Tagged

I was tagged by my friend Monica to produce 10 facts - interesting or not, about myself.

10 weird facts/things about me....

1. I have to have a clean fitted sheet on the bed every single night.

2. If I could physically and financially afford to have a large family, I would. But, in reality, Dan and I are only planning for 3 kids.

3. I have a pair of jeans from high school that I plan on wearing someday. They're a size 7/8.

4. I look forward to my birthday all year long. My mom always made a big deal of it for me.

5. I love family and big family gatherings. I wish we saw more of Dan's brother's family at get togethers. Our kids barely know each other.

6. I put my son and my husband before myself. I don't even remember the last time I bought new clothes or treated myself to something. The most time I make for myself is reading a book late at night when everyone's asleep. I need to go on Oprah for a mom makeover.


7. I pray daily. Although I don't attend an organized church with discipline, I am still a faithful and spiritual person. My relationship with God is a private experience and I would never push my beliefs upon someone else. This is one arena that will never have a right answer.

8. I have gone into anaphylactic shock twice. I am allergic to almost every antibiotic known to man plus a pain reliever- sulfas, penicillans, amoxicillan, cephalasporins (cephalexin), macrobid, azythromyacin, codeine, and quite possibly more.

9. I am extremely irritated by the improper use of "You & I" etc. So many people have pictures of themselves with other people and the caption says "Bob and I" - Ummm it's "BOB & ME" - You wouldn't just say, this is a pic of "I" now would you?

10. I refuse to drink any kind of alcohol I cannot see through (well with the exception for fruity blended drinks). If I cannot see through the glass it's in, I will not drink it - the reason? the darker the color the sicker I get.

When It Rains...

Well Dan and I have been on a mission to get the Explorer fixed. Last fall we discovered that it needed some front end work underneath. In Feb, we took it in and I can't remember what all we had fixed under there but it was $500 and we still didn't have EVERYTHING fixed. We've been sharing a car just fine since then too. Therefore, we decided to sell my car and just keep the Explorer. In order to do that we need to finish the work on the Explorer. My dad is going to help Dan replace the front end wheel bearings and seals (overall part cost about $75) and then Dan's dad is going to help with a new set of tires (thank you god because those are expensive!). Then we must pay to get an alignment. On Dan's salary and my unemployment, we have been on a tight budget with the funds now set aside to complete all of that work.

In the midst of this, we have decided to sell my car. It's a great car but I would much rather have the boys in their car seats in the Explorer than the Stratus. We could trade both in, or sell both and get a newer car but in the end it will just cost more money. We refuse to have a car payment until absolutely necessary. Call us crazy but we'd rather save for another house for the next 5 years than put it towards something that decreases in value everytime you drive it.

Anyway, I digress. The check engine light is on in my car (a complete, whoops I forgot that thing was shining bright yellow on the dash). A code says it's a P0420 - meaning "Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 1)" - After careful research and a few calls around, I've found that it's not a terrible problem as far as the car driving and operating. However it's a pain if you're trying to sell it! The code means I either need to replace the o2 sensor or the catalytic converter. A call to Meineke says it's not too expensive either. We're looking at about $175 for the sensor or $275 for the converter. This is a glitch in my plans to sell the car in the next 2 weeks but you gotta do what you gotta do right?

That's just my "when it rains, it pours" vent. It could have been worse! At least my tabs are new this month and I didn't have to get an emissions test.



Wish us luck in this venture!

One more for today...

For Father's Day of 2006, I wrapped up a similar hat for Ian and gave it to Dan. Now, the same woman who made Ian's has made Baby #2's hat. Seeing it makes his arrival more real for me. In about 6 weeks we will get to schedule the C-Section and Dr. Sestero said I can pick an available day after Sept. 7th. Who knows, maybe Dan will receive the ultimate birthday gift on Sept. 11?

First Belly Pic

Well our camera broke. For good. It won't even turn on, therefore I have had to resort to using the video camera - very hard to take a self pic with too. :P Especially since the bathroom has bad lighting.

Anyway, here is my 23 week pic. Overall weight still at nada :) although I am slowly gaining back the weight I lost while sick, still at -12 lbs. Hopefully when baby arrives I will only be a few pounds over prepregnancy weight. lol.

I'm also including a couple new pics of little man Ian. He had his baby hair cut off last month (first big boy cut). He's working on his 13th and 14th teeth right now and by golly he has discovered how to snap his fingers. He came over to me like "Look what I can do Mom!" and started snapping his fingers at me. Very exciting for me!

Scrapbooking

I've been making digital scrapbooks for family lately and decided to try my hand at making my own digital elements. I've started a new blog site for those element freebies and someday, when I've become seasoned in Photoshop, I will open an online store for these kits. For now, all of them are scrumptious freebies.

http://misocreations.blogspot.com

Evaluation

Ian had an evaluation today at St Luke's - we met with the service coordinator for West Valley School District and it has been determined that Ian would benefit from the Infant Toddler Program at Millwood School. The school should be calling us to get him in soon. She wants Ian to start before the school year is finished. He will be getting a dose of speech therapy at Millwood. His cousin, Kenzie, also attended Millwood when she was a tot with speech and language delay and Dan's mom, Janie, said that Kenzie benefited greatly.

Ian also needs to see an eye doctor for a possible near or far sighted problem. They did a vision test and noticed a slight difference in his right eye that should be further tested. Oh yay.

Dan is going to take a belly pic of me tomorrow - my first one during this pregnancy (we are at 22 weeks tomorrow). I have not gained additional weight this pregnancy - in fact I am still down 15 pounds from my pre pregnancy weight (I used to be down 19!). However, my belly looks like it's gained a good portion of weight, lol. I think I look like I'm approaching 30 weeks!! Baby was about 2 weeks ahead in weight at the ultrasound but on target as far as length and development. I think I am destined for another large boy. Since I get a scheduled c-section, and don't have to go overdue, I don't think he'll be 10 pounds like Ian.

Anyway, this was a random run-on blog with no sense of direction or proper grammar because I am very tired and should be in bed. Forgive me for my punctuation or spelling errors. Night!

Become a Donor

Today, Dan and I signed up to become Bone Marrow Donors. Although we don't personally know someone who could benefit from bone marrow donation, we both feel very strongly that this small act of kindness could save someone's life. Since having Ian, our lives have taken on a new perspective. I am constantly reading articles in the newspaper or in magazines about toddlers and young kids with terminal illnesses who are counting on finding a bone marrow match. It's completely pulled at my heartstrings. I can only hope that if it were my son, someone out there would be a match for him. The unfortunate reality is that the probability is only large as the donor list. Most people don't even realize that not all donations require actual bone marrow donation operations. Some donations only require peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) collection which is VERY similar to plasma donation. It's profound for me to think that donating an hour of my time to do what is similar to giving blood, could save someone's family the heartache of losing a loved one. Right now, if you join online at www.marrow.org, they are holding an online registry to reach a goal of 46,000 donors to add to the list. Usually, there is a fee associated with the collection but until May 19th, that fee is waived - costing you no money to join. Once you join, they will send you a kit with swabs (like CSI!) to allow you to submit tissue samples (from the inside of your cheek). You swab your cheek and mail them in and then someday you may be contacted to help someone in need. How cool is that????? I was sold immediately. People don't even realize how hard it is for transplant patients to find a match. The odds are against them so the more people who join this registry, the better chance they have.

Check out www.marrow.org for more information.