A (Hopefully Not SO Big) Announcement

Hey Ya'll,

I know it's been forever since I posted, but I've had something on my mind, and I didn't want to spill the beans early. 

Oh heck, let's just be honest:  I'm technologically challenged, I'm lucky if I check my email more than once every three days, and I didn't have much to post, other than, "The kids are STILL tracked out, and I'm really really ready for them to go back to school.  Does this make me a bad mother?"

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know that we're going to be having #5 at the end of July sometime.  My official due date is July 24th (Pioneer Day!!), but I'm saying that it's the 31st, just because all the other kids have been late, and I don't want to set myself up for disappointment.

So I'm 14 weeks along, and starting my 2nd trimester.  Woo Hoo!!  Although I have to say that this has been my easiest pregnancy so far.  Hardly any nausea, comparatively, some migraines, but not much after week 8 or 9, and I haven't even been that exhausted.  Of course, it could be that it's like my other earlier pregnancies, but I honestly don't remember how they were anymore.  Or maybe it's just SOOOOO much better than my last one, that this is practically a walk in the park. 

Last time I was horribly sick and just so tired, plus migraines practically every other day, until after my 15th week.  Poor Benny, I hope I don't give him a complex when he gets older, but his really was just an incredibly difficult pregnancy, plus he had colic (the kind that makes you think your baby is broken until they're 3 or 4 months old), PLUS, I had serious post-partum depression that required Zoloft to get out of.  It's a good thing that he's so fun and cute.  Especially because he's probably the most stubborn of my kids, too.  Yup, it's a darn good thing that he's so cute

I'm hoping for a girl, but we'll be happy with whichever, of course.  Jeff and I even have our names picked out.  If it it is a girl, she's going to be "Alyssa Rose" (Jeff's mom's middle name is Rose) and if it's a boy, we like "Andrew Porter" (Porter is an old family name on Jeff's side as well).

The reason for the post title is that I'm really really REALLY going to try to not gain the 65 + pounds that I have almost all the other pregnancies.  My "A-ha!" moment came when I realized that when you're pregnant you ONLY need 300 more calories, which is roughly the equivalent of a hard boiled egg, a small glass of chocolate milk, and one piece of whole wheat toast, no butter.  That's it!!  So I'm sticking with the Weightwatchers program (maintaining, not losing) so that I will track what I'm eating, and be motivated to exercise every day, but then just add those couple of things.  I didn't gain any weight until week 13, so I'm hoping that I can actually stick to those "25-35 lbs" of weight gain that all the pregnancy books tell you to aim for.  Here's hoping (and praying)!

Anyway, I'll keep you posted.   :o)

House Projects Update

I feel a little bad about that title, because it almost implies that I have been doing all of these great projects, when I haven't, but I have managed to finish a couple, or at the very least, pay someone who knew how to do it much better than I, to finish them.  So here's the latest:

First, we finally managed to get the front porch painted.  Last year (yeah, I know), we added some architectural interest to the front by getting a guy to put up some molding and arches.  The understanding was that we needed to get it painted right away, because the wood was only primed, and a whole winter wasn't going to be good for it.  Well, you already knew that wasn't going to happen, didn't ya. 

This summer we noticed it was looking pretty rough, but after a gallon of Kilz (that stuff can work miracles!) and some really good mildew-resistant paint (seriously, it cost over $35!) the porch looks great.

I painted the mailbox too, because it looked awful next to the glowing porch.  You'll just have to trust me when I tell you that it looks way, way better.

We also finally got our backsplash in the kitchen finished.  We had started the project in May, but because of some bad timing, and needing to change labourers mid-stream (is that a mixed metaphor?) it wasn't totally finished until September.  But it turned out absolutely beautiful, if I do say so myself. 

I think the tile is fantastic.  I love how it stands out, but still goes with the granite, so it doesn't compete.

Most of this summer we spent working on the backyard, putting in a walled garden (no, it doesn't have anything in it, because we didn't finish until it was almost Halloween, but come next Spring, we are going to be ready to go!!), as well as marble rock surrounding the garden, and all around the back. 

Putting the rock in was Jeff's idea ,so that he wouldn't have to use the edger when he mows.  Jeff absolutely hates mowing the lawn, and will do almost anything to make the job less of a bear.  I can sympathize with trying to make a job take less time and work, and it really ended up looking pretty cool, if you ask me.

Ok, last thing: I just wanted to post a picture of the finished guest room, with a lamp and artwork, and actually looking like someone would want to stay there.  :o) 

'Cause remember, we love visitors! (again with the "hint, hint")   :o)

My Awesome Friend

I have a friend, who, as the title might suggest, is awesome.  No, let me take that back.

