Anyone got any motivation to spare? I can't seem to find mine. =/

Yesterday BIL and SIL came over to spend the night (thank goodness next week is the last week of summer school! Yay!) Anyhow, BIL was like, "why aren't you taking me on your trip, and only taking Catherine (SIL)?" I told him, watch today you'll see why I'm not taking you....I'll point it out to you as we go. So, Justin was watching TV and asked PJ to get him a drink of water (I could hear this, I was in the kitchen doing dishes though) and PJ told him to go ask someone else, Catherine hopped up and brought him in the kitchen, asked me what he could have, and poured him a drink. Then, she stayed in the kitchen, grabbed a sponge and wiped off the table and counters and took out the trash. I didn't ask her to, she just did it. Then, later Justin woke up from a nap after everyone had eaten dinner, I was in the bathroom and he just said out loud "I'm hungry" and Catherine got up and heated him up a plate of dinner and helped him get settled to eat his dinner. Then the dog knocked over a cup and it broke, next to PJ when Catherine, nor I was in the room, and PJ didn't even move to clean it up, Catherine and I did.

Those are the reasons I'm taking Catherine and not PJ, when I pointed them out to him he said "oh you just want her to do stuff for you" and I said, no, I want her to be helpful without me asking, without her rolling her eyes when I ask her to do things, I want her to make the trip just a tiny bit easier. PJ rolled his eyes when I told him to put his plate in the sink, or take his cup back in the kitchen...I don't need that kind of help AT ALL, nor do I need another person to clean up after. So, now he still thinks it's unfair Catherine gets to go, but oh well, she's helpful - he's not, end of story.

Anyhow, so we usually just wake up when we wake up, whenever that is, well because of this we overslept and the kids were almost late for school this morning! LOL The worst part was it woke up Justin, darn it! So no going back to bed. :( Oh and Jakey has lovely PJ-attitude this morning, complete with eye rolling and stomping. Lovely.

This is going to be a long day. Kev's grandma can't take the kids (BIL and SIL) and so I am supposed to watch them this afternoon and my mom agreed to come get us all and take us to swim at her house, and really I know two boys that I want to just stand in corners and not enjoy their day at all. Grrrr.

Anyhow I have no motivation this morning and I would love to have a clean house and done laundry by noon. LOL We'll see if it happens. :)

This morning I was feeling a little annoyed by the comments "You're HUGE" "You'll NEVER make it to November" "Wow, your belly is just getting bigger everytime I see you!" and the TOUCHING!!! Oh my goodness the touching, what are people thinking touching my belly!!! ACK! Makes me nuts, my kids, my husband don't even touch my belly, but strangers!!! AHHHHHHH!! So I saw these shirts :) I don't think I would actually wear one, to think of it is fun though!!!















Anyhow, I don't know I probably wouldn't wear any of them (except maybe the "I maybe huge, but at least I don't say stupid things to pregnant women" one LOL). But I definately feel not alone in my struggle with this, if there are shirts for it, I must not be the only one who hates this! LOL

I forgot to share this pic of yesterday - my boys are so stinkin cute!



Anyhow, I have to run off today to take them to the dentist and stuff like that....fun stuff! :)

Anyhow, I was considering buying the Simplicity Nursery-In-A-Box at Walmart for $199 and then upon looking at reviews I came across one review where a baby died in it. Now on one hand, they warn of babies dying in your bed (sleeping with you) but we've done that and not thought much of it, and so I'm inclined to believe that it may have been user error, not putting it together right, etc. But on the other hand, could I sleep in another room if my baby were in that crib? Hmmmm....I just don't know. I kind of don't think so. Kevin thinks he wouldn't be able to sleep and that if something happened I'd blame him forever for putting it together wrong. So what do you think? Could you let your child sleep in a crib that you read ONE bad (child died) review but 50 good reviews for?

My day in pictures

Soooo, my mom called and woke ME up at 8:30 this morning (the boys and I were wiped from none of us sleeping well while they were off trucking with Kevin...LOL) and she didnt get into Bakersfield until 2:00 am, but wanted to stay on "schedule" so she wanted to get up and going. She came to get us and we went swimming, so in any picture I'm in, don't mind the no makeup/wet hair look, ok? We went swimming twice, the first time Jakey swam but we didn't take pics, the second time only Justin and I swam and Jakey, my mom, and stepdad all watched from the sidelines.

