Surprise, Pools, Pigs, Paint, Cribs

Been a crazy couple weeks...
Family visits.
Doctor visits
House repairs
Still no pick up returned - frame shops, paint jobs, reassembly, blah blah blah. New rental.

The big celebration at our house was Kevin's arrival! No, just kidding, we celebrated Randy's 60th birthday - and with that we celebrated Kevin and Kevie coming with Jan, Rick, and Denise to surprise Randy on his birthday. They had been working on the details since hunting and we played house host due to the size of the group and the fact that it made it easier to contain E & G. Was so good to see the family and see how happy Randy was that they came for him. E was very intrigued by the whole birthday thing - she was impressed about buying balloons and decorating for Grandpa and all. She even had the song down - that is until we all sang it. Then it all went out the window.

Due to our "living conditions" everyone stayed at Eric's or at a hotel - which worked out nice for us because they let us come crash their pool. The water was chillier than I expected but that didn't stop all the kids from going down the slide!

We even had a couple good days where we headed outside and played on the lake with the sleds. G is getting better outside but still has trouble getting and standing up!

G's gland is getting smaller and after another ultrasound showed we are still in the clear. However the boy is cutting i teeth and between the gland and the teeth - we aren't sleeping through the night. I'll admit, he isn't terrible to go back down. We usually hand him his water and he chugs a good amount down and then rolls over but I'd be happier if he'd sleep more than 3 hours at a pop. He's starting to pick up some words too - he'd got rough versions of hello, buh-bye, Lola, Go, Mom, Dad and noises that cats, dogs, and dinosaurs make.

Matt and the families butchered pigs too over the past weekend. We had our list ready and Matt was excited about the planning and doing of it all - this year we did brats, andouille sausage, and some breakfast sausage - a bit different from last year with the bangers but Matt is still excited to try and do it. I spent the day with the kids. On Sunday, Matt smoked and we packaged everything up.

We are also starting to concentrate on the final baby's arrival. It's hard to believe she'll be hear before we know it. We've been prepping E for her little sister - but the whole idea that she's in mom's belly seems a bit far out for her mind to comprehend.

EER putting blankets on ALR.
EER: I'm covering up my baby sister.
ALR: That's nice.
EER: Mom, you go to the doctor?
ALR: Sometime, I'll go to the doctor.
EER: You see, Nurse Natalie? (That's E's nurse.)
ALR: No, I'll see my own nurse - but she's nice like Nurse Natalie.
EER: Ok.

Matt and I spent our holiday prepping the baby room - I finally got 90% of the clothes sorted and stored and with the contractor finishing up the ceiling downstairs, we put those away. We painted the nursery and when we ripped off the paint lines - We were disappointed to see we had painted a racing flag on the walls! It took another week and more tape and another paint color before we got it to a place we like.

We also took some time and got the new crib up too. We had so much "help," probably too much help. We had our 36 week appointment and she's measuring at 6 pounds. Hard to believe it's coming down there. I was hoping to see her face again but like her brother - she had her face into my spine and her little butt in the air. We'll just haftah wait to get a glimpse when she arrives.

In the meantime, the temps are record lows so we are just worried about staying warm and keeping things safe. Daycare and schools even closed because of record lows.

Sitting at the table - after Matt had spent the morning alone with the kids.
EER: Daddy pooped in the potty. 
ALR: Oh? Did you clap for him.
EER: Yeah.
MJR: Yes, I did Eleanor, thank you for sharing. 
EER: We say bye poop!
ALR: You do know if she's sharing this with me, daycare may be aware too?
MJR: Yeah, I was just thinking that too.

Snow, Glands, "progress"

It's been a week.
It started with snow shoveling, which is fine. E thinks it's great. G is better about it but still not sure. Both kids would do better with it if they left their mittens on!

Then the week had a turn - Matt came down with something and ended up staying home for a couple days to get over the chills, cough, and whatever else was keeping him down. We had taken E in on Wednesday to see the doctor for some minor bumps we wanted clarity on but then Friday came. G had some other type of bums that we thought should be looked at but that wasn't the "star" of the show. The side of his face had become red and swollen. They did lab work and an ultrasound to tell us that he had infected glands. We were lucky - no hospital admittance or surgery but another antibiotic to attempt to take care of the infection. I'm all about meeting my deductible this year, but not in the first week!

