong with him?!  I hope he's not getting sick.  After awhile I got a hot dog, then we came home to watch James Bond.  Doesn't everyone watch 007 with their 2 year old on Halloween night?

Canton

My day today started at 6:10.  Well, actually it was closer to 5 when I woke up with horrid allergies again, but it was 6:10 that was set on the alarm.  And 6:10 when I got out of bed.  Why, do you ask, would I ever get up on a Saturday at such an ungodly hour? 

Because it was Canton day.  That's right.  A day when all the women folk in the family gather and spend an entire day shopping.  Some enjoy the all day part a little more than others, but we all survived.  (and you may not know what Canton is, and for that I am sorry.  Canton is a town in East Texas.  In this town is the largest trade show/craft fair/junk sale you have ever seen.  I'm talking acres and acres and acres.  Still interested?  Read about it here.)

Now is about the time where you need to say "Bless that girl's family for putting up with her today." and shaming me, because I'm just gonna tell it like it is- I'm a terrible marathon shopper.  After about 2 hours I'm done.  My back hurts.  My legs hurt.  Today the pregnancy was causing some dizziness.  So this meant I was done shopping by 11.  We didn't leave until 5.  That left hours and hours of complaining in between.  Grandy actually came with us, and he rented a scooter for himself since he doesn't hold up like he used to either.  But the dude's got an excuse.  He's 79.  And what did my sweet grandfather do?   He let me take turns on the scooter.  Yep.  I was probably the youngest person there today hitching a ride and I didn't care.  Later when I told Cody about it he looked at me incredulously and said "You rode a fat people mobile?"  Yep.  With no shame.

I did come away with some good purchases though.  I .....shhhhhhhhhh....... took $40 out of Cody's wallet before I left and put it to good use.  I bought some creme brulee flavored chai tea that is AMAZING, some cinnamon sugar pecans (for Cody, to be sweet and let him know I was thinking about him and maybe to secretly say thank you for the money), some cinnamon sugar almonds for me (because I needed something sweet after lunch), a pair of sun glasses, a pretzel, and a picture frame.  I'm super excited about the picture frame, it's my first purchase for the new baby!  It's black, to match the furniture, and it has the saying "Before you were conceived, I wanted you, before you were born, I loved you, before you were here and hour, I would die for you, this is the miracle of love." printed on it.  That is one of my very favorite sayings about my children, I actually had it put on Luke's birth announcement too.  Anyway, big moment for baby's first purchase!

I dozed on the way home, and when we got back to Mom's house I took a bubble bath.  A very cool bubble bath to keep baby safe, but a bath none the less.  It was goooooooood.  Then we all had hamburgers and cake for dinner and I came home. 

So all in all, it was a great day.  I may have complained, but I'm glad I went.  Time with family is never wasted.  And you may have wondered where Luke was in all of this.  Dad didn't go with us, and Cody had to work overtime today (such a hard worker for our family!) so Dad was on baby duty.  Not that it was really "duty".  Luke was just thrilled to have the day with him.  When we got back he didn't even bat an eye at me.  It's all about Papa.  They went to the electronics store, they had lunch, they took a nap, they played and played outside.   Getting him back home was the trick.  But now he's tucked away for the night, and I'm about two button punches behind him.

Fall might be here

This morning I woke up and the house was 68.  68!  I don't even know how cold it was outside to get that chilly inside.  But I guess I should really clarify.  It was 68 when I got out of bed for good.  Not when I first woke up.

See, last night was not a great night.  I had opened the windows yesterday afternoon, but the air didn't ever come on to help filter out whatever gunk floated in, and my allergies were totally out of control.  Totally.  I'm hating the inside of my face right now.  There was no sleep to be had.  About 5:15 I heard the bedroom door open.  Propping myself up a little I call out "Luke?  Luke is that you?" but there was no answer.  Weird.  When he wakes up before us he ALWAYS starts gabbing before reaching the bed.  And if for some reason he doesn't then, he most definitely will when you acknowledged him.  Not this time though.  A few seconds later I heard padded feet coming closer and a face appeared next to mine.  Holding puppy.  Again weird, he never brings puppy.  I asked him if he was okay, no answer, so I just haul him up into our bed.  He immediately snuggled down smack dab in the middle of my pillow and was still.  This is a child who has never ever ever slept with us because being in our bed is a party.  You can't stop his giggling.  Weird.  Well, I couldn't go back to sleep for my allergies, the nose blowing was ridiculous, but that didn't seem to phase him either.  He slept right on through it all, the alarm that went off, Cody taking a shower and getting dressed.

Isn't that the oddest thing?  Here's the kicker- I'm pretty sure he was sleep walking.  Eek!  Now my sister did when she was little, and my aunt and cousin still do on occasion, so I'm no stranger to the sleep walker.  I just never thought my child would be one of them!  Yet another reason I'm glad we have a dog....there is no way he'd get past an outside door without Daisy fussing about it. 

After all of that, I couldn't even have a relaxing morning because I had a dr appointment to get to!  Mom met me at the office to watch the boys while I went back, and I even got another quick sono.  The baby is obviously bigger with a definite heartbeat.  What a relief!  I've now gotten to see this baby twice, and it STILL doesn't always feel real.  Sometimes it does, I get excited about meeting my new kid, seeing what he looks like, feeling the weight of him in my arms, but sometimes it just doesn't seem real.  Like I can't imagine my life different than it is now- me with two kids, Luke with a sibling, shuffling our lives/stuff/love/routine around to accommodate a new being. 

