Life on the refrigerator door....

Wow is all that I can say. The book for the October MOMS Club book talk is “Notes between a Mother and daughter, life on the refrigerator door” By Alice Kuipers. It is completely moving and WOW!!

I am not going to go into the details of the book, or even my reactions because some of the moms from MOMS Club read my blog and I don’t want to ‘ruin’ it for them, but it really made so much ‘clear’ to me. It has helped me see a side of things that I never noticed before… interesting how a book that took only 43 minutes to read can actually make an impact on your life….

So if you have an hour to spare, I certainly recommend this book... WOW

Only in North Dakota

can you wear long sleeved shirts one day, shorts and a tshirt the next, and then sweaters again the third... Ha

On Saturday the weather was kind of chilly so when we took the girls to the Pumpkin Patch, they all three had long sleeved shirts on. Well yesterday it was 90 freaking degrees here so they were all in shorts and t-shirts and now today.... they are in jeans and sweat shirts because it is currently 50 degrees....

Gotta love North Dakota !! Stay warm folks :)

Papa's Pumpkin Patch

Today we decided to have a nice family day and enjoy a local 'favorite' called Papa's Pumpkin Patch http://www.papaspumpkinpatch.com . The kids always start out having fun, but end up stuffed up, red eyed and miserable. So this year we didn't stay long, just long enough to 'fight' to get a few pictures (the first one sadly is the 'best' of all three girls together)... I can't 'wait' to get to fight with all four of the kidlets next year for these pictures.... :)

Here are the three girls in what Chad and I are calling the 'best' shot... hey, they are all at least looking and the camera and NOT crying... HA HA!!
This one COULD have been cute if Shelby wasn't scowling so 'pretty'...

Delainey riding the pony, no matter how much her nose was dripping she was NOT going to miss this chance... she LOVES riding the ponies and would do it all day long if we would let her.

Daddy and Delainey at the TOP of the corn/hay maze... Personally I think Delainey and Chad would have been a WHOLE LOT less stuffed up had they skipped this step but they have been doing it for years, and Chad refused to break the tradition... SUPER DADDY!!!

We also got all the kids' costumes for Halloween. Shelby and Avery are actually going to wear the costumes that they were SUPPOSED to wear last year but that were too big for them (they are 12-18 months) and be lambs, and no matter HOW HARD I looked I could not find a costume that I could 'make' into Bo Peep, plus Delainey wanted to be a cat so I can say that I learned from my mistakes at her 2nd Halloween ( I made her be a dinosaur when she wanted to be a princess and it didn't go well) and let her pick her costume so we will have a HOT PINK cheetah for Halloween... LOL...

Hope everyone is well!! Take care!

26 Weeks

I am sticking with the theory of "you get bigger faster after each additional pregnancy.." Plus of course I am going to just go with "small shirt' and stripes don't work well... Kidding :) My friend did give me a rather nice compliment today and say that "You have reached that 'cute' stage of pregnancy", I of course joked that meant she was calling me fat but she is a good enough friend that I know and she knows it was all in jest...

I can't believe that in 'theory' I am only 6 weeks away from my doctor's first goal of a delivery date. So far we have not had any complications (aside from the BP slowly starting to creep up) that he thought were going to be coming, so here's hoping that Brody likes it so much inside (And now that his ears 'work' I am sure he is going to start hearing what goes on in our house every day and NEVER come out LOL) he stays put until at least December 1st which is my ultimate goal for him, which is still 28 days (4 weeks) early but at least a good goal w/ hopefully no NICU time involved. We still are not sure if we are going to be able to do the VBAC like I want but we will examine this 'fight' again at a later date... I am just glad that we don't have to have the 'induction' fight... you see once you have a C-section you are not 'allowed' to be induced again... WORKS FOR ME BECAUSE PITOCIN SUCKS!!!

Take care!

