Virus

This is Kerry.  I am having problems with my computer.  We think it may be a virus, but who knows?  It has made it so my computer is very slow and crashes or shuts down frequently.  Braden tried restoring it from 2 days before it started acting up, but that didn't work.  Any suggestions from people who know computers would be much appreciated.  In the meantime, I can't really use my computer, so if you have written me an email and not heard back, I've not been able to get on Braden's laptop to check it.  Braden is to sharing his laptop as Kerry is to sharing her computer, so...I will not be on the internet a ton until we get this thing figured out.  At least that's what I'm telling Braden.  ;)

Everything I Need To Know I Learned In Primary

I wanted to post about this while it's fresh in my mind.

This is how Opening Exercises in Primary (read: Sunday School) went this morning (keep in mind that Opening Exercises means that both Junior and Senior Primary are all gathered together, so approximately ages 3-11 or 12):

Primary President (conducting): When I was little, Santa used to bring me presents. But as I got older, I realized that Santa was really just my dad. You all know that, right? That Santa is just your parents?


In the room off to the side, the Primary secretary and I were just staring at each other with our jaws dropped, just in total disbelief that she would say this to a group of children! The secretary was mouthing, "Are you kidding me??" I risked a glance out at the kids just to see, but all I saw were some adult teachers with the same looks on their faces. (The first counselor later said, "I didn't see any kids with traumatized faces, just some adults!") The secretary's husband, who is a member of the bishopric, came in right after that, and when we whispered to him what had happened, he said, "Go up after her and say, 'Just Kidding!'"

Apparently, right after that when the president sat down, the first counselor whispered to her, "You do know that a lot of children still believe in Santa Claus...", and she goes, "Oh, okay. There is a Santa" back to her and then giggled.

Then, once Singing Time had started, in the next room, the president went over to the first counselor and said, "I'll tell them that there is a Santa", and the first counselor said, "Oh, no, don't say anything; it'll just make it worse!"

In the president's defense, English is not her first language, and while she is a very sweet lady and means well, she just doesn't get some things, and I guess this was one of them!

I have to admit, I happen to think it's more funny than horrifying. Like, I couldn't believe she said it, but I couldn't stop laughing, either. This happened at the beginning of Primary, and I was still laughing about it when we got home. Braden's opinion of it was, "So what?" But then, we don't really do Santa in our family, and I don't remember being traumatized about finding out about "Santa" growing up. I do hope no hurt feelings were caused by the incident, though.

We think most of the kids were either not paying attention when she said it, or didn't understand what she was saying, so I guess no harm, no foul...but I sure hope no kids went home devastated!

I Have To Post About This

I see a lot of misspelled words every day on the Internet, but every once in a while, I come across one that makes me laugh out loud and then drop my jaw in disbelief.  This was one of them (go to the 8th comment after the post).

"You may think I'm crazy, but I stock your blog! I think you are amazing and you have inspired me!!"

Let's see that one more time:

"I stock your blog!"

With what?  A year's supply?  Eggplant?  Parmesan?

Why can't I have more blog stockers?  My blog shelves are, like, totally empty.


"I stock your blog!"

It Was A Good Day

It was a nice day today for us.  Braden let me sleep in, and then when I got up, about thirty minutes later, he went and took a five hour nap.  So we didn't see much of each other until 5:30, but we both got some much needed sleep.  It's funny, though, neither of us slept well last night, so really we were just making up for a crappy night's sleep.  But we'll take it.  :)

Needless to say, today went by pretty quickly, but it was just a really nice day.  I'm content. 

Katie is not so content, which means I have to cut this post short. 

Let It Not Snow

We are supposed to get a lot more snow tonight. I went out with Jenna in the snow a couple of days ago, and she absolutely LOVED it. I told Braden that I guess she doesn't take after either of her parents! She would not come back inside! She loved throwing snowballs and kept asking for more. My hands had been freezing for awhile, and so I finally just picked her up and took her inside...I know you love it, but I don't want you to get frostbite, either!!

(Oh, you can see her new glasses here. I still have to do a separate post about that.)