Now I'm hitting the sheets early.  Here's to hoping tonight's a better night and my face doesn't blow itself off.

Special Day

Today was Cody's birthday!  He's not big into celebrations or special days, but that doesn't stop me from trying!  Poor guy had to work some overtime today, but when he got home we went out to dinner with his parents to Outback.  Mmmmm, I know after a steak and shrimp dinner I shouldn't still be obsessed with the salad, but hey pregnancy does crazy things to ya.  And all I can think about was the blue cheese pecan chopped salad.  Momma wants more.

This afternoon I let Luke make Daddy a birthday card.  It was the first time he got to use markers, and he is hooked!  It was very sweet, Cody said it was the best birthday present he could have gotten and I could tell he really meant it. 

So now Cody and I are back to being the same age.  If you remember, my birthday was in June, so for just these few months it's very obvious I'm slightly older.  SLIGHTLY y'all.  But all is right, now! 

On a completely different note, Luke helped me make up my bed today.  After we were done he brought in a little something extra and put in on the bed for me.  Doesn't it fit right in?

Pumpkin Patch

I almost forgot about it this year.  What kind of mother would I be if I did that?!  But, I did remember about the ole patch at the last minute, and luckily Kayden wasn't here today (I wasn't about to attempt to tote one kid around while trying to get pictures of the other all by myself), so today it was.  I wasn't expecting much from my boy seeing as we all know he hates to get his picture taken and refuses to look at the camera or attempt a smile. 

Good thing today I came prepared.  Prepared to bribe a look my way with Smarties.  And it ALMOST worked.  If it hadn't been for all the mayhem from 50 billion preschool class trips I might have caught his attention even more.  But, I was pleased to get a couple of good pictures.

The first one is my favorite.  And sorry about another gimpy hand in the second one.  He was reaching for the Smarties.  Most pictures I took looked like this.

Him just staring off at all the other things going on.  He wouldn't even answer to my YELLING his name.  Totally off in la la land.  Oh well, this is why my hopes weren't up.  After the pumpkin patch I wanted to go to a couple of different stores, but my shoes were killing me and I was starved, so we ran home to eat really quick and change shoes before getting back out.  Mistake!  By the time we were done eating I was exhausted, so I figured we would just go after nap time.  And bonus- it would be Sonic happy hour by then and I would splurge on a Dr. Pepper.  Mmmmmmmmm, I could taste it.

I was feeling rather cuddly, so I let Luke take a nap in my bed with me.  This was a first!  It took forever for him to stop staring at me and giggling, but eventually we fell asleep.  When we woke up it was 3:30, and I didn't wanna go anywhere.  *sigh*  I didn't even want a DP anymore.  What is wrong with me?  Oh that's right, it was afternoon sickness, that lasted until evening sickness.  We didn't even go to church tonight.  Needless to say I didn't wanna make dinner, so I popped some fish sticks into the oven, whipped up some mac 'n cheese, and was done with it.  Then I felt like the worst mother ever.  I've fed Luke the worst dinners over the last few days.  Sunday night- all he would eat was the sweet potatoes from Boston Market  Monday night- hot dogs at the Coulter's  Tuesday night- pizza at Grandmother's  Wednesday night- fish sticks and macaroni.  Geez.  I used to be so good about feeding him all healthy all the time.  There's always tomorrow, right?

8 weeks

Yay for 8 weeks!  I feel like I'm finally starting to move up on the time line, after my little set back.  What a good feeling!  And speaking of good feelings, I got most of my house work done today.  The only thing I didn't do was clean the bathrooms.  I napped instead.  And you know what?  I"m okay with that.  I'm gonna have to start getting used to things not being done when/where/as fast as I want as I start slowing down and then have the baby.  I really wasn't going to nap today either.  But the house was so quiet, and the unmade bed was  luring me in.  I was powerless.

Changing the subject, there are some of my  favorite combinations are buttery cake with fluffy buttercream icing; hot coffee on a cold morning; a trashy magazine on a sunny day next to a pool; holding hands with my husband while watching our boy gleefully running around.

Some of my not so favorite combinations would be a hungry momma fighting a hungry child about what's for lunch (he ended up falling asleep on his bed without lunch. oops.); changing 6 poopy diapers with a gag reflex on high; waking up from a nap with a tummy ache and the hiccups (oh that was NOT a good combination).  Unfortunately I had all of the things today.  In one day.  But luckily it ended up with another of my favorite combinations: dinner with friends.  A dinner at the Coulters that ended up with Luke trying to drink out of my water cup and dumping it all over himself and me.  And then laughing hysterically about it. 

And now for the update!

(I was gonna put on the same stuff from last week, but I decided I really hated those shorts so I didn't.  And I didn't want to mess with trying to do it myself, I made Cody do it this time.)

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 8 Weeks

Size of baby: a kidney bean

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Still unknown.  But I do to the dr on Thursday, so next week I'll have something

Maternity Clothes: Still hanging on to regular clothes.  In fact, I bought a pair of jeans after Luke that are a size bigger than I normally wear (when I thought I would never get back down to normal size), which I have on in the picture.  They're still baggy!

