Little Things From The Heart

Even though we spent about 5 hours driving home from Tennessee, yesterday was a wonderful Mother’s Day.  We were there visiting family over the weekend and planned on getting up, loading up the car, and going out to eat to celebrate before heading home. 

Scott said he wanted to get his sister over to the computer and send out an e-card to their stepmom before jumping in the shower, so I set out his clothes for him and waited a little bit.  30 minutes later, I decided maybe I should go ahead and finish packing everything I could.  An hour later, I asked my brother-in-law where my husband was.  He was upstairs talking to his sister.  ooooooooooooh.  Okay.  So I waited, hung out, wondering if they were conspiring to do something crazy, and they were up there, you know…for another hour.  Which was kind of funny really, because when they came downstairs and realized it was almost 1:00, they were both really surprised.  So I knew they had a great talk, because time only flies by that quickly when you are really bonding.  So I was okay with it all, even if it did mean I ended up eating Krystal’s for lunch as we drove on home. 

No really, I was feeling a little bit elated, because on the way home, my husband shared news of hope for our loved ones, and that just left me feeling happy.  Besides, my husband spoiled me in every other way over the weekend, including picking up donuts for breakfast while I was still in bed Sunday morning, so I really can’t complain!

I truly feel blessed to have such a wonderful husband who goes out of his way to celebrate me.  I guess you could say I especially feel lucky that God would give me a husband who doesn’t even necessarily wait for the holidays either.  He has always been good about surprising me and, to put it simply, just loving me with all his heart.  Sometimes I think about how much my husband loves me, how much he puts up with (I know I’m not easy to live with!) and how he is always telling me what I need to hear.  It kind of hit me the other day that maybe God gave me such a husband because I have such a hard time believing God could love me in the same way.

But anyway, I was very spoiled this Mother’s Day.  Scott sent me flowers before our trip and they are beautiful (I need to take pictures!) And then he came home and gave me an early Mother’s Day present Thursday night because he knew I’d want to use it on our trip to Tennessee over the weekend.  I got one of those DVD camcorders!   I’ve been wanting one for a while now and he happened to find a good deal (at Costco - I love Costco!) and then threatened me if I spent that much money on him for Father’s Day!  (Totally unfair if you ask me). 

I never expected him to spend all this money on me, and of course it didn’t end there.  He had the kids write out a chore they are willing to do and put together a coupon book.  (Madison offered to make Daddy give her a bath one night!  Yes!)

And then the kids brought in their stuff they made from school.  Kelly made me the cutest frame with her picture in it.  Patrick brought home a flower he made from tissue paper and a heart shaped card that said, “Happy Mother’s Day” on it, and Joshua made me the cutest card.  On the front, it spelled MOM with his picture in the O.  Cute, right?  But what really got me was what he wrote on the back.  My little kindergartener wrote this (and no, those aren’t typos):

the important thin about mom is…  She makes me yummy chicken  she loves me in i love mom

I had to fight the tears, because you know, it’s just so cute when they are so little and write little things from the heart like that.  If only we could keep it that simple as we grow up!

Inside the card, there was also this poem:

Sometimes I bring home things in my hands,

A picture that I'd like to share.

And as I watch your eyes light up,

I know you really care.

Sometimes I bring home things in my head.

A thought that I'd like to share.

And as you listen carefully,

I know you really care.

Sometimes I bring home things in my heart,

A feeling that I'd like to share.

And as you give me a gentle hug,

I know you really care.

Inside, Joshua drew a picture of the family at the dinner table.  Dinner together is probably one of my most cherished family moments and it obviously means a lot to him too!

So yesterday I went to bed feeling especially blessed.  I see God working in our lives, in the lives of those I love, and I feel loved.  All the material things I received are just bonuses, and there will always be wants that I don’t really need.  But as long as I’m surrounded by loved ones, really, that is the greatest gift God could give me.  What more could I really ask for? 

