My Little Family

Fine Country Livin’

2011-09-22T19:11:00.001-07:00

Because we do not yet have grass in our back yard or a poured patio outside our walkout basement door or stairs coming off our deck, this is what Jeremy came up with.

I’ve always wanted a clothesline. I now have one rigged up on a pulley going from the corner of the deck to the roof of the girls play set. Classy, right? It gets the job done and the cats can’t reach so I’m not complaining!

Note worthy Pics

2011-08-23T17:32:00.000-07:00

GIANT praying mantis on our window. Biggest I’ve ever seen.

Here’s a pic of it compared to Jeremy’s hand.

One day I put Felicity in her high chair for lunch before bringing in the groceries. I had given her some deli ham to keep her content until I could finish getting her lunch ready. After I got all the groceries in, I saw this:

She had grabbed the bag off of the table and was helping herself!

Felicity kept getting into the cucumbers, so finally I washed one up and let her have at it.

The big girls being goofy after the hair bow photo shoot.

Pickles, Pickles everywhere!

2011-08-22T17:24:00.000-07:00

My mother-in-law gave me a bunch of cucumbers from her garden to make into pickles.

After washing them, my sister came over and helped with the cutting and canning. We ended up with 24 quart jars of pickles!

Beautiful Bows for Beautiful Girls

2011-08-21T17:21:00.000-07:00

I’ve been working on more than a few projects. One of which is these cute hair bows.

There are a few other different kinds, but I didn’t get good pictures of them. I thought about trying to sell them, but I’m not sure how to go about it. In the meantime, think I’ll let the girls keep some and give some away as gifts. I really enjoyed making them. I looked into an Etsy shop, but I’d rather just sell local to avoid the shipping costs. Anyway, if you are interested in the ones pictured I’d sell them for $2 each.

Here’s my beautiful models:

County Fair 2011

2011-08-20T17:11:00.001-07:00

We picked up our free tickets for the Lancaster County Fair, and made some family memories.

Family Ferris Wheel Ride!

Petting zoo!

A random person saw us in the ticket line and gave us their left over tickets! I love random acts of kindness! With the extra tickets, I took Bernadette on the caterpillar roller coaster, then Jeremy took Clare. It was so much fun. Bernadette giggled the whole ride!

2011 Hay Days Weekend

2011-08-19T19:02:00.001-07:00

One of the joys of having family living in a small town is that we get to enjoy all the fun small town celebrations like Hay Days Weekend.

The first weekend in August, we headed to A-town for Hay Days. On the way, we went through a wicked rain storm and had to snap pics of this intersection in Columbus.

The cars and pick-ups were literally pushing water. There must have been a water main break or really poor drainage because it was incredible.

Saturday morning we enjoyed the parade where the girls got LOTS more candy. Here’s Felicity sitting with Grandma…yep, that’s right, she actually sat with Grandma through the whole parade.

We decided to let her have her first sucker. Big mistake. Now anytime one of her sisters is eating a sucker, she voices her outrage at the fact that she doesn’t have one. Oh well.

After the parade we waited around for the duck races. The fire department comes and runs water out of the hydrant down the street for the rubber duckies to “race” in.

The girls got thoroughly soaked as they “waded” patiently…

Saturday night was “Cruise Night”. Everyone drives around Main street and…wait…that’s it…they just drive around. It cracks me up, but it is a lot of fun. Jeremy’s grandpa owns some neat old cars which are always an option to cruise in, but this year, Jeremy’s dad hooked up a flat bed trailer to the back of his Suburban, loaded it with lawn chairs and a couple coolers and we piled on. All five of Jeremy’s siblings with their families (or special friends) plus some extras loaded up and had a great time. Jeremy even made the effort to take pictures of every couple.

Adam and Stacie (and Felicity…don’t worry, it is just a Dr. Pepper she is eyeing)

Chris and Becky

Andrea and Brendan

And Kylie and Jeremy (Kylie with camera, Jeremy in white)

They weren’t sitting next to each other, so he had to improvise.

The other Hay Days event we took part in was the treasure hunt. We diligently checked the clues and brainstormed, but alas, we didn’t find it. In fact, it wasn’t found until almost 2 weeks later.

Thanks for the great weekend, Atkinson!

Need a laugh?

2011-08-18T18:55:00.001-07:00

I was perusing old blogs looking for how much the girls each weighed when they turned 1 when I came upon this video. I absolutely HAD to repost because we watched it about 10 times cracking up over and over again.

http://skrdla-sense.blogspot.com/2009/09/surprise.html

By the way, that’s Clare at 16 months. Hilarious!

Let the School Year Begin!

2011-08-06T19:11:00.000-07:00

My awesome husband hung up our white board for me and built an awesome book holder thing to hang under it out of the leftover laminate flooring.

We started school the first of August. I started early because I know we’re going to need breaks – especially around the holidays. I’m really loving everything we’re doing this year.

Bernadette and Clare are doing Religion together. We are using the Seton Pre-K Religion book supplemented with some A-Beka Sunday School activities that were given to me. The Religion book only has like 24 chapters so I don’t feel like we have to rush through it. We are enjoying doing the activities – which typically involve cutting. gluing, stickers, that kind of thing.

First day of school pic! Note the chipmunk cheek…Reason number 345245 to homeschool: Chewing Gum!

Bernadette is officially a Kindergartener (in my book). For Handwriting, we are using this Handwriting Without Tears book. She’s doing Saxon First Grade Math. And we’re still working through the Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading.

Don’t be too excited, Clare…She’s really not a morning person.

Clare is a tricky one. She’s not a good tester. She gets shy when given direct one on one attention. I don’t have a good handle on what she knows. These first couple of weeks, I’m working on figuring out which Capital and lowercase letters she knows and teaching her the ones she doesn’t. Next, I’ll work on what sounds she knows and doesn’t know. Once she’s confident in her letters, I’ll start reading lessons with her. (per her request a few weeks ago). She knows her numbers 1-10 and can count to 20 (except she always says EITHER 13 OR 14, never both). We’re working on counting out things one at a time for accuracy. Next month, I’ll start Saxon Kindergarten Math with her. She has a few Preschool workbooks we’re doing as busy work and doing some handwriting, too (correctly tracing letters).

Clare LOVES workbooks. If I’m reading from our Religion book or explaining something, she says, “I want to do school!” I have to remind her that school isn’t just worksheets.

Along with our first day of school, the girls began their new morning routine starting with their 7:30 alarm. I posted a chart in their room of the things they need to do before they come downstairs (ie, get dressed, put clothes in hamper, brush teeth, make bed). Once they got downstairs, we had breakfast and then did chores. We’re doing a room a day cleaning (which we draw out of a hat, of course!). I have a cleaning chart for each room and while we eat breakfast, we divvy up who does what chore (1-2 chores for each of us). Once those chores are done, they may have the option to do “Bonus” chores to earn toys out of time-out (aka, toys that weren’t picked up). We do school from 9-11.

It has been a wonderful first week and I just know I jinxed it by blogging that…

Random Pics

2011-08-05T18:39:00.000-07:00

July 16th marked 6 years since Jeremy proposed to me. The girls and I decided to make it special. I cooked a special meal – complete with candles on the table – and we made a treasure hunt for him to follow. (If you know our engagement story, you know why.)

We got all dressed up to surprise him, so I had to snap some pics of the girls.

I love Felicity peeking out from behind the girls.

She had a barrette in, I promise. She’s in a “yank out anything you put in my hair as soon as you turn away” phase.

This random picture makes my heart swell. I love the sun tanned skin, the bright blue eyes, the pigtails, the two bottom teeth, the dress I made, and of course, the arms wide open for a hug.

Trip to the zoo with some friends on the day before my birthday.

Bernadette made breakfast for my birthday. She microwaved breakfast sandwiches AND toasted eggos.

Felicity knows how to use the lazy susan now…

Bernadette “borrowed” my camera and got some good pics.

And some self portraits…

And some artistic shots…

Wildlife

2011-08-04T18:22:00.000-07:00

We almost daily spot wild turkeys out our windows. This particular one got as close as 6 feet from our porch and walked right past our cats.

The girls and I watched him take a dust bath in our front yard which was pretty neat to see. The next morning, Clare came in from outside crying. Bernadette had given her a dust bath…

The other thing we see at least once a week is deer. This picture was taken off of our deck. Oh, hello there!

My Day in Pictures

2011-08-03T18:15:00.001-07:00

Oh, Felicity. You know you’re not even one yet, right? I can’t imagine how your Guardian Angel must feel after a day like today.

Gifts SAVE

2011-07-26T12:46:00.001-07:00

To date, we have 9 nephews, 2 nieces and 2 more due in November. That makes for a lot of birthday and Christmas gifts. We love showering our nieces and nephews with gifts we’ve put a lot of thought into.

In my Making Money by Saving Money project, I’m going to attempt to make some gifts. I would like to set a goal to make ALL of them for an entire year, but I have 9 nephews ranging in age from 13 to baby and boys aren’t easy to come up with homemade gifts for. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to come up with clever gifts by the time their birthdays roll around. In the meantime, I’ll just take it one birthday at a time.

The first birthday I have to worry about is Felicity’s Big ONE! Its easy to make gifts for a one year old baby – especially when it’s your own. I could give her an empty bottle and she’d think it was the best day of her life. The trick with her birthday is going to be coming up with things her big sisters can make or at least help make. Although, now that I think about it, it might not be so tricky. Last Christmas, Bernadette wrapped up random toys for each member of the family.

After the easy ONE, I’ll have a 5 year old boy and 1 year old girl and my own 5 year old girl all in October. Any suggestions?

7 Accounts Later…

2011-07-26T12:35:00.001-07:00

When we did our budget we tried to account for everything. When we were done though, we had a list of expenses (gifts, school, car maintenance, etc.) each with a monthly allowance listed next to it. Great! But, how are we going to keep track of the money we spend on those things and make sure we’re staying within our means?

7 Bank accounts later…

That’s right, we are now proud owners of 10 bank accounts. Ridiculous, right? Here’s why they are necessary for us:

* Main checking: This is the account everything gets paid from and all income is paid to.

* Main savings: We have some money transferred here every month for the purpose of saving.

* Each of our three girls now has their own savings accounts. Once we have anything worth speaking of in these accounts we hope to move them to a more profitable account like a mutual fund.

* We have our pickle jar savings account. This is the account I’m looking to bulk up so we can buy some of the things on our monster long list – like a riding lawn mower, apple trees, garden shed, chickens, etc, etc, etc,.

* Account F - checking account houses money for such things that don’t change like Life insurance premiums and car licensing. We’ve also accounted for car maintenance in this category.

* Account X – checking account houses money for less strict things like gifts, and vacation money.

* Account S – checking account houses money for school supplies, books and curriculum.

* Account C – checking account is for charity. We tithe 5% to church and then have fun with the other 5% by donating to things like Villa Marie School, Spirit Radio and sponsoring FOCUS missionaries.

Yep, 10 accounts. Ridiculous!

We totaled up how much we’d spend a year for each category, divided by 12 and set up automatic transfers. When we need to buy something, like say a birthday gift for a nephew, we’d make the purchase out of our main checking and then transfer the money from the gift fund back into our main checking. Voila! Budgeted!

I’m sure there are things we didn’t think of that will come up, but we’re hoping this system helps us reach our financial goals.

Personal Needs SAVE

2011-07-26T12:19:00.001-07:00

In my Making Money by Saving Money project, I made the goal of saving $20 a month from our Personal Needs fund. We have currently budgeted $100 a month to cover any non-food related purchases. This includes everything from toilet paper to clothing items.

* Diapers. We use cloth. We’ve probably spend $300 or so on them and we started when Clare was 1. You do the math.

* Clothes. Jeremy and I get by only buying new clothes for birthdays or Christmas gifts. Clare and Felicity wear hand-me-downs (although we occasionally have to supplement if the season doesn’t fit). So, Bernadette is where most of our clothing money is spent. Every Fall and Spring we have to equip her with new clothes. My goal for these next couple of months is to make her some pajamas and skirts/dresses for the fall/winter months. We will still have to buy some things like shirts and tights, but if I succeed at this goal, I expect to save us quite a bit of money. (Note: My mom used to own a quilt store and when it closed she was left with lots of fabric. I ended up with a lot of it, so I won’t have to buy as much fabric for clothes as I otherwise would.) I am going to take advantage of fabric store deals along the way and I will purchase some elastic in bulk.

* Discipline. Avoid the Target dollar section at all costs! This month we made the mistake of buying some frivolous items towards the beginning of the month (things we WANTED, but didn’t NEED). Now it is the end of the month and we NEED to pay $10 to have our water tested, but the Personal Needs funds have long since been spent. Yikes. Well, luckily, we had a good grocery month so the left over money is going to pay for those things instead of going into our “Pickle Jar.”

* Shop alone. This goes for grocery shopping as well. The last trip I made to the grocery store was awesome. I went all by myself and was able to track how much things were and make rational decisions on sale items or other things that weren’t on my list. When my kids are with me, it is a mad dash to get through before anyone starts screaming and I don’t always think things through. A box of Drumsticks is a lot more expensive when I am shopping alone.

How much do you spend on Personal Hygiene and other Needs a month?

Entertainment Save

2011-07-23T13:09:00.000-07:00

Phase two of my Making Money by Saving Money project is to save $40 of our Entertainment budget for the month. We take $100 a month out of our account in cash to spend on movies, eating out, going to the pool and other family fun things. This one will probably be the hardest cut back to achieve. Here are some ways I’m going to attempt this.

