What I've learned today;

If your child shoves disolvable candy(this instance Nerds) up his nose, just wait it out or try to make him sneeze, which he did halfway to the doctors office. If he shoves say a bead up there use Afrin spray and that should relax the nose to where the bead should fall out or be easier to get.

I also learned that Wyatt has a cold.

All for the good price of $20.

Gotta love 3 year old boys, they sure do keep you on your toes.

Hi Mommy, I'm in here all snug as a bug. Today has been a busy day, I've been kicking and punching you all day. I'm sure the poor tech lady sure had fun trying to take photos of me today. Did you see me wave to you? Towards the end I was feeling a little tired, so I gave a big yawn but I couldn't sleep because there was soo much going on. I'll be seeing you soon.

Love baby

Everything is looking great, baby is measuring perfectly at 19-20 wks. Heart, kidneys, bladder, spine and brain look perfectly normal. Baby is VERY active and BREECH, so little one likes to kick mommy in the cootchie.

I've known that I have a heart shaped uterus, well today we took a very good picture of it for my doctor. The tech said I have an I love Lucy type heart shape, I thought it was kinda funny.

That last picture is kinda freaky but it's the only time the baby kinda waved.

And for you all wanting to know the sex, because the rugrat is breech they couldn't find out the sex if I wanted to know, which I am firm so far and don't want to know.

I could have watched the baby move most of the day, he/she is so active with the kicking, waving, sucking it's fingers, yawning, flipping etc, etc, etc.

So I'm half way to delivery and I have lots to do. See you all soon

Carrie

So my vehicular baby is home and snug under the carport. Grand total was $4600 and change. Cough....cough. Thank you Inez for saving our butts. I am extremely blessed in my mother-in-law. Betsy drives like nothing has ever happened and it's great to have her back.

So I'm laying in bed this morning @ roughly 5:25am and i can't sleep. I start to feel junior (as I call baby) moving around. Now I feel pressure but rarely have i felt a kick. So I put my hands on my stomach and with one finger I tap 3x and stop, then 3 more times, and I felt the baby kick! I had the hugest grin on my face. This is the first time i have felt a kick against my hand. Now I have had plenty of cootchie kicks, which can stop any time by the way, but I love to feel the baby kick against my hand. Once these kick grow a little harder and more consistent I can let the kids feel them too.
My sonogram is this coming Tuesday @ 9am and i am still firm in not finding out what we are having. At least I will try and stay firm on not knowing.
Cute little funnies that I need to remember: Kelly saying that she has a baby in her tummy also. Kelly saying that Daddy has a baby in his tummy. Also that I would be having the baby last Tuesday when Kelly got home from school, ummm, no.
Wyatt keeps asking," mommy, you have a baby in your tummy?"
me, "yes buddy"
Wyatt, "Okay" and off he goes to play.
So I'm off for now, I probably won't post again until Tuesday afternoon, once I call my family and tell them how things look, size, health, yada, yada.

Truck update

Well the verdict is in.......................We need a new engine. The mechanic says that it looks like we have/had a bad oil pump and this lead to probably throwing a rod in the engine. So to the tune of $4-5000 thousand dollars the truck is getting a new motor from Ford and all will be somewhat right with the world. Lots of stress and crying when I found out.
Now for the headache part. At first we were going to put this on the newly paid off credit card, instead Rob( who just walked in the door) talked to his mom and she is going to pay for it and we will pay her back. No interest!! Can I say I feel like crying all over again.
It's frustrating that we have to run to momma because as an adult it makes me feel like a failure, but it is also a blessing that I have a relative who is willing to help us out.
So the truck will hopefully be ready by tomorrow night and Rob can bring home the bacon on Saturday.
I understand now how men fall in love with their cars, I teared up when they were loading the truck on the flatbed because she has been with us for almost all of our marriage and been such a trustworthy vehicle. The truck is 11 yrs old and she just recently rolled over 100,000 miles, she supposed to still be a baby, not an old lady. Well now with the new engine and whatnot I know we will keep her for another 11+ years.
Oh and since she is a member of our family we have decided to name her Betsey. Maybe later I will write and ode to her.
:) Carrie

Ya know, everything was going real good. I paid off the credit card, we purchased the rest of the stuff to finish redoing our bathroom, I haven't had a shower in the master bath since June of 07, and I found my day planner that has been missing for 2 weeks.

