Top 10 Things I Love...Today

Let's begin. These are the things that have made me a very happy person today despite it being a CRAZY day where I think I left my brain in bed. Seriously. I bought THREE things that we couldn't use and one I couldn't return. I gave twenty extra bucks to a lady I was buying a bed from (luckily I got that back) and I dropped my wallet all over the floor in Smiths. Next was the car. I put Claire in and then proceeded to get into my driver's seat....it was then that Brian asked me if I was planning on closing Claire's door. Oh sure...I would like her not to fall out. Sheesh! That's what you get for having a crazy Monday with 3 kids under the age of two at your house for a few hours.

Oakey Dokey...

Ett: I LOVE love LOVE KSL. As previously mentioned, I gave a lady $50 instead of $30 for a toddler bed that I picked up. I was glad that I remembered how much was in my buttocks pocket before driving away with that extra Andrew Jackson left behind! I have been looking for a couple weeks and couldn't find anything worth buying. It was either hammered and expensive, ugly and expensive, or falling apart and not worth anything at all. I don't know what it is with Utah people thinking that their crap is worth a ton. Hmph. This one? It's darling and I don't feel cheated. Tomorrow night will be our first attempt at the toddler bed transition.

I also love selling things on KSL and I must say that I've become quite a champ at it lately. It's a glorious thing.

Två: Alex Ubago and Missy Higgins.

Dear Alex, even though I can only understand every other spanish word you say, I'm completely in love with you.

Maybe it's because these two singers take me back to the dating days of Brian and all the funny drama that happened then, but listening to good music calms me down. I sing my lungs out even when I don't speak spanish and when other drivers must think I'm crazy (I've seen 'those' looks before).

Tre: Little boy everythings. My dear friend threw me a baby shower on Saturday and we had so much fun. I've had a blast washing and folding all of the little baby blues and greens and I'm getting so excited. Thank you, Kayli!!! He's going to look quite fetching in all of the animal onsies he's collecting already.

Fyra: There is something called sanity. There can be many names to this one. Some days it's Chocolate; some days it's popcorn; some days it's a trip to the gym or a walk around the park to get rid of said chocolate/popcorn. Lately, for me, it's been that sweet man named Brian. I realized that I don't blog about him much, so here I am to tell you that he's wonderful. Even though I don't feel quite like myself these days and I struggle finding little rays of sunshine on a delightful day...he comes home and makes me that much better. A little snuggle on the couch and some much needed chatting and I'm good as gold. Too bad he can't stay home all day.

Fem: IT'S THE LAST DAY OF JANUARY! I don't know about you, but January is L.O.N.G. I'm excited for the short month of February and things to look forward to. Valentine's Day (even though it's possibly the lamest holiday ever), one month closer to March, and....did I mention that it's one month closer to March? Yes.

Sex (uh...it's not what you're thinking. It's the #6 in Swedish): The alarm clock is now on my side of the bed. YEAH! Seems weird, but I have been planning on moving it from Brian's side to my side for months! I am the first one up and I need it. He never looks at it. I'm in love with it's clear, bright red letters that I can see without glasses.

Sju: Bed time. Mine and Claire's. It's lovely. It's right up in that alley with shaving my legs and showering...only a little bit better.

åtta: Getting a hair cut. Since we are cutting back and trying to live by our budget, this means that I don't get my hair cut as often as I would like. Brian asked me to go three months in between haircuts. Sigh. I think a part of me died that day. So, for 6 glorious weeks I'll have the hair I want, then I turn into a thick, mangled mess. It's just too thick. Get the memo, Hair...don't grow after 4 weeks.

Nio: These two pictures: #1 "Princess Mommy and Princess Claire game." We'll take turns wearing the crown. She usually steals it from me pretty quickly. #2 Brian caught her at the very end of her unraveling the entire roll of toilet paper.

Tio: Ice Cream. 'Nuff said.

Train Expo and 32 Weeks

Don't you love it when someone blogs about how this is their journal? I know, we ALL do it....but I'll admit...I turn my brain off right as that 'journal' word enters my head. So, this is NOT my journal. Just sayin'.

We went to the TRAIN EXPO. We were possibly the youngest couple there. I'm kidding. There was a nice mix of old hobbyist train expert men and little kids. We fit right in there. :) Claire didn't love it as much as Brian wanted her to, but it was cool, fun to get out, and something we've never done.

Yes, those are legos. Legos are always cool.

My two train addicts

Thank goodness Claire is cute. Just look at her. Nice conductor hat!

It was fun, but little did I know that it would be the start of no-nap taking. I have made it through a whole week here people! Now someone needs to come tell Claire the importance of heavenly naps. I'll pay you in ice cream if she listens and obeys. Having her up ALL THE TIME has made me realize that I'm one of those non-creative moms. After reading blogs about all these fun things children are doing on account of their creative mothers, this was the best I could come up with....

