DadGear Diaper Vest

This made me smile! Please don't tell me any of you own this (for only $80 at Babies R Us!!)!

Eviction Notice

That's what I issued this baby today at my Dr.'s appt when I had him strip my membranes! I woke up at midnight thinking I was for sure in labor & decided to try & go back to sleep for a few hours, but I wasn't that comfortable & I was pretty anxious so I got up about 4:30am to sit on the couch. Of course the contractions stopped! So at my appt. he said I'm still only 70% effaced & dilated to a 2 (up a 1/2 cm from last week!). I'm so surprised! I don't know how this baby's still inside with all of the strong contractions I've been having! So my Dr. thinks he'll see me this weekend, but I made an appt. for Tuesday just in case & he said he'll induce me if the membrane stripping doesn't end up working. It worked with Callie, but it was really painful with her & this wasn't a big deal so I wonder if it will work. Anyway, that's the latest! Put a fork in me - I'm DONE! He did warn me however that I can't have the baby tonight between 6-9 because he's got a pinewood derby to go to! :) That's okay, Lost & Survivor are on tonight!

sick!

It's been crazy around here for almost the past week! Even as I was posting my last post I was feeling pretty junky. I had a Dr. appt that afternoon & when I got home I just crashed & quickly deteriorated. I was SO sick Wednesday night! Then to add insult to injury, I couldn't hardly sleep because of my pregnancy-induced restless leg syndrome! My legs (and even arms!) have been bothering me at night for the past couple of months, occassionally keeping me awake for a while, but Wednesday night was the absolute worst! I'm sure it was because I was already so sick & achey, but I tossed & turned (and paced) from about 12:30am-5:00am! I just wanted to cry! And then I finally got to sleep just after 5 only to be woken by Jack an hour later (he was sick too)! Jeremiah stayed home on Thursday to take care of the kids & me, and thank goodness because I was a wreck! All day long my legs just killed! At one point the night before I'd checked out RLS on webMD & baby center & baby center suggested taking an iron supplement. I thought it was very interesting that it mentioned iron, because with Callie & Jack I took iron my entire pregnancy, and with Callie & Jack I never had leg problems! Coincidence? I don't think so anymore! After only 2 days of iron my legs felt better! And to think I could have had relief months ago! On Thursday night I took 2 Tylenol PM and between that & the iron, I finally got some sleep. They say btw w/RLS that antihistemines can make it worse (which Tylenol PM is), but as my mom pointed out my legs probably couldn't get any worse so I'm really glad I did it!

Okay, so I started feeling better Thursday night & Jeremiah started getting pretty sick. Plus Jack went to the Dr. on Thursday & turned out to have a respiratory infection & infections in both ears! So Friday Jeremiah was doing poorly from being up with Jack so much during the night. Also I took Jack back to the Dr. where he got a shot of antibiotics (since it's damn-near impossible to get any medicine down that kid's throat!!!). By Friday night Jeremiah was pretty sick! On Saturday afternoon he mustered up enough energy for me to take him to a Dr. & it turned out he had bronchitis, ear infections, a sinus infection, and the flu. Saturday evening he got a fever of 104.3 and I was just freaking right out! A Dr. told us to take him to the ER if after 1000 mg of tylenol & 1/2 an hour his fever hadn't gone down to about 102. After about 45 mins he was close to 102 and I was fortunately able to talk to Jeremiah's Uncle Jim who's a nurse who assured me he'd be okay & not to rush him to the ER since his fever was obviously on its way down. But seriously, it's been so crazy for me since Wednesday! And I've been a crying mess since Thursday between being really sick, not getting much sleep, worrying to death about my poor husband, taking care of sick children, and trying to keep up with dishes & stuff on top of it! Thank goodness my family's here & my mom & dad have been so helpful bringing us food & taking Callie for a while. Callie's sick too but amazingly enough has most of her energy. Poor girl totally has cabin fever & has been driving us crazy! She's high energy & can be difficult when I'm not sick! Fortunately I'm better (basically) now & today was a good day. I had to take Jack back to the Dr. for a second shot of antibiotics, but everyone's on the mend & I've been able to get some sleep so that I can handle everything! Today I took Callie to the park while Jack was napping & it was so good for her to get out & use some of that energy!