Gender: I decided this weekend what to do about the furniture/bedding situation, and now I'm thinking I don't really NEED to know until the baby's born.....soooooooo........tonight I tossed the idea around of waiting.  But I haven't broached the subject with Cody, and I truly thought it through anyway.  I will probably go back and  forth until the sono and then I'll just HAVE to know!

Movement: Nope, not yet.

Sleep: I've had trouble sleeping some nights, but mostly that's because I can't seem to turn my brain off at night!

What I miss: Been majorly missing my Dr. Pepper.  I would kill for one right this very instance.  At almost 11 at night.

Cravings: Chili cheese fries!  I haven't really gotten to have any in a couple of weeks, but I'm thinking about them a lot.  A lot.  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm  chiiiiiili cheeeeeeeeeeese friiiiiiiiiies.

Symptoms: Still the boobs, and just nauseous every now and then.  Like this afternoon, with hiccups.  Blec.

Best Moment this week: Unknown

Sunday Funday

Lord.  Have.  Mercy. 

This child was busier than all get out before church this morning.  I have never. ever. seen someone have that much energy at 8 AM.  Like, rolling all over the floor, running in circles, terrorizing the dog, body slamming pillows.  I was all too happy to pass him off to his bible school teachers this morning.  And when I did, I told them "Yeah, good luck with that."  After bible class, during the service, it was my turn to have nursery duty.  I guess it came at a good time so that Luke could just keep going with the energy.  After church Luke and I had lunch with our friends the Sloan's at Einstein Brothers Bagles.  Mmmmmmmmmm.  It was good.

When we got home I figured that Luke would go down for a nap no problem since he'd been going non stop since 8.  I should know better than by now.  Of course he didn't want to nap.  We started at 1:30 and he didn't sleep until 3.  It's been like this all week, and I'm so afraid he's starting to give up nap time in general. 

Noooooooooooooooooooooo! 

Please don't give up nap time!

While he was "sleeping" I sat on the couch and watched the National Geographic Channel.  There was NOTHING on.  And I was still choosing to ignore the piles and piles of crud everywhere, just praying that no one would pop over.  This left me with only one thing to watch: In the Womb.  Yes, I'm now well versed in how puppies, elephants, dolphins, sharks, and kangaroos develop.  And yes, that many animals means I watched more than one episode.  What a life I lead.

Tonight Luke and I went to small groups at the Hodges.  I took us some Boston Market for dinner and I even splurged and got us an extra side of cinnamon apples.  But when we got out to the Hodges (who live 25 minutes from us) guess what I didn't have in my bag?  That's right, the cinnamon apples.  Oh, I was so mad.  I was looking forward to that!  Oh well.  We still had a nice time, visiting with friends (me) and playing with new toys (Luke).  And now I'm hoping my son will go to bed easy tonight.  I know I will.  I called it yesterday, I didn't sleep well last night at ALL.  Darn long nap.  That's why I suffered through NGC this afternoon instead of sleeping.  I'm exausted now, but at least I'll sleep!

Avoiding the necessary

Last night when we went to bed, I asked Cody if it was okay  if I left every single one of Luke's books strewn all over the floor as they were.  And left all of his trucks and cars out.  Not because Cody cares, but because I needed permission to not to have to clean them.  He said of course. 

So I didn't. 

And guess what?  When I woke up this morning, the horrendous mess was still in my living room.  And had expanded to the kitchen.  Not sure when that happened. 

Luke and I ate breakfast, and then I noticed two different people mention a craft fair at one of the local high schools, so of course I wanted to check it out.  So I threw some close on me and the boy and ran out the door.  I was super glad I put some decently cute clothes on us (and a couple of rockin' hats to cover up bed heads) because I ran into no less than a million people I knew.  Most which I hadn't seen in well over a year.  Plus it was a great craft fair, with a ton of vendors.  I didn't buy anything, but Luke and I had fun looking.  He was a great little shopper.  I didn't take a stroller and he stayed right with me the whole time, either holding my hand or sitting on my hip.  I love that little dude!

45 minutes later our field trip was over, and I was none to keen to get back to the house to face the mess.  So what did I do?  The only logical thing.  Stall by going over to Mom and Dad's.  We got there a little before 11 and stayed until 1 when I knew Luke needed a nap.  I didn't mean to stay that long, or to bum lunch off of them, but we did and it was good.  In the short 3 minute ride home the weather went from slightly sprinkling to torrential rains.  Turns out there there were tornadoes in the area.  Oops!  But the dark clouds and rain were perfect sleeping weather, and we slept from 1:30 to almost 4.  Any bets on if I'm gonna sleep tonight?! 

Baseball?!

I can't believe that I'm actually going to mention baseball tonight.  But something huge has happened.  In the first time in franchise history, the Rangers have won the American League Championship and is moving on to the World Series.  Cody and I actually watched the game tonight.  What?!  I know, huge shocker for anyone who knows me personally.  When my family would go to a Ranger's game growing up, I would be the one at the end of the row with a book.  My sister was the sports fan, I was just dragged along for "family time".  But alas, they've actually done fantastic this season and now it's all anyone can talk about.  Including me, apparently.

