Grumble grumble grumble...

Stupid Cottonbabies....

Tuesday night, I got an email saying they were having a "BumGenius Seconds Sale!" Basically, you can buy the diapers we use for $6 off per diaper, and considering they NEVER really go on sale, we jumped on it and ordered 8 pink diapers (because we have a TON of white, blue and yellow, but only a few pink that I ordered last month.) They may have cosmetic "flaws" but they're still fine (like the stitching isn't straight--our blue diapers are seconds and they're holding up better than the regular ones!) Got our order confirmation, thought we were good to go!

Wednesday morning, I get an email saying our credit card was declined. That didn't make sense, so I called 'em about it. Turns out, in my hurry to get my order in before they sold out, I entered the wrong year for the expiration date. But they fixed it, charged my card, and said, "Okay, you're all set."

Well, apparently not. I received an email tonight saying that they were sold out of the pink, but had some green, blue and white available if I wanted to substitute. ARGH!!! No, that's okay... my whole reason for ordering was to get some pink.

Needless to say, I'm a bit bummed... I wanted to cry when I got that email. Yes, it's that silly. Oh well. I guess it wasn't meant to be. We didn't really have the extra $100 anyways.

Guess I should go work on the diapers I DO have. Those tabs aren't going to replace themselves.... Hopefully I don't break my sewing machine again....

The AMAZING Disappearing JEREMIAH!

He just discovered that there's an open space underneath his crib... What a great way to kill 20-30 minutes (which is exactly what we did!) :)

I think I went a little nuts...

Yeah...

Not all of this was me. I'd say.... maybe... 1/3? was given to us as gifts.

It was all a good deal, though! With the exception of a pack of socks, and maybe one or two other items, everything was purchased on sale, on clearance, or on consignment. Some of the CUTEST outfits I got for just a couple of bucks at various baby sales.

I thought we needed more bibs, but after sorting and counting them up, I think we're probably okay after all... We've got 24 "good" bibs, which should be PLENTY (a few I bought at Dani's Duds had a lot of stains on them... but they were behind a 'good' one, so I couldn't tell. So much for their ultra high inspection standards! I'm done with them... Not worth paying the $5 to get in there only to not be guaranteed quality used items. At least the outfits were nice--some were brand new! Maybe I'll just find 10 random items to consign, price them outrageously high and then collect them on Sunday when they don't sell. Then again, I don't think I'll be going to the next sale anyways--Jess Jr may only be a couple weeks old by then!)

One thing I definitely went overboard on were the wearable blankets. We love(d) them with Jeremiah, especially since he would always kick out of his swaddles (we only did that a couple of times... he slept better on his belly,) and would "scoot" to the corner of his crib, usually leaving his blanket behind. I think I bought 2-3 in each size that I could find (each was only a couple of bucks... brand new, they're $15-$20!)

Anyways, yeah, the only thing I need to find now is Jeremiah's newborn stuff--there's a lot of onesies in there, and pajamas that we could use. I hope it's around here... I haven't seen it since we moved (along with all his extra changing pad covers...)

Yup, so that's that. Time to go throw it all in the wash! :)

Taking matters into his own hands...

Jeremiah got tired of waiting for Mommy and Daddy to come up with a name for Jess Jr. so he's gonna pick one for us. What a good citizen!

Nice, but busy weekend.

What a whirlwind life has been lately!

Our weekend was just crazy! But it was fun. We got to see a lot of people that we don't get to see very often, and overall, had a pleasant time.

Friday, Jeremiah and I finally had a chance to check out Jeremy's new office--much nicer than their previous location (well, the building, not so much, but they have a lot more space in the office itself. It actually "feels" like you're visiting the company, rather than going through another company's office to get to a few tiny offices where Jeremy happened to work... yeah, they're in a nice spot now.) Jeremiah really enjoyed running up and down the aisles, yelling, and letting me spin him in the chairs 'til he was so dizzy he couldn't walk (though he would try, again and again.)

Saturday, we got up and immediately headed out to Arlington for a friend's 1st birthday party! It was at Hayes Park, which is a really nice park--they have a couple of different playground areas, a giant sandbox, and the best part--a "Sprayground". It had a bunch of different sprinklers/fountains that would randomly come on, and boy did the kids enjoy it! Jeremiah liked it a lot, though he was content just standing near one of the shooting sprays, rather than being right in it (like many of the kids were doing.)

