Incentives

We have started a new incentive program for Emily. We're rewarding good behavior with a sort of allowance system.

We have a wipe board in the kitchen where we track her behavior and her allowance earned. She gets "strikes" when she does not follow the rules at our house. This also applies when she's with Nanny and Pops during the day. If she gets in trouble at their house, it's a strike on our board as well. If she gets three strikes in a day, then she loses her allowance for the day.

Unfortunately, there are many days where she does get three strikes by the end of the day. The picture of the board was from last week, but the board from this week looks just as sad so far. She gets a lot of strikes for coming out of her room at night or during nap time. I think this should be an easy rule to follow, but she continues to come out of her room for the silliest excuses imaginable. I think she has been out of her room about 14 times so far tonight and she's only been in bed for an hour and a half.

Yeah, not fun.

Now ... occasionally, Emily does earn her a allowance. Right now, she earns $0.50 per day that she does not get three strikes. She gets her money on Saturday mornings.

A couple weeks ago, Mike found her a safe to keep her money in. We looked for one all around the metro area, but never found what we wanted. But he did find a perfect pink one online. It has a pad lock and even an alarm that goes off when the safe opens up.

After we got the safe, we gathered up all Emily's money and it ended up equalling over $40! She and her dad like to look through her safe and talk about the U.S. Presidents that are on each bill denomination. She is learning to recognize and name each one. It's fun to see her soaking up all this knowledge.

We are teaching her about tithing 10% of her earnings at Sunday School, but most weeks she gives more than 10%. This past week, she earned $1.50 for the week and I think she gave $1.00 at Sunday School. She is so generous and loving.

Now if we could just get her to stop getting so many strikes and earning some more money for her safe ...

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Last Weekend as a Family of Three

Even though the weather was not cooperating, we really wanted to spend our weekend having fun as a family of three. It was so so hot!

On Saturday, we wanted to go to Andy Alligator's Fun Park with Emily. We told her that we could go after she took a nap, but ... she had to take a nap. And, as luck would have it, she did not take a nap. Not even a little one.

We were SO disappointed that we didn't get to go to Andy Alligator's. We ended up staying home most of the day. I just did not think I would be able to handle the heat.

Then on Sunday, we got up and went to Sunday School. This was our last week with our current group of kids because they will all promote to the four-year-old class next week. We will get our new group of three-year-olds next week, but I will be in the hospital so I won't get to see them for several weeks.

After church, went to lunch at Ted's with the family. We had a good time visiting with everyone. And the food was good, as usual.

After lunch, we headed home for our nap. Emily did much better at nap time today. I think she only came out of her room once. That's still a no-no, but it's better than it has been recently.

I think I went to sleep in about 5 minutes and slept for an hour and a half. It was a great nap after a very long and unsettled night.

At our house, we have been counting down the days until Noah comes. Today we have five days left. Every morning, we have to check the wipe board to see how many we have left. We asked Emily how many days we would have left tomorrow and it is so cute to see her mind working to count backwards to figure out how many more days. She is really excited to meet her new baby brother. I hope that feeling lasts after he gets here! I keep stressing the fact that once he gets here, he'll live with us "forever" and we won't be sending him back. Ha!

Guest Blogger

I forgot to mention that I've lined up a guest blogger to post some pictures and tell about our experience in the hospital. The guest blogger's identity is a secret, but I know they will do a great job! Stay tuned to find out who it is.

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Waking Up Daddy

I think I have mentioned before that I've been having a hard time sleeping at night. I usually wake up to visit the bathroom sometime between 2:30am and 3:00am. And after that, I have a very difficult time going back to sleep. I lie awake and just toss and turn for the rest of the night.

Sometimes I get up and try to get comfortable in my recliner. Or on the couch. Or in Noah's room. I try just about anything I can think of to get comfortable and go back to sleep.

Unfortunately, Mike's alarm clock starts going off somewhere around 4:00am or something. And, sadly, he often does not hear his alarm. If I let him, he'll let it go off for a good half hour at least. Let me tell you, his alarm is LOUD. I can hear it in any other room of the house, even if the bedroom door is closed.

Even our unborn baby can hear his alarm clock! The alarm starts going off and Noah starts wiggling all around in my belly. He's like "Wake up, Daddy!" and turn that noisy thing off.

