Rain, rain, go away

Today is one of those cloudy, rainy days that just make you feel blah.  But I just made some coffee (yes, I'm a nursing mother who still drinks coffee- don't judge me) and I'm hoping to make the best of the day.  (Once the coffee kicks in of course.)

The best part is the girls have today off of school for Veteran's Day.  (A Day I never know quite how to celebrate.... but that's another post I guess.)

I've had lots of ideas swirling around my head for things to write about.  But I'm still in limbo land of not sure what I want out of this blog.  Should it be like a journal or should it just be a mommy-blog where I post updates about my children?  Or some sort of in-between?
I've been wanting to jump back into blog-land because now that I'm home with the baby I have more "time" to blog.  Which isn't really true.  I should be using any extra time to keep my house in tip top shape. But anyone who knows me knows that....that's just not how I roll.   I'm all for cleanliness.  But we don't have to get crazy or anything. ;)
So....this has become quite the random post.  But I'm almost finished with my coffee.  So I guess I'll go organize some closets or something.  (BLAH!)

Great idea for Christmas!

I just saw this on Pretty organized palace's blog ( http://prettyorganizedpalace.blogspot.com/) It's a way to give your child a letter sent from Santa-postmarked from the North Pole and everything. And my favorite is that the letter has Santa reminding the children not only to be good, but to tell others the real reason of Christmas.
Maybe I'm a sucker, but I'm totally doing this for Madeline and Noel. (Shhh....don't tell them.)


I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner! Eek! And Eloise is going to need a stocking! Better go start my list.

Been a while...

So it's been a while. Blogging always makes me want to take more pictures of my children though, so perhaps I need to do it more.
Apparently blogger's being weird right now or else I'd add some pictures.  *I might have figured this out.  If you see pictures, it means I did. ;)

Eloise is doing great! She's found her fingers (something the other two never did.) I'm a little concerned about the finger sucking because unlike a pacifier I can't take them away someday. But for now it means she's able to sooth herself to sleep-which has made her a superb sleeper! Yippee! (And I know I'll jinx it by saying this but she's even slept through the night the past two nights! Can I get an Ay-men?!)

Madeline & Noel love her. Noel especially (which I didn't expect- I kinda expected Madeline to be the one most interested in Eloise.) And I LOVE the fact that they are old enough to go play together while I tend to the baby. Makes life with three pretty great, actually.

I do get a little stir-crazy being in the house so much. Eloise is definitely not the kind of baby who likes to be awake any longer than 1 hr. Seriously. You can set your clock by her.
If she's been up and fed and starts to fuss, you know it's because she's tired. She doesn't fuss for any other reason. (Have I mentioned what a terrific baby she is?!)

Life is good. God is good!
How are you, my friends? If you're reading this and you and I haven't chatted in a while, give me a call! :) Muah!

She's finally here!!!

Yeah...so all that complaining for nothing, right? But I guess I did need to vent about being a week overdue.
But no more! For she has arrived!
I'll spare you the details for now- eventually I'll want to write out the story, but for now, even though any of you that read this blog know by now that she's here, I'm still gonna brag that she is. And post a picture.

Without further adieu, meet Eloise Anne, born August 3, 2009 at 2 pm (NO c-section- YAY!!!) 8 lbs. 11 oz. (HA! to the scary ultrasound measurements!) and 21 inches long. She's absolutely perfect and adorable, don't you think?

*SIGH*

Do you see what I see at the top of my blog page? "ticker expired" Which means "baby should be here by now."
SIGH.

Yes. She should.

And I'm totally learning all of the things I hope I never say to another woman in this situation.

"Why haven't you had that baby yet?"

"Are you still here?"

"Are you having twins? You really look big."

And my favorite, yesterday, a random woman at the mall just stopped, stared at me and kept saying "Wow. WOW." over and over. And proceeded to have the most shocked look on her face that someone "in my condition" was out walking around the mall. I politely answered that I was attempting to walk to encourage the baby to join us and got away from her as quickly as possible. She probably stared in awe the whole time I walked away from her...but I didn't look back to check. She made me feel enough like a freak show.

What are people thinking? Is it that unusual for someone to go a week over their due date?

Ok. Off the soapbox. I really hope my next post will include good news about a baby. It's just got to.

Random thoughts- from Jon & Kate to....crafts?

The waiting game is still hard, but my mind is definitely busy trying to distract me.
I really should make this two different posts. But I'm too impatient to do that. The two topics I've been planning to blog about are 1.) marriage, again and
2.) crafts

so...this will be perhaps my most random blog post to date. Aren't you excited?

As for marriage. I know I just posted that Time article and wrote about that. But since then, I can't seem to get another big marital story off my mind: Jon and Kate plus 8. If you've had your head in the sand for the last few months, then you may not know who I'm talking about. If that's the case, I'll wait while you google "Jon and Kate plus 8"..... because I'm nice like that.