He must have really worked up an appetite with all that playing, though--he ate a WHOLE hotdog! I know, that doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but everytime I've tried to get him to eat hotdogs in the past, he'd either have one or two bites, and spit the rest out, or he would just use the pieces to suck off the ketchup. Needless to say, I was shocked when he finished it off, and then asked for more! Of course, as soon as I got him more, he didn't want it. Oh well.

His favorite part, though, was definitely the cupcakes! Man, that kid knows how to eat a cupcake--right for the frosted top! He even whined when his friend Lilly dropped the top of her cupcake on the ground... "That's good frosting you just wasted!" I'm sure is what he was trying to say.Aww... he was so tired afterwards! Surprisingly, he didn't fall asleep on the way home, even though it was a 45 minute trip! Crashed as soon as we got here, though... And that was fine with us! Gave us a chance to get some stuff done... like taking naps ourselves. Well, I napped, Jeremy played video games. Don't remember what we did after that... I guess nothing exciting.

Sunday was nice, though, once again, very busy. Got up early and made it to the 9 a.m. service at the Loudoun campus (well, we were a few minutes late, but we only missed a few songs during praise and worship, so it was all good.) Jeremiah cried when we dropped him off, but didn't show any sign of tears when we picked him up, so I guess he calmed down. The sermon itself was really good--they had Ricky Bolden, who used to be a lineman for the Cleveland Browns. Now he's the lead pastor at New Community Church in Georgia. This guy's hilarious. Ya kinda have to experience him for yourself, but yeah, he was really good--very entertaining, but was able to get his point across effectively. Good stuff.

After church, we rushed to the store to get a couple of things, because we were having Jeremy's cousin and her family over for lunch! We also had his brother and his wife over--we all had a nice time, but it was probably too hot to be eating outside. It was probably almost 100 in the shade (according to our 'weather station' next to the door, it was 102, but that things usually off by a couple of degrees since the receiver is in the sun.) We were all melting, so it was a quick lunch before moving inside.

Jeremiah and Kyle (his 2nd cousin) had a blast together, though! They got along so well, despite being 4 months apart. Occasionally, toys were fought over (the most popular cause for argument? The TV remote. Kyle was pretty possessive of that one! :) but overall, they had a great time, and enjoyed each other's company.

Aww... they're best buds now.

Something was hilarious...

Geez, Kyle, I think Jeremiah gets it, you like him a lot! And who taught you who to put the stranglehold on someone, anyways??? Jeremiah took it all in stride, though. He was just happy to have a buddy to play with!

After everyone left (and Jeremiah took a 3 hour nap...) we were able to move Jeremiah's crib into....

.....his brand new room! Yup, it's finished. Well, minus a couple of Superhero stickers here and there, and a couple of airplanes. But yeah, we finally got Jeremiah's big boy room all set up! He moved in last night--he screamed for about 15 minutes (unfortunately, that's been almost the norm, lately....) but Daddy went up and reassured him, and he was okay after that--slept the whole night, no problem! First thing he said when Daddy walked in this morning to get him up was, "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaat???!" and pointed to the moon. Yeah, so he loves it. I was moving all his clothes in from the nursery, and said, "Okay, Jeremiah, let's go to your room," (he was in our room) and he went right to his new room! It's definitely a lot more interesting to him than the nursery, I'm sure. Lots more to look at, even if it is smaller (much smaller...) We got it all in there, though!

Jeremiah's "Big Boy" Room!

Yay! We finished it! Now to get all the new furniture is the nursery, do a couple of little projects in our room, and the upstairs will be done! At least for now. Next year, we'll tackle the "BIG ROOM" (or not) and maybe paint the hall and stairs.

So here it is! What d'ya think???

Yup, he's still in his crib... we don't think he's [we're] ready for [him to be walking around at 7 in the morning] a big boy bed yet... Maybe for his birthday.

Amazingly, we FINALLY put up his name and frogs! It only took him moving into his THIRD room... Jeremy helped me glue 'em up--didn't he do a good job?! I think the arch looks so good!

