Don't Bet on it!

Yesterday's dinner conversation centered on funny memories and family stories. Katelyn was recounting the sad tale of our first parakeet, Lucky Buns Larson. Doug insisted that we had the bird for half a year before his untimely demise, but I was positive it was only one month. So we made a little wager: If Lucky lived in our house less than two months, then I get the week off of making dinner. That's how sure we both were of our positions. Doug had only his (faulty) memory to back him up, but I had the proof! I went and got the "Book of Family Records" (which is a collection of weekly e-mails I sent to family for several years), and was able to prove that we brought Lucky home on January 6th, and he died on February 11th--one month later.

I wonder what we'll be eating for dinner this week? Cold cereal is just fine with me. Or take-out! :)

Sweet, sweet victory!

That's more like it

For those of you who think I'm exaggerating my enormity...


Do you believe me now? 8 months down, 1 more to grow!
P.S. I am so grateful I never had to carry twins!!

Gimme a Spring Break!

Last Friday, the last day of school before Spring Break, we had some crazy weather. I didn't have a good feeling about that. If they called it something else, then maybe I wouldn't expect warm weather and relaxation. But when I'm anticipating Spring Break, I want warm weather. So I might have to petition the school district to rename it something like "Don't-Get-Your-Hopes-Up-Because-You-Can't-Count-On-The-Weather-But-Take-A-Week-Off-School". Or even just "April Fool's Break". That might help me, mentally.

Pretty much every kind of precipitation fell during the weekend, from rain, to freezing rain, to hail, to snow. P.S. Every time I've traveled to a "warmer" destination during Spring Break in the past, it has rained/snowed on me. So I realize that it's not the location, it's just my curse.

But by Monday, things started to look better. We crossed our fingers, tried to trust the weather forecast, and made plans for the week. (And, guess what! The forecast was abnormally accurate...until today!)

We planned some work and some play for each day, and I let each girl plan a dinner menu.

Monday - Wash the walls (I'd been wanting to do that forever, so it had to happen on Day 1); Plan menus and shop for groceries; Katelyn made Fiesta Chicken Soup (spicy but tasty) and Ranch Cheesy Bread (interesting) for dinner (without much help at all). FHE fun: Jump Planet, followed by fresh fruit smoothies at home.

Tuesday - Clean the bathrooms (a chore the girls usually seem to enjoy, oddly); Pack a picnic and go to the zoo (We stayed for 4 hours, which was enough walking for 8-months-prego Mama, and the weather was nice and sunny, although a bit chilly. Our favorite attraction was the orangutans eating heads of Romaine lettuce in three bites.); Emily made homemade fish sticks (using non-fishy halibut) and rainbow pasta (once again, another capable and enthusiastic cook).

Wednesday - Laundry day; Hannah's ballet class; Play and picnic at a local park with several other ward members (Sunny again, and a bit warmer. The three older girls rode their bikes to the park and home again.); Lauren made lazagna and breadsticks for her dinner night (Hannah helped, and everything was delicious).

Thursday - Big job: Clean out drawers and closets in the girls' bedrooms (that took most of the day, but it's one of the most satisfying chores for me!); Play with Friends (while Mom lays on the couch--Oy! my sciatica!); Hannah's choice of Macaroni & Cheese for dinner (I know she likes the blue box, but I made it from scratch, while Hannah was more interested in watching a movie than cooking. Just as I predicted, when she came to the dinner table, she took one look and said "That's not the kind I wanted!" But I thought it was delish!).

Friday - Doug took a precious day off work so we could have some family fun. We planned to attend the annual Tulip Festival (It runs all month, but when we got there, no tulips were in bloom yet. We only saw one field of bright yellow daffodils, but we didn't stop for a picture because it was pouring rain.) That outing was my choice, but the girls were happy to come along because then we got to visit the horse & pony farm in that same town. We made a reservation for a trail ride earlier in the week, and even though the rain that was predicted for this weekend came a bit earlier than we hoped or planned, we didn't change our agenda. Even though it was cold and very wet, the girls had a fantastic ride, and can't wait to go back. Thank goodness we brought a change of clothes for the ride home, and thank goodness the farm had mud boots for Doug and I to borrow! The pictures don't do justice to just how wet and extremely muddy the 1/2 hour ride through the forest was!
Doug decided he wanted a turn to plan the menu and practice his culinary skills, too, so he's busy making hamburgers and pumpkin cake right now, which is why I have time to post finally!

Now we're ready for a relaxing weekend of sitting on the couch watching General Conference before it's back to school and work on Monday. It has been a fun (even if unpredictable) week!(And yes, it wore me out!)

