"NOTHING FITS"

That's the fun phase I am in right now.

You know the phase: regular clothes are too tight, maternity clothes are WAY to big. Ya, it's a fun phase!

I am using the rubber band around the button routine to wear my regular jeans. The problem I ran into was that my regular shirts were not long enough to cover the fact that my zipper doesn't go all the way up. I really didn't want every person I saw to say "hey, your zipper's down" so I have been wearing Kurt's shirts. Which, sure, they are long enough to cover up but they are huge on me so I feel like I am swimming in fabric and way too frumpy looking. Oh-well, this will pass.

As for the morning sickness front - I am feeling better. I seriously have never felt that sick - I was sick to my stomach ALL THE TIME and had absolutely NO ENERGY. I seriously sat on the couch all day feeling miserable. But the dr. office called last week and told me my thyroid is out of balance. My thyroid issues started when I had Kayla and I haveto take a medicine every morning for the rest of my life. At my first prenatal appt I told the PA that I was FREEZING all the time. I don't just mean cold - I mean FREEZING. I would have the heater cranked, the fireplace going and I would be wrapped in a blanket and still freezing. I would start shivering when I went to bed until the sheets warmed up. It was a bit extreme. She said that could be a sign that my thyroid was out-of-wack so she tested it. She said that the thyroid being out of balance could cause the morning sickness to be worse. Well, she was right - my thyroid was way off. But of course, between the time I did the lab work and the labs came back and they actually called me with the results, my symptoms changed. I am no longer freezing and the sickness has definitely been reduced. Don't get me wrong - it isn't gone but at least I feel like getting off the couch now. So for the last week I have been playing phone tag with my OB's office and my Primary's office (who is out of town) trying to get someone to retest it to see if it has balanced itself back out. So far, no luck. But I have another appt this week so I will get it taken care of then.

As for Christmas shopping - haven't even started! AHHHHH!

I have decided this just isn't a good time of year to have morning sickness. Thanksgiving just isn't the same when all you eat is rolls and you have to avoid eye-contact with the mashed potatoes because just the sight of them wants to send you running from the room. I don't know what it is but I still can't stand the sight of them! The no energy thing has sent Christmas shopping into a tail spin. Oh-well, this too shall pass. This won't be the first Christmas that Kurt and I are out shopping the last days before Christmas.

I am working on getting a Christmas card out. And by working on it, I mean I want to get one out but have not done anything to make that happen but at least I am "working" on it! =)

Merry Christmas!

A busy, busy week

Well the last week has been a busy one!

On Tuesday, Nov 23, a 4 year mistake finally ended. 4 years ago Kurt and I bought another house. Originally we were thinking we would move into it. During the last month of construction, we realized the 45 minute drive was a big deal after all and we didn't want to move that far away. We then thought that we could put a killer yard in and sell it; except that's when the market started tanking. We couldn't drop our sales price as fast as the market was dropping. After almost a year of 2 mortgage payments we decided to rent it out. So for the last 3 years we have had renters that helped with the mortgage (rent covered about 1/2 the mortgage - nice!). In January of this year we discovered that we could no longer support that money pit and decided to try to sell it again. And it took 11 months to happen. It looked like all was good until one of the banks came back and decided to change things at the last second. We thought it was going to fall out but by some miracle it didn't and on Nov. 23rd we got rid of a huge mistake. Whew! Does that feel good!

Then Thursday was Thanksgiving! And I have to be honest and say "WE CHEATED!" Before we found out I was pregnant, I told my mom that I would make Thanksgiving dinner so she didn't have to worry about anything. Then the morning sickness started and I thought "how in the world am I going to pull together dinner?" My mom must have had the same thought because a week before Thanksgiving she called me and said that we should order dinner from Safeway. I totally agreed and that is what we did. We only had to heat things up and it was pretty good. Or at least that is what everyone else said. I could only manage to get rolls down.

Then Friday Kurt's dad and Julie flew in from Utah and we had the mad dash to get ready for Saturday because . . .

on Saturday Hailey was baptized!!! She is such a sweet girl and the baptism was very nice. She was baptized with a girl from her class. After the baptism we had a lunch at our house for approx. 26 people. It all went very smoothly and I was extremely thankful for all the help. I will have to post pics later - I think they are still on Kurt's phone. Then that night we went to Margo's for dinner.