A few things about the room: Yup, all Mommy's idea. I actually wanted to do a NYC skyline for his first room, but kinda gave up that idea, since I knew we would probably be moving (and we did.) His 2nd room was a nursery, which is neutral, so no go there. But once we found out that Jess Jr was a girl, and knew we wouldn't have to have a "boyz room" right away, we took the time to personalize this one a little. It's the smallest bedroom (only about 10x10, whereas the nursery was 11x13, I think... maybe bigger...) but he won't have to share a room until #4 is on the way (if #3 ends up being a boy, that is...) So yeah, he'll be in there a while.

I just realized that we still need to put up his NYC "picture" that Jeremy got me for my birthday a couple of years ago. That was the whole inspiration for it in the first place. Hmm... I guess we'll put it up above the changing table again. But for now, he's got fluffy clouds to look at.

Finally, the border is a Spider-man 3 border. I bought it 75% off, so that was also factored in to designing his room. Hey, he's from NYC, so it's totally appropriate! Also appearing in this room--the Baxter Building (where the Fantastic Four reside... can you guess which building that is???) Wayne Tower (the tall black building... it does actually say "WAYNE" on it, though you can't see it in the pic... and yes, I know, Batman's from Gotham, not NYC, but c'mon, Gotham might as well be NYC...) and finally, The Daily Planet building (workplace of Superman... yes, once again, I know, not NYC, Metropolis, but I'm not doing three different cityscapes... So yeah, nerds/geeks need not apply. :) It's Jeremiah's city, and he'll have as many superheroes in it as he wants! So :P !)

Too busy...

Man o man, have I been on a roll this week.

And I am dead tired, as a result.

What did I do Monday.....? I can't remember. Maybe I didn't do anything... Nope, don't think I did.

Tuesday, however, was a busy day. Our Mom's group, all two of us (the other two couldn't make it) met at Starbucks in Target, did our thing, then shopped a bit. After we went our separate ways, Jeremiah and I finished shopping, grabbed a bite to eat, then had to make a quick getaway, as he had puked on his clothes, and was none too happy about it (I think he had too much food in his mouth or something....) It was naptime, though, so we were due to leave anyways.

For some reason, he didn't want to sleep, and just played in his crib until almost 2! This was not good, as I had to wake him up at 3:30 so I could go to my chiropractor's appointment. Yeah, he was pretty upset with me when 3:30 came around... Probably could have slept 'til 5. He got over it.

After going there and running some other errands (Babies R Us, Sears, and Walmart) we came home and it was already bedtime! I should have gone to bed then, too, but instead stayed up and fooled around online 'til late and woke up exhausted. Blaaaaah.

Had an "awesome" dental cleaning (yup, sarsasm again...), and then headed to the park with Jeremiah. We did walk there, and I did alright, but we didn't stay long. Jeremiah was more interested in running out of the playground than playing on it, though he did make a little friend while there. It was SO CUTE--they were probably the same age, though of course, Jeremiah was a little bigger. But they had the SAME vocabulary (same kind of babbles.) He clapped and went "yeah!" for some reason, and this little kid did the EXACT same thing. SO CUTE! But yeah, Jeremiah moved on from his little friend and started running out, so we left.

While he napped, I painted the mural in his new room (pics coming soon....) Of course, we had to run more errands afterwards. And once again, I had to wake Jeremiah from his peaceful slumber. See, I've been trying to find him a Little Tykes Cozy Coupe, and finally found one here in Herndon pretty inexpensively, but I had to pick it up before 5. Well, 4:30 rolled around, and Jeremiah was still asleep, so I had to wake him up, and he was MAD! My poor baby.

Tomorrow, we are staying home! Well, as far as I know, at least. Maybe we'll go check out Daddy's new work diggs, and see where he makes the money, since they just moved offices. But that would be the only outting, I think.

I'm TIRED! My awesome husband just made me some eggs and pierogies (soooo good together! I'm tellin' ya, if you want a nice [hearty] breakfast, make some pieroies instead of toast. Add a little sour cream, Mmmm-mmmmm!) and now I'm ready for bed. This whole "nesting" thing is in full swing, but it's wearing me out. But hey, it gets stuff done!

Yeah, so as I was saying, bedtime... me sleep now... tired tired...

Well, this is infuriating...

