Going too fast

In which I try to catch up

Memorial Day weekend we blessed Squeaky and Tweedledum and Tweedledee were baptized. We had lots of family in for it but unfortunately didn't get a picture of everyone together.



I wasn't trying to be the only one not in white for this picture, but the Tank was having a nothing-is=about-me moment.



He came back and allowed us to take a picture of just him.




The school year was wrapped up with the annual talent show. The Tank's class did a skit to the song "Down on Grandpa's Farm"



Tweedledee played piano and sang.



Tweedledum was sick with another bout of strep throat and wasn't feeling up to playing his song. I took him later to say goodbye to his teacher.

All the kids loved their teachers and had a great time with them!






We spent most of the summer hanging out at the pool.



We took a trip to my dad's house to celebrate his 60th birthday. His sisters made him a quilt to honor him and his service in the Navy. My older brother even flew out and we all had a great time visiting.

Please Remember

Ten years ago I was woken up by my mom's then-boyfriend telling us to turn on the tv because a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers. Moments later I watched the second plane crash. Then I got myself ready to go to class to take my first exam for the semester in my newswriting class. On the way to campus I heard on the radio that another plane had crashed into the Pentagon. At the time my biggest concern was my dad who works in Arlington. I'll never forget the fear on my friend's face when I got to class. Her brother was attending the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD and we feared they would be attacked next. In the following weeks I became an emotional mess, crying at the drop of a hat. I had no idea how the events that day would further impact my life.

Fast forward three months to New Year's Eve. I was at a dance for singles and met my future husband. His uncle had died at the Pentagon, serving in the Navy in the communications office in E-ring. As a newlywed couple on the one-year anniversary of the attacks, we were able to attend the memorial service held at the Pentagon and go inside to see how they had rebuilt and the memorial they have inside.



Commander Patrick Dunn

Uncle Pat has been honored with his only daughter and two great-nephews being named after him.

When I was pregnant with Tweedledum and Tweedledee and we found out one of them was a boy our thoughts immediately went to Uncle Pat and the decision was made to use his name. Tweedledee knows who he was named for and knows that something terrible happened to NeNe's brother and that's why he was given that name. Eventually they will be old enough for the images and details of that terrible day. For now we just need to remember all of those who were lost that day and keep their families and loved ones in our thoughts. And remember that we will see him again someday. Oh how I look forward to meeting Uncle Pat.

Don't Say That!

What is it about young babies that make people feel the need to make comments on their size? Squeaky is two months old now and everyone still tells me how little she is. When they ask her birth weight the reaction every time is, "She doesn't look that big!" How big does 10 pounds look to you? No, she does not have fat rolls all over her body. She is long and skinny and had problems gaining weight at the beginning. It took her six weeks just to get back to her birth weight! This was my latest encounter last night at Wal-Mart.

Random Lady: How old is she?
Me: Two months
RL: She's so little! Was she a preemie?
Me: Nope. She was actually really big when she was born, but had some trouble gaining weight.
RL: She's not a failure-to-thrive baby, is she?
Me: No, she's not.

What?! Failure-to-thrive?! Who asks that?!

Cause we're politically incorrect like that.

Last night Tweedledee had Girl Scouts and I just had to share this photo of her. They were playing Indian Tag. There are 8 cups of paint placed at various spots in the area and everyone has a paintbrush. You have to find all 8 paint cups and paint the color onto your face. The first one back wins.

I'm pretty sure covering your face with warpaint wouldn't fly as an activity back home.

Dietary Baby Blues

What's totally awesome when you have a baby: Kind, loving friends and family bring you dinner so your family doesn't have to live on drive-thru and pizza until you get your groove back.

What totally stinks when you have a baby: Realizing your baby has a milk allergy and you have to cut all milk products and other foods with milk in them out of your diet.

Think about the last time you made a meal for someone that DIDN'T have cheese or cream of something soup in it.

Meet Squeaky

born April 6 2:48 a.m.
9 lbs. 7 oz. 22 inches



This is what it looks like when you have 9 1/2 pounds of baby in you.


This is where I had planned on Squeaky making her appearance.



Sometimes even the best laid plans don't work out. Last Monday I had passed the 42 week mark and my midwife and I decided that an honest try at castor oil was the next step. Do you know what a full dose of castor oil is? 6 oz. That's the whole bottle folks. Do you know what that much castor oil does to you? Well, if you're me then it does NOT put you into labor and DOES put you in the bathroom for 12 hours.

