Randomness

So spring has arrived, it's been nothing but trial after trial for '09 so far. I'm about 4.5 months pregnant now. Thank goodness the 1st trimester is over. It was far worse than my first two pregnancies combined! For awhile there, I didn't know if I'd make it through it. I did and thankfully it ended early. I'm less than 2 weeks away from finding out if my gut instinct of this baby being a boy is true or not. I can hardly contain myself. I've never been so anxious in a pregnancy before. I'm really trying to slow myself down and enjoy this one, but it's hard. I'm finding myself wanting to jump clear to the end already. Not because I'm tired of being pregnant, I'm just so anxious and excited to see this little person and how different they might be from my other two. I'm secretly hoping for green eyes like mine, not blue, which seems to be the trend in the family. We'll see, most importantly just the overall health and well-being of the baby. I keep getting asked if this is the last. Neither my husband or I have an answer for that right now. From the beginning we both secretly have been hoping for twins, odd I know, but my husband said if we go for 3 we might as well have a 4th (and better to do it in one shot). You see, we have a huge age gap between this baby and our current youngest. By the time this child is born, our youngest will be 5 mo from turning 5! Who knows. I'm looking out my front window right now and noticing a ton of little tiny red bugs crawling all over my window seal, again. What the heck are they? My husband sprayed last week and it did nothing, they're back. Annoying little things. They are so tiny you can't make out what the heck they are. They weren't there last year. I swear, sometimes I wish we lived in a rental, then half the problems we've had w/ this stupid house wouldn't be our responsibility or cost! Well, that's all I have for now. I could go on, but most of it's personal dribble that I'll save for God, 'cuz He's the only One that can do anything about it.

#3

Well, if it wasn't strange already that my 2 other sister-in-laws were already pregnant, I'm adding to the strangeness. That's right folks. #3 is on the way. This should be fun. 3 sister-in-laws all pregnant together. Each due a month after the other. I'm excited that the cousins will be the same age growing up. Anyways, that's my news. Now I'm off to eat before my nausea kicks in for the day.

Reptiles, What?!

My daughter is getting ready to turn 7. I can't believe how the time has flown. Anyway, in her lifetime up to this point, we've had a beta fish and of course 2 dogs at the present. I guess the dogs just aren't enough anymore. Everyday for the past week and a half she has continually reminded me how much she wants a lizard. No, we aren't talking toy lizards or stuffed lizards. We are talking about the real deal here. I seem to remember telling her years ago no lizards, no rodents, no spiders as pets. Dogs and fish, that's it. So last weekend while getting Barley her shots at the Zamzows pet clinic, I guess my husband said around the age of 7 she might be able to get one. Ok, where was I in this discussion? 7 years of age is too young to care full time for something like that, in my opinion. Who would this responsibility fall on, yup, me. Sorry, I'm no reptile of a person. I can do dogs and fish. I already have my hands full. I don't want the thought of a little green thing on 4 legs escaping and running around my house. I can see it now, she can't leave those things alone so she'll have it out of it's cage, it'll squirm away, and then right on it's tail would be my Barley. Not the site I want to encounter. Guess I better get quite creative, and soon.

Good Bye 2008, Hello 2009

Well, lets hope that this new year is actually different from last and much much better. Some security prayerfully! Long time since last post, December was a complete blur. I would have already had my Christmas decor down if it wasn't for being sick, again! I blame my husband for bringing it home again. Nothings worse then battling a stupid head cold and then feeling nauseous and getting sick to your stomach. Oh yeah, and add waking up this morning with a weird kink in your neck and you can't turn your head to the left. Good times. Very weird to look outside and see your grass again. What is with a beautiful winter landscape and then in less than 24hrs it's completely gone? Rain, what the heck. I have to say the best gift this year was from my Dad, he fixed our 4 wheel drive in our Tahoe and when we return to Twin Falls next weekend, he'll be fixing the rest of the problems. I can't thank him enough. We have been putting off that stuff due to the no paycheck thing, so this is a huge gift for us. For the first time in over 2 years we were able to use 4 wheel drive and let me tell you, it was awesome. What a huge difference. I have thought long and hard on why we have 2 dogs recently. I questioned it for awhile. It's not like when I was growing up and everyone in your family was a dog lover. Very hard to make it work harmoniously when 1 could care less if they were here or not. Anyway, during the last few days I have been reminded why I do have them. Both of my dogs have been by my side (literally) the whole time I've been sick, especially yesterday battling my nausea. They never left my side and when I laid down, they were right there with me. Even though they have their moments, they are good to me and bring comfort. Well, this whole post is a bunch of randomness, blame it on the head cold. I guess I should call it quits for now and head out for my one errand while I feel decent. Be safe tomorrow everyone and have a wonderful New Year!!