Pick-up update - there isn't one. Still at the shop. We are over $10K worth of damage now.
Room update - Matt and I took down all the wallpaper in the room - this wasn't a NEED to do but an opportunity of the moment, figured it was easier to do it was a blank, empty room. He and his crew of 1 then worked all of Saturday to put up the sheetrock. Turns out that builder didn't use standard size sheetrock - so they ended up putting it up twice.

I'll take a better, more productive week, thank you. I did get a lot of the baby clothes sorted through and boxes into the system I was hoping for. That came with help from my parents - Dad helped Matt demo and prep the room while Mom and I worked through some of the boxes and boxes of baby stuff. I kept going and now just need some space to set up to prep.

MJR: I have an important job for you.
EER: Important job!
MJR: You are going to get all the screws I take out and put them in this tray.
EER: Important job!
10 minutes later.
EER: GIVE. ME. THE. SCREWS.
ALR heads downstairs
ALR: You and your team doing okay?
MJR: This is not my team, she is a dictator.
EER: Momma - I have important job!

10 years, Organization, Chewy

This is a big post.

This is my 10th year anniversary with the blog. Nothing I have aside from select relationships have last as long as the blog. I've had 29,425 page views from across the world - US, France, Russia, Ukraine. The blog has seen some highs including the birth of my children and my wedding day to some personal lows. However, even during these lows, I have not abandoned this ongoing verbal dump of my mind. When people ask what I blog about... I always feel a little sheepish, when I admit my life. It's not wild or exciting or grand, in fact it's a bit dull and mundane. Sometimes the biggest happening of the week is the trip to Sam's Club. However, the reason I blog may be a bigger piece to the puzzle. I'm an incredibly sentimental and nostalgic person and I want to provide a piece of me and my daily life to my family and to myself later on. The blog while it has served as a creative outlet for who I am, it also holds time and memories that may be forgotten. Yes, it may have been the boring Sam's Club trip but it's the conversations and pictures and snippets of my life that I want to capture for later on. Even our real trips/vacations - I try to capture details about places, things, food so that we can relive it again and savor. Yes, time is this steady beating drum, but when you look back and try to grasp at those moments and memories that seemed so clear at the time, it can be difficult to recall with the clarity you'd like. That's why I blog.

I may not be good at it and I may not reread everything I write but once (if even), I don't proofread and I don't go back to edit, except that time I mixed up b and p up in reference to a crab sandwich. But in all honesty, I am not upset if it reads rough to others - the pictures and the words are real time captures of where I am in life for my children, myself, and my husband. By all means, I have no problem with other people peeking into our life and hope that they gain a little insight on the hot mess that we are.

So, with that - on to 2019. Did I also mention this is the 699th blog post I have written. I'll admit I could have timed that a bit better - but after 10 years, 7 houses/moves, 1 husband, 2.5 kids, 3ish cats, and thousands of words, I'll take what I can get. Heck, I'd love to write a book one day but I don't know what about or when I'll even find the time to gather up these words into a coherent piece of work that others will want to read - but it sure would be fun.

Okay, anyway, back to 2019.
Here's what's happened to us since Christmas.
The thing I've been dreading for about 7 months - we moved the kids into the same room. I've had so much anxiety - how will this work, how will they sleep, how we will sleep?
We put Grady's crib in and are still working out the logistics of the night routine but it is what it is while we muddle through to the answer.

We also have been working on the baby clothes for the next baby and sorting and prepping for that, removing all the Christmas things from the house - E was upset about the tree.
EER: The tree is gone.
ALR: Honey, Christmas is over. Mom took it down.
EER: I don't see it anymore.
The next day.
EER: Mom, I don't see the tree anymore.
ALR: I know, I took it down, we will have another tree next year, at Christmas time. 
EER: It's gone!
The next day.
EER to MJR: Dad, the tree is gone. 

Mom came and helped with the clothes and Dad came and helped with the ceiling - which E says is "broken" - she's not wrong. The new dishwasher was installed, we'll see if that fixes the top end, what any other damage is, and then fix the sheetrock after we know the leaking is done.  We also decided since the room was cleared and the dust/crap is everywhere, we may as well take the wall paper down. I still hate wallpaper and I'm better at it than others. Nothing better than 7.5 months pregnant standing on a ladder chipping away at rose wallpaper.

And when you think you've seen it all - may this bring a smile to your face. Yes, this is after a sip of chocolate milk (diluted with whole milk) and yes, that is a Chewbaca backpack.