***don't mind the dates on the pictures, my mom's camera is wrong!***













Mom made a blanket for Jayden on the side of the pool:



Then we went shopping for a few minutes at Walmart, we got an awesome deal, this diaper bag for $3!!!!! Since the camera was out mom snapped a shot of the ever growing belly....better belly shot coming up soon....with make up and where my hair is dry LOL

Doctor's Appt 20w4d

Everything went really well. I lost 2 more lbs, bp good, urine dip good, heartbeat great, still measuring a couple weeks ahead but that's fine. He's a bit concerned about the number of contractions I've had so I have another u/s next week to check out her heart and spine and then transvaginal to measure my cervix, that's next Monday and then I have another dr's appt on July 12th. Overall everything looked great!

Man, I'm a hormonal wreck!

This morning I am awakened by the Primary President calling to say that 4 of her kids have high fevers and diarreah (However you spell it, don't want to look it up) anyhow so they're staying home sick (her dh is at Scout Camp). Ok.

Oh and she has sharing time. Ok.

Oh and she has singing time. Ok.

Oh and she's teaching the CTR5, 6, and 7 classes. Ok.

Then Kevin tells me that he's got to leave to go out of town until tomorrow. But his mom is going to go ahead and keep the boys (she'd had them since Saturday morning) because Justin's got a runny nose and can't go in the nursery. Ok.

I get to church (alone) early (because PP isn't coming) to set up chairs. The piano is across the room and so is the podium from where they should be. Ok.

So I get the missionaries to come help me with the piano and podium and then I start setting up chairs. In comes Extremely Difficult Boy. This kid routinely beats Jakey up during Primary, has to be sent to the bishop's office, etc. He's the surprise baby to an older couple (all their other children are grown and out of the house). I think they're just tired or something because their discipline for their extremely unruly child is definately lacking. I've had several times where I thought this kid was going to hurt me and have personally seen him pick up a chair to bring down on a teacher's head when her back was turned....scary kid.

Anyhow, Extremely Difficult Boy comes in and I'm setting up chairs and I ask him to "please help me with these chairs." and the conversation goes like this:

Me: ______, can you help me with these chairs, please?
EDB: No.
Me; Aw, I could really use your help right now.
EDB: Oh well.
Me: Ok, well then you need to go stay with your parents until Primary starts.
(His mom walks in the room.)
EDB: I don't need to help you with these chairs just because you're fat doesn't mean you can't do it...it'll help you lose weight.

I just stared at him. For like 5 seconds. His mom was right there, I glanced at her, she looked down at a peice of paper and pretended she didn't hear what her son just said. I stared at him. Shocked. In what freaking world is that acceptable? I set up the two chairs I was carrying (that by the way are more than my weight limit and his mother KNOWS this) and walked quickly to the bathroom, where I bawled my eyes out. It took me like 5 minutes to calm down, I felt so stupid. I needed to be preparing for sharing timee, singing time, and teaching 3 classes, but no, I'm bawling my eyes out in the Ladies Room. Argh.

Anyhow a sister who was subbing for Extremely-Difficult-Boy leads the ward choir, and she did singing time. A 9 year old played the piano for all of opening exercises and would have played for singing time if our pianist hadn't shown up right then...LOL I got Extremely-Difficult-Boy's mom to do Sharing Time with the provided stuff from the Primary Pres, and chased Sunbeams who did NOT want to sit in their chairs until class time when the Pianist took them. Right as I was about to head to teach the 5,6, and 7's their teacher showed up! I could have kissed her. So since we do all of opening exercises, sharing time, and singing time first hour, I got to relax that 2nd hour. But I was still furious with Extremely-Difficult-Boy's mother for how she handled that situation. Argh.

Anyhow I came home from church and took a 3 hour nap, which greatly improved my outlook. Kevin's trip got delayed until this evening and he just called to say he got a huge sleeper and his boss said he could take the boys with him so they're in the bath getting ready to go in daddy's big truck (I think they are BEYOND excited), so I'm going to be all alone....at night I am not a huge fan, but in the AM when I can get dressed and do my makeup with no major wars going on, oh yeah! LOL

Anyhow I survived today, and thats about all that can be said for today...LOL

The highlights of my day:

I found knee length maternity shorts, IN MY SIZE!!

I made a deal with Kevin if I didn't buy them before pay day I could get not just one, but TWO pairs (black and khaki)!

Kevin normally works til midnight on Fridays, so even though it's payday we don't get to do any fun stuff til the next day - TODAY they have him working til 2-3 pm!!!

I'm seriously considering getting a pedicure, I mean I cannot reach my toes anymore!

Payless is having BOGO sales and I am gonna get TWO pairs of sandals! FOR ME! :) LOL

The low-lights of my day:

I was awoken by our lame dog who got the handle of a walmart bag wrapped around her neck (not choking her mind you, just carrying a walmart bag full of craft stuff around the house at 7 AM acting as though the bag was murdering her. I'm a very unsympathetic person at 7:00 AM.