Then on Sunday the truck started to make a knocking noise. Okay, no big, add more oil. Knocking goes away. Go and finish bathroom shopping, knocking comes back louder. We get home Rob adds more oil. Nothing changes. We decide to let it sit and Rob went to start the truck last night and nothing. We have power but the truck just won't start. Tried to jump it but not even a flicker of truck grumbling.

Let's just say scared is an understatement.

This has been the best vehicle we have ever owned. She hasn't given us any problems and now it's looking like it's going to cost close to a thousand to fix.

HELLO Mr. credit card, did you miss me?

Dang it, we just got out of debit and now it pulls me back in. Granted we will use that Bush tax check to pay most to all of it off, but still.

Now the waiting starts, first towing costs, diagnostic check, and we need the rear seal fixed and now who knows what else.

**On a different topic, poor Kelly is sick again. This is day two being home from school. Not a happy camper but thankfully it just seems like another cold. But with all the crap that is floating around she sure as heck doesn't need to be contaminating anyone else. So Kelly is quarantined to the house until the fever and sniffles have passed. Poor kid, stuck in bed or on the couch all day with nothing but Disney and movies to watch, books to look at, all your meals brought to you. It must be so rough, I feel so bad for her ;)

All your prayers are very much wanted and needed.

Love carrie

Well they did it!!

In more ways than one ;)

The Z Mansion. It's very pretty and they did a wonderful job.

We did a bunch of photos up on the round balcony. the only photos I have are the few that Rob or myself took, when we didn't have to be in them.

The one photo that we forgot to get done was a quick family shot of Rob, I and the kids.

The rugrats didn't stay much past the ceremony cause they were.. just kids, I guess.

Kelly looked wonderful and did a great job walking down the aisle and only threw her petals until she got up to the wedding party. It was so cute. After the ceremony when we were taking more photos Kelly refused to be in them and both her and Wyatt wanted to go home. Wyatt for some reason wouldn't come to me and almost didn't recognize me. Both kids were happy to leave and go home with Rob's mom. Considering we didn't leave until after 11, it was a smart idea. According to Inez, Wyatt fell asleep early and Kelly was up until 9:30.

As soon as I can get a copy of some of the photos I'll post them. I was told repeatedly how fantastic I look. I know....brag,brag, brag.

I was just so happy to see my brother so happy and to marry a woman that I like and admire.

It was a beautiful night and Rob and I danced together more than ever before. The cake was both gorgeous and delicious, and except for the small piece of cake to feed each other Mike and Amanda didn't get to eat a piece.

I'm not sure what else to say so I'm going to leave it at that.

Happy Post Valentines day.

I am slowly getting better and last night our little family went for sushi at our local Oishi sushi. Come to find out that Kelly will eat nigiri. All nigiri is is fish and rice. So we ordered tuna, shrimp and salmon and Kelly of course took both pieces of shrimp and then she tried the salmon. Now being the smart parents that we think we are, we did NOT tell her what type of fish she was eating. Kelly even tried the masago (orange fish eggs) on top of a couple of our sushi rolls.

I should say she licked the top of the roll clean and then handed it to me to eat.

Now Wyatt, no way would he even touch anything sushi type on our plate. Wyatt was perfectly content to eat his "spaghetti noodles", we ordered the kids chicken yakisoba noodles for their dinner.

So V-day was nice, nothing outrageously special and of course today is even much better with the rain and the fact that all of our tax return is here. Yee Haw! I have reordered all of my scrapping magazines, a couple of photography mags and a paper crafts magazine. We have paid off the medical bills, the one credit card we have and the rest will go to food and finish remodeling our bathroom. Yowza.

I sincerely hope we can stay on track cause next year we want to get a new tv and laptop.

Today is going to be a nice day. I hope your day will be great too.

