Today, I was not a good Mommy!

The heat has lessened today and so Finn and I decided to venture out again for a quick trip to the mall. I made my normal stop at the Gymboree store, as I had a coupon to use and a few things I wanted to add to the kids wardrobes. As usual, I walked in and parked Finnegan by the TV so he could watch the GYM-TV that they play. No biggie - I had to just pick up a few thing, pay for them, and we'd be off. I picked out the things that I wanted, and then needed Finnegan to stand up so I could size a shirt... You know the dilemma... Should I get the 18-24 months shirt or 2T?? Come to find out, I should get the 18-24 months. Finnegan didn't want to sit back in his stroller, as it is unusual for him to be "let out" of the stroller while in the mall and not at the play area. So, I consented, in order to avoid a huge scene at the store. I told him to sit and watch the TV, mommy would go pay for her things and be back and we would leave in 2 minutes.

I paid for my items and as I was walking back to the rejoin my patient son back at the TV, I heard a little boy (about 8 years old) say "A little boy was trying to steal this from the store" as he held up a little chair that should be in front of the TV. Just then, I looked down and Finnegan was NOT in front of the TV as he should have been. HE WAS GONE!!! I said, 'That's my son!!"

I ran out into the open mall, and where the store is located is a large cross roads for the mall... which direction did he go?? Oh my Goodness!! Then, I saw him! He was on the complete other side of the open area, just running around. No one was concerned that a little boy was running through the open crowds alone or noticed that no one was running after him. I spotted him and began running. And of course, not wearing the appropriate clothes for physical activity, my pants began to fall past my belly and rump. I caught them before they fell completely past my hips, but not much. Just then I scooped up my little boy who was just running with pure freedome in his eyes. He was caught off guard and began to cry and kick his legs. I tried to stay calm and not yell at him but explain that he left the store without mommy and that was not allowed. I returned to the store, so ashamed that I'd not looked after my child as I should have. Oh, the lessons that we learn, and the ways we must learn them... And today, I learned that my child will NEVER get out of the stroller while in the mall, EVER!!!

The B-I-B-L-E

Here is the sweetest video of our boy singing his new favorite song! When he's stressed or anxious or just needs a little comforting, this is the song we sing. And he's picked it up quickly!!

One Hot Day in Paradise

As the week's forecast continued to rise and rise, I never really believed it would be here. But, as the week progressed, the high temperatures forecasted kept getting higher and higher, near and above the record highs for the area. Today, when we woke up, our house registered 87 degrees at 9am. A friend had offered us a place to come and hang out for the day if we needed too. It's not custom for many people to have AC's here in the Northwest, as we just don't have a large need for them. It gets warm in the summer, but summer really only lasts from July 4th to Labor Day. Two whole months, if we're lucky. Before and after these days, we're normally guarenteed rain at least once or twice a week, and at least overcast days. This summer has been different. It's been warm since back in May and the mercury seemed to rise and rise.

Today, the forecast for Seattle was 101 degrees, and the forecast for Puyallup was 103 degrees. We went to our friends home early this morning and spent the day inside, playing with toys and watching movies. At about 3pm, I got worried about our dogs who had been in our home all day long with only an open window, fan and a bowl of water (plus thier beds) in our laundry room. So we went home to check on them. I drove the 7 minutes it takes to get home with the AC blowing as high as it would go, and Finnegan was asleep by the time we got home. I left the car running in the garage and went in and found the dogs happy and ready for us to be home. But the house was registering 92 degrees. It was still pretty warm. I rigged some ice and water for the dogs to step in and drink for a couple more hours and left to return back to our oasis. Finnegan slept on the basement floor for 2 hours while I rested and read my book and even caught 30 minutes of rest myself. Around 6pm we decided to vacate and go home to wait for daddy as he'd be home soon.

When he got home, he brought a window AC that is on loan from a friend at work. They hadn't used it in years, and thought it might help us. We jimmy rigged it up in our sliding glass door - my husband wasn't interested in spending the time and patience that it would take to put it in the window properly - and cranked it up. We left to venture to the mall for dinner, and found the reconstruction project a bit overwhelming for us, so chose to leave and eat somewhere else. We got home around 9pm. Unfortunately, the 2 hours we'd been gone, hadn't changed the temp inside the house at all. It's cool when you stand right infront of it. And perhaps that's what we'll do tomorrow and temps promise to be almost as high tomorrow afternoon!! So, we'll try again tomorrow and see what happens.

