A Right Of Passage

After being asked when the due date is, if it's a boy or girl, are we excited... the next question usually is, do you have the nursery ready. Nope, we do not! For lots of reasons. For starters, the crib is probably going to start in our room. Josh and I are dead set on not co sleeping - meaning no baby in our bed! However, Josh's experiences tell me those first few weeks/months he'll be up a lot at night and it will just be easier to have him close. The 2nd big reason is that what will be his room is currently the playroom for the girls. So we've wanted to tread lightly and slowly on this big change for them. The last few months we've quietly been cleaning out toys they never play with, and slowly migrating things into their room. One big storage unit will have to stay, but by the time lil' Jack starts having toys, I think they will start phasing out of all the little toys and the timing will be just fine. Anywho, so while ya, it would be fun to have it all set up, I wasn't really in a big rush to do so. Until now. :) And just think - my nesting instincts haven't even taken over yet! It just dawned on me the other day my shower is in like 2 weeks. I don't want to end up with all of this stuff and no where to put it, and then it's just in piles around the house. So I told Josh my goal is to have the dresser and crib set up and waiting by then.

Back track to the first trimester when we announced to the families that we were expecting. Josh's aunt and uncle graciously offered up a crib and huge dresser/table combo set they had for their son, who had recently switched to a toddler bed. We were thrilled! So Steve, Josh's dad, offered to go get the crib for us this week, and brought it over last night. After dinner Josh and I (read, me sitting in the middle of the room watching Josh) began to assemble the crib. As I sat there dutifully watching and not actually helping, I wondered how many future moms and dads had spent a night after work doing exactly this. Then I pictured my mom and dad, very likely in this same room, setting up a crib for Lizzie... and it just struck me as such a neat right of passage. Call it hormones but it actually got me a little teary eyed. This was like joining some new secret club, not just anyone gets to do this.. and suddenly, sitting there in the middle of the still half playroom/half nursery, realizing Josh was building the crib around me and I was soon going to be stuck (it was hysterical trying to get out later), and watching Josh's face as he concentrated to figure it out, I felt so blessed, and so lucky. I think it's all finally starting to feel real.

The only bummer was the crib actually didn't work out - several pieces were broken so we'll need to scrap it and get a new game plan, but I'm not too worried about it!

Things that are just different...

So, it makes sense that there are things you can't do when you are pregnant. You can't drink, probably shouldn't go horseback riding, sky diving... stay away from sushi... those are some common things we all know. But there is a whole nother list of things you just don't think about. I'm not talking about stuff like lifting things - thats actually a pet peeve. I'm not stupid I'm not going to try to move couches or a bed on my own, butI can carry a bag of groceries.. I'm pregnant, not helpless! It's things that I always do that about 20 seconds in, I realize I can't that I get upset over.

A perfect example was that this weekend the girls finally decided to try out the roller skates Granny and Steve had gotten them for Christmas. Granny wanted to help Kali, so Kenzie and I set to work getting her set up with the oh so necessary knee, elbow and wrist pads. Then we waddled down the grass and she started off on the side walk. Where we had to pause, was when she lost her balance and depended on me to hold her up. Any other day, this would have been totally fine... but with my big belly and lack of any core muscles... my back immediately took the brunt. Holy moly that hurt - and more importantly, I was worried I wouldn't be able to really catch her if she fell. So we had to sit and wait for Kali to be tired so Granny could take Kenzie around. I was so frustrated sitting and watching. For the record - both girls did great, Kenzie fell 3 times but much to my delight, she laughed each time.

Another thing that makes perfect sense, but I had never really put that much thought into it, was my health during my pregnancy. Unless you are just one of those annoying people who actually remembers their vitamins every day... I was never like that. I would go through phases of taking them religiously for a week straight, then forgetting for a month. Right now? If I forget... I'll be laying in bed and gasp.. get up, go eat some crackers and take my prenatal vitamins before falling asleep. However, this weekend boasted a whole new problem. I got the stomach flu.. and not just a piddly stomach ache. I'm talking full on, laying on the bathroom floor, can't even keep an ice cube in me. Half way through the day and not having any food in me..it's overwhelming how worried I was about the little guy. But alas, he kicked my stomach (thanks bud, just what I needed) all day long, letting me know he was OK. However, where normally I would have bounced back and been back at work today...I'm still home. I feel so weak and exhausted. So I'm spending the day trying to rest, and eating the most nutrition packed stuff I can to get Jack and I back to normal.

So thats been my excitement. Before Josh and I both got the stomach flu (along with the rest of his family) we celebrated Mackenzie's birthday at the zoo - everyone had a blast!!!

Dogs DEFINITELY have personality!

I should start by saying I am so bummed that I did not take a picture to capture this moment. That being said, here's the story.