* Take advantage of family passes. We currently have a dual family pass to the zoo and the Children’s Museum. We also have a family pass to the local pool. We’ve been addicted to going to the pool this summer which provides a great family activity that is virtually free (because we already dropped the $90 for it). The zoo is open late Wednesdays (during the summer) and the museum is open late Thursdays.

* Seek out and take advantage of free summer events. In June, Prairie Land Dairy Farm had Dairy Days. Everything was free including the food. Morrill Hall has free admission on Thursday nights. We are planning on attending the Lancaster County Fair (after picking up free admission tickets from the gas station).

* Get out! On cooler summer nights, get outside and play! Our girls aren’t big on organized sports, but we’ve managed to get them to play kick ball with us. And who doesn’t love a game of tag?

* Have go-food on hand to avoid the convenience of eating out. Eating out is a huge temptation for us. I’m going to make sure we have go-food if we need to eat on the run and snacks if we need to post-pone a meal until we get home.

* Netflix. For $8.99 a month, we can stream movies and TV shows on our computer or through our Wii.

Any other cheap family fun ideas? How about ways to avoid the drive-thru?

Grocery Save

2011-07-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

Phase one of my Making Money by Saving Money project is a look at our grocery budget and how we can cut $20 from it.

This is probably the easiest one for me because we were generous in our food budget to begin with. We are taking out $400 a month cash to cover groceries. The only time that will be tricky for us is on the months that have 5 weeks. However, here are some ways I’m going to make sure we have at least $20 left over at the end of the month. (Note: We never have to buy beef because we get it for free from my generous farming/ranching in-laws.)

* Menu planning. I usually plan week by week, but have realized that we usually end up eating the same things anyway, so why not make a 4 week supper cycle. So, that is what I did. Sure, I’ll watch ads and coupons and make changes accordingly, but I’m basically going to stick to it as well as I can. I will also make sure we have some quick-easy things on hand because “those days” are inevitable. I also made a two week cycle for lunches and accounted for weekend breakfasts. None of the things on our menu require expensive or numerous ingredients, but I was sure to include indulgences – like once a month donuts – to keep us on track.

* Bread. I love making bread, but it does take some time. When we do need to buy bread (or bagels, english muffins, etc.) I will only buy it at the grocery store if it is on sale, otherwise we’ll head to the bread outlet store on 48th and Old Cheney. Last week, I bought 4 loaves of good Sara Lee wheat bread, one package of English muffins and one package of bagels for $8 and some change.

* Chicken. We only ever buy chicken from Sam’s Club in the big frozen bags.

* Scratch. Making things from scratch whenever it makes sense for us. Granola, for example, is very easy and inexpensive to make. I will plan on making this every other week.

* Coupons. I don’t use coupons much right now. We don’t even get the paper. I am going to try to check the different on-line coupon sites for specific things I need for the week before I go shopping.

Any other tips out there?

Making Money by Saving Money

2011-07-21T12:39:00.001-07:00

Recently, my husband and I went through our finances and made a new budget. We did our best to think of everything and budget accordingly, setting up transactions to automatically transfer money into different accounts for things like insurance, gifts and school stuff. Unfortunately, we didn’t have much money left over for spending money on things we need for the house like a riding lawn mower and deck stairs. It isn’t practical for me to get a job or my husband to get a second job, so I’m embarking on a project I can do from home.

Making money by saving money.

I’m going to attempt for the month of August to save $100. I have allocated it to saving $20 off our food budget, $40 off our entertainment budget, $20 off our gift budget and $20 off our personal needs (hygiene, clothes, baby wipes, etc) budget.

Stay tuned as I attempt to blog about my progress…

School Room

2011-06-20T13:20:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite parts of our new house is the school room. We painted it a bright orange and Bernadette, Clare and I put hand prints on the walls using the paint from the other rooms.

Because we aren’t doing much formal schooling during the summer, it has turned into more of an Arts & Crafts room. The girls are in there almost every day playing play-doh or coloring. I am most excited to be able to keep all the school stuff in one place instead of scattered throughout the house.

This picture shows the three windows. Under the double window is a table Jeremy made. It is the perfect place for them to play play-doh, paint or do otherwise messier things on. There is yarn strung from one wall to the wall parallel for clothes-pinning up especially special projects. I found 6 student desks on Craigslist for $5 each. We gave 2 to my sister-in-law and put 2 in here (you can see them at the bottom). I still have 2 more, but I’m not sure what I want to do with them yet. Currently they are holding the laptops in our bedroom.

This is an awesome teacher desk I got for FREE! Jeremy’s aunt knew someone trying to get rid of it, so she spoke for it for us. It is perfect! It is super deep, so we put a small bookshelf on top to hold the things I don’t want the girls “exploring”.

This blue dresser is our current game holder. I tetris-ed in all of our board games and used a label maker to label which drawers hold which games so I will always know where they fit.

Storage! The cube shelves were given to me by my parents a few years ago. They are heavy and awkward and had ugly doors on them which we took off. I am very pleased with how we’ve been able to use them in our school room. They are currently housing kid games and art supplies, puzzles and some pre-school materials. The book shelf next to them has curriculum I’m not using this year, and some readers.

Notice the white piece of paper on the wall in between the shelves and the desk?

Here’s a closer look…

That’s what happens when you had a 3 year old a glue stick and ask her to go put it in the school room… Self – Portrait by Bernadette, glued to the wall by Clare.

2011 Family Vacation

2011-06-20T12:53:00.001-07:00

We were excited to be able to take a mini vacation with most of Jeremy’s family a few weekends ago. We spent the day at the zoo in Omaha and then stayed at a hotel and had lots of fun playing in the pool. We are really bad about taking pics, but here’s a couple of group shots…

3 out of 5 of the Skrdla siblings were able to make it with their spouses and children. We’re hoping to make it an annual event.

My in-laws with their 5 grand kids – Bernadette (4 1/2), Payton (7 months), Mason (16 months), Clare (3) and Felicity (9 months).

Thanks for the great time!

Kitties

2011-06-20T12:43:00.001-07:00

We had to do it. Living on an acreage you have to have either cats or mice. We chose cats. Our builder generously offered to give us two of their most recent litter. The girls were very excited. Bernadette picked a tiger striped one and named her Grace for a few days…then Alice…but when she tried to change it again a few days later to Mary, we put our foot down and made her stick with Alice.

Clare picked a black one that has a few white spots on its under belly and named her Sally Soona – Sally for short. Clare’s not to keen on holding the kitties and Sally’s not too keen on Clare picking her up, so they make a good pair. Bernadette fearlessly picks them up a hundred or so times a day.

Alice is an easy going cat and has always been good about letting Bernadette pick her up, play with her, etc. But Sally took a little longer to get used to her. Because Sally was harder to catch and didn’t like to be held as much in the beginning, the girls became kind of scared of her. I tried my best to hold Sally whenever I got the chance and try to get the girls to warm up to her and not think of her as a “bad cat”.

Bernadette spent the whole first week we had the cats in the garage playing with them. On the second day, she was holding Sally and sitting in our wagon. When she went to get out, her foot got stuck and she almost dropped Sally. Sally freaked out and scratched her hand up a bunch and tried to bite her. Thanks a lot, Sally. I was trying to get them to like you and you pull this! After I assured Bernadette that Sally is not a bad cat, but rather she was scared and Alice would have done the same thing, she forgave her.

Now, weeks later, the novelty of having kitties has worn off. Both girls still spend some time playing with the kitties every day. Clare even manages to catch one every now and then. And Bernadette is very good at making sure they get fed every day and back into the garage at night.

We’ve Moved!

2011-06-20T12:31:00.001-07:00

A lot has happened these last few weeks. We moved, got kitties, and went on vacation. Please excuse the random out of order-ness of these next few posts.

Happy Birthday, Clare!

2011-05-24T13:03:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, I interviewed Clare about what she would like to do for her birthday. She told me she wanted to go to the Children’s Museum, eat at Valentinos and she wanted a pink cake with purple candles. We did our best to make her birthday special. We started on Sunday by taking her to SuperTarget and letting her pick out her gift. She browsed the aisles pushing buttons and trying out various toys. She wasn’t really passionate about anything, so we picked out some T-ball stuff (bat, ball, glove, tee) and a scooter, helmet and horn combo and had her pick between the two. Once she realized that the T-ball stuff meant some fun for the whole family, that’s what she picked.

The Children’s Museum is closed on Monday, so instead, Jeremy surprised her by taking the afternoon off of work and taking us to the Children’s Zoo here instead.

Here’s the big girls riding the Galapagos Turtle:

Watching the hognose snake try to slither up the glass:

Being cute and having fun:

In the eagle’s nest:

Climbing the spider web:

And of course, we surprised her with a birthday train ride. Here is our annual family train ride picture.

Afterwards, we went to Valentinos for supper. They sang to her and gave her two balloons and some suckers. She had a great day!

That night, we ate whoopie pies (with pink frosting and purple candles) and watched Shawn the Sheep before putting the girls to bed.

Happy Birthday, Little Bear!

Oh, and I can’t forget to mention that Bernadette gave her probably 5 presents throughout the day. The first was a necklace that she made (which Clare wore all day) and some money. Then, through the day she would wrap random toys/jelly beans/money up and give them to Clare as birthday presents. She also gave her about 7 pages she had colored from her My Little Pony coloring book.

Homeschool Track Meet 2011

2011-05-24T12:44:00.001-07:00

Bernadette and Clare competed in their first track meet on May 21st. They were very excited. When I told Bernadette that all the kids there were homeschooled, she said, “For Real?!”

A nervous Clare trying to find her happy place. When she saw all the people there, she got very shy and wouldn’t let me pin her number on. After a few minutes, she started playing with Bernadette and Felicity and then was fine.

Some of the Pre-K girls awaiting their lane assignments for their first race. (Bernadette facing the camera, Clare in the red pants.)

Clare ready for her first 25 yard race!

Bernadette ready for her first 25 yard race!

Bernadette racing past the finish line of the 50 yard race!

In the afternoon, the girls competed in the Pre-K field events. Here they are waiting their turn for the obstacle course.

A little sisterly love…

Felicity was quite the trooper. Here she is missing one of her pigtails.

Here they are in line for the bean bag toss. They had to toss 4 bean bags into 3 hula hoops.

And throw!

The last pre-K field event was a distance throw. They each threw 3 tennis balls which were then measured. I have no idea how well they did compared to the other kids in any of their events, but I am so proud of them for doing their best and getting through the day without any tears.

After a tough day of competing…

Clare’s First French Braids

2011-05-24T12:13:00.001-07:00

First Pigtails…

2011-05-05T11:50:00.001-07:00

Easter Egg Hunt 2011

2011-05-03T07:03:00.001-07:00

St. Teresa’s Godteen group put on an Easter Egg hunt for the kids of the parish every year. Our Godteens are seniors this year and we have moved out of the parish, so this was probably our last year attending.

Every year they do a great job and there are lots of eggs and toys and candy donated so every child gets a ton of stuff. Here’s some pics from this year’s hunt…

And they’re off!

See the hundreds of eggs “hiding” in the grass?

Clare was pretty apprehensive at first.

There was no stopping Bernadette. She went until I made her stop because her basket was full.

Checking out their goods…(Notice Bernadette’s double headbands. )

The Easter bunny was one of our Godteens…He is more than 6 ft. tall…

He’s also one of the girls’ favorites…

Cheese! I didn’t even think to have him hold Felicity…oops. Guess I miss mother-of-the-year yet again.

Hope you all had a Blessed Easter!

Tooting my own horn…

2011-05-03T06:50:00.001-07:00

Have I mentioned that I’ve lost 30 pounds since the start of Advent?

See the ~~fatty~~ post-partum me eating (of course)? Yuck.

I was 4 months post-partum in that picture and the weight wasn’t magically disappearing. So, for Advent, I started exercising 4-5 times a week with a DVD. That went pretty well for awhile. We got sick and I got un-motivated around the end of January. Then, during February, I used Sparkpeople to keep track of my food intake. That went really well until Lent started and I began to limit my computer time. During Lent, I didn’t really do anything special. Now, I haven’t weighed this much since I was pregnant with Bernadette…yep, that’s right, since I was pregnant with Bernadette…I haven’t been very motivated to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight before now.

Here’s me last week. Photo courtesy of my 4 1/2 year old. Complete with Clare being silly, as usual, and the apartment in complete disarray. (to find out why, go to www.katiandjeremyshouse.blogspot.com to see what we’ve been up to).

Yes, I am proud of my weight loss, but I wanted to document it for my own sake so after the next baby ~~girl~~ (God-willing, of course, I am not pregnant right now) I have visual proof that I can do it!

Easter 2011

2011-05-03T06:30:00.001-07:00

My mom has always been crafty. When we were little she would occasionally make clothes for us (more so for my older sister and brother). Over the past 9 months or so, I’ve been intent on learning to make clothes. I started with some simple skirts for the girls which turned out well. This year, for Easter, I was intent on making them dresses. I found a pattern that had the word “easy” on it and got to work.

One might think with a mom as crafty as mine, sewing things would come natural. Well, it doesn’t. I know my way around a sewing machine, but I have to literally study the pattern and instructions before I get started. For these dresses, I read and re-read and read parts out loud before I finally understood what needed to be done. Sure, I could have called up my mom and asked her to help, but I knew how that would turn out. She would tell me exactly what to do, step by step. What’s the problem with that? Well, I would never be able to do it on my own if I didn’t learn to read instructions that come with the patterns.