Oh, funny thing... when we left for the mall, we decided to leave the dogs out in the house, not in their room as before. When we got home, Oreo, was out running the neighborhood!! We don't know for sure how she got out of the yard, but we're pretty sure she wiggled her way through the gate on the side of the house... which is very unlike her, as she won't go near a door if it's cracked and she thinks it might close. So, we know that Tootsie isn't the one to worry about when we leave them home alone, it's Oreo, our calmer, more anxious dog!! :) Ok, so not such a funny story... Just checked the answering machine and heard a neighbor called to tell us our dog was out running the neighborhood and she almost hit her with her car... Not so good!!

P.S. Even though I've been a bit overweight all my life, I must admit I've never had trouble with chaffing. Perhaps I am a lucky one. But being pregnant in this heat, especially 8 months pregnant, has not allowed me to keep saying that statement as truth. Today, after being home for one hour at 6pm, I sweated so much that I developed a small area of chaffing on the top of my belly!! Poor baby within!! But Baby Powder is my new best friend in this heat!!

Camp Selah Remembered

During the summer of 2000, I traveled Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin with Risen Ministries. Those who composed Risen that summer, have such a special place in my heart and are so precious to me. The summer was one that I will never forget and have may fond memories from. One particular memory made it's way back into my life today, via a similar experience.

For two weeks during the summer of 2000, we traveled to Camp Selah and were apart of their camp. When we first arrived, we got our room assignments and made a trip to the bathroom. The more times I used the bathroom in the common girls restroom, I knew something was wrong. If I remember correctly, the faucet never had hot water, it was always cold. But the toilets always had a warm heat radiating from them. For a women, this is not a good feeling (ok perhaps TMI) but when you sit on it, and you feel steam from the water below. A totally gross feeling, especially several times a day!!

The heat has been tramendously warm here in WA. Like warmer than it has been in years. It has been since 1981 that there have been more than 5 days in a row that are in the 90's. It just doesn't get that hot here. It's been in the 90's yesterday and today, and will be this warm at least through Saturday. Oh, to say I'm dying, is a slight understatement. The house was 90 degrees for most of the day, and it was still 90 degrees at about 9pm tonight. This evening, after tucking Finnegan into bed, I retreated to my bathroom to take a cold shower. Before jumping in, I used the bathroom, and my mind was flooded back of those memories of the summer of 2000. As I sat there, I realized that not the water was warm, but the whole toilet seat was warm, simply because the room was so warm!! So gross!!

Painting Accomplished

Ok, Blogworld!! Here are a few photos you've been waiting for. Here's one of me at 30 weeks. I feel like I look really bloated in this photo, and I suppose they say the camera adds 10lbs. So perhaps that 10lbs of bloat!! Anyway that's me and the baby!

Here are a few photos of the art that I created for the baby's room. There are several (5 total) that look like this one below, with the cage and brid together, and different scrapbook paper behind it. All matching the room.



I made this - it's a family tree for the Baby's room. I thought it was kind of fun!! It lists all of her family together!!

Here are the photos of one wall in her room... the rest of the room is the pink color. It's actually a very light color pink in person, but on the camera it shows to be much darker.


Hope you enjoy them. In a month or so, when the room is DONE, I'll post final photos.

A week of painting

I will definitely post photos later today, but I've been busy painting this week!! On Monday, I began the project of painting the front door. It is definitely a story in and of itself, but by Tuesday, I was much more pleased with the overall project. The overall story begins with the wrong color paint (off by a shade), continued with no primer on a white door for a color change to red!, and then ended with the use of a 1/2 inch craft brush and three coats of paint.

On Wednesday, the weatherman was predicting 90 degree weather for the weekend, and it was gonna be in the 70's on Thursday and Friday, so I began moving boxes and preparing to paint the baby's room! On Wednesday, I got the trim done (edging and all around the floorboards, ceiling and window and doors) with the pink base color, called "Pixie Dust". Thursday I filled in the walls and did some touch up and on Friday I began taping the design that I'll paint.

For Finnegan's room, I painted stripes. So I wanted to do something different for the baby girl's room. But wasn't sure that I wanted to do something so involved like the stripes were. So I thought a stripe or two of argyle would be cute. But then I couldn't decide where to put it. So, I decided to do one whole wall in argyle. I found a website that had all the calculations done for me so all I had to do was plug in the room dimensions and it would give me everything I needed. Friday afternoon, I began marking the wall with chalk and taping everything. It really didn't take that long to tape, and repaint (the walls are textured so after you tape, you have to repaint the tape with the base color so that the second color won't bleed). I only spent about 3 hours taping (which was pretty fast).