Luckily that's not all I did today.  Most of the day was spent catching up my DVR.  I had a lot of new things recorded from the last couple of nights and I was anxious to indulge.  So indulge I did.  The only time I got out of the house was to run to the store for dinner stuff.  Which ended up being a huge mistake because pregnancy+hunger=unnecessary items.  Like sauerkraut.  And cheesey Texas Toast.  And Blue Bell Carmel Kettle Corn Crunch ice cream.  I've been doing sooo good this whole month on only going to the store once a week and making those items last until it was time to go again.  It's meant a couple of sandwiches made from the heels of a loaf of bread, and only one veggie at dinner instead of two, but I've made it.  Until tonight.  Oh well. 

I've got to get back

So, over the last few weeks I've taken a break from sewing.  I wasn't really getting any Etsy orders in, so I just kinda stopped.  But I have GOT to get back into the swing of things.  I just know the mess it's going to make, and it's a little daunting.

This afternoon Luke, Kayden and I met my friend Michelle and her husband Jason for lunch at Rosa's.  I packed the boys each a lunch and headed out, preparing for a circus.  And a circus it was.  Between trying to keep Kayden in his highchair and his food off the floor and keeping Luke contained in the booth and not eating MY food, we were a bit of a show.  I'm sure a little more than the Webb's had bargained for.  They don't have kids yet, and I'm thinking we pushed that back a little farther today. 

Tonight I did nothing but brows on Etsy.  It was delightful, yet a little frustrating.  I'm ready to know what this baby is NOW so that I can start picking out what I want!  But I'm not going to wish away this pregnancy.  I love love love being pregnant and since it's most likely my last (but who knows for sure since we apparently aren't great about planning them) I'm going to savor every day of it.  I must admit though, I'm dreaming of the day I'm surrounded by matching baby gear, rocking away the evenings. 

Speaking of evenings, we've already established that Luke's a funny kid.  There is this Ragu commercial that comes on now, where two tomatoes rise up out of the jar of tomato sauce and travel around the kitchen to get to the plate of spaghetti.  For some reason this greatly concerns my son and EVERY. TIME. it comes one he gets real still, eyes glued to the tv, and just repeats "uh oh,  uh oh,  uh oh" until it's over.  Don't ask me what that's about.  He also saw me make myself some chocolate milk after I'd already poured him some apple juice.  Of course he wanted the chocolate milk, but I told him he had to drink the juice first.  Well, I didn't realize it until he started cheering for himself, but he POUNDED that juice so he could have chocolate milk.  And then he realized the accomplishment of what he did so quickly that he laughed and clapped and cheered.  What a goon.  And obviously poor planning on my part, because then he was so full of juice that he didn't really eat dinner.  Oops.

Change of plans for dinner

Today was a semi-productive day.  Cody asked me to do a couple of things, and I actually remembered to do them!  He wanted me to pick up some pre-emergent for the lawn's winter weeds.  Do other places in the country have winter weeds?  Boy, we do.  Remember Easter?  Yeah, it's not supposed to be that green out yet.  I also got yesterday's 5 loads of laundry folded, ironed, and put away 

Tonight for dinner I had planned on thawing a steak and cooking up some green beans.  Then I was reminded that Dicky's BBQ was having their anniversary special of $1 pulled pork sandwiches.  Um, yes please!  Cody had to work late, so we didn't end up getting out the door until 6:30.  We got there, found a parking spot in the packed joint, and took our place in line.  After about 10 minutes they announced they had run out of pulled pork.  Boooooooooooooooooooooo.  But in that time I had realized what I really wanted was fried catfish.  Mmm.  Fried. Catfish.  I told Cody what I wanted and he offered to take me to Razoo's.  At first I said no, we didn't need to spend that kind of money.  Then he said we could get fried pickles too.  Oh babe.  You had me at fried pickles. 

So we went.  And I stuffed  my face with fried food goodness.   The only thing better than fried pickles and fried catfish is fried pickles/catfish with an icy cold Shiner.  Unfortunately the baby in my tummy said no, so I  just got a Dr. Pepper.  And it was a really good DP too. 

Now I think I'll polish off the evening with a handful of Halloween candy.

Quirky kid and 7 weeks

Originally I was just going to start my weekly pregnancy update today and be done with the post.  But then the kid I already have decided to be cute and weird today and I wanted to include that too.  Lucky for you, I get to do my new found weekly updates on Monday, which will save you the boredom of having to listen to my Monday-cleaning woes. 

Except for right now.  See, I was trying to get the bathrooms scrubbed, and tired of fending off 2 year old interruptions, so I put on a movie.  The only problem is Luke hates it when I put on a movie.  Not kidding.  The moment he saw me sit down in front of the DVD player he ran and got in bed.  And stayed there for 10 minutes.  Finally Finding Nemo sucked him in and he settled in to watch.  And when I say "settled in" I mean "hid as much of himself from the movie as he could while still watching".

See his little head in the couch.  Literally, in the couch.  He got down behind the couch cushions, right up against the back frame.  And I had to put the baby proof lock on the cabinet so Kayden wouldn't open 'er up and punch all the buttons.  He wasn't quite as into the movie as Luke was.  But hey.  I got all the cleaning done.

Now to what you are really here for, right?  Just kidding.  If pregnancy stuff is boring to you, stop reading.......NOW!