Sunday was a relaxing day. We went to April and Rick's for dinner.

Monday was . . . I don't remember much of Monday. Must have been relaxing too.

Then Tuesday we had our first dr. appt! Woo Hoo! Except it was really boring. We just met with the OB Coordinator who asked a bunch of questions. Then we met with the Physicians Assistant and she asked more questions. She had come in with the doppler/heart listening thing but was going to leave without using it so I asked her if it was too early to hear the heartbeat. She said it was but that I seemed level headed enough to not freak out if we didn't hear the heartbeat so she agreed to try. We couldn't hear it - bummer - and no, I didn't freak out!

And the on Wednesday, we got to do this:

Our first picture of our peanut. It is amazing to me that something so small can make me so sick! The circle thing is the yolk sac and the baby is laying face down with it's head under the yolk sac. The ultrasound people were running 20 minutes behind so when we first got in there she said "I am very limited at what I can say" and then proceeded to just click and take measurements. I couldn't see the screen and I thought for sure she would say, "ok, we're all done. Have a great day." So while she was clicking away I was planning my attack as to how I wasn't getting off that table until I had seen my baby. But at the end she was super cool. She turned the screen and explained EVERYTHING to us. She had a good picture of it and said that if we hold really still that sometimes we can see it move and as if on cue, the baby moved. So cool! It was a hic-cup like move - so cute! My official due date is July 5th.

Other than all that going on, I have been sick, sick, sick. I just bounce from one thing to the next just trying to survive. Hopefully this will pass quickly! Fingers crossed!

I just have to say . . .

that I have the

BEST HUSBAND EVER!!!

He has been so sweet and thoughtful since the morning sickness started.

He has made me sit down and relax.

He has rubbed my back.

He has taken upon himself (I didn't even have to ask or hint) to keep the kitchen/dishes clean.

He has been going grocery shopping with me to help me out.

He doesn't get upset with me when I change my mind (a zillion times!)

He is patient with me when I want to go out and then say I want to go home because I don't feel good.

He does anything I ask him too.

And right now he is putting the laundry away because I feel to sick to move and want to go to bed but it is buried under the laundry.

Isn't he awesome?

I definitely think so!

More Breaking News

No, I don't have any pictures of anything burning.

No, you won't find this news on any news channel.

No, you probably won't find this news on any other blog.

Are you ready?

WE ARE EXPECTING!!!!

We are so excited! Well, Kurt and the kids are still excited. I was excited for the first 2 weeks and now I am so sick that excited isn't the word anymore. Happy - yes. Excited - I don't have the energy or stomach to pull off excited anymore. Holy Moly - I forgot how INTENSE morning sickness can be! Ugh!

I am about 7 weeks and due in early July. This fits right in with our pattern. Each baby has been born 2 months before the last one's birth month. Kayla was January, then Hailey was November, then Evan was September so it is only fitting that this one be in July. We have a "every-other-month-thing" going on.

This pregnancy has been so different already. I am really hoping it isn't a "bad/something's wrong different" but a "4th baby has to be different somehow" different or a "my body is older" different or a "I haven't been in the early stages of pregnancy for almost 6 years so I forgot" different. I don't know - just different. But I am sick, so hopefully that is a good sign.

The girls are rooting for a girl and Evan wants a boy (isn't that always the case?). I really don't care either way - I would like a boy so Evan could have a brother but I will be happy girl or boy. Kurt, on the other hand, is determined that it's Trevor (and will correct you if you refer to it as a "she" or "it") and is already planning another one if this one is a girl. Ya, right - only if he gets the morning sickness for the next one! Ha ha! So according to Kurt, it will be the Ev and Trev show. Nice - people already have trouble with the girl's names, why don't we make it confusing with the boys too!

