Thirteen Things I'm excited about when this baby is born:

With only 11 weeks left, I'm getting a little anxious about some of these things. I seriously got jealous yesterday when the hubby rolled over on his stomach to sleep.


1. Sleeping on my stomach! And while I know that sleeping after a baby is a rare luxury, I'm just excited that the few hours I get will feel like heaven because I can sleep on my stomach.
2. Eating after 7:30 and not worrying about heartburn. I won't have to chug down milk every night in order to be able to lie down!
3. Being able to squeeze through small spaces. You really take for granted that you can just squeeze behind the couch to get the ball thrown there until you lose that ability.
4. Jeans!!!!!!!! (that fit)
5. My feet not swelling or my hands or anything else swelling for that matter. I'll be able to wear my wedding ring again!
6. Getting noticed again. Like wearing a bathing suit and not feeling like a beached whale. And again I'm a realist and know I'll still look like a beached whale for a while but at least I'll be able to do something about.
7. Being able to see my feet on a regular basis. Hey down there, haven't seen you in a while, you still okay?
8. Not having to visit the OBGYN so often. I realize this will be replaced with numerous pediatrician visits but at least they aren't poking me.
9. Not spending half my day in the bathroom! And the other half drinking water.
10. Being able to eat an entire meal and be full and not have to eat again for oh 4-5 hours. I think it's cruel to be pregnant during Thanksgiving during any stage of your pregnancy.
11. Not eating ice all day and keeping the A/C set at 65.
12. Not feeling fat (and knowing that you're going to get fatter).
13. Holding that bundle of joy and knowing that we created life.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. Yellow Rose
2. Reveberate
3. Lisa
4. Greek Goddess
5. Natalie
6. astrocoz
7. Carmen
8. Happy Mama to Three
9. Auntiem



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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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These are the Moments that Make it All Worth It!

I am finally feeling well enough to actually write again and today the Babe and I ventured out to the store! Last week, I wrote about the Babe's new chore schedule so he finished him week of getting paid to do chores so today we took his $10 to buy the books. He actually has responded to this charitable act quite well. The day he started I told him about how there are children who don't have any books to read and that he was going to earn money to buy books for them. He talked for days about the "kids who didn't have any books." Today I told what we were going to do and gave him his money. We went and he picked out a book that made lots of noise and was way too expensive. So I carefully exchanged it for 2 books that were more appropriate. The cute part at the store was when the lady told him how much they cost and he took $1 out of his pocket and thought that would cover it. He really has no concept of money yet. He thinks pennies are way way better than paper money.

But the real tearjerking moment came in the car on the way home. We were stopped at a stoplight and I was listening to his (what I thought were) random conversation with himself that is constant from the time he wakes up till the time he goes to sleep. But he was helping Buzz say a prayer.

He said, "Heavenly Father.
Thankful for Jesus.
Thankful for the kids who don't have books.
In Jesus Christ. Amen."

It was so cute I almost started crying! You hardly realize that they are learning when we teach them things. It made everything that I do all day worth it.

Today we are quarantined because the Babe has the dreaded pink eye. This morning he woke up with 2 swollen shut eyes. The first thing he said to me was, "Mommy take these things off my eyes." It was sad. He's had allergies (see hives entry) and I think he's just having some sort of allergic reaction. This morning as soon as he woke up I gave him some Benadryl and the gunky stuff in his eyes went away. Sure enough 4-5 hours later it came back. When we got to the doctor's office, the Benadryl started wearing off and the gunk came back. But I'm giving him the antibiotic anyway and keeping him away from other people. I hear that in about 24 hours the hubby and I will get it as well. So I guess we're hoping it's just allergies.

With lots of time to kill, we put together the new crib for the expected little one. The Babe slept in a contraption we bought at a yard sale that was held together by shoe strings and prayers. Throwing that thing away was one of the best feelings ever! This new one is all fancy with bolts to hold it together and everything.




