Awesome and Awkward....hospital style.

So Monday morning I was sleeping peacefully (well, as peacefully as an 8 month pregnant woman sleeps with two fans on her and hourly bathroom breaks).  Anyway, sleeping "peacefully" when I was awoke by some pregnancy "complications" that were a result of my placenta previa (no need to get into details here my friends).  Anyway, after an early morning trip to the hospital for monitoring they decided to admit me for a few days.  3 days to be exact.  Just to make sure everything was hunky-dory, which thankfully, it was.

My friend, Erin, over at Living in Yellow occasionally does these Awkward and Awesome posts that are pretty funny, so I thought I would tell you all about the Awkward and Awesome parts of my hospital stay.    Enjoy....

AWKWARD

1.  Getting a shot....in your rear end...while your kids sit there and giggle at you.  Yep, this actually happened just a few days before my hospital stay.  I had to get 2 shots of steroids to make sure our new little guys lungs are developed in case he comes early.  So there I stood, pants down, large shot looming, and Eva and Jaden giggling hysterically.  In all honesty, I ended up laughing pretty hard too.

2.  Ordering hospital food.  Now, don't get me wrong - there is something kinda nice about just picking up the phone, telling the operator what I want to eat, and having it delivered.  The awkward part is the AMOUNT of food I order.  Let's be realistic, hospital food isn't too good, and portions are pretty tiny.  I make sure I order enough that there is at least SOMETHING I'm going to like.  At one meal I ordered 3 (yes, THREE) main courses.  For real.  I wish I could have seen the operator's face as I was ordering because I was definitely giggling a bit.  Good news is when I didn't like one thing there were other options!!!

3.  Snoring.  There I said it.  I'm not normally a girl that snores, but when I"m pregnant I've been told I sound a bit like a trucker.  Soooooo attractive.  To be nice I felt the need to warn my night nurse each night that I snore...and then I would quickly add that I only do it when pregnant.  I'm sure they thought I was nuts.

4.  Being 8 months pregnant....and forgetting that when it's time to get dressed.  Yep, I did that.  I had thrown some PJ's in a bag before I left for the hospital.  I took a shower while I was there and went to put them on....and got all confused when the pants felt a bit tight.  Then it dawned on me....ahhhh, that's right...I'M PREGNANT...and these aren't maternity PJ's!!!!  Ha!

5.  Coming to the conclusion that your children seem to like visiting you at the hospital more than being home with you!  NOT KIDDING!!!!  I was alllll worried that they would be apprehensive that I wasn't home and that I was in the hospital.  NOT.  THE.  CASE.  They loved visiting me up there and seemed a bit sad when it was time for me to come home.  One of their favorite things to do?  Sit in the closet.  Silly gooses.

AWESOME

1. I married SUPERDAD.  Seriously, I knew Matt was completely capable of taking care of our children and house on his own....but I stood (actually layed down since I was on bedrest) amazed.  For those of you that don't know us personally, Matt travels a lot for work so I'm often the one taking care of most things around the house.  Well, this week he took charge!  He took care of the kids (even doing Eva's hair each morning) and their schedules, took care of his work (thanks to his trusty phone and IPad he was able to have a little command center at the hospital to get some things done), the house, grocery shopping, etc.  When I came home everything was in perfect order.  Safe to say I married a keeper...love him.

2.  Amazing family and friends....from my in-laws/sis-in-law that made meals to my mom that helped take care of Jaden when Matt would go into work to my sis that stocked me up on some good gossip magazines and hot tamales candies....I appreciated it all.  The amount of texts and Facebook messages I had from friends blew me away too.  I am one blessed girl.

3.  Having one of your best friends as your nurse.  That's right, my friend Krissy is an OB nurse and I was her patient my first night.  Loooooooved it.  It was kinda like an old school sleepover sitting up talking to her (except that since I had been up since 2:30 in the morning I got tired pretty quick).  On top of that she showed up to my room with chips and salsa.  Love her.