This cold/allergy thingy. I don't really see how it could be allergies because the hot summer sun has killed every living thing in town, so I am left thinking it has to be a cold?

It's gonna be hot AGAIN. I can't wait til Sunday, the forecast is in the 80's!

Yawn

I was up until 2:30 last night playing a game with Kevin and then went to bed, luckily Justin slept in until 8:30, nice boy! We just messed around the house and didn't do much until my visiting teacher came and then we ran out to get Bridge To Terabithia and some In and Out Burgers! Yum. However I passed out as soon as I finished eating I was so exhausted! A couple hours later I was good as new!

Justin was adorable, pretty much the whole time Jakey was gone to his Nana's house Justtin would ask for him and tell us how much he missed his brother. Finally around 5 PM he just couldn't take it anymore, he put on his shoes and threated to walk to Nana's to get Jakey if we didn't take him. He was NOT backing down, he wanted his brother back NOW. It was so adorable we wwent aheead and got Jakey and brought him home It was like a reunion of long lost brothers, they ran to eachother and said, "Jakey!" "Justin!" and "I missed you!" and "I love you!" So they DO like eachother, contrary to all the recent fighting! LOL

Anyhow I'm stil tired so I'm gonna go to sleep early! Night!

My mom left today for a week in Illinois. Boy is that gonna stink!! No one to talk to during the day, and no rides anywhere! LOL Oh well, next week we'll do some stuff to get me out of the house. I really need to try driving again, I haven't driven in 3 months and in August we're buying a minivan and it'll be mine to drive anytime...LOL!

Yesterday I got more sun, but mostly just tanned, it's nice to see the "cap sleeved white shirt under bathing suit" look going away...LOL I plan to be plenty tanned by August. It feels so good to float and get this baby's weight off of me for a while. My hips and pelvis have been hurting so much less!!!

Today is my free day - no kiddos!! Tomorrow too because Kev's older younger sister (18) is going to watch Jakey and her brother and sister tomorrow after school (Jakey's staying the night tonight) so I just have Justin. It'll be nice to have the break!

Last night Kevin bought me In and Out Burger...now I like them ok, but usually I think their fries taste like cardboard but their burgers are heavenly, last night, their fries were fantastic and their burger, a bit more than heavenly!! Washed down with a strawberry shake...mmmmm. However, I get weighed at the dr's office on Monday and I don't want some huge weight gain, so back to home cooking for me for the rest of the week!!

Well, the boys are outside playing so I have an hour to an hour and a half to work on the downstairs so I better get at it! Gotta clean this house up some! :)

You Are a Little Messy

You aren't the cleanest person in the world, but you're definitely not a slob. You clean up when you have the time, but you're realistic about what you can get done. Generally, you're pretty organized and tidy - though you may have a few hidden messes. You eventually get around to making things spotless, but you do it on your own schedule!

Are You Messy?

I think that's a fairly accurate description of me! Right now I have a routine of cleaning the entire downstairs every single day, so downstairs always looks fantastic, but upstairs????? It's like my zone of messes because no one but us goes up there...LOL But tomorrow while Jakey's at scouts I'm tossing a bunch of his crud he DOESN'T need anymore! LOL

Ah, I can't wait to get out of the house later today. This morning has been an interesting one already and I'm sooooo ready to go swimming and have a break!

Jacob and Justin eat breakfast together at the table every morning. Jakey makes them cereal. I want to keep this habit so I can feed the baby when she comes and because I don't like cereal...LOL Anyhow, so Jakey pours breakfast, blesses it, and then they eat. Justin messed around while eating a bit this morning and so when Jakey was done he still had quite a bit of cereal. He doesn't like to be alone at the table so when Jakey walked away, he did too. Now Jakey says, "If you're not going to eat your cereal then I am!" and pretends to walk towards the kitchen, Justin would then say, "No, I want it!" and run for the kitchen. He'd then come right back in the family room. This went on for about 5 minutes. Finally they both decide to go back in the kitchen, Jakey and Justin are going to "share" what's left in Justin's bowl, having dueling spoons going on or something. They get to the kitchen and all of a sudden there is a big scream.

Buddy beat them to it. LOL Normally I'd be mad because I HATE when that dog gets on the table and eats food, makes it to where I have to put her out every time that we eat so that if I have to get up to potty I can do so without worrying about my food! However, the dog eating their food because they were fighting over it, just seemed like justice...LOL.