Love C

Sickness round #2
This past week Wyatt and I both got sick. Although Wyatt is doing WAY better than myself. I have a nasty cold and not much of a voice that is seriously kicking my butt. And before you joke that Rob must be thrilled about my voice, think again, it's driving him nuts not understanding me.
I agreed a couple of weeks ago to watch a friends two kids today and oh my, I am whipped and it's only 11am. I really want to curl up and take a nap but that is not even remotely possible. I believe I will be heading to bed very early this evening.

It occured to me that my Dad will be here next Monday and Mikey's wedding is next Friday. Seriously?? I don't have a few more weeks to go?? Next week? Gulp..... Oy......deep breath... I'm fairly ready..... I need to get my mega brow tamed and buy some new makeup, buy Wyatt new dress shoes. Kelly is ready to go. Of course we both(kelly and I) need to get our hair done that night but.... it just seems to fast sometimes.
I will admit I can't wait for it to be all over. Thankfully I shouldn't have to worry about another wedding until Kelly or Wyatt gets married, unless of course that one man shows up and will sweep my stubborn mother off her feet. I would sincerely love for that to happen. **I know you'll fight me on this Mom but I believe it's true.

Sorry no pictures today, I haven't uploaded the bridal shower shots from Saturday yet. Hey I'm sick.... your lucky I took a shower this morning.

I know you were all thinking about me yesterday, weren't ya?? When the rain first started coming down here on the east side I was driving in it. The poor kids and I were headed to Walmart to get something when the deluge came on. Lets just say I also bought a golf umbrella big enough to fit me and the kids. (Plus I had been wanting it for a couple of months now) The umbrella really did help, especially loading and unloading Wyatt, the slowpoke ;)

So on to the baptism pictures. It was a balmy 52 degrees and we don't know what the temp of the pool was. Let's just say it was over fairly quick, but it was very cool.

At one point my mom turned around to check onthe kids and Wyatt had already taken his shoes and socks off and was working on getting his pants off too. That boy was determined to go swimming, even though he doesn't "know" how to swim. Mom herded him inside real quick.

On the sickness front~ Kelly ended up with a double ear infection and a cold. After two different types of medicine and lots of fighting we finally have a antibotic that we can get Kelly to take without her throwing it up and putting up a HUGE fight.

Today was also the first day that she felt well enough to go back to school. Kelly is such a stubborn kid. She refuses to put on chapstick until her lips bleed and then cries because it burns. So I have become the nag about keeping the chapstick on. Hopefully the ring-around- the mouth will be gone soon.

So thank you for your support on the lives that were lost last week. I didn't get to go to Cindy's funeral because I ended up taking Kelly into the doctor and Mikey didn't go to Michigan cause basically he was told he wasn't welcome. So I grieved from home and prayed for both of these people. I know they are both in a better place.

So, I'm in the mood to scrapbook and I know Julie, you are too. So when do you and Andrea want to get together? I can say this weekend is out, I'm hosting a bridal shower on Saturday. Lets email, shall we.

This is the scene at my house right now.
Wyatt is taking a nap on the couch and Kelly is sick on the love seat. The sickness started last night with a 102 fever and today we have a slight fever and an ear infection. Sweet hubby Rob gave up his half of the bed last night so that Kelly could sleep with me and I could keep a watch on her fever if it decided to return.
Poor Rob, today is his 37th birthday and he is still getting over being sick. Just mostly coughing now.
*A Funny* Rob said that he set the alarm on his cell phone to remind him of all birthdays. Well he also put himself in there, but when he did he put in the wrong age!! Thankfully it was for a year younger, but the poor guy can't remember his own age!! The mind is already fading.