Header courtesy of TNChick

Thirteen failed methods for trying to get your toddler to eat dinner: 1. Showing him how to eat it and telling him how good it is. 2. Hiding veggies in other appealing food. 3. Bribing him with root beer. 4. Bribing him with pennies or anything else for that matter. 5. Sneaking it into his mouth when he isn't looking. 6. Putting him on the naughty chair. 7. Reducing the amount he has to eat. Making baby bites and baby baby bites. 8. Making weird airplane noises. 9. Leaving him in his chair for extended amounts of time. 10. Telling him all his friends do it. 11. Reminding him of starving children in Africa. 12. Shoving it down his throat. 13. Telling him that if he doesn't eat it then he'll eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner the next day. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)




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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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New Lasagna Recipe

2 packages Lasagna Noodles
1/2 lb ground beef
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 jars of Prego spaghetti sauce
1 tsp Italian seasoning
10 oz. frozen chopped spinach (cooked according to microwave directions)
2 cups mozarella cheese
2 cups sour cream
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups shredded parmesan

Cook noodles, drain & set aside. Cook beef, garlic, salt & pepper. Drain. Stir in sauce and Italian seasoning. Cook spinach according to microwave directions, drain if there is a lot of liquid. Add to bowl of spinach: mozarella cheese, sour cream, 2 eggs. Fold into noodles. This recipe will make 2 8x8 pans or 2 9x13 pans if you only want a thin casserole. Put some noodles in the bottom of a greased baking pan. Put some of the meat/sauce mixture on top and sprinkle some parmesan cheese. Repeat (noodles, sauce, parmesan cheese).
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until heated through.

It was a lot of work as all homemade lasagna is but I like the spinach in it! It's kinda fun! Surprisingly, the Babe actually ate it! Well he ate the noodles but took the meat, cheese and spinach off. I also love making recipes that I can make once and put 1 in the freezer for a time when I don't want to cook. My mother-in-law (who is a wonderful cook) swears by Stoffer's lasagna and I think I agree it's a lot easier to buy it but occasionally it's fun to make!

Summer Book Drive / New Chore Schedule

Yesterday at church, I had 2 correlating thoughts. The first one was about participating in something called the summer book drive. The info sheet says that they are collecting brand new books to donate to Child Haven (a local shelter for foster children). The Primary is sponsoring this activity and they suggested that the parents encourage their children to earn the money to buy the books themselves. The 2nd thought came from something a speaker said. She said that we should teach our children to work. That when she was growing up they knew how to work and work hard! They didn't even know what sleeping in on a Saturday felt like. And to go along with the concept of teaching our children to work is that we should start when they are very little.

So this has brought me to my new idea. Starting this week, the Babe is going to start doing some chores. This week (only) he will get paid to do these so he can earn money to buy books for the book drive. He's pretty little so he doesn't understand the concept of money yet. But my thought process on this is that I've never babied him. So I am going to explain how it works and do it even though he may or may not understand what is going on. Now this sounds harsh so far but it's really not. Basically, the hubby and I need to get into habits of helping or motivating him to work around the house. So we started with 3 sets of chores per day. The 3 I've almost decided on are: first, he can open and close the 4 sets blinds we have in our living room (in the morning and evening), second he gets to clean his room every morning and after nap (he takes out books and a few toys so it would just be putting them away) and last he gets to water the flowers in the front and water the garden in the back. For lack of time, we are going to pay him $1 a chore this week so he can have $10 to buy books with sometime around Thursday. That's a lot but the hubby says we'll renegotiate salary after Thursday. lol. The only other suggestions we had on chores are helping with dishes (which I hate because it frustrates me more than anything), helping with laundry, and picking up all toys before bed (which I think isn't a chore just something he should do anyway). We also tried to find things that he enjoys doing anyway so it would be fun rather than a lot of work on my part for now. Now remember he's only 2 1/2 so any suggestions would be helpful.