Yes, the swimming pool slide in our living room. She loves it, but I still think I'm pretty lame sauce.

I thought I had a picture of Claire waddling around in her snowsuit from the other day, but I don't. Just imagine it I guess. That was going to be my 32 week picture. Fluffy. Waddling. The look of misery as she trudges through the snow. I thought it fit quite well.

I had my appointment today and sat there F.O.R.E.V.E.R. Good think my actual exam took like 5 minutes. Ugh. Thank you lobby for not showing a movie today. Oh well, moving on. The little lad is head down and wiggly. Everything looks great and sounds great. We love normal, great news. Weird thing is....now my appointments are every 2 weeks. Crazy how time can fly and go so slow at the same time. I'll never understand that.

As for feelings wise. I have diagnosed myself with pregnancy bipolar crazy lady that doesn't leave her house disorder. Ok...that's not true. I do go outside. Seriously though...I'm going a little crazy. I'd like to think that most of it is the winter and the snow. Even though we're trudging through snow (even if it's just a little bit), Claire and I still go to the park once a week and freeze our little patooties off. It's very much needed. We both have a good break.

I'm also feeling the little monkey swing from organ to organ. I'll be honest...even though I don't feel like I've portrayed my pregnancy as positively as I should have, it's been wonderful. I've missed feeling my stomach get beat up by an amateur boxer and my 'accidents' happen not because I've laughed too hard, but because someone decided to jump on it. I really do love this part of being pregnant. I even ate a bunch of cookies yesterday just to get the acrobatics going. I'm not following every fruit size that he measures up to like I did Claire, but I'll look at the little socks I've gotten and just can't wait to see his tiny little feet (even if those socks never stay on). I'm excited to name him. I'm overwhelmed a little at not being prepared enough...but I'm sure I'll get there. He'll still be a wonderful little bundle of joy if he's dressed in pink at 9 months because mommy forgot to buy him clothes past newborn. Can't wait! The last stretch is always the longest especially when it's chilly outside. I think we'll move to Florida. Yes...that is what I need for this problem and many other reasons as well. (Tangent: I really can't wait to leave Provo. I'll be excited to be away from all things Provo.)

Now, as for winter....I need some advice. This whole staying in with no call-me-last-minute-and-come-hang-out-for-sanity's-sake best friends nearby is wearing me a little thin. I think I'm facing my spiritual slump by reading the Miracle of Forgivness (and loving it) alright, but still have miles to go. My bestest friends live too far away, in my opinion, and poor Claire is getting bored because I'm bored. My poor mother is probably thinking, "Stacy again? I talked to her 3 times today."

Even if you have a homemade recipe for finger paints or something I would be forever grateful.

WHAT DO YOU DO IN THE WINTER????? Free is always best 'round these parts.

A Date!!!

What? What is that word? Date? I never heard of such a thing.

Brian and I got to go on a DATE tonight! I was like a giddy school girl! I did my hair 3 times (mostly because it's too long and the curls fall out) and waited impatiently for the clock to strike 6. Our neighbor and I are now doing a child swap to give us each a nice break with the hubsters and give the kiddos time to play their hearts out!

Brian and I went to to Macaroni Grill tonight and yum yum yum! I don't even remember the last time we went out to eat just as a couple. It was fun! We decided to get an appetizer, shared an entree, and got dessert. #1-it was cheap doing it that way and #2 we got to have a 3 course meal and weren't stuffed.

Dating is FUN! Who knew, right? :) I'm kidding....I think. :) Brian did tell me that I "must have been excited because I talked a lot". Hmmm...I think I needed a night out.

Love Affair

Have you ever been in love with someone so utterly wonderful and so dreamy that you feel like they just don't exist? Maybe your romance involves someone fictitious?

Hmm...when I was a young lass I used to have (literally) 100+ pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio plastered all over my wall...right by my pillow. I would stare at them through the perfect barred window that my daybed provided. Puppy love. The years before those walls were covered with JTT, Devin Sawa, and...oh....what's his name....Brad Renfro. Who are these people these days? Yuck. That's all I have to say.

Now, I have a confession to make. No, my walls aren't soon to be decorated with the mediocre photography skills of Teen Beat magazine. My walls will forever contain pictures of my perfect family whom I love more than ever. My confession? I think I might be slightly in love with Sherlock Holmes.

Could this sound more nerdy? Maybe. I find myself completely and utterly lost in his logic and wit. Reading these stories has proven to be more beneficial in my fictitious "romance" than it has been for my vocabulary or smarts. I don't link each clue to the next like he does....I just wait for him to tell me how it is solved and then I swoon at his intelligence.

Sigh.

Sherlock, I love you.