So, I made the girls’ Easter dresses. I let Bernadette and Clare help pick out the fabric. Felicity’s is from a different pattern so hers looks a bit different, but for the most part, they are the same.

The dresses definitely aren’t high quality, but I did my best and Bernadette loves hers, so that’s all that matters. (Clare’s still young enough that clothes don’t matter to her.)

Bernadette and Clare on Easter morning.

Felicity (8 months) Easter morning.

Can we get a picture of all three? Well, we can try!

You whoo! Bernadette and Clare! Look over here!

Felicity! Look over here!

Clare! Smile!

Well, they’re all looking. Good enough? We’ll try one more.

Good enough. Should we try for one closer to their faces?

They are all looking at their handsome Papa who just walked into the room.

Everyone leaned towards Bernadette…

Everyone leaned towards Clare…

Ahh… Good enough!

Notes for the Baby Book:: Moving On Part 2

2011-04-01T06:04:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine recently miscarried her third child. I am so sad for her. I am so sad for everyone who has lost a baby.

I decided to go back and read the posts I wrote during my miscarriage. I had not read them since I wrote them.

Reading them puts me right back in October 2009. As I read them, I felt numb again...sorrowful again...

The one thing I did not feel was anger towards Dr. K. In hindsight, I am very grateful he made those tough decisions for us when we were not in the position to. I am grateful that my husband and I have an underlying trust in our doctors. Afterall, God gave them the talents to do what they do and they are using them to glorify Him. Obviously doing the D/C would have been risky, and he knew that. Our sorrow clouded our judgement. We just wanted it to be over. We wanted to go home and be with our kids. We wanted normalcy. Dr. K wanted me to have a healthy uterus so we could have more kids. Thank you, God, for Dr. K.

October 2009 will live on forever in my memory as one of the worst months ever for our family. Not only did we lose the baby, but when my husband went back to work, he was told they were closing the business and he was out of a job. Talk about a low blow! He was out of work for a month and a half before he started his new job. Even though at the time, all we could think about was how insensitive his boss was for doing that to us, maybe God wanted us to all be together during that month. We are definately a stronger family because of it.

From fall 2009 - spring 2010, I was in a dark place. I don't know if I was depressed or just sad. Looking back, I was an emotional wreck. Everyone either made too big of a deal over our loss or too little. It was such a personal loss. I wasn't angry with God, but I was angry with everyone else. I was angry with pregnant ladies who dared to be uncomfortable. I was angry with family who said Francis was now an angel (he's not, people can't be angels). I was angry with family who didn't say anything.

Our neighbors had a baby a month or so after we lost ours. We kept a watchful eye on their house for when they returned from the hospital and brought them some cookies (or maybe bread). Looking at their baby didn't make me angry. It reminded me that my baby was gone. By January when my sister-in-law had her baby, I forced myself to put on a happy face and go visit them in the hospital. Turns out, it wasn't hard to rejoice over the birth of another baby. Yes, my baby was in heaven, but that didn't stop me from enjoying other people's babies. In February, my husband's sister had her first child. There is something special about the birth of the first child in a family. You couldn't keep us away. Even though it was a four hour drive, we visited 3 out of 4 consecutive weekends (one was for a funeral). Our family was in perfect order for it. The girls were old enough to enjoy the car ride and I wasn't in the last trimester of a pregnancy like I would have been, I was only in the first trimester.

Around the time I was 14-18 weeks along with Felicity, I was a wreck. I was very fearful of losing her. It was an irrational fear, but the fear was there and there was nothing I could do about it. I dreaded the 18 week ultrasound because I just knew it was going to be bad news. But it wasn't.

Slowly, slowly, the sun started shining in my life again. I started wearing colors like pink instead of the grays and browns I had been wearing. They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I am a stronger woman because of what I have been though. Miscarriages are, unfortunately, very common. The only thing special about my miscarriage is my baby boy that is waiting for me in Heaven.

**After reading my posts from October 2009, I felt I had to clear Dr. K's good name. He is a great doctor and very good at what he does. If I had to go through it all again, I wouldn't have picked a different doctor.

Wedding pics

2011-02-02T12:40:00.001-08:00

The girls started off the day getting their hair done…

Bernadette loved it. Clare wasn’t so sure. Both of them held still very well while the ladies curled and pinned up their hair.

Here’s the girls all dressed up! Clare’s showing her nails in this picture. Jeremy’s cousin, Morgan, painted the girls’ nails the night before.

Grandpa Joe with his princesses.

Felicity and me.

The three flower girls getting ready for pictures. I love Clare in this one.

The back of Bernadette’s hair.

The flower girls at the kiddy table with Drayden (Jeremy’s cousin’s son).

Felicity was SO EXCITED!

Felicity sucking her thumb while clutching Jeremy’s tux.

Bernadette and Jett (groom’s cousin).

Felicity = party animal!

Wedding Tidbits

2011-01-31T08:25:00.000-08:00

We had an amazing weekend celebrating Andrea (my sister-in-law) and Brendan's wedding. Here's some tidbits:

*Bernadette made a new friend, Jett. He is 4 years old and a cousin of the groom. Bernadette and Jett were together for most of the reception. At one point, he gave her one of the clear decorative rocks from the tables. She treasures it. They danced, they played, they chased each other around. Even though Bernadette keeps thinking his name is Jake, I'm pretty sure they'd be best friends forever if it wasn't for the fact that they will probably never see each other again. :)

*We pretty much let the girls run around and enjoy themselves. We checked up on where they were and if they had to potty from time to time. Turns out Clare was a social butterfly. More than a few people told me they had danced with her. At one point, she had a quarter in her hand. We asked her where she got it and she said someone gave it to her. :)

*When we got home last night, Clare was very cranky. Bernadette told her, "Your attitude is very stinkerish!"

*This morning the girls are playing wedding with their paper dolls.

*After being held all weekend, Felicity now not only rolls all over the place, but also scoots backwards! She's going to be stealing her sisters' toys in no time!

*Hail Mary, Gentle Woman was the meditation hymn at the wedding Mass. Bernadette sang along. :)

*Our girls were two of the three flower girls. The third, Ellie, was adorable. They were instant friends and would have all played together all night if Jett hadn't stolen Bernadette away. Oh well, Ellie was just right for Clare.

*The girls were total princesses. I'll share pics once I get them uploaded. They got their hair done, too. At the end of the night, between the two of them, they had more than 50 bobby pins in their hair!

I'm sure there is much more fun to be shared, but I've got laundry and children that need attention. Stay tuned!

Pretty Pretty Princess

2011-01-12T17:15:00.000-08:00

Felicity got into the Pretty Pretty Princess game again…

She doesn’t mind her tummy so much anymore now that she is a fluent roller.

First Winter Storm 2011

2011-01-11T17:10:00.001-08:00

This year’s first snow storm gave my girls cabin fever. Apartment living, 4 month old baby, and a husband working lots of extra hours had me worried about how to let them get their snow time. I decided to let them have their fun on our deck where there is plenty of snow and I can keep my eye on them while Felicity and I stay snug and cozy.

Bernadette caught red handed throwing snow on her sister

Posing…You better believe Clare’s forehead didn’t get cold!

Clare playing with Scoop.

Thing One and Thing Two working together.

Happy (and warm!) Baby!

Chubb in the Tub…

2011-01-11T17:00:00.001-08:00

Rub-a-dub-dub Felicity’s in the tub!

Independence

2011-01-05T07:09:00.001-08:00

This morning, when only Clare was up with me, I snuck off to the bathroom to get ready for the day. As I was finishing up, there was a knock at the door. I open to find a smiling Bernadette. “I’m getting my own breakfast! Chips and cheese!” I follow her into the kitchen and sure enough, she’s gotten herself a plate of chips and heads to the fridge for the cheese. I watch in disbelief as she proceeds to top her chips with a modest amount of cheese, open the microwave (she’s standing on a stool) and place her plate in. Astounded by this display of independence coming from the 4 year old who still wants us to ~~feed her~~ help her eat most meals is preparing her own. I gave in and helped her push the microwave buttons. She patiently waited, retrieved her breakfast and sat down on the steps to enjoy the fruits of her labor.

**Note: We’ve never eaten chips and cheese for breakfast.

100%!

2010-12-20T20:31:00.001-08:00

No, this isn’t a homeschooling post.

Felicity had her 4 month check-up today. Our chubby bunny got a 100% – for height! She measured 27 inches! She weighed in at 15 lb 5 oz which put her in the 85th percentile.

So, if she was in the 100th percentile, does that mean she’s taller than 100% of 4 month olds? So, she’s like the tallest baby ever, right? I know that isn’t exactly true, but has anyone else’s children gotten a 100% before?

4 month old Felicity doesn’t roll over yet, but she is very close. When she is on her back she’ll roll up to her side and try and try to make it, but so far has only flopped back (or “helped” over by one of her doting big sisters). Her favorite toy is our glow worm. She likes to give it hugs and kisses. She is a drooling machine. She is also our first thumb sucker.

She sleeps like a champ. All night, which usually means from 8pm until 7 am. She usually takes two 1.5 hour naps – one in the morning, one in the afternoon - and an extra hour nap in the evening. She is very happy and smiley at pretty much anyone.

She is going through a Papa phase – LOVES him – much earlier than the other girls did. She makes funny attempts to reach her arms out to him (with fists clenched shut) when he comes home from work every day. She loves to play in her exersaucer and sit in her high chair.

She has such admiration for her sisters it amazes me. You can literally see the “I love you so much I would leap mountains to get your hugs and kisses” look in her eyes when they are talking or playing with her. Bernadette loves to say “Goo Goo Gaa! Cha Cha Cha!” to her. It makes her laugh so much!

She has a few nicknames around here. Mostly Lissie. Sometimes Lissity. Clare will go in bursts of calling her only Felicity Rose. She’s big into middle names. She has a special song that calms her down when she is crying.

Oh Felicity, I love you! Oh Felicity, yes I do! Oh Felicity, don’t be blue! Oh Felicity, doo be doo!

There’s a hole in the ground…

2010-12-01T12:44:00.001-08:00

I was feeling down today and overwhelmed with trying to catch up. Adjusting to this smaller space is stressful and I’m suffering from too many irons in the fire syndrome or rather too many ideas and not enough time or space to follow through. I’m feeling buried under a mound of responsibilities.

Then, this showed up in my inbox with the subject “Getting Started”.

Ah…home…Not much to look at, yet, but I think you are beautiful.

Apartment Living Heading Our Way

2010-11-11T06:07:00.001-08:00

T-8 days until moving day.

I’m very excited to take the next step in building our dream house. I am very not excited to have to live in an apartment for 6-9 months. It will definitely be a trying time for me as the “manager” of our home.

We are going to be moving from a 3 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom apartment. Felicity is going to share our room. The apartment we are moving to is a loft so we will have an extra living room space that we can use for an office which is great. The kitchen will be an improvement on what we have now which is just sad.

All in all, “Love grows best in little houses” right?

Hello, there!

2010-10-31T19:12:00.001-07:00

4, 4, 4 and 3

2010-10-31T19:07:00.001-07:00

We celebrated the October/November birthdays in my family with a party at Lost in Fun. There was one 3 year old and 3 four year olds.

I have been wanting to make a pumpkin shaped cake for a few years now, but never wanted to make a huge cake for our little family, so this birthday party was the perfect opportunity. I wanted to make it an actual pumpkin cake, but decided not everyone likes pumpkin (especially littles), so I made the top white and the bottom chocolate. The cakes were baked one at a time in a glass bowl. The jack-o-lantern features were cut from a fruit roll-up. The stem is a fun size candy bar. I was very pleased at how well it turned out! I think the kids all enjoyed it, too.

Two pink candles for the birthday girls and two blue ones for the boys.

Ten of the 12 cousins ready for cake.

Half of the table’s smiling faces.

The other half’s smiling faces.

Bernadette, Clare and Joachim in the ball pit.

So Pretty.

Ready!

2010-10-31T18:55:00.001-07:00

Our princesses excited for their castle to be built.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T18:53:00.001-07:00

Two princesses and a pumpkin! :)

SOLD!

2010-10-22T05:53:00.001-07:00

Tuesday evening, we sold our house! We accepted an offer from a couple who is moving here from West Virginia. The closing date was originally set for November 30th, but has since been moved up to November 22nd. That gives us 5 weekends to get packed up and more importantly to find a place to rent while our new house is built.

It is not easy finding an apartment that is big enough for our family of 5. We’ve called about 7 places so far and only found 2 that will have openings mid-November. We still have 7 more to call today. FYI- It is not easy to make important phone calls with littles around. Yesterday worked out because Felicity took a great nap and the girls played outside for about half of that nap. Unfortunately, it is supposed to rain today, so a quiet minute will be harder to find.

Fortunately, most of our stuff is packed up already. Because we packed most of it up last June/July I really want to go through those containers and purge some more. We also need to re-label them for both the new house and whether they go to our apartment or storage.

So, why am I blogging instead of working? Probably to explain why blogs will be fewer and farther between than usual. But perhaps to collect my thoughts before diving in.

Cowgirls & Cowboys

2010-10-19T09:03:00.001-07:00

Whenever we go to the zoo, the girls always want to ride the ponies. We are pretty obstinate about not wanting to pay $4 when they can ride Uncle Chris’s horsies for free. However, trip after trip to Atkinson, it always seems to get put off. We made a concerted effort to get the girls on those horses this trip and they loved it!

Clare and Jeremy riding Daisy.

Bernadette and Uncle Chris riding Reno.