BTW When do we renegotiate mom's salary??

Today we just noticed that our fish is missing! He's not in his bowl and we can't find him anywhere around the bowl. The only possible place he could be is perhaps he went down the drain? He was last seen yesterday evening around 6:00. Fish don't just disappear!

Thirteen Things I bought this week:

1…. Movie Tickets to see the new movie Cars. BTW I liked it! It was very cute!

2. Awesome shirt from Motherhood Maternity. Being pregnant is hard!


3. Father's Day Gift
???????????????????

4. Tools for the Babe, hopefully this will keep him from playing with daddy's real tools.


5. All the stuff needed to make freezer jam. I'm addicted to my mother-in-laws.


6. This gorgeous flower - I buy flowers once a week for our table or house so I love it when I find fun colors.


7. Dove Soap


8. This Flower Paper Punch. I'm making invitations for a party and have wanted one of these for a while.


9. Buns for Hamburgers/Hot Dogs. We're going to BBQ if the wind ever dies down enough so the hubby can get the grill started.


10. Gift Card to Home Depot for a friend. They just bought their first house!



11. Pretty bright toenail polish. Yes, I am vain, I do put little rhinestones on my toes. I'm weird.


12. Clean Water for our Beta fish. BTW he doesn't have a name....any suggestions?


13. This Classical CD that the hubby has wanted for a while now. Won't be here for 10 days.




Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)


Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Book Club Meeting Review

Last night was the meeting for the book club. I've never been to a book club before so I didn't know what to expect. Basically, we talked a little about the completed book for 30 minutes. I thought it was fun to hear the others opinions about the book and what they had liked/disliked.

Then they talked quite a bit trying to choose a new book. I don't claim to be an avid reader so I hadn't read 1/3 of the books they mentioned. I really enjoyed the clean romance genre but the next 2 books they are reading are from completely different genres. The next book is called The Secret Life Of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. They said this is a womanhood book, talking about the bonds between women. The book after that is Peter and the Starcatchers by David Berry and Ridley Pearson. This book is a borderline children's book about Peter Pan or something. Not sure I'll read either.

How to Eat Corn Dogs

We've made some progress with the new eating schedule. But today it was so funny! I can't stop laughing! Lately, the Babe has been taking the 1 bite of food into his mouth and gagging on it before he even chews it up. So at first, we thought perhaps he doesn't like the taste and would let him spit it out. But he learned that he got to spit it out if he gags. So now the rule has changed so he has to actually swallow his 1 bite.

Today we were having corndogs for lunch. I've never gotten him to eat a hot dog before. I think that he had 1 once with grandma and he got sick afterward so perhaps he associates the hot dogs with the sickness? He was pretty young so I can't believe he actually remembers that. Anyway he ate all the cornbread off and then all he had left was a little bite of hot dog. He finally put it in his mouth and just let it sit there. Personally, I think that letting food sit in your mouth is worse than just swallowing it. Of course, I know that hot dogs are the #1 choking food item so I wouldn't let him get down till he chewed it up and swallowed. He just sat there. It was quite hilarious! Occasionally, he would try gagging to see if I'd let him spit it out. Finally he bit it and then opened his mouth to show us that he'd bit it and it fell out. Gross!! The hubby finally got him to eat it.

What is wrong with this kid? All kids love hot dogs and corndogs! I'm pretty sure he likes everything we make him eat but he's just so stubborn that he won't eat more than the 1 bite that I force him to eat. Any suggestions on how to get him to eat an entire sandwich? I still have to feed him something else because he's missed lunch so many times because he'd only eat 1 small bite of whatever we were having. I'm not giving up. That's for sure. I guess I could just use the 'you'll eat enough of what we're having or you'll starve approach' but that's a bit harsh isn't it?