Babysitting

Claire sure loves this little girl. She is so excited when she comes. So excited that yesterday she had to look at her right away and woke her up from her nap. Naughty girl. She loves to kiss her head and "help" her with her pacifier. She will go to a lot of work to get her binkie even when we really don't need it.

Adi is such a cutie! We love having her over every week. She smiles a lot at Claire and even sometimes at me. I guess I'm not as cute or funny. :) Sometimes we even get a very small and short chuckle out of her.

Yesterday I was reading stories to them and Claire had to have a blanket too if Adi got to have one.

I walked out of the room for a second and started hearing "mum mum mum" from Claire. When I went back in, she was "helping" Adi with her binkie. I'm pretty positive that Adi had it in her mouth just fine, but Claire felt the unnecessary urge to help her put it back in. Adi takes her pacifier with the "mum" sound and Claire has picked it up. Pretty darn cute. I'm surprised Adi was ok with it and eventually took it from Claire.

Like I've said before, this is great training for me. There are days where I think that I'll never get anything done with two kids. Then, usually after a nap, I realize that it can be done and it will be more fun than ever. :) I'm excited.

30 Weeks

Oh the joys. I thought I should document a little more about this baby since I am not being a great journal writer these days. Scratch that....I don't even remember when I wrote in my journal last, so I'm not a journal writer at all.

In many ways this pregnancy has been as wonderful and easy as the last. In other ways it has not. I've had a lot more concerns with this one. I think it's partly due to the fact that I was so oblivious that anything could go wrong with Claire that nothing really worried me. With this one we had the bleeding episode and the no stomach on the ultrasound day (which still worries me a little). The most petty and annoying thing is that I'm not convinced of this child's name yet. I'm more of a believer in names fitting people because that's what their name is. I'm not a huge believer in the "you have to see them first" kind of thing, but boy....I'm not convinced that this child's name is Jared yet. I love the name, but I don't know. Maybe something else? That being said, this no name baby has been hard for me to connect with. I think there is something about being able to talk to your child by name instead of "baby boy" or "your little brother". Sigh....I guess I might be converted to the "you have to see him first" way of life.

Like I said, I have relatively easy pregnancies, so I'll focus on what's different. This little boy is a tickler and I have already decided that he's my little monkey (weird that my kids have animals associated with them before they have names). He wiggles in my hips and my ribs all the time, but it tickles. I feel like he's also going to just fall out some days because he sits so low! I swear I almost had him while riding my bike the other day. I think I'll plan that activity for pre-labor. I still have major heartburn just like I did with Claire (shout out to Tums) but I also think it's because he likes to climb up and kick my stomach after I've eaten. Thank you, dear boy. The most noticeable things for me; however, is my mood. I felt normal with Claire. With this one I have been CRAZY or at least I feel crazy! I can get so angry sometimes. I can also feel very apathetic towards people or things....which is usually the case. Sigh...I'm excited to feel like myself again. The other thing is that I think the first pregnancy is easier weight wise. I was so excited to show with Claire, but I'm just excited to get back into my pants without a stretchy waistband.

Without further adieu...the picture. I never feel very pregnant until I take a picture. Boy oh boy are my "I'm still pretty small" pep talks to myself blown out of the water when the picture is uploaded.

30 weeks with Baby Boy

30 weeks with Claire

Picture Overload

PICTURES! Yes, that means we have our computer back. Good news...so far...it didn't cost a thing to have it fixed and it passed all of the tests. Hopefully it will run smoothly though. We will be keeping all pictures on the camera until they are safely burned to a disk. :)

We're working backwards here. It will be the most recent through Christmas.

Claire's new obsession is Tangled. Every. Single. Day. I try really hard to make it through the day without having her watch it. I'm not a big "lets watch a movie every day" kind of a mom, but she loves loves loves it! Oh, and that pink bear is her new friend "Mauw". She meowed at it when we first got it. She knows it's a bear because she says bear when we ask her what it is. Go figure. I think it's darling.

She was SO ornery. I tried to help her make a snowman. We played for less than 5 minutes.

CHRISTMAS! Here is Claire with some of her new loot.

She got so mad at taking a nap that she pulled all the movies on her.

Claire had to have every dolly opened right then. Funny...she hasn't touched them since.

Brian and his "not a piece of crap" grill.

Claire on her Lightning McQueen "bike". We couldn't get her off. We had to hide it so she would open other presents.

Playing "Nighty Night" with Uncle Jason.

SNOW!!! Haha...look at that bed hair! I love her snow suit though!

Chocolate, I'm Starting Early Today

Being a mother without chocolate would surely be the end of me. I seriously don't know how some people do it. To me, you're either crazy or amazing...or both.

Note to self: Grad school is hard. Yes, I know I'm not the one slaving away in front of flasks and hazardous material...the poor hubster...but I think that in some ways I might happen to be more explosive than a barrel of whatever in the lab.

