christmas card

My Christmas cards went out a little late this year, mostly because I had decided to skip it altogether, then changed my mind at the last minute. So, if you usually get a Christmas card from me I hope you have seen it by now. If you haven't, then I probably have your address incorrect and I apologize. I still need to blog about our Christmas happenings, but I'm waiting to get a good picture before I can do that and my subject is being a bit difficult! Confused? Keep tuning in, I promise to get to it soon!

piano recital

So after some procrastination and postponement, I finally held another piano recital for my students. My last recital was in June 2007, so it was definitely time again. The six little students that I had perform did a good job, and I'm sure we're all happy to have it over and done with. The best part is, I don't have to worry about doing another one for at least a year! Maybe next time I'll be on the ball enough to have my kids participate. I started teaching Derrick and Abbie a while ago, but it is so easy to put lessons off when things get in the way. I guess that is one more thing to put on a New Years Resolution list. Maybe the first resolution should be to actually start writing the list down!

As a side note, I just taught myself how to use the smudge tool in Photoshop Elements! The mother in me decided I had better not post the names of all my students lest some crazy person stumble upon this blog and track any of them down!

loving these

I discovered these cute paper dolls on etsy a while back and decided to get some for Abbie this year for Christmas. Such an easy gift for not much money. I just got them printed at a local copy store and they are so cute. The great thing about them is that you get to pick the hair style, hair color, eye color, and skin color to match your child. Plus, once you buy them the files are yours to print as many times as you need to. Go get them here. I might even order one that looks like me!

quirky

My cousin Kayla tagged me several weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to it. At least I am getting around to it, I know there are several tags that I've just plain forgotten about! For your reading pleasure, here are six quirky things about me.

1. I don't like abbreviations. Never have. I prefer to write things out. This is why I don't text. It takes me more time to text than to just call a person and tell them what I have to say. I also prefer to write my numbers out when used in sentences (see above "six" versus "6"). Of course, sometimes I do use abbreviations, so if you look back through this blog and find somewhere that I have contradicted this quirk, just know that I didn't like doing it.

2. When I shut my blinds, I always turn the slats facing down. If I pass by a set that is turned up, I fix it. I do this because I believe that if a person were standing on the other side of the window trying to see in to my house, it would be harder to do with the blinds facing down. I haven't actually tested this theory, though.

3. I only eat eggs when the yolk and the white are combined, and cooked until dry. This means scrambled or omlette, and if they seem "wet" it's a no go. Any other type just grosses me out. Although I will eat the white from a hard-boiled egg when I come across it in, say, a salad. So maybe it is just the yolk by itself that I dislike. What I do know is that raw, runny egg yolks make me shudder, but my husband loves eggs over easy (otherwise known as dunky eggs in our house), so I will fix them for him when asked. And of course none of this applies to eggs used as ingredients in other dishes, those can be done however so long as the finished product is not just eggs.

4. I hate to swallow pills. I have a very sensitive gag reflex, and I have to be pretty desperate to work myself up for swallowing anything bigger than the smallest ibuprofen. I used to suffer through migraines as a teenager rather than swallow a pill. I also got strep once and was prescribed penicillin pills, which were small (as in birth control pill small), but I couldn't do it. So I ended up crushing them up and mixing them with orange juice. Three times a day for ten days, it was awful. I still remember the smell. Needless to say, the next time I got strep my mom made me get the shot, penicillin in the patooty, which was so thick I could feel it going in. I'm much better now, I've even swallowed a 600 mg ibuprofen! Of course, I had just given birth and was more interested in sleep than after pains, so maybe that doesn't count.

5. I don't really like poetry, at least the kind I had to read while going to school. Song lyrics are exempted from this. I had typed an explanation here trying to explain why I don't like it, but then I decided that I don't have to like it if I don't want to. So there.

6. I would much rather be too cold than too hot. Summer is my least favorite season.

And in case you missed it the last time I did a list like this, go here to read more of my weirdness.

sleepy

I've been a little sleepy lately when it comes to blogging. I guess 4 kids will do that to a person, at least until I get into a groove. Yes, I groove, but usually when no one is watching. But I digress. Today a good blogging picture presented itself, which gave me the motivation to actually blog! You see, Jon is of the opinion that we need to move Grace out of the crib, so that we can move Reid in to the crib and out of our bedroom. However, he also believes that this task will be more easily accomplished if she is no longer napping in the afternoon. I'm reluctant to give up the naps, because Grace is my only child so far that has consistently taken a 2-3 hour daily nap. I love it, and will miss it, and she can get really cranky. Apparently Grace is not yet ready to give up the naps either, because she keeps taking matters in to her own hands. I turned around a few minutes ago to find her like this.