Dog Gone

I wish I meant this literally! Remember a previous post titled "Evilness"? Well, she's back in full force and worse! I love dogs, always have, but boy, I'm wishing I didn't have any right now. In fact yesterday I was thinking that when my two pass some day, I will never get another dog! I can't say this with 100% certainty, but I'm pretty sure Barley is our culprit. Within the past week I noticed a chew mark on my couch cushion, not happy. Yesterday I came back after taking my son to Target and found that my dish rag had been obliterated and thrown away (my husband found it after coming back from volunteering in my daughters class). Today I come back from Kohls (almost went to Target again because I forgot trash bags, but decided against it and I'm glad I did) and find that my couch cushion that had minor chew markings had been destroyed. A huge hole right in the front of it, irrepairable! So, who do I blame? You guessed it, Barley. Now I brought her back inside by herself once I found it and she gave me some tension when getting closer to the damage. Disciplined extremely, probably should have brought her close to life's end, but I couldn't, my weakness. Then I brought Vader in by himself and took him over to the damage, no tension, just excited. So that led me to believe that I was right in my opinion. Vader has never shown any form of destruction, none, ever! Barley has even before we got Vader, so I'm sure she did it. I can't believe this. I'm beginning to think that if she keeps up this destruction, she's not worth having. Chewing my trim around the front door as a pup (still needs repaired, but very easy), chewing toys (that's been handled), chewing towels (don't use them in kennel anymore), chewing a hole in the carpet (never has been attempted again and it was repaired for free in home warrenty by the awesome carpet guys), chewing off the insulator material around the pipe to the ac unit (2x), chewing my dish rag, and now my couch cushion. I'm sure there's a few more things I could list, but the list is pretty extensive as it is. So what am I to do? Why now, why would she all of a sudden resort to this extreme behavior on my furniture? She's never even bothered it once before this ordeal. I need Cesar Milan, the Dog Whisperer! Maybe she needs to get out more and "work" off her anxiety, maybe she needs to know that her life hangs in my hands! Well, I guess I'll be looking for new couches sooner than later. Obviously not too soon, but one of these days when she's done being EVIL.

DONE

This is probably going to be the most real, truthful, bearing all post I've ever done. I have to be honest, the past 2 weeks have been absolute hell. I thought I'd been to hell and back with the last few financial dry spells, but nope, this one has broken the camels back. A combination of things have happened these past few weeks that have added to this feeling of defeat, my feeling right now. I felt as if I was handling it pretty well, until Monday. I've been doing nothing but praying, pleading, claiming God's powerfulness and trying to hold it together so that my children see nothing. Today I find myself still holding onto these last few hours before our time is officially up financially, holding onto hope. I don't know what will happen, all I know is that it will be a true miracle for us, whether God chooses to do that or not, I don't know. So on top of all this I've been dealing with sick children since last Tuesday and now finding myself catching the same thing as of yesterday. We've had cell phone mishaps that resulted in paying for a replacement (talk about really bad timing), my car is now pouring out antifreeze every time I back out of the driveway, my camera has failed me (bad timing, once again, and right when the holidays are coming), and to top it off, I get a phone call last night that I didn't want to get. I knew it was coming at some point, but not right now, not with all of this happening. I get a phone call around 8pm last night that my Grandmother is "shutting down". She has a UTI (urinary tract infection) and won't drink, eat anything, nor is she responding to anyone. I broke last night, I'm done. I can take no more and God has to know that. This morning I'm woken up by a phone call just after 7am, my Grandmother passed last night just before midnight. What hurts the most is I have no idea if she was saved. All I remember as a child is her arguing with my dad (we were the only saved ones on that side of the family) and getting ticked off at him resulting in crying. All I can do is hope and pray that somewhere in her heart, a sliver of what was shared with her on many occasions over the years made it back to her heart in those last few moments. I pray she is with our Maker, but I don't know. So, this is where I am right now. I usually don't open up this much, don't even know why I'm writing this right now. But there you have it. I'm tired.