Today, the mercury is rising a bit more so I don't know how much I'll get done (my sweet pea doesn't like that I am standing for so long without many water breaks). But, I will probably begin painting our green diamonds and then see how it looks! Hopefully it will begin looking realy cool! And I will post some photos.

So I'm sure you're convinced that I'm nesting... Not quite yet. I just have so much work that's been held off because of Ken's school and now I'm rushing to get it done before I get too big and tired to do the work myself... And poor husband, he's falling behind on his work. I've threatened several times to get some hired help to do his part of the work because now it seems my work is going to depend on his work getting done and all he wants to do is relax after years of working every weekend and having no time for himself!! Poor Hubby!!

Sunday Morning Blues

Well, it's early Sunday morning and I'm up. Normally this would take place if I was going somewhere special or got tons of sleep last night. And of course, neither of these is true. I went to bed less than 6 hours ago and am now up (after waking up numerous times last night). I just can't seem to go back to sleep. Although it is a beautiful morning here in the Northwest, so I shouldn't complain, when else can I enjoy the peaceful solace that the early morning hours bring?

The last few days have been relaxing and full of craziness all at once. I have a list of things that need to be done around the house and many of them are contingent on other things... so they can't be done until other things are done... and because of my current state (pregnant and getting larger by the minute), I can't seem to do much with the first parts of the chain. So that means that I must wait upon the husband to finish his tasks before mine can begin. I am very thankful that he's even started his list of items, but as the days draw near (and there are less than 70 of them) for our daughter to arrive, my clock is ticking for my items to be done, while I have more energy and more space around my circumference for me to enjoy the tasks at hand.

I've also been on the look out for an activity or something that Ken and I (along with Finnegan) can do for our anniversary in the coming weeks, and also as a "last hurrah" before the baby arrives. I become so frustrated sometimes that things are so expensive to do and that we must always find family friendly activities to keep us occupied, rather than (selfishly) shoving our darling first born off for free daycare at a family members house and escaping for the weekend just for once. I become overwhelmed with the "we can't do that with three" or "we aren't prepared to do that yet" or "that's just too darn expensive at the moment". And as much of a planner as I am, I just don't know how to plan of select a vacation or get away that isn't 4 star and begin with Mouse Ears. And since we've found that we have no hobbies... we just don't have anything that we love to do together to fuel other vacation spots. So then I'm back at the question, well, why even go? Just to spend money? That's not the answer. Grrr.... Anyway - just a bit of complaining in the early morning hours to get off my chest.

No plans for today. There are always things that I'd like to do with my boys, but we'll see what we get accomplished today :) We were supposed to meet some family from Florida today for lunch after church as they were here on vacation, but that may not happen, which is a real big bummer. It's always fun to have family in town, even if it's just for an afternoon. Perhaps we can make it work tomorrow.

A Long Day in Mommy World!!

Some where along the line, someone has given my sweet darling "I love to sleep" child the idea that bed and naps are not a good thing. It seems to have happened since we returned from our vacation and then had an exciting holiday where he was priviledged to stay up late to watch the fireworks, and also since we've taken the paci away. Well, now, we're back to the real world and he wants nothing to do with a daily nap, and definitely wants nothing to do with going to bed. Today, he cried for and hour and a half at the first attempt for him to take a nap at the usual time. And then cried another thirty minutes two hours later when we tried it again. He has just calmed down after 20 minutes of crying now at bed time, and bed time has been pushed back almost 90 minutes. GRRR.... Who taught my son this? What happened to my sweet boy who loved to go to sleep and would tell me that he was tired and ready for rest?? I want that child back!! No naps, and lots of daily crying makes mommying NOT fun!! And makes me rethink this idea of bringing another one home. Any suggestions mommies??

Meeting My Baby!

Well, I've heard that many women had had dreams about giving birth and meeting their baby. When I was pregnant with Finnegan, I always wanted to have one of these dreams, but it wasn't something that ever happened to me. Well, this time around, I can't claim that. Two nights ago, I was able to meet my sweet daughter, and see her. She looked very similar to the photo that was recently take of her, and she had thick dark hair like Finnegan did. In my dream I had a c-section and remember having to lay down on the stretcher, and I wasn't able to carry her, but she was being carried next to me. We also called her "Honor" in my dream. Now, this isn't a name that we're thinking of calling her, and I shared the name with Ken and he wasn't too crazy about it. But hearing her called something was interesting.