And those little specks around her? Saltine crackers. I won't tell you how long they've been there. Cleaning them up would require waking her up, but then again, I guess that would be the new plan, right?

halloween

Derrick the vampire, or as he likes to call himself, Count Derrickula.



Abbie the witch.



Gracie is Little Red Riding Hood. She wonders why her parents bought a costume that seems too small. I promise it is the right size, she is just really tall.



Reid the skeleton.

reid charles

As I have done with Derrick, Abigail, and Grace, here is the detailed story of my labor and delivery with Reid, for posterity and all.



On Thursday we went to a regularly scheduled check-up at noon. The week before, my doctor had gone ahead and checked me for dilation at the time he tested me for GBS. At the time, I was not really doing much, although I had been feeling that things were starting to pick up, and I was dilated a fingertip, maybe. During the week that followed, I continued to have the normal Braxton-Hicks contractions, although the cramping was not as much as it had been. So, when I went in for my appointment on Thursday, I really wasn’t expecting much. At best, we were hoping to convince our doctor to make plans for an induction the following week. Throughout this pregnancy, there was always a discrepancy between the due date we were using and the one that my doctor was going by. After having yet another discussion with the doctor about why their due date was off, and considering that I tested positive for GBS, we reviewed my history again and he decided that we could go ahead and plan an induction for October 8th. To make it more “politically correct,” he finally changed my due date from the 21st to the 17th. Then he went ahead and checked me. Imagine our surprise to find out that I was a 3, almost 4. He of course informed me that I could walk around that way for a while, but that the now scheduled induction was definitely doable since I was clearly on my way. We left the office, and ran a couple of errands before going home. From the moment I left the appointment, I began having an increase in the intensity of contractions that I was feeling. I started to have flashbacks to Abbie’s delivery, but was not yet ready to go in to the hospital to be checked only to be sent home. After all, we had only been gone from the doctor’s office for a few hours. Fortunately it was Jon’s day off, so I sent him to pick up the kids from school because Grace was down for a nap. Within about 10 minutes of sending him out the door, I decided that we needed to head to the hospital, just to be safe. I called and told him to hurry so that we could run the children back to my mother’s house and then head to the hospital. He decided that it was probably a better idea if we just left them with our friends across the street and had my mom come and get them. But we couldn’t get ahold of our friends, so fortunately my mother just got in the car and was only a few minutes behind Jon in getting to our house. It was about 3:30 pm when we left our house for the hospital, and I was still only about 90% sure that we needed to be going. As we arrived at the hospital, Jon grabbed a wheelchair for me as I attempted to walk across the parking lot. Of course, we took the wrong elevator and needed a receptionist to walk us through the maze to get to the Family Center. If someone could explain the logic of placing Labor and Delivery as far away from the main entrance as possible, I would appreciate it. In any case, we made it there and they had me change while Jon went back to Admissions to let them know I was there. I always feel like the nurses think I’m just full of it when I walk in fairly calm and collected, but this time when I said “I know I don’t act like I’m in labor, but…” the nurse said “It’s your fourth baby, we believe you.” Good thing, because I was 8 centimeters with a bulging bag of water. The thing was that I needed antibiotics for the GBS, and there was clearly little time to do more than one dose, if that. They had me just lay on my side and try not to let my water break while they administered the penicillin. Fortunately it didn’t take too long to get one dose in to my system, but once again it killed my arm. Such a weird stinging, cold sensation. Anyways, they got my doctor over to the hospital, he broke my water, I continued to work through the contractions until I felt like pushing, I pushed no more than 10 times before he was out, and it was all over about an hour after I got to the hospital. Reid Charles was born on October 2, 2008 at 4:55 pm. He weighed 7 lbs. 6.6 oz. and was 19 inches long. He has a full head of copper colored hair (the first comment the nurse had was about the full head of reddish hair) and is perfect in every way. Reid was the smallest of my babies, but was also 4 days earlier than any of the others. We spent two nights in the hospital and came home on Saturday, even though I was ready to leave Friday night, because they wanted to watch him for longer since I didn’t have time to get the full course of antibiotics before delivery. I was really worried prior to going in to labor that I was going to break my streak and end up asking for pain medication on my last baby, not that I fault anyone who does it but I know that I can do it without, but am proud to say that I was able to do it again completely natural. I feel such accomplishment at having birthed all four of my children without any pain meds. Now it’s time to get my pre-kid body back!

at the hospital

early arrival

this was fun!

I saw this on cjane and thought it looked like fun. Click to enlarge. I tried to make it bigger, but just can't seem to do it!



Wanna try? Go to http://wordle.net/