(I will attempt to wear this each week.....hopefully the shorts will make it)

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 7 Weeks

Size of baby: a blueberry, which is a little odd because Luke has them every morning for breakfast.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I could really use a scale for this part.  I'll only be able to update this once a month from my dr visits.  So can I say nothing so far?

Maternity Clothes: Nope!  Haven't even thought about digging them out yet.  Because once I do there is no turning back.

Gender: Until we find out for sure in a few months, I'll just be guessing. Fingers crossed for a boy!

Movement: I would like to say yes, but I'm guessing it's just gas bubbles since it's only the size of a blueberry.

Sleep: I've only missed one day on taking a nap.

What I miss: Sushi.  And Dr. Pepper or coffee all day every day.  I splurged on a DP the other day and it was hard to stop at just one!

Cravings: I've been loving baked potato soup.  And candy.  But if I've always craved candy I guess I can't really call it a pregnancy craving.

Symptoms: Luckily the last couple of days I haven't been as nauseous as I've been the last few weeks.  Other than that just sore boobs (which was actually my first symptom before I even found out I was knocked up) and the tiredness.  And a little cranky sometimes.

Best Moment this week: Totally not pregnancy related, but Luke singing with us in church yesterday!



Eat him up

Okay, are you ready? 

Are you ready to die?

(excuse the gimpy hands, he was about to run at me)

I could not get enough of this little boy today in that bow tie.  Could not.  On top of that, he was such a good boy in church today.  We were standing and singing a song when all of the sudden I heard a little voice next to my ear singing a babbling tune with us.  I almost cried.  Does it get any better than seeing your 2 year old worship with you?  The only little hiccup was when one of his cars got away from him and rolled two rows up.  What's any little boy to do?  Why crawl commando style up to get it of course!  The lady in front of us had to fish him out from under the pew in front of her and passed him back. 

After church we went to Chipotle for lunch with Mom and Dad, then came home for nap time.  He went right down for a nap and I crawled into bed too.  First I watched a little Gilmore Girls on tv (still one of my all time faves) then dozed myself.  For 2 hours.  I woke up before Luke did, just in time for the Cowboy game to start, so I turned on the tv and got out the laptop.  Eventually Luke woke up and got to playing, and before I knew it the clock said 5 and I was starving.  Still in bed.  Cody forged us a pizza for dinner and then I headed out to Walmart for our weekly grocery trip.

Oh ya'll.  The most embarrassing thing happened.  I was in the kid's clothes section getting some pieces that will be a part of Luke's Halloween costume.  I had walked away from my basket to look at a shirt, then turned around to a basket and started pushing it away.  Suddenly a man who didn't really speak English was following calling "hey! hey!"

Yeah.  I took their basket.  Sooooo embarrassed.  Then, to make matters worse, I couldn't find MY basket.  I had left it in a completely different spot than I thought.  This pregnancy stuff is messing with my brain in a bad way.

Tonight I got sucked into 2 hours of Sister Wives.  Have you seen this new show on TLC?  It's about a  polygamist family.  I could never do that.  There is no way I would be able to deal with the emotional aspects my husband having other wives.  I don't think he could deal other wive anyway.  I'm kinda a lot to handle.

Thoughts in bullets

-First off, thank you for all the support in my new pregnancy!  I am so thankful for everyone's encouraging words and prayers!

-A couple of days ago Luke ate most of his breakfast, but still had about half the fruit I had served left on his plate.  About that time I was cutting myself a slice of crumb cake for my own breakfast, and quick as lighting that boy was out of his chair with his plate, ran over to the trash can to dump the remains, then was by my side begging with an empty plate for his share. 

-Later that afternoon I was sitting on my bed pecking away on the laptop.  There is a direct view from our bed to the front door.  I had the door open because Kayden was going to get picked up eventually.  Luke was messing with the glass door, opening and closing it, testing the waters on if he could sneak away.  I told him he better not go outside, he needed to stay inside the house.  So what did he do?  Came and closed my bedroom door so I couldn't "see" him, then proceeded to get out again.  Sneaky boy!

-Last night I got to hang out with my friend Taylor.  She had a photo shoot in McKinney and was starved on the way home, so Luke and I met her for hamburgers in The Colony.  As soon as we sat down I ordered a plate of chili cheese fries for the table and Oh. My. Goodness.  It was delightful.  By the time our hamburgers came I could only eat 3 bites of my burger I was so full on chili cheese fries.  Then we came back to my house and sat on the couch visiting until midnight.  MIDNIGHT!  What are we?  13?  But it was so nice getting to visit since she's been so busy with work.  We didn't even realize what time it was!

-Tonight Cody and I went with some friends to Gold Class Theaters.  Have you heard about them?  Oh lordy.  It was like the movie star experience of going to the movies.  The chairs were actually suede recliners that could lay all the way back.  They brought me a blanket.  You could order dinner, and it was a  fancy menu.  I got some rice paper wrapped chicken ginger rolls and beer battered onion rings.  It was so good I finally had to just force myself to stop.  Between my full belly, the close movie screen, all the action (we saw the movie Red), the noise, and pregnancy hormones, I had to go out into the hall and take a tummy time out.  But it was still so fun!  Too bad it's so expensive or it would be my new Saturday night fall back plan.