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

"You have cancer".... three words that will change a life FOREVER. In my case I was 15 and has JUST watched my friend fight (and lose) the battle of cancer. I remember bursting into tears and crying for a few minutes (not near long enough) and then all of a sudden the tears stopped. I looked at my mom and grandparents and said "That's it. No crying. If you want to cry then get your butts somewhere else because this is a war zone and there is no crying in battle. I am going to fight and win... simple as that".

And well so far the battle is being won, but my story is not that of most with the cancer I had. Only 25% of children diagnosed with AML finish treatment and only 10% of those make it to 10 years post diagnosis cancer free (reoccurrence is very likely with AML).

I have done so many things that I was told I never would...the most important of course is "I AM A MOM"...And it is because I am a mom that I continue to 'walk the battle field' for cancer research and funding. Please take a moment to watch the following videos and if you can please do what you can to help... because without you childhood cancer will continue to take the lives of children every year. Thank you!

My 'vaction' prize

My mom and aunt Janet (along with my grandparents) went to a family member's wedding (it is my mother's cousin) in Denver this past weekend. Since they were going there they figured to make it a mini vaction and left Thursday and came home today. Well with the time they had there, they were able to hit a few outlet malls in the area. Needless to say the girls have been spoiled in "Children's Place" (not that I am complaining) and Chad got a neat t-shirt. I on the other hand made out like a bandit :) My mom and aunt were able to get me a real Coach Patchwork bag... it is a few seasons old, but it is the style I have wanted forever and couldn't be happier with it. Chad of course was like "it is a fake" so had to hit the internet looking for "how to spot a fake" and even he had to admit to himself (and most importantly me) that it is real... WOOHOO for me :) I of course will not be having ANY gifts under the Christmas tree this year, but I am SOOO ok with that since I now have the bag I have wanted for awhile.

Some fun pictures

Here are some fun pictures from today :) Enjoy

Avery seems to think she can mail herself back to the Twin Cities and to her cousins :) She has been walking around the house since we came home saying "cuzins...cuzins". Cute and sad at the same time.

Daddy took the girls for a walk today in the wagon. They had a blast. Hmmm I wonder if John from Water Workx (our friendly plumber since Uncle Michael lives to far away for our side jobs) will give us a discount since we are technically 'advertising' for free... HA!!

CHECK THIS OUT

You have GOT to check out this ebay auction, it completely fits the way I was feeling yesterday.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130144061675&ru=htt

The lady has a blog and it is just the BOMB!!! I have added it to my "blogs' on the side but check it out it is:

http://www.mom2my6pack.blogspot.com

Crappy Day

Don't crabby people just piss you off ? I mean one crabby person can take a person (namely me) who isn't having a bad day and just send them off the deep end that just sents the mood for the day. I have several situations I can use for an example of this... and sadly these are all from today (and I am not even using the ones that count where Chad is concerned because for some reason the phone wouldn't stop ringing today while he was trying to sleep).

I got up, got Delainey on the bus and cleaned the entire kitchen (my headache was killing me last night so I went to bed rather than cleaning up like I normally do-- dishes were rinsed just not put in the dishwasher etc). Well as I am starting the dishwasher the phone rings and the person on the lines says "Do you think you could clean the kitchen today?"... umm like I am not the ONLY one who does clean the damn kitchen... my response was "it's done, talk to you later".

I take Shelby and Avery to Walmart for some shopping items (normal list stuff) and while we are in the laundry soap isle this 'gentleman' comments on how loud my children are being... Ok up to this point the girls were just talking back and forth to each other and having fun, so I look at him and say "excuse me"... and he responds with "Can't you make certain your children aren't crabby before you shop with them"... Ummm JERK... this if of course when my children burst into screams because they realize that this very odd looking man is talking to them. And I said "oh.. I didn't realize that me and my crabby children were intruding on a**hole shopping day" and walked away.... and yes the girls continued to scream for the rest of the shopping trip because the 'nice' man kept following us around the store, until I calmly said "Did I not get my point across ealier or did you need to piss me off further"... he left us alone then.