Anyhow they are now at war over a blanket, this is a war that happens, EVERY. STINKING. MORNING. So I'm off to police this war (by sending all blankets back upstairs and enforcing the "if you're cold enough you need a blanket, go back to bed" rule. It's going to be 108 today, I think they can survive without a blanket. LOL

My other thing I must remember for today is, RUB IN YOUR SUNBLOCK ALL THE WAY TO THE SUIT! The other day when I went swimming I apparently didn't want to get the white stuff on my suit because i have about a 1/2 inch burn all the way around where my suit falls because I probably didn't rub it up to the suit. And a 1/2 inch burn at my hairline on my face, apparently I didn't want to get sunblock in my hair either...LOL Not so important now that I'm burnt, LOL! Today, must rub it in all the way to the suit! :)

Have a great day!

It's like there is a clock in my uterus, everyday at 7:00 pm until about 7:30 Jayden squirms and wiggles and kicks and moves all around, it's pretty much the only time her movement is consistent for more than just a few minutes here and there. It's adorable! While I type she's actually giving me a couple good blows to the c/s scar when usually she's a light jabber. Cute!

Justin's tush is healing - he has a little rash looking area, but we're putting ointment on it and it seems ok. I told a few friends at church today the story and we laughed long and hard about it (reverently, in the hallway, LOL). Seriously, Justin is just a silly, silly kid! Last night he became OBSESSED with Toy Story, he is a HUGE Woody and Buzz fan, he'd never seen the movies until yesterday/today and now he's HOOKED. Loves them!

I have BIL and SIL this week. (BIL is 13 and SIL is 10) I think it'll be an easier week though because SIL's extreme moodiness was explained away with the appearance of, well what appears for the first time when you're about her age. Thank goodness we have 3 or so weeks until going through it again! And I think we instilled in her, with a few girl talks this weekend, that you cannot knock everyone's head off, no matter how much the annoy you, just because you're hormonal. I know, it's hard enough for me to understand at 26, I'm sure at 10 it's worse. Which led me to thinking, oh no, I'm going to have a daughter who has to have these kinds of talks someday!!! Panic mode!

Anyhow, it's Father's day, gonna go see if I can get a short game going before the kidlets go to bed. We made Kevin breakfast in bed, biscuits, gravy, sausage, and OJ but Kevin was lonely in bed while we all ate at the table, LOL, so he came downstairs and ate with us at the table. The boys made him cute bowties out of M&M's (a reg pack of M&M's, pipe cleaner cute in half to make the bow tie take shape, and string to tie around Daddy's neck)...very cute....he wouldn't wear it though...hmmmm....LOL!

Have a good rest of Father's Day everyone!

Never in a million years are you all going to believe what Justin did this morning. Never.

He took a Costco sized container of pepper to the top of our stairs. (Black Pepper) He sprinkled about 1 lb of pepper all the way down the stairs...paying particular attention to getting it right in the center of the stairs. Then, he went to the top of the stairs, stripped all of his clothes off (You don't want to get pepper on them I suppose...) and slid down the stairs, ON HIS NAKED BUTT.

I'm on the phone with my mom and Justin's screaming - HELP ME, MY BUTT HURTS, HELP ME!! And I can't figure out for the life of me, what in the world he's crying for. He brings me to the stairs and shows me....and screams, "My butt burns!!!" Ok after I laugh hysterically....sorry, but that is funny! I throw him in the bath and tell Jakey to stay with him and vacuum the stairs...well apparently he wouldn't sit in the bath water for Jakey, so his butt got more and more seasoned (now we're not talking cheeks here people, think BUTT CRACK) yeah, so he's SCREAMING. So I get him to sit, I wash his butt, I do everything I can think of....the pepper is still making him scream.

So, what does any mother do??? I called the dr. I think it was a full five minutes before the nurse stopped laughing and crying....then another 10 for the dr and rest of the staff....followed by - apparently there is a special ointment for little boys who slide down the stairs on black pepper butt naked and irritate their butts....it'll be waiting for me at the front desk. (Can I really show my face in there????) Oh and if the burning doesn't stop by tomorrow or he has a hard time going potty, we need to bring him in. THIS is so getting written down, I'm telling ALL of his dates this story. And I think I might have grey hairs. Oy!

Whew! Well I feel much better today, but then my two teenage adoptee's for the summer aren't here yet. What scares me the most is generally I can handle the girl, but my BIL? I just can't take his teenage-boy-moodiness!!! Makes me crazy! And I'm going to have TWO teenage boys someday! LOL

Anyhow this afternoon I am well rested so I plan on playing board games with them alot and watching a movie and I'm planning an actual snack for them at 2:30 so that we don't run into eating just before dinner time...and hopefully we'll survive it! The other cruddy thing, and I had a talk with Jakey about this today, Jakey and PJ (BIL) duel their YuGiOh cards, and PJ keeps playing for cards while dueling, and Jakey just doens't know enough/play well enough to be playing for cards yet, so PJ has all of his "good" cards and Jakey has no prayer now of ever winning a duel. Now you'd think, "and you care because?" I only care because I have to hear about it, and hear Jakey cry when PJ's choosing a card from his deck, but I want Jakey to experience two things: 1) You have to stick by your word (to give up a card) if you say you will, and 2) you don't always win...but now I'm getting to the point where the lesson has been learned too harshly and I'm sick of hearing about it! LOL So I told PJ if Jakey wins 2 times, then he can play for cards, but until Jakey wins twice, NO PLAYING FOR CARDS! Ugh.