The two pics below are from when Braden and Jenna went outside for like two minutes before Braden got cold and went back in with her! I think this was a couple of days before the above pics. Jenna has Braden's favorite coat on. I think it was her first experience with snow.

Can It Be Possible?

We may very well have a white Christmas here in Western Washington. It looks like this everywhere, and Christmas vacation apparently came three days early for school-age kiddos this year.

And now church has been cancelled. We had about four phone calls telling us this, so I think we're certain that it's cancelled. We may have another 43 messages on my phone by tomorrow, I don't know.

Can I admit something? Maybe I'm bad to the bone, but...I'm glad I get out of doing Sharing Time tomorrow. :-O (Even though the first counselor suggested that I play her 18 minute Christmas Oranges DVD, and I obliged...but ONLY because she suggested it, of course! What do you think of me??)

L & D

WARNING: GRAPHIC MATERIAL OF LABOR AND DELIVERY-NESS

So I've been meaning to write my labor story for a few weeks now (obviously not longer than that), but the whole taking care of a newborn kept getting in the way.  Here goes:

I walked around the mall for a couple of hours on Wednesday, October 22nd with Braden.  And I mean walked and walked and walked.  Then we went to my midwife appointment, at which point she stripped my membranes a little bit more and pronounced me about 4 cm.  I was very uncomfortable at this point, but still not in labor.  We went home, and Braden left at a little before 5pm to go to his staff meeting, which was supposed to last until 9pm.  He really wanted me to get him out of it, but I of course couldn't make any promises.  Jenna was already with the Grandparents E. because we THOUGHT I was in labor on Tuesday night.  (I was really mad when the contractions stopped that night).  I started getting contractions after Braden left, and they became more and more regular.  I think it was about 6:30 that I gave in to my craving of Pollo Asado from a nearby Mexican place and went to pick it up.  I enjoyed my last supper very much, thank you.  :)  The contractions continued, and I believe I called Braden about 7:30 or so and told him that it would be a good idea for him to come home.  Apparently he took the call out in the hall, ran back in to get his stuff and ran back out.  Just like Braden to make an exit memorable. 

Braden came home, and we timed the contractions a little bit more.  We ended up heading to the hospital maybe at 9 or 10...I can't remember some details; sorry.  Anyway, when we got there, I dressed in the lovely, modest hospital gown and the nurse checked me before she wrecked me.  I was still 4 cm and regretted telling her that the midwife said that I was 4 cm at my appointment at 2 that afternoon.  She calls the doctor, who is on call instead of my midwife, of course.  I had indicated that this doctor could deliver my baby if my midwife wasn't available.  This is the doctor who I had seen a couple of times before and who had done my 36 week ultrasound.  Well, the nurse comes back and says that the doctor said that if I haven't progressed within one hour, I need to be sent home.  WHAT??????  Understandably, I was quite upset.  I tried an exercise ball thing for 15 minutes, but that did nothing, so then I started speedwalking around the entire department, noticing as we went along that the rooms were not even half full.  So why the crap were they threatening to send me home?  Braden suggested it was because the doctor wanted to have a good night's sleep.  I think it was 10 or 11 at this point.  Anyway, when my hour was up, I made the nurse give me more time, since the ball was a waste of time, and she gave me like 10 more minutes.  My contractions sped up to 2-3 minutes apart while I was walking, but when she checked me again, she goes, "Maybe half a centimeter..."  Well, I was really, really upset at this point and had been ever since they had told me that I might be sent home.  I let the nurse know that I did NOT want to be sent home, that I knew I was in labor, that my contractions were not very far apart and consistent and that they had sped up.  Well, after a few minutes, the on-call midwife came in, and I guess my impassioned plea worked, because she asked me a few questions and then said, "Well, when would you like your epidural?"  NOW!  I guess the doctor wasn't on call anymore, and the midwife either had pity on me or realized that I was actually, really in labor. 

