Got the t-shirt!

Well I've officially joined the crazies who've done it natural! As in NATURAL CHILDBIRTH! That's right folks, we have a baby and I didn't get my epidural - not by choice mind you! I think everyone who wants to go natural & has done it & would purposely do it again is a total hippie & crazy! Talk about the worst, most painful hours of my LIFE! It SUCKED!

We went to the hospital yesterday (Wednesday) morning around 9 and they determined I wasn't actually in labor yet cause my contractions were too far apart and I was still only dilated to a 2 (same as at my appt. the day before, which by the way I'd had my membranes stripped again & this time it hurt!). Apparently I was having "uterine irritations" in between the real contractions but since I'd never heard of uterine irritations I thought my contractions were 3-5 mins apart when we went. Anyway, they monitored me forEVER because my blood pressure was high & they ended up doing blood tests. After sitting in a hospital bed for 4+ hours they decided I could go home if I wanted. Since we were pretty sure I'd be back later that day we decided to just stay & have them hook me up to pitocin. After a few hours of pitocin I was only dilated to a 3 but the plan was to have my Dr. break my water, let me dilate to a 4 or 5, give me an epidural, & get the show on the road. So Dr. Taylor came in a little before 6 and broke my water (ouch!) and went home. Within 5 minutes I was having VERY painful contractions! The funny hair we'd drawn on the little pain scale faces earlier wasn't so funny any more. My pain was 10 - I was in tears. My nurse gave me a half dose of Stadol (basically a narcotic to take the edge off the pain) which didn't help so she gave me another half dose which made me extremely loopy & TIRED! I was high as a kite but could hardly keep my head up! And the pain was only reduced to an 8-9! My nurse told me no matter what I was dilated to when the anesthesiologist got there (like if I was still only a 3) she'd make sure I got my epidural. Of course the anesthesiologist had to run an errand first so it was going to be half an hour before he was there. So about 30 minutes later my nurse checked me & I was dilated to 8! She was pretty much shocked! After a few more contractions the anesthesiologist got there so she checked me again just to make sure I wasn't fully dilated but it turned out I was! So it was too late for the epidural! By that point I thought it would be a relief to push. Dr. Taylor had just got back to the hospital and barely had time to scrub up & have the nurses get the bed adjusted when it was time to push. 3 contractions/pushes later they put our new baby girl on my chest! And let me just say, FEELING a baby being pushed out is a whole nother world of pain- not a relief! Next time you have to take a big poop imagine pooping out - no, not a watermelon as many have suggested - watermelons are smooth! Imagine pushing out a freaking sculpture and having it take a minute! Natural childbirth SUCKS!

So yeah, it was pretty much the worst hour or so of my life! I HATED every second of it! Basically I went from a 3-10 in about 40 minutes. My main nurse said that in her 12 years she's never had anybody go that fast. Not that I want to even THINK about having another baby anytime soon after that traumatic experience, but next time I have a baby I'm going to make sure they plan on giving me an epidural either before they break my water or immediately after! (oh yeah, I went fairly quickly with Jackson too, but definitely not THAT fast! I got the epidural with him!)

One humorous/ironic thing: earlier in the day we'd heard another girl on the floor in labor for at least a couple of hours & she was VERY vocal with swearing, crying, and yelling. As bad as we felt for her I just kept thinking "shoulda got the epidural!" Ha ha!

So now the part you've all been waiting for. Duh-duh-duh! Here she is:

Ellie (because we like it) Jeannine (after Jer's Grandma) Divis

March 5, 2008

6:59 PM

7 lbs 2 oz

19" long

No news is not good news

I'm still pregnant. We're all making bets now about when it'll happen. If I weren't so uncomfortable I wouldn't be so anxious to finally go into labor! With Callie & Jackson I didn't have any painful contractions until I was actually in labor, but this time I've had plenty of them for weeks. It's just getting old! My prediction is that it will happen on Wednesday. Because my Dr. told me to make an appt. for early next week (Tuesday) and said that he'll induce me. And I'm figuring he'd induce me on Wednesday morning rather than Tuesday evening. So basically I'm thinking it won't happen until we do it by force! :)