Who do I need to start writing to...??? Stupid AMA/ACOG. Yeah, let's just go with the docs on this, without looking at any evidence.... Makes sense.

The day it becomes illegal in this country to have a homebirth is the day I'll consider moving out of this country--and I love my country! CONGRESS--you'd better not let this happen... You'll be hearing from me.

AMA Supports Proposed Legislation to Make Home Births
Illegal

ABC News reported on July 11. 2008 that the "American Medical Association has agreed to support proposed legislation that, some physicians say, could make make having a planned birth in one's home difficult, to virtually impossible." Presently their is no legislation but the AMA is backing what is called "Resolution 205" which is a request to support the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' (ACOG) position that home births are not safe.

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) spokesperson Gregory Phillips, stated clearly, the ACOG position, "We are against home births, period." He continued in the ABC story by stating, "Women who give birth outside of a clinical setting risk putting themselves and their newborns at risk."

In opposition to this stand the American College of Nurse-Midwives has come out with a strong statement in support of planned home births. Jennifer Block, author of "Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care, who also writes a column for the LA Times stated in her columns that in Britain they routinely ask expecting mothers if they would like to have their babies at home instead of in the hospital. In her column Block noted that a hand-out is given to expecting mothers from Britain's National Health Service that says, "There is no evidence to support the common assertion that home birth is a less safe option for women experiencing uncomplicated pregnancies."

Block also noted in her column that last year a joint statement was issued by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Royal College of Midwives that said, "There is no reason why home birth should not be offered to women at low risk of complications, and it may confer considerable benefits for them and their families."

Ms. Block concludes her article by noting that she believes this entire issue is nothing more than a turf war by physicians not wanting to give up control. "The AMA's statement calls for legislation that could be used against women who choose home birth, possibly resulting in criminal child-abuse or neglect charges. The group says this is about safety, but with no credible research to back up its claim, this argument falls flat."

The various articles noted that the reaction by the American College of obstetricians and Gynecologists' (ACOG) and the AMA came about due to a documentary film called "The Business of Being Born" by talk show host Ricki Lake, where she exposed the American system of birth as a business. Abby Epstein, the film's director stated in the ABC story, "What the film has done is to cause a lot of women to choose midwives over OBs -- especially younger women who've never heard of midwives," said Epstein. "We've received calls from midwives saying that their practices have doubled since our film was released. There's a lot of ego in this -- that one would want to choose a midwife over an MD. It's really a turf war going back 100 years between the medical establishment and midwives.

The trailer for the film can be seen on YouTube at the following address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DgLf8hHMgo

Okay, my more level headed husband found this article that helps explain all this a little better, with less cause for alarm. But it still pisses me off.

Oh, and one more, from the Huffington Post. Thank you, level headed bloggers! :)

BABY SHOWER!!!

Saturday, my friend Liz through a "pink" shower for us to celebrate the upcoming arrival of "Jess Jr"! She did a terrific job decorating her home for the event, and made some really great food for us to indulge in (all healthy and diet food.... uhh... well, maybe not! But it was GOOOOOD!) It was a really nice time, with friends and family, and I'm so blessed to have a friend like Liz who would go through the trouble of making us feel special for having our "second". I know some people think that you should only have a shower for #1, but all of our stuff is BLUE! It was nice to get some "pink" girly things to have to welcome our daughter into the world.

So, Jess Jr, you'd BETTER really be a girl! There was no doubt during the sonogram, so if she's not a girl, there'd better be two boys in there, since one huge error deserves another! :)

THE FOOD!!! Everything was SOOOO YUMMY! I love "punch", and we also had these awesome sandwiches (the croissants... "baco-dilly" SO GOOD!), some cucumber w/ dill, mini cupcakes, fruit, and my Mom made her "famous" strawberry crepes (not shown). It was all SO GOOD, I couldn't finish it all (though I made room for more sandwiches... they really were delicious!)

GIFTS! We had just been joking about how Babies R Us only gives you clear packing tape with which to wrap gifts you buy there, making it "oh so 'easy'" for Mom-to-be to open them. Yup, no saving the wrapping paper there!

Me with our "hostess with the mostest." She did such a great job, and it was such a nice time. Thanks so much, Liz!!

It was a dark and dreary Monday...