Also tonight my brother Mike is getting baptised. So cool and going to be soooo cold. Rob will be doing the baptisim in Mike's pool, with NO heat on. Yes, it will be fast.
I'll post pictures tomorrow.
Love
C

This week is turning out to be very sad.
We found out on sunday night that our friend Marc's mom passed away. Cindy or Ma as we called her, died from breathing problems. Cindy was maybe in her late 50's. I met her when Rob and I started dating. We would all occasionally hang out at her house, her kids(marc, christina, lexi), kim and anyone else were always welcome. About 2 yrs ago her youngest Lexi passed away after a medical overdose of pain meds at/from the hospital after a motorcyle accident. According to Cindy's other daughter Christina after Lexi's death Ma just gave up and was very depressed. The funeral has been set for this Friday.
Today we received a call that Mikey's friend Brian (the one that my mom put in jail for stealing) passed away yesterday. Brian was back home in Michigan and was doing well until recently when he started doing drugs again. So as of right now we are not sure if he overdosed or he commited suicide. We are understanding that his sister found him and his dad is overseas in the military. Hopefully by tonight we will know about funeral arrangements because mike might be going back.
So many memories about these two people. No matter what, they will be missed.

It has been a beautiful cloudy rainy day today. So Perfect.
I took the kids to their soon- to- be cousin Claytons 5th birthday party. The party was not nearly as rambunctious as it could have been but the kids did have plenty of fun. Wyatt had so much fun that he wore himself out and he fell asleep on the way home.

Almost all of these photos were taken just a few minutes ago as we were playing around.


As you can see it is a family affair!

Sorry the camera was set to auto and I couldn't get a good shutter speed to blur our tongues wiggling back and forth.


(Our newest recruit. He practices daily to become as good as his Master.)








Of course here is our resident tongue wagging Master, he taught the kids everything they know.









(One day young pada-wan learner you too could be as good as your Master. Have patience.)










You can't tell in this picture but Wyatt was licking my finger as he swished his tongue.

(Here is the other Master, unfortunatly she only made master status because the elders felt sorry for her short tongue.)




May the tongue wagging force be with us, always.
















So now we have come to photos from the other day. This is the typical Wyatt man behavior. This huffiness is usually followed by the required,"No Mommy!"
Getting the re-enactment isn't has fun as the original but we do strive to achieve. It's pretty hard to get Wyatt to copy his typical 3 yr old brattiness because the boy just wants to see every picture that I take of him.
So what is a Mom to do??? Well just make said kid mad again and TA-DAH.

We hope you have enjoyed today's typical Ross craziness.
PS-Right now Wyatt is playing in the empty laundry basket, oh excuse me, his bathtub he says. I'll post photos tomorrow.
Night Y'all
Love Carrie

Houston we have a heartbeat.
Yep the little sucker was sure hard to find but we did get to hear that fast tiny heartbeat. Baby is deep in the cootchie (pelvic) area and hard to hear but for a couple of seconds we did hear it. Unfortunately Rob started to cough and had to step out of the room and it was right after he left that we heard the baby. The doctor tried to catch the heartbeat again so that Rob could hear but she couldn't. Rob is okay with this, he said as long as I heard it that was all that matters.
She also told me that I'm doing great and that occassional I can cheat and eat some of the "bad" stuff. You know french fries, sushi. I have lost another two pounds, bringing the total to 12 so far. I'm not sure where I've lost it though. Overall I felt I had a great visit. My next appointment will be in the beginning of February and then it's on to the 20 week sonogram.
So that's all for now. I need to make sure the house is ready for homegroup tonight and Kelly has Daisies.
I'll see you later.

New Year and new hair

So last night I finally got a picture, albeit with wet hair, of everyone's new do's. Kelly's hair goes just below her shoulders and is much easier to handle. Wyatt's got totally buzzed off, we needed to start over. Rob decided for a modern Colonel Sanders look where he shaved off the parts that connect the mustache to the goatee. He also trimmed down his top and sides. so except for me everyone else is fresh for the new year.




Last Friday we had to do a spur of the moment photo shoot for the soon to be married couple who need to send out their invitations. The invites that Amanda picked out called for a photo underneath. I don't think this is the final photo. We had hoped to do it outside but the sun set 20 minutes before they got there, so we compromized and had to use the kitchen. Not the best setup and lighting but we worked it as best we could. Mike looks fairly natural cause her works outside not Amanda, she works inside and is pale, it really is a stark contrast. I'm still learning.