Moving on. All that day also Baby Girl's activity had dropped dramatically and I was getting a little nervous. The next day I was sent to the hospital for a Non-Stress Test. There was no activity when they put us on the monitor so we were sent to Ultrasound for a Biophysical Profile. Everything looked great there so we went back up to Maternity and were put back on the monitor. Still no activity. After calling Hubby and discussing our options, we felt like the best thing would be for me to stay and have my water broken. They did and still nothing. Was this baby ever going to come out?!

Eventually they hooked me up to pitocin and after 4 hours of turning it up and up and up, it kicked in. Squeaky was born two hours later. Despite my fears of pitocin, I was still able to have a natural birth and the midwife that delivered did everything she could to give me as close to a home birth experience as possible. I was able to move around, not being stuck on my back when it came time to push. She waited for the cord to stop pulsing before it was cut. And most importantly, they didn't take the baby to be weighed until I was ready. They did her initial Apgar testing while she was still laying on me and simply waited for me to be ready. It really turned out to be a wonderful birth experience.

Tweedledum staying as far away from the baby as possible. Have I mentioned before how UN-excited he was that there was going to be a new member of our family?


Tweedledee, the complete opposite of Tweedledum.


Tank. Excited to be there and see us, just not ready to hold her yet.


Bug, so happy and excited to be a big sister!


Tank finally holding her this past Sunday. So proud! While he has only held her a couple more times since then, he loves to pet her head.

Moo

Two nights ago I was getting dinner on the table and trying to get everyone to cooperate by turning off their DS systems when I suddenly heard, "Cow!" My first thought was that they do not have any games with cows in them so I told them again, quite firmly, to turn off the DS and get to the table. Tweedledum again shouts "Cows! There are cows!" I look out the window and sure enough there are four cows meandering across our yard looking for their dinner.






Tweedledee played basketball this winter and loved it! She was the most improved player on her team and wants to play again next year. The last event that the youth center does is a skills rodeo in which the kids go through an obstacle course of sorts, dribbling through cones, shooting a basket, then dribbling back through more cones. Out of 24 possible points Tweedledee got 23! A huge accomplishment for the girl who was deemed as having "no natural athletic ability" at the beginning of the season. Said by the nitwit college-kid coaches who do this to get in volunteer hours for school. But that's another story...... I'm just so proud of her!

Just can't think.....I' ve got pregnancy brain, you know.

So, let me preface everything by saying that I *think* about blogging ten times more than I actually do it. Several times a week something happens and I think,"Gee, I oughta write about that." Then the thought flies out of my head, never to be collected again. I'm on the hunt for a new, fancy camera and I never have gotten around to buying a replacement USB cord for our point-and-shoot. Combine that with the fact that I think blog posts without pictures are really, super, boring and you have my reason for not posting more frequently. Cause my words without pictures aren't interesting enough to read? BTW, that's the pretty new toy that I want.

Anyway, I've been loving a couple of new blogs that I found. Rants from Mommyland and stark.raving.mad.mommy are my new favorites and Turtle Herding, from Mommyland, is my new favorite saying that always cracks my friends up. Just go check out their Mommyland Desk Reference and you will see what I mean.

I have just over 3 weeks left until my due date! But if I keep having contractions like I have today then I'm not so sure I will make it to D-day this time. If I can just make it to Saturday than I can still birth at home like planned and I will be a happy mama.

What's that? I didn't tell you I'm planning a home birth? Oops, my bad. Yeah, it's this crazy little idea that I had when I was pregnant with the Bug but with all of Tom's stress with finishing law and business schools, it just didn't seem like the right time to press that particular issue. This time, since we don't have maternity coverage on our insurance plan, it was much easier to argue my side. And oh yeah, *I'm* the one pushing the baby out so he told me, "Your body, your choice." I love that man so much. I have been busy gathering my birth supplies and nesting in general.

Oh, and I also got this great post forwarded to me by DH about having kids in too many extracurricular activities. We have been going crazy this past year and with another baby on the way, something's gotta give. I have realized that it's just not worth it to be dragging kids around in the evening. If I have to yell at them to get in the car to go to their own event, they can't really care about it that much. This week we are going to be finished with basketball and wrestling and I am so grateful!