But most mornings, Mike needs some intervention in order to get him moving. Depending on which way I'm facing in the bed, I usually either kick him in the leg. Or I just reach over and smack him (hard) a couple times.

And as if that's not bad enough, sometimes ... when Mike comes back into the room ... to wake me up I'll just start fussing at him and telling him that I KNOW he can hear that VERY LOUD alarm clock and he's just ignoring it.

And, while I'm half-asleep, I'll give him all kinds of practical advice. Like "Don't set your alarm so early because your body knows that you don't have to really get up any time soon." And "You should try setting your iHome to wake to music from your iPod and then just turn it up really loud." Or "You need to tell yourself before you go to sleep that you will turn off the alarm when it goes off." And "Just listen to it!" And "Stop ignoring it!"

Now ... if I'm sleeping in my recliner or in another room, I will usually just ignore his alarm too. Oh, I will still hear it. And it will still make me mad. But my body will refuse to get up to go wake him up.

But I can't ignore it if I'm in the same room. It is just SO loud and annoying. It's just too easy to smack him and get him to hit the snooze. But, the snooze button only turns off the alarm for 9 minutes. And you're not supposed to be able to go into a deep sleep in that short amount of time. But many times, Mike will still ignore the alarm when it goes off again nine minutes later ... and nine minutes after that .... and nine minutes after that. I just do not understand it.

I KNOW he has to hear it. I just don't know why he won't respond to it and turn it off. Unless ... he just enjoys getting smacked by his wife at 4:00am every day.

Well, Baby Noah and I would really appreciate it if Daddy would wake up and turn off his alarm clock as soon as possible in the mornings. We need our sleep!

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37 Weeks - Full Term!

At 37 weeks pregnant, Noah is considered to be full term! That's exciting news.

The other day, I had a total freak out moment when I realized that I'm having a baby next week. Like, NEXT WEEK! It's very exciting, but it's a mini-freak out at the same time. So many wonderful changes are coming for our family and we can hardly wait.

Today was my 37 week doctor's appointment. My blood pressure was slightly high, but not too bad. I didn't even have to lay down on my left side so that was a good thing!

Noah measured right on track for 37 weeks. I meant to ask my doctor how much she thought he weighed so that I could put it on my weight "guesstimate" post, but I forgot to ask. I know what she would say though - probably about 7 lbs. That's what she said with Emily too, but of course she turned out to be quite a bit smaller.

My cervix is still very thin and soft, but I am not dilated yet. So that means we will probably make it to our scheduled cesarean section date next Friday. That is fine with me because we'll have the special August 6th 100 years later Noah Smith thing.

Fortunately/Unfortunately, I'm doing so well that I will "get to" work until my c-section date. Actually, I'm doing so well that I don't even have to go to my 38 week appointment next week if I don't want to. I can just show up at the hospital on Friday for my c-section.

I'm supposed to keep monitoring my blood pressure at home and watch for contractions that are getting worse, but there is really need to show up to the 38 week appointment if things are going well. The doctor said "it's really kinda pointless to come in since we're having a baby just a few days later."

In Other News ...

• Mike's parents have come out two nights this week to help us get the yard all fixed up before Noah comes. We appreciate their help soooo much! Emily loves it when they come out and wants them to just play with her. But they really got a lot of things done outside and it's looking great!

• If you follow me on Twitter, you already know that I lost another hubcap on my way to work this morning. This is the fourth hubcap I've lost in the last 6 months or so. I'm really disappointed.

• A couple days ago, I dreamed about Johnnies cake and icing. SO yum. Love dreams like that.

• I need to pack my hospital bag. Mike REALLY wants me to pack my hospital bag. I do not remember at all what I packed five years ago for Emily's birth. The only thing I remember is that the nurse told me I couldn't use my hair dryer in the hospital room, but apparently that was not true. So I'll be using that sucker this time around.

• I cooked and froze a couple pans of Spaghetti Pizza this weekend so that we'll have something to eat in the days after Noah's arrival. Emily helped quite a bit. We made a pretty big mess in the kitchen. I didn't buy enough mozzarella cheese for the toppings. I need to put that on my shopping list for this week.