It was kind-of funny how we found out. Remember when Kurt was in the ER? Well, a for a few days before that I had been having a symptom that I had never had with any of the others (see, different). Usually my first symptom is exhaustion, complete and total exhaustion and I wasn't having that so I thought, no, it must be a pre-monthly visitor symptom so I tried to ignore it. Well, Kurt was in the ER on a Sunday and that night I was up all night with him because he was snoring so bad from all the meds they put him on. When I am awake in the middle of the night, my mind gets going on ideas and I have a hard time stopping. So I kept thinking "take a test in the morning" and then I would talk myself out of it with all the reasons why I shouldn't. Then I would talk myself into it with all the reasons why I should. Back and forth all night. Monday, I ignored it again. Then Monday night I was up with him again (got a little more sleep but not much) and the same thing. By Tuesday morning I thought "I am just going to take the darn test so I can stop wondering about it." And I did. I honestly didn't think it was going to be positive. I was shocked. I stared at the test for awhile trying to figure out what was happening.

Then I thought "uh-oh, I'm in trouble." Kurt and I always take the tests together. It's always a "we" thing. Oops! What to do? Well, he was still loopy on all his meds they gave him (he just stopped taking them early in the morning) so there was a chance he wouldn't remember me telling him. I thought about telling him "don't you remember us talking about it?"

Ha ha! No, I didn't really think about tricking him. I just sat down next to him on the couch and whispered in his ear that we were pregnant. He was very excited and shocked. We walked around Tuesday in a daze of shock.

Hailey's birthday was on that Thursday so we didn't tell the kids until Saturday. We played telephone with them at the breakfast table. We let each one start one and then I started one with "We are going to have a baby." Went around, no response. Then Kurt tried "We are really going to have a baby." Went around, no response. Then we tried "Mom has a real baby in her tummy." This went around and you could see the wheels starting to think about this. Finally Kayla says "why are we talking about babies? Is it true?" and we said "yes!" They were very excited. Hailey walked around that day watching my stomach like it was going to magically pop out big with a baby. So funny!

Although, I do have to say that I don't think I thought this pregnancy thing through all the way. We went out to dinner the other night for . . . mmm . . . mmm . . . sushi!

WRONG!

No sushi for me! For. A. Whole. Nine. Months. What was I thinking?!?! I sat there watching Kurt eat his sushi while I ate a teriyaki chicken, rice and veggie bowl. Ugh! I think I really could have cried if I tried! So sad! I told Kurt that he has to bring me sushi in the hospital. We'll see if that happens!

Oh well, the things we sacrifice for our children. If only they knew!

So be prepared for months of belly shots, pregnancy updates, and me complaining about how sick I feel (I'll try not to do that too much). Very exciting stuff!

Our Halloween ER Visit

On Saturday (10/30), Kurt woke up with a stiff neck - like he slept on it wrong. I spent most of the morning trying to rub the knot out. By that evening he was stiff but moving so we went to our church Harvest Party.

The next morning he woke up a little more stiff. I rubbed it some more and he got in the shower and got ready for church. We were driving out of our neighborhood and he said "turn around, I can't go". His neck was really starting to bother him. So I took him home and me and the kids went to church.

I was sitting in church and I kept hearing this buzzing noise. I finally figured out what it was - my phone - thank goodness I had put it on vibrate! He was calling me and texting me that he needed muscle relaxers. I text him back "right now?" He responded "YES". Ok - I got up and started to leave with the kids. I stopped to tell a friend that I had to get Kurt medicine and that I would be late for my class so could she tell my team-teacher. Her and her husband offered to keep the kids at church and so I left the kids there. On the way home I called Kurt. At this point he was almost to a full panic - "you got to take me to the ER!" What? "Are you sure?" I asked. "YES". So I turned around to get the kids because obviously I wouldn't be right back. My friend offered to go home and watch the kids for me while I took Kurt to the ER.

I get home and Kurt is in a ton of pain. If he moved wrong, the muscle would spasm and he would scream. And I mean SCREAM! There was a "discussion" as to what hospital I would take him to because we switched insurances last January and now the hospital 5 minutes from our house isn't on our insurance. Our new hospital is 20-30 minutes away. He refused to go that far so we went to the one 5 minutes away (we will just have to see what the insurance does). Every bump I hit on the way sent him into a screaming frenzy so by the time we got to the hospital I knew there was no way he would make it 20 minutes to the other hospital; nor would my nerves have taken it.