So this is my promise to you, my readers. When I get my new camera, hopefully within the next week, and my house has just been cleaned I will finally take pictures of our enormous dwelling for your viewing pleasure. And I'll have DH take some belly pictures of me too.

This boy regularly makes my heart melt. The question we are constantly asking ourselves is, "How can one boy be so ornery and frustrating and so sweet, loving and cuddly?" He has a bad habit of not listening to my directions, hitting his siblings, and crawling into bed with me in the middle of the night, leeching himself to my side and asking for scriptures for Christmas.

A couple of weeks ago he asked if he could start taking piano lessons, since he can read now. When I told him yes, you would have thought it was already Christmas morning the way his face lit up.

My heart melted for him again this morning when I took the kids to their new school. Tweedledum and Tweedledee knew a couple of other kids that they went to pre-K with, but not the Tank. I wanted to cry for him and hold his hand in line until it was time for him to go to class. Instead I had to leave him in his line in the cafeteria and walk out the door, not even getting to be there when he met his new teacher. Oh, the joys and heartbreaks of motherhood.

Embarassing my Children

Who knew it would happen so early? This past Saturday morning I needed to make a Wally World run and Tweedledum was the only one awake so I asked if he wanted to join me. He quickly got dressed and then assessed what I was wearing. I felt that the long-sleeved navy blue tee and blue and gold plaid pajama pants were fairly harmless considering where we were headed and that it was 9:00 on New Year's Day.

Oh no, he told me to change.

It went something like this:

T - Is that what you're wearing?
Me - Yes.
T - Are those pajamas?
Me - Well, they're pajama pants and hanging out pants. Do you want me to change?
T - Yes

I go and put on some sweatpants instead.

Me - Is this better?
T - Yes. You look better in that.

Now, it's not like I'm one of those parents who takes their kid to school without looking in the mirror first. Rolling out of bed with my hair still sticking up. But, what's the advantage of living in a small, hick town if I can't go to Wally World in ultra-comfy clothes while 8 months pregnant?

Finally - a post!

So, I really do have a good reason for it being so long since my last post. I've been moving! It all happened so fast that my head is still spinning. Another couple from church, friends of our and the hubbies graduated high school together, had put their house on the market. He had lost his job and they wanted to free themselves up financially by getting rid of their mortgage. Now I have always loved this house. It's enormous and old with lots of land. I mentioned to DH that I wished we could buy their house but never said anything else about it. A few months earlier the wife and I had joked that we should trade houses. Well, one day out of the blue DH asked me if I would want to swap houses with this couple. I didn't think he was serious and commented that I thought he didn't want to live in that house. He said that he didn't really but knew that I did.

A week later we went over after church and negotiated the finances. We set the moving for December 1 (this was the last Sunday in October)and started packing! We then decided to move things up a week to take advantage of having family in town for Thanksgiving to help out. Since then my spinning head has slowly stopped and we are kind of getting settled in.

So what's so great about this house you ask? It's 5,600 sq. ft with 9 bedrooms, it sits on 11 acres and has free gas. After 8 years I finally don't feel like everyone is on top of each other and the snow days we've been having are tolerable. Plus I will have lots of room to labor when it's time for this baby to be born.

In other news every day gets me a little closer to my due date. Lately I've been having lots of migraines and hip pain. During my last pregnancy my hips started shifting out of position and it started a lot earlier this time around. No one position is comfortable for very long so good sleep has been hard to come by. but as soon as the kids actually have school I will be able to go to the chiropractor and hopefully get straightened out.

We have been getting slammed with all this weather the past two weeks and the kids have actually gone to school only four days, two of them with 2-hour delays. We've had a total of 18 inches, which is incredibly treacherous around here with all the hills, and this past Tuesday morning the temperature was -5 with the windchill. Brrrrr!

But if anyone wants to come for a visit we have lots of room!

It's so annoying when.....

you buy some supplies to start a project (in this case a bunch of wallet-sized pictures from Deseret Book to make a quiet book for sacrament meeting) then finally get around to buying the remaining supplies (name badges and book rings to put the pictures in), then you can't find the first set of supplies! (take a deep breath now)

Life Right Now

* Still losing my breakfast when I brush my teeth.