Also in my dream there was a board that listed how much weight I'd gained in my pregnancy... I listed two weights, the beginning weight and the weight I was when I delivered. The math worked out to be about 70lbs. Now, I know I haven't gained that much weight, but it must just be a reminder that it's a big deal to me this time around. And although I'm pretty conscience about what I eat, I'm still on track for gaining about the same that did with Finnegan. But by the end of the dream, they'd changed the figures and I was much more pleased with the math.

Kind of weird to see your baby before she's born. Did you experience this with any of your pregnancies? Were your "predictions" right?

Finn's Clean Teeth

Today, was Finnegan's first visit to the dentist's office. I was nervous for him to go, seeing that Daddy has FABULOUS teeth and mommy is pretty scared of the dentist and really doesn't like going. So using some of the best parenting advice that I received... we decided to take him early, before he could make up his own idea of how it is. We also had found a great dentist that I enjoyed going too here in WA, so we thought this would be a good time for him to go. Needless to say, he did great! Although I was having my teeth cleaned at the same time he was, I could hear him squealing and enjoying his time at the dentist. They checked all his teeth and he even let them polish his teeth with bubble gum toothpaste. And their only recommendation for him was to get rid of the paci. So we've started the transition. We'll see how it goes. I'll keep you updated on that one. :)

** I was later told by my husband that they didn't even play with this toy during the appt. When the hygienist handed it to Finnegan, he knew EXACTLY what to do with it. I was pretty impressed by that!!

Back into the Swing of Things

Although we've been home for almost a week, we're finally getting back into the swing of "real life." Ken went back to work for 2 days last week before the holiday and a day off (and the weekend). And we were pretty busy with doctors visits and other meetings last week that aren't normal.

So today we were pretty low key. We played at home, and Finnegan and I just hung out. Except for the third trip the vet that we had to escort Oreo too... That's a long story, but she's sick again, and I'm sure it's gonna cost me at least another $200+ again today. We'll see when she comes home in a couple of hours.

We're sitting in the middle of the living room and finnegan is eating some watermelon and "bapes" (you know... grapes). Hope you all had a great 4th celebration!!

Oh, Baby Update: We still have NO IDEA what we're going to name our little girl. If you have any suggestions, let me know! Ken has 2 or 3 names that he really likes, and won't back down from and I just don't have anything that I can commit too!! Seems like a bit early to be worried about it, but I know the next few weeks are gonna fly by and then we'll really be in a pickle!! I've decided on a concrete theme for the baby's room. It is loosely based upon the "Penelope" line by Pottery Barn Kids. Basically it's little birdies that are light and medium pink, yellow and lime green. I've found some art that will be the center piece of the room once I incorporate it. As well of a cute rug from Target that was only $19.99. I'd found other rugs that were at least $60 so I was pleased with this purchase. We'll also go with the same theme of furniture that we have in our bedroom and Finn's room and get Espresso colored wood for the baby's room. I hope to start painting in the next couple of weeks. And I'll definitely post photos when I begin working on it.

Sweet Pea at 27 weeks - Heart Update

Well, I wasn't initially concerned about the request for me to have a third ultrasound for our Sweet Pea. I just thought it would be exciting to see her again. That was until the doctor called me on vacation to set up the appointment and they wanted to see me immediately. I was pretty nervous after that... what did they know that I didn't? Come to find out, they didn't know anything. And the scan of her tiny body showed that not only was her heart beating and functioning properly, but her body was the appropriate size that it should be and all of the organs and parts of her body that the doctor inspected were normal. I was very pleased to hear this. And the doctor was even a bit confused after the appt as to why I was there in the first place. I suppose that is a good problem to have!

Here are a few photos of her. I've always wanted to have a 3D photo of our kids. I think they are so fascinating. So here is the first one... She wasn't following instructions, and the doctor was pressing on my belly and giggling it all around trying to get her to put her arms down (not the most glamorous experience I've ever had).... He took about 3 photos before becoming partly successful.


Here is part of her face... She doesn't have much chub on her face yet... and the doctor said that she will most likely be smaller than Finnegan was... unless she goes through a large growth spurt in the next few months. I hope she has lots of hair like Finnegan did!!



This is a photo of her hand holding her foot. kind of a neat photo...