So after a little while, the anesthesiologist came in and did his thing.  He had a habit of telling that he was going to do something right as he did it.  As in, "this will stingOUCH."  I jumped at one point, and he was like, "PLEASE...try not to do that."  Well, suerie, maybe you should give me a little warning!  :)  The epidural took effect after a little bit, and I was overcome by itching...everywhere.  Oh, my goodness, I itched so badly.  And then, not too long after, I started to feel the contractions somewhat, which really upset me, because that's WHY I got the epidural, hello!  :)  So I told the nurse and then they brought me my own button thingy to press whenever I started to feel them, and that helped after a bit.  Then I was a lot happier, trust me.  Anyway, rinse, repeat...blah, blah.  At some point, I tried to sleep as much as I could, and Braden did, too.  Then around 5am, the baby's heart rate all of a sudden went way down, and Mom ran and got the nurse.  It was deduced that the baby's head was engaged and she was ready to be born.  Mom said she wouldn't be surprised if I had her within the hour, and she was right!  Katie was born just before 6am on Thursday, October 23rd.  When I was pushing, I guess the midwife wasn't all the way ready yet, but she said, Um, you're a really good pusher, so I'm going to get ready here.  Also, I had a mirror to see, but the midwife's head was in the way most of the time, and when she finally moved, and I got a good look, my eyes about popped out of my head, because Katie was almost, well, out, and I couldn't feel it, so I had no idea she was that far along!!  :)  I guess that with Jenna, they had stopped the epidural when I started pushing, so I definitely could feel that part with her.  I wasn't aware that they had stopped the epidural with Jenna, so with Katie, I expected to feel that again, so when I didn't, I thought I still had a long way to go.  I had actually pressed the epidural button right before Katie's head engaged, so I was chock full o' medication, and that's how I prefer it! 

They weighed her behind a curtain, so I yelled to Braden, how much does she weigh??  When he came back with "8 lbs, 6 oz", we were both shocked, because she did not look that big to us when she was born.  WOW!!

Anyway, the other occurrence of note was that my epidural did not wear off until like 5:30pm on Thursday, and I received it at about midnight!  That is a loooooong time to not feel your legs.  I couldn't get up that entire time, so when they moved me to another floor, the nurse really did not get that I couldn't move my legs at all until she didn't support me enough, and I almost fell off the wheelchair while they were trying to get me in it.  I had warned her!  Anyway, I had the painful IV of death in my hand from the night before (it really, really hurt, not only going in, but the entire time it was in; the nurse kept jabbing me while trying to get it in), and I really wanted it out, but the nurse wouldn't let me until I could go to the bathroom by myself.  So when my epidural took so long to wear off, I had to have this stupid IV in that whole time.  It was the bane of my existence.  I was hyper-aware of anyone's proximity to it...WATCH THE IV, PLEASE.  :)  However, I'm not knocking the epidural; thank goodness for modern medicine!

I should also mention that one of my ward friends had her baby at the same hospital this past February, and that they not only threatened to send her home...they actually did!  She told me about it a couple of months before I had Katie, and it worried me a little bit.  She went home and had hours of really painful contractions before she couldn't take it anymore and went back in.  My mom could not believe that they were going to send me home.  She said on our way to the hospital that she thought they would take me right in.  If I were going to be around this area for our next baby, no way would I have it at this same hospital.  I was not as far along (centimeters-wise) with Jenna when I went to the hospital to have her, and that hospital never once said, "you have X amount of time to dilate, or else buh-bye".  Women in labor have so many other worries and concerns going on; it's just not right to do that!!  I was very clearly in labor and had followed the orders of my midwife for when I should go to the hospital. 

Anyway, my postpartum recovery has been so much better than the last time (not hard to do), so I am really grateful for that.  I'm also grateful that I did not get sent home and that I got to have my Katie!! 

The end!

Blog Posts

I have to admit here that one of my pet peeves is clicking on an item in my Google Reader and having only a paragraph display, followed by [...].  This means that I have to go to the actual site.  You would think that this wouldn't be a big deal, since it's just one click, but it is to me.  I hate it!!  I want to be able to read the whole thing in Google Reader and not have to go to the site again and again and clutter up my desktop with windows.  That's one of the main reasons why I read my blogs through Google Reader: to simplify things and have all my blogs in one place.