Ok. So I have never watched the show religiously (since I VERY rarely watch any show religiously- maybe The Office and American Idol could go in that category, but that's it.) But it was one of those good "fold the laundry" type shows. Especially if it came on during the day while my girls were around- something I didn't mind being on if they were to see it. And those 8 children are quite charming. I would watch in amazement at the bookshelves in their garage full of countless shoes. And her laundry! I even learned a great trick from the show for cutting pancakes: using a pizza cutter! So much quicker than a knife and fork.
And now I'm just heartbroken for that family. And I really shouldn't make an outsider's guess as to "why this marriage failed." It definitely takes two to tango. And I certainly can't imagine what the media barrage did to destroy any semblance of a union they may have been already struggling to hold on to. As for Kate, Todd watched one part of one show and said "she totally demasculates him!" (Ok- I just learned something new: the word is not demasculate, but instead emasculate. Thanks merriam webster online!)
Anyway...the point is, from a man's perspective, it didn't take him long at all to see the way Kate talked to Jon for Todd to be totally repulsed. And I'll admit, I cringed so many times watching the way she spoke to her husband and ordered him around. I know every couple is different. And perhaps being in front of cameras and edited, they may have only shown us those sides and never the kinder sides of their interactions. One can hope, I guess.
So I guess from what I've been shown from the show, I would see it as a classic case of: man needs respect like he needs air to breathe. He doesn't get it and eventually has to get out to survive. (Pile on top of that the obvious craziness of a house full of young children and it's a recipe for disaster.)
But those children! Ugh! I guess all I can do with this sympathy is take it to a Heavenly Father who can comfort them through this. And probably turn off the tv more. (At this point it's like watching a bad car wreck- you know you should just keep driving, there's nothing you can do, but you just can't help it.)

Ok. Enough of the sad thought processing. Now on to....crafts?! Yep. Crafts. I'm not talking crafts like you did at camp when you were little (though we have a TON of those going on here most days- that's for another post.)
I'm talking about crafts my little nesting mind wants to do. Because I am SO one of those people that sees something at the store and says "I can make that at home for so much cheaper!" And you know what usually happens? actually it's one of 4 things:
1.) I buy all of the things I think I need to make it, start to make it, realize I need 1 more thing, but never end up getting it.
2.) I make it, but it turns out nothing like what I'd hoped.
3.) I think about it the whole way home from the store, dreaming about how I'm going to make it, but never follow through.
4.) I make it and I like it almost better than the original.

Obviously, #4 is the most desirable outcome.
And since this post is getting incredibly long, I'll just see if I can find pictures of the kinds of things I'm dreaming of creating soon:
Something like this:

(Taken from here:http://www.iwantedtowonder.com/store/WsDefault.asp?One=1003)

or:
Taken from here:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26953306&ref=sr_gallery_1&&ga_search_query=big+sister+frame&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_page=&order=date_desc&includes[]=tags&includes[]=title

I've got a few more, but you'll have to just wait and see if I get to it. After all, I'm about to be getting NO sleep and trying to remember how to navigate life with a newborn. Eek!

Baby progress

So...I had another doctor's appt. today. In case anyone reading this blog is unfamiliar with pregnancy progress- at the end they want to see you every week for at least the last 4 weeks. By the time you have your baby you feel like those nurses and your doctor have become quite close friends. It's kinda sad, really.
Anyway...at my 36 week checkup I also had an ultrasound. And even if my scanner was working (which it's not) I couldn't share the pictures with you. Because there are none that even closely resemble a baby. Because apparently this baby is both big and stubborn. So big that each picture is a big blur. And so stubborn that she would not move her face so that we could get a look at her. *humph* But the part that worries me the most at this point is the "big" part. Yeah. I don't think you need me to explain why that has me a bit concerned.
And then this week, in hopes that perhaps she'd slowed down a little bit, I laid back for the "measuring of the tummy"- the way an O.B. gets an estimate of how far along you are, how big the baby is, etc.... and lo and behold, I'm measuring over 40 weeks (even though I'm technically only 38) and the baby estimates at over 9 lbs.! Eek!
I really don't want to rush anything....but I do kinda wish if she's done cooking that she'd get a move on. Especially since bending over and getting much accomplished around the house is fairly pointless right now.

Ok- I should probably go back and rewrite this whole post. Who wants to hear a 9 month pregnant woman complain?! Ugh.
But I am of the opinion that I do a little too much second guessing sometimes. And I can become too paralyzed by all of the explaining away my head tells me to do. So...I'm going to leave it as is.
With this little addendum: we are extremely excited to meet our little one. And I know that the second I see her, all the aches and pains and normal pregnancy annoyances will vanish. And we will quickly fall in love with our sweet little girl.