P.S. My April Fool's trick this year: I finally got something in the mail that I've always looked forward to: Jury Duty! (You might think I'm a fool to want to do that, but it has always sounded interesting to me.) Too bad my date to report is two days after this baby's due date! Yeah, that's not going to work out. Darnit!

Green Means Go, Red Means Stop, Yellow Means...

Hannah has been obsessed with stoplights lately. If she sees the light turn green, and I'm waiting for the car ahead of me to go so that I can start moving, she has to point out that it's a green light, which means we can go now. She makes me aware of when the people to our left can go now, because she sees a green "point" (=arrow).

She has memorized the poem:

Green means Go!
Red means Stop!
Green's Below and
Red's on Top.

Unfortunately, I neglected to explain yellow to her. (Or in her eyes, orange.) Once in a while she'll ask me about the middle light, and I'll tell her that yellow means "watch out, be careful." Even though I learned when I was little that "Yellow means wait, even if you're late!", as a driver I never fully embraced that concept. And in my defense, I'd like to say that I'm really a good driver. I have never been pulled over, never received a citation, and I haven't been involved in an accident for 10 years, and even that was not my fault--I was rear-ended while I was at a dead stop behind a bus, by some silly student in Provo. Need I say more?

Anyhow, a couple of weeks ago, when I was taking the girls to meet Doug (who had been at church meetings) at the ice rink for their skating lessons, and I was running a bit late, and we were (of course) hitting every red light on the way, I got a bit frustrated. As we approached the final stoplight before the rink, and the light turned yellow as I approached, I decided that in that case, Yellow means hurry up! I had put in more than my fair share of time waiting at red lights on that road! As I crossed the intersection, I saw a couple flashes of light out of the corner of my eye, sort of like lightning. It was a rainy day (surprise, surprise), so it could have been lightning, but I knew it wasn't. And halfway through the intersection, I glanced up and saw the red light above me. Ok, so that was cutting it close. I knew it. After dropping off the girls, as I was waiting at a red light at that same intersection a few minutes later, heading the other way, I watched the same flashes of light as another driver tried to squeeze through before the red, and I noticed the traffic cameras next to the stoplights. So, I wasn't totally surprised today when I saw in the pile of today's mail an envelope from the city's "Photo Enforcement Program." And I wasn't surprised to see a picture of my van in the middle of the intersection with the red light above it. But I was surprised to see the picture showing my van not yet entering the intersection, and a red light above that. Honestly, did someone tamper with the photos? Because I would not have done that on purpose.

So, I'm going to swallow my pride, admit my guilt, pay the fine, repent of my yellow-light philosophy, and start practicing the complete stoplight poem with my 3-year-old. Especially the part about Yellow means WAIT, even if you're LATE! (Exactly 4minutes, 47.9seconds late, according to these photos.)

Who's Who

I think I have a pretty good idea of what this baby will look like when she's born: Dark hair (I'd be shocked if she comes out bald!), chubby cheeks (hopefully not too chubby!), adorable pouty lips.

The bigger question is, what will she look like a year from now?

Brown hair with hazel eyes, or blonde hair with blue eyes? We have 2 of each, so far. Maybe Olivia will mix things up?

According to Hannah...

"Princesses don't have to wear shirts."

And these are called "big girl diapers":

She likes to wear them, although thankfully she doesn't use them for anything. She just knows where to place them. This is what I noticed when she came downstairs as I was hosting my Visiting Teachers:

And what I found upstairs in the bathroom after they left:

Any suggestions on how to explain maxi pads to a 3-year-old?!

2 Committees = Please Commit Me!

It was a crazy week, and I've been feeling insane. I'm on two committees now: Enrichment and Activities. And both had major functions to pull off this week. I'm a girl who enjoys social activities, but I'm getting to see another side of them, and it may cure me of my party-girlish ways. Alternatively, once I get rid of this sciatic nerve pain (which should occur before I have another week like this one), these callings may not seem so bad. Plus, I'll probably be feeling much more calm after I get through my organ-piano duet next Sunday. (Since I'm the organ half of the duet, I can't seem to manage much practice time, and that doesn't help calm the nerves.)

And to completely change the subject, we've had some crazy weather this weekend. There was a little hail storm yesterday afternoon, between moments of clear skies and rain showers. But last night there was a pounding hail storm that woke me from a sound sleep, and I was almost curious enough to get out of bed and look out the window at it...almost...except for that sciatica and deep sleep combination. But anyhow, I started thinking today, and I have come up with a new rule that I think we could all agree on: Easter may not arrive until the tulips are in bloom. Agreed? Or am I truly crazy?