Time and time again, I've said to Josh "aww look, Rufus looks sad" or happy, or some other emotion.. and Josh always looks at me and talks like I'm deaf and says "DOGS DON'T HAVE EMOTIONS! THEY ARE DOGS, NOT HUMANS!" And I firmly disagree! Of course they do! Well, I think Rufus finally convinced Josh he does in fact have feelings! Josh and I both have big blankets that we keep in the living room for when we want to snuggle up and watch TV. They were folded up in a stack on the floor and Rufus was laying beside them. I pulled mine up leaving Josh's prized "car B" on the ground. Rufus immediately readjusted and sprawled across the car B.. which is a big no no, but I like a little humor so I left him there. A few minutes later Josh came to join me on the couch and ordered a very sleepy Rufus off of his blanket and yanked it out from under him. What happened next was priceless. Rufus stood there GLARING at Josh... for added effect his eyes were bloodshot since he had just fallen asleep. I could see Josh ignoring him, but after at least a good minute, Josh finally broke and laughed and I said OMG He is SO pissed at you! If Rufus could talk all I could picture were swear words!! It was too funny. He stood there for another minute just staring Josh down, then like a total snob, sauntered off to the playroom where is bed is, and stayed there the rest of the night. He showed us!!!

Josh now believes that dogs can show emotion LOL!

Side note - 75 days to go, WOOHOOO!!!!!!

Turning Into Your Parents

Growing up, I can remember my Dad saying quite often "Megan (or any of my siblings) you left the hall (bathroom, bedroom, patio, kitchen, etc) light on, please go turn it off." This broken record request wasn't limited to just lights. We'd leave doors and windows open in the winter "heating the whole neighborhood" things like that. My personal evil favorite was when we moved into the house he's in now. Before they remodeled, along one wall in the kitchen was a series of cabinets. A few long ones and then a few that opened right at his head level. In my self absorbed years I can't remember if Katie and Lizzie were as bad, but I was notorious for leaving those cabinet doors open, specifically the ones up top. And dear old Dad would come in, distracted, looking at something in his hands, and walk right into the cabinet doors. And naturally, they opened opposite of the direction he was walking so they wouldn't just fall closed. They'd hold firm, usually gashing the corner right into the cute lil' bald spot on the top of his head. I sit here chuckling to myself as I hear "Goddammitall MEGAN" ringing thru my memories. But as I chuckle, I'm reminded of the fact that what goes around comes around. In the years since I've moved out, karma has come full circle in two ways with this one.

I remember when I first moved out, calling my Dad in that first week, joking that I had every light on in the house, I took a shower that lasted an hour, and had the heater running with allllll the windows and doors open. Ahhhh, the freedom!!!! Then I got my first set of utility bills. WHAT THE HECK!?!?!? I even called Dad (landlord) to inquire of possible leaks because there was just no way my water bill was this high. But, probably the best pay back I got - well I'd imagine my Dad would think this is the best... was the day I left one of the top cabinet doors open. This is the only cabinet door that you risk really running into. It sticks out further than the rest, and is at the end of the kitchen, near the doorway into the hall. I woke up one sleepy eyed Saturday, pulled a box of cereal out of the said cabinet and poured a bowl to bring back to bed. I remember adding too much milk, so I was looking down as I walked to make sure I wasn't spilling. I was also walking really fast because I was freezing (now suddenly a cheapskate, I was more willing to hide under 30 blankets than run the heater just for me!) Well you can probably guess where I am going with this. Yep - 5 or 6 quick steps later BAM I ran right into the cabinet... and I didn't just hit my head. It caught me so off guard, and I hit it so hard, I flew back, lost my footing, fell on my butt, dumping the milk and cereal all over me. I could just picture my Dad standing over me going NE NER NE NER NE NER!!!!!!!! Man did I deserve that or what!!!

But the harshest reality I think I've met -that most people who eventually have kids can appreciate was the day I realized... holy crap. I sound like my Dad. All the sudden, all I see is the girls leaving every light on anytime they walk into a room, they leave their TV on anytime they walk away (This solves the mystery of the TV magically turning off growing up - My Dad later explained he'd set the sleep timer on them since we'd walk away half the time leaving it on.) I'm beginning to think Mackenzie thinks the light gremlin is going to eat her hand off in the bathroom if she were to ever turn off the light. I feel like a broken record!!! "you left the light on.. please go turn the TV off... close the fridge door, nothing is going to magically appear, you know what we have....Close the recliner when you crawl out of it so we don't walk into it... close the door you are letting flies in.." After saying it for the 50th time I thought OH NO! I sound just like my Dad! LOL!! But you know what, I get it now. So I guess it's time to pay my dues, and maybe one day in 20 years, Kali and Mackenzie (and eventually Jack) will call me laughing, saying they get it now too.

Mother's Day

Ahh Mother's Day... admittedly a tricky one for me. Our family has dealt with a lot of changes, some sad, some upsetting, some the best thing that every happened to us, and well a lot of that revolves around Moms! But as we get older and we are all falling into our nitch in life, our hearts have lead us to where we want to be and guided us to how we want to express that.

That being said, yesterday was nice and mellow and very relaxed. Josh and I were excited to give our Mother's Day gifts... unfortunately we'll have to wait until today to give his mom her surprise because not everyone was feeling so well yesterday and up for visits. However, I don't think she follows the blog so I'm safe so spoil the surprise on here and talk about what we did!