Fastest Shots in the west

Yesterday I had to take my kiddos to the doctor to get their hep A booster shots. Due to changes in our insurance I had to reschedule them and thought I'd do it at the same time instead of making two trips. My son does pretty well with shots, quick cry when the needle enters and then he's done. My daughter on the other hand is quite different. A few years ago she wigged out so much she bent the needle and they had to start over while I pretty much had her in a bear hug, no free limbs. So needless to say I was a bit worried about taking both of them at the same time. I talked to both of them on the way, gave a really big pep talk and so forth. This is when it gets funny. So we go there and are taken in the back, but first we have to make a pit stop for my daughter. While she's going to the bathroom, all the fire alarms are going off and the lights are flashing. What are the odds? So we hurry up out of the bathroom and they hurry us into a room and give two shots in less than a minute! All the while my kids are holding their ears due to the loud noises. They hardly had to time to react to the shots or even think about them, I think they were more concerned with why the fire alarms were going off. So we were in and out, literally! And then, being kids and being quite inquisitive, the whole ride home was 50 questions on why do we have fire alarms, what happens if there's a real fire and so on and so on and so on. I had to finally stop the questioning and make them move on. So that was my late afternoon yesterday. Quite hilarious, well maybe you had to be there.

Tis the Season

These little decorations have me itching to decorate already! I have to refrain from my excitement for a few more weeks though. Anyhoo, I just bought these cute little things yesterday from Costco! Love them. I have been eyeing these things for weeks now. They are cordless color changing snowflakes you hang in your window, 10 of them! Costco is selling them for $19.99, didn't realize how good of a deal that was until I went to Target and saw them for $4.99 each and unbelievably they were sold out. I can hardly wait to whip out all the decorations and all the new ones I bought last year during Target's 90% off sale after Christmas. I'm going to have to sweet talk my husband into hanging the outdoor lights early this year too. Why wait, the weather will continue to get colder and it's no fun hanging in freezing weather. I know this from experience and he'll tell you the same, especially when your roof is slick. Yeah, that's fun. I should probably stop writing about this because now I'm wanting to go and get my Christmas CD and start playing it. Well, just thought I'd share my favorite find right now.

I've been tagged

Okay, I'm going to really try hard to come up with 6 things you don't know about me. Here goes:
1. I love drag racing, jets, sports cars etc. I grew up being surrounded by that stuff. So pretty much I'm not your typical girl. Probably why I had more boy friends than girl friends. Not only that, I'm handy"woman" of the house. The tools, their mine. I'm sure my husband wouldn't be too embarrassed to admit it either
2. I would love to work with animals, especially Cesar Milan the dog whisperer. Love that show. I keep trying to get Barley to watch with me, but for some reason she won't. I secretly practice my ssh and the backwards kick on the rear with her. I have some work to do. :)
3. I love cooking and baking! Food network has become quite the friend of mine over the years. I would love to try so many recipes, unfortunately with 2 picky eaters in the house, it'd be a waste. I always tend to lean toward Everyday Italian cooking.
4. I'm so technical and need organization and cleanliness, it's almost debilitating at times. When something is so unorganized (say my office that hasn't been touched in over a year) it gets ignored, it's so bad I can't think of where to begin. My husband is proud of me though for not touching it, he hates my technical side @ times and says this a big step for me. I don't think so, the job needs tackled and I just need to do it. I may know what is in each pile, but it needs to be organized!
5. I seem to be decisive on big decisions, but when it comes to little ones, like what shoes to buy for my kids, I can't make a decision. What's up with that?
6. I have a passion for photography, yet I've never really done it. I have a wish for a very nice camera, but it has continually been put on the back burner for other reasons. One of these days I will get to my passion.
I'm not going to tag anyone because I'm sure you've already been tagged. My husband, if you read this, I'll tag you but I'm sure you won't post on this.

