Yikes- It's Been Awhile

We have been busy with Christmas. Most of my side of the family has been in town- except the nine months preggers Ashlyn and her fam. I have two sister-in-laws due in January. One is Jan. 11th, the other Jan. 20th. Who knows...maybe I'll beat them both. The race is on!! I have an appointment in an hour, so I will update how things are going on the baby front. Right now, I am just tired and very uncomfortable.

The power supply on our computer went out, so we have had to re-install windows. I am not sure if the picture loading program is working yet and I don't want to experiment without Ken here in case I mess something up. I will post our Christmas pics later. All in all, we have had a great vacation.

In other news...Nathan is on his second round of antibiotics for the month. He got an ear infection that pushed his left tube out of his ear drum. She can't see the right tube. The doctor said we need to watch and track his health very closely during the next 6 months. He may require another ear surgury. Of course, my plan was to hard core push on the potty training this week. Last week went out the window becuase we were almost never home. But antibiotics make kids...runny. I don't want to clean that out of my carpet so I have to keep him in a diaper. And though he is more than willing to use the potty when he is taken, he could careless if he goes on himself in between. My dream of having a break- no matter how small- in diapering is rapdily disappearing.

We also found out why we haven't gotten our insurance check. Texas Windstorm kicked back our claim- again- this time for a re-inspection. We don't have any idea why. It could be that we are just one of the lucky few they do that to in each batch of claims. We were assigned to a new adjuster. He came out yesterday and I went through the whole process again (Ken was working). Good news, we should have our check within the month and can start getting our home repaired- just in time for the next hurricane season.

The Nativity

33 Weeks

Not the best picture of me, but that is what I look like after a day of working and kids. I'm a lot smaller with this baby than my other boys. Could be that I have only gained 13 pounds and I had gained a lot more with the others.

To make up for not sending out cards...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Merry Christmas!!!

P.S. We did NOT rip this off Mike & Ashlyn's blog. (We would never do anything like that.)

Oh My...

I went to the doctor on Monday. Found out I was dilated to almost a 2. Not good news for a person with a history of pre-term labor, who is taking medication to stop contractions, and is only 33 weeks.

The doc isn't going to put me on full bed rest- yet. I am very grateful for that. Spending months in bed with Nathan was hard enough. However, until January (36 weeks) I am not allowed to shop, clean, lift, do laundry, cook, etc., etc., etc. Basically, anything that is not point A to point B movement is off limits. If I am still dilating after my appointment on the 30th, I will have full bed rest for a week with steroid shots to get the baby's lungs ready for the world.

On that note, Ken got home from work at about 7:00 tonight. He had said he would make dinner since I couldn't.

All I can say is I had better not ever die!

My husband is an amazing cook! However, he is not a "cook to feed a family everyday" kind of cook. He microwaved a large plate of chicken nuggets for us all to share off one plate. He was going to leave it at that, but I told him they kids had to have something else to eat in addition to the nuggets.

The boys got a packet of fruit snacks and a juice box.

I sat there and watched my husband teach my little guys how to live in a bachelor pad.

I even offered to open a can of fruit, but they were having fruit snacks- doesn't that count?

Oh my...

Oh Christmas Tree! Poor Christmas Tree!

Since we can't going anywhere this year on account of my being shaped like a whale, we decided to get a real tree this year. So, out we went the Saturday after Thanksgiving to get a tree. Naturally, my visions of Hollywood worthy fun family time picking out the tree and singing carols on the way home were dashed by the stark reality that my kids could have cared less which tree we picked out. They were more into running around and attempting to get lost in the fake tree forest. I will admit, after asking them about 2 million times to please stay by us so they wouldn't get lost, I began to contemplate how bad would it actually be if they did get lost.

I know...I'm the epitomy of a role-model parent.

After wondering around for about 15-20 minutes, we finally found a tree that would probably fit in our living room and only take up about 1/3 of the leg room space in front of the couch.

Pretty, huh.

Since we were "going green" we decided to further help the environment and switch to LED lights. They don't burn as hot so the tree won't burn out and they use a lot less energy. We got some pretty bulbs and we, I mean our resident pack mule we named Daddy, lite up the tree.

Hanging the ornaments.

The tree looked good, so we turned off all the house lights and turned on the tree.

Um, something isn't right here. This doesn't look like a Christmas tree. It looks like it belongs on top of a Las Vegas casino.

Have you ever been driving and passed a car going the opposite direction who had LED headlights? They are the ones with the brilliant, bright, white-almost-blueish lights.

Well folks, that is what's on our Christmas tree. No soft glow. Just bright, white-almost-blueish lights. Our tree looks like it is being run through some kind of hospital sterilization procedure.

But we sure aren't un-decorating the entire tree just to fix it. Next year we'll add the bright white lights to our exterior illumination scheme. They should blend nicely with the 8 foot inflatable snowman and lit candy cane path. In the meantime, instead of basking in the soft glow of our Christmas tree, we will sleep peacefully knowing we sacrificed in the name of "going green."

ps- I took picutres, but they don't translate into film well. Sorry. Just imajine.

It's Snowing!!!

This is a picture of the last time it snowed here. It was Christmas Eve 2004. Kenny was 2 1/2. I was in my 32nd week of pregnancy with Nathan.

This is the scene tonight. Incidentally, this snow is occurring during my 32nd week of pregnancy with baby no-name.
Interesting.

I hope it sticks around long enough for the boys to get to see it and play before school tomorrow. The only negative about this is that our heater broke last winter and the house is a bit on the chilly side. However, we have a couple of space heaters and a lot of blankets so we will just snuggle up. A cozy winter's night.

One of Those Days

Nathan is really sick. His tonsils are so swollen he can't move his neck or shoulders and he is not eating or drinking.

I am exhausted from literal around the clock care for the last few days. He needs medicine several times in the middle of the night and he is just crying at night in pain.

So that's my day. Hope your was better.

Wii Boxing

If I remember corretly, they each won a round. I wonder if Wii boxing your in-laws should be incorporated into couples therepy sessions? Could be interesting.

Finding Joy

When life gets busy, it is nice to remember what is truly important. Click on the picture below to enjoy a few simple truths.

All I Want For Christmas...

...is our insurance check. Our insurance check. Where's our insurance check?
Gee, if we could only have our insurance check, then we could get rid of our blue-tarped roof!

Oh, gotta love red tape!