You Know You're Tired When...

We've been staying up rather late at our house lately due to our obsession with the Olympics. And when I say "we" I have to (guiltily) include the boys.

The other day Stevie started to fall asleep on the floor. Since David was already in bed, we urged Stevie to hop on up the stairs and start getting ready for bed. He drowsily got up, and when we started up the stairs a few minutes later, this is what we found.



Bless his heart--he just couldn't make those 3 extra steps into his bedroom.

Incidentally, does anyone else have kids who sleep with their eyes partly open? It's kinda creepy.

Pictures of our New House

Since I officially chronicled the purchase of our minivan, I thought I'd finally put some pictures of our new house up. (This is mainly for posterity and my Arlington Peeps!)

Here's the front outside. I've always liked red brick.

Here's the front entryway/staircase. (These stairs still kill me, by the way)

This is our front room, or music room or whatever. Quite frankly, we're not entirely sure what to do in here. We thought maybe a couple of reading chairs and we've put the congas in there...but the coffee table still needs to be moved to the attic.

Our family room. Lots of natural light and a cozy fireplace that we actually use quite frequently, believe it or not.

This is, er, technically our dining room. But because we don't really have a need for a formal dining room, and we DO have a need to put all the kids' toys (seeing as how the bedrooms are pretty small) we went ahead and made the switch. Hopefully we'll get some organization going in there one of these days...

Our kitchen isn't that big and doesn't have many updates, but it's pretty nice and has lots of light. Plus, I'm a sucker for red.

The master bedroom. This isn't really a good shot of it, but I really like it. High ceilings and a pretty ceiling fan.

This is our master bathroom---no moldy tile, no ominously bubbling toilets and enough room to get ready at the same time!

This is probably my favorite part of the master bathroom. I love that I can read in the bathtub...though honestly I haven't used it much.

I'm not sure why it's so comforting to me to have the toilet enclosed in a closet-like enclave. The more doors to lock, the better, I guess

No pictures of the boys' and baby's room and the office---mostly because I just don't have the energy to clean them. We still have a lot we'd like to do to the house (decorating/painting-wise, etc), but that all costs money and I so I think we'll keep it like it is for awhile.

We really waited a long time to buy another home after Chicago, and I'm really glad we did. I feel like we really got what what we needed for a price we could afford. We love the area and hope we can stay here for a good long time.

And for all your Arlington folks out there, the baby's room converts into a guest room at the drop of a hat. So when are you coming down? :)

Happy (Late) Valentine's!

Recently I’ve had terrible cravings for candy---mostly because I know I need to be responsible healthwise and moneywise, and so eating candy seems so naughty! So, this year I jokingly told Steven that he could bypass all flower-related romantic overtures this year and just buy me a bunch of cheapo candy to hoard.

Honestly, I really didn’t think we were going to celebrate this year due to money being tight and me currently being a huge, immobile boat--doesn’t help with feelings of romance, I’ll tell you that right now. I was rather unenthusiastic about it, and didn’t even find someone to watch the kids so we could go out together (because I’m a schlub).

But Steven is a tricky one. On Saturday, he knew I wasn’t feeling that great, and so he sent me upstairs for a nap. When I woke up and came downstairs, this was waiting for me on the kitchen table:


And guess what was inside it?


He also gave me a sweet card that had personal artistic works from all three of my boys, and a sweet message besides. That man is too much---I just don’t understand sometimes how he can be so sweet to me during these times when I must be so thoroughly irritating. He even got little treats for the boys.


That evening, after putting the kids in bed, we ordered some yummy takeout and watched the Olympics together (one of my all-time favorite activities lately). It was just what I wanted and needed. I love this man.

On another note, the boys had their respective Valentine’s parties at preschool last week. David’s was extremely informal and was actually at my house.



The kids exchanged super-cute valentines:


And Stevie made a pretty good haul at his party too:


Hopefully, we'll be working on all this candy for at least a month---but something inside me knows that's a lie.

Stevie's Tooth(lessness)

Sundays at church are really busy for us. First is Sacrament meeting, then 2 hours of Primary for me and Deacons for Steven. Afterwards, we have an hour of choir practice. So needless to say, when church is finally over and the boys have eaten, we practice "Mandatory Nap Time." This is (in theory) where ALL four of us lay down for a much-needed nap.

Well, this Sunday the boys were a tad rowdy. So instead of Mandatory Nap Time, we just let them watch a movie and rest downstairs instead. Big Mistake.

About an hour into it, we hear them start rough-housing and running around a bit. About 20 minutes later, they start bickering back and forth. And right around the hour and a half mark, we hear The Scream coming from Stevie.

You know The Scream, right? It's the difference between the "I'm seriously ticked off about not getting my way" and "okay, SOMETHING'S BLEEDING HERE!" We raced downstairs to find Stevie with a mouthful of blood, and a nervous looking David saying, "But I'm SO sorry, Mommy."