Bernadette LOVED riding the horses. Clare loved it, too, but was done after about 5 minutes. She did rave about how much fun it was later. But Bernadette LOVED it. She kept telling Chris that the horse wanted to go again. He rode with her until her bottom hurt. It was so fun to here her giggling when they were trotting fast enough that it was bouncy.

Randomness

2010-10-19T08:57:00.001-07:00

I haven’t had much time to blog these days. So, I thought I’d do a quick catch up.

* We have officially purchased our own little slice of paradise. Our 5 acre lot just south of Eagle is sitting vacant as we fear it will until Spring. We have to see our house before we can start building and the builders can’t put in a good foundation after the ground freezes. As it gets colder and colder and the slow market toys with us, we are coming to the realization that we are going to have to keep our house in near showing condition for an unknown period of time. This is definitely not easy with 3 little girls. I would imagine it to be a lot more difficult with 3 little boys, so for that I am thankful. We’ve had 2 slow open houses and 2 showings since we listed with a realtor a month ago. God is definitely trying to teach us patience and perseverance.

* We got a new niece last week. Jeremy’s brother Chris and his wife Becky had their baby girl, Payton Joan, on October 13th. We were able to go back this last weekend to see them. It was a quick trip, but it was a good one. As always, the girls loved being surrounded by family.

Skrdla cousins – Bernadette holding Payton, Mason in the middle, Clare holding Felicity

* Bernadette turned 4 yesterday. Jeremy took the day off. We spent most of the day out of the house because we had a showing in the afternoon. Jeremy and I were so exhausted from the weekend that it probably wasn’t as good of a birthday as it could have been. I think the highlights for her were getting to play with her cousin, Sam, and his brothers for a bit and then going to her favorite place, Valentino’s where we happened to run into 2 more cousins, Lucas and Brooklyn and my sister and her husband. We don’t see them too often, so it was a very pleasant surprise. We ended the day at home watching a movie she hasn’t stopped talking about since we saw it in the theater, How to Train Your Dragon. Just an example of how tired we were, at one point, Bernadette was the only one awake watching the movie.

Bernadette and her Super Why cake at Grandma Patti and Grandpa Joe’s house.

* Felicity is 2 months old today. She had her check-up last week and weighed 13 lbs. She’s wearing 6 month clothes already. It looks like she’ll have Bernadette’s body type. She’s wearing the clothes Clare wore the fall after she was born…Clare’s birthday is in May. She’s a great baby and for that I am so grateful. She sleeps all night, has no allergies and is generally a happy baby.

* We’ve been very busy this fall. We haven’t let having a new born keep us tied to home. We’ve been doing school 4 days a week, running errands on Fridays, and cleaning then doing family fun stuff almost every week. We’ve picked apples, gone to the pumpkin patch and the zoo. We tried to go to a hot air balloon festival, but it was cancelled. I love that our girls are outdoorsy.

* Speaking of school, it has been going great! Bernadette has read 11 of her MCP readers so far. Clare’s learning her letters. Both of the girls are excited to do school everyday and usually get through their lessons without a hitch. I hope the rest of the year goes this smoothly.

* I have been working on some skirts for Bernadette. It is slow going as I only get to work on them about once a week. I’ve made one and a half so far. She’s great at giving me feedback. It wouldn’t be taking so long if I didn’t have to set up everything and then take it all down every time. Oh well, soon enough we’ll have our dream house (or castle as Clare says).

Getting to Know You

2010-09-29T07:06:00.001-07:00

Oh, Felicity, you are such a joy.

Your sisters can’t get enough of you.

Every day I expect the novelty of having a new baby sister to wear off, but it never does.

Clare is fitting nicely into her new role as big sister.

They have to hug and kiss you every morning when they wake up and every night before bed.

Every day they ask if they can hold you or snuggle with you.

They are helpful. When you just want to be held and I need to make supper, it is not a problem. There are four arms waiting.

If I lay you down on the couch, you get snuggled.

I rarely get to hold you by myself.

Clare can’t stay away.

Bernadette wants to share everything with you.

You may have 2 extra moms when you are young, but you will have 2 best friends when you grow up.

Felicity Rose

2010-09-29T06:20:00.001-07:00

I fear I’ve already waited too long to accurately recall the birth story of Miss Felicity Rose. I have a horrible memory, but I will do my best.

I have big babies. Bernadette was 9 lb 4 oz 1 week early. Clare was 8 lb 11 oz 1 1/2 weeks early. Leading up to my due date with this one, my doctor had talked us into inducing. However, every appointment I had I wasn’t favorable so we were never able to set a date. Finally on Wednesday, August 18th, I woke up feeling nauseous and having random contractions. By lunch time, much to my disappointment, they had stopped.

Thursday morning began with the same yucky feelings and random contractions. It was my due date and we had a doctors appt. late morning. By the time I picked up my husband from work for our appointment my contractions were about 10 minutes or so apart, but not painful.

When the doctor checked me he said that I was dilated to about 5 cm and very stretchy. In fact, Felicity’s head was just bouncing around. The nurse called the hospital and they said to wait an hour or so then go ahead and come in.

We were so excited. We started making arrangements for the big girls and headed home to finish packing our hospital bag and eat a quick lunch.

By the time we got home, I couldn’t eat. The contractions started to be strong enough that I had to stop what I was doing and breathe it out until it was over. As soon as Jeremy’s cousin came to stay with the girls, we were off to the hospital.

Me, 40 weeks to the day. HUGE! No wonder people kept asking if I was having twins!

We got all settled in a room at about 2:00. They started me on fluids right away so I could get an epidural. The contractions were getting more painful. My doctor broke my water at 2:45 and noticed I was dilated to 7 or so. When my water broke, the doctor noticed meconium mixed in with the fluid. When I heard that, I was concerned because I always heard that that was bad. My doctor, thankfully, didn’t make a big deal of it at all, so I didn’t think about it too much. Having my water broke lessened the contraction pain, but I still opted for the epidural.

The anesthesiologist came at 3. As I was sitting up, leaning over the table as the doctor prepared to give me the epidural, I suddenly felt the need to push. I told my nurse this and the anesthesiologist heard and asked if I wanted him to go ahead and do the epidural or not. I was like, “uh…uh…” (not thinking clearly) and he decided to go ahead and do it so I could get some good from it.

When he was done, my doctor checked me again and I was dilated to 9, but the baby was facing sideways. So, the nurse was instructed to position me and do what ever she could do to get the baby to turn. I was first laid on my left side for about an hour. They added pitocin to my IV to help the baby get straightened out.

After about an hour and a half, my left leg was completely numb, so I asked if I could be rolled over to my other side. My husband and my nurse helped to roll me over. Once rolled over, I began to feel very very uncomfortable. It is hard to describe how it felt. I was mostly numb, but I felt a kind of panicky uncomfortable. I buzzed for my nurse to come back and told her how uncomfortable I was.

She checked me and said, “The head is right there, we are ready to go!” Everyone (doctor, nurses) came in and prepared for the birth. I was still mostly numb, so it took me a bit to realize when I the contractions were coming and when I needed to push. I believe on the 4th push, her head came out and on the 5th, she was born. She was born at 6:06 pm after a 5 hour labor.

That’s one big baby! Pretty sure she came out a month old…

The nurses sucked out her lungs and weighed her. 10 lb 1 oz and 21.5 in long I didn’t tear or anything, so I maintain that I was born to have babies. She was born absolutely beautiful and looking so much like her sisters.

My first time holding my third baby girl. Felicity Rose, I love you so much!

My doctor worked awhile trying to get the placenta out. He ended up having to manually extract it which he had only done one other time before and the mom ended up with an infection, so he took extra precautions and I was on antibiotics for a week. Thankfully, I didn’t get an infection.

First family picture. The girls are in love with their new sister.

Recovery went very well. We went home Friday evening, just over 24 hours after birth. On Monday morning, we took her in to the doctor’s office for a check-up. The doctor told us that when they took the placenta to the lab, it had an infection on it which probably caused Felicity some stress in the womb, hence the meconium.

Cheeks!

We had noticed that morning that she was a little yellow which completely worried us as our other daughters both were put on phototherapy at home and Clare was put back in the hospital to get her numbers down. They drew her blood and called that night with results. Her numbers had gone up since she was in the hospital and they wanted to check it again the next day. The second time, it was still up, so they checked it a third time before we got the “all clear”. Thank God! We were so grateful to have a child who did not need the bililights.

Felicity is now 6 weeks old. She is a wonderful baby! She sleeps 8 hours or so at night, is a great nurser and the only allergies she has is to carrots. We are unbelievably grateful that God gave us such an easy baby this time around. After the difficulties with Clare’s intolerances and then the miscarriage we had last year, she is such a blessing.

House Update

2010-07-27T05:06:00.000-07:00

So, our last deadline came and went...oops...

All along it has been one of those things where we cross one thing off our list and add two more. I must say, our house is looking pretty snazzy these days - at least the outside is.

Last Friday, my husband took the day off of work (my birthday :) ) and we had a couple of meetings regarding the new place. The first one was with our new construction loan guy...yep, we are now working with a different builder AND a different bank. It was getting to the point where we realized that we had been going through the whole process for almost 2 months and had gotten no where. We were constantly waiting and waiting and waiting for someone to return our calls, emails, etc, and let us know what the next step was. We are very confident that these changes are for the better.

In the evening, we met with they guy who is drawing up our blue prints. That was fun. He listened! :) He said he should have some things for us to look at late this week or early next week.

Saturday and Sunday we spend almost entirely outside. We borrowed my brother-in-law's power washer and basically bathed the house. We painted the windows, washed the windows, and Jeremy did some yard work. The front and side yard look amazing, but the backyard isn't nearly as nice yet. Thank God for the nice weather this weekend. We had lots of popsicles and ice water to help keep us cool and the girls ran around in their swimsuits all weekend. :)

Last night, after we returned the power washer and visited with my sister and her family for awhile, we loaded up in the van and Jeremy checked his phone. He had a missed call and voicemail. I checked it for him, and it was a realtor from Nebraska Home Sales. He said he was working with a couple who saw our house last year and remembered they liked it. He looked it up online and saw that it never sold, so he was giving us a call to see if we're still interested in selling. Talk about jaw dropping Divine Providence! Jeremy called the guy back and told him, "actually we are very interested in selling still...we were planning on putting it on the market at the end of the month." He's going to get back to us as to when they want to come and see it again. How crazy would it be if we sold our house before even putting it on the market again?! Even if it doesn't go through, it'll be good for us, because like Bernadette said, "if the guy wants to come see our house, we will get the house ready quickly, but if he doesn't, we will get it ready slowly." Ah, the wisdom and understanding of 3 year olds...

What the Girls have been doing...

2010-07-19T07:07:00.000-07:00

Have we completely neglected our children for the sake of a clean house? I'd like to think not. We've probably been overcompensating as a matter of fact. It seems every evening that we have to make yet another trip to a hardware store, we have to stop for ice cream - especially if it is after 8 (99 cent Sundaes at Sonic!).
The girls have been getting along pretty well lately. It seems that they know when they need to busy themselves and end up peacefully playing together for a change. It has been wonderful. It is such a joy to see them play together using their imaginations and not fighting.

The girls having some sisterly bonding time on Bernadette's bed...after bedtime...sometimes it is just too cute to make them stop.

Last Saturday morning, we took a break to see Super Why at the Zoo. The girls had a great time.

And when we got home, they were ready for some alone time. Bernadette helped Grandpa Joe seal the deck (they ran out of seal with like 2 feet of 3 boards left) and Clare played with the stickers she got from the zoo.

Can you believe Jeremy made me carry the baby around the whole time? He didn't once offer!

4th of July was uneventful. We worked on the house all day and then in the evening, sat in our lawn chairs in our own yard and watched the neighbor's big fireworks show. Bernadette loved it - Clare slept through it. Poor girl, she talked about it all weekend, maybe saw 3 before conking out in my arms.

We went to a wedding reception a few weekends ago. It was nice to have some quality time with Jeremy's parents. The girls had a great time even though they didn't know anyone.

It was at the Holiday Inn downtown...where our reception was. :)

Clare with Grandpa Joe.

This post is terribly out of order and scatterbrained. It started nicely this morning, but as it has taken me all day to finish it doesn't flow so nice anymore...Oh well, at least there are some cutie girl pics!

Didn't Make It

2010-07-19T06:26:00.000-07:00

So, our self imposed deadline for having our house on the market has come. Unfortunately, we aren't ready yet. However, in our defense, the weather hasn't exactly cooperated. We have been trying to reseal our deck and paint the outside of our windows, but the rain and high humidity worked against us last week. I also had some rough pregnancy days which made me not much of a help on a few days last week.

Needless to say, we had to revise our goal. Instead of having our house listed by today, we wanted the 3 bedrooms done and photographed. (check! see below for pics) We are going to call to have it put in the bulletin this weekend, and list it on craigslist and get a sign in our yard by Friday.

"What have we been doing?" you ask. Well, like I said, we have the 3 bedrooms done - painted, closets improved, top to bottom cleaned and decluttered. My husband and I are even sharing a dresser right now. Good thing it is summer, or that might not be possible.

Here's the baby room. Obviously not ready for the baby who is expected to arrive in 5 weeks, but hopefully attractive to potential buyers. We put wire shelving in all the closets. The kits cost less than $40 and were totally worth it. We do have closet doors, but I think it looks a lot nicer and neater without them, so they are in our store room in the basement.