4.  Shaved armpits.  Yep, I just said it.  I shave every day so not having a razor at the hospital was about all I could take.  After greeting my family when I got home I went STRAIGHT to the shower and was in heaven.

5.  Getting the good news that our new little one is already nearly 5 POUNDS!!  I'm nearly 33 weeks pregnant and we've always known that he was going to be born early, so I always figured he'd be a little peanut.  I was floored when an ultrasound this week showed he was 5 pounds already!!  Loooove it!!

Well, there you go....the awesome and awkward of the past few days.  In all, I can't complain - I'm one lucky girl. 

Hugs....
Jamie

OUCHY-WA-WA!!!!

So recently I got a new little toy that look like this....

I think it's safe to say I was super excited to use my new toy this past weekend and decided the first order of business was a batch of cookies!  Matt was at work, the kiddies were outside playing, and I had this perfect little image in my mind of a yummy dinner and fresh-from-the-oven cookies being ready by the time Matt got home! 

I got all the ingredients mixed (I should preface this with the fact that I bake fairly often - this isn't a new endeavor for me).  I got the dough arranged on the cookie sheet and put it in the oven.  When the timer went off I got my oven mitt and pulled them out.   I noticed that my mitt was squishing one of the cookies so I switched the cookie sheet to the other hand......the hand that did not have on an oven mitt mind you!!!

HOLY SCHMOLLY!!!!!!!  Let's just say a 350 degree cookie sheet and a bare hand don't mix.  I quickly dumped the cookie sheet onto my stove and ran to the sink to run cold water over my hand. 

A quick call to the doc confirmed that I had numerous 2nd degree burns all over my hand AND I wasn't allowed to put any type of typical medication on it because of the pregnancy.  Ugh.  I did the same thing when I was pregnant with Eva, but the burns were down the back of my leg.  Its not a fun situation - burns hurt!!!

After literally HOURS of soaking my hand in cold water and a few kind friends and family members that dropped off aloe gel and a few other things that didn't seem to do the trick, I decided I HAD to do something - the pain was throbbing!!  I pulled out my phone and put a request on trusty Facebook for natural remedies for burns.

OH MY WORD!!!!  Remedies came pouring in!!!  I never knew there were so many remedies out there!  At this point the kids were already in bed, so I had to find something I had on hand.  Someone mentioned honey and I thought I'd give it a shot.

Worked like a CHARM!!

I drizzled my entire hand in honey, got an ice bag, and loosely wrapped a towel around the whole thing so I wouldn't get honey all over my sheets.  It did take awhile to fall asleep because my hand throbbed, but soon that throbbing went away and I slept completely soundly.  The next morning my hand had literally NO pain and my blisters looked amazingly better!!

Sooo friends...moral of the story:  USE AN OVEN MITT!!!  If by chance you forget, honey is a GREAT remedy!!!

Practice Makes Perfect.

Eva shoots baskets literally every chance she can get.  She shoots every single day after school, often after dinner, before bath time, etc.  If the weather is not conducive to her shooting outside she has a basketball hoop on the back of her door and she'll shoot there.  Honestly, she's told me that after school she tries to shoot 100 hoops before she plays.

Mind you, this is HER doing.  Not mine.

This morning bright and early I thought I heard pounding outside.  I peeked out and saw this...

Yep, that's my little girl....shooting baskets at 7:00 in the morning....in the dark.

"The harder I work, the luckier I get"

--Samuel Golden

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood....

It has been soooo unseasonably warm in our neck of the woods that I have been in complete heaven.  Looove me some warmer temps!!!  Eva even wore SHORTS to school today!!  I was so excited for her to wear shorts that I maaaay have ignored a friend that told me HER daughter told her the students aren't allowed to wear shorts until after spring break.

Really?

I never got the memo.  Seriously.

Eva is wearing shorts.