One good thing about still being pregnant, at least until last night, was that I didn't miss my 2nd surprise shower! I guess for mutual 2 Thursdays ago they had a surprise shower for me, but that's when I was super sick so I didn't make it to it! They had cake & played games anyway & the girls all told me they had a great time at my shower! :) Then yesterday morning my mom called me & told me that my visiting teaching partner wanted to take my mom, Jer's mom (his parents got into town Friday night), & me to lunch because I guess I was supposed to get back to her (my partner) on throwing me a shower but I didn't realize I was supposed to be getting back to her & anyway my mom said she felt bad so that's why she wanted to take us all to lunch. So my mom arranged to pick Jill & I up just before noon & then we'd go get Shanna. Anyway, we got to Shanna's & there were balloons & people & it turned out to be a shower for me! I have to admit, I'd become a little suspicious. I think I'd be a great detective! :) So I kind of thought I might be going to a shower. It was seriously so cool though that I was given a surprise shower! I got way too much stuff - I'm totally spoiled! Unfortunately the only pictures that were taken were with my mom's camera on her phone! But I got some really cute outfits & lots of diapers & some dang cute socks & other little things & also a claw-foot baby tub! No kidding! It's the cutest infant tub I've ever seen! I haven't looked at the directions for the stuff that came with the tub, but apparently it's a little baby spa! So I guess it's a good thing that I hadn't had the baby because I would have been 0-2 on the surprise showers! :)

Jesus & the pirates

In primary during singing time a few weeks ago the chorister asked the children if they knew who was in the boat with Jesus in this picture. Callie was quick to tell everyone that it was the pirates & then told everyone about Jack Sparrow!


I promise we haven't let our children see Pirates of the Caribbean! Jackson LOVES pirates & we call him Captain Jack a lot & sometimes we call him Capt. Jack Sparrow, so Callie was already familiar with the name when we went on the Pirates ride at Disneyland & pointed out Jack Sparrow to her. Anyway, I thought it was pretty funny!

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!

Callie-isms

So a couple of funny things Callie's said. She was looking at my belly one day and talking to me about the baby and said, "But how's the baby gonna get out? There isn't a little door on your belly!"

Also on Saturday morning it was time to have a prayer over breakfast & Jeremiah had gone to wash his truck & Jack didn't want to eat so I told Callie that she & I would just say the prayer together. So she says, "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day..." Pause. After a moment she said, "Mom, it's your turn - you say what's next." I told her to go ahead & keep saying it so she says another part & pauses again. So I quietly told her what to say & she said "Say it louder." So I told her no, she should say it & she whispers, "But you said we were saying the prayer together! It's your turn!" So I'm whispering to her that I just meant that we'd say it without Daddy & Jackson & that she can finish it all by herself, but I think she even paused once or twice more waiting for me to take my turn after that. I thought it was so funny!

nesting

I'm totally nesting! I just can't stand the clutter & chaos around my house any more! Nobody believes me when I say I'm messy, so here's proof! Okay, this picture is in the middle of having pulled everything out of closets, cabinets, & drawers, but still, sometimes a room or rooms in my house will look almost like this!

We just have too much stuff! So I've been taking each room by storm, trying my darndest to part with my crap! I need someone to help me - seriously! I think, I can't get rid of these pipe cleaners! What if when my kids are 6 we do a project that uses pipe cleaners? Holy cow! Pipe cleaners are like 60 cents! I need to just get rid of them & buy them again when I need them (and throw the rest of the package out when we're done with the project). My clutter is made up of similar examples, ranging from crayons & pipe cleaners to more expensive things. If I haven't used something in 3+ years why do I have a hard time getting rid of it, no matter what it cost? Obviously it's not something I need in my life any more! And we're not destitute like when we were first married, so if I really need something again in the future I could always re-buy it, right? Easier said than done! So even with my renewed get-rid-of-it-attitude, there's still a lot things that we need that I just don't know where to put. Like where are we putting this new baby once she's a few months old & has outgrown her welcome in our bedroom? I think because Jeremiah's so good at tetris he's okay with just cramming a crib in our "office" (pictured above) & calling it a day, feeling like he's solved my "where to put it" issues, but that doesn't make a calm, relaxing home environment. And that's why I'm SO glad that his youngest brother Jonny just moved in! He's staying with us until he starts school in April so I insisted we clean out the office & let him have a bedroom while he's living with us. I'll be a little sad to take down my sweet workcenter, but I need to get over it like I need to get over a package of pipe cleaners. I don't use it that often & I don't see myself doing a lot of scrapbooking or any type of crafting in the next few months with a new baby, so it's for the best. After Jonny moves out & the baby is 2 or 3 months old we can have the baby in the office, which of course will no longer be an office. We may move the computer back in, but at least it will be housed in an armoire instead of the open desk it's currently on (which I just can't keep clean! It was never a good idea for a messy girl like me to have an open desk)! Enough of my rantings! Soon it will all have been just a bad dream.