Here's the other half of the baby room featuring our new crib. We had used a drop side crib that originally belonged to my nephew who is now 12 years old. Thank you, Grandma Patti, for this garage sale find!

Here's the girls' room - closet side. Again, I love the wire shelving in the closet. It is great because Bernadette can get her own clothes out. Also, they don't have a dresser. Their socks, under shirts, undies, etc. go in the fabric drawers of the cube shelf. Again, easy for them to retrieve their own things.

Here's the bed side of their room. Clare desperately wants a twin bed, but we aren't quite ready for that yet. The chair in the middle is where time outs are spent and stories are read. It is also used as a ladder for the girls to get up on their window sill...they are a couple of monkeys, that's for sure. The chair also helps keep Clare in bed at night. We push it up against her bed, so there is only a small possibility of her falling out during the night.

Here's our room. We painted the walls a blue color and our bed has red sheets and the trim is white...totally unplanned 4th of July themed. Oh well, it looks nice.

Our closet. Shelves we use for shoes in the middle and room for a laundry basket at the bottom. Love it! We are totally putting these wire shelves in our dream house.

Our living room is almost done. We've packed away two containers worth of toys and books and rearranged the furniture. We still need to paint the window sills our dog has drooled all over (gross...) and scratched. Hopefully in the next 2 days that will be done. Our bathroom is a little bigger project. Other than needing cleaned, we need to rethink our use of the space we have, find somewhere to stow away the 2 stools and trash can and come to an agreement on the shelf we have over the toilet. I want to get rid of it, Jeremy thinks it should stay.

The kitchen has been cleaned (Thank you, Patti!). The floors need done and the counters need cleared off again. It has become a catchall for things that need to go downstairs or outside, but we will probably need them again. As far as the basement goes, I've packed up a container of school stuff, but that's about it.

It is going to be another long week! But, if God wants us to sell this house, it will sell whether we put it on the market or not...oh wait. :) We have lots of meetings and appointments this week, so there's bound to be some late nights and early mornings - which is okay, because it is too hot during the day time to get anything done outside! 5 more weeks and it should cool down a bit...for me anyway. :)

FSBO

2010-07-10T05:49:00.000-07:00

We are now T-8 days until our goal date to have our house listed FSBO. We have been working our tails off trying to get through this monster to-do list of minor home improvements while packing up some non essentials.
We did decide to talk things over with CL Construction after many many suggestions. :) We knew they did remodeling and things like that, but we were unaware that they also built houses. We've had one phone call so far and already feel at peace with our decision to switch and more confident we will get exactly what we want.
Our plan is to list our current home FSBO for awhile. With the two girls making messes all day and the baby on the way, it will be nice to be in control of when people want to take a look. The market is slow right now, but interest rates are very low, so we'll see. We aren't planning on being very aggressive about selling it right now - we'll put it up on Craigslist and in the Church bulletin and, of course, a sign in our yard - but other than that, we are confident that if this is what God wants us to do, it will happen in His time.
Anyway, once we get our house sold, we will move into an apartment where we will stay until our new house is built - whether that is in 6 months or a year and 6 months. Again, we know it will happen in God's time if it is His will.
Right now, I'm not anxious about it. Ask me in 6 months when our house still hasn't sold and that will probably be a different story. :) Today, I will focus on being as big of a help as I can and not bumping anyone with my 34 week big belly (poor Bernadette, she is just at the wrong height...).

Venting...

2010-07-02T11:41:00.000-07:00

So, we found some land we'd like to build our dream house on a couple of months ago. It is probably as close to exactly what we want as we are going to get. We've been waiting to make a move on it while we met with the lender we're going to work with and a builder. Everything has gone fine with the lender, it is this darn builder who is killing our buzz.
We met with him about two weeks ago and gave him some house plans that we liked, told him what we'd change on them, and gave him a list of exactly what we want and what we're willing to give on. He made it sound like he could work something out. Well, he finally got back to us with two floor plans (both of houses he has built before) neither of which is right. One is completely not at all what we want and the other is missing key components. Needless to say, I am incredibly disappointed that it took him so long to send us two wrong-for-us house plans.
Jeremy's supposed to call him and see if he'll meet with us any time this weekend and we'll tell him that if he can't give us a house plan that gets us excited, than we will either wait a year or two or try some other builders.
In the meantime, we have to get our home improvements knocked out so we can list our current home (again...) if we are going to build any time soon.
Did I mention I am due in 7 weeks?

Signs of the Summer

2010-06-24T19:01:00.000-07:00

The following are pics from this summer so far:

Attempted self portait of me and the girls...yes, we are in the bathroom...and yes, Clare fell asleep about 10 minutes after this pic was taken.

Cupcakes frosted by the girls and I for the May cousins birthday party - Clare turned 2, Elijah turned 4 and Jacob turned 12. Frosting them was a super messy project, but good for building their hand muscles! Not such a good lesson in self-control... :)

Clare's amazingly dark tan lines. Seriously, it looks like she just has a white swimsuit on. She tans like her daddy.

First fishing trip of the year. Saturday of Father's day weekend. Each of the girls caught one fish in the hour we were out before it started storming. Clare's fish flopped off the line before we could get a picture of it.

Bernadette with her fishy.

New Tinkerbell nightgowns complete with slippers.

We took an impromptu vacation a couple of weekends ago. Random silliness ensued including Bernard the Hippo driving the van...so dangerous...

Clare hand crushing strawberries for me that we picked at the strawberry patch and made into jam!

Bernadette posing with our deck garden. It looks so much more impressive now, I should have taken a new picture, but the pots are cute, right? We bought cheap ones and painted them with left over paint we had. It is the perfect garden for me this year. Conveniently close to the house and located just a few feet from their kiddy pool so super easy to water! Not to mention all the extra watering that gets done by my little helpers.

Happy Summer!

Schoolin'

2010-06-07T18:49:00.001-07:00

Bernadette has been diligently working on her Kindergarten Seton curriculum since February. She has almost completed two quarters of Phonics and Math and she's in the middle of her second quarter in Religion.

Her handwriting and coloring/drawing have improved soooooooo much since we started. We haven't done any science yet. The only PE she gets now that gymnastics is over for the season is playing/swimming outside in the backyard. We listen to the CD that came with the curriculum occasionally as well as some classical selections.

I am learning just as much as she is. I have to remind myself before we start every day that her imagination is going to roam and come up with a plan to get her back on track. Currently, I'm bribing her to hold her crayon the right way with gummy bears. Also, I only allow her one crayon per page. The colors still talk to each other and fight over whose turn it is between pages, but it is a step in the right direction.

Side note: My husband and I blame our children's poor Mass behavior on over active imaginations. We blame their over active imaginations on their lack of TV watching skills. If they are left to themselves (not being talked to or involved in a conversation), for approximately 2 minutes, some inanimate object just gained a name and a life story and is about to have an adventure. A very loud, wordy adventure. I'm not saying that kids who watch TV don't have imaginations. I'm just saying our kids lack the ability to sit in one place without playing...loudly.

I've already mentioned how this comes into play in our school days.

Once the baby comes, I'm sure our school progress will slow down, but I'm hoping we can get a good jump on the third quarter work before then.

I'm glad we went with the Seton program and I'm glad we started it when we did. I am so glad to not have the pressure of putting together my own curriculum and wondering if I am teaching her enough, especially in Religion. I know she won't be in a clear cut grade probably ever in the Seton program, but that's fine. I anticipate her finishing her Phonics and Math books early in the fall, and Religion by Christmastime. We will probably move on right away to the first grade work in those subjects. Science, we might just put off until next year. I'm not sure when she'll move on in handwriting. She doesn't mind doing the work on her own, a little at a time, so I suppose she'll set her own and finish when she finishes. I'll have to look at the first grade Art and Music curriculum before I make a decision on those. That being said, I don't know if we'll enroll next year so much as just stick with their books.

Clare is currently working on shapes. If I draw out a circle, triangle, square, star and heart on a piece of paper and ask her to point to one, she gets it every time. If I point to one and ask her what shape it is, she gets circle, square and triangle confused. After we get shapes down, we'll move on to colors, then letters, then numbers. She knows so much and her vocabulary is expanding so much it is amazing. She knows most of the prayers we say as a family. She can sing her ABC's and count at least to 10. She can sing numerous nursery rhymes. She is learning the Kindergarten Catechism right along with Bernadette. (I ask her the easy ones.) :)

I love teaching my girls. Even more so, I love what they are teaching me!

Third Trimester Woes...

2010-06-07T08:52:00.001-07:00

Dust mopping under the furniture

Doing dishes

Kneeling at Mass

Sitting on the floor

Carrying full laundry baskets down the stairs

Being on my feet for any length of time

That is a short list of all the things I do that remind me of my growing belly. I am 29 weeks now which is amazing. The first trimester went fast, the second went slow, and now I can't believe we're in the third already.

Now that I am in the third trimester, I am being reminded of the need to slow things down for these last couple of months. Sometimes it surprises me when some of the things on my list are awkward or uncomfortable. I've been fortunate not to have much swelling so far, but the last week or so it has snuck up on me, mostly when I've been standing/walking for awhile.

I am so thankful to God for this pregnancy and for all my pregnancies. I have been very fortunate to have fairly easy pregnancies so far. (I say that now, when that pukey first trimester is a distant memory...) I am still struggling to get my iron up and have to caffeinate some days to make it to nap time, but I'd much rather be tired than have a more difficult cross.

We anxiously await the arrival of our newest little princess. We have been filling any free weekend time and some week nights with home improvements. We've decided to switch the big girls' room with the baby room. Of course we decided this after we painted the old baby room (now big girls' room) a gender neutral light purple/blue color and are preparing to paint the new baby room a light pink color. Jeremy's pretty sure we've sealed the deal that Felicity will be a Felix with that move. We'll see!

Last weekend, I tried out canning for the first time. I made cranapple butter. It took forever! I had no idea it had to cook so long. The recipe was for 6 pints and I ended up with 5. But I was 5 for 5 on my lid seals and it was delicious! Success! I am excited to can up our garden produce this year. We planted a "salsa garden" as we call it with tomatoes, green peppers, jalapenos and cilantro. (That was a fun project for a later post.)

In other news, Clare has been sleeping terribly. She has been getting up 3 or 4 times a night. I can't complain about the lack of sleep, because I sleep right through it. But I must complain about my husband's lack of sleep and Clare's lack of sleep (complete with bags under her eyes). It isn't that she doesn't need her naps anymore, or that she naps too much, because it happens either way regardless. I hope she gets back to sleeping well before the baby comes.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Clare!

2010-05-23T18:39:00.000-07:00

Leave it to Clare to get poison oak for her birthday.

It turns out, it is growing in our back yard. We aren't sure if she touched it directly, or possibly picked it up off of the dog. We first noticed it on Friday morning, and it has only looked worse every day since.

She's been sporting a winter mitten the past couple of days to keep her from messing with it and to prevent the oils from spreading once the blisters pop. Most people at Church this morning chalked it up to 2 year oldness, although one lady did ask if we were trying to break her of sucking her thumb. Thankfully, no, it is just poison oak. I thought. Not that poison oak is better, just easier to get rid of. :)

Before Clare woke up this morning, we snuck out her friends and decked them out in party hats. We thought it would be a nice surprise for her to find at the kitchen table when she came out, but unfortunately, she was more concerned with the fact that she couldn't find her friends when she woke up. Oops.

Clare's besties: Bernadette, Clarence the hippo, Camel, and Baby...Oh, and there is a little squirrel under the pile of hats.

We sang to her at breakfast and even lit a candle atop her giant muffin.

After breakfast, she finally sort of liked the party hats.

After Mass, we came home and got ready for a party with my husband's family. They all came (minus a few in-laws) which is pretty amazing. We figured out that we hadn't had that many of them at our house at one time since Clare's baptism. (His parents and 4 brothers and sisters live 4 hours away.) We had our cake and ate it, too. I made a caramel cake with caramel frosting - my favorite! Everyone liked it. Clare hardly touched her piece, but did some damage to the leftover cake.After the party, we went to the zoo. We only had an hour before closing, so we kind of had to rush, but we did let Clare walk most of the way instead of making her ride in the stroller. Another dream come true!

We had supper at Valentino's, and then came home and Jeremy built this:

All in all, I think she had a great day. We discovered a personality trait this weekend - she doesn't like to be the center of attention, but she loves to be the clown.

Stats - Because I'm cool like that

2010-05-16T17:44:00.000-07:00

The other day, I was thinking about the nieces and nephews on my side of the family. I found two interesting trends - one old, and one I had never realized before.

Of the four of us that are married with children, three of us have single gendered offspring. My oldest sister has 3 boys. My older brother has 4 boys. My husband and I are expecting our 3rd girl. Only my other older sister has one of each. It will be interesting to see the final boy/girl count when all is said and done.

The same 3 siblings also have only born children in even numbered years. Only one of my other sister's children was born in an odd year. So, that means out of 12 (including the girl in my belly), 11 will have been born in even years. I found that to be pretty amazing.

Great Video

2010-05-05T12:01:00.000-07:00

My husband sent me a link to this blog that has a video on it that I found hilarious.
And yes, we do drive a Sienna. :)

TGIF!

2010-04-29T18:47:00.001-07:00

This has been one of those weeks you just can't wait to end.

Monday, Jeremy went to the doctor for his allergies and I also had an OB appt. He got some sample nasal spray which works great! They did a blood draw on me to check things out because I'm always tired and have to nap to make it through the day.