I'm going through the blogs that I subscribe to and basically, if I'm on the fence about a blog, and it does this, I'm unsubscribing.  I really, really hate it.  I actually don't know how you set up your blog to do that, but if mine did that by default, I would find a way to fix it.  I know that some people do that to make people go to their site, so they can have a more accurate knowledge of how many people visit it, but that actually makes me not want to visit the actual blog.  There is a way to see how many people are subscribed to your blog, so I don't know why they don't just use that, in addition to a counter.  Anyway, none of the family/friend blogs I read do this...it's just a handful of miscellaneous blogs here and there. 

Finally!!

In the midst of cleaning out the pantry, I found a jar of soup ingredients all packed together.  It's Wild Rice and Barley soup, and I've had it for I don't know how many years.  I believe I got it at a Relief Society Homemaking Meeting somewhere...I think it was at some singles branch I attended.  Since I've been married for over three years, I know it's at least that old, and I'll add on a few more years because I think I had it in Cleveland.  Pretty much I've just been lugging it around from place to place, each time thinking, "Huh.  I should use that or throw it out."  And each time, I do neither! 

Until now, my friends. 

The soup has been made. 

And it makes a LOT, let me tell you.  "Put mix in a large soup pot and add 14 cups of water."  I got out my biggest pot and promptly reversed the directions, because I figured it would be less intelligent (read: really dumb) to put the mix in first and then discover that my largest pot doesn't hold 14 cups of water.  But it does!  Oh, yes, it does.  So we were golden. 

So I'm sitting here going through Google Reader and thinking that it would have been funny to say to whoever gave me the jar back in the day, "Thank you so much!  I'll be sure to make this sometime in the next decade!"  :)

Cake Wreck

Wooooooooooooooooow.

Din Din

Almost without fail, Katie is hungry when I'm trying to make dinner. It's like she knows.

So instead of feeding her or making dinner, I post about it.

What a great mother I am. :o

Some November Pics

These pictures are from November. I'm a little behind on picture posting.

This was on a walk through the mall. It's a medieval/sword/knife-ish store...kind of right up my brother Kevin's alley. Scooby Doo obviously fits right in here. :)


Where's Daddy? This is at the play area in the mall. Jenna hearts the play area.


There's Daddy!!


This is Jenna's favorite shirt. Whenever I go into her room in the morning and say, "What should we wear today?", she asks, "Ah-lah, be?" As in Elmo, please. She looooooves this shirt. I wish I had more Elmo shirts, because this one's always dirty!

Daba Misses Gaba

Translation: Jenna misses Grandma.

She is also giving the evil eye, too, but that's beside the point.

Workout, Baby, Workout

So this week I've starting exercising again.  It's been awhile.  Like say, pre-Katie, and I do mean pre-Katie in the womb pre-Katie.  I am one of those people who has a very hard time exercising during pregnancy.  I usually just do not have enough energy, and that's how both of my pregnancies have been.  Anyway, now that things are in a semi-routine lately, plus with me being over 6 weeks postpartum and feeling up to it, I decided to start doing something about this here baby weight.  I didn't exercise much after Jenna, because I couldn't with the birth from heck and long recovery time, but even after that, I was focused on raising Jenna and didn't really get back in the swing of things.  And then I was pregnant with Katie and had no energy.  I was lucky enough to pretty much lose almost all of my baby weight with Jenna without really exercising...it just came off. 

This time around...not so much.  And I know it's only been a little over 7 weeks, but I can already tell that I'm going to have to really work at it this time.  This is fine in a way, because it motivates me to exercise and eat better, which is of course much better for my physical and emotional well-being.  It's true what they say about exercising: it makes you actually have more energy and feel better about yourself. 

I exercised on Monday and Wednesday with a workout from Self.com, which I had to sign up for.  The first time I did one of the routines I died.  That was on Monday.  I got through it once and then saw "Complete circuit three times."  Then I died again inside, because no way could I do it three times!  So I just did it once and had to be satisfied with that, because, hey, I'm out of shape, and it takes time for your body to get used to exercising again and to build up stamina.  I think that one of the hardest things for me do is to take it slowly.  I want to go, go, go when I'm gung-ho about something, but I really need to hold back and make sure I'm not pushing myself too hard.  The last thing I want to do is injure myself.  For example, I got a few exercise DVDs out of the library, and I did this one today.  I picked two 10 minute routines, and I'll admit that they were strenuous.  I could really feel it!  After I finished up, I felt like maybe I could do one more 10 minute routine, but I didn't for the reasons I just mentioned.  Patience, Kerry, Patience! 