So at my appt. last Wednesday I was dilated to a 1 1/2 & 70% effaced. My Dr. said he thought it'd be about another week. So before I was praying that this baby would hurry up & get here, but now I'm praying that she'll wait until Jeremiah & Jack are better. Tonight I had no kidding like 20 contractions in an hour, but I had been making dinner & doing active stuff. As soon as I sat down the contractions mostly stopped. But it's crazy to think that I could go into labor at any time! Jeremiah's definitely improving but he still needs a couple more days to be well enough to handle having a baby! He's hoping she'll come this Friday so that her birthday will be on leap year day, or whatever day you'd call that. I don't care anymore, as long as Jeremiah's feeling better! I did tell him that if I have to have this baby alone I get to name her! (We don't like the same names. I don't know if Jeremiah likes any name!) We won't name her until we have her - not because you can tell at all that a squishy little newborn looks like a so-and-so (at least in our experience), but because we're kind of forced at that point to give the child a name! :) Wish us luck!

All about me!

It's been a LONG time (years!) since I've completed one of these so I'll humor you all!

Where were you born? Phoenix, AZ
Middle name: Jeanne
How old will you be this year? I turned 28 almost a month ago
When is your birthday? Jan 26
Nicknames: Hill
Are you taller than your mother or father? Just my mom, but not by a lot
Do you cry often during movies? Not cry so much as get choked up (maybe letting a tear or 2 escape). It's definitely due to all the hormones you unlock when you become pregnant & then a mother. Even when the pregnancy's over the hormone sticks around! I got all choked up while my kids were watching The Land Before Time when the dinosaurs made it to the Great Valley! And I was in the kitchen just listening!
What is your biggest pet peeve? Hard to say - a lot of things annoy me!
Favorite color: Pink
Favorite foods: Chicken Fetuccini Alfredo, El Palacio's Chicken & Cheese Flautas
Favorite beverage: Dr. Pepper! I'm ready to be hooked up to a DP IV! I don't normally drink much soda at all, but I've been quite addicted the last 7-8 months!
Favorite cold cereal: it changes a lot, from sugary kids stuff to more grown up stuff & then back again. but really I don't eat much cereal these days.
Favorite smells: Midnight Pomegranite Wallflower from B&B Works
Favorite time of day: 6:00 - Jeremiah gets home
Favorite make-up products? MAC Studio Fix, Clinique lipgloss
What is your favorite article of clothing? currently a pair of Gap pj bottoms
Favorite clothing brand? Gap - comfy & classic
How many pillows do you sleep with? normally 1, but lately 3 - one between the knees & one under an arm
Do you play an instrument? not really - I can plunk out stuff on the piano
Have you ever been skinny dipping? why yes
Did you do any sports in high school? nope, although some people would consider the pom squad a sport - I did letter in it after all! :p
What was the last movie you saw in the theater? Jumper, because we were too late for Fool's Gold. It was entertaining, but maybe not $18 entertaining (did I mention that our movie theater went out of business? the one that had new movies for $4.50?! so now we have to drive to Laughlin & pay $9/movie!)
What is your dream vacation? Probably anywhere with Jeremiah. I haven't done hardly any traveling so I'd like to go lots of places. We almost used Amex points to go to a Sandals resort, but we had to postpone it. Jeremiah thought anyway that we should just wait till this baby is older. Yeah right, who wants to babysit 3 kids?!
What was your first impression of your spouse? I thought he looked okay & he seemed pretty cool. I don't feel too bad about saying that I only thought he was okay because the first time he saw me he was across the apt complex without his contacts or glasses on (he's legally blind without them!) & he saw me walking by in this blurry blob & thought I was chubby & not that cute! How could he even make that type of judgement call?!
If you were an animal what would you be? ???
What is your favorite "me-time" activity? scrapbooking, computer time, reading, shopping alone
Favorite tv shows? Survivor, Amazing Race, House Hunters, Lost
Favorite candy/treat? There are SO many I love! Rocky Road ice cream, fruit w/fruit dip, frosted brownies (Betty Crocker has an awesome mix!), & mini Snickers to get you started.
Favorite flower? tulips & gerbera daisies
Favorite restaurant? Macaroni Grill maybe? I like eating at lots of places!
What is your dream car? Don't have one - I love my car now (Ford Expedition)
What is one of your weaknesses? sugar & overeating (esp. overeating sugar!)
What do you fix for dinner when there's nothing to fix? (928) 681-4800. Or goulash is usually something I have the stuff on hand for.
If you could ive in a different decade/era which one would it be? 50's - for the poodle skirts & dancing
What is the emotion you feel the most? lately? irritation!
Do you consider yourself outgoing? generally
What is something you are constantly working on? housekeeping & weight. well not the weight so much right now
Any hidden talents? ???
What is a word or phrase you overuse? like!
What did you do last night? watched tv, shopped online
Any new & exciting news to share? Maybe this afternoon! I have a Dr. appt. & I'm hoping I've started to dilate - that would make me feel a little better about being closer to D-day even though I realize it doesn't necessarily mean anything if I haven't started to dilate
How many years at your current job? 3 1/2 (motherhood)
What are you afraid of? Jeremiah or my children being killed
What is one thing you hope to accomplish this year? maybe we'll start building our house sometime this century!
The best piece of advice you've recently heard? We had an awesome YW lesson on Sunday so I'm just gonna copy & paste the part that really hit me. It's about trying to figure out decisions & getting answers to prayers (which so many of us have struggled with so many times):