Wednesday, I heard back from the doctor's office. Turns out, my iron is low. I was glad it was something medical and not just me, but I'm not excited about taking iron supplements. Oh well, whatever is good for the baby, right?

Thursday (today) was a doozy. When Jeremy went to leave for 6:30 Mass, he discovered that our blue car was broken into overnight. It was unlocked, so nothing was actually broken and nothing was stolen. Our neighbor's car was broken into as well. Jeremy called and reported it.
When Clare woke up, she had a 102 degree fever. The only other symptom she has shown is lack of appetite. She hasn't eaten well for a few days. As soon as the medicine kicked in and brought her fever down, Bernadette's spiked. She also has no appetite now either. All day they've traded off this fever. I'm hoping its just a 24 hour thing, but I'm sure if its still around tomorrow, I'll agonize all day whether or not to take them in. Classic mama dilemma. Jeremy's sure they picked up something when we were just there on Monday. Did I mention Clare took a 3 hour nap today? We woke her up at 4. She hasn't napped that long ever I'm pretty sure. Bernadette's sleep fest took place from about 5:30 - 7:30 and she was still ready for bed.

We were out of town last weekend, so that makes this weekend all the more desirable. There are many house projects we are trying to tackle in order to get our house sell ready (eventually). We decided we better make it a place we wouldn't mind living in before trying to sell it to someone else. Hopefully our mile long to do list will be completed by the end of the summer.

Small Victories

2010-04-20T07:43:00.001-07:00

I keep a large yogurt container on my dresser for orphan socks. Lately, I haven't been able to put a lid on it because it was so full.

But today, I got 4 pairs matched up! Woo hoo! The lid fits again!

I think God hides socks sometimes, just to see our joy when we find them again.

Out of the mouths of Babes

2010-04-09T06:52:00.000-07:00

This morning, Bernadette was looking through a Dick and Jane book. Clare noticed a puppy on the page (she was looking upside down) and said, "Sheep! Sheep!" which brought a smile to our faces, but she really made us laugh out loud when she followed with, "Mooo!"

Out of the mouths of babes...

2010-04-06T17:42:00.001-07:00

Tonight, as we were getting the kids ready for bed...

Me: Bernadette, go pick out your story for tonight.

B: We shouldn't read fun books, we should only read the Bible because it is about Jesus.

Me: Did someone tell you that, or did you come up with it on your own?

B: I came up with it on my own. It is my rule. We should only read the Bible.

Me: Well, we should always try to learn about Jesus and the Bible is about Jesus, so you're right we should read it. It is okay to read fun books, too, though.

Much to our delight, she has been picking their Children's Bible among other things to read lately, particularly since we showed them the pics and talked about the Passion parts during Holy Week. I never asked her why she kept picking it because I didn't want to discourage her, but I guess now we know. I've always hoped that our children's faith would sometime surpass our own, but I guess I expected it to be later than 3 1/2. And that's just Bernadette. Clare is infatuated with Baby Jesus and would hug and kiss holy pics and rosaries all day if we let her.

Out of the mouths of babes...

2010-03-31T16:35:00.000-07:00

Bernadette: What's the good news, Mama?

Me: Jesus!

Bernadette: What about Him?

Me: We hopefully get to be with Him in Heaven someday!

Bernadette: Now?

Me: No.

Bernadette: That's the bad news.

Sisters

2010-03-26T11:02:00.000-07:00

Bernadette and Clare have been doing a lot more things together lately. Sometimes, its almost as if they like each other. :) They share a room now, so no more closed doors. They love to play outside together. I am so thankful for this new found tolerance. It sure makes my days run smoother when I don't have to play referee all day.

Good clean fun?

Both found sleeping sideways in their beds.

Aww...

Washing potatoes...aka making a big mess. I don't mind cleaning up after them when they ahve this much fun. By the way, they are wearing their aprons I made them for Christmas.

Reading books together on my bed.

Standing on the window sill watching the snow fall.

And the answer is...

2010-03-26T09:03:00.001-07:00

The name we picked for our baby girl is

Felicity Rose

Thanks for playing!

Winter Activities

2010-03-26T08:36:00.001-07:00

During the frigid days of December and January, when the snow was either too hard or to soft to make real snowmen, we found ways to make snowmen inside.

Above is Bernadette's felt snowman. I have loads of felt in my basement, so I had cut out 3 white circles, one orange carrot nose, a black hat and black coal circles for the eyes, mouth and buttons. This was a fun activity for all three of us girls.

On different days, we also made snowmen out of cotton balls and buttons, and white finger paint.
When it finally was a good snowman building day, Jeremy took Bernadette outside during nap time and made a whole snow family. Bernadette loved helping and Clare loved looking at them out the window.

He spray painted the eyes and buttons.

After the snow family had been up for a couple of days, one of our neighbors (we aren't sure which one exactly) added his/her own touch and put a candy cane yard decoration next to the family.

Bernadette loved playing outside in the snow and probably would have until her toes fell off. Clare pretty much hated it and only tolerated it to humor us. :)

Here is a video of Bernadette sledding down a snow drift.

Clare's Obsession

2010-03-24T04:57:00.001-07:00

One of Clare's obsession is hats. I didn't realize how severe it was until I was looking at the pics I finally pulled off of the camera. Here are a few:

Above, Clare is sporting her Uncle Chris's winter hat. I think when she grows up, she will always remember him wearing a hat and her stealing it. I think that might make him her favorite. :)

Above: Through the mass of hair that was probably pulled back before her aversion to hair ties kicked in, Clare is wearing her Papa's Husker hat that she found who knows where.

Above: We made snowmen out of felt. Clare stole her snowman's hat.

Above: All bundled up to stay in! (You can't tell in this pic, but she wasn't wearing pants.)

Above: One of my favorite superheros. Super Clare to the rescue!! (Again, without pants.)

It's a Baby!

2010-03-23T15:34:00.000-07:00

We had our ultrasound on Monday. We did find out whether it is a boy or a girl and we have picked a name.

However, you have to work if you want to know. My husband and I came up with a game with the name (and gender) being revealed in the end. We did this with our girls, too, and have found that people are generally irritated at having to look things up and use their brains to figure it out. So, the game is easier this time around (we think).

This time, the game is Biblical. In order to avoid translation confusion, we used this online version of the NAB.

Here's the rules of the game:
Step 1 - Use the Bible verses below to build a phrase. The clues will be written Book Chapter:Verse (Word Number) - the number in parenthesis will indicate what word in the verse you will need for the phrase.
Step 2 - Unscramble the letters from the phrase to discover the name (and gender) of our baby!

The Clues:
1 Thessalonians 5:10 (5th word)
Matthew 5:44 (2nd word)
Matthew 26:37 (14th word)
Sirach 12:1 (11th word)
Psalms 130:2 (4th word)

Good Luck!
The answer will be revealed on Friday.

Out of the mouths of babes...

2010-03-19T05:43:00.000-07:00

The other day in the car, Bernadette shared with me,
B: (sadly) I wish I was two.
Me: Why do you wish you were two?
B: I wish I was two so I could get into mischief with Clare.

This morning Bernadette shared her dream with my husband.
B: Last night, I had a dream that it was Sunday and you were going to work and you couldn't kiss me because my breath smelled disgusting.

Clare's latest talent is pouting. If we ask her to stop doing something she's not supposed to, or to do something she doesn't want to, she sits down on the floor right where she is with her head hung low. The first time she did this, it took us a minute to figure out that she was actually pouting. Not tantruming, not crying (although sometimes whiny) - just sits with her head hung low and pouts.

We recently received a generous donation of lots of toys. Some of these toys are outside toys which the girls were lacking in and much appreciated. Yesterday was a beautiful day so I sent the girls out to play. After a little while, I went outside to check on them because I couldn't see them through the windows. Of course they weren't playing with all these new toys. They were collecting dirt in ice cream buckets at the side of the house.

Oh, Baby!

2010-03-16T11:35:00.001-07:00

So, this Saturday I will be 18 weeks pregnant. We have our ultrasound on Monday. We are planning on finding out if it is a boy or a girl. Bernadette is insistant on a boy this time and has given us a few good names along with a couple of funny ones (like Lego Man, Baby Bean and Fire Truck man - so he can grow up to be a fireman :) ). Clare is, of course, still oblivious. Every time we try to tell her that there is a baby in my tummy she thinks we're talking about baby Jesus. :)

This pregnancy so far has been different than the others. During my first trimester, I had morning sickness worse than with either of the girls (or the 16 weeks of Francis). I threw up multiple times a week and sometimes multiple times a day. I couldn't cook anything. I could only eat small portions. I was always exhausted. At about 14 weeks, the sickness subsided. I still have troubles when brushing my teeth. I am still tired, but can resume my daily household duties. I still can't cook chicken, but everything else is okay.

In other news: Bernadette decided to give up sweets (because Jeremy did) and then decided that we would all give up sweets. This is proving to be much more difficult for her than no TV or movies. She tells me at least once a day "Since its almost Easter, I'm going to have just one little sweet." I'm making her stick to it though. We have 25 of 40 bags filled - mostly for donations. We've only gotten 2 rooms organized so far. I don't know if we'll get it all done before Easter!

We purchased a new dishwasher today during my husband's lunch hour. Ours has slowly stopped disolving the soap. We've almost lost it 2 times before, so we decided it was time. I'm excited about it. Anything to help us not hate our house so much is welcomed. Since we've almost moved twice in the last year, it is harder to be content with what we have. We've been making small improvements here and there which is helping. We were hoping to remodel our bathroom with our tax return money, but so far we haven't decided to do it for sure. By the time we do decide, we will probably have spent our tax return on other things - like kitchen appliances. :)

Out of the mouths of babes...

2010-03-12T10:47:00.000-08:00

Today at the lunch table Bernadette told us:
"I can't wait until I'm five and can do work on the computer."
I asked, "What kind of work?"
She replied, "Facebook"

Randomness

2010-03-07T18:29:00.000-08:00

* We got a dog back in November. He is a 3 year old Beagle named Bruin. We adopted him from the Humane Society. The girls absolutely love him, which makes cleaning up after him worth it. He is definitely NOT a cold weather dog. He never wanted to go for walks on the frigid cold winter days we had - which was fine with us. Now, however, we are trying to get back into the rhythm of walking him every night and during the days if weather permits. I am grateful my husband isn't scared of the dark. :) I am looking forward to daylight savings time so I can help out with the night time walks.

* There are pics on our camera from before Christmas. We've been just too ~~lazy~~ busy to get them on the computer. That is why there haven't been pics here for a few posts.

* This week, we decided to begin the 40 Bag Challenge. I wanted to go through all of our stuff for donations anyway during Lent, so this gives us a nice goal. We couldn't decide whether to do grocery sacks or garbage bags, so we decided to do donations in grocery sacks and trash in garbage bags. We spent Saturday morning going through our bedroom and some toys and we've got 12 bags already - of which one is trash, one is for family, and all the others are donations. I must confess...it will be easier for us because we recently received 2 van loads of toys from my husband's former employer who is moving. Some of the toys are big outside toys. We've only gone through one load so far and Bernadette was surprisingly willing to give away quite a few things. She's always bringing me things and saying, "We don't play with this anymore. We should sell it." Unfortunately, some of the the things are baby toys which we hope to use again someday. :)

* Speaking of baby toys, my husband gave me permission to go ahead and make it public. We are expecting. We are due August 21st - so we are 16 weeks along. We only told family and a few trusted friends so far, but turns out some family members can't keep a secret for very long. We had planned on waiting until our ultrasound to tell everyone else. We wanted to make sure everything was okay first. But, alas, we'd rather have people find out from us than through the grapevine, so there it is. We've only had good healthy heartbeats so far, so we are hopeful.

* I gave up Facebook for Lent. It has been great. It was really difficult the first couple of days because it had become such a habit to check it throughout the day. Today was the first time I'd been on since Fat Tuesday. Someone added me as a friend at the beginning of last week and I didn't want to wait 4 more weeks to confirm it, so since it was Sunday, I decided to go ahead. I was only on for like 30 seconds and I didn't feel the need to waste any more time on it. It was kind of liberating.

* We've had a busy 2010 so far. At the end of January, my brother's wife had their 4th baby. A week later, my husband's sister had her first baby - so we went to Atkinson the weekend after to meet him. Two weekends later, my husband's grandpa died, so we went back again for the funeral. The next weekend was the new baby's baptism, so we went back yet again for that. It was an exhausting run of trips, but we made it through and were so so so happy to be home this weekend.

* Clare is talking like crazy now. She didn't start talking as early as her sister did, but she definitely talks as much if not more now than Bernadette did at this age. She is finally peacefully sleeping in her toddler bed. It took her a few weeks to stay in bed and now she's a champ. She adores babies. She has had so much fun holding her new cousins. She is definitely Bruin's biggest fan. She spends time every day trying to hug and kiss him and walk him around the house and letting him lay on her lap. Oh, and she also tries to hand feed him his food.

* Bernadette is getting more confident all the time - in a good way. She loves doing school. Her newest thing is playing dress-up. She put on a clown costume tonight - including hat - and called herself a superhero. She also had a pair of fairy wings on. I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was a clown costume. It was so cute. She also loves her new cousins, but loves her big second cousins more. Jeremy has cousins who are around 12 who enjoy visiting and playing with her when we are in Atkinson. After they play with her, she often says, "Nathan (or Joseph, or Seth) is my best friend." It is so cute.