We walked in and thank goodness there was not a lot of people. The nurse behind the counter could tell he was in a lot of pain and they got us in pretty quick. They put us in a triage area that just had curtains between the beds. The doctor came in and asked his questions and then grabbed Kurt's head and said "I think we need to stretch it out" and proceeded to pull his head. BAD IDEA! Kurt started screaming in pain which echoed through the whole ER. Things moved pretty quick after that. They moved him to a room that had a door that shut (nice!) and got an IV in him and loaded him with muscle relaxers and pain relievers. We had an awesome nurse! She was great. We sat there for probably 4 hours and by the time they discharged us, Kurt was no longer screaming and had much more mobility in his neck. They sent him home with Valume (sp??) and Vicodin. Let's just say he was knocked out for two days!

By the time I got him home, got his prescriptions filled, picked up the kids and fed them (thanks to our friends who not only watched the kids all day but also had a dinner ready for me - awesome!), it was time to Trick-or-Treat. I was exhausted! But the kids got a ton of candy so they were happy.

Kurt is still stiff and sore and worries that it is going to spasm on him again but for the most part he is okay.

It was a very enteresting Halloween this year. I am glad it's over!

BREAKING NEWS!

This is just way too close to home - only 10 minutes!

I was at work when a vender came in to visit and told me that the Galleria was on fire - that someone had set a fire in a bathroom. He gave me the low-down and I was shocked. An hour later, the kids and I left work and went to get Halloween costumes. I didn't think too much of it because I didn't think it would be that bad. But on the way home, we noticed the black smoke. This was 2 hours after the vender had been in and I was surprised that not only was it still burning but it was a ton of smoke. I couldn't resist - the kids and I headed over. (This was, of course, after I gave them the lesson about staying away from emergencies. Didn't follow my own lesson - oops!)

We could see flames shooting up in this smoke:

It looked like the fire was on the other side of the building so I decided to drive around to that side. The fire was more in the middle of the building so we couldn't see it on this side either but Evan got to see the ladder trucks hard at work!

This is the view from our house. You can still see the white smoke and the helicopter flying around. We can also hear the helicopters.

Crazy! And Scarey! And WAY TOO CLOSE TO HOME!

Labor Day camping trip

Our Labor Day camping trip was . . . a very fun trip with some craziness thrown in. I guess that's the best way to describe it.

As usual, we waited til the last minute to plan this trip so the weekend before Labor Day we were calling and trying to find a camp site that had 3 openings. Ya, not a great plan. Everything was full. After 14 calls made by our friend Marty, we finally found a spot. It has a "live-in" area up front and then camping in the back. Here is all the fun and craziness that happened:

THURSDAY

We left at about 1:30 to make the 4 hour drive. When we arrived at the camp site we were shocked at the living conditions of the "live-in" section. Holy Cow! How can people live like that? I have no clue! It looked like a place where camping trailers went to die and the people forgot to move out. It was horrible - it was so dirty, the trailers couldn't possibly have moved in decades, and so much junk packed around them, it was gross. In a daze, we drove to the camping area, which was actually nice. We set up camp and Kurt said "lets drive around and find another place." So we did but we couldn't find anywhere with openings because, duh, it's Labor Day. So it was this or go home. We decided this would have to do. Marty and Lorraine arrived later that night. There was a "neighborly dispute" in the middle of the night and was fun to listen to!

FRIDAY

The kids found this cool tree that they could climb and get to the top of. They felt like they were on top of the world - even though it wasn't that far off the ground.

We went to Caprillo Lighthouse. It had a really cool trail to follow.

Our goal:

(Nice job Lorraine catching the light)

Along the way we found 4 deer in the grass. Can you see 2?

We also found some fun trees to play in.

Ah, we made it!

So much fun!

While the dads took the older kids down exploring the ocean, the moms sat with Alyson by the lighthouse. There was this chipmunk/squirrely thing that was not afraid of people AT ALL! We thought Alyson was actually going to touch him a couple of times.

When the kids came back, they had to play with him too.

Of course, we didn't let anyone touch him but it was fun to see how close he would actually come if you held still.

Oh, and we saw a snake! GROSS!