On top of all of that fun-ness (is that a word?) we got some good news about our little bun in the oven last week!  We had another ultra sound and he looks like he's doing great!  I still have 100% placenta previa (again, no threat to him...just to me) so the doc scheduled a C-section for me!!  Meaning that she said, "Here, we are going to have your baby born on this date at this time."

Really?  You can do it like that?

And exactly WHY did I have to go through all the labor and pain (with no drugs mind you) with my other two?!!! 

(No, you don't need to answer that...I know why, and they are both totally worth it).

Now, any of you that know what a planner I am will know this made me a little giddy.  I'm a girl that likes things planned out - and this just kinda fits the mold!  Ha!  Now, I'm fully aware this little guy could surprise us and make his appearance sooner....but if not I have a date!!!  Regardless, we'll roll with anything....just excited to meet the little buckaroo (although not yet!  He can stay all comfy cozy in my tummy for the next few weeks)! 

Oh!!  On the topic of babies.....I have to give a huge shout-out to my friend Tonya at Toluka Paper.  I've talked about her before, but really she is just amazing.  She custom designed all of my thank you notes for this little guy.  I'm not big into baby-ish looking things.  I love simple, clean lines, and I have a slight affection for zebra print.  Tonya whipped all of that together to make thank you notes for me that are perfect....

On top of that she is custom designing some stickers to use on a special little something I have planned for Eva and Jaden to hand out when the baby is born (more on that later)...aaaaaaaand.....she's designing a print for the boys room!  Yep, I found a quote I liked and she's designing the print for me to frame and hang up.  She's amazing like that.

Hope ya'll have a beautiful day and that the sun is shining brightly in your neck of the woods like it is in ours!!!

Hugs....
Jamie 

Love me some Zulily!

I know I've wrote about Zuilily before but I had to put a plug out there again!  I looooove this site!  They have super cute things at great prices....right up my alley!  I've purchased clothing for myself, clothing for the kiddos, maternity clothing, books, etc. from this site.  I just looove knowing I'm getting a good deal.

Today I purchased this swimsuit for Eva - loooooove it!! 

Don't just take my word for it - check it out for yourself!  Here's the link...  http://www.zulily.com/invite/happyhousewife

Going....Going....GONE!

We told this little guy that one of our goals this summer was to get him on TWO WHEELS!  He's been pumped about the thought of it for quite awhile now....and today was the day!  I talked to him before he went outside and told him that he's probably going to fall a bit, but that's part of learning - and we just get right back up and try again.  I guess this Mama was anticipating some possible tears from him during this whole process. 

Not so much the case.

Matt took off his training wheels and ran just a little ways with him....and he was off!

I was FLOORED at how quickly he caught on!!!  He's still got some perfecting to do (and we did end up with a few tears before the afternoon was over), but this little guy is officially on two wheels!

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the decision that something else is more important than the fear"

--Ambrose Redmoon

Morning Hair

Eva has ALWAYS had the BEST morning hair of anyone I know.  Even as a little girl I have pictures of her crazy hair when she would wake up in the morning.  I loooove it. 

Recently she woke up with yet another outstanding case of bed head.  I laughed and mentioned it to her.

Her response?

She smiled and said, "That's how I roll, mom!"

Hilarious.

Random Thoughts

Here's a few random thoughts going through my head these days...

1.  Do you have a MOPS group in your area?  We do.  I just joined it this year and I looooove it.  It inspires me as a mother and I leave each meeting feeling refreshed.  This morning during our meeting we discussed how we fit prayer and God into our ever busy lives.  It's so nice to talk with other women that are in the same phase of life that I am about how they handle things.  One little tidbit that I shared with the group (that had been shared with me years ago by a friend) was that as you fold laundry pray for the persons clothing you are folding.  I do practice this, not consistently, but quite often.  I mix our clothes when I do laundry so I often find myself praying for Matt as I fold his shirt, and then switching over and praying for Jaden has I fold his socks, and then on to Eva.  It's an easy way to may sure you pray for every member of your family and their specific needs!  Our "creative activity" today at MOPS consisted of putting together two meals that we could take home and eat this week or freeze.  How cool is that?!!  To make it even better, BOTH meals had black beans in them.  Yep, I was a happy camper! Anyhoo....if you have a MOPS group in your area I encourage you to check it out!  I don't think you'll regret it.