* My husband is back from walking the dog! :)

Loves

2010-02-18T15:24:00.000-08:00

Note: I published this last week, except when I changed the publish date, I accidentally put 2/18/09 instead of 2/18/10. Oops! :)

* I love that I can say, "Do you want to help me with laundry, Clare?" And she responds, "Sure" and immediately starts going room to room with a laundry basket picking up dirty clothes.

* I love how Bernadette folds washclothes with an air of perfection that she certainly doesn't get from me.

* I love how when we sing Skin-a-ma-rinky-dink at night, Clare sings, "I love Jesus!"

* I love that Bernadette hasn't complained yet about our family sacrifice of no TV during Lent. She understands that her favorite things to watch will still be on after Easter, so she can wait.

* I love that Clare is sleeping in a toddler bed now. She loves it. I think she loves it because she can get out of bed whenever she wants, and if she's sneaky about it, can spend the night sleeping on the floor. :)

* I love that Bernadette is willing to share a bed with Clare IF we get them bunk beds. I showed her a picture of one that is a double on bottom, twin on top and she didn't threaten to push Clare out of bed. Also, I love that she wants my husband to make the beds and she wants me to make quilts for the beds.

Why I get to blog sometimes

2009-12-17T13:28:00.001-08:00

Fisher Price Online games for Toddlers and Preschoolers is awesome. Bernadette likes the “Click to Color” game the best and she is really good at it. She does it on our laptop without a mouse, only the little box that you touch and click.

Her favorite things to do is to make it all dark and say it is night time. Here, the pink leaves are the “night light”. :)

I wanna hippopotamus for Christmas…

2009-12-17T13:24:00.001-08:00

This week, we went to the Staff and Student Christmas party at Villa Marie School (where I used to work and Jeremy now coaches special olympics basketball).

We are always amazed at the generosity that radiates in and around this school. Santa came and the girls each got two books and a stuffed animal. (The sisters usually give the girls a little something, but this was a total surprise.)

Bernadette was so excited to sit on Santa’s lap, even though she pretty much knows that this isn’t the “real” Santa. She went up to get her present and was so excited, she forgot to tell him what she wanted. When she went back the second time, Clare was brave enough to go, too. Clare gave Santa one of her super hugs where she just hugs for the longest time without moving or saying anything. (By the way, Bernadette asked for a jump rope and a telescope, and she is getting neither).

The secretary at the school also gave the girls gifts. This was completely unexpected. We only see her a couple of times a year. She gave the girls stuffed hippos that are so soft.

Each of the students got to pick out a Christmas book from a box full. One of the students picked out a Dora book that she said she was going to give to her little brother. She changed her mind, and gave it to the girls! She said, “My little brother is so spoiled and has lots of toys and books, so they can have this. And, you’re new parents and I know if my brother has nothing to do, he bothers us, so this will help your girls have something to do.” :)

Another student gave our girls candy canes, and another student gave me his. :)

Those kids are amazing and I am so glad that they are still a part of my life.

They grow so fast

2009-12-17T13:14:00.001-08:00

Clare has now graduated to 24 month/2T clothes. When my husband and I were going through our stash, we couldn’t believe that Clare is wearing these clothes already! Bernadette was just wearing some of them last year!

I wonder when she’ll stop making that funny cheesy face we seem to get in every picture…

Kolaches

2009-12-17T13:11:00.001-08:00

I got this recipe from Aubrey. She did such a wonderful job typing it out, I won’t repeat. I’ll just insert some of my own pics.

I made these one Saturday morning, and it really didn’t take as long as I thought it would.

Here’s my dough balls rising…

Ready for the oven! I sprinkled sugar on them for added effect. :)

I made cherry and lemon. I didn’t care for the lemon ones, but my husband likes them. They didn’t brown up as much as I was expecting, but they taste fine. Again, I think my oven is slowly preparing to leave us…

Thanks for the recipe, Aubrey! They were great!

Chocolate Crinkles

2009-12-17T13:04:00.001-08:00

These cookies are the best! They taste like brownies, but look like cookies. They take some work, but are a holiday favorite at our house. The dough needs to be in the fridge for at least 3 hours before working with it, so be sure to plan ahead!

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

4 ounces melted unsweetened chocolate (cooled)

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 eggs

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup powdered sugar

Directions:

Mix sugar, oil, chocolate and vanilla in large bowl. Mix in eggs one at a time.

Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours.

I made my dough a few days ahead of time because you never know when you’ll have a chance to finish. :)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Shape dough by rounded teaspoonfuls into balls. Roll in powdered sugar. Place about 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheet.

The girls were my super helpers with this part. They each had their own bowl of powdered sugar. I rolled the dough into balls and put the balls into their bowls. They rolled them around until they were covered, then put the on our holding tray. (Notice Clare’s hair net…aka Bernadette’s stocking hat)

Of course they can’t both look at the camera at the same time.

Bake 10 – 12 minutes or until almost no indentation remains when touched.

I had to bake mine for 15-17 minutes…I think my oven might be slowing down… :(

Enjoy!

* I doubled my batch this year.

Pretzels with almond bark

2009-12-17T12:37:00.001-08:00

This is a simple Christmas treat that almost anyone does in some form or another. These are the kind I did as a kid.

1 one pound bag tiny twisted pretzels

3 packages almond bark

4 bags M&Ms

Sprinkles

This ratio of pretzels/bark/m&ms came out almost perfect and made this many:

Directions:

Melt almond bark in microwave 1 minute at a time, stirring in between. Meanwhile, have kiddos or husband lay out pretzels on wax paper.

Spoon bark onto pretzels. Add M&M before it hardens. (Bernadette was a super big helper with the M&Ms this year – and she didn’t even eat any!)

We sprinkled the tops with red sugar sprinkles (Only an okay job for a 3 year old :) ) . We would have used green, too if we had some.

We put the pretzels in two different containers. One for eating up stairs and one in the freezer downstairs to have at Christmas time!

Bundle Up!

2009-12-17T12:28:00.001-08:00

Here’s some pics after the major snow fall.

Clare thought the cold vs. fun ratio wasn’t worth it. After only a couple of minutes, she wanted me to carry her, than finally I let her go inside. Bernadette stayed out longer to explore.

Below is the snow on top of our planter in front of our house.

After trudging through the snow to get to the play set in the backyard chanting, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.” Bernadette made it to the steps.

Below, she is working her way down the slide.

Ornaments

2009-12-08T13:01:00.001-08:00

One of the things on my holiday to-do list is to make ornaments for our parents and grandparents and us. We started this tradition two years ago – Bernadette’s second Christmas.

We made this ornament to look like a bulb ornament. It was made out of red foam paper. We decorated them with glitter glue. The hanging part is ribbon that says “Merry Christmas” and it is all held together with a snowflake brad.

The multiple layers of foam together with the snowflake brad make it a “peek-a-boo” ornament, as our kids call it.

Last year, we made these gingerbread ornaments.

They are made out of two layers of brown felt. Again, the hanging part is Christmas ribbon, as is the “Merry Christmas” banner they are holding. Their “buttons” are leftover snowflake brads from the previous year. I stitched around them with overdyed floss.

The pictures we put inside were printed from our home computer on cardstock. They are great keepsakes and we hope to continue the tradition. Last year, I ran out of the banner ribbon, so I had to wait until the stores came out with Christmas ribbon again to finish them. :)

We have a couple of ideas for this years’ ornament, but we haven’t decided on one yet. I hope we can come up with something soon so we can get started and hopefully finish all of them before Christmas!

Peanut Brittle

2009-12-08T12:45:00.001-08:00

My dad’s favorite Christmas treat is Peanut Brittle. I made it last for the first time last year for Christmas and loved it – not just eating it, but making it, too!

The recipe I use I found at Allrecipes.com. (Pictures are mine)

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup water

1 cup peanuts

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

Grease a large cookie sheet. Set aside.

In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, over medium heat, bring to a boil sugar, corn syrup, salt, and water.

Stir until sugar is dissolved. The mixture will be almost clear when it is ready for the peanuts.

Stir in peanuts.

Set candy thermometer in place, and continue cooking.

Stir frequently until temperature reaches 300 degrees F (150 degrees C), or until a small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water separates into hard and brittle threads.

Remove from heat; immediately stir in butter or margarine and baking soda (BEST PART :) ); pour at once onto cookie sheet.

With 2 forks, lift and pull peanut mixture into rectangle about 14x12 inches; cool. Snap candy into pieces.

I don’t know how many batches I will make this year. It takes about an hour to make, so I either have to do it during nap time, or after bed time, but it is totally worth it.

Are you kidding me?

2009-12-08T10:29:00.001-08:00

I filled this container full of all the toys, books, ornaments, containers, socks, window clings, everything that was on the living room floor where it didn’t belong. I had planned on vacuuming our rug and Swiffering the wood floors with this vacuum.

I start Swiffering for about 10 seconds and it dies. Don’t get me wrong, I love our Swiffer vac, but if it is not plugged in right up until you use it, it doesn’t hold its charge. :(

Hopefully it will charge up before I have another 18 gallon tote’s worth of stuff on the floor.

Peanut Clusters

2009-12-08T10:23:00.001-08:00

My husband’s favorite Christmas treat is Peanut Clusters. I’m not sure where I got this recipe from, I had it had written on a post-it from last year.

1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 bag peanut butter chips

12 oz (about 2 1/2 cups) peanuts

Melt the chocolate and peanut butter chips in microwave for 1 minute.

Stir and microwave for 1 minute more.

Stir until all the chips are melted and smooth. Add peanuts. Drop onto wax paper. I used a cookie dipper that measures about 1 1/2 tbsp.

Each batch makes about 30 clusters. This year, I made 4 batches. They are so simple and easy to make. We froze them and will give some away. The rest we’ll munch on until well after Christmas. :)

Let the Holiday Treat Making Begin!

2009-12-07T17:25:00.000-08:00

This years holiday baking list includes:

Peanut Brittle

Peanut Clusters

Pretzels with Almond Bark

Santa Surprise Cookies

Chocolate Crinkles

Kolaches

Potica

I plan on posting recipes as I go, but I haven't been a very good blogger lately, so we'll see how that goes.

Sugar cut out cookies are on the maybe list, as is fudge.

This morning, the girls and I went on a monster grocery shopping spree to get all the ingredients we will need for the above mentioned treats. There was barely room for the girls in the cart! It wouldn't be so bad except that I like to give away treats, so of course I have to make multiple batches of everything.

What's on your holiday baking list?

Out of the mouths of babes...

2009-11-03T09:41:00.000-08:00

A quick lesson on mixing colors:

Me: And if you mix blue and red you get purple! And if you mix red and white, you get pink!

B: And if you mix blue and white, you get butterflies!

Out of the mouths of babes...

2009-11-01T19:53:00.000-08:00

Bernadette has been day time potty trained for awhile now. We haven't even begun night time training, so the other day when she dozed off on the rocking chair (yes, the girl who doesn't need to nap does take naps when you take the time to read her really long books) she had an accident. She was so upset when she woke up wet.

Me: It's okay, Bernadette, it was an accident. You're not in trouble. You just accidentally wet while you were sleeping.

B: (sobbing) I didn't wet! Clare wet my pants!

Poor Clare. She's bound to get blamed for random things for the rest of her life...or at least until she gets a younger sibling.

Notes for the Baby Book :: Moving On

2009-10-09T07:43:00.000-07:00

We are at peace with the passing of our first son, Francis Joseph. He was not made for this world. We can only thank God for giving him to us for the short time he was with us. One thing I have been holding on to since we first found out was hearing his healthy heartbeat at our 14 week appointment. I am so thankful for that. I am also very thankful that we delivered him at home so we could spend some time admiring his perfect little body before handing him over.

There is an obvious "something is missing" feeling for both Jeremy and I. It is amazing how strong the bond was for both of us so early in his life. Our home is not the same as it was a week ago. We are not the same people we were a week ago. Our arms hold two children, but our hearts hold three. Our bathroom - in particular the tub - has become somewhat of a sacred place for us (because that is where Francis was born).

We aren't angry with God. We know He has plans for us and plans for Francis that we may or may not realize in time. But the most important thing for us to remember is that we have trusted God with our fertility. We have no reason to blame ourselves. It was God's plan all along.

The interesting thing is, I thought something wasn't right. For a couple of weeks I hadn't felt like I was showing. I was anxious and concerned about the baby. I think God gave me this time to help me prepare. I don't think I'll cry when we pack away the maternity clothes because they weren't fitting right anyway.

I am mentally and spiritually at peace. However, it will be awhile before I am emotionally at peace.

I said I am not angry at God, but I am angry with Dr. K. I feel like a lot of pain and time in the hospital could have been avoided if he would have done the D and C when they said they were. We were all ready for it at about 6 am on Tuesday, but then he decided it would be better to wait. But, waiting meant I lost a lot more blood and ended up with a transfusion. He didn't think I'd lost much blood and thought I was dizzy because I was overwhelmed. Obviously, he doesn't know me. I don't know who told him I hadn't lost much blood, but it certainly wasn't the male CNA we had in ER. (I love hearing Jeremy talk about how freaked out the poor kid was.) Dr. K then agreed to do the D and C at 3 pm if the placenta hadn't come out yet. Well, he changed his mind again and decided to try to pull it out which involved him pushing on my stomach so hard I started to cry - at which point he told the nurse to give me medicine to "calm me down" and he'd be back in 10 minutes. While putting the medicine in my IV, my nurse said, " This is a really high dose. If you need more, let me know." He then came back and did the same thing again until he got it out. The medicine didn't make it hurt any less. He also didn't call our doctor when he said he would. In fact, we were in the hospital about 8 hours before our doctor knew it and the only reason he knew is because we called him. We also continued to call him with updates because no one else would. It seemed incredibly insensitive of Dr. K to string the whole process along for us. We were obviously going through a difficult time anyway.