• I also cooked and froze some Chicken Spaghetti this weekend. It made enough for about 3 dinners. I didn't buy any Ro-tel tomatoes though. Mike's mom brought us a can when they came put on Sunday night. But, Emily "helped me" add it to the pot and about half of it ended up on the kitchen floor. *Sigh* It was a VERY long day on Sunday.

• Nanny invited Emily to spend the night with her on Sunday night. I tried to "encourage" Emily to do this, but she said she would "miss me too much". Awww, melt my heart! I love my girl.

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Planes, Trains and Automobiles

A couple weeks ago when we were out shopping, I found a super cute little outfit for Noah. It was not exactly what I was looking for, but I could not pass it up.

When I got home and showed it to Mike, he said it was "Planes, Trains and Automobiles." And if you know Mike, he loves older movies like that one! I mean he watches that movie every time he sees it on TV. And with as many TV channels as we have, we have to watch it often!

But ... that just makes me love this outfit even more. Isn't it adorable? Did you see that baby boy hat? Sooo cute!

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Sizzling Saturday

You guessed it - it is STILL hot at our house. But even with the heat, we still had to get out a run a few errands today. We did not do as much walking as we did at the malls last week. This was definitely a good thing for me!

Highlights:

• Took my car for an oil change and tire rotation. Took them several hours to get it done. When Mike was following me on the way home, he noticed that one of my hubcaps on the passenger side had fallen off. I'm totally bummed about this because I have been fighting with the hubcaps on my car since winter and I thought I had finally gotten them all to stay on. I think I have lost (and replaced) four hubcaps so far this year. *sigh* Better get one more.

• We took Emily on a shopping trip to the dollar store to spend some of her "allowance" money that she has recently started earning. She is quite the browser and ended up choosing mostly candy and gum. Better choices next time, I guess.

• I wanted pizza for lunch so we ended up going to Coach's. Not as good as the Hideaway pizza that we had last weekend, but we had a good time playing with the camera while waiting for our food.

• Mike took us girls to Gordman's so that we could look at some animal photo frames that my mother-in-law told me about. They are SO cute and we had to get one of each animal. Here are a few pictures of the frames on Noah's bookcases.
  
  

I think they are perfect for Noah's room! Can't wait to put his little pictures in them.

Don't forget to enter your guess on Noah's birth weight. We have only had a couple responses so far and I would love to know how big you think he will be. Click here.

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Quite The Day

Yesterday was quite the day for us. I slept absolutely awful on Thursday night and was sooo tired when I woke up on Friday morning. I knew I would not be able to make it through a full day at work so I was thinking about logging in to work from home.

Then Mike came in and said that his back was hurting and he needed a day off. He said he would stay home if I would. I said I would if he would. So we both decided to stay home together.

I got to sleep in a little longer and Emily did too. It was soooo nice to lay in bed knowing that I did not have to get up and go fight the traffic on my way to work. I probably could have stayed in bed most of the day. But, of course, I did not.

After breakfast, we started discussing when we wanted to do on our day off together. We had talked earlier in the week about taking Emily to see "Ramona and Beezus" at the theater. In case you didn't know, the movie is based on the Ramona Quimby book series written by Beverly Cleary. I read these books when I was a young girl and I was excited to share this with Emily.

Mike checked out the theater's website and found out that the movie was playing at around noon, 3pm, and 6pm. So we decided to go to the noon showing. It was opening day for the movie so we wanted to go to the first showing.

Obviously, we had the whole morning before we had to go the movie. So I might have taken a short nap in my recliner.

Around mid-morning, Mike got a call from his work saying that they had a problem with a case he had worked on and needed him to come in and help at least for a few minutes. He asked a bunch of questions to try to figure out exactly what problem they were having and to see if maybe he could just explain what needed to be done over the phone. He got off the phone and said "Guess what? I'm going to have to go in to work on my day off." My response? Nooooo, whatever it is can surely wait until Monday!

So about 20 minutes later, Mike's manager calls back and comes clean. They had planned a baby shower for him and he was ruining it for them! She said that Emily and I were invited to come too since we were home with him that day. Mike agreed to come in for the shower, of course. So we pushed the movie time back to 3:10pm and started getting ready to go to the baby shower.

I wish I had taken pictures while we were there, but his group has gotten sub sandwiches and everyone brought homemade salads and sides. They also had cake and punch. The cake was really yum!