"Because he [Heavenly Father] knows we need the growth, he generally does not point and say, ‘Open that door and go twelve yards in that direction; then turn right and go two miles …’. But if it is wrong, he will let us know—we will feel it for sure. I am positive of that. So rather than saying, ‘I will not move until I have this burning in my heart,’ let us turn it around and say, ‘I will move unless I feel it is wrong; and if it is wrong, then I will not do it.’ By eliminating all of these wrong courses, very quickly you will find yourself going in the direction that you ought to be going, and then you can receive the assurance: ‘Yes, I am going in the right direction. I am doing what my Father in Heaven wants me to do because I am not doing the things he does not want me to do.’ And you can know that for sure. That is part of the growth process and part of accomplishing what our Father in Heaven has in mind for us” (“What Is Your Mission?” in Speeches of the Year, 1979 [Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1980], pp. 97–98).

Valentine's Day

I like Valentine's Day because it means I get straweberries & fruit dip! Jeremiah & I decided from the beginning not to do gifts on V-day. Instead he makes me the fruit dip & washes/hulls the strawberries, & I make him sugar cookies. Every year. We both really look forward to it & these simple acts of love & thoughtfulness make the day a good one. Jeremiah also brought me flowers on Wednesday night - not only because it was Valentine's Day the next day, but because he thought I could use a pick-me-up. Let me just say, I adore my husband & I'm so grateful for the amazing guy that he is! I feel bad that I'm so grumpy a lot lately - totally Jekyl & Hyde! But he is very understanding & tries to help me feel better & easily forgives me when I'm awful. And daily he does things that show his love for me. He always has. I thank Heavenly Father all the time for blessing me with such a wonderful companion & best friend! I love you Jeremiah!

12 on the 12th

Tuesday, February 12th

I woke up to Callie showing me my broken glasses. I'd set them on the floor next to the bed (I don't have a nightstand) as I was going to sleep, so when she came in to say good morning she stepped on them & snapped them in half before she could even wake me up & greet me. She took them into the other room & was trying to hide them when she was caught and then instructed to tell me what had happened. Great way to start the day!

I love our elliptical machine! What a great purchase! I generally use it 4 times a week (this morning being one of my 4).

Callie's always loved books & reading and she picks up books even more now that I've mostly stopped turning on the tv during the day.

I don't enjoy laundry. It usually takes us running out of underwear or jeans before I wash several loads, dump them on the floor (where they stay for a couple days), and then finally spend an hour or more folding! It's a vicious cycle! (Callie took this picture!)


Jack is asking to pee on the toilet more & more! He gets an m&m when he does it.