Too Big

Baby is too big. Went to the doctor yesterday. Ultrasound shows that the placenta has migrated out of the danger zone (good news) and baby is measuring two weeks bigger than she should be (not really good news). Estimated weight=5pounds1ounce. Simple math equation: If baby gains 1/2 pound per week until due date, she would match Hannah's birth weight of 9 pounds +. That's not good news. So...we'll have another ultrasound scan in a month, and see if everything is still following this unfortunate curve. In the meantime, I'm not supposed to worry about it. HA!

Katelyn is getting too big, too. She and I went to the middle school for an Open House on Monday night. Weird. She's going to be in the company of 8th graders this fall! Yikes! And yesterday she came home from school and informed me that in her classroom (4th and 5th graders, mind you!) they have been reading Tom Sawyer, and somehow that lead to an hour-long discussion about risky teen behaviors that she and her classmates have heard of (she mentioned examples such as "the choking game" and jumping off of bridges into water below). That disturbs me a bit--I'm very curious about how the teacher managed that dialogue. Of course, Katelyn and I got to continue the discussion and put our own perspective on things last night, so I'm glad she would mention such things to me.

Finally, I think I'm getting too big (I mean old) for my own ideas of entertainment. Yesterday I was invited to have lunch with some friends. We got take-out from Olive Garden--soup and salad and breadsticks, very mature, right? And after eating we went downstairs to this friend's basement and played Rock Band, while the little people (like Hannah and Lauren) played with toys...when they weren't borrowing the microphone and singing, or dancing to our crazy music. Do moms eating Olive Garden and playing Rock Band seem oxymoronoic (I think I just made up that word) to you?!

Obsessing

There are two things my mind dwells on lately: Spring, and Birthing this Baby. I am extremely excited, as always, for Spring to be here. I can tell it's on its way. On Saturday, Katelyn and I spent a while outside, picking weeds and mowing the lawn. (It was Katelyn's first mowing job, and I think she liked it. It's interesting how much one can improve their lawn mowing skills in just the small distance from one end of our yard to the other!)

I am also very anxious for this baby's birth, and I do mean "anxious" in more than one sense of the word. Anxious-excited, because I can't wait to meet this little person, and I will be very happy to make my way back to a non-pregnant body. (Back pain, anyone?) But also, anxious-worried, because I'm afraid by the way things feel right now that this baby will be another giant like Hannah, and that means C-section. That terrifies me. It didn't scare me when my medical professionals suggested the idea at first, because I thought it would never happen. But the bigger I get, and the bigger this baby gets, the more real the possibility seems.

Why is it that when I'm not pregnant, I can eat more and gain less? I feel like I can never satisfy my hunger because my stomach is too squished now, and I have to stop eating after half as many bites as I would like to eat. And yet, apparently every bite I take settles promptly and securely onto my mid-section, there to stay and make me feel guilty and confused about my constant cravings for food. We went to dinner with 3 other couples last weekend, really delicious Thai food, and I had to stop eating long before everyone else, and just sit there and watch them enjoy the hot food, and ponder how unfair it was that I couldn't eat like them.

Anyhow, there's no good outcome here. Either the baby is normal size and all this weight is just mine to deal with after she's born, or the baby is growing as big as I'm afraid she is, and I'll end up with a surgical birth. I have an ultrasound scheduled this week, and I'll be hoping for some sort of happy news to come out of it. Fingers crossed...

Here's some photographic evidence of my second obsession, as seen through the eyes of Hannah:

The Belly

My calendar: Hannah and I both keep notes on this!

A current favorite bedtime story

And the winner is...

Olivia Suzanne

I hope you like it! :) I think you do, since no one voted "No Way" for that name. I think I like it, too, but I have a hard time committing. After days of deliberation about whether or not to post this, I had to take a deep breath and wipe the sweat from my palms in order to type that announcement. Doug and the girls, however, take it much easier. They've been telling everyone they talk to that we've decided on that name, and I'm the only member of this family who's still hesitating. But I've learned from experience (beginning with baby #2) that once Doug starts announcing the baby's name, there's no going back.

Actually, it's not completely true that I'm the only one with reservations about making this name official. Hannah is warming up to the idea, but she still usually insists that the baby's name is "Bidia". I'm pretty sure that's going to stick after the baby makes her debut. So if Olivia wasn't your favorite, you can always join Hannah's campaign.