Baby Noah got lots of nice presents. He got probably about a dozen outfits, lots of bibs, several blankets, and a huge basket of "baby basics" like diapers and wipes, baby bath, lotion, and baby oil.

Emily was a big helper while we were opening presents. She was just ripping into everything! I think Mike's co-workers had a lot of fun watching her. They all said she looked a lot like him. She was being a little shy and would not talk to anyone, but she was really good while we were there.

I was glad we got to go to the shower. It was fun seeing Mike's work and meeting the people that I hear about all the time. A few of the people worked with Mike at his previous job too and remember when they had a baby shower at his work for Emily. They were tickled to see her growing up.

After the baby shower, we headed back home so that we could get our nap before we had to leave for the movie. Emily hopped in her bed for her nap and I told her that she could get up when the first number on the clock was a 3. (I knew I would have to get her up before this, but she didn't need to know that part!)

I snuggled into my recliner (again). It's just much easier for me to sleep in my chair these days. When I lay down flat, things just start hurting and I can never get comfortable. I am sure it did not take me very long at all to go to sleep. And I didn't wake up until Emily came out of her room at 3pm! Oops!

Mike had been sitting in his chair surfing the web the entire time so I asked him why he didn't wake us up in time for the movie. He said that I was sleeping so good (and snoring so loud!) that he just couldn't wake me up because he knew I was tired. So, the 6:20pm showing is our last choice for the day.

We decide to eat supper at Texas Roadhouse and then headed over to the movie theater. The place seemed pretty busy when we got there, but we had plenty of time before our movie started. We got popcorn and cokes and went to find a seat.

Here is a picture of Emily with her popcorn and coke.

She did really well during the movie. She sat in her own chair the whole time and watched the movie. She laughed at several of the scenes and hid her eyes when the parents kissed.

I thought the movie was pretty cute. Emily seemed to like it and I did too. I'm glad we finally got to go see the movie!

Here are a couple outtakes from our trip to the movie theater. Emily might be mad when she sees these pictures when she's older, but I think they are funny!

"Popcorn"

"Heeeey, man!"

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36 Weeks Update

Today, I went to the doctor for my 36 week appointment. When I got there, the waiting room was packed. This seems to happen quite often, but I always seem to get called back very quickly. Today was no exception and I am not complaining.

Total weight gain is currently at 8lbs. I'm not complaining about that either!

My blood pressure was good today. So good that I did not have to lay on my left side for a half hour in the exam room. This is always a good thing because I don't like laying there for so long. Unfortunately, this also means I still get to go to work for at least another week.

When I go back for my appointment next week, the doctor will check me to see how much I'm dilated, if at all. I'm betting I'll be at least a little bit dilated by next week. Sometimes it feels like Noah is really low and pressing down.

I'm measuring right on target for 36 weeks so that means Noah is still growing. I can hardly believe he will be here two weeks from tomorrow!

So, how much do you think Noah will weight when he is born? Leave your guess in the comments and we'll see who comes closest without going over.

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Jumping Jack Flash

Tonight was the first night in about a week that I felt like it was not unbearably hot outside. Oh, it was hot alright but at least there was a little bit of a breeze.

And I was still sweating like a pig, but that is pretty much a daily occurrence any more. It is really awful to start sweating in inopportune places. Like in church. Or in meetings at work. Or in bed at night. Or just about anywhere. Uggh!

But we sat outside for a while and Emily played. But first, we had to clear the area of any bugs or anything else that looked suspicious. There was a wasp flying around outside her trampoline, but I shooed it away. And then there was "wasp poo" aka bird poop on the trampoline. So I sprayed that off with the waterhose.

The trampoline was still wet when she started jumping, but she didn't really mind. It did not take long at all for her to start plopping down on her bottom and then springing right back up.

Emily also played in the water table a little bit. It was pretty filthy though. I tried spraying it out with the hose, but it still had some yucky stuff in the bottom. After we were done playing, I filled it up and put some bleach in it to clean out the muck. I'll rinse it out in a day or two and it should be good to go.

Here are some action shots from tonight. Enjoy!

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Sisterly Love

This weekend, we took Emily to the Build-A-Bear Workshop to pick out a gift for Noah. Emily went in knowing that she wanted to make him a puppy.