ANYHOW, LOL, now can everyone tell why I don't do daycare? I just don't like other people's kids that much! LOL My friend's mom babysits for her, and her mom is going out of the country for 2-3 weeks next month and I feel bad for her, but I know watching her two kids would drive me over the edge...I just couldn't do it! LOL Plus I'm planning on going to my parents cabin for most of the time her mom is gone.

Speaking of which, man I can't wait to get up to the cabin...swimming, swimming, swimming, and the weather is cooler there. Bliss! Can't wait!

Oh and last night, I made dinner but NOT for BIL and SIL, I made dinner late (no one was hungry anyways) and their mom picked them up just as it was done. And I told them (I'm a better cook then their mom, so they were bummed) "I would have made dinner at 5:00 like usual, but you all snacked at 4:00 and weren't hungry...maybe you should consider not having snacks after 2:30-3:00?" I think I got the point across LOL. I made a pasta salad and Kevin cooked some smoked sausage and we had pasta and sausage for dinner....it was pretty good. Tonight though I need to make up the chicken I took out yesterday - Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, cornbread - GOOD FOOD! :)

Ok I'm off to look for a patriotic craft idea for our Primary Activity on Saturday! Have a great day!

Lorie, I'll be MeMe-ing tonight! :)

Argh, so this is my padded space and I'm gonna let my frustration out! I went upstairs to take a nap and when I come down, Kevin's brother and sister (who are staying here in the afternoons after summer school - and NO we're not being paid or compensated for our food or anything for this) are heating and buttering up all my English Muffins!! Plus it's nearly 4:30 and I'm going to make dinner in a few minutes! And they're making the kids some too! I'm like Kev, what the heck??? 1) They CHOSE not to eat the FREE lunch at school because they "didn't like it" and have been told, "well the Top Ramen is in the cupboard." since that's about all I can afford to feed these extra picky eater kids...nope they didn't have anything. and 2) it's 4:30, now no one is going to eat my dinner I'm making. ARGH. Skip it, I'm NOT making dinner. :(

Oh man, so funny!

I sprinkled some carpet powder on the living room carpet this morning to allow it to soak in a bit before I vacuum it a little later this afternoon and Jakey says to me, "What's that for?" and I said, "Oh it gets rid of odors in our carpet." He stares at me for a second, the ground for a second and runs and screams to the couch yelling, "OGRES!!!"

Oh my goodness, I laughed so hard. OGRES. LOL

Wow, Justin, wow....

Tonight Kevin was watching TV with Jakey and Justin and I went upstairs to lay down for a few...Justin told Kevin he wanted to go lay down with me upstairs and so he left the family room. He went to the kitchen where Kevin had left a bag of spices used in cooking crawdads and a cannister of creole spice, he redecorated our whole kitchen - CAJUN STYLE. Then started screaming because he rubbed it in his eyes...then I put him in the bath where he rubbed soap in his eyes...then shampoo in his eyes...holy cow. Not to mention cleaning up the Cajun mess in the kitchen!!

It's a good thing I got pregnant before he started redecorating our kitchen, flooding our family room, and just in general LOST HIS STINKING MIND!!! LOL

I meant to post yesterday but...

I fell in love with some English Muffins and Honey Spread from Country Crock, and spent the whole day obsessing over whether or not they were good, bad, or ok for me. I decided, induldge now, cause there is NO WAY I'm going to pass the gestational diabetes test! LOL

I taught Jakey how to play Farckle and Kevin's brother and sister, and we played 4 rounds and you know how many I won? ZERO! Can you believe that! I got whooped by them all! Jakey won twice! He got really good at counting by 50's and 100's so this is definately a game I can see us playiing in the future to keep him up on his quick math adding skills!

Today it's been one year. One year since Denny passed away. My mom is choosing to not remember that, or think too much about it, so I guess we'll just go with it and see what happens. I can't believe he's been gone for a year. It just doesn't seem like it's been that long since I saw him.