So tomorrow at 9am I have a doctor appt and hopefully we will be able to hear the baby's heartbeat.


So I do plan on updating tomorrow. But right now i promised Rob i would clean the scraproom so that he can put his drums back up. In my defense the room has been cleaned twice but we all like to throw miscellanous stuff there and then the mess resumes. So he has had 2 opportunities to put those darn drums up.

On Friday of last week I went to Joanns and told them(Monique and Jackie) I will no longer teach scrapbooking and I took all my layouts home. Jackie understood but you know Monique was not happy. Ya know I haven't scrapbooked in a couple of months and I'm sick of how the education department call me the night before or maybe two days before expecting me to be available. Sorry I don't jump. Not that I have quit I actually want to scrapbook again. Go figure. Maybe this weekend since the house is fairly clean. hmmmm.

So I had a doctor appointment yesterday.

I was nervous because last week I has some bleeding. Well according to the doctor my cervix is closed, long and soft. I look great internally. My sugars are pretty much under control even the morning ones. I also have lost 8 lbs according to their scale. We tried to listen for the heartbeat but couldn't catch it. Of course I started to worry even more but she said it was normal and also a little early. Course my extra layers don't help much. I will go back on the 16th and we will take another listen. Because of my bleeding I'm on what the doc calls "light life", no long walks, no sex, no lifting.

I must say that my doctor and her nurse are the best I have ever had. I don't feel rushed, I can ask anything and they will call ME and see how I'M doing. Just cool and she is very thurough.

Before I forget-- Happy Birthday Mikey!!

He turns the BIG 30 today.

Happy New Year

well I started to post a few days ago but I was having problems uploading all my pictures. Randon shots from this last week.

I'm kind of disappointed cause most of the shots I took for our Christmas were blurry. Oh well, I'll use them any way. Been an exhausting couple of weeks. Rob has been on vacation and has been very busy around the house. I've had good days and bad so I've been vegging out at home. Really not too much going on.

I have a doctor appointment tomorrow at 11:30 and we will see how I am doing. morning sugars are getting under control and daily is not a problem. If I choose to cheat I just take a bit of insulin before dinner and i can have a couple slices of pizza. Otherwise I am trying to be good since the beginning of December I have lost 5 pounds. Now that I'm feeling better I want to walk more, heck just get out of the house more.

The doctor bills are starting to come in and kinda off freaking me out. Thank god for insurance. I guess I won't be doing any scrapbook shopping anytime soon. Which right now is HARD cause I want to shop.

I finally got to go to the new scrap store on the north side Pages in Progress. Not bad, kinda pricey, but the customer service was great. I also met a girl that also frequents Two Peas in a Bucket Message Board. I actually recognized her pea name. I need to call Julie and let her know. I also need to tell Julie how great she looks and I love the new hair style. Now that the holidays are over and I'm feeling more on the upswing I would love to try and get back together for another round of scrappin.

Well I better go. I'm suppose to be finishing moms christmas present (a scrapbook) but I know if I don't do this now I'm gonna keep putting it off and i have been wanting to update.

So ignore all the grammar errors, I'm trying to type fast and get everything out.

Happy New Year!! I sincerely hope this will be a great year, we need it.

Love carrie

I'm alive!!