She picked out a cute little puppy and then we went off to find some clothes for him. She picked out a sailor suit with some big black boots. It came with a cute matching hat "just like they wear in the Navy" according to Daddy. And Daddy added some cool shades for him.

In case you were wondering, puppy's name is "Hearty".



Emily wanted to get a new outfit for her bunny "Sweetheart" too. She picked out a pink bikini. You heard me right. I won't allow my child to wear a bikini, but I'll allow her stuffed animal to wear a bikini. Am I cool or what? Right.




After we finished up at Build-A-Bear, we wanted to go to the Disney Store. Except that they don't have a Disney Store at the mall where we were. So we decided to go to another mall farther away from our house that has a Disney Store.

But first, I was hungry. I'm always hungry. And I always like pizza. So we went to Hideaway Pizza for lunch. Can you say yum? Yes, it was so so good. I love their homemade ranch dressing with my pizza. It was a perfect lunch spot. Could not have been better.

After lunch, we went ahead and headed up to the other mall to the Disney Store. Emily got a few things with some Disney bucks that we'd had since 2008. Yep, 2008. Wow. She picked out a Hannah Montana game for her Nintendo DS and a notebook and stationery set. It was fun for her to pick out "anything she wanted" and I think she is happy with her choices.

So that was our fun day shopping. We don't do things like that very often, but we are trying to focus on family in the last few weekends before Noah gets here. In case you haven't done the math, we have two more weekends before he will be here.

We cannot wait!

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Hunger

Can I just say? I am HUNGRY lately. For the last few weeks, I have been hungry during the day. I've been hungry during the night. I'm hungry when I wake up. I eat a meal and then I'm hungry again just a couple hours later.

As of this week, I have still only gained 7 pounds total during this pregnancy. But I have a feeling that will soon change.

This morning before I even got out of bed, I noticed that Noah had the hiccups. I wanted to go tell Emily because I knew she would be tickled to hear this. She is all the time asking me what Noah is doing or what Noah is saying.

Mike was tickled too because he said that means his boy is growing. Mike has a lot of ideas about what it means to be a boy. And I think one of those is that boys should be BIG. And apparently, that applies to me when I'm pregnant and carrying a boy, too.

Here's an example - I prefer 1% milk. When I go to the grocery store, I buy 1% milk. But if Mike goes with me and gets to the milk case first, he always gets 2% milk. No sissy 1% milk for his boy. Ha! What is up with that?

So anyway, I worked from home today so that I could do my 24-hour urine collection. Tomorrow before work, I have to take it by the lab and get my blood drawn. Hopefully this will be a one-and-done deal. Lets hope we don't have a repeat from last time with the multiple blood draws.

But by the time I get out of the lab, I will probably be hungry again. Come to think of it, I'm hungry now.

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Noah's Baby Shower and Today's DR Visit

As I mentioned the other day, Noah's baby shower was over 4th of July weekend. Unfortunately, I did not get a lot of pictures. I did not get pictures of very many of the people who were there, but we had a good crowd.

It was also the family 4th of July cookout and we had a great time.

Emily and I at the gift table. The cute diaper cake again.

A closer picture of the diaper cake. Notice the animals are two-by-two pairs.

Noah's cake. Isn't that cute??? More two-by-two animal pairs.

Our little family of four. :)

Today's Doctor Visit

Today's doctor visit went fairly well. My blood pressure was pretty high when I first got there. I think it was something like 150/98, but it went down to 120/68 on recheck later. I do have to do another 24-hour urine check though. Boo! :(

I also had my routine Group B Strep test today. The doctor also checked my cervix. I was not dilated at all, but I was almost 100% effaced (this means my cervix has thinned out.) Baby's head is very low, but I could have told her that. Ha!

All this is good and the doctor thinks I will probably not go into labor before August 6th. Of course, all that is up to Noah but things are looking good for an August 6th delivery.

My next appointment is scheduled for next week so we'll see if she still thinks that.

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Nursery Preview And More Updates

Today I am 35 weeks pregnant. Noah will be here in a little over 3 weeks (or less!)

We have been working on Noah's room for several weeks and I just love how it is turning out.

I wanted to share a few pictures of the progress we have made.