Denise has been (unsuccessfully - man he's stubborn) trying to guilt trip Josh into painting her bedroom for her. I'm not exaggerating - this has been going on for over a year. They have a love-hate relationship where Josh rags on her 24/7 but when push comes to shove, the first person he calls when he needs advice or help is his mama. So we (I, as Josh keeps joking, there is no we in this activity) came up with the idea that we should offer to get all the supplies and paint her room for her. The only caveat right now is that I can't be around those fumes until after Jack arrives. So I made the certificate you'll see below. I am lazy and just used my iphone for the picture, so its a bit blurry, but you'll get the idea:

The font is a bit blurry, but you can see the certificate is to "Jack's Paint Shop" and the way we explained she'll have to wait until he comes, is by putting "Grand Opening: July 2010" at the bottom. I hope she likes it!!

After spending most of the day being lazy, we headed over to Dad and Pattie's house where Dad and I planned to make Pattie dinner. I will stop here and give a little praise to Dad - I did absolutely nothing to help with dinner. Every time I looked up, he was already taking care of something and telling me he "got it"... I did nothing. Josh even did the dishes, so I literally, did nothing! Thanks Dad and Josh!

Anywho, like a total airhead (let's blame it on baby brain shall we) I forgot to take a picture of what we gave Pattie before we gave it to her! But I can describe it easily enough! The tricky thing with Pattie is she doesn't ask for much and if she needs something, she usually just runs out and gets it. So we all tend to default to gift cards - which I know she loves and they get used, but after a while giving her the same 4 gift cards, you just feel like a schmuck. So, Josh came up with a great suggestion, why don't I think of something she and I can do together. If you know Pattie, one of the very first things that comes to mind is that she LOVES sewing, specifically quilting. For Christmas I was spoiled enough by my parents to get a new sewing machine that is absolutely amazing. Then, just to make me feel like it was Christmas all over again, Pattie brought over a ton of tools to get me started on quilting! It was so thoughtful of her. I love seeing her excitement in something, and what honestly makes it seem like so much fun to me is the idea that it's something we can share together. VIOLA! Let's take a quilting class together! So what we 'made' for her, was another certificate as well. Al beit she may have to 'dumb it down' a little for me and go to a class that will be fairly easy for her, but the idea of getting to share that together sounds great. So since she is the expert I asked her to let me know where we should book the class, and hopefully we'll be on our way soon!

p.s. I think she loved the idea! :)

As the day came to an end I was laying in bad last night thinking wow, starting next year, Mother's Day is gonna be a bit different for me! I smiled, thinking well, just another addition on our Mom saga for the family, and this one is definitely one I'm looking forward to.

Our Garden is BACK!!

Ok, I know you've been anxiously waiting at the edge of your seat for me to post that we've done something with our garden. For those of you who don't religiously read my blog or go back and re read my blog endlessly... here's the short story:


A year ago Pattie gave me an idea to start a fairy garden for the girls, which they LOVED the concept of. The reality? We killed the flowers, twice. So, Pattie and I came to the conclusion that while part of it may be my lack of a green thumb, our dirt was old, untouched for years and icky. So D&P said you dig the planter out and we'll fill it. Well that planter ended up being about 18 feet long 3-4 feet wide and 2 feet deep. It was a monster to dig. Well by the time we accomplished this task, it was closing in on winter. So we waited. 2 weeks ago D&P brought over 10 bags of soil and 3 euonymus (sounds like yowannamus!) shrubs. But alas, that weekend it began to rain, and the following weekend we all were busy. Nervous that the plants weren't long for this world trapped in buckets, Josh and I decided to dive in head first this Sunday and here is what we did!



The plan with the old dirt was to mix it with the new soil that D&P brought over. The tricky part was, the dirt was sitting in 2 huge mounds next to the trench, and had been rained on, baked in the sun, and even had their own colony of weeds growing on them after sitting there for 6 months! So what does one do? Put those kids to work! HA! We may have broken a few child labor laws along the way, but they were happy to go into demolition mode and break those mounds down to a nice smooth mixture. In dresses and flip flops no less!

But, alas, little girls run out of steam, and don't like being sweaty. So what do you next? Get Grandpa involved!!! Josh's parents come over every Sunday to eat lunch with the girls before they head back to their mom's house. Wver a softy, Steve couldn't just sit and watch 2 little girls and a preggo lady digging dirt, so he hopped right in. Things went a lot faster for he and Josh than it did for Josh with the 3 of us girls helping!

5 hours (yes, 5, I could not believe it!) and 24 trips with the wheel burrow later, we finished!! I am so thrilled to have it full and to kiss those dirt mounds GOODBYE! The fine print on the yardwaste bin says do not dump dirt, so we'll have to add a little to the bottom each week (don't tell) to get rid of the extra old dirt we didn't use up. Then we'll have to reseed the grass where the dirt mounds were, but a small minor detail that is totally worth it! Next weekend, we go pick out flowers! I can't wait!!