Friday, July 31, 2009

It's about time

I finally made an appointment to get the kids picture taken. Poor David is 6 months old already and this will be his first professional photo shoot. Money is always an issue, but we're just going to bite the bullet and get the pictures done. You can never go back in time and I don't want to let this precious time in their life pass without being captured by a professional lens. My camera never does them justice.

Now to decide what they will wear. It has to be something that is already in their wardrobe because we can't afford to go buy something new, but they have TONS of cute clothes thanks to NeNe & Baw Baw (my mom and dad) and Nanny and Poppy (my mom's parents).

UPDATE ON CHOCOLATE ECLAIR CAKE: FAILURE
I have no idea why it didn't turn out!! I am so upset!! I'm going to have to trash the whole thing and probably just pick something premade up at the grocery store on the way to YAMs tonight. That's our Young Adult Group. (Young Adult Ministry= YAM) Sorry Miranda!! I tried!

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Time out

Those two words I swear I say at least 20 plus times a day!! Grrrr!! Don't get me wrong, Eve is a good girl, but she just loves to push the limits...and that doesn't fly over here. But no matter how many times I put her in time out, she still gives me kisses and hugs at bedtime....LOVE it!

So I'm sitting here waiting on my chocolate eclair cake filling to thicken. I don't know what's up with it! I made it according to the recipe I have used 10 times before. OH well, if it doesn't turn out quite right, I know Miranda will still eat it!! haha.

So I'm proud of myself for being a good wife. I have made dinner almost every night that we're home lately!! That's a HUGE accomplishment for me since I hardly ever cooked before. Not that I can't, or don't like to, but because it's a juggling act trying to find the time, motivation, energy in between diaper changes, taking Eve to the potty 20 times a day, bottle feedings, time outs, and random toddler messes. For all of you moms that have just always done it, KUDOS to you. I'll even throw in a cookie. It's tough!

OK, back to chocolate eclair cake making....oh, and it's not really a cake per se. It's more like a dessert casserole. Super easy to make only 5 ingredients.


CHOCOLATE ECLAIR CAKE

2 sm. pkgs. vanilla instant pudding (I use sugar free/fat free)
3 c. milk1 (8 oz.)
Cool Whip1 pkg. (I use cool whip free/ no fat or sugar!)
graham crackers (I use Low fat Honey grahams)
1/2 tub Chocolate icing (I use 50% less sugar)

Make vanilla pudding with just 3 cups of milk. Mix Cool Whip with pudding. Layer in a 9 x 13 inch pan as follows: (I put a think layer of cool whip mixture on the bottom to make the grahams stick better) layer whole graham crackers, then 1/2 Cool Whip mixture, then layer graham crackers, then other 1/2 of Cool Whip mixture, then top with graham crackers (one layer). Frost with chocolate frosting for Eclair Cake.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

The Weekly Update

It seems that I am only able to get on here about once a week or so go blog. I'm sorry. I think about it every day, but then I always have something else to do. So let's see....here's the update on the last week since I haven't blogged:

1. Sunday before last we had our picture taken at church for the directory. It turned out ok except Eve's dress was twisted halfway around her body. Why don't photographers notice that stuff before they take the picture?? We tried again to get a good shot with her dress on straight, but no luck. Oh well, such is life with a 2 year old and 6 month old. Unpredictable.

3. We visited Jesse's family who had not seen David since he was born. Well, his mom, brother Johnny, and our nephew Justin had, but no one else. We had a great time, chilled over at Jeremy and Jessica's. Eve even had a great nap over there which is weird. She never naps at other people's house except my parent's house. Anyway, I learned never to ask an 8 year old to watch a 6 month old. Scary.

2. While we were over my parents house this weekend, Eve was playing in the pool. She discovered that it is way more fun to slide down "backsards".