When I went to drop something off at a friend's house, I locked my keys in my car...which wouldn't have been so bad had Shelby and Avery not been IN the car when I did it. Thankfully my friend only lives a few short blocks away and I was able to go home (Thank you again Angela for letting me use your van) get our spare set and go back, all the while my friend who was probably being interrupted from doing school (she homeschools) was watching my children as they are strapped into the car.

I met up with some friends for lunch and was almost late getting back to the house to be there so Delainey could get off the bus, so I called Chad and got him up to meet the bus... only for the bus to be 15 minutes late... figures eh?

And last but NOT least the simple comment that just sent me over the edge... I made home made chicken parmesan for dinner. It wasn't a lot of work, but it was more work then I would normally put into 'spaghetti'. And while everyone was comment on how good dinner was, the same person who commented on cleaning the kitchen earlier in the day could only say "it needs garlic toast"....and with that I lost it and burst into tears.... of course I got to save a little bit of face by blaming my headache, heartburn and of course 'pregnancy hormones'... even if I had just plain had it.

At least I got to talk to my sister on the phone for awhile. It is nice that she and I get along so well. I really like being able to have a relationship with her after all these years--- that is a post for another day. HA!

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering I DID get the dishes done tonight... LOL

Dr. Update

Yesterday I saw my family doc and as I said in my previous blog it was a waste of my time. So today I called my ob and told him what was going on. He thankfully has the same concern as I do on the matter and while he doesn't know of any headache meds that are safe during pregnancy he did give me a script for a medication to get the heartburn under control.

I can 'deal' with the headaches, but I KNOW that 12+ tums a day is not good for my body, so hopefully this new medication will help and I can kiss the tums good bye!

Waste of time...

Well my doctor appointment this afternoon was basically a waste of my time (and money). All my family physician would say is "you need to limit the Tums to not exceed 7 per day" and " Sorry about the headaches"... Wow.. and that was worth my $20 co-pay. He did draw labs to see if by some chance that my iron is low (mind you these are the SAME labs we have drawn each month at my OB's office) and also to check my calcium to make certain that I don't have 'too much' because of the Tums.

Oh well... glad I 'spoke up' about the problem...

Thank God for Health Insurance

Today we got out MID-YEAR statements from our health insurance. This is a statement that they send out in the middle of the year and then again at the end of the 'insurance" year. It totals our 'true costs' (what we would be paying if we didn't have health coverage) to what our actual have to pay is. And after looking at the statements for myself, Delainey, Shelby and Avery (Chad on the other hand hasn't been the doc yet this year) and all I can say is THANK GOODNESS FOR HEALTH COVERAGE !

Between the four of us, we have already have $31,536.88 in health costs....thankfully our portions of this was only a fraction of this but when I told Chad he instantly decided to stop complaining about our insurances (health, dental, vision etc) costing about $400/month.

I don't know how people without health insurance do it... I really don't.

Week 24 OB Appt

Had my week 24 appt. Over all it went ok. Baby is doing good and I am ok weight wise.My BP on the other hand is starting to rise, it was 162/68 the first time the nurse took it.
They had me lay down and relax for a bit and then my doc came in and he measured me (right where I should be) checked the baby's hb (good/strong) and said that he is concerned about the bp and was having the nurse come in to check me again. Nurse came in and then it was 135/72....still not the best but better then it was.
He also wants me to see my family doc because of the headaches I have been having, even tylenol isn't working and also to talk about a heartburn/acid reflux med because my heartburn is KILLING me and I am eating WAY to many tums in a day.Go back on 10/8 for our week 28 appt and also the glucose test.

Guess Fall is REALLY here....

Chad and I went to Target today (see below post) and they had the Halloween decorations out and all of their 'summer' items are on clearance. Guess this means that summer is over and that fall is RIGHT around the corner for us.... oh well...it was nice while it lasted.

Expensive (but fun) shopping weekend

We got to do some 'fun' shopping for the baby this weekend. We have been waiting until we got past 23 weeks before we did the expensive shopping so that we could save up etc. We were able to get a lot of great deals at Target because they are having their 'baby days' sales and trying to compete with Wal-Mart, so everything that we had 'planned' to buy at Walmart was cheaper at Target today. We ended up saving over $80 not including the $100 we saved on his bedding set because it was on clearance when we bought it.