The Story

My sweet baby,
I just want to say up front that no matter how your daddy or I felt initially, we are so very thankful for the gift that is you.  We love you no matter what and could not imagine our life without you.  Besides walking daily with the Lord, you and your brother are the greatest gifts I could possibly imagine.  I love you more than you will ever know!   Thank you for being you.

I don't think it's any big surprise to anyone that we weren't planning on getting pregnant.  I think it's pretty common knowledge that Cody was content with one kid period.  Couple all that with the fact that over the last two and half years I haven't ovulated or used any form of birth control, things were looking pretty solid on it staying just the three of us.  And I was becoming okay with that.  I was realizing that we really didn't have the money for a baby, nor a place to put a baby.  Those were things I didn't really want to deal with.

Friday September 24th I was headed to the Ladies Retreat for church.  But I had a sinking feeling I was pregnant.  I told Cody that morning before he went to work what I thought, but I told him I didn't want to take a test.  I was scared.  Our marriage had been on some serious rocks lately.  I didn't want him to be angry with me like he was when we found out about Luke.  I wasn't ready to deal with the repercussions of what a new baby would mean.  Right before Cody went to work I took one anyway.  And there was a second line.  Barely more than a shadow.  But it was there.  And as my friend Brandy would say, a positive is a positive is a positive.  Cody and I just looked at each other like "Hmmm!  Well, all right then."  He went to work.

After he left I broke down.  I called my friend Kendra and she talked me through it.  She told me the things I needed to hear.  Like this was God's plan.  Of course it was.  It was a miracle.  It wasn't supposed to happen and it did.  He already knew how we would pay for it and where it would go.  I was being trusted (again) to raise a new disciple of God.   I felt so much better.  So much more at peace.  In fact, despite the denial I was still in I told Sara at the retreat so that I could giggle about it with someone.  And giggle we did.  When I needed waffles at 11:00 pm she was my wing man and totally made it happen. 

Cody had told his parents while I was at the retreat, so I told my parents when I got home.  They were thrilled.  Of course!  What grandparent doesn't want another grand baby?!  After that I was done telling for awhile.  The appointment that I had on Monday was the sonogram, and I wanted to wait until after that to tell people.  I thought I would be about 7 weeks then, and that sounded like a good time to me. 

When I got to the sonogram I expect to see the same thing I saw at Luke's 7 week sonogram- a big throbbing bean shaped heartbeat.  Instead there was this little speck the size of a corn kernel that was barely flickering.  I panicked.  I was so afraid that the tech was going to tell me the baby had stopped growing too early and I just hadn't miscarried yet.  But she just said I was measuring about 5 days earlier than we thought and that was totally normal for someone like me.  So I'm only 6 weeks along.  That seems really early to me to start telling people, but I'm terrible at keeping my own secrets.  Other people?  Totally great as many of you can attest to.  My own?  Awful.  Plus I wanted to be able to be honest here on the blog about what I was feeling so that I'll remember what I was going through. 

And you know what?  I'm glad I'm writing this now instead of three weeks ago.  I'm excited now.  I love this baby.  I am totally looking forward to holding my sweet baby.  I look forward to giving it a name.  To taking my CHILDREN to church.  The shroud of denial is slowly dropping away and the reality of my new gift is sinking in. And I'm so so so very thankful.

It's true.

Yep.  Story to come tomorrow.

Shopping day

What a productive day!  Since it's Columbus Day, the school district gave everyone the day off for a "fair day".  Well, we already went to the fair, so what else was there to do but shop?!

Obviously Kayden stayed home today, and obviously it's Monday so it's cleaning day.  Let me tell you.  I got EVERYTHING done before noon, when it usually takes at least a day and a half.  Not having an extra kid around makes a difference!  I swept, swiffered, mopped, vacuumed, scrubbed both bathrooms, tidied the bedrooms, did 5 loads of laundry and dealt with the dishwasher.  Before noon.

Besides wanting to get it all done before Kayden comes back tomorrow, I did have an appointment this afternoon that I was killing time to get to.  After my appointment Mom and Ashley and I went shopping.  Whew did we go shopping!  More accurately Nana went shopping for Luke and Momma and Auntie were along for the ride.  He's got a new dress coat for winter.  New sweater.  New shirts.  New hat.  New BOW TIE (Not a regular tie, but an actual bow tie.  Oh, I die.  It's perfect.)  We had a snack at Corner Bakery.  Actually, they had a snack, I had the french toast with scrambled eggs and salsa and bacon.  What can I say?  I was hungry. 

Then tonight I had my mentoring group meeting for church.  It's a group of 9 ladies of various ages to listen, mentor, and pray through life together.  I'm the prayer coordinator.  Yikes!  But it was nice and I'm hoping will be a good guiding voice through the roughness that is my life right now. 

And now I'm ready to fall over dead  from a busy day.

Fire department

This time we went TO the fire department instead of them coming to us.  The local fire department had an open house today, and since Michelle's husband is a fire man there she invited Luke and I to come.  It was fun!  The first thing we did was get some hot dogs cause I was hungry.  Then we went to explore all the trucks!

Luke was brave right off the bat and rang the bell on the front of the truck.  Michelle showed him how, and even though I jumped out of my skin, Luke repeated it twice!