3. I love how Eve says, "I pooped gas." Priceless!!

4. We had a double doc appt. I decided that it was much more efficient and time-saving to schedule both the kids' doctor's appts together. Eve was a little over 2 years, but it didn't matter. They both got shots, cried, then Eve had to get her finger pricked to check her iron level AND get a chest X-ray to rule out heart and/or lung problems that could contribute to her lack of weight gain. Everything was fine. I knew she was fine. If you get to see her for 5 minutes you can tell she is a smart, articulate, healthy little girl. She just only weighs 21 lbs and 4 oz, but she's all energy ALL the time. Mr. David is already 16 lb 13.5 oz. He's slowly gaining on his sis. Anyone want to make a bet as to when he'll meet her weight??

5. Had my 2nd OB visit yesterday. Heard the heartbeat for the first time! It was between 155 and 160. I think it's a girl!! I weighed in at 133 lbs. I asked what I weighed at the same week last pregnancy....127. Not too bad I suppose considering that I still had about 6 lb left to lose before I got pregnant this time. We shall see how much weight I gain this time. I should post a pregnancy weight meter or something. I usually get up to about 158-160ish. Anyone wanna take a gander at what my final weight will be? Go ahead, you won't insult me. It's all going to go anyway after I get this baby out. I'll be a woman on a mission!

6. Jesse and I went to help our good friends Laurie and Topher hang their new ceiling fan. Yes, my husband is a handy man. He is for hire if you are interested!! (Just joking, but not really if you are willing to pay him lots of money!!) Then we hung out by the pool for a while. Eve got to "sim, sim" and I got to get some sun sun. For some reason, Miss Eve will talk about Topher constantly when we're not around him, but then avoid him like the plague when we're around him. She finally warmed up to him near the end of our visit, but let him know a few times when he got too close. She reacts to him in much the same way that kids react to Santa. Awe and wonder....at a distance. She's too funny.

7. I spent all morning trying to figure out this software that converts VHS to DVD's and FINALLY figured that thing out! Oh my goodness!! I was on the phone with tech support about 5-6 times and had to uninstall and reinstall everything twice and reinstall a patch twice!! Grrr!! I hate spending half the day focusing on one aspect of something. Once we got it working, we were able to capture two VHS videos onto my computer. We just can't burn them to DVD until we get some compatable DVD's. It doesn't work with the mini DVD's. Boo. Anyway, I'm excited about converting all our cruddy VHS's to DVD and creating menus and chapters, etc.... Exciting!!

8. I LOVE coconut M&M's!!

9. Jesse had a job interview last Friday which went quite well....waiting to hear back SOON!! If he gets the job he will have to go for training for a whole week in SC. Boo for that, but yay for money and paying the bills!! Please pray!!

10. As I was giving David his medicine this morning, I noticed he was gagging on it a bit more than usual. He takes Prevacid which has to be compounded. That means they literally take it in pill form, grind it up, then mix it into a liquid suspension to the right dosage, then flavor it so it doesn't taste like a bitter nasty pill. Well, it took me a while to realize, but THEY FORGOT THE FLAVOR!! Poor David. That stuff is nasty with the flavor, but SUPER DUPER nasty without. Ew. Taking that stuff back to Walgreens tomorrow to get some bubble gum added.

11. Oh yeah!! Jesse got pooped on finally!! haha. Not by a bird, but by David of course! Now we have both been hazed.


Ok, so that's about all I can remember right now. I'll try to be better about this blogging thing. I will make an effort to post something every day, even if it's just a line or two.

Monday, July 20, 2009

It's over!!

COMPS is done. I passed the big part. Just gotta wait and see about the essays. I feel dead. Maybe it's because I stayed up til 1am last night, got up at 6am, was cramming until I left the house at 8:10, took a 200 item multiple choice exam followed by more cramming followed by answering a research question (7 pages), followed by composing a 15 page integration essay. So my day didn't end until about 9pm...well really 10pm if you count the editing of the essay. Now it's time to sleep....