Another 'fun' thing I have been enjoying is the ability to shop for boys clothes... so many people have told me "Shopping for boys isn't as fun as shopping for girls"... well after having only shopped for girls (aside from our nephew) buying boys clothes is a whole new experience. I have to admit though... I was a little cheap today in the fact that Shelby and Avery are in serious need of 18 month jeans (Delainey's handme downs are 24 months) so instead of buying the 'girlie' jeans that I normally would have I bought some jeans from the boy section, this was Brody can wear them later. My mom said that you can't even tell the difference other than normally the girls jeans have things sewn on them like butterflies etc. Oh well...gotta save a penny where I can.

This is the boucher chair that we purchased for him. My cousin has the 'girl' one for her twins and I just fell in love with it. It has music and vibrates and some 'calm' toys. I am sure it will be put to VERY good use.

This is his bedding set. It is airplanes and it really nice. We actually got it last weekend when we were in the Twin Cities. We ended up saving over $100 on the set. It was still more than I would normally spend for baby bedding, but Chad REALLY wanted airplanes for Brody, so I caved. And if he is any thing like his sisters, he will certainly get the use out of it. Shelby and Avery are STILL in their cribs and Delainey was in her crib (with the bedding) until she was almost 2 1/2. BUT to be honest, the picture just does NOT do it justice. The quilt has a fleece backing rather than the 'normal' stiff material that baby quilts are made with so he will actually be able to use the blanket for something other than just a floor blanket.
This is the swing that we bought. It will actually end up saving us even more money in the future as it plugs into the wall rather than needing batteries. My only fear is that since we bought it already Brody will be our one child that doesn't want to be in the swing.


Here is the crib that we got for the baby. You are probably asking why we bought another crib when you know we have two cribs in our house already....well Shelby and Avery are NO WHERE NEAR ready to move out of their cribs, and frankly neither am I. They have yet to even get to the lowest level on them, nor do they even have a clue as how to get out of them. Plus it is nice having a 'safe' place that they can be when I need to do something.

An UPSIDE to preschool

I think I found an up to Delainey (well there are plenty, but this one of course I need to share) and that is sleeping-in. I know that sound 'silly' since I mentioned before that Delainey gets on the bus at 7:30am.
Well today, after getting Delainey on the bus, since Shelby and Avery were still asleep and I have been feeling kinda yucky, I thought I'd go back to bed, so I did... well I woken up at 11:00am by the sound of the telephone..... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh how nice :)

Me and my 'baby' girls

It happens so rarely that I am ever in a picture with any of my children, so today with Chad being home and the girls in pretty good moods, we took full advantage.

Delainey's first day of school

Yesterday was Delainey’s first day of school. It went really well. She got up really good and we even had time to go to Donut Hole for a ‘special’ breakfast. She was really excited about the whole thing.
We got to her school and she was a little shy about walking in, but overall did really well. We went to her classroom, put her bag and coat on her hook (She reminded me that she is the “D” name with the YELLOW tape) took a few pictures and then went into the classroom to wash our hands (classroom rule). I signed her in and away I went. I was so proud of myself, I didn’t cry in front of her (that was my biggest fear); I made it all the way out to my car before I started crying.
When Chad and I went to pick her up, she seemed like she had had a good day and was enjoying quiet time when we got there. She said she has two friends but she can’t remember their names and explained them as a girl with ‘orange’ hair and a brown boy. Apparently, Delainey is realizing people ‘have’ colors; she just doesn’t understand that it isn’t nice to ‘call them those colors’. Thankfully a friend of mine (who happens to have children who are Native American, African American and Ethiopian American said that this isn’t ‘bad’ just a child being observant). We did tell her today that she should try and learn her friends’ names though.
Once we got home (and Delainey promptly crashed on the couch) Chad started laughing, and when I asked him what was so funny he said “Delainey’s been labeled” and I was like “what?? She hasn’t under gone any testing..” and he said “NO, she has literally been LABELED” as he was pointing to the back of her shirt there was a little white return address label that had “DELAINEY” in bold, black letters. We both got a good chuckle out of this and I told Chad “15 kids ages 3 -5 and you can bet your butt I would be doing the same thing”…

Today she was able to experience the bus for the first time (she is picked up and dropped off by the bus) and she was a little scared/shy, but got on ok and I told her that the 'nice people' on the bus would take care of her until she got to school, and then I would see her in a few hours when the bus dropped her off.