She is. . . AWESOME!!!

I met her when we were living in the USU married housing trailer court, which was also awesome, by the way.  She was a "young" married girl (which really just meant younger than me), but we totally clicked.  We had had babies about the same time, and so we walked together every day to lose the baby weight, and it worked pretty darn great.

When we moved from Utah to North Carolina I was way sad to not have her around to hang out with everyday, but we've kept in touch with the occasional phone call and email, etc.  You know how it goes. 

Well, this "young mother," who was just starting out when I knew her, is now a mother of four (3 boys and a girl), two of whom have special needs.  Casey, her second son, is autistic, and her fourth child, Abby, has down syndrome.

My friend is not only awesome, but she has this AWESOME blog, mostly just about her life, but also about being a mom with special needs kids, and how hard it can be, but also how (get ready for it) awesome it is as well.

She wrote a really fantastic post a little while ago, defending the decision to go ahead with a pregnancy with a child who has down syndrome which I loved and wanted to post right away.  However, unlike her, I am not awesome, and I haven't blogged in a while, but I thought that I would (finally!) post the link now.

But first, I wanted to post a link to pix of her completely beautiful daughter:

http://www.mostlytruestuff.com/2011/11/abby-fix.html

Ok, here's the post I was talking about:

http://www.mostlytruestuff.com/2011/10/my-angry-down-syndrome-awareness-post.html

And the follow-up post, that you should read too, because it's...(wait for it)...awesome!!!

http://www.mostlytruestuff.com/2011/10/thanks-for-sharing.html

Brothers from Another Mother

Well, not really, but it makes more sense than "Twins!  ...Kinda, Sort of."  We've recently discovered that Ben and Jarom look almost exactly like each other at the same age.  Jarom says that Ben is his twin, "we were just born at different times."

We have all our family pictures on the computer as our screen saver, sort of a continuous slide-show, but we didn't have a digital camera the first few years we had kids (Yes, I am that old) so we never get to see baby pictures of Jarom all the time like we do Ben, or even Kelcey.

The other day Jarom got out some photo albums from when he was little, and while he was looking at them Ben came over and started to say, "Benny, Benny!" over and over, while he was pointing to the pictures.  We tried to explain that they were pictures of Jarom, not him, but the more we looked at them, we realized, yeah, they do look like pictures of Ben! 

I am in serious trouble, if I can barely tell my kids apart in pictures now.  When I'm a grandma I'm going to be hopeless.  I'll be that old lady that keeps saying, "Now, this is a picture of your daddy.  Oh wait, nope, that's Uncle Ben.  Ok, this is a picture of your daddy.  Whoops, wrong again."  My poor grand kids!

So, here's a couple of examples.  See if you can tell who's who.  :o)

My Little Piece of Family History

My sister Susannah is our family's unofficial historian.  For several reasons, not the least of which is that she actually was a history major in college, but also because she loves keeping history, and she knows how to do it the right way.

She was scanning some old family photos from my dad's side of the family recently, and she found two matching little postcards stuck in them that my Grandma Helen had collected during her travels as an army nurse during WWII in Europe.  This was almost like finding gold.  Better than gold.

My grandmother died, before I was born, from complications of Multiple Sclerosis, and so I never got to meet her.  In this life anyway.  I think I knew her before I came, because she seems so familiar, but that's my own personal feeling, not anything solid. 

She was the one that was responsible for getting my dad's family to join the church.  When she was in Europe during the war she became friends with the general's wife that she served under, and they just happened to be LDS.  She learned about the church, but she came home, married my grandpa, and didn't ever talk  about it. 

However, she must kept what she learned in the back of her mind because one day, on the "spur of the moment", she arranged for them to stop in Nauvoo while on a family road trip vacation (my dad's family is from northern Illinois) and talk to the missionaries there.  And the rest is history. 

So I owe her, not only for the fantastic priesthood holder that my dad is, but also the life that I enjoy because of his membership in the church.  The fact that he met my mother at BYU, that I grew up with the gospel, that I met my husband in Provo, that my family enjoys the gospel, all goes back, in part, to her testimony, and being the impetus for their family to buck tradition and small-town opinion, and join "them weird Mormons."

For some silly reasons that aren't worth going into right now, our family has been largely left out of the history and keepsakes that have been passed around.  So when my sister found this postcard, she decided to snag them both and get them identically framed.  Archivally, of course.  And she sent me mine for my birthday.  AWESOME!!

So now we each have our own little piece of history hanging on the wall.  Something concrete that links us to our grandma, and her legacy, and to each other.

Happy Anniversary indeed!!!