2.  We have new neighbors.  As they were moving in it didn't look like they had any children.  When I mentioned this to Eva she said, "You mean they are at school?"  I replied, "No, it looks like maybe their children are old enough that they don't live with their parents  any longer".  She thought about this awhile and then said, "Well then, they better get new ones!!!!!"

3.  My mom and sister have been in Florida all week.  Ugh.  I am just soooo jealous happy for them!  They have been sending me pictures all week of the seafood feasts they are eating and the view as they lay out on the beach.  Today when I mentioned to Jaden that they would be home soon he said, "I don't think they should come home...I think WE should go THERE!"  That kid is smart I tell you - SMART!!!

4.  Both of my kiddos are officially signed up for their first triathlon.  How cool is that?!  My sister and her husband both do triathlons and Eva and Jaden have watched them.  Eva is taking this whole thing VERY seriously.....talking about the special shoes she will need and special bike rack that will be needed for our car to transport her bike.  I keep reminding her that, unlike her Uncle, we are not doing an Ironman.  We don't need all the "loot" he and my sis use!  Ha!

5.  My husband brought me home Vosques from his last business trip.  Ya, he's awesome like that.  I shared one with Eva and then hid the box.  I'm serious.

6.  Some of you have been praying for our friends son, Isaac.  For those of you that don't know Isaac's story, he is an amazing 6 year old boy that was diagnosed with brain cancer last summer.  I haven't posted about his journey too much on here, but I thought I would let you know that he is finished with his radiation and halfway done with his chemo.  We had dinner with him and his family last weekend.  They are an amazing family and I smiled when I noticed that Isaac's hair is growing back!  I encourage you all to continue keeping them in your prayers.  They are being faced with a situation none of us can imagine - and I truly believe prayer does amazing things!  If you would like to know more about Isaac, or would like to follow his Caring Bridge site please email me.

That's all I've got for ya folks and it didn't even include any pictures!!  So sorry!  You can read about my spring cleaning escapades below if you so desire.  Ha!  Hope you are all having a GREAT day!!

Jamie

Spring is in the air...

Well, not really.

We had one day of nice weather and it was enough for the kids and I to tear down the snowflakes in the windows, open up the house, and get out all of our Easter decorations. 

Needless to say we are READY.

I've also tackled one other part of spring that I honestly look forward to every year and that is spring cleaning.  I know, it sounds crazy that I look forward to it but I am a girl that loooooves organization.  As I sit here and type this every single cabinet, closet, and drawer in in every single room of this house has been cleaned and organized.  Ahhhhh.....feels good.  Some of you may think that I may be nesting....but I assure you I do this every spring.  I do need to thank my Mama though for helping me clean out my tall cabinets in the kitchen and laundry room so I didn't have to hike my big ol' budda belly up on a ladder or step-stool! 

Anyway, spring cleaning is officially done.  On top of that we have completely cleaned and organized Jaden's room to make room for baby!  Our home has 4 bedrooms, but we decided that for awhile the two boys will share a room....and Jaden is super excited.  He and I tackled his room one day together.  We cleaned out EVERYTHING.  We organized drawers and closet space so that he had his own area, and the baby has his own area.  We rearranged a few things and planned a few things we wanted on the walls to change it from "Jaden's Room" to "The Boys Room".  As we were eating lunch that day I asked Jaden what his favorite "change" to his room is.  He replied, "my favorite change is that the baby is going to be in there".   That little guy melts my heart.

Soooo....spring cleaning is done and Easter items are out....bring on the warm weather!!!

"Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world"

--Virgil A. Kraft