Today is a good day. no morning sickness and I have some energy. not that taking a nap wouldn't be nice real soon, I have things that NEED to be done today.
You have morning sickness?, you say
Why YES I do, I'm seven weeks pregnant!
(I will try not to do all that 7 wks, 3 days thing, who cares)
Things are going well for the baby, we say his/her heartbeat and it's little sack but that's about it. I'm still having trouble with my morning sugars. I started out last week on 10 units of NPH and now I'm starting 24 units tonight. No change in my morning sugar levels at all. Which in some ways freaks me out because with the baby developing I need to have lower blood sugars during the night and morning before breakfast to not cause any problems with baby.
On to brighter news. I'm going to do my best to NOT find out the sex of the baby. I have one of each and I could use a surprise. Now lets see if I hold out till the end. It also means that I need to hunt down both baby girl and boy clothes to be cleaned again.
Knowing this is going to be my last makes it hard for me to decide which gender I would like. I still want two of each and was kinda secretly hoping for twins but I think I will just focus on having a healthy baby. God will choose what he thinks is best for me and our family.
Starting to work with the kids about a baby growing in Mommys tummy. I know it's kind of early but I don't want any resentment and I would like to get the kids excited about a new brother or sister. Kelly said she would like a sister. Wyatt doesn't get it yet. I think Wyatt will be more excited when he can feel the baby kick and move.
Alright enough baby talk. (I can't believe I'm having baby talk)
Christmas is fast approaching and I'm not ready. I still have lots to do but I must say I'm glad we are not having Christmas at our house this year. This house is a complete disaster and I'm going to start working on that today.
So I have to go pay the bills and get busy and maybe sneak in a small nap.
As long as I'm feeling good I will try to be a better blogger.

I'm feeling great today!!

woke up this morning with very little back pain and almost none of the yucky feeling I've had for the last few days.

I have cleaned the floors, done a load of laundry, finished 1 Christmas present and have started the second, straightened up the living room and kitchen. I have just gone through all my favorite blogs and am now up to date. And it's only 10.30am! Whoo hoo me!

Now if I could just find where oh where I left my glasses it would be almost perfect.

My little man in his Thomas pj's saying, "Can I see picture of Wyatt?" Trying to get him to understand I have to take a picture first before he can look at it.

So for all of you, have a great day~C

Something for me to note:

For the last year I have been following two blogs, one is www.lyonsfamily.org . This woman Julie had stage 4 inoperable melanoma and passed away on 11/24. Her family was a big inspiration for me as I dealt with Kim having cancer and wanting Kim to fight and look into options for treatment and to beat the cancer. This is not as eloquent as I would like to say. The strength and support this family has was/is fantastic and I was impressed by Julie's fight to beat the cancer.

the next blog is www.careyann22.typepad.com Carey is a scrapbooker that I really admired her style. So when I learned she was pregnant I was very excited for her. Unfortunately she lost her son at 22 weeks shortly after giving birth. Prayers started full force when I found out she was pregnant again this last march and this time it was with twins (natural conception). Well this morning when I woke up I told Rob that I needed to check my blogs because this lady was due, and sure enough she is being induced today. more prayers for a safe and healthy delivery.

this is what I did on Saturday that threw my back out,(which is still sore).

I love seeing the kids reaction everytime they walk through the front door. They rush to the tree and turn it on and they jingle the bells saying "look at the Christmas tree"

We also have been watching all the Christmas classics and one new one "Shrek the halls". That was cute and funny.

I just got off the phone with my Mom and of course it's not hard to ask why she called if you just look outside. For the Michiganders who can't see Tucson, right now, it is raining!! Oh yes and not just the sprinkle and it will be gone. This is going to be going on for a minimum of 2 days. Heaven, I'm in Heaven.

Okay, well I'm off to enjoy my day, enjoy yours~C

Hdey ho everyone.
hope you are all doing fine. Me i'm still laid up with a bad back. Yesterday Rob stayed home to help take care of the kiddos cause i could barely walk from our bed to the bathroom. We started doing the hot-n-cold compresses and more muscle relaxers to help me along. I must say that I'm no longer crying everytime i have to get up. Today is such a huge difference from yesterday.
Today I can sit up for short intervals and i can get out of bed with little discomfort.
my mil has the kids today until Rob gets home from work. We set me up before rob left this morning qnd put the laptop in our room. i was hoping to put the portable dvd player in here too but i think i left one of the cords in the van last time i used it. so no movies. I have been surfing 2peas and rereading Janet evanovich's stephanie plum series 12 sharp. occasionally i take a break and cruise the new issue of creating keepsakes(not all inspiring)
Almost done with one of the christmas gifts i am making, or would have been done if my back wouldn't have fritzed out on me.
I am bored on my butt and just laying around. I know tomorrow i will be doing well enough to take Kelly to school but today is not good for much.
well i better go my back is starting to ache and i need to switch positions again.
have a good one
c