But, this internet connection is very slow and it takes a long time to upload pictures to the blog. So in the meantime, I may as well share some of the other things that have been going on.

• On 4th of July weekend, Mike's family threw a baby shower for us. It was a combined Independence Day celebration and baby shower. Emily was SO excited, but it was mostly because she wanted to go swimming. Unfortunately, it rained that day. But the party went on. I have pictures and more details to share in a day or two.




• Last week, Emily had her 5-year-old checkup at the doctor's office. She was 41 lbs and 44 inches tall. She was in the 75th percentile in height (wow) and the 50th percentile in weight. She got two "pinches in the arm" and did not even cry. She was so brave!




• That same day, we had an ultrasound appointment for Noah. After waiting over an hour in the waiting room, we finally got called back for our ultrasound. (I was SO hungry.) Noah looked good. He was measuring on track for 34 weeks and he was estimated to be 5lbs, 5ozs at the time. We did not get any really clear 3D ultrasound pics, but that is okay. We will see him live and in person very soon.




• This weekend, my mom came up to visit for a few days. She brought Emily's birthday present - a trampoline!! Emily loves it and we have been out to jump on it every night. Well, Emily has jumped on it. It's "No Adults Allowed" although I would love to jump too. We have been very fortunate to have some less hot evenings the last few nights. Otherwise, it would be difficult for me to sit out there and watch her. Mom and Mike put the trampoline together and put the anchors in the ground. They did some small projects in Noah's room too this weekend.





• I have a doctor's appointment with my ob/gyn in the morning. We'll start going to the doctor every week from here on out. I'm hoping for a good report and no blood draws needed. Ha!

So here are a few pictures of Noah's room. This is still a work in process, but I am so excited to share it with you.

Noah's ark themed crib bedding

A closer shot of the "mural" on the wall behind the crib.

Two-by-two animal pairs on the wall above the twin bed.

Closer shot of some of the animals.

And the elephants on the other wall. These are the ones I can see through the doorway from another room and I just love that.

The diaper cake from the baby shower the other week. It is just a-dor-a-ble!!!! It could not be more perfect.
Daddy and baby giraffes. Emily fixed these up and put the red white and blue lei on them.

Noah's ark clock, Noah's ark lamp, and diaper stacker. Yes, even a half-packed diaper bag hanging on the door knob. Mike is worried that we may need it. He would be happy if I would just start packing my own bag as well.

I am missing a picture of the window treatments and the shelves. The shelves are mostly empty for now, but they will fill up over time.

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What is this?

First off ... a couple cute pictures of Emily playing outside tonight.

And now's your chance to click away because some gross pictures are coming up next. So click away .. click away now.

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Still with me?

Okay, with permission, I'm posting these pictures of Mike's arms and legs.

He's gotten into something and looks like an awful mess.

So what is it?

It's a bad case of poison ivy!

He has just had an awful time with it. He's been to the doctor and got a shot. He's used all different kinds of prescription and non-prescription creams and salves. He's tried oatmeal baths (they work pretty well.) And he's still suffering.

He thinks he got into the poison ivy when we were down at my parents house a week and a half ago - probably somewhere down around the pond. And since then, he's just been spreading it around all over the place!

It's awful to look at and I'm sure it's more awful to experience the itching and pain.

Hope you get to feeling better soon!

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Baby Day

I know the title is "Baby Day", but I forgot to mention one thing about Father's Day.

The other week, Emily and I picked out a Father's Day card for her Daddy. It was sooo cute. It had a caterpillar on it and an alphabetical list of all the wonderful attributes that her dad brings to our lives. And on Sunday morning, Mike was reading the card out loud to us ... all these wonderful things ... and "Happy Birthday, Dad!"

D'Oh! What was that? What did that card say? Oh yeah, it totally said HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Good job, Mom. Total fail on the card. But Mike was very sweet about it. He said it's the thought that counts.

And moving on ...

So the reason this post is called "Baby Day" is because Noah's birthday has been tentatively set. My cesarean section is tentatively scheduled for Friday, August 6, 2010. Sounds like a good day to me! It's only about 6 weeks away, which makes me a little nervous but I think it will be good.