It turns out David wasn't satisfied with Stevie trying to lay down and watch a movie, so he started (once again) antagonizing Stevie by trying to steal his blanket. Stevie grabbed it with his teeth to get a better hold, and wouldn't you know David yanked it right out---along with Stevie's bottom tooth.


I was so mad I couldn't see straight, so I gave myself a quick time-out to calm down while Steven inspected Stevie's bleeding mouth and gave it a good rinse. Afterwards, he handed Stevie off to me and...well, let's just say I'm pretty sure David's never been so worried in his life.

At any rate, we went to the dentist this morning, and after looking at some x-rays, she assured me that everything was just fine. Turns out he was about to lose that tooth anyway, and his adult tooth was just waiting to come in. She also said we should be on the lookout for his other bottom tooth to start getting loose! So this tooth has a date with the Tooth Fairy tonight. (Unfortunately, she's kind of cheap at our house).

I was really hoping their playtime wouldn't get this rough for at least a year or two. Not so. So now we're cracking down on actions and consequences, and praying that our children survive to the age 19, where we can pack them off on missions and let their mission presidents worry about their antics.


The offending tooth.

Good News and Bad News

We bought a new car! Well, new to us. It’s a red 2008 Kia Sedona with less than 23K miles on it (though I’m sure we’ll be packing oodles more on it on our trips to and from Chicago).

It really seemed to fall into our laps too--even more than we were looking for and priced exactly in our budget. We had money earmarked and set aside for purchasing this car, and so we were able to pay for it in cash (which is a pretty complex feeling---part of you feels amazing that you won’t have any car payments, and another part of you is wildly shrieking at the thought of letting go of that amount of money for any reason, regardless of how worthy). At any rate, we feel like it’s just one more of the many blessings that seem to be raining from the sky lately.

So there you have it, we’ve officially joined the minivan brigade! My mom was ALWAYS driving a van---for as long as I can remember (OH WAIT---I do have fleeting memories of a gray station wagon with wooden side-paneling, but that’s another story). Maybe that’s the reason I’ve never felt any shame or reservations about owning a minivan---it’s just what moms tend to do. I'm fully embracing my Mom-ness. We’ve got to have somewhere to sit all of those screaming kids (and in a few years, all of their friends), don’t we?

Now for the lousy news. We’ve had this car for one week---ONE WEEK! Today after picking David up from preschool, my friend looks at the car and says, “Oooo, did you know about this scratch?” I looked down, and there was this ENORMOUS SCRATCH on it, complete with missing pieces of paint.


I was livid. At first I thought maybe, just maybe it had already been there and we missed it before buying it. But after talking to Steven, I knew that wasn’t right---we went over EVERY INCH of that car with a stinking magnifying glass, and it was perfect. And I KNOW that I would have felt it if I had scraped something that intensely—it’s a pretty good-sized scrape, and I’m not a careless driver.

So the only conclusion I can draw is that some lovely person clipped our car and decided that leaving a note was unnecessary. **Sigh. Thank goodness for no-fault insurance.

Night Noise

So apparently I moan in my sleep now.

Steven tells me that instead of snoring, I'll let out these angry little drones in rhythmic succession, almost as if I'm humming in disapproval at something (a la Marge Simpson).

He tells me that this is something I do that's exclusively related to the last few months of my pregnancy, and that I did the same thing with Stevie and David. I guess it makes sense, because everything's so bunched up inside me right now that the air has to go somewhere. Apparently that somewhere is right over my clenched voice box. Why couldn't I let out sweet little sighs instead?

I actually woke myself up last night. I was then so embarrassed by the horribly annoying sound that woke me up that I tried my darndest to supress any more such " hmmmmm's." But to no avail, I fear. I was back asleep and moaning away in no time.

So you can just add this to the list of my tantalizingly feminine charms that grow steadily more bizarre with each passing week.

Potty Dancing

Why is it that BOTH of my children seem to wait till the very last nanosecond before they will run screaming to the bathroom and relieve themselves? A very constant occurence in our house goes something like this:

Step 1: Child begins nonchalantly grabbing at the general area of his body where pee comes out.
Step 2: Child will start running back and forth a few steps
Step 3: Child will start making distressed gasps and sighs.
Step 4: Child will yell out "AHHHH, I NEED TO GO POTTY" and run lightning-fast, knocking down any barriers along the way (including people) in order to do the necessary deed in the bathroom.

It's okay with Stevie because though he tends to wait, he's got a good mental idea of his boundaries and makes it in time.

Not so much with David. Recently he'll go through the aforementioned routine, but after making it to the bathroom, his hysteria takes over and he ends up spraying it around the room. Luckily, I've managed to spot the routine, and tend to bellow "Go to the bathroom, NOW, David!" at him whenever I see him get as far as Step 2.

