Friday, April 25, 2008

Go Cubs Go!

On Wednesday the Cubs celebrated their 10,000 win in franchise history - this deserves a little celebration!!



We're pretty excited since - we're a month into the season and the Cubs have the best start in 13 years! 15 Wins and 7 Loses!!
Go Cubs Go, Go Cubs Go, Hey Chicago what do you say? The Cubs are going to win today.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Annoying things

Want to know something that annoys me?
When people put artificial flowers outside. Have you ever driven by a house to see a lovely arrangement of artificial flowers in a window box, or worse, sticking out of the ground? How ridiculous is this? I'm not talking artificial flowers that look real, I'm talking about the kind that are obvious...even from 30 feet away.

There's a lot of other annoying things, but who has time for that? So, what annoys you? (my name is not allowed to be a part of your answer!)

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Shake your skirt!

Olivia loves to watch Dancing with the stars. On Monday she has dance class and she stays in her dance leotard and tights ALL day - there isn't anything in the world that could get her out of those once they are on! So when Dancing with the Stars comes on on Monday nights, she's ready to "shake her skirt" as she calls it! And, boy, can she shake it!
She likes to imitate whatever the dancers are doing on the show which can be a little scary for a 3 year old, but it's really cute watching her.

This is last week's episode when Marissa Jaret Winokur danced the samba with her partner Tony


I ran so fast to get my camera to take a little video of this - here is Olivia dancing the samba!


I know - not exactly appropriate for a 3 year old, but I LMAO!! This will be played at her wedding...when she's 30!!

Friday, April 18, 2008

Is there an intruder in the house?

Date: Friday, April 18, 2008
Time: 4:39 AM
me: (sound asleep laying in bed)
Brian: (Standing next to my side of the bed, he shakes me) Shawnie! Shawnie! Wake-up!
me: (woke up) what
Brian: (touching my arm, palms sweaty) um, um....uh....
me: (breathing stopped, heart skipped a beat, panic sets in, mind begins to wonder)
Brian: uh, I just heard a really loud noise downstairs and I remembered that I didn't shut the garage door.
me: uh, TURN ON ALL THE LIGHTS!
Brian: (turns on the hall light, checks on Olivia, proceeds downstairs turning on all the lights on the way, including outside lights, shuts garage door and proceeds back upstairs turning lights off) I don't know what the noise was. (gets back in bed)
me: (panicking, mind wonders thinking horrible thoughts, coming up with different scenarios...)
Brian: (snoring)
Finally when it started to become light outside I was able to fall asleep and not think that some crazed masked man would be seen walking up our stairs - wondering who he would go after first, what kind of weapon...
How is it that men can just fall back to sleep after such a disturbing turn of events? What the hell went on? Was someone in our house?
I got a phone call from Brian at 8 - he was on his way to work and discovered that there was actually a magnitude 5.2 earthquake in West Salem, IL at 4:37 AM that could be felt as far North as Chicago. I still can't believe that I slept through it and Brian was awoken by it - he can sleep through ANYTHING and I'm usually the one who hears every little noise.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Thank God for IV fluids and Zofran!

