Mommie Marzie

My friend Serena reminded me that it’s been a while since I’ve posted. There really hasn’t been much to post about. I’m so boring. (But Joe has managed to post this and this so I guess he isn’t as boring as I am.)

Thanksgiving was good. Mellow. Laid back.

Wednesday Sai and I got a jump on our Christmas decorating. As soon as I picked him up after school he started asking me about putting the tree up. And I said, yeah, let’s do it! Wednesday we had enough time to set up the tree, but not decorate it. Our night just didn’t turn out as planned. So we finished decorating it last night. The boys had a lot of fun. There was the usual big cluster of ornaments that kids tend to do. Joe and I tried to spread them out more.

It looks much prettier in the evening when the lights are plugged in and glowing. We moved the tree from last year’s position and put it in front of the doors to the deck. I wanted to put it there last year but Joe wanted it on another wall. This year Joe suggested putting it front of the door. I want to plug it in tonight and drive the road behind our house to see how pretty it looks.

I still need to get my nativity sets out of storage. I can see the boxes but can’t quite reach them. They go on the piano. The snowmen and women up top are a collection that my dad carved. For years he would pick a style of snowman and carve tons of them for Christmas. He gives them to each of his kids and to some close friends. Last year he stopped doing the snowmen and did a soldier, which I have displayed year-round. This year Dad did something different but my mom wouldn’t tell me what. She said I would have to wait and be surprised.

And Sai wants us to put up colored lights around the outside of the house. We’ll have to see about that. We don’t have any lights so we would have to buy them. If we don’t do that I think I can buy two inexpensive strands of light and put them in the boys’ windows which can be seen from the front.

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I had a doctor appointment today. I’m at 18 weeks. I’m still fitting into my regular clothes, thankfully, so it doesn’t seem like I’m that far along. (I got rid of all my maternity clothes after Jay because more kids were not in the plan. So I want to hold off on buying any for as long as I can!) I’m still getting sick. The doc said I should be over that “soon” because I’m almost half way. I’m thinking it’s going to stick around for the whole pregnancy. Blehck. I do OK for a few days and then, WHAM! I have a day like today. My ultrasound is scheduled for the 14th - two weeks from today. Hopefully we’ll be able to find out if the gender. I like to know. Then I can better prepare myself.

It is Thanksgiving time so I thought I would list some things I’m thankful for. It’s been quite a year for us so there are lots of things to be thankful for.

Joe is #1 on this list. With the heart attack and bypass surgery I think I’ve learned to appreciate him more because I had a few moments of worry that he wouldn’t be around much longer. He’s my best friend and the best husband. He is very supportive and takes care of me.

Sai & Jay are next. They are little turkeys and know how to push my buttons. But they make every day so fun. They say and do funny things. And I love it when they come up to me and give me hugs and kisses and tell me that they love me.

Family. We’ve had so much support from my family and Joe’s family. I don’t think we would have made it to where we are now without them. And they keep trying to help us out and I really appreciate them.

Friends. Both friends I know in person and friends I’ve met through blogging. The emotional support from you all has been fantastic.

My sewing machine. I’m not the best at sewing but it helps me relieve my stress. And I feel good after I’ve created something.

Fishing. Joe needs fishing to relieve his stress so I’m thankful for fishing. It helps him be a happier husband and dad.

There are many more things to be thankful for but I will end with my Heavenly Father. He will always be there for me.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Yesterday was the Primary Program. It’s finally over. Yay. From my vantage point behind the piano I thought it went well. Joe didn’t like it, he never likes the Primary Program.

The week of sleeping in has started. But, after last week when I had trouble dragging Sai out of bed at 7 a.m., he woke up on his own at 7 a.m. yesterday. WHAT THE??? This morning he slept till 8 a.m. An hour of sleeping in is a good start.

We were invited to Thanksgiving Dinner with our friends. However, it wouldn’t be just our friends and their two kids. It would also be his sister, his brother and family, and his parents. That’s a little overwhelming for us. We know them all from church but we’ve gotten used to small holidays since moving to Oregon. So I’m going to respectfully decline and cook a small Thanksgiving feast for us.

Which leads to grocery shopping. That’s my goal for today. But I still have to make a list. For the whole week. I don’t know what to make for the rest of the week. And I haven’t been feeling well so thinking of food just doesn’t agree with me.

So not feeling well. I had a really bad day on Thursday. Joe said he wouldn’t give me any more sympathy because the doctor said to call if I wasn’t feeling better. So I called. I’m on a course of 50 mg of B6 three times a day. And for really bad days, which today just might be, a half to a whole Phenergan. I do OK with a half, but a whole knocks me out. If I can make it through grocery shopping without it then it’ll be good. I don’t get it, though. I’m at 16 weeks and should be over the nausea but it seems to be getting worse. I see the doctor next week and I’m sure we’ll talk about it.