And Jeremy had to go back to work. :(

When I was a kid, I always had mixed emotions about going back to school. Sure, it meant summer vacation was over, but it also meant meeting new teachers, seeing who was in my class, and learning new things!

It was inevitable, though... Nearly every year, we would wake up and it would be dark and gloomy out. That's just the way RI was in the mornings (especially since we had to be at the bus stop at 6:55... too early!) So today when we woke up and it was dark and gloomy out, it reminded me of those early mornings in Tiverton, where you had to have the lights on when you got ready or else it was DARK. Not that we were up at 6... Heck, I finally gave in to Jeremiah's "requests for freedom" around 8:30. It seemed earlier, as both Jeremy's and my alarm had been going off every 5 minutes or so since 7... But it all worked out.

I'm tired, though... We went to bed wayyyyy too late. Add that to the fact that I didn't nap once since Jeremy's been home, and yeah... I be tired! I had originally planned on working on Jeremiah's room during his nap but I think I may have to join him in his visit to snoozeland.

Speaking of my sweet, little boy, he was really testing Mommy and Daddy's patience last night. Every now and then, he'll stick his fingers in his mouth and gag himself. So far, he's only ever done it when he's been sitting in his highchair, either waiting to eat, or waiting for us to finish eating... We've tried scolding him, holding his hands so that he couldn't, but that just encouraged him to do it more. Eventually, we just let him do his thing, and hope that the experience of puking will be enough to keep him from doing it again. Well, last night, he gagged himself, threw up, then did it AGAIN, threw up again, then did it a THIRD TIME, until, I'm pretty sure, there was nothing left for him to puke up. GROSSSSSSSSS!! I don't know why he does it, or why he felt the need to keep doing it over and over... But he didn't cry, he wasn't upset by it at all (much to our dismay) and instead took the opportunity to play with the sticky icky stuff on his tray... EWWWWW!! Needless to say, I was finished with dinner at that point. We gave him a bath and put him to bed. Probably why he was so anxious to get up this morning and have breakfast--his belly was empty!

Grrr... yeah, so if any of you with older kids have any suggestions, let us know. I've never heard of toddlers gagging themselves for no reason (not like he was complaining about a belly ache or anything... and he certainly didn't learn it from either of us! I guess it's just a curiosity thing...)
At least he only does it when he's in his highchair, and not when we're out shopping or something. I plan on asking our dr about it at his 18 month checkup in another week.

Overall, I think we had a good week off. We didn't go anywhere (except one day out to Warrenton to use my parents' pool) but we did get some things done around the house, which had been in the plans for a while now. Jeremy's new room is freshly painted and just waiting for some of Mommy's artistic touches (or Grandma's, but I'm not sure when she'd be able to get back out here to do it.) Once that's done, we can start moving him in. The goal is to have him sleeping in there before Jess Jr. comes so that it'll feel like HIS room, and nursery will just feel like a place for babies. So hopefully I can get that done this week (shouldn't take long to do, just painting a NYC skyline on one wall, maybe some clouds and the moon and sun on the ceiling, since we ended up painting that as well... the old paint was really dirty and gross...) Then I've gotta put up his Spider-man border (yes, he knows who Spider-man is... I wonder where he got that from..... ;) and then it's just moving all his stuff in!

We also painted our bedroom (yay!!) Well, Jeremy and my Dad painted it (after I emailed him and begged for his help--my brother Stephin was here to help, but he's not quite at that "do everything with excellence" stage...) I had planned on helping, but I did some rolling in Jeremiah's room, and had really bad cramps and braxton hicks the rest of the night. I was getting worried there for a second, but it passed after sitting and chilling for an hour or so (was especially weird since two weeks prior, I moved 1600lbs of dirt, and NOTHING happened... You'd think if anything would cause contractions, that would do it, but nope... just painting a ceiling. I guess we've crossed that point of no return...) Needless to say, I've been taking it easy ever since. No more "strenuous" activity for me! It is frustrating, though, to not be able to do the simple things you're used to doing--like walking to the park with Jeremiah! It's just too much at this point, so we have to drive instead (which is stupid, because it's just across the street...) OH WELL. There will be plenty of opportunities for walks to the park after Jess Jr. gets here. We've got our doubles kit for our stroller, so we're ready to go with two!