No Time!

We’re going out of town for the weekend and I just don’t have enough time to blog before I go, soooooooo…maybe Sunday, but definitely a post by Monday! 

Have a great weekened!

Prison Dreams

Okay, so I’m not posting what I started yesterday, but I just have to get this off my mind, and I’m hoping you can help!  I’ve had two dreams in the last four days of being sent to prison…Here’s a brief description of each:

Saturday night I dreamt that I was in prison and 7 months pregnant. (I currently am 7 months pregnant). I don’t know why I was there, but I was trying desperately to get out early. I was told I was sentenced there for 9 years.

I was in this special rehabilitation program that required me to do something for the community too, so I developed this youth soccer program where the inmates helped coach and mentor underprivileged children. It became a huge success/event where the city supported it and they had fire trucks and police cars and everything at the opening ceremony.  Also, Scott and my grandpa were there at the ceremony to visit/support me. 

But they still weren’t going to let me out after that. I did everything I could to prove to them that I wasn’t evil and went through all the appropriate personnel to try to get out early, but one woman told me that I wasn’t even up for a hearing for another several (maybe 9?) months. I remember freaking out and crying at the fact that I couldn’t get anyone to even consider letting me out early, thinking about how I couldn’t possibly have my baby in prison!  I wasn’t even sure if they were going to let me keep my baby or take it from me after giving birth!  It was the most aweful feeling ever!

Last night’s prison dream I was actually sent to this cave after killing another woman with acid. I remember squirting this acid-like stuff from a pen and laughing.  I don’t know if I thought it was just a joke, or maybe ink, but then the acid began eating away at the woman and killed her.  She had two teenage sons.

So I was escorted to this cave.  I passed by several “cave rooms” with sheets covering the doorway.  All the other inmates were women and there were several small dogs and cats there too in order to keep the inmates company. Some of the rooms in the cave were dark rooms designated for solitary confinement.  I was afraid they were going to send me to one of those rooms, but they continued to escort me deeper into the cave and I remember being thankful for passing by those rooms. I was ushered to a cave room with two other women who were in the middle of a counseling session. I was told these two women were going to be my roommates. 

I knew my time in these dark caves (there was some light, but not the natural sunlight I really enjoy!) were going to eventually drive me crazy, with only an hour or two of outdoor time per day.  But I knew I was going to be there for a while, so I figured out how to try to cope and not be completely miserable!

So…any ideas or input on what it all could mean? 

Restless Leg Syndrome

Anyone ever suffered from this?  It hit me this weekend and even right now I feel like I need to kick my legs or shake my arms.  I found this website  and it does say pregnant women can suffer from this, as well as people with low iron.  Soooooooooo, maybe I should be taking my iron pills more regularly!  (Maybe I should just be taking them, period!)

I started a post earlier this afternoon, but kids and fatigue got in the way of its completion, so hopefully tomorrow I will be able to post it.

As of right now, I’m going to try to get my kids to bed so I can actually kick relax on the couch for a bit!

My Date With Jim Halpert

About a week ago, I ended up on a spontaneous date with Jim Halpert.  Not the actor, John Krasinski, who plays Jim Halpert on The Office, but the character.  At least that’s how it was in my dreams.  It was actually kind of funny.  Funny enough to tell my husband that I dreamt about going on a date with another man!

In my dream we kind of knew each other, had the same friends.  I was walking outside at this big shopping/hang out place.  It was mostly outdoors, but nicer than a flea market.  There was lots to do there and he just happened to show up in the same spot I was standing.

“What are you doing here?”  I asked.

He was going to get some dinner, and asked me to join him.  So we walked on over to the outdoor Hibachi grill in the shopping area we were in.