I just think it's hilarious that going to the bathroom is SUCH A HASSLE for these guys. Obviously, it's a ludicrous interruption to their otherwise incredibly important activities, and they'd rather withstand that awful "gotta go" feeling if it means adding one more second to whatever they happen to be doing at the time. Its just the opposite for me. I'd rather pee 20 times every half-hour (and actually, that's a pretty common occurence lately) than have to endure that feeling for too long.

Go figure. Different Strokes, I guess.

On Sleeplessness

Waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep is horribly cyclical. Once I wake up, I immediately start thinking about all the things that might be bothering me--any imagined slights, or any offense I might have caused, any tasks I've left undone, or maybe just all the dumb things I've done lately. (Seldom do I lay awake glowing over my general awesomeness).

The worst part is that my feelings seem to amplify at night, so that the more I think about things, the more frazzled I become, until I've worked myself into a state of unparalleled wide-awakeness. Then it’s usually a few hours before I've exhausted myself enough to get back to sleep.

This is my 3rd night in a row doing this. Mostly because A.) I'm waking up almost literally every hour to use the bathroom, B). the baby likes to dance at night and C.) because once I start losing sleep, I'm tired during the day and end up falling asleep at inopportune times. And because I've gotten extra sleep during the day, I'm more likely to wake up in the middle of the night and start thinking about things.

Hence my 4:10AM post.

What I've Been Up To

SEWING CLASS
I finally girded up my loins and signed up for a sewing class. It’s great because the instructor (who really is an excellent teacher) realizes that it’s more of a “sewing for dummies” class, and therefore uses tiny words and speaks very slowly to all of us. The other 3 girls in the class and I are greatly appreciative of this. So far, I have learned such mystical terms as “bobbin spool,” “selvage” and yes, people—even “backstitch.”

As a matter of fact, I’ve not only mastered threading and unthreading my sewing machine, but I’ve even sewed my VERY FIRST (and absolutely perfect, I might add) hemline on my pattern-assisted pajama pants (which is kind of ridiculous when I think about it, because we took my ‘measurements’ when I was 7 months pregnant, so these pants aren’t going to fit anyone by the time the class is over). Nonetheless, I’m extremely proud and can’t wait to find out where to buy CHEAP FABRIC so that I can keep practicing.

BABY JACOB
Yes, I’ve been making Baby Jacob, and while this may seem painfully obvious, it’s actually taking quite a bit of work. And by work I mean sleep. No, really, I truly have been knocked off my feet these past few weeks with exhaustion. And the icing on the cake is that my belly-button (which used to be so cute AND an inny) has herniated, which makes walking, standing or even sitting in certain positions a challenge nowadays. I feel like I’m going to turn inside-out, and that any day now I’m going to hear a loud “pop,” and there will be Jacob’s foot or hand or whatever appendage he’s decided to punch against it. In fact, my doctor advised me yesterday to start taping it down with surgical tape and medical gauze---which is what I’ve done and now I look….well, let’s just say the bizarre picture is complete. But it does feel a little better.

The good news is that my doctor scheduled a delivery date for Jake---March 18th. That’s only 6 weeks away! It was very happy news.

IN A SLUMP
I got sick this week, and therefore haven’t been that productive (and I mean even less productive than usual). Top that off with money being tight and you have a Jenny who’s longing to go back to work again---which is of course the most impractical thing in the world right now with the baby coming, except for the money part. I’ve also been unusually hermit-like which always compounds the problem. But truthfully, I don’t feel like I’m much fun to be with when I can’t really comfortably DO anything except sit around.

I wish the weather wasn’t so rainy and cold so I could at least let my boys play at a park while I sit on a bench somewhere. They’ve been such troopers, and I’m lucky they’re good at entertaining themselves.

The solution to my Debbie-Downerism is to work as hard at the things I CAN do, count my many blessing, and of course, have the baby.

Trip to the Fire Station

This actually happened a thousand years ago (Jan 22nd) and I'm just now getting around to posting it. Because I'm slow.

We were studying Community Helpers for Stevie's preschool last month, and one of said helpers was "The Fireman." One of the moms (you rock, Christine!) organized a trip to the League City Fire Station for the kids, and it was lots of fun.

They started it off with a really cool explanation of the fireman's uniform. I say cool because it was very well-tailored to the kids in that they wouldn't be threatened by seeing this huge, mask-wearing alien suddenly approaching them.


They talked about some of the basics of fire safety, one of which was stop-drop-and-roll. (Is it just me, or is there something terribly sexy about fireman's uniforms? Now where can a civilian get one....hmmmmm).


The kids were (of course) most excited about the fire engines (Which were, admittedly, wicked awesome). The firestation manager did a great job explaining all the different functions and all the different tools to the kids.


They even got to sit in the driver's seat! David was the most impressed, and kept saying to me, "Mom, MOM! Did you take my picture yet???"



And lastly, our group picture. The firemen were nice enough to take a picture of all of us together, and even loaned us some ultra-fetching fire helmets.

(And I know what you're thinking---you've never SEEN such an enormous pregnant woman draped in fuschia look so hot---I'm telling you, it's the uniform).