Mrs. Milman's Chocolate Frosting

So I watched Martha Stewart a couple weeks ago & they made Mrs. Milman's Chocolate Frosting, which looked so easy & delicious! I've tried some other MS recipes before & some of them have turned out & some have not, which I think is pretty common with her stuff. But since I watched Mrs. Milman making the frosting I thought I could do it. And I did! Don't you love a success story? But unfortunately I was expecting the frosting to be fudgy & delicious & instead it was a ganache & had more of a dark chocolate flavor even though I used milk chocolate chips instead of semisweet. If you like that great, but it was a let-down for me. At least the cake & cupcakes looked pretty! If you make it, it makes a TON! I generously frosted a 3-layer cake, plus 12 cupcakes with it & still had enough for at least 6 more cupcakes, maybe more.

Pinkalicious

One of Callie's favorite books is Pinkalicious. "Pinkalicious eats so many pink cupcakes that she wakes up the next morning with pink skin and hair. The color just won't wash off, and the doctor diagnoses her with Pinkititis and tells her to eat green food to get better. Still, when her parents aren't looking, she sneaks just one more treat–and turns red. Startled, she starts to choke down her veggies and finally returns to normal. When everything seems okay, Daddy asks what happened to the other cupcakes, and Pinkalicious's little brother bounds into the room with one in hand, happily showing off his new pink skin." (amazon)


So Callie had been asking all week if we could make some pinkalicious cupcakes and last night we finally did! She hoped to eat enough to wake up with pink skin this morning, but alas, her skin is normal today. She woke up & said, "My skin isn't pink - that means I didn't eat enough pink pupcakes!"

12 on the 12th

I saw this idea in Simple Scrapbooks & I love it! The point is to pull out your camera on ordinary days & include everyday photos in your scrapbook. So on the 12th day of every month I'm gonna take 12 pics of the things we're doing that day. At the end of the year I'll use the pics to make a simple album of our everyday life!

---------------------------------------------------------------

Saturday, January 12th

Jack wakes up like clockwork most mornings! Usually within 20 minutes of 7:00 he's climbing into bed with us asking to watch cartoons.

I've been sleeping in & skipping making breakfast for Jer on Wednesdays like I usually do, so I finally got out of bed this morning & made him a decent meal.

Callie & Jack are so good at playing together! They love playing with Callie's dollhouse.


Today is mail day. I save it up until it's a huge chore & then spend an hour standing at the counter sorting, stacking & then ripping.


Having a picnic on the floor in the kids' room since it's too chilly out for one in the yard. We eat grilled cheese, clementines, goldfish crackers, strawberry milk, and fruit snacks.


I thought Jack was playing with his pirate toys in the living room. When he came back into the bedroom with wet hands I knew exactly what was going on (since this happened a few days ago too!)!

Jack is usually in time out at least a couple times a day! He's just at a tough age!

Getting out of the house by myself for the first time all week! I went to Penney's, Maurice's, Safeway, & Smith's. We're so glad Safeway had French Toast Bread! They run out of it quickly!

We wanted Panda Express for dinner but since they just opened here in Kingman on Wednesday, the wait was insane! The drive-through was backed up to where you turn into the parking lot & the line inside was long & twisted. Since we didn't prepare anything else for dinner I hit In-N-Out on my way home from errands.

The kids only get baths 2-3 times a week since they have such dry skin. They love bath time though & are so excited to use some new bath paints (which end up not really working)!

Jeremiah prepares a lesson for YM. He's in the Stake YM Presidency & has to give part of the lesson in Ward Conferences for the next several weeks!

While Jeremiah works on his YM lesson I work on stuff for YW - besides a lesson, stuff for New Beginnings.