We sat down as several Asian ladies came up from behind the box-shaped counter to take drink orders.  Diet coke for me!  One of the older Asian ladies brought me my drink a few minutes later, but she didn’t seem so nice.  Seems like she was half-way scolding me for something…maybe it had to do with my drink?  I really couldn’t tell because she really wasn’t making herself clear.  Hmmmmmmmm…what’s up with that?  I couldn’t figure out what her problem was, but I remember her making me feel a bit uncomfortable!  Not good for business!  Oh well.  Back to Jim.

I found it interesting that he went ahead and ordered for the two of us.  And as they cooked up our food, we enjoyed the beautiful weather outside and talked about life and friends.  When they brought us our food, I could not believe the amount on my plate.  They heaped on noodles and rice and meat.  He must have ordered the most expensive thing on the menu!  One for each of us!  I didn’t even put a dent in it.  Awesome!  Leftovers!  For a week!

As I was still nibbling here and there on my plate, Jim asked to be excused for a minute.  He walked off and I took a few more bites.  When he came back, he’d obviously changed, so I made a comment about the uniform he was wearing before spooning another fork-full of meat in my mouth.  He responded that he had a football game to get too.  

Football?  I looked at his uniform again as I chewed my food.  Oh. my. gosh.  I could have swore when I first saw him he was wearing a baseball uniform!  Thank God I had food in my mouth before I said anything and made a fool of myself!  THAT would have been embarrassing!  So yeaaaaaaah.  Football.  (I wonder why that sport got thrown into my dream?  Couldn’t have anything to do with watching Leatherheads, right?)

As we sat there, waiting for our food to get boxed up, I realized that, oh my gosh!  I’m pregnant!  I sat there as he talked away and tried to process how this happened.  Who in the world did I sleep with six months ago to get me pregnant?  I looked down at my belly.  For the life of me, I could not remember.  Then I realized how much I liked Jim.  So does that mean I’ve ruined our chances?  How will he feel about the fact that I’m pregnant…will he too want to know who it was I was with?  I didn’t even know, what was I going to say to that?  How was I going to tell him? 

And then…relief!  Waaaaaaaaaaaait a minute.  I have FIVE OTHER CHILDREN!  AND???  Jim knows about them!  What’s one more kid?  Right?  Suddenly, I wasn’t too worried about how he’d feel about this pregnancy. 

And then I woke up.  Yeaaaaaaaaaaaah…I think I’ll blame this one on the pregnancy hormones!

Kelly is Five!

Today Kelly turned five.  Of course, since her birthday fell on a Wednesday, we didn’t have a whole lot of time to celebrate, but we did manage to do cake and icecream and let her open a couple presents, (after I toured the hospital I’ll be giving birth at). 

Ugh.  I have to admit, touring the hospital made me a bit nervous.  In fact, for a moment I thought that maybe I should just opt for a repeat C-Section!  But no.  That would be the easy way out. 

Soooooo, Anyway, I’ll post birthday pics after Kelly’s party on Saturday.  We invited her preschool class, so it should be fun!

Meshing with friends

Scott told me I needed to get off Suzy’s site and blog more.  I suppose I have been distracted lately…

But anyway, let me get caught up here. 

Saturday night Scott treated me to a special night out.  (Extra points for Scott for continuing to spoil his wife!)  We called our babysitter, got dressed up (pretty quickly, mind you - Joshua had a baseball game that lasted 45 minutes longer than we thought!), and joined our friends at Mesh for a rather unique dining experience.  We had reservations for 8:45, the earliest we could get in when we tried to make reservations online that morning.  So if you are in the Cincinnati area and want to try this place out, then make your reservations early! 

We went ahead and showed up about an hour early.  We figured we could order appetizers and hang out at the bar until our table was ready, but it wasn’t 60 seconds after we all ordered drinks (a diet coke for the pregnant lady!) when they went ahead and called us back to our table. 

The restaurant itself had a rather contemporary feel to it, and the people were doing just what the restaurant called us to do, interact, or mesh together (at least with the people we knew). 

Here I am, tired but having fun!