Teaching Opportunity

Today at church, I was asked to teach a lesson in Relief Society next month. This is extremely scary because I've done anything like it before. I have taught 1 relief society lesson in my life. I had just graduated from high school and it was an interesting experience. This is worse because I now know what I'm up against and the ward I'm in is so different from that tiny college summer branch. So anyway the lesson material is a talk by Russell M. Nielson called "Nurturing Marriage." I can already imagine these ladies looking at my 4 years of marriage and small 23 years of life experience as not qualifying me to teach on this subject. I understand that that sounds silly but of course I'm worried about being qualified for teaching on this subject. Because I know that if I got up to teach on dieting that everyone in the room would say, "Pffft. You've never dieted a moment in your life, I'm not going to listen to her." A lot of times people will say you're still a newlywed. So I've decided that I am going to ask 3 of the more experienced women in the ward to share their experiences about whatever which will do 2 things: a. take the attention away from my lack of experience and b. allow the pregnant teacher to sit down for a few minutes. I guess that is vain but any other suggestions on this subject would be helpful! Some of you guys have been married for a few years and could have some good advise.

Book Club Must Read

Our book club picked this book to read this month and at first I was a little upset about the decision. The woman who picked it said that you can't find it at the library, you practically just have to order it online at her website. I'm thinking great another book I can't get a copy of to read in time for this month's meeting. But I ask the lady who picked it and she let me borrow her copy (I was surprised she still had it). Anyway, it is an excellent book! I couldn't put it down.

As a teenager growing up in sheltered Utah, I thought that the category of romance meant books about people falling in love and at the end they at long last kiss or something. So when I picked up a romance novel in high school, my friends looked at me like 'you're actually going to read that?' It only took me 2 chapters before I threw it away. But this book is in my terms a clean romance novel! There is kissing but no sex and although it pushes the line a little, it never crosses. After I read it, I gave it to one of my best friends who doesn't read. She said I'll read the 1st chapter and she couldn't put it down either.

I actually was intrigued by her writing style enough that I ask the lady who picked the book if she had anything else written by this author and she gave me 2 more books that she wrote. So I read 1 of those and her style is very similar in that one too. It's nice that someone can actually write clean romance. I'll post about the meeting on Tuesday and tell you what others thought of the book as well (perhaps I'm the only one who got a hold of a copy of it).

P.S. Ok I'll give you that the picture is blurry. The book is Shackles of Honor by Marcia Lynn McClure.

Thirteen Things things to do with your playgroup of 10 2-year-olds (when just letting them play doesn't work) 1. Play post office. Get random boxes from your cupboard and wrap them in old paper bags to look like packages. You can use 1-cent stamps and let the kids address them to grandma or whoever. 2. Let them make sugar cookies. Help them roll out the dough and cookie cut them into fun shapes and watch them bake. If you're brave, help them frost them as well. 3. Which leads me to, feed them. Any sort of snack takes time and distracts them for at least 15 minutes with prep, eating and clean up. 4. Put in a movie. I hate to admit it but if you're desperate, it will distract at least a few of them. 5. Play dress-up. I grabbed an old laundry basket and put a bunch of shoes in it so they could all try on different shoes for the ball. 6. Have a race. Let them race into the bathroom and back or outside across the lawn. 7. Give them all a drink. This process takes at least 15 minutes as well. They all need to stay hydrated anyway. Water is easy to clean up and cheap. 8. Let them "bug hunt" outside. Give them all a bag to catch bugs in. Help them see different kinds of bugs. 9. Make a fort. This is dad's fav. Props blankets up for a fort. 10. Dance with them. Turn on some silly music and let them dance together. 11. Blow bubbles for them. 12. Go Fishing. Warning: this has eye poking out potential. Make a fishing poll out of a magnet, some string and a stick and let them pick up random metal small objects. Put them up on a chair for effect. 13. If all else fails, let them run amok or be bored. Today I hosted playgroup at my house with 9 2-year-old girls and my son (poor boy). I need more help, I'm running out of ideas and they still made a mess. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

The games we play to keep sanity

Today's gems come from something the Babe did today. He has recently taken to going into a room, closing the door and knocking on it till I answer, "who's there?" He'll then say, "It's me." Sometimes he'll wait till I say come in but most of the time he'll then open the door and say, "how are you?" This is very cute but today he did something different. I was talking to the hubby (probably asking him how work went today) when the Babe knocked on the door and did his usual. When he opened the door, he said, "Mommy, how was work?" We both laughed because I don't work and was with him all day.