And I’m getting my hair cut tonight. I haven’t had my hair cut in 11 months. 11 months! The ends are in bad shape so I’m sure I’ll have to have at least 2 inches cut off to get rid of the damage. I hope I get something with a little more shape and style. Not that I take time to really work on my hair, I’m lazy.

I wish Jay wanted to be potty trained. He tells me when he goes potty in his diaper. And when he poops he wants his diaper changed immediately. I tried getting him to sit on the toilet. He did and he tried to potty but he’s just not quite ready. I can dream, right? I’m just not looking forward to two kids in diapers.

In an effort to save some money we downgraded our Dish. We were on the all-the-channels-you’ll-never-watch programming and now we are on the top 100 Plus. It saves us at least $20 a month. But I lost Bravo. I only got to enjoy one episode of the new season of Project Runway. So sad. That’s the only channel I think I’m going to miss.

 Here are Sai’s directions for cooking a turkey. What must Mrs. Strong think! The hot sauce thing is all his dad. Sai hates hot sauce and peppers so this just is so funny. And I love to cook and don’t do all my cooking in the microwave so I’m baffled why he thinks you would cook a turkey in the microwave. I’ve done it either in the oven or the crock pot. Silly kid.

He also came home with a wide assortment of Thanksgiving pictures and crafts that he made at school. Including a “plum” (pilgrim) man and woman, a big turkey, and a story about Thanksgiving illustrated by Sai. He’s such a cute kid!

And now for nine days straight of no school. I’m looking forward to sleeping in. But I’m not sure what we are going to do with the rest of those nine days.

I’ve been wondering if it was really worth it to get Jay off his pacifier. Seriously. The doctor said we needed to do it and listed reasons. Plus I didn’t want a big kid running around with one in his mouth.

Jay has been fier free for almost one month. And it has been a tiring month for me. While he still had his fier I could send him to bed with his fier and he would fall asleep by himself. And if he woke up during the night I could put him back to bed with his fier and he’d go back to sleep.

Not any more.

His sleeping habits have gotten worse.

When it’s bed time he says “Mom, feep me.” (Meaning: Mom, sleep with me.) So I get him in bed and I lay on his covers until he falls asleep. It takes 10 to 15 minutes. I’ve tried sitting on the floor by his bed but then it takes him longer to fall asleep because he keeps checking to make sure I’m still there. Then he’ll sleep for three to four hours and come and wake me up. And he says “Mom, feep bed mine.” And I’m soooo tired that I do. (I’ve tried staying on the floor a few times but my body can’t take the discomfort!) I get in bed with him. And fall asleep. I’ll wake up and escape back to my bed. But I get to stay less than 10 minutes before he’s back in my room saying “Mom, feep bed mine.” So back I go. Usually I give up and sleep in there until Joe gets up for work. Then I go back to my bed. And then when Jay comes in I just put him in bed with me.

It’s killing me. I don’t get good quality sleep. And my hips hurt. I know when my belly gets bigger it just isn’t going to happen. And Joe tries to take my spot but Jay wants mom, not dad. And without a fier holding his jaws open Jay grinds his teeth. It makes me cringe.

So I’m wondering. Was it worth it? Right now I’m thinking I’d much rather have him sleep mostly through the night with his fier so I can sleep in my own comfy roomier bed.

I took a nice little blogging break while my parents were in town. And then over the weekend, too. But now I have 1104 posts backed up on Bloglines. I don’t think I’ll be checking them all out.

So the time with my parents was really good! I was so excited when they showed up. My mom cried but I didn’t–saved that for when they left! Jay was really good. He wasn’t shy like he has been all the other times we’ve had visitors or have been visiting. He kept saying “Grandpa, look!” and showing my parents books and toys. Then my parents went with me to pick up Sai. I think he was excited to see his grandparents.

Tuesday we went fabric shopping. First we went out to Sisters to the Stitchin’ Post. I picked out fat quarters and my mom made me this baby blanket. She’s left it for me to finish. But my dad made me quilt stands and boards so I can hand quilt this one pretty easily. (I hope)

We also went to a fabric store in Redmond. I’d driven by the store so many times and had never stopped. Frankly, it looks a little questionable from the outside. But they had some cute stuff on the inside.

Wednesday we went to the quilt store here in my town. We had left Jay home with my dad because we were only going to be gone for a minute and we weren’t going to spend a lot of money. An hour later I called my dad to have him come over because my mom was spending more money than she took with her to the store. It was funny!

Wednesday and Thursday my mom and I sewed. I didn’t do as much as I should have. But, my back started hurting every time I sat down to sew. And then Thursday I just didn’t feel good. Here was our sewing set up for those days. That’s my mom in the background standing at the counter cutting some fabric.