Anyhow, we're going to pick up Jakey's scout uniform today because he has scouts at 4:00, and run a bunch of other errands, so I'll be back tonight. I'll try to get a pic of him in his uniform....I can't believe I have a kid old enough for cub scouts!

Argh, Justin's going through this phase where if he's mad at you, he'll dig his nails into your skin, it makes me want to rip his little head off! He just did it to Jakey and now he's in time out, screaming at me....argh. Ok, gotta go take a shower...bye!

Wow, the retreat was FANTASTIC!!

As the mother of two young children, who homeschools so I don't get the "normal" amount of "away" time from them with school or whatnot, and as someone in Primary, I do not get adult conversation, especially on gospel topics, as often as I NEED them. I love being home with my kids, and I love serving in Primary, but this weekend really "refilled" me so I could go on spiritually.

On Friday afternoon we got there (what a windy road!! LOL) at around 1:00. There were already quite a few people there so we found bunks in a cabin and set up our stuff...then we sat around and told stories, laughed, got to know eachother better, played games. We played a game called "Farckle", interesting name huh? It's a dice game...anyhow it was HILARIOUS and we had a ton of fun playing. There is a British lady in our ward and when she said "Farckle" I couldn't help but laugh. It was so fun! I really got to know the sisters in my ward and stake so much better!

Friday night I ate WAYYYYYYYY too much candy, chocolate, pizza, things I shouldn't have eaten!! I even had a smore to top it all off, and boy was I not feeling so great when I went to bed at 1:00 am after sitting up talking to some sisters in my ward!!!

On Saturday we had breakfast and then 2 workshops and a keynote speaker...the theme was really just relaxing, not stressing, just letting things go more and being ok with it. The keynote speaker's main point was, "It is what it is." And it definately is true! She also said her RS Pres (in UT we had an out-of-town keynote speaker) has a saying, "If you want to see me, come anytime. If you want to see my house, make an appointment." THAT is the most true thing, I am constantly apologizing when people stop by because I can't mop the floors right now and they're dustier than I like, or what not.

After lunch we all headed home. We stopped by the 100 Giants Trail and I had my picture taken inside a huge Sequoia tree, my friend is going to email the pics. We had fantastic conversations in the car on the way home about repentance and our temple sealings/weddings, trials and temptations, just very spiritual topics, and it was nice to hear experiences of the other sisters in my ward, when we were alone.

It was a fabulous time. The stake president said they're going to make it an annual thing because he has felt the Spirit in the camp and that we, as women, need this, and what a benefit it is going to be to our families and those we serve by refilling ourselves spiritually with a time like this. They're even going to see if they can get some priesthood up there to cook for us next year on Saturday morning. I got to know our stake Relief Society President that much more, I was surprised she even knew my name, but she did....and her counselors...other people in other wards from other cities around Bakersfield even...it was fantastic!

Anyhow, I can say enough about what a positive thing this weekend was for me...it was definately a much needed "retreat"! (And I came home and the house hadn't even burned down!)

I went to Enrichment tonight, it was alot of fun! We made isolette covers...now here's the thing...remember when I was hoping my baby would be a girl I wouldn't touch pink clothes? Well I'm now hoping she won't be a preemie, so I wouldn't touch the isolette covers....superstitious I know...but not touching pink worked! LOL I did bring other sisters pins and scissors and thread, I just wouldn't touch the fabrics...LOL I don't know how to sew anyways, so what good am I?

I convinced my mom to go, and she's recently learned to sew, and so she was in all her sewing glory and there I was, the bad daughter - not sewing...LOL

I saw a friend who recently moved back to Bakersfield from Virginia and spent alot of time talking to her. I feel bad because she asked me, "So how are your brothers?" And since I keep in really good contact with her sister - I thought for sure she knew Denny had passed away. She knew Denny, she was shocked. I felt bad for shocking her like that, it was incredibly shocking to me too, when it happened.

Anyhow tomorrow morning we're off to the church owned camp, for our stake Relief Society Retreat! Should be fun! I do hear that 150 women RSVP'ed and they only have beds for approx 120...so um, good luck to those who come late! LOL Nah, some of the more able bodied ladies in my ward are planning on camping in tents, I would but, I'm not all that able bodied...I'd hit that ground and NEVER get back up! LOL I'm SOOOOOO not a camper either, I know, what's wrong with me?!?!