Yesterday morning I woke up feeling a bit nauseous which has been pretty normal for this pregnancy. In the past, the nausea usually ends at the first trimester, but with this pregnancy it has seemed to linger on a little more. Usually I can get up and drink a little orange juice or eat something and feel much better - I knew something we wrong with I made a bagel, took two bites and threw up! I went back to bed and stayed there until Olivia woke up at 9 - thank God she slept in!!
I called Brian a little later to tell him I thought I was coming down with the stomach flu, but it felt different. I was having horrible cramping all over my stomach area and what felt like a very tight belt going across the top of my stomach. I wasn't too concerned about the baby because I was feeling it move a lot, but I had a lot of pressure the day before. Brian immediately wanted me to call my midwife, so then I started freaking out. I ended up calling my midwife and she wanted me to come in to get checked out.
First indication that something might be wrong - I lost 5 pounds in one week and I've only gained 9 pounds this pregnancy. Second indication that something was wrong - I couldn't even pee in a cup! I hadn't peed for over an hour and for a pregnant lady - that's rare! So they put me in a room and gave me water to drink. Finally after 10 minutes or so I felt like I could pee a little. Third indication that something was wrong - my pee looked more like maple syrup than lemonade! They tested my urine and found that it was full of protein and ketones, but the bladder infection test came back negative and my blood pressure was perfect. What was wrong? I was severely dehydrated! My midwife did an ultrasound and the baby looked good, so she sent me home to drink lots of water.
The only problem with that, I felt so nauseous that I couldn't drink a lot or I felt like I was going to throw up. My midwife kept calling and checking on me and by 6pm she didn't feel like I was drinking enough to compensate for the severe dehydration so she asked me to come to the hospital.
I got to the hospital and it was time to start the IV - I have horrible veins and to make it worse I was dehydrated. One nurse started in my hand and my vein rolled and then it blew out - causing a big bloody mess! A second nurse finally got it started in my forearm. After one bag of fluid and some Zofran for nausea, I was feeling great and the cramping had stopped. They tested my urine and it looked great, but my midwife wanted a second bag of fluid just to make sure I was really hydrated and she was ready to send me home after I was able to drink a little sprite and eat some crackers. We got home about 10 last night and I just couldn't believe how much better I felt and how quickly! I've never been dehydrated before - at least not enough to need IV fluids - I can't believe how crappy it can make you feel.
I'm so glad I'm feeling better and can enjoy the high 60/low 70 degree weather that is coming our way today!!
Thanks to all of you who were praying for me yesterday - I really appreciate it!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

What kind of baby is it?

Well, I had my level II ultrasound today. Everything that should be there is there. Olivia went with us today - some of her comments were kind of funny. She wanted to know what kind of tooth paste they put on my stomach and why. She was able to see the spine very clear and she thought the baby had teeth and hair!
I've been feeling a lot of movement lately and I think I'm starting to know why - this is the second ultrasound that I've had that the person doing the ultrasound has commented on the legs - last time it was something like, "look at that awesome femur!" and this time it was something like, "look at both of those legs - THEY LOOK GREAT!" So we have a kicker in there with some strong legs.
The baby wouldn't cooperate and let the technician get a good profile pic of the face or get some good pictures of the heart so we had to take a lunch break and come back. The baby had moved into an awesome position and the 4 chambers of the heart were very clear and it was a beautiful profile!
So, let's talk about sex! The technician wanted to know if I wanted to know and I told her no, but did mention that Brian wanted to know. I told her that he seemed to think that it was going to be very obvious and he'd just be able to tell by looking. I wanted the tech to stay away from that area, but she had to look because it's part of the level II ultrasound. She asked me if it was okay for Brian to look and I said yes. We got to the end of the ultrasound and Brian wanted to know why she hadn't looked between the legs yet and she told him that she already did - guess he missed it!! Guess it wasn't as obvious to him as he thought it was going to be :-) He got snippy with me saying that I wouldn't let him find out, but he's the one who said it was going to be obvious - I told the tech he wanted to know and I gave permission for him to look - how can any of this be my fault?!? So what kind of baby is it? A healthy baby or as I told my mom, it's vanilla! I thought at one point, I saw the boy part, but then I saw the technician write "umbilical cord" on the screen!! Brian thinks he saw a sac, but only time will tell. I was thinking it was a girl and the only dream I have had about this baby it was a girl in the dream, but on Tuesday I had an appointment with my midwife and the heart rate was in the 130's - so for all of you who make your prediction based on that - have at it!! I must say that after hearing the heart, I'm leaning more towards boy now - Olivia's heart rate was in the 170's and I don't remember what Jesse's was - I'll have to have my midwife look back at my chart.
So everything looks great - I know I'll have at least one more ultrasound - it's scheduled for 32 weeks, but I'm sure that won't be the last!!
Thanks again for all your prayers, I know they are helping - we have a very healthy baby and I'm not freaking out too badly! Please continue to keep us in your prayers as this will be a long summer!