When Mike got home tonight, I told him that August 6th was Noah's tentative birth date. He thought that sounded like one of his relative's birth dates so after supper he went to his family tree stuff and looked it up. He found out that it was not the person he thought, BUT there was someone who was born on August 6th. On August 6, 1910, Mike's grandpa's brother was born. And his name was Noah Smith! Isn't that wild?? 100 years later, there may be another Noah Smith born in the family line. Very cool, if you ask me.

Like I said, this date is tentative. I have been having slight blood pressure issues with this pregnancy just like I had when I was pregnant with Emily. When I went to the doctor last week, my blood pressure was elevated and I had to lay on my left side for a while and then have my blood pressure rechecked. When the nurse checked it again, my blood pressure was fine.

Minor grossness ahead so skip this paragraph if you're so inclined ... the doctor had me do a 24-hour urine capture to check for protein in the urine that might indicate the beginnings of preeclampsia. This is more of a baseline reading so that we can measure changes against this one if we have to do this again in the last few weeks of my pregnancy.

My doctor always stays on top of things with my pregnancies so I feel very comfortable with her watching me these final weeks. I know she will not hesitate to do what she needs to do to keep me and baby safe.

Another funny thing that happened ... this morning before work, I had to take my "sample" to the doctor's office and get some blood drawn to go along to the lab with it. So the lab tech at my doctor's office is always the one to draw the blood samples. She knows me by name and the difficulties with my veins (and always sorta cringes when I walk in). Sometimes she gets blood on the first stick. Other times it takes her SEVERAL tries. This morning, in fact, it took her three tries (including one in my hand) to get a tube of blood.

So this morning, the lab tech lady was telling me that she was going to be out of office on medical leave for a couple weeks starting this Friday. And she was concerned about the girl who was going to be taking her place because "sometimes she can be rough". And she doesn't like to turn over her "difficult patients" (Who? me?) to this person because she doesn't always have the patience to do a good job.

And I was thinking that this person just took THREE sticks to get a tiny tube of blood and she's worried about someone else being "rough"? I'm pretty sure I would much rather have someone who's a little rough who can get it on one stick than someone who's gentle and takes three or more stabs! I don't know, I just thought it was funny that she said that to me this morning.

So anyway, mark your calendars and put a big question mark beside it. At least we know that Noah will be here on that date or before. Six more week or less until we meet our sweet boy. Wow, I'm overwhelmed!

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Father's Day 2010

Today we celebrated Father's Day. We let Mike open one of his presents last night and the other four this morning.

The present last night was a two-person camping chair. The four presents this morning were three dress shirts and a new belt. I think he liked all his gifts.

After church this morning, I tried to get a picture of Emily and her Dad, but she was not cooperative. All of them looked like the one below with her hands in front of her face.



But before church ... she wanted me to take a picture of her and her doll, Stephanie, because they had on matching dresses. And she smiled just fine for those pictures.



She wore the navy sailor dress because her daddy was in the Navy. She looked too cute in it for sure.

For lunch, we went over to Mike's parents house to celebrate Father's Day with his dad. His mom and our sister-in-law cooked steaks, Hawaiian chicken, and all the fixins. It was a delicious meal, but we were all so stuffed.

This week is vacation bible school at church. They are doing a cowboy theme this year. I know Emily will enjoy that.

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Quiet

It's too quiet at my house.

Emily is spending the week with Grandmother and Granddaddy on the farm. Her cousins Tyler and Carter are there too and I am sure they are having a wonderful time.

But it's still too quiet at my house.

Mike and I have just been hanging out. We have a lot of things that we want to accomplish this week and we have gotten started. But this is a perfect time to relax and try to enjoy the quiet.

We don't get opportunities like this very often so we want to make the most of it. Except that doing nothing makes me kinda sleepy. And it makes me kinda want to go to bed early.

Maybe later this week we'll go out and do something fun one night.

In the meantime, I hope Emily is having an awesome time during Cousins Week 2010!

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More Busy Days

On Sunday, we celebrated Emily's 5th birthday at a local Mexican restaurant. She picked the restaurant.


And we invited all her faves ... like Aunt Heather and Uncle Stephen.

And Grandmother and Aunt Heather.

And lots of people!!!

And the proud parents.

Emily had fun opening her presents. She got a gumball machine!!!!! And she loves it. But we had to put it up out of reach because the day before she ate a BUNCH of gumballs all day long.