What I've been up to

Not much to post. I've been busy. I all of a sudden got a wild hair and have been going crazy painting and putting my house together. Well by together I mean putting the valences up that came with my blinds that I installed almost a year ago. In the midst of all that my cleaning has taken a back seat. Wish the house could clean itself, it never seems to end. 2 kids, 2 dogs, 1 large kid (my husband of course), the house only stays clean for about a day, maybe 2. I have to say though I am very pleased with the colors I've added to my house. I forgot how much painting adds to the feel of your home. This time around I've gone with much bolder colors than I ever have before. Love it! What else is new? Looks like we may be taking another trip to Twin Falls sooner than I thought. Love my brother. He asked me yesterday when we could come down again. He wants to go to this huge haunted house in Albion (an old abandoned school house-freaky). I told him we'd come down but he'd be going with Phil and not me. I've never been in to that stuff, even though it's all fake, can't do it, never will. I'll stay behind with the kids and my sister-in-law. That sounds like more fun to me, oh and hanging out w/ my nephew of course. Can't believe that Thanksgiving is next month. I can't wait to sink my teeth into some good 'ol Thanksgiving dinner. This year my brother, sis-law, nephew, and my parents, and possibly their dog will all be cooking and eating in my house. I can't wait. Oh and you better believe I'll be getting in on the action "Black Friday"! It's crazy, nuts, too early, but you just have to do it, even if it's only once. Quite an experience. I did it in VA, not that Lynchburg was all that exciting, so I need to add Boise to my small list. Well, I'm off to put my switch plates back on and finally get ready for the day today and go grocery shopping with my little man. I have to say I am really enjoying this year with him. I'm soaking up every minute because next year he'll start pre-school. Hope you all have a wonderful day in this awesome fall/almost winter type weather. I know I will, I have a date to look forward to tonight!

Welcome Vader!

That's right, we have a new member of our family. Vador. We adopted him yesterday from the Humane Society. A dog like this should never be in a place like that. He is unbelievable! For some odd reason, he was the only one I was drawn to. He didn't react when we went in like a lot of the other "hyper" dogs, he's beautiful, purebred, and big. He's calm, well mannered, well trained, and absolutely loves my husband. Within minutes of being with Phil out in the yard the Humane Society has to "check" dogs out, he bonded with him. He responds well, is great with the kids and with Barley. He's 4 years old and amazing. Come to find out he was just dropped off at the humane society last Saturday because his owners didn't have time for him. Sad, because he is a great dog. I will say this, they put a lot of training into him and it shows. Barley is happy she has a friend and we're happy to have him join our family. Can't complain, leash trained, car trained, house trained, come, sit, stay, fully vaccinated and neutered. Thanks to Phil, he's sporting a BSU dog collar and it looks good. The two dogs are inseparable, although Vador would like Barley to leave him alone half the time. You can definitely tell who's 1 and who's 4. We had our first emergency trip last night with Vador. Come to find out the Humane Society missed his kennel cough, thanks for that. But thank you to the awesome vets at All Valley Animal Care Center, Vador is on meds and doing a lot better today. Phil said the vets there reminded him of Dr Swanson (our family physician). He wasn't charged for the visit and they didn't prescribe the ridiculously priced respiratory med due to the cost. They gave him something that would do the job and save us some money. We will be using them from now on for vet visits combined w/ the awesome Zamzows pet clinics for shots! Gotta love dogs!