Then he got down right cocky and tried to make that truck his own.

At one point we wandered over to the Care Flight.  Obviously Luke was in heaven!  I tried to get our picture together, but as usual it didn't turn out the best.

There was a ladder truck taking kids up in the bucket.  But who needs to look at all the cool things ON the truck when one can look UNDER the truck?

The bagpipe and drum band played some songs, and let me tell you Luke was mesmerized by them.  He didn't move an inch!

We stayed for about an hour and a half before going home.  There was also a little safety house that we got to go through, a demonstration on how they cut people out of cars (with a real van and the jaws of life!), and a booth where Luke got his picture taken and finger printed for a card in case he ever gets kidnapped. 

After that we came home for a rest, then went with Cody on a mid afternoon snack outing.  And now I've been watching the Golden Girls for 4 hours.  What a day, eh?!

Mom's time out

Today was another uneventful day.  Had a pumpkin bagel with pumpkin cream cheese and pumpkin creamer in my decaf.  Caught up on the shows from last night.  Took an almost three hour nap with the boys.  Made the bed.  Cooked spaghetti for dinner. 

But tonight I needed ice cream.  I would have liked for it to be a family affair with all three of us going, but Cody had a long day and didn't feel like getting out.  So I did the next best thing........I went alone.  I rode with the windows down and the music up.  I didn't share my ice cream with anyone.  I rode back home with the windows down and the music up.  It was wonderful.  And it was only 20 minutes.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again, being a mom is the most incredible thing ever.  All the stuff that you give up for that precious child rarely ever crosses my mind.  It's hard to believe before you have kids, but you really and truly don't care.  At least I don't.  But Luke doesn't like it when the windows are down.  And it's important to me to keep small ears healthy.  So consequently I don't normally have the windows down or the music very loud (although, I'm not gonna lie, sometimes I roll 'em down and just tell him to deal.  Ha!)  This means stolen moments all to myself, letting me act like the 27 year old  that I am (okay, or 18.  Whatever.) are sacred.  It was nice.  And then I missed my boy and came home with half my ice cream for him.

Picture Day

This afternoon I tried to get some good pictures of Luke.  I decided it was a fruitless effort to do alone.  And without candy.  I took 150 pictures, and this is as close to "good" as I got.

Most look like this.

Or this.

But we did see a turtle and some fish in the water.  That was fun.  Then we went to Einstein Brother Bagels to split a delish pumpkin bagel and get Momma some of their Vanilla Hazelnut coffee.  I've been dreaming of this coffee.  I got about half way through it before it hurt my tummy.  But it was a good half.  Goooooood.  I'm already dreaming and scheming about when I can get another cup.

Long week

This week is taking forever.  Seriously.  I didn't do much yesterday, and I didn't do much today.

Last night Luke coughed all over my plate, 4 bites into it.  I was done after that.

Today I did give Luke a much needed haircut, complete with before and after pictures, but I'm too tired to upload them right now.  I did get out and buy myself some lunch.  I couldn't look at another lunch meat sandwich so I treated myself to Potbellies chicken salad.  I did go have dinner at Shlotzsky's tonight with the fam, although it made me feel a little blec.  Mom asked Luke to sit in her lap, but he would only go sit in Dad's.  I think it's because he was the one passing over all the chips to a chip-loving little boy.

Tonight when I put Luke down for bed  he rolled over and said "Mama" while rubbing the empty side of his pillow.  He likes for me to lay with him for a little while.  Melts my heart.  I can't wait for him to get in a big bed so that I can actually lay for longer than 30 seconds without a body part falling asleep.  He threw a book into the back yard this afternoon.  Not sure why.  He's also taken to dragging a kitchen chair over to the counter and playing with the coffee pot.  Trying to kabosh that.  You know, safety and all. 

That's all folks.

t.i.r.e.d

Oh man, I jinxed myself last night.  After bragging about what a wonderful evening we had, the night (or should I say early morning) wasn't so great. 

I was woken up at 2 AM to the sound of my baby crying.  That hasn't happened in a while.  I ran down the hall and my poor sweet boy was crying in his sleep and gasping for air.  I finally had to wake him up and sit him in my lap to get him to calm down.  He was having major stryder (a bark/gasp/cough noise that happens when kids are working really hard to get air) and occasionally hoarseness.  I was thisclose to taking him to the ER because the rescue inhaler that I had on hand expired LAST DECEMBER (that's how long it's been since we've had to use it!) and I didn't have any breathing treatments on had for the nebulizer.  Very scary.  Finally I just gave him extra puffs of the expired inhaler (they don't tend to actually go bad, the medicine is just less effective) and it helped a little.  By 3:30 I felt like he was okay enough for me to go back to bed.  Needless to say, this momma is very tired today.  I even took a luxurious 2 hour nap (oh, there were clean sheets and a quick shower before hand for myself, the combination of the two things is just heavenly) with the boys and I'm STILL tired. 