Monday, April 7, 2008

What does it mean?

If you can't trust your christian friends...who can you trust?

Turns out, I'm talking about myself!! Ever heard the saying, "Atheism exists because of Christians."? You may ask, how is that?, but there are people out there who have never heard anything about God, salvation or eternity, but they look at us so called Christians and say, "I don't want to be like them."

I'm guilty of leading a very sinful life - yes I go to church, I read my bible, I am in a bible study, I go to MOPS, I pray, I teach my child about God, I do good, but I also do bad. There are a lot of things that I can say to be hurtful to those I love as well as those I don't even know and all the people in between. It's very easy for me to pass judgement on someone else for something they have said, something they have done, a lifestyle that they are leading...the list goes on, but in reality, their sin is no worse than mine in God's eyes - a sin is a sin!

So, I've just felt convicted lately and am making a promise to myself, my family, my friends, and most importantly God, that I am going to work on this. Not only work on my own sins, but work on judging others for theirs. I feel it necessary to start this by being very humble and publicly admitting this. I sometimes question why Catholics do confession - why not just speak to God? - well, I think that there is something to say about humbling ourselves enough to publicly admit our sins - whether that is to one person who is a priest or to numerous people who read my blog.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Like mother, like daughter

I recently spent the last couple of days in Indy visiting family. Yesterday we sat at my grandma's house talking about all the times my mom has peed her pants - we started talking about one story that got my mom laughing so much that she peed her pants - yes, she peed her pants while we were telling stories about all the times that she has peed in her pants.
Today when we got back from Indy we went to Leenie's house for Aidan's birthday party. Olivia was so interested in Aidan opening his presents that she was delayed in getting to the restroom in time and she had an accident at Leenie's house - the story doesn't end there though - otherwise the title of this blog entry would be - Like GRANDmother, like Granddaughter - but no! Leenie and I wanted to play Skipbo so we headed off to Walgreens to get the cards. While in the toy isle we found fart puddy!! Leenie had no idea what this was, it's the puddy in the plastic can and when you push the puddy down in the can it creates farting noises. I had to buy a couple of them. As soon as we got into the car we had to open it up so I could show Leenie exactly how much fun this was. We sat in Walgreen's parking lot "farting"!! We were laughing so hard that we were crying...and I ended up peeing my pants!! I had to go home and change and shower! Who knew something could be so funny?!? We took it home and the kids had a blast with it.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

What a shame!

If you can't trust your Christian friends...
...who can you trust?

Huge disappointment

As many of you know, when you are pregnant and craving something it is a craving that is like non other. If it's something you can't have right away you just can't seem to get it off of your mind - it consumes you!
So I was at Meijer a couple of weeks ago and saw these...

I thought - what a great invention - that's something I'll have to get for this summer! Well, I've been enjoying strawberries lately so on Saturday I decided to go to Meijer and pick up these shortcake biscuits. I've been thinking about them since Saturday, but I was waiting to have them when Dan and Leenie came over for dinner - there's been some sickness going around and our dinner was delayed by a few days. Last night we were all healthy so we were finally able to get together for dinner. I was so excited. I cut up 2 pints of strawberries, I had vanilla ice cream and cool whip and we were set. Right before dinner I opened up the can of shortcake biscuits as I sang the Hallelujah chorus. From the moment that the can popped open, I knew I was in for a huge disappointment - they just looked like regular old biscuits :-( But, I tried to stay positive thinking that they probably tasted much different. We ate dinner and then I made the most wonderful looking bowl of strawberry shortcake a la mode topped with cool whip. I dug in only to be EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED by the buttery biscuit at the bottom - it tasted just like a plain old Grands butter flavor biscuit! I was thinking it would be more like the homemade shortcake my grandma would have made, but instead I got a biscuit :-( Grands, you SUCK!!
I guess I'll have to pull out the cookbook and make some shortcake.