The staff was very professional and friendly, and the food was a unique experience.  Here are some pics of the food Scott and I enjoyed:

Compliments of the chef…it was a very delicious bite.  I could have eaten 10 more.

 

Oysters the only way my husband will eat them…COOKED!

 

I ordered the Iceburg wedge salad simply because it was the easiest one to omit the things I can not eat while pregnant.  (Like Bleu cheese!)

 

Scott’s steak and tuna.  (Can’t remember what it was called on the menu).  He ordered his medium, he got it rare.  So if you eat there, keep that in mind!  As you can see, the tuna is also not cooked all the way, so I didn’t take a bite of either!

 

My dish - Tilapia with couscous? in a saffron sauce.  Naturally, it just happened to be one of Saturday night’s special.  I ordered it thinking it sounded good AND really, how expensive can fish be?  Ha!  Should have asked!  Mine was one of the more expensive dishes.  Take one more look at my $44 cut of fish.  All in all, the dish was not bad, PLUS it was cooked all the way!  ;)  But I probably would have gone for the pasta dish had I asked how much the special cost!

 

The best part (of course)!  This is their “famous” Chocolate Bailey’s cheesecake cake, bragged to be “Best Restaurant Dessert” in America by USA Today.  It was good, but I liked the chocolate on both sides of the cake better. 

It was a fun night as we sat at the table and chatted with our friends (without kids interrupting!)  In fact, I don’t remember seeing a kid in sight, which was probably a good thing considering the table behind us, seating a large group of people, laughed and joked about one lady’s birthday presents she just happened to be opening up right then and there.  (Yes, she really did say it was a blow job kit).  Not a G-rated environment! 

And just to make things funny for us, (and not in an x-rated way!) we got the bill and our friend asked the server to split the bill 50/50 between our cards, only we had 2 gift cards, leaving us with a balance of about $15 and our friends with a bigger balance on their one card. 

As the server walked away, I joked with Scott that our friend secretly switched out the gift cards, adding it to his credit card.  When the server came back, she’d actually charged our credit card for half the cost of the total bill and our friend’s card had the remaining $15 balance!  It was actually pretty funny after I made such a fuss about our “cheating friend” switching out the cards. 

Seriously though, this restaurant is not a cheap dining experience, so unless you are really intending to splurge…hey, I don’t need to remind you, you saw my plate!  ;) 

But if you do want to save some money, go run by Costco and see if they still have the Mesh gift cards available.  You pay $80 and get $100 worth in gift cards, gaining $20.  So if you are going to Mesh, stop by Costco first! 

Birthing Baby Dream

Last night I had a dream that I had the baby.  I was at the hospital, and it was just me and my doula.  For some reason, Scott wasn’t there.  My doula was telling me to push, and even though the labor must have progressed quickly, I felt so tired, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to push as long as I needed to in order to get this baby out!  But I stood in a squatting position and pushed with the doula coaching me.  The doctor wasn’t going to make it.  It was just me and her.   

Finally, the baby was born, and as the baby emerged into the world, I looked and saw that it was a boy.  At that point, Scott was finally in the room and he said, “I told you so!”  In my dream, I was thrilled this one was a boy, and wondered if the whole time I was pregnant I kept saying I thought it was a girl because I was afraid that I’d be disappointed if I thought it was a boy and it turned out to be a girl. 

Anyway, next thing I remember, I was at home, pulling the baby boy out of his car seat.  He slept soundly and then finally woke up.  When he woke up, I realized he hadn’t eaten since he was born!  I hadn’t even tried to nurse him!  So of course, I held him to me and nursed him, wondering how I could have forgotten to feed my poor baby over the last day or two. 

I woke up after that, realizing that there really is a little baby growing inside of me, and I’m looking forward to holding and meeting him or her soon!  9 more weeks to go!

The last couple of weeks with pics

So much has been going on in our little world and I haven’t had a chance to post half of it!

Sooooooo, I have some pictures to remind me of a few things! 