On the plus side, we had very very kind nurses the whole time we were there. If I could remember their names, I would send them a thank you card.

We are trying to make sure the girls know that we are very grateful that we have them. We are going to celebrate Bernadette's birthday this weekend with Jeremy's parents. I want it to be super special for her. We were going to go to Atkinson to celebrate before this happened, so we decided to celebrate here instead. She has a horrible birthday track record. Last year, Jeremy's grandma's funeral was ON her birthday. Poor girl. We're just glad she won't remember these birthdays in 10 years.

The girls have been a great help for us. I can't imagine having a miscarriage with your first child. God has blessed us with the ability to see many "silver linings" which have helped us cope. Most of them seem silly, but they are helpful to us.

We are especially grateful for all the prayers and kind words that have been sent our way. We feel blessed to be part of such a caring community. Please keep the prayers coming!

Notes for the Baby Book - Our son, Francis Joseph

2009-10-06T18:09:00.000-07:00

I hit the bathroom at about 7 pm. I labored for awhile, mostly laying in the bathtub with the shower running on my tummy. I think it was around 8:00 pm when the baby came out. I held him (yes, we could tell it was a him) in my hand for awhile and then placed him in a bowl while I cleaned up.

I was in a lot of pain and had a lot of bleeding. Finally at about 1:30 am I was so dizzy/sweaty/pale, I woke Jeremy up and told him I needed to go to the ER. My brother came over to stay with the girls until morning.

We arrived at the ER and thankfully didn't have to wait too long. They put us in an ER room and a doctor came in and did a pelvic exam in which he realized that the placenta was still inside my uterus. He ordered a blood pressure test and an ultrasound. The blood pressure test was first. They took my blood pressure with me laying down, and then with me standing. When I stood up, I lost a lot of blood and I think I scared the male nurse who was administering it. Jeremy was helping me stand and thankfully caught me when I passed out.

We then waited for awhile for the ultrasound. It confirmed that the placenta was still inside. The doctor told us they would probably do surgery to clean out my uterus. He said it would take 10 minutes, then they'd watch me for a couple hours then I could go home by 10 am.

At this point, a new doctor came in and made a different plan. He thought the tissue was close enough to coming out that we should wait it out. So, the hooked me up to pitocin and we waited. We waited and waited and waited. Meanwhile, I still couldn't stand or even sit up without getting dizzy. The doctor told me that my hemoglobin (which they took when we first arrived) was fine and I was probably dizzy because I was overwhelmed. I told him that I have never had problems with dizziness and I had never passed out before. Then, he decided to test my hemoglobin again.

When we first arrived, it was 13, by noon on Tuesday, it was down to 9.9 - low, and explained my dizziness, but nothing they could do anything about.

They gave me more medicine around noon and told me that if I didn't pass the placenta by 3:00, they would do the surgery. Three o'clock rolled around and the doctor came in and examined me again. He decided that he could probably just pull it out...very painfully. It was successful, thankfully, and they told us we could go home that day.

Unfortunately, my hemoglobin is now down to 6.7. I am waiting for my blood transfusion and praying nothing else goes wrong. All I want to do is be home with my family during this difficult time.

We named the baby Francis Joseph. We could tell that he was born with 6 toes on one foot. St. E's weighed him and measured him and took his tiny handprints. We mourn the loss of our first son, but we know that he was not made for this world.

Notes for the Baby Book - Baby 3 - 16 weeks

2009-10-05T15:42:00.000-07:00

I began spotting Saturday night at about 11:00 pm. It was light enough that I still had hope it was something random. I hardly slept a wink, praying all night for the baby. Sunday morning, we called our doctor. He told me to take it easy and rest. He told me that if it was bad news, there is nothing we can do. The bleeding tapered off in the afternoon, giving me hope. However, in the evening it started up again. Monday morning was even worse.

We went to the doctor's office at 9:20 am. He searched and searched and searched, but no heartbeat. We were sent for an ultrasound right away. We left the girls with my sister-in-law and headed over to St. E's. We didn't even finish filling out our paper work before they called us back. I think it was probably because my constant tears were bothersome to the other moms waiting. I was grateful to get away from their stares.

When the technician started the ultrasound, it was absolutely surreal. I could see the baby, but it wasn't moving. There were no red and blue colors indicating blood flow. It was just lying there. The baby was measuring about 13 weeks (I was 16 weeks along) which means the baby probably died 1 - 2 weeks ago. She took some measurements and said some kind words, then went to get Dr. K for his consult. He came in and told us our options. They let us out the back door of the office.

We called our doctor and my nurse sister for their opinions and decided to take the outpatient meds option and to go through the process at home. We made another appointment with my OB doctor and he administered the meds and told us what to expect for the next couple of days.

We left the office about 2 hours ago and I am already feeling the cramping. It will be a long and trying night. Please pray for us as we wait for our baby.

Morality

2009-09-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

My husband and I host a group of high school juniors at our house most Wednesday nights during the school year. This year, we are covering the topic of Morality. While we are waiting for our materials to show up, my husband has been thinking of these scenarios/topics to discuss in our group. Most of the scenarios have had pretty obvious, clear cut moral solutions, but a couple of them this week had our group divided.

The first topic was what you do when you are "long changed" at a store - meaning what do you do when the employee gives you the wrong change in your favor. Most of the kids agreed that if you notice while you are in the store, you correct the employee. However, there seemed to be a gray area if you notice after you've left the store. A few said you should take it back to the store. One who works in retail said that they get people calling customer service telling of the mistake but didn't know if they ever actually return the money. Most said they'd keep it or donate it to Church (come on, guys, we were juniors once too).
I don't think I know anyone who has had this happened and didn't keep the money. A couple of years ago, I got a hair cut and paid with a $50. The cut cost $19, but the lady gave me $49 back. I caught it and told her that she gave me the wrong change, and then she tried again, but this time gave me $39. I ended up with an $11 hair cut. I realized it once I got in the car, but figured I had tried once already, so for some reason I deserved the extra $8.
So, what makes it seem right to keep the extra money once you've left the store, but not if you notice right away? It kind of reminds me of the Chance card in Monopoly that says "Bank made error in your favor $100." Really? So we just get to keep it?

The second taboo topic we discussed this week was bad words in music. Does one bad word ruin a song? We only had one junior who spoke up and said yes. Others said that they sing (or say in their heads) a different word instead. Still others said that they hear those words all the time just being out in the world and they can't edit that out, so why discount a good song because of one bad word? Jeremy tried out the dog poop in the chocolate cake analogy, but they either didn't make the connection or rejected the logic because it wasn't their own. (Dog poop analogy: You are presented with a beautiful chocolate cake for your birthday and right before you dig in, the baker tells you that they added just a tiny bit of dog poop when they were mixing the batter. Would you still eat it?) We are going to tackle this one again next week and see if we can get through to them, or at least affirm the one who said yes that she is on the right track.
So, after the kids left, Jeremy and I were discussing bad words not only in music, but also in TV shows. I presented the following scenario to Jeremy: You've been watching a TV series for 2 years and it hasn't had a single bad word in it. You are now watching season 3 and they use a bad word (which word? Does it really matter?). Should you stop watching the show? Do you watch the next episode and see if it continues? What would you do?
This led us to discuss not only bad words, but also sexual innuendos in the shows. There are very few shows that are totally clean. Since we are moral authority figures to not only these juniors, but also our own children, we have decided to very critically watch "our shows" over the next few weeks and weed out any that we wouldn't watch with Jesus in the room. What shows do you watch?
It is very easy to fall into mediocrity. We need to constantly re-evaluate ourselves and weed out the evil that has crept in slowly without us noticing. Everyone is an example to someone. We need to step up in that role. One of the most difficult things we have to deal with in our group is when the kids say "Fr. So And So says bad words in class." or "Fr. So and So watches this show and even lets us watch it in class!" It is not easy to tell these kids that that isn't right. But, like Jeremy said to me tonight, that is the kind of stuff that the saints had to do.

One of those moments you just want to bottle up...

2009-09-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

We watched the movie Enchanted tonight. Jeremy and I were a little nervous that Bernadette would obsess over the dragon at the end (I had forgotten about it when we picked it out.). She is a very tender hearted girl and that very well could have ruined it for her. However, thankfully, she obsessed over how they got down off of the building instead, since they didn't show that part.

So, at bedtime, we were talking about princesses and I asked her if she knew why she was a princess...
B: No
Me: You are a princess because God is the King and you are His daughter.
B: Jesus died on the cross, is He the fairy godmother?
Me: No...Mary would probably be like the fairy godmother. Jesus is the Prince.
B: Who is married to Jesus?
Me: The sisters are married to Jesus, like the sisters at Villa Marie. They wear rings on their fingers because they are married to Jesus, like how I wear a ring because I'm married to Papa.
B: Does Sr. Patricia wear a ring?
Me: She did.
B: Did she sell it and get a new one?
Me: No, she died, remember? We pray that she is in Heaven with Jesus, her Prince.
B: Is she dancing?
Me: Probably!
B: Someday, when I go to Heaven, I hope I get to dance with God!

I love this age! So full of wonder and curiousity. Developing their own ideas about the world, often humourous, often so beautiful you want to cry.

Our deprived (but creative) daughter...

2009-09-23T07:19:00.000-07:00

One day, Bernadette was playing with an empty egg carton. When we asked her what she was doing, this is what she said:

Her uncle has one and she always wants to play it when we go to see him, so she knows what a Wii is. We found this a hilarious and creative interpretation of Wii.

Need a laugh?

2009-09-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

You gotta love capturing moments like this!

Surprise!

2009-09-22T18:36:00.000-07:00

Someone throw this girl a surprise party!

Notes for the Baby Book

2009-09-08T18:45:00.000-07:00

Baby number 3 is a-cookin'! We are now 12 weeks along. I've had some trouble with my progesterone, but troches have been doing the trick and not making me sick, so that's good.

I had my first OB appointment two weeks ago and my doctor couldn't find the heart beat - which is neither good nor bad at 10 weeks - so he wanted us to come back when I was 12 weeks just to make sure he could find it then.

So, we had our 12 week appointment today. He dopplered around for awhile telling me about how its probably a girl because every time he hasn't been able to hear the heart beat at 12 weeks, it came out to be a girl. He also went on to say sometimes he can't find it until 14 or 16 weeks. All these things were, of course, just to make me not worry.

Then, finally, he found it. However, quick as he found it, he lost it again before he could get a reading of the beats per minute. Encouraged, he kept looking until he got it long enough for a reading. He even turned it up loud so Bernadette could hear. :)

So, we heard the heart beat finally, but it was a whopping 190 beats per minute which is high. The doctor was curious, but not concerned. He said that it was probably high because "she" was moving around so much before he caught her. Nonetheless, we have to go back again in 2 weeks to check it again.

We are trying not to be concerned. If it was something to worry about, we would have to go back in 1 week or have an ultrasound. So, we wait another two weeks and continue to pray for a healthy baby!

Out of the mouths of babes...

2009-09-07T18:56:00.000-07:00

Lately whenever we take Bernadette potty and wait in the bathroom for her to be done she stops and goes, stops and goes, stops and goes, stops - then says "Do you want to hear the rest?" and then finishes. Cracks me up every time!

Songs of Bernadette

2009-09-07T18:51:00.001-07:00

Here's a list of songs that make Bernadette cry for unknown reasons:

Hush little baby - ever since she was little, whenever we'd sing her this song, she'd start crying. Even now if you sing it, she gets a big sad face and if you don't stop, she will start to cry.
You are mine (Church song) - We've attended two or three Masses in the past couple of months that they have sang this song. Every time we've had to take her out of church because she literally starts bawling.
On top of spaghetti - I don't even know what to say about this one. I started to sing it a couple of weeks ago, and she started crying saying she doesn't like this song.

She is definately an emotional girl and I think we're going to have a long long road ahead of us.

Random Summer Cuteness

2009-09-02T11:53:00.001-07:00

Here are some random pics from our summer.

Below is Bernadette waiting for her Papa to come home.

Below: Clare has a knack for getting into trouble and tight spaces.

Below: Clare snuck a bowl of strawberries off the table and had her way with them.

The girls’ favorite place to hang out. It is now stocked with Clare’s favorite things.

All tuckered out.

Bernadette loves to climb in the crib and ~~torment~~ play with her sister.

Bernadette has switched to a twin bed! When we were moving back in, we decided to go ahead and switch her. Clare will move to the toddler bed in December.

Clare’s favorite hobby: looking through books. Even books without pictures. Here’s she’s looking through Confessions by St. Augustine.

Below left: Bernadette’s paper bag dress. Right: New clothes on the first day of school.

Above: First day of school for Bernadette. We have set up the back half of the basement to be our learning zone. Jeremy made a little table for the girls to use and painted a chalkboard on the wall. The girls absolutely love it! And there is enough to keep Clare busy while Bernadette and I work on learning!

Bargain!

2009-09-02T11:41:00.001-07:00

On our way to the library the other day, we saw a garage sale that had a little pink bike. We decided to stop and see how much it cost. Jeremy hopped out and saw that it was marked $1.00, so we scrounged around the van looking for loose change and came up with $0.80. Thankfully, they were looking to get rid of it, so they let us have it for 80 cents. :) Its nothing fancy and is missing some padding, but it’ll work for learning on!