* Seriously considering investing in duct tape to keep the noise level down when everyone gets home from school.

* Losing sight of my toes

* Lost 5 pounds in the last month, why can't I do that when I'm NOT pregnant?

* Our only full bathroom started getting remodeled last week which means:
- We are using a temporary shower in the garage.
- The average temperature dropped to 45 degrees this weekend.
- The entire contents of the large bathroom is now squeezed into our half-bath.
- All our towels have a permanent residence in the laundry room.
- All the bed linens are split between the girls' closet and the toy closet.
- Six people and one toilet are not a good combination in the morning.

* Trying to come up with a list of, and rate, rewards for the new discipline system as outlined in The Kazdin Method.

* DH has started flying lessons.

* I hate Tweedledum's teacher this year.

* The Bug started preschool this week and I'm now kidless three afternoons a week, for the next 6 months.

Young Mother

This past week my kids spent the night at Grandma's house. During the night the Bug got sick. This is the conversation between Grandma and the Bug the following morning.

Bug: I throwed up last night.

G-ma: You did? Are you okay?

Bug: nodding I throwed up just like Mommy. I'm pregnant.

G-ma: totally shocked at what just came out of the Bug's mouth

You are? You're going to have a baby?

Bug: Yes, I'm having a baby.

G-ma: Well, is it a boy or a girl?

Bug: It's a girl.

More proof that our kids really are listening to us ALL the time. I didn't even know that she knew the word pregnant or had heard me saying it.

And in other "Megan is Crazy" news...

A whole lot of pizza has been getting ordered for dinner in our house lately. Laundry is piled up more than usual and the only time the house is truly clean is Thursday afternoons after my cleaning crew has been here.

I'm pregnant!

A couple of years ago I wrote this post and would have sworn to you that it was the truth. But seeing as how Tom still hasn't had a vasectomy and I'm terrible about taking the pill... Oh, is that TMI for you?

I'm excited. Tom isn't hating the idea anymore and we've been tossing around baby names. Only girl ones though since I'm pretty sure that's what we're having based on the level of my sickness. And I don't have enough heads of hair to get ready on Sunday morning.

I'm also excited for the back-to-school countdown, which is now 2 weeks. Yay! Maybe by then I won't be snapping at the kids for bouncing on my bed when I'm trying to quietly consume my Queasy Drops and lemon-y mineral water.

For Mommies Everywhere

Sorry I've been making such short posts lately. I've been having major writer's block lately and the heatwave we are in the middle of is sapping all my energy and brain cells. Here's a little pick-me-up.

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

Gleeful

Anyone else in love with this show? I admit that it's become a bit of a guilty pleasure for me (I watch the episodes online when DH is working late) and the songs I have downloaded are pretty much the only thing I listen to on my iPod. The musical ability of the cast just amazes me and singing along makes my work around the house move a little quicker.

How can I......

think that my life is hard? How can I still be in my pajamas at 9:30? I have been so humbled by watching the following video this morning. I hope you are able to feel the message of hope that it is meant to bring and that it may strengthen your testimony of Jesus Christ.

Slavedriver

This past weekend we trekked out to Harper's Ferry for the baptism of Tom's niece (is she really my niece too, even though she never talks to me?)

*Some background information for those who don't know the topography of West Virginia*

You can't just drive across it. The entire state is in the Appalachian *just for the record it's pronounced app-a-LATCH-in, not app-a-LAY-chan* mountain region and although there are many two-lane passes through the mountains, it's usually faster to take the interstate. We live right in the smack-dab middle of the state and to get to the Eastern Panhandle we have to go north, then east through Maryland, then south again back into WV. So because my kids think that driving 40 mins. to the nearest mall and Toys'R'Us 'takes a long time,' the four hours it should take to get to their aunt's house is an eternity. Thus, we have the celebratory cheering when the Potomac River is crossed and we're over state lines.

This past weekend when I announced the crossing Tweedledum asked why the river divides the states which led to a mini-lesson on the Civil War. Citizens of the area that now makes up West Virginia didn't feel that they were fairly represented in Richmond AND they were in favor of abolishing slavery. Quick thinking on my part gave a child-sized definition of slavery as "making someone do work for you without paying them." Can anyone guess the next comment by Tweedledee?

"But you don't pay us for stuff we do!"