First, Joshua had a concert a couple weeks ago where his class sang the song that they wrote with an awesome Children’s artist who came to visit their school.  We went to his concert a month or so ago, but to our delight, he actually stayed and worked with the classes to write their own songs and they even have a CD too!  Here’s Patrick and Kelly getting ready to enjoy the show…

We celebrated Dwight’s 15th birthday on the 13th.  I can’t believe how old he is! 

The rest of the gang sang “Happy Birthday” to Dwight.  (I of course was behind the camera taking pictures!

We are finally enjoying some real Spring weather!  And even with the weather warming up a bit, Madison got very sick last week.  I took her to her doctor for an ear infection and breathing problems.  They gave her a breathing treatment with a nebulizer and then prescribed her antibiotics and an inhaler.  That inhaler became my nightmare of the week.  I ended up calling the pediatrician’s office several times throughout the week to tell them that the inhaler was not working on my 19 month old.  She panicked and fought me when I tried to use it on her. 

The most frustrating part is when I met up with some resistance on getting a nebulizer, which from what everyone else has told me, is the appropriate way to treat such a young child.  I have to say it didn’t take much to convince me since the inhaler really didn’t do much for Madison and when I held the mask from the nebulizer up to her face at the doctor’s office, she actually sat still!  Finally, They prescribed one for Madison (after chest x-rays which turned out to be inconclusive anyway!  They weren’t sure if she had pneumonia or not, but they also saw inflamation in the lungs due to either asthma or an infection!)

Anyway, this pic is from the worst treatment she had.  After this one, she actually sat and played or watched tv while I gave her her breathing treatments!

By Friday she was feeling noticeably better.  I let her play outside…and she even STOLE my icecream cone.  (I intended on sharing, but nooooooooooooooooo, that wasn’t good enough)!

(Whatever makes her happy!)

Scott pulled out a dusty old car for her to play in.  (My mommy instincts were screaming, Nooooooooooooooooooooo!  But it was too late to stop her). 

She was in the car with her icecream in no time…

And all that dust and dirt made her start coughing and wheezing again.  Guess it’s time for another breathing treatment!

Kelly had a fundraiser at her preschool this week.  They were supposed to get sponors to donate money when they completed the 9 obstacles the teachers set up for them.  I was a bad mommy and didn’t ask for sponsers!

But she had fun anyway and still got a prize!

And then they shared snacks with the siblings.

That afternoon my OB office called me to remind me of my appt. the next morning.  It’s a good thing they called because I didn’t mark my calendar and totally forgot about it!  Here I am at 30 weeks, 3 days…

(Thanks, Hon, for taking the pic).

That’s it in a nutshell.  Even though so many other things have been going on…but I’ve learned you can’t blog everything, there just isn’t enough time! 

 

Staying Connected

When Scott was in the military, he ended up being stationed at Fort Hood, TX.  While there, one of his best friends, former roommate, and classmate from West Point was stationed there too.  I’d met his friend before, at our wedding, but it was in Texas that I first met his wife. 

Even though we both were going through some hard times, we share some great memories from our stay in that small town.  I think we both were dealing with our own personal situations and I love to be able to say we’ve overcome and grown so much since then!  She really has blossomed into an amazing woman, all while living the heroic life of an officer’s wife.  (It really takes a strong woman to be able to stand through all the deployments and military craziness that goes on in the Army!)

And somehow through all the moves and changes, we’re still in touch.  That’s why I was delighted to hear that she FINALLY started a blog of her own!  ;)  She is currently living at West Point while her husband teaches at the very college he graduated from.  I love the pictures she posted recently on her blog because it reminds me of our trip to NY during Scott’s reunion.  That and it makes me think about how Scott and I used to dream of him one day teaching there.  I guess you could say I’m living vicariously through my friend right now!  ;)  

So anyway, enough with my rambling…go check her out…

You can find her on my blogroll as The Long Way Around