Ok, my last funny of the day before bed. So Kevin was at work late for a company luncheon thing...well I go upstairs and shower and I'm blow drying my hair when I hear BLOOD CURDLING SCREAMS coming from downstairs, the boys are freaked out and running towards me. Turns out Kevin's work had crawdad's and Kevin came into the house holding two crawdad's and was chasing the boys through the house with them!! LOL It was hysterical. Especially for Jakey to be so upset because everytime I'm at the butcher counter at Albertson's he's staring at the lobsters asking me why we don't eat lobster (um yeah it's like $19.99 a lb!) and crawdad's look ALOT like lobster. After he calmed down he ate some and enjoyed it, I thought it was more fishy than lobster...LOL

Anyhow, time to get to bed! My mom bought me a bunch of pillows today and brought them to me and I'm gonna sleep good tonight!!! (Hopefully)

Do you have a secretly purposely messy part of your house?

I work really hard to make sure the house is fairly clean all the time. I work at it constnatly - redoing what I've already done, to keep it fairly clean. But there is an area of my house I have a hard time cleaning - and I spend alot of time there, just because it's MY mess LOL. I clean up after everyone else in the house's messes and I just don't like to clean up this one area that's just mine! LOL

It's my computer desk...I leave a cup on there longer than I would want anyone else to, because it's MY mess...LOL Is that neurotic or what?! LOL

So, do you have an area of your house that you purposely don't clean up as often as the rest, just so you can enjoy YOUR mess as long as possible?

I woke up the middle of the night last night and cried...I realized I'm not going to sleep through the night again until November.....of 2008.....at least. LOL

You know how it is - your pelvis feels like someone took a bat to it everytime you roll over, or lift your leg to put on jeans...your hips feel like someones driving an ice pick into them when you've slept on one side too long....yep. I must have hit my head on a rock to forget how much that stuff HURTS!

What really made me cry, it's going to get MUCH worse before it gets better...LOL

Ok I'll stop whining now, but wow, how in the world can we forget this pain enough to do this again??? That is truly amazing, huh?

I wonder if it's just that my friends and I are all getting to a certain age or what, but ALOT of my IRL friends (and a few OL ones) are getting divorced. Last night's news of a formerly very close IRL friend who was married the same week as Kevin and I, was pretty shocking. Another IRL friend who got married the week after us, also getting divorced. Is it the "7 year itch" or what? My mom says that it's as we all near 30, we're just not the same as we were in our teens/early twenties (all high school sweethearts) and that we are going to have a higher rate of divorce because we never really dated anyone else. I mean Kevin and I have our issues, sometimes pretty major ones, but I can't see getting a divorce. It really jades "love" to see everyone around us getting divorced. Like, do marriages really work out? Of everyone of my closest girlfriends, and our parents, we've been married almost the longest (save my mom (second marriage) who got married only 1 year before Kevin and I started dating, but her first marriage didn't last as long as ours has).

What do you think? Do people really change that much as they near 30 that they grow apart from their spouses?

Jayden packs a punch!!

Tonight I was rocking Justin to sleep and Jayden started kicking HARD. I've never felt her kicks outside before, so I put my hand there and sure enough - bang, bang. I called Jakey over and he got to feel her kick! He was amazed that she could hit sos hard you could feel it from the outside! LOL He thought it was even cooler when I told him how my belly will wiggle and squirm when she gets even bigger, when she moves.

Lunch

It's a good thing I don't have picky eaters! LOL Today I decided a must have for lunch was pork (as in cut up hotdogs) and beans, and cut up strawberries on the side. So that's what we had, it was a huge hit wth the boys, Jakey loves beans, and Justin loves hot dogs :) LOL! It was delicious! I know, I'm weird.

Man, I am still in shock, I cannot believe it's a girl!!

Anyhow, here's the pics!! She was soooooo unbelievably cute playing with her hands and yawning and just lightly kicking me now and then. She's hanging out under my c/s scar today, hip to hip, just lounging! (Even though I had a pancake breakfast with orange juice to wake her up!!! LOL)





And, what I did immediately after finding out I am having a girl!!!



Some funnies from the u/s, when we were done, Jakey called my mom and told her, "the baby has a labia!!!" LOL My mom was like, what????? LOL

Kevin said, the baby is still a boy just his parts are really small, and the tech said, then pink clothes are not going to be a problem for him! LOL

Anyhow, she's BEAUTIFUL and we're so, so, so, so happy that she's healthy and perfect! I can't believe I'm going to have a daughter. As soon as the u/s was over, I RAN to the closest store and bought TONS of clothes, I'm only holding what came home on hangers in the belly pic! LOL

It's A.....

GIRL!!!!!!!

She looks great, healthy, she was playing with her hands and yawning during the u/s....I'll be back later with u/s pics!!

Thank you for all the birthday wishes! It was a fantastic birthday!

I love having all my online friends mention it, and then the outpouring from my RL friends and family - I felt very loved on my b-day and that was the best present of all. My other "best present" was the baby. I'm grateful for the boys and Kevin and my family in general, just exceptionally glad that the one thing that I've been blowing candles out for years while wishing, has FINALLY come true and feeling the baby wiggle inside me makes my birthday very special to me.