Patience...sigh...patience. I prayed for that once. It laughs at me on a daily basis. As I was lying in bed last night at 11 'o clock wondering when Brian would finally come home from work, I realized that this life I'm in doesn't actually last forever. Can we get three cheers, please??? Phew. It's hard for me to see ahead most off the time, and maybe that was a good thing. I feel antsy to be done with school (yes, I count myself in school with Brian because I believe wife's survive grad,med,law...schools with their husbands). I'm excited for the day where family time doesn't begin at 6 and end at 7 when Brian goes back to work. I'm excited to not be renting. Sigh. Decorating however I want? Yes, please! I'm excited to have our income start with a higher number so we can have more wiggle room. Soon. All in good time, right. We're on the last leg of our race ...which is usually where I would fall on the ground dying and gasping for breath. We'll make it.

Second, I'm getting a little terrified of having 2 children. What? 2? When did this baby thing happen? 10 weeks left? What? No, I can't play with Claire and console a colicky baby. It makes me feel guilty. One was so easy. You hold it all the time. Sleep during their naps. Spend every possible moment making them comfortable. Now, I need to grow some extra arms to have two of them.

Seriously though...back to the chocolate. It's possible. Grad school does end and mothers survive multiple children. Just one snack a day is how I'm going to be living for a while. Bring on the snicker doodles and sweet mint chocolate chip ice cream.

It Could Have Been Worse...

Our computer crashed. Sad day. We don't have an external hard drive, yes, we know....dumb. We'll have one some day when we can afford one. We lost our pictures. I tried for weeks to get them burned onto a disk because I just knew something was going very wrong and I wanted copies of everything.

Despite all of that, I feel very blessed. I just developed everything right before Thanksgiving, so we do have hard copies. We also put them all on a flash drive and transferred them to Brian's parent's computer, so we'll have them send them back to us. I have a lot of them on Shutterfly where I can develop them any time I want. The only thing I really really lost was the first part of December. I kept a whole bunch on our camera because of that "everything is going to be lost" feeling. I think that it's a major blessing. Thank goodness we spread them all over the place!

Now, hopefully said computer doesn't have too much wrong with it, or else I will have pictureless blogs for a while and I will not blog often because it takes so much time on the iPad. We may have to get a new computer, so we'll be saving up for that.

Also, I just have to say that Pedialyte is my new best friend. Claire has been sick....but we don't know with what. A virus I guess. I thought it was just teething because she was so ornery and clingy, but then she started to get VERY lethargic. She hadn't eaten anything but a few crackers a day for 3 days and therefore had major bowel problems. After talking to the nurse, a trip to the store, and 6 oz. of Pedialyte, we played with stackable blocks and she laughed and screamed...a happy thing. Thank goodness. I missed my happy little monster.

Envelope System. Haha. Ever heard of it. That's what we're on these days. We've really tried to stick to a budget, but it's so hard with so little money and the ease of just swiping that card. So, we're getting back on track and doing cash in envelops. Saving every receipt. It could be worse. It's actually kind of a game to me and it's been fun to see how we've been doing. First week down. :) We each have $15 for the month to do with whatever we want. I've found that I'm a fat kid at heart. I want doughnuts, icee's, leftover holiday candy on sale...you name it. However, I am not willing to let my $15 be spent on something so lame. See...this is good for me.

That's all. We are very blessed. Plus, who can deny it...April weather in January was marvelous! Now Claire and I get to go play in the snow today.

Spoiled

I just have to reiterate how spoiled I feel right now. After using my Kindle I want to read every minute Claire is sleeping. I started Sherlock Holmes and can't get enough of it already. I want to buy every book that is already on my shelf, get rid of them bulky books and clean house! I want to get all the books that I've always thought about reading and the books that I've already read! If you have any good book suggestions, PLEASE send them my way because I will be reading up a storm over here!!!

I also just got back from Claire and my first bike ride together. She was getting impatient and mad at me while I was attaching the bike trailer to my bike. She screamed while I was putting her helmet on and continued to make a 2 year old scene as I buckled her in. As soon as I started to pedal, her screaming turned into "Oh's" and she loved it! When I got back to the house she said, "more" and so we did. We went through another neighborhood until Claire started falling asleep. Her head was bobbing into the mesh wall bobbing all around. She was so happy though.

I feel completely spoiled rotten and do I know that I have been. I love reading and feeling satisfied with a good book. I also love that riding my bike is helping with my DREADFUL charlie horses with this second pregnancy. I love that my mom is converted to fun make-up (and yes, we DID have fun). We also had SO MUCH FUN playing games with my family this Christmas that it's all Brian has been talking about. Thanks to my brothers who were wonderful participants in our board game hobby. It was a blast! Even though I'm excited to clean up World War III that has happened in my house (nesting is in full swing), the holidays really do go by too quickly.

Sigh. It's been a wonderful day.