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

MIM

Missing in Motherhood. That's what I've felt like lately. I haven't had much time or energy to blog. I did write this rather nice blog a while ago, but there was some error and it got deleted. So here's the update on the events of the last week:

Friday July 10th: I had my first ultrasound this pregnancy to confirm the dates. They said I am five days further along based on their predictions, but I know that at this stage of pregnancy, those predictions are accurate plus or minus about 5 days, so my due date could still be exactly the same. My original due date was January 27th (David's 1st birthday no less!), but it could be as early as January 22nd. And no we don't know the sex yet. We won't find out until about 20 weeks. At this stage, boy and girls all look the same and from what I hear they both look like they have little pee pees. And the thing sticking out of the stomach is the umbilical cord, NOT little boy stuff. Here is the picture:



Saturday, July 11th: Ocean Breeze day! I don't have any pictures from that day except the before and after picture in the van. It's pretty hilarious. Eve had lots of fun! Her favorite thing were these little bouncy seats that hung from a bungee so she could jump and splash in the water. Jesse, my dad, my mom, my brother, and his girlfriend Lauren all did the Hurricane. In my opinion that thing should be called the Flusher or the Toilet bowl because it shoots you down this pipe into a toilet bowl looking thing where you circle around until you get flushed out the bottom into an 8ft water pit. I would have loved to try this thing if I were not with child and therefore prohibited.

But seriously, I could have passed for not being pregnant. There were plenty of people walking around in bikinis that looked much more pregnant than I....and they were undoubtedly NOT pregnant. I try not to be judgemental about such things. I try to think "Christianly" thoughts, but I am still human.

We ran into Katy and her kiddos along with Karen and Teresa. We just came so we could crash Maya's birthday since we weren't invited. Just kidding guys!! I am totally not offended at all...I COMPLETELY understand ;o) But it was fun seeing them there. I got to sneak up behind Katy and pinch her butt...that was fun. Katy is so easily startled. I love it.

Here are the before and after pics of Eve:







And here's a random picture of what I saw when looking in the back seat. Where did she learn this?? I'm really confused.



Sunday, July 12th: David's baby dedication! Our Youth Pastor, Leon Dunning, who also happens to be good friends with us and actively involved in the Young Adults Ministry (YAMS) with us dedicated David. His lovely, super cute wife, Miranda Dunning, sang the song by Mark Harris called "Find Your Wings." So good!!! It was such a great moment. David was so cute. Cooing, smiling, and giggling the whole time. Here are some pictures we took after church:


Monday July 13th: Play date with MOPS moms and kids. I took just Eve over to my friend Lara's house way out in Deep Creek to play with three other kids outside in a kiddie pool. Eve had lots of fun minus slipping on the pavement about 5 times and pooping in her swimsuit. I thought I might try going without a swim diaper since she has never pooped in one. Wrong!! And not only that, she decided to go some more after she was naked and went into the play house and dropped a few. Fun!! Sorry Lara!!
So all in all, it has been an eventful weekend and Monday. Yesterday and the rest of the week I'm all about studying for COMPS on Monday. That test of looming over my head like little black rain cloud over Winnie the Pooh. I'd just like to press fast forward on all the NOT fun and stressful events in life. Please pray that I pass and don't have to retake it. OK, gotta get David, he's been cooing for about 10 min now.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

How not to help someone (Emotionally)

1. Point out the obvious.
2. Give your opinion.
3. Don't listen.
4. Hang up the phone on said person because they were just trying to explain that pointing out the obvious only stresses them out more.
5. Rehash the obvious every day.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Lost and found....oh and a spider built a web in our toilet bowl....

Yeah, seriously....gross. Does that tell you something? Jesse needs to clean the bathrooms REAL bad. That's his job. My domain is vacuuming/dusting/wiping down of stuff. Not scrubbing tubs, sinks, and nasty toilets. I did enough of that growing up and had to clean up after my brother. I'll never forget the time....well, maybe I shouldn't go into that one since my brother has a serious girlfriend now. It's a tad embarrassing.