It's pretty crazy how quickly time passes. We'll be full term in under a month now, and she can then make her appearance ANYTIME! Everyone in my family is convinced that she'll come early (sometime in August... yeah, that's a stretch, with our due date being Sept 1st, and all. :) Though I think Sept. 1 would be a cool birthday (and appropriate, since it's "Labor Day"), I'm reaching that point where I'll just be happy to have her. Once we order our birth kit, and get a few other little things (still need to buy some pink sheets! That's all we still need to convert the nursery to "girl") we'll be ready! We even bought a portable spa (with jets!) to use during labor, since the Aqua Doula was such a godsend last time around. Though we may need to set it up earlier this time around... I wouldn't mind a nightly soak in 100 degree jetted water... Ahhh....

Yeah, so needless to say, we're getting really excited! It's hard to imagine what life will be like with TWO kids, but we said the same thing about one, and now it's hard to imagine life without. Only problem is, I don't have anything else to "look forward" to to get me through the next few weeks... vacations over, our shower is over (post coming soon), nothing really "fun" is going on... Just weekly appointments, either at the chiropractor, dentist, Jeremiah's doctor, or the midwives. Though I think we may have some fun this weekend, getting together with some family (hopefully!), and we may have a barbeque in the works for August, so we'll see. I still need to go to the spa and get my "birthday pedicure" from Jeremy. I'm waiting a little longer until I really need a pick me up.

For now, though, there's laundry to fold, diapers to sew, pants to hem, rooms to decorate, curtains to hang, little shopping to do, and all sorts of other busy work to keep my days occupied. We may have to hit the pool "out west" despite the gas costs ($15 r/t for hours of comfort for me and fun for Jeremiah? Yeah, that'll be a "must do".) Maybe I'll even get around to writing up my LOST Season 4 posts... We'll see!

Mini Videos

These are mini videos that I've taken with my phone. The sound and video quality isn't very good (you may have to turn your speakers wayyyyy up to hear anything--I promise, there's no scary guy screaming at you at the end,) but it's all I had at these specific times. Still cute and fun to watch!

Jeremiah trying out the neighbor's scooter--he really had a great time! What a big boy...

Hey--where's your license?? Are you old enough to drive yet, Jeremiah?? Ah, well, it's awfully cute. Go ahead, park the car.

This one is tough to see and hear, but it's Jeremiah blowing on the table making silly noises. It was really funny, but since I could only record 15 seconds at at a time, and he would always stop as soon as I started recording. Oh well. You get the idea.

Forgot to post...

I meant to post this back in our Vegas posts, but didn't for some reason. So here it is.... the Fountains at the Bellagio!

These are some DANGEROUS goldfish...

And you thought Japanese Fighting Fish were dangerous... Don't mess with this goldies... They're FLAMMABLE!

"WARNING: FLAMMABLE! DO NOT OPEN OR HOLD NEAR FLAME OR CIGARETTE"

I'm nto exactly sure what makes them so flammable... usually you use water to put out a fire, but hey, to each his own. I made sure Jeremiah extinguished his 'fag' before opening these suckers up... You know, don't want to do anything stupid......

Cleaning out the camera...

Finally found the card reader! I thought there'd be more, but there were only a few pics. And they're not very good, because, for some reason, the camera was saving to the internal memory instead of to the memory card... I dunno...

Random pic... I don't remember what happened to his nose... I think he tripped and fell, or something... He does that a lot. :)

Eating sushi! Mmm... Eel roll. He's so serious!! Despite his face, he did enjoy it and ate the whole thing (and even had a 2nd, though I don't think he cared for the seaweed part very much.)

Ice cream at the park. I usually get Bomb Pops, but thought he might enjoy an Orange Creamsicle type push pop. Of course, he did, and got quite a bit of it on his shirt. He was quite proud. :)

This is gonna be short...

It's just not comfortable to sit and type anymore... I usually need one hand pressing on the upper left side of my belly to keep the numbing sensations (and pain) at bay.... But a few things:

~Jeremy and Stephin are almost done painting Jeremiah's new room. It's gonna be NYC themed (because I love NYC, and I can sneak super heroes and video game characters in there without it being too geeky...) It's not been without it's trials, though. We decided to paint the ceiling at the last minute, which used up a lot of paint, which meant we needed to get that first coat on as heavy as possible (which meant dripping) yet still required much touching up. The bottom half is a darker color that likes to bubble when it's applied, and recently heard was Stephin asking, "How do you get paint out the carpet?" Yeah...

