More Snow Love

As I sit here on this SNOW DAY(!!!!!) I am taking in the wonderful world of white that surrounds me.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  Everything is clean and fresh and peaceful.  Then I let the dogs out, not so peaceful but still wonderful.

I went back to the nursery this morning and the sunrise was beautiful, casting a golden glow on the snow and the ice on the window.  

So I can't help but think what a great God we serve.  He blesses us with beautiful weather and then even makes it something we can have fun with!  Enjoy your blessings today!

I LOVE SNOW

I mean it.  I looooove snow!  It makes any day better, even if you don't get a snow day.  It's beautiful and fluffy and fun!  It makes hot cocoa taste better, it makes slippers snugglier, it's just good.  We've got some giant flakes coming down today, the best snow I've seen since living here and quite possibly since I moved away from Connecticut (17 years ago).  It's incredibly light and fluffy!  Not great for snowballs, but man if we had hills in Kansas this would be great to ski on!

And then you have Jazz and Bo who also love snow 

They run and play and dig and root and get so crazy energized from the fun of it all that they end up wrestling.

Then we come inside and they look like this:

Life this week

I had unexpected minor surgery Friday.  I went to the podiatrist to see what he would do for my ingrown toe-nails and he decided to take care of them that day.  So I was a big girl and let him cut out my toenails.  (Not the whole toenail, just the sides).  The worst part were the numbing injections.  OUCH!!!  Seriously!  I kept thinking, "Man, I've got to toughen up!  I'm supposed to push out a baby in 10 weeks!"  That epidural is sounding better and better.  It was worth it though, because I didn't feel anything during the procedure. Anyhow, I was given the option of what color to wrap my poor toesies in afterward.

It was between this and green with smilies on it.  I went with the TU loyalties.  I should've asked for one to be yellow.  Ah well.  I give the procedure 2 toes up.

During the whole procedure they have a barrier up so that you can't see what they're doing.  Which I appreciated very much, but it made me that more trepidatious about removing the bandages.  I had no idea what kind of gore to expect.  Really, I was being a big chicken about it, but my husband was sweet and didn't mention that.  My instructions were to soak off the bandages so that I wouldn't pull loose any scabs.

I had an audience.  This gave me another preview of the issues we may have once Lil' Web comes.  I'm afraid Jazz is expecting to help in the bathing process.  There were about 4 layers of purple stuff which gave me a little time to build the courage to take off the gauze that was underneath.  However, I didn't look when I did.  I made Aaron look at it first.  (I'm really not usually this big of a chicken, I promise)!  I'm not sure you want to see the final product so I'll keep that little picture to myself, but it really wasn't as bad as I was expecting.  They actually look worse now just from bruising and stuff.  The good news is that I survived (shocker, right?).  Now i have to soak my toes once a day and then my sweet husband re-bandages them for me.  I've been well taken care of.  I wouldn't mind doing it if I wasn't pregnant... I just can't really reach my feet that well.


In other news...

In a previous post I mentioned something about Bo trumpeting.  I thought I'd include a little clip of the funny noises he makes.  Cracks me up, hope it makes you smile too!

Well, I'm off.  Gotta enjoy my last snow day!  Hope the crazy weather hasn't beaten you up too much!

First Trial

Since I have a sinus infection my doctor prescribed a homemade sinus rinse administered with a bulb syringe. My first thought, "If you told me this 2 months from now, I'd actually have one of those." So I went out and bought a bulb syringe knowing that within 2 months I will probably have another one or two.

Once home, I got the syringe out and found that a certain canine was incredibly interested.

She sat there as long as I was in the bathroom, looking at me, looking at the syringe and back and forth. This morning she sat outside the bathroom looking in.

We might be in more trouble than I thought with baby items...

Amazing Baby

I went in to my OB today to see what I could do to get rid of the sinus problem that I have been dealing with. He always measures my belly no matter what I'm in for so I laid back for him to do that. I looked like I had swallowed a bowling pin. Lil' Web had decided at that moment to stick his head on my left side and his feet on my right side and lay transverse across me. I was quite lumpy! My doctor asked the nurse to bring in his old school "toy sonogram machine" to take a look. Within a minute Lil' Web had circled around and had his feet by my pelvis and his head up by my ribs. The doctor mentioned that it looked like my fluid levels were good (which I guess is what he was checking on) and then said "That's an amazing baby". I almost laughed out-loud. It kind of sounded like a circus act or like in Charlotte's Web when Charlotte puts all those slogans in her web. So now we know, we have an amazing baby. Once this guy is born, I wonder if that translates into "handful" or "trouble-maker".... Can't wait to find out!