Ok, ladies.  This is going to be one of those posts where you either think, "Awww, that is so great," or you think,"Awwww, why can't my husband do that kind of thing?"  But just don't get into any marital spats because of me, 'k?  Because I have got to seriously brag on my husband for a bit. 

In general, we don't have a fabulous track record with our anniversary.  And it's not Jeff's fault or anything, we just don't usually make it a big deal.  As a matter of fact, I have actually forgotten it before!  Although, to clarify, I knew that our anniversary was the 13th of August, but I didn't know that that particular Tuesday, or whatever, was our anniversary.  And since I forget what the date is on a regular basis anyway, that should come as a surprise to no one.

Anyway, I've been wanting to go somewhere overnight for our anniversary for a few years now, but it's never worked out, mostly because we don't have family in the area, so we don't have anyone to watch all of our kids at one time.  (Seriously, all you people with grandparents readily available really don't know how good you've got it.)  As a matter of fact, we haven't had a night away, just Jeff and me, since Jarom was a year old and we came out to North Carolina to go house hunting.

What I had really wanted to do was to go stay at the Renaissance hotel at North Hills, and go to dinner, and see a movie, etc., because it's all there, and we wouldn't be too far away.  Doesn't it sound fabulous?  But I had resigned myself to it not happening, because of the aforementioned "no family to watch the kids" wrinkle.

HOWEVER!!  Not only had Jeff been listening to me when I was wishing out loud that we could do this fun thing for our anniversary, but he actually took the whole thing in hand and arranged with our good friends who have 4 kids, just like us, all the same ages as our kids, to take our children, and he made the hotel reservation for us, as a surprise, all by himself!!!!

I know!!!! 

It really could not have been more fabulous!  We went to dinner at Firebirds, our favorite steakhouse, bar none, where we had a truly fantastic dinner (filet mignon, anyone?), and then we went to the last Harry Potter movie (yet another present from my sweetie), and after that, when the movie got out ofter midnight, we didn't have to make the long drive home, and then pay the babysitter, and then drive the babysitter home -  all we had to do was walk to the end of the "block" and go to our room!  It was awesome!!!

The next day we got to sleep in as late as we wanted, and then we actually went in to all the fancy shops and boutiques at North Hills that I would never ever go into with my kids.  And then, after we were done window shopping (because there was no way in heck that I was going to actually buy anything at those fancy boutiques.  One place had sequined sweaters for $497!!!  I kid you not!  And the clearance racks were still all over $200!   I was blown away by the senseless materialism) we went to JC Penney where they were having a fantastic sale, and got Jeff some work shirts (all more than 50% off), and me a couple of necklaces (also all on major sale - nothing more than $10).  Now that's my idea of clearance.

To finish out the day we had linner at Bonefish Grill, which I had never been to before, but I will be going again.  They do really good seafood, and I had grilled shrimp and sea scallops with roasted asparagus, which was all incredible.  Just like the weekend!

So please, don't hate me because my husband is awesome.  :o)

And Another [Song] Bites the Dust

Have you ever really liked a song from your childhood, only to have it completely ruined by today's technology?  Let me explain.

So, when I was younger (like, elementary school "younger") I really enjoyed this one song that would come on the radio, and even though I didn't really understand any of the words, except for an occasional "Angel," and sometimes a "centerfold" (which made no sense to me at all), it had a great melody, and there was this awesome chorus of "Na Na Na Na's". 

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Anyway, I heard the song on the radio again recently, and really enjoyed bopping out to it as I was driving around.  Of course, I understood more this time around (at the very least, I know what a centerfold is) but I still couldn't understand most of the words, either because it was on a fuzzy radio channel, or because the lead singer didn't have very good diction.  Probably both.  But I sure enjoyed those "Na Na Na Na's".

I downloaded the song from itunes, and then, last night, while I was watering the lawn (because we paid a ridiculous amount of money to get our lawn aerated and seeded, and I didn't want to blow our investment, even though it kills me to think what our water bill is going to be next month) it came up on my ipod.  And, thanks to crystal clear digital technology delivering every nuance straight to my ear canal via my earbuds, I finally hear the song in its entirety.  Every. single. word.

So, now that I completely understand exactly what the song is saying, and why the words "Angel" and "centerfold" were so prominent, I must reject the appeal of the chorus of  "Na Na Na Na's".  Which just basically all means that I've erased the song from my itunes library.  But...Argggh!!!

The really frustrating thing?  Not only have I lost the $0.99 that I paid for the darn thing, not only do I have those stupid words and the images that they created in my mind, but now I can't even listen to it on the radio with the same innocent enjoyment of my 80's nostalgia.  Technology has ruined this song for me forever.

Even the Na Na Na Na's.