My parents left Friday morning. They left late enough to say good-bye to the boys. And I cried. All day little things would set me off! My sister Tracy called and I was tearing up and trying not to cry to her on the phone. When Joe got home I started crying again because I missed my parents. Sheesh! I’m a boo-hoo baby!

Yesterday both Sai and Joe had the day off. We mostly just hung out. I was a bit emotional yesterday and weepy. (Dang pregnancy hormones!) We did go grocery shopping. When Joe goes with me we tend to spend more money. Last week I went grocery shopping and had planned for extra adults and only spent $85. Yesterday with Joe we spent about $130. And I don’t think we got more food. But I’m glad Joe was home. He helped keep the boys occupied. Sai has all next week off school and I’m already wracking my brain for things to do to keep him occupied for 9 days straight!

Did you know Mini M&Ms fit up small noses? Jay figured that out last night. He made his nose bleed trying to get it out before Joe and I realized what he had done. I could see it up there. I tried to get him to blow it out but he just sucked it in further. Joe took a look and saw it and got it almost out so I could finish off the job with a few tissues. It was GROSS!!!

I know there is so much that we could do to be “greener”. We are trying to take steps. Our local garbage facility has a recycling center, but it’s totally voluntary and you have to make all the effort to do it. We’ve been trying to recycle. Joe and Sai took our recyclables this morning and decided that there is so much more that we can recycle. So they went out and bought these big tubs to put our recycling in. Then we made labels and Sai stuck them on. It will make it so much easier.

We also ended up cleaning out the garage while we were out there. It’s amazing how much dirt and dead leaves accumulate in there. Plus we reorganized some areas to make it look better.

I’ve also been doing the cleaning things that I usually put off. But since my parents are coming I thought I might as well do them. I got down and did the hands-and-knees scrubbing of the bathroom floors because we have terrible linoleum in there. (I usually use the Wet Swiffer–I’m LAZY!) I cleaned out the fridge and cleaned all the shelves and trays (OK, we’ve had the fridge for a year and this is the first time I’ve cleaned it good since we got it, shame on me). I cleaned out the silverware tray and deep cleaned the microwave. Whew…

And Joe helped the boys clean out the toys. We downsized quite a bit and got rid of broken stuff. The boys were actually very good about it for once. Probably because I wasn’t threatening them that I would throw it all away if I cleaned it up. (I can’t be the only mom who says that, right?)

And now I’m really tired. Joe says that I got everyone up too early. I guess 8 is early for a Saturday, but I was starving and wanted to make breakfast. I hope the rest of our Saturday and Sunday are relaxing!

I’m glad Halloween is over. I just wish the candy were over, too.

Sai had fun at his school party. They had treats and played and were just crazy. I forgot that there would be extra cars at school with all the parents there to help with the parties. So when I got there to pick up Sai we had to park clear out in a weedy field and walk a ways. I couldn’t believe how many cars were there!

Last night we had a Halloween activity at church. We had a chili dinner (which, in my opinion wasn’t well planned and/or executed) which isn’t agreeing with me today. There were some things for the kids to do: face painting, cake walk, sucker walk, cookie decorating, haunted house, and trunk-or-treating. Jay refused to wear his costume, but I figure he’s 2 and it doesn’t matter. We rushed through the trunk-or-treat and left when we had passed out most of our candy because it was after 8 and time for bed.

And what kind of mom am I? I forgot to take the camera. So when we got home and Jay was asleep (only takes about 5 minutes to get home) I ran in the house to get the camera for a picture.

He was holding onto his bucket so tight. I had to pry it out of his little fingers. And once I got it out he was flailing his hands around trying to find it. He slept through taking off his coat, shoes, pants, and diaper. Even slept through putting on a new diaper and PJs. But when I laid him down and put the covers on him he woke up. Then he was cranky because he was so tired.

Once the boys were asleep Joe and I “inspected” their candy. Can you believe there was only one Snickers bar? How sad is that? I think Joe found a few Milky Ways for him to inspect. And now Jay is on a sugar high because he keeps raiding his bucket. I think whatever is left just might magically disappear tonight.

I had a check-up today. I was down three pounds. Which led the nurse to ask me if I was eating and the doctor to ask me if I was really nauseated. Kind of and Yes. I’ve been feeling a bit better the last day or two so I’m thinking things might be getting better. But if they are not I’m to call the doctor because he said there are things he can do to help. We finally heard the baby’s heart beat today. YAY! Until hearing that I was still in this world of “maybe I’m really not pregnant”. I called Joe to give him the update and the punk says “Can they tell if it’s human?” Hardy har har. Not an alien baby. Not going to burst out of my stomach like a horror movie. I go back on the 30th and we’ll schedule the ultrasound at that visit.

And my parents are coming for a visit!!! Can you tell I’m excited? I love them and miss them so I’m really super excited. They’ll be here sometime on Monday. So if you don’t hear much from me next week I’m busy.