Last night, the hubby was putting him to bed when he turned around to find him missing. The Babe had opened the door to the tiny linen closet and closed himself in. He was knocking on the door with the usual game that I play with him. So here's his cute picture from inside our linen closet. Isn't he the sweetest thing ever?

Just a Matter of Size

Why are people so stupid? I pose this question at the beginning of my post because I have come up with no other explanation for my problem except that people are just generally stupid and incapable of realizing how people will feel when they say certain things to them.

My issue is that everywhere I go people are always commenting on how I don't look 5 1/2 months pregnant. Now if it was casual comments, I wouldn't be upset. But someone literally said to me, "Don't tell anyone who is really 5 1/2 months pregnant (as if I was lying that I was 5 1/2 months pregnant)." I've given this some thought and I actually heard someone say the other day to a lady, "Are you sure you aren't having twins?" She wasn't huge but that's a pretty common question. Why would someone say that? It's almost like saying, "Oh my gosh, as if you didn't already know, you're as huge as a whale." No one would actually say that (well I would hope not). Now I have always been on the opposite end of the teasing my entire life. I was always teased because I was "too thin" which is just as bad as those who are teased for being large. (And yes I have just as much complaining rights) But it seems to get worse when you are pregnant.

In my efforts to try to give these people the benefit of the doubt, I thought perhaps they were simply pointing something out like, "Oh you have something in your teeth." But do they really think that I don't know that I am a little on the small size? Perhaps it is that they somehow need to feel better about themselves by saying that I have no right to complain about being pregnant because I didn't gain 70 pounds like they did. That still doesn't give them the right to publicly criticize me. At any rate, I am 5 1/2 months pregnant and yes the baby is growing normally and no my doctor isn't concerned. BTW, I also have the same pregnancy complaints as other women too, my back does hurt and my feet are swollen thanks for pointing those out too.

Mystery of the Reoccuring Hives

I am baffled because my son broke out in hives yesterday. The hives were only on his legs and progressively got worse throughout the day. He first got them in the morning and they went away with some Benadryl. They came back in the even just as we were leaving him with a sitter. I think they went away with some more medicine. When I finally got home at midnight, they were the worst I had seen them all day. I have racked my brain trying to figure out what could have caused them. Everyone asks the same questions, what did he eat, was he outside, or was it some form of bug bite. It wasn't a bug bite, he wasn't outside and he didn't eat anything too out of the ordinary for him. The 4 things that I think could possibly have caused them are: he ate some Hawaiian Pizza the night before (but he is a very very picky eater and I doubt he ate any of the pineapple), he ate the chocolate off a strawberry the night before (but he had a homemade strawberry shake a few days before with no reaction), he ate a few peanuts (but he has eaten peanuts on other occasions also), and lastly, this is a real long shot, I put him on the counter while I was making chocolate covered strawberries that morning and some of the strawberry fuzz may have gotten on his legs (I know the fuzz got on his legs but not probable that it's the cause). Anyway we had an entire hive-free day today! I hope the picture doesn't gross you out.

Monumental Occasion

This week we had a monumental occasion. Our car hit 200,000 miles! To preface this, we didn't put that many miles on it. When the hubby's parents bought the car, it had been a rental car. So it probably had under 100,000 on it then. When we got it from his parents, it had 170,000. We've only put 30K on it and we haven't had to do any major repair work. It's a great car! The hubby was so excited that he actually took a picture of the odometer when it hit 200,000. He's weird.