So anyway, this little spider managed to build a lovely little web in our downstairs toilet. I really don't know how that's possible being that I pee there about 15 times a day. Talented spider. Anyway, I'm sure he's putting all those childhood swim lessons to use as he is swimming around in the local sewer system right now. Thank you plunger.

So today this nice young guy came over to inspect the Jetta since we are going to turn in back into the dealer. He said everything looked good except we owed $43 and some change for a missing hub cap. I was like, "what?" And he was like "what?" No, not really. He just showed me that the front passenger hub cap was missing. I was sort of shocked and surprised to see that I had been driving around in a completely ghetto fabulous car today. Nothing looks better than a nice vehicle missing one hub cap. Anyway, I called Jesse and sent him on a search. It had to be somewhere between our place and my mom's place. No luck.

I also called the place that installed two used tires on our Jetta yesterday to inform them that they must have not properly installed our hub caps. They were more than gracious and offered to reimburse for a new one, but wanted to see if they could get us a better deal. On the way home, I spotted a hub cap!! I pulled over, put my flashers on, got out and snatched it up. The whole time I was hoping and praying it was ours since it was lying face down on Lynnhaven Pkwy. By the way, it had apparently jumped the median and was on the side of the road that I was driving home on. It must of flown off!! I can't believe I didn't even notice it.

So anyway, I was glad to have found that thing. It was very gratifying to find something that was considered lost and unlikely to be found. I mean, what are the odds of finding a hub cap that could have come off anywhere? Those things can travel quite a distance and land in a ditch or something.

So this evening, you would think that I would be happy. I mean, great day right? Spider web in the jon and I found the lost hub cap. But no. Not happy. Our financial situation is getting scarier and scarier each month. I try not to worry, but I just had another meltdown. That's two nights in a row. Pretty awesome. I LOVE having mental breakdowns. If only I could be so lucky as to find a winning lotto ticket on the side of the road....

Friday, July 3, 2009

Wonderful day!

Today has been one of those just really great all around good days. We went to the pool to hang out/swim/grill out with our friends Laurie and Topher today. David was kind enough to nap for the first two hours or so that we were there so Eve and I got in some good pool time before he woke up. Jesse came too, but refused to get in the water. He just sat in the lounge chair with my bathing suit cover up over his head looking like a Middle Eastern man.

We had burgers and hot dogs (turkey for us of course!) and then some yummy fruit popsicles. It was fun to watch Eve eat one all by herself without worrying about her making a royal mess. I still can't figure out how the bottom of her bathing suit got all dingy. I know she didn't do a number two...or at least I'm pretty sure. Oh well! If she did, it disintegrated into the pool water. I'm sure the chlorine took care of it!!

We got home and both of the kids took a nice nap. I got a nice shower. David woke up, ate, got a bath, and is sleeping AGAIN! I love it!! And last night Mr. David slept from about 8:15pm til 7am without making a peep!! It was awesome!! It took about 5 months, but he's finally getting the hang of this "sleeping all the way through the night" thing.

Sorry, no pictures from today. I was too busy enjoying myself. I think sometimes we are so busy trying to get that "perfect shot" that we forget to have fun. I'm glad I didn't worry about taking pictures today. And I think we have the tendency to go overkill sometimes on the pictures. Now that digital technology is mainstream, people take hundreds of pictures in one day!! I remember when I was a kid (haha....sounding old!!) I took my camera with me to camp with one roll of film. And that was it. No more. I think I might have taken an extra roll a few times, but even so, that's a max of about 50 pictures for the whole week. I know I've been guilty of snapping 50 in about 30 minutes before!!

Ok, I'm getting off my soap box. Back to a little relaxation before our Young Adult Group meeting (aka YAMS). Yet another great part of a wonderful day!!

And tomorrow......BEACH!!!! Whoo hoo!!!!!