In tangible (well more like commercial) presents - I got the most comfortable PJ's!!! I got other stuff too, but man PJ's! I didn't realize how uncomfortable all my jammies were getting!! That stake RS cabin trip is coming up next weekend and I really wanted some cute jammies to wear. :) Kevin also brought me home a dozen roses after he finally got off work really, really late last night. We're going out to celebrate my b-day next Saturday night with our close friends.

Today we went and saw Pirates of the Carribean 3...at first I wasn't too interested, but we got free tickets, so I watched #2 and prepared and actually it was a fantastic movie...and quite a feat for me to hold off using the potty for 3 hours! LOL We had alot of fun though and came home tonight to work on my sharing time for tomorrow night. It feels so good to be a contributing member by being able to fulfill my calling!! Hopefully it's not too much, but my strength really is returning in this "honeymoon" trimester.

Ok, so you all know I have insane dreams - well last night I had dreams all night that SOMETHING stopped me from finding out what the baby is on Monday. Like natural disasters, etc. No natural disaster better happen between now and Monday at 9:00 am!! LOL We stopped by JC Penney's to return a maternity dress I got for my b-day (I got another one that is more modest and my style! LOL) and refused to even look at baby clothes, don't want to jinx myself! LOL

Well I'm off to go slip into my new comfy jammies and watch some TV for the night and get the chance to be quiet and still and feel this little one beat around on my organs for a bit. It's still so cute, and I remember all too well, it turns to bruising punches and kicks so quickly, it's best to enjoy the light movements before the baby starts to get really rough! LOL

Night!

Time to get that picture to move on down!

A post 99% of the reasoning is just so that the pic will move on down, LOL.

Coincidentally, that was the last picture taken of me as a 25 year old! Today I awoke closer to 30 than to 20! Ahhhhh!!

So you all thought my insurance-drama was over, didn't you? I did too! Until I called Justin's pediatrician this morning when he got the toilet paper holder thing (you know the springy thing that holds it to the brackets on the walls?) and got his fingers stuck in it. (Think those cheap chinese finger trap thingies.) Only, toilet paper springy thingy works MUCH better than chinese paper finger trap. Pushing the sides together - DOES NOTHING. So, Kev's dealing with Justin's fingers and I'm calling the dr.

I call his regular ped, now get this, we had Blue Cross HMO privately, through Kevin's work....we switched to Blue Cross HMO through Health Families Program, they don't take that. Say what?! Yeah, nope. They say, we only take Healthy Families Health Net. Well Health Net wasn't an option! So a few days ago Blue Cross HMO mailed me a book with all their providers for our area listed, so I call. Either they are not accepting new patients or they don't accept Blue Cross HMO anymore - they take Health Net.

So by now I'm crying. What am I going to do? Justin's got his fingers trapped, I don't feel it's "Emergency Room Emergent" so I just want a stinking DOCTOR!!! So I'm bawling, Kevin comes in and says, "I got the toilet paper springy thingy off Justin, what are you crying for?" I explain it all to him, and tell him I still want to figure this out TODAY because Justin's likely to find the thing least likely to hurt him, but use it as a weapon and he needs a dr that we can call/see at any time.

So, Kevin takes over the phone. He calls Blue Cross HMO and tells them our situation. The lady on the phone says, "Well this one dr in Lamont accepts it, and Lamont isn't that far away." Kevin relays this and I say, there is no way that I'm going to drive to Lamont (where I've never even been, and it's like 20 something minutes away) and so he tells her that and she says but that's definately an option. By now Kevin has found the doctor she's talking about in the book and it looks like this:

Dr blah blah
234 not going there
Lamont, CA whatever
(661) XXX-XXXX
Languages: Armenian, Spanish

And Kevin says to her, get ready for it....

MY KIDS CAN'T SEE THAT DOCTOR, THEY ONLY SPEAK ARMENIAN AND SPANISH!

I about died laughing. English is obviously a given...LOL I think the lady on the phone had a hard time taking him seriously after that too...LOL

So I called Healthy Families and told them what everyone was saying about Health Net being all they took of the Health Families Program and that I was never offered Health Net....lo and behold, they offer it, only if you have a current dr who takes it or you cannot find a Blue Cross dr to put your kids with, BINGO, we qualify. So July 1st they'll have Health Net (So help Healthy Families if they don't!) and in the meantime, the emergency room does take Blue Cross HMO. (And they speak English too LOL!!!)

Anyhow, that is my eventful day. We're about to go out to dinner for my b-day to my fave steak restaurant...I can't wait!!