I think one of the hardest things about exercising if Jenna's awake is trying to keep her from thinking I'm a horsey (horsy, horsie?) if I'm laying on the floor doing abdominal work!  I was also breathing really hard at times, and she would come up to me with her little brow all furrowed and put her hand on my shoulder.  I could totally tell she was like, Mommy, are you okay??  Don't die!!

I'm working up to this routine, which I really want to do, but I want to be in somewhat better shape than I'm in right now.  Trust me when I say I am really, really out of shape!!  I requested it from the library, but there are 21 people ahead of me, so I've got a little while before it comes in.  I've heard great things about it (thanks, Jen!).

Unbelievable

Two tow truck drivers tow a car and then discover a two-year-old inside.  Read about it here.


I do think that the drivers should have noticed a kid inside, BUT I think the mother's to blame here.  I cannot believe that you would leave your child in the car while you double parked and ran inside a store to chat with someone, let alone if the car is running and unlocked.  I think it's amazing that the child wasn't kidnapped.

I agree with the second commenter after the article: "Ok. You leave your child alone. In a car. Unlocked. Engine running. Go
out of sight. Talk to someone and get distracted to the point of not
noticing a TOW TRUCK TAKING YOUR CAR AND CHILD AWAY. Hmm, that's a
toughie. Let the courts battle that one out!"

Ah Ah Ah...

This is from "Who Will Baby Mickey Meet?", a book that Jenna likes to read. I played a little prank on Braden and asked him to read this book to Jenna:



Every single time I read the book, I think of this when I read "meat market", so I finally decided to do it.

I know, I know...good one, Kerry. :)

Jenna and Katie...and Jenna

Jenna "helping" Katie by giving her blankets and burp rags:


Katie trying in vain to free herself:


Big Smile! "Thank you for freeing me, big sister!"


"Help, help! She's going for more blankets!"


Lately Jenna has been, um, eating her clothes. It makes for nastiness.


I'm sure that's such a pleasant feeling. Mmmm...

More Jenna Bear

Since you all can't get enough of her, I just know it.

Jenna got ahold of Katie's washcloth, which apparently was not as dry as I had thought:


Performing a vaudeville routine: Hello my baby, hello my darling...


I just love these little sleepers. This one fit her perfectly:


Jenna giving Pooh Bear a bath. She's obsessed with Katie's bathtub:


I think she's right-handed, but she switches. I was impressed by how well she was holding the pen here:


Playing catch:


More catch:


My first trip by myself with the girls to Target on Black Friday. I gave Jenna a bunch of books with buttons you can press that make noise. They gave me at least 15 minutes of uninterrupted shopping time. It was hilarious, because you could hear us coming from 50 feet away...I felt like an ice cream truck! I couldn't stop laughing, because people kept looking around to see where the noise was coming from. :)

When You Might Want To Change Your Last Name

This poor kid.  But he might be laughing all the way to the bank someday. 

Every time they announce his name on TV, I die a little bit inside. 

Daba

Jenna now actually says her own name on a regular basis.  It used to be that she would say, "Baby!" when she would see her picture, but now she says "Daba!"  We don't know where she gets "Daba" from, but there you go.  Now, if she wants milk, for example, she'll say, "Be Daba na?"  That means "Please Jenna milk?"  She will also say what she is thankful for instead of thanking whoever got it for her.  If I get her milk, she'll say, "Diggy na" or "Thank you milk."  I have to remind her to say thank you to me.  :)

She'll also say, "I love you, Daddy", which is "Lubby Daddy."  Whenever we tried to get her to say it before, she would say, "Bye Daddy!" 