~Started going to a chiropractor today. I like him a lot better than my old one--he's much more thorough, has a good bedside manner and actually applauded me for having a homebirth! Most 'medical professionals' don't get it. So that was nice. I may even start taking Jeremiah... who knows!

~It's fun to watch my belly "move". Jess Jr. has run out of room to really flip around, so she just shifts (what we think is) her little butt back and forth from the right to the left, with little kicks here and there. She's been good about letting me sleep--only problem now is getting the temperature 'just right'! Too warm, I get hot, too cold, I have to use the covers (I'd rather not,) and then sweat under the covers, so throw them off, only to freeze, and have to retreat yet again. Yeash. We'll figure it out.

~Jeremiah was running around the yard naked tonight. Jeremy had to water our fancy schmancy garden, so of course, Jeremiah wanted to get wet. We stripped him down to his diaper, and then took that off too, since it was soaking wet and just hanging there. He enjoyed himself immensley. :)

~Our baby shower is Saturday! Yay! I'm excited. It'll be small, but that's okay. We ladies should have a lovely time! So I'm looking forward to it!

Well, looks like they're 'bout done, so it's time to MARIO PARTY! Good times.

Happy 4th of July!

Farmer Jeremy, lookin' after his "babies"

"tut-tut, looks like rain!"

We're having a low-key Fourth, ourselves. Took the opportunity during Jeremiah's nap to finish the garden. YAY!! For the most part, all of our plants are planted now (all that we were going to plant, at least,) so now we just need to wait and see what grows! We're not too sure what's going to come up where, actually... All the plants started out labeled, but for some reason, Jeremy decided we didn't need to keep track of what was what...

Aside from tomatoes (we know which those are,) we have three different kinds of squash (zucchini, yellow and butternut,) cucumbers (I know for sure at least ONE of those is a cucumber...) watermelon and one lone pepper plant. We're also keeping a tomato plant and most of our basil plants on the deck in pots.

The onions and lettuce seem to have disappeared. Then again, I'm not sure if onions actually sprout anything above ground, so they may be fine. However, our lettuce, I'm pretty sure, is long gone.

Oh well. We should at least have some squash, tomatoes and basil. Add in some yummy mozzarella cheese, and we'll at least have a yummy salad. Not sure what'll happen with the watermelons... But we'll see!

At least it's done now! Yay! Next year, we'll probably skip the whole potting process, and just put the seeds right in the ground. Good times!

We thought about going to Herndon's 4th celebration, but if it's still raining, I think we may skip it. Plus, you won't be allowed to leave once you park--you're in it for the long haul! I don't think I want to have to stay until 10:30 tonight. Maybe next year!

Enjoy your holiday! Happy Birthday, America! :)

Seriously... what's the deal?

I'm still waiting to hear back from those Craigslisters... Their ads are still up, so I'm assuming that means they're still available... But who knows. I just don't understand why it's so difficult to send a quick email with "yes" or "no" in it. But whatever. They'll be other prospects, that's for sure!

Jeremy's off with Jeremiah to Starbucks to get us a couple of "bevi's". I'm not sure what he's doing today, though... I don't know if he's off from work, or "working from home" or what. So far, the only work I've seen him do is check email on his phone. All I know is that his company shuts down at 3 today, so he'll be done at some point before that! I think the plan is to finish the garden today. Hopefully we can, as our poor little plants aren't too happy living in their little pots anymore. They want to grow! We'll post pics once we're finished.

And that's all that's happened since last night. :) I'm just waiting on UPS to bring my box of "Carnation Instant Breakfast" so I have something to have for breakfast again! I'd gotten into this routine of drinking one of those and maybe having a bowl of Special K w/ Red Berries cereal. First I ran outta the Instant Breakfast, then I ran outta cereal... So I've had to improvise... today was good, though. I had eggs and pierogies. Mmmm.... I know, kinda a weird combination, but flavor wise, it works! And I'm pretty sure that's not just a preggers thing, as my brother Stephin also enjoyed the combo. Next time you give yourself time for a big breakfast, you should try it. It's better for you than hash browns, at least!