Sudafed is affecting my synapses

So, it's been awhile.

I'm sick... again. I don't know who to blame, elementary schoolers, the flu shot, the weather... I'm sure the list could go on but those are my top 3. Luckily, I found out I can take sudafed, which is much better than nothing. However, I am now a complete space case. Probably not the prime moment to compose a blog, but oh well.

Pregnancy synopsis:

Trimester 1: Nauseated almost all the time

Trimester 2: Upper Respiratory infection 2 out of 3 months

Trimester 3: Whopper of a head cold 1 of 1 weeks

This is not looking promising folks.

The good news is that despite my lacking of health, Lil' Web does not seem to have suffered. He is definitely growing and making his presence known. His favorite pass-times are wedging some part of his body into my ribs, pushing his back against the outside of my uterus causing me to have a hard oblong lump in my belly, and practicing his tae-kwon-do frequently. He is a very active little boy, that is for sure.

Oh right, we're having a boy! I don't know if I actually posted that announcement on here or not, but there you have it. I think I've entered nesting mode. I've washed all the clothes we have so far and am now waiting for a place to put them. I had prepared a TV cabinet as an armoire for his clothes but it's going to be ridiculously too small so now I'm waiting on finding time to paint a dresser so that I can squeeze that in the nursery for his stuff. We're using my crib (from 1983) for Lil' Web. Yes, it passes all regulations. The interesting part was the absence of instructions for assembling it. Aaron and I spent at least a half hour just staring at one part trying to figure out how on earth it fit into the crib equation. Luckily, I found some ancient instructions online and they bailed us out on that one. So now, the nursery is mostly furnished (again, just waiting on the dresser) and I'm waiting for Aaron to give me the A-OK on ordering the bedding so that I can start looking at paint for the walls. I've registered at Target and Babies-R-Us, but that's kind of a joke because I really have no clue if I registered for everything I need (I guarantee you I probably missed some major stuff). I did my best though. Thank goodness for friends that have done this before and don't mind me calling with questions every 5 minutes or so. My sister-in-law stuck it out with me for 3 hours in Target, and if you know the Target in my town, the baby section is maybe the equivalent of seven 20 ft. aisles. She's a keeper, that's for sure. So feel free to make recommendations if you feel I may not be aware of something that I must have. I'm going pretty basic except for the cloth diapering, I'm going bum genius in that arena.

The dogs have started this new year out with obedience classes. There was no way I was going to battle them attacking the door with a baby in my arms. Classes are going well, they went even better once we started using the prong collar on Jazz. Now we just have to keep up the training at home, which is really easy to forget about.

Ok, I'm starting to feel pretty "floaty" right now. So I'm going to sign off before I compose nonsensical sentences.... Here's to Sudafed.

Long time no type

As we are approaching Christmas, I've been saddened at how much it doesn't feel like Christmas. Whether it's just how busy life seems to be or the fact that there's no snow, I don't know. So yesterday, I decided that in order for it to truly feel like Christmas I needed to bake. And thus, sugar cookies! My grandma's sugar cookie recipe is my absolute favorite and the only one I will ever make. This was the first time that I've made them on my own, which of course led to a couple of "ooops" batches. I only burned one batch, when I was distracted by laundry. The others turned out very well, I believe. I iced a few at my husband's request, and must say it began feeling much more like Christmas. However, after about 6 batches I looked in the bowl of dough and saw that despite my added effort of eating the dough raw, I had not gotten through even half of it. I began to feel quite exhausted. Therefore, there is a giant mound of sugar cookie dough waiting in my refrigerator until I need help making it feel like Christmas again.

The truth of it is that Christmas is not about a feeling or a taste, smell or warm coziness. Christmas is about Christ. It is the time of year that we remember the amazing sacrifice Jesus made to come down as a man. And we think forward through his 33 years of life and to his sacrifical death for our sins and thank God for sending His Son to us so that through His death and ressurection we can have a relationship with Him. I sincerely hope if you do not realize what Christmas is really a celebration of, that you will take some time to investigate you heart and search out the God who loves you so much He sent His Son down to this earth on that blessed Christmas night.