Also...yesterday, she started saying, "No!"  I'm not sure if it was because she didn't get much of a nap and was just really tired, but she was Miss MegaBrat starting from when we got home a little after 5pm.  I ended up retreating into my bedroom early last night, partly because I was so tired, but partly because I needed a break from the kiddos, especially Jenna.  She was driving me crazy!  Braden actually got really excited when I told him how Jenna was acting, because he was like, "I can't wait until she tries that with me!"  I said, "Do you think I'm letting her get away with it??"  :)

Katie has this routine where she'll sleep between 3-4 hours at a time at night, but then when it gets to be 6-7am, she'll wake up every 30-45 minutes.  It's really annoying!  So I'll get up and try to feed her more, and she doesn't eat much and falls asleep again, so I go back upstairs to bed, and sure enough, about 40 minutes later, she's crying again.  She did it again this morning, and the third time, I put her in the swing and just stayed on the couch.  That seemed to work pretty well, so I think I will try that the first time the next time this happens (probably tomorrow morning). 



FYI: I started a post on Monday and just finished it today, so it is listed as posted on Monday, even though I only posted it a few minutes ago.  So be sure not to miss the new pictures!

Comments

What do you do when someone you don't know very well comments on your blog?  Let's say you had no idea that they read your blog.  I suppose there are various reactions.  One is to ignore it, either because you're uncomfortable that they found your blog, or maybe you don't know what to say.  Or you could respond to it, especially if the comment is a complimentary one that says, Hey I love your blog!

I guess I'm just discouraged, because yesterday I commented on a blog that I've been reading for a few months.  I really like the blog, and I said so in my comment, as well as telling a little bit about myself (we both have two girls around the same age).  I know the husband of the person that blogs, but not very well.  Anyway, not only did she not respond to my comment at all, but she responded to a comment after mine, so I know she saw it.  And I'm left to wonder, do I smell?  Do people just not know what to say?  Or do they think I'm a stalker (I had said how I found the blog, and the husband has it posted on a very public site)?  I know that this is not a huge deal, but it bothers me.  No one likes to be ignored, and I guess it is much easier to ignore people over the internet. 

Also, this is not the first time something like this has happened.  I had been reading an acquaintance's blog a few months ago, and she decided to go private.  She told people to email her if they wanted to keep reading, so I did.  She hadn't been aware of my reading her blog, but we knew each other from a singles branch we both went to a few years ago.  She didn't respond for over two weeks...and the entire time, I was just left hanging and wondering if she didn't want me to read her blog.  It sucked!  Okay, so maybe she was busy, I don't know.  She did finally respond, but only by approving me to read her blog; there was no note, no nothing.  It was supremely weird.  And about a week ago, I emailed another acquaintance who has decided to go private, and I am again waiting and wondering the same thing.  I guess it's just not worth it to me.  So if you decide to go private, and I don't know you that well, I guess I just won't be able to read your blog anymore.

Bottom line: Acknowledging people is polite!  Don't leave people hanging...it's the worst.

This was the same day that Katie had her one month appointment at the pediatrician's office.

We went to the glasses center thingy to try on Jenna's new glasses. Jenna was not too keen because it was just the frames and the lenses didn't have her prescription yet, since we were just trying them on to see if we wanted to go ahead and get them. She was fussing in the picture below because they still had the brand name stickers on them, and I'm sure she was like, What the crap are you making me wear?? :) The store had had to special order the frames since she still wears such a small size. We have learned since having such a small child with glasses that most people don't know their children need glasses until they go to school, so that's another reason why it's so unusual to have a baby wearing glasses. Then again, Jenna had an obvious manifestation of her problem: she's very cross-eyed. A lot of kids aren't but still need glasses, and it's much less obvious that they do.



Daddy and Katie sharing a kiss in the exam room. We were waiting for the pediatrician, and she took so long to come in that eventually Braden covered Katie up in a blanket to keep her warm.


Still waiting...


I love this little hat! Also, I have learned that little fingers are hard to put in gloves. Good thing we usually don't need gloves!


After all that work, we were only outside for like two minutes, and she went back to the door and wanted inside! :)

My Little Jawa

Jenna was playing with my hooded sweatshirt the other day. It made her look like a Jawa.