Here are the pictures from yesterday:

Picture taken from outside our door as we were leaving...

Picture taken in front of Delainey's hook

Apparently preschool is hard work because this is what happend about 2 minutes after we got home (forgive her underwear peaking out of her pants, NONE of her jeans stay up--- who ever thought that a 4 year old needs hip huggers is a MORON, and you can't find any other jeans out there)

I Would Die For That.....

This song/video hit a cord with me and I just wanted to share it with everyone so they can see/understand the struggles, pain, and everything else that comes with living with infertility. People assume that because my husband and I are 'young' that we had no trouble 'making' our family the way that it is now. What people don't know is that we struggled for years, suffering many losses, debt, and relationship struggles because of our battle with infertility. We are one of the blessed couples to have health insurance that covered alot of our medical procedures and treatment. People often comment on how we should just have been "happy" with what we have... Kellie Coffey explains so very much in this song and puts some many families emotions into words(you can read of her personal struggle with infertility/miscarriage on her website www.kelliecoffey.com)... Please take a minute to watch the video and try to understand that some people really do struggle for what they have....A FAMILY... Our children (biological or not) are our link to the future...though them we will forever go on.... Children are PRECIOUS and I am so very thankful for the joy that has given to me to be allowed to know the love of a child.... to be called mommy... my greatest dream has come true... and I WOULD DIE FOR THAT.....

Brody's Ultrasound Visit

Brody's smiling face--isn't he just too cute!!!

Another 'smile' shot

Our kid is SUPER flexible...what you are thinking is probably a hand by the top of his head is actually his FOOT...

We had a blast at our ultrasound visit. It was so wonderful to see our baby boy (certainly still a boy) in motion and doing things for real. One of my favorite parts of the visit was actually WATCHING Brody flip from breech to vertex (head down)--sorry if you read this before I corrected it, I previously had transverse which is sideways... it was just an experience that I can't even fully put into words.

Videos of Brody

Feeling a little defeated

Today started as a great day. I was able to find the crib bedding that we wanted for Brody's crib (Thank you so much Tracy for seeing it...and in the clearance section none the less YOU ROCK!!).
We then headed to our 3/4D ultrsound of the baby which brought tears to my eyes and emotion that I can't even really fully express. (I will update more about this when I can load the pictures etc. once we get home).
The day went downhill from here.... First I drop Chad off at the Dome (he is helping his brother with a job) and after I leave the dome I get completely lost finding my way out of there because you can't use the ONE way I know.
Then I get back to the in-laws to find out that my mother-in-law has been taken to the ER (more on that later as well) and that my sister-in-law who was being super and watching our kids had been stuck with our children and hers (that is 5 kids 3 and under mind you) at our inlaws house rather than at her house where she originally had wanted to watch them in the first place.
So we get the kids and go to my brother-in-law's house and eat dinner and head to the park where under my watch my niece falls off a piece of the play equipment (she was more scared then hurt and is ok), Avery fell and now has a nice set of road rash on her forehead, Delainey thought it would be fun to get my nephew to play in the dirt and they were both pretty dirty (and of course everyone had just had baths last night.)

It was upon thinking about this as I was buckling my children in the van to head back to the in-laws house that it hit me like a TON OF BRICKS...I am very soon going to be responsible for four young lives instead of three and this is so very scary to me all of sudden. I mean maybe it was actually 'seeing' the baby today, but it is just like WOW...

Hopefully tomorrow will go better and I can start the day with a new outlook and learn from all of this... Thanks for "listening"- Kristin