The kids are ready for a trip to Laughlin (30 mins.) to go to the outlet mall (specifically Osh Kosh & Gap - my favs!). Notice the short sleeves? It was like 65 when we left Kingman, & Laughlin/Bullhead are usually about 10 degrees warmer! Osh Kosh had some great deals, like jeans for $12.50. If you buy little Levi's at WalMart they're $15 or $16!


I took them to ride on a couple of the little coin rides since they behaved so wonderfully in the first couple of stores. I also treated them to white chocolate dipped pretzel rods - it's a good way to keep them busy for a little bit while shopping & the white chocolate isn't usually too messy.

It was too late on Monday night to do Family Night so we had it Tuesday night instead. We made Valentines for each other & the kids had a great time cutting & gluing & eating glue-covered conversation hearts! Thank goodness for non-toxic glue! After we'd finished all the Valentines & were cleaning up Jack started eating the hearts off the Valentine that Callie had made for me. She was SO sad! Not because Jack was eating the candy so much as the fact that he "ruined my mom's Valentine!"


After making Valentines we baked Choclate Crinkles. They were delicious! I'd never made them before & was suprised when I'd started making them the night before that I had to refrigerate the dough (I hadn't read through the whole recipe)! It was almost like brownie batter consistency before refrigeration & I wasn't sure how they'd turn out but they did!


Getting the kids to bed is not enjoyable, except for the fact that when it's done (and they're asleep) we can finally relax! The routine is pj's, brush teeth, read a story, lights out & family prayer, and then tuck into bed. Very often Callie gets out of bed once or twice. Usually we take away her dolls for 3 minutes when she does this in hopes that she'll realize we're not messing around, but there have been many nights that the dolls are taken away a second time. I think it's time to go back to Jo's bedtime method (Supernanny).


This is typical after getting the kids to bed. And notice that Jonny has the remote? WTC? How does he end up in control so often? :)

Jeremiah & I played a couple heated games of Wheel of Fortune in our room before bedtime! Look at the focus as he spins the wheel! I'm much better at Wheel of Fortune than he is! :)

Like, whoa

I've realized for quite a while that kids absorb everything & that you have to be careful what you say/do in front of them. So I shouldn't be surprised that Callie has now adapted my poor vernacular. She has totally picked up the word like! She was telling me how "Jack was like bawling." And she'll start off a sentence with like. And she peppers her conversation with the word now. And then the other day too she said, "I'm so stoked that I get to play with Corinne today."

I'm so glad that now my 3 year old talks like a valley-girl too (as my sisters say I do). I don't mean to do it, but like's a hard habit to kick!

And now a less comical observation concerning my sponge daughter:
As a parent I make great efforts to shield her from seeing inappropriate content on tv & then some dumb babysitter ruins it. Somebody has let my child watch kissing scenes & now she is moving her head back & forth to kiss. I know she didn't get that from Jeremiah & I since we don't make out in front of our children! And I wouldn't let her watch something like that on tv & neither would Jeremiah, although I have had to nag him to change the channel at other times because of violence or inappropriate cartoons. (Some people can't understand why I feel like Spongebob is inappropriate, but come on! 3 year olds don't need to watch cartoons like Spongebob when there are nice, age-appropriate & educational cartoons for them to watch (when they watch them).) So it really angers me that somebody has been careless with my precious child in exposing her to scenes of passionate kissing. She's named this babysitter - a relative no less! Of course a 3 year old doesn't always give iron-clad information, so the babysitter shall remain unnamed in case she ratted out the wrong one, but it's likely that she got it right. Ugh!

Foot Sandwich

I was talking to Jeremiah's mom the other day, telling her about how all the YW in the ward are all ga-ga over Jonny (Jer's youngest bro who's living with us, also suffering from my anger) & we got to saying that Jonny's such a level-headed guy that he'll probably find a wife who's really cool & that her personality will be much more impt. to him than her looks (not that she shouldn't be cute cause Jonny's cute). Anyway, his mom said,

"I think out of all my boys Jonny will be the wisest when it comes to choosing a wife!"