Nik touched it!

This cute little house used to be the lighthouse keepers house. You can rent it for a vacation rental if you want. I think that would be fun to stay out by the lighthouse.

Then we went back to camp and waited for April (Kurt's sister) and Rick to arrive. The guys went down and found out info about renting kayaks. We put the kids to bed early and the adults stayed up talking - it was so fun! We laughed so hard! It was a great time!

SATURDAY

Kurt and Marty went down at 7 am to get the kayaks for later in the day. Then we went to the Botanical Gardens. It was beautiful! In the gardens they had a lot of metal sculptures. You can pick up this bad boy for a mere $64,800! We thought about getting it but decided it didn't fit in with our landscaping style!

Along the trail was a Fairy Garden. Kids could go in and create fairy homes with natural things - bark, sticks, twigs, flowers, rocks, etc.; whatever they found laying on the ground. They had a great time playing in there.

The flowers were unbelievable! We took so many pics of flowers but here are just a few:

Strong daddy!

Daddy and his girls!

We followed the trail all the way out to the ocean. Family pics:

Marty, Lorraine, Nik and Ally

And you know this cute, wind-blown, stuffing-food-in-our-face (thanks Evan) family:

Margo (Kurt's sister), Greg, Josh, Tyler and Sierra arrived at lunch time. After lunch we went to Van Damm State Park to do some kayaking. It was so fun! We found caves not far from the beach and they were so fun to explore! No one was brave enough to take their camera out into the ocean so unfortunately we don't have any pics of the caves!

Tyler and Josh:

Marty and Nik

Josh & Tyler in the far kayak. Margo, Sierra and Greg in the green kayak in the middle. And Marty and Nik in the kayak on the right.

Rick and Kurt:

There they go!

SUNDAY

Sunday was April's birthday and Margo was so smart - she made cupcakes and brought them along! Happy birthday Auntie April!

Hanging out at the campsite. Notice the power cord? Can't go camping without the laptop!

Evan and Cody - a boy and his dog!

April, Rick and Margo's family all left Sunday at lunch time. It was so sad to see them go! We had such a great time with everyone!

Now this is where the trip takes a crazy turn. It seemed like one thing after another kept happening. The last 30 hours were . . . memorable!

We (us and Marty and Lorraine) decided to drive up north to see the redwood trees. The road was so windy (pronounced with a long "i"; as in curvy)! We never get carsick but we all had to pull over at one point because all our tummies were not feeling good. It was crazy but no one got sick!

After we made it through the crazy road we saw a sign for a drive-thru tree. You gotta do that, right? So we followed the signs, paid the fee and then discovered there was a really lllloooonnnnggg line! We had to be at least 60 cars back! And there was no getting out once you were in - one lane road only. So we waited . . .

and waited . . .

and waited . . .

And finally, FINALLY, between 1.5 - 2 HOURS later we made it to the tree! YES!

Except our big trucks wouldn't fit in it so we had to back up and pretend!

Marty fit his backend in!

There was no hope of even getting our backend in because of the rack Kurt has on his truck so we just got as close as we could. Here is one shot. Kurt had to get the logos in there! We can right this off as a business expense now, right?

Closer up:

Gotta take one with the dog!

After the tree, we were hungry! So we found a small town on the way to The Avenue of the Giants. There may or may not have been an incident while dining where I . . . um, I mean, someone ended up in tears. Combo of exhaustion and stress combusted and it wasn't fun for anyone. We pushed through and found our way to "The Avenue". The dads really wanted to see a giant tree so we kept driving til we found it:

And it was BIG!

Now we had to turn around and drive back. Because we had made a lot of little stops along the way, we didn't realize how far we had gone. Turns out we now had a 2 hour drive ahead of us and we were TIRED and it was late! Oh, and if you don't know - Kurt and I don't drive good at night - AT ALL! But you gotta do what you gotta do, so we drove.