She received lots of wonderful gifts and was so excited to open each one to see what was inside. I don't think there was anything she didn't like.

And then ... we got to eat the cake that she picked out. The design featured Mario and Luigi. I think it turned out really cute. And, of course, it was so so yummy.

After lunch, we headed back out to the house to put on the first coat of paint in Noah's room. His room is sort of a bright sea blue color. I'll have to take some pictures in there sometime soon.

Mike and his Dad and his brother worked out in the yard Sunday afternoon cutting down some bushes, trimming some trees, weedeating and cleaning out around the shed and well house. Stephen trimmed some trees around the driveway.

The girls worked in the house finding other things to sort and organize and box up all around my house. I think no room was untouched! I tried to keep my master bedroom and closet closed off so that nobody would see the scariness there, but even that was not kept hidden.

They did a lot of work in Emily's room, too. We took a lot of stuff out of there and put it in the shed and her room looks great now. Stephen installed a "pet net" in Emily's room to store all her stuffed animals. At first, Emily was SO upset at the thought of her pets being up and out of reach, but Grandmother finally convinced her that it was best for them and for her.

Our sister-in-law Cherry brought us pizza for supper and we were sooooo grateful. It was the perfect thing and helped us out a lot. Thank you, Cherry!

The paint in the nursery had to dry four hours between coats so we were able to apply a second coat on Sunday night before we went to bed.

Then we decided that it might rain and we needed to move some things that were outside to the shed for the night. It was mostly stuff that my mom was going to take back to her house. So everyone loaded up the stuff and hauled it to the shed. And good thing they did because it rained almost 3 inches on Sunday night. The yard was a bit flooded the next morning. What a mess! A few of the cars got stuck in our yard. But Gary brought his truck out and the guys eventually got them all unstuck.

Monday

Monday morning, bright and early, Mike's mom brought us out some breakfast. Then we all got to work. We pulled off the tape in the nursery and Mike's mom did the touch up painting. Then everyone pitched in to move the furniture back into place in Noah's room. We moved a twin bed into his room and got the crib put back up. I think everything looks wonderful in there. I'm very pleased with how it looks so far.

All our out of town guests needed to be on the road by around 2pm so we were trying to get a lot of last minute things done. We had a few more boxes that needed to be moved to the shed. A few things were left to be done in Emily's room, and I still had lots more things to sort and separate.

We are so grateful for everyone who came out to help us on this long weekend. We could not have done it without all of you. We love you all very much.

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A Long, Productive Weekend

We have had a very busy several days. We are so blessed to have a wonderful family who helps us. We are so thankful for everyone who pitched in this weekend.

Friday

On Friday, the shed company came out to build our shed. It took them about 5 hours, but it looked great when they were done. One of the guys told me that he normally works in the factory, but someone called in sick and so they asked him to go with the building crew. I'm just glad they were able to come out when I needed them.

Mike's dad came out while the builders were there and worked outside in our yard most of the day. He did a lot of weedeating and cleaning up out in the yard. Emily wanted him to play with her instead of working. She even fixed some blankets on the floor by her bed so that Pops could take a nap with her if he got tired.

Friday night, we went to the home improvement store to get shelves for Noah's closet and some shelves for the new shed.

Saturday

On Saturday afternoon, my Mom, Heather and Stephen came into town to help us move things into the shed and fix up the baby room. Mike's mom and dad came out to help too. We put together the shelves for the shed and quickly realized that we were going to need many more shelves than what we purchased. Mike's parents went to two different home improvement stores to get all the shelving that we needed.

While they were gone, we started packing and organizing boxes that we could move out to the new shed. As soon as they got back, we put up all the shelves. I think we had a total of 9 sets of shelves. That was a lot of work!

Later that night, Stephen and Mike installed some shelves and wire baskets in Noah's closet. It was complicated to figure out how the shelves went together, but I think they turned out great. Perfect for a little boy's room.

After the shelves were up, we put all the things we had purchased for Noah into his closet. We also moved a lot of the baby things from Emily's room to Noah's closet. Then we cleared the rest of the boxes out of the baby nursery and moved the furniture to get the room ready to paint.

Sunday

Sunday and Monday were more busy days. But those details will have to wait until another day. Now it's time for bed.

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