Jeremiah's sister was in the background on his mom's line just rolling after she said that! I was laughing really hard too (good thing my hormonal roller coaster was in a good spot at the time!) So then his mom started totally back-peddling. "I didn't mean it like that, all my daughters-in-law are wonderful..." Sure, sure. :) Good thing I feel pretty secure in her like/love for me! :) Jeremiah said I definitely had to write this down so that we can't ever let her forget it, so blog it is!!!

Baby Blues

This baby is giving me the blues. Or maybe it's more like the reds, since I'm grumpy & angry rather than depressed! Poor Jeremiah! Poor Callie & Jack! When I was pregnant with Callie it was pretty much 9 mos. of euphoria. With Jack I don't think I'd say euphoric, but still pleasant. This baby just makes me angry! Fortunately it hasn't been the entire pregnancy - just off & on for the past couple of months starting with mostly good days & a few grumpy. But the last couple of weeks it's mostly all grumpy! And it doesn't help that I'm not sleeping well at all! Hopefully my hormones quickly get back to normal once the baby comes! I have 4 weeks to go but I'm ready any time! :) Jeremiah has even started telling people that he hopes this baby comes soon so he can have his wife back! Me too. I don't like being angry. I have been doing a pretty dang good job of keeping up on the housework & I've made dinner almost every night for the past couple of weeks. Jeremiah has noticed my efforts & commented on the trade-off; before he had a happy wife & a messy home, now he has a clean home & an angry wife. It's a catch-22. He's not sure which one is better/worse. Not that he has a choice right now! :)

So here I am in my hugeness. Actually I don't know that this picture gives a good enough depiction of my actual size since we all know black is a slimming color! :) Oh, I'm helping Callie brush her teeth in this picture (since you're probably wondering what in the world is going on - she's using toothpaste with flouride so I'm holding her hair back while she spits). I just don't have any other pictures of my belly right now. :)

Hamburgers, anyone?

I know this is a silly thing to share, but I get pretty excited about food! I'd been waiting for hamburger to go on sale for weeks! I usually buy about 20 lbs of it when it does & package it in 1-lb increments so that I have a good meal-ready supply in my freezer, & I'd been down to a pound for far too long! My mom started packaging her hamburger like this (see below) & I think it's brilliant! Not only does it stack nicely, but it freezes quickly & defrosts quickly as well. Just put a pound in a pint-sized ziplock & smash it flat. I also had been waiting for chicken to go on sale but due to some issues with the normal frozen brand I buy I opted for fresh this time. I hate re-packaging chicken and I usually do one breast per sandwich bag, but it gets all folded up on itself & can sometimes be a pain to defrost. So this time I laid all the chicken out on cookie sheets & froze it & then put it in gallon-sized ziplocks so it's almost like buying it frozen. The nice thing about the frozen stuff is that it's all about the same size & it's fairly flat.


So what are good prices you ask? I paid $1.79/lb for 85/15 hamburger. I usually like to get 93/7 when I can find it on sale for $1.99/lb, but like I said, I'd already been waiting for a while & who knows when 93/7 will go on sale. To give you a comparison idea, at Sam's club the regular price for 90/10 is like $2.39/lb, and 80/20 is about $2.09/lb. And if you just went to WalMart & bought it for normal price, I think something like 90/10 is over $3/lb. And as for chicken, at Sam's a big bag of frozen chicken is about $2.40/lb. I paid $1.89/lb. And there have been tons of times that I've paid $1.49/lb for both hamburger & chicken (pre-frozen chicken even, but like I said I've had some issues w/the brand I buy). So there's all you never cared to know about buying chicken & hamburger!

A home of its own

Like I said in my previous post, I have wanted a computer armoire for a long time! I'm so excited that we finally got one! We're pretty cheap when it comes to furniture buying (gotta love Craigslist) so this was a big purchase for us! I was pretty excited about the good deal we got on it though - I found it on Overstock which was already cheaper than any other place, plus I got $1 shipping & was able to use a 10% off coupon! My sister Chelsea also told me about this ebates site that I signed up for & is now sending me a $10-15 rebate by mail. So here it is! It looks even nicer IRL than it did on any of the websites. I was so nervous about it! It was a good buy though- I'm SO happy to have a new home for our computer!