And then we came to the windy part of the road. Remember how I said we don't get carsick? Ya, I was wrong. Pour Evan got sick all over the place; the boy gave us no warning. So picture this: it's dark, we are on a very windy road with no shoulders and he is throwing up all over him and Kayla (ya, she freaked!), he's crying, she's crying. It was lovely. We had no choice but to stop in the middle of the road and hope no one came flying around the corner. We cleaned everyone up the best we could and drove to try to catch up to Marty (they had wipes in their truck). They had pulled over to wait for us, not knowing what happened to us. We caught up to them and pulled everyone out of the truck and clean up the best we could and drove the rest of the way with the windows down.

We made it back to camp without further incident and went straight to bed!

MONDAY

We got up, cleaned up camp and headed out. We usually follow Marty because, well, he is just a faster driver and we tend to be slower so it just usually works out that we follow him. We stopped for gas in a town and it just happened that we got in front of Marty. And what a blessing that was! We were going down the freeway and all of the sudden Marty comes flying up next to us, yelling at us to pull over. We are clueless as to why but follow him to the side of the road. There was a shoulder wide enough for the truck and trailer but Kurt didn't want to be right on the freeway so he pulled into a big dry grassy area.

Marty, who is usually so cool, calm and collected, jumps out of his truck and comes running back to us screaming "Are you on fire? Are you on fire?" I think: Um, I hope not because we are sitting in a big, DRY grassy field - we are going to launch the whole thing in flames if we are on fire. We have no idea what he is talking about until we follow him to the back of the trailer and see that we have blown another tire (remember our last camping trip?). The tire was smoking, popping, crackeling - it was scarey! We decided to move it off of the grass and back onto the freeway shoulder before it popped and caught the grass on fire.

Apparently this one had gone flat and Marty was honking and flashing his lights trying to get our attention and we saw, heard and felt nothing. Thank goodness he was behind us because it really could have caught on fire if we hadn't stopped. Such a HUGE BLESSING!

The men hard at work:

(I failed to take pics of the last flat tire and I didn't want to miss the opportunity again)

Ya, it seems to have a hole in it!

You can't see it in the picture but the other tire (behind Marty) wasn't looking good either. We were afraid that it was going to go next and we didn't have anymore spares. It was low on pressure which wasn't good. We drove to the next town (20 miles away), checked all the tires and filled the ones that needed it.

We stopped for lunch and when we went to leave, I got in the trailer to help Evan and I realized that a syrup bottle had fallen out of the cupboard, broke it's lid and leaked syrup all over the floor. As we were driving - turning, slowing, accelerating - it was sliding back and forth, leaking syrup as it went. Nice. So on the side of the road I was trying to clean up sticky syrup with no running water. I did the best I could and off we went.

Now, we didn't empty the water tanks at the camp site because we didn't want to use their station. It sloped the wrong way and we didn't want to spend any time in that section of the camp ground so we decided to empty the tanks at a gas station just 5 minutes from our home. We pulled up, helped Marty empty his, then he helped us empty ours.

As we were pulling out of the gas station - POP!

I jump out of the truck and run back to Marty, who is turning his truck/trailer around. I knock on the window, he rolls it down and I ask "how much do you guys love us?"

"A lot" Marty replies.

"Good because we just blew another tire."

Kurt clipped the curb and it hit the tire just right and blew our brand new tire that replaced the blown tire from the last trip. He couldn't hit an old tire, it had to be the new one. So we back up and do this . . . again:

Yep, it's flat.

You have got to be kidding me! 2 flats within 5 hours of each other. And we were only 5 minutes from home!!!! 5 minutes!!! I just wanted to be home. Luckily, Marty's spare fit our trailer and we were able to make it home. We didn't know until later that on his way out of the gas station, Marty clipped the curb and hit his tire too. Luckily he didn't get a flat!

This is the back of Kurt's truck at the gas station.

I think it sums up the last 30 hours of our trip rather nicely:

2 flat tires and a thrown-up-on car seat.

All that's missing is the syrup bottle.

I should have thrown that in the picture too!

Overall, the trip was a lot of fun but, boy, were we glad to be home!

I just have to say that Marty and Lorraine hung in there with us through all of it - the crying, the carsickness, the first flat, the second flat, me cleaning syrup up while pour Ally, so tired and ready for a nap, screamed in the truck. They were amazing! When I was ready to give up, they kept me laughing! You guys are awesome! Thanks for being such great friends!