When Luke got up this morning he was a big ball of crank.  I'm talking, cried for 45 minutes, everything in the world was wrong, nothing could snap him out of it.  But when he finally did come around he was a very sweet good boy the rest of the day.   I called the pediatrician to get a refill on our inhalers so this wouldn't happen again, and they made me bring him in.  Boooooo.   I'm gonna be so mad if he catches something from the waiting room.  I knew he wasn't sick, that it was mostly likely an asthmatic flare up from allergies because he played outside a lot yesterday and the temps have dropped, and sure enough I was right.  On our way we stopped at Sonic for happy hour and I decided I needed some chili cheese fries too.  Oh, they were so good.  And later I was super glad I'd had a snack because we were at the dr's for an hour and a half, then we had to wait to get the prescriptions inhalers filled (oy those are expensive boogers), so I was very tired/hungry/cranky by the time we got home at 7.  Yes.  7 PM.  Fingers crossed nothing develops in the next 48 hours!

Small Groups

Tonight I had our life group over.  I love playing the hostess, and I love visiting with my friends, so putting the two together makes for a fantastic evening.  We had tostados and chocolate chip cookies, and lemme tell you it was YUMMY.  And to top off an already wonderful evening, the kids mostly played in the back yard and someone (I'm thinking Caleb, my beloved Sara's husband) cleaned up the kitchen for me so literally all I did when everyone left was put the place mats away and turn on the dishwasher.  Now do you see why I love my friends?  With the kids outside us gals were able to sit around the dinning room table and actually have real conversations.  Amazing!  Needless to say I'm going to bed a happy gal. 

Caleb being super dad and reading some of the kids a story.

Now for the rest of the day.  When I got out of the shower this morning, trying to get ready for church, this is the sight that greeted my eyes. 

Awesome.  We eventually got all dressed, fed, and out the door.  Luke was actually a very good boy in church service (no idea about bible class!), but he was VERY busy.  Very.  Busy.  Finally I asked him if he wanted to go play in the nursery.  He said yes.  I was happy to oblige, just thrilled that we were going back by choice, not because of a temper tantrum.  After church we went to lunch with Mom and Dad, then hit the sheets at home for naptime. 

Well, I hit the sheets for naptime.  I made the mistake of laying down before making sure he was out, and I woke up by giggling an hour later.  It turns out he hadn't gone to sleep at all, but had pulled out all of his toys in his room and I found the back door wide open.  Not to thrilled I was able to sleep through all of that.  About 30 minutes (and a poopy diaper) later he was finally asleep and slept until 4:30.  I was watching tv when he got up and I still didn't hear him.  All I hear was "Mom!  Mom!  Mom!"  I tried to beckon him to me on the couch but he wouldn't come, so I went to him.  But first I had to find him.  Eventually I found him curled up in the dog's bed.  *shaking head*  Sometimes I don't know what to do with that kid. 

State Fair of Texas

Like most things in Texas, the state fair is big.  I mean BIG.  We had someone from Tennessee stop us and asked us about it, said he'd never seen anything like it.  Big.

Yesterday Mom and Dad took off of work and treated Ashley, Luke, and I to a trip to the ole fair.  Just like old family times.  Except this time we had an extra kid in tow.  And he was a very good kid!  When we first walked in there was a display of working trucks.  Luke was in heaven.  He wanted to touch them all.  But not get in them.   He seemed scared when Dad got up there with him.

Then we hit the pavement and saw all there was to see.  We saw people selling just about anything you could imagine.  Giant hot tub half the size of my back yard?  Check.  Cheap crap toys worth nothing but selling for $5?  Check.  Quilting machines longer than my arm span?  Check.  A picnic table that is also a swing?  check. 

There was also any and every kind of fried and "American" food you could imagine.  I shared a Fletcher's corn dog with Luke.  He mostly wanted the mustard. 

I also got a Belgian waffle smothered in powdered sugar.  Mmmmmm.  Later we wandered over to a petting zoo.  What petting zoo doesn't have giraffes?

He wasn't too sure about petting some of the animals, but he got braver as the minutes ticked by. 

Then we arrived at Big Tex.  Have I mentioned before how much Luke HATES to get his picture taken, particularly with me? 

Obviously it's pure torture.  Finally we headed over to the neatest place.  It was this huge green house, and it was BEAUTIFUL inside.  Plus it smelled so good- fresh and green and ceder-y.  Lovely.  They had all these little trains running throughout the plants, and for the third time that day (second was when Papa let Luke "drive" all the cars in the car show.  I sat outside cause this Momma was t.i.r.e.d.) I figured he was in hog heaven. 

I even tried to get a picture with him again, and this time instead of giving the camera the evil eye it just looks like I'm strangling him.

After we were done with the fair it was about dinner time, but it was also smack dab in the middle of rush hour traffic.  We decided to head to Ashley's apartment (only 15 minutes away) to wait out the traffic, plus I would be able to get Luke to rest for a little while. 

WRONG.  I laid down with him for 30 minutes and the kid turned into a babbling octopus.  He would not stop talking.  He would not stop moving.  I even tried to pin him down with my arms and legs and he STILL couldn't calm down.  Finally I gave up.  Eventually it was time to go eat and we went to Jake's Hamburger.  Oh, it was soo good.  But I ate way too much way too fast and ended up feeling highly car sick on the way home.  I felt so bad that Mom and Dad came home with me and bathed Luke and put him to bed so I could catch a shower and hit the sheets myself.  It was very sweet.  I mean, we didn't get home until 9:30! 

So all in all, it was a fun day.  Thanks, the State Fair of Texas.  Maybe I'll see you next year.