Yeah, I'm sure you really needed to hear about what I ate for breakfast, huh? Well, like I said, that's all that's happened since last night, so I had to throw something in there, right? :)

Grr... still no emails. Okay, well, I think my best bet is to get off my laptop. Then I can't sit and dwell on my email status.

Hey, if you have a minute after reading this, feel free to shoot me a little, "Hey, how's it going?!" and tell me about your day! I love getting email that isn't from Old Navy or Bath & Body Works (they're having a sale! how exciting! <~ sarcasm...)

Wow, today's such a nice day... Maybe after Jeremiah nap, we can take him to the farm (since we didn't hit up the Farmer's Market yesterday) and he can use up that newfound energy and split a Bomb Pop with his Mama! We'll see! <~Random thoughts.

Okay, going now... really... :)

Double booo....

I'm kinda bummed out right now. It could be because I've crashed from my mini-cupcake induced sugar high (though I never remember actually hitting the high...) It could be because I didn't go outside at all today and am feeling a bit stir crazy (had planned on going to Costco, but shopping isn't as much fun when you're only budgeted a certain amount to spend--milk and eggs just don't make for an exciting shopping trip. Plus, I didn't go first thing in the morning, and if there's one thing I've learned it's that if you're going to go to Costco, you go FIRST THING IN THE MORNING.) I think the main reason right now, though, is that NO ONE IS FREAKIN' EMAILING ME BACK!

Who isn't emailing me back?? Craigslist people. See, I've been trying to get this sandbox and car for Jeremiah to play with outside... I don't want to spend $60+ to buy them new, so I'm trying to find them on Craigslist. Well, I've found a couple of the sandboxes I want. One was local, just posted yesterday, asking $15. I emailed them last night. No response. The other was posted on Saturday, but I always assume that if the ad's still up, it's still available (not like it's hard to take it down....) This one was FREE, so while I assume it's gone, I maintain hope that it's not. Emailed them today--no response. This happens to me all the time! It drives me nuts! If you're going to sell something on Craigslist, and you don't list a phone number to call, then be available to send an email saying, "Yes, it's available." or "Sorry, it's gone." Why is that so much to ask for??!?! I'm beginning to think something's wrong with Yahoo...

Whatever. If I don't get it, I don't get it. Not a huge loss. But, boy, does it frustrate me!

/rant

Baby Poll coming to a close....

....in 5 weeks! Once we hit the 36 week mark, it will be locked up! So if you haven't had a chance yet (most of my loyal readers have) please PLEASE take a moment to cast your vote!

I know, it's just not as much fun for the 2nd baby, but it would make a pregnant gal smile--isn't that all that matters?!?! And who knows! You might win something!

Finally! A moment.

Jeremy's gone off to get me birthday cupcakes, which means the TV is off, and Jeremiah's asleep=a few minutes of peace and quiet where I can get some news down on the blog.

We've had a nice week since my last update. Thursday, we had our 30 week checkup with the midwives, and all is well. I got to meet the new midwife, who, thankfully, is NOT the midwife I had last time (and really didn't like...) She's actually a lot like the midwife who delivered Jeremiah, bedside manner-wise. Then again, I didn't give her anything to really scold me about--my weight gain has been good (still in the negative, though only by a couple of lbs now--I've gained 13 of the 15 I lost... not bad,) baby's heartbeat is good (140's, same as last time,) felt head down (though she's still a mover and a shaker--hopefully she stays that way!!) and my BP is good (though a little higher than usual, still well within the normal limits.) We're "measuring" a couple of weeks ahead, but that's not surprising. We measured ahead everytime with Jeremiah, and he came out 10lbs 11oz, so in my book, we're right on target. I don't "feel" large yet--I guess I only remember being full term with Jeremiah and being HUGE. We'll see what happens in the next 6 weeks.

Friday was a tiring day, though a productive one. We've been trying to get our raised bed filled so we can actually plant our veggies before the summer is over (they're all in pots on the deck right now.) Went to Lowe's and had 'em load us up with 40 bags of topsoil/composted manure mix. We were definitely low-riding! I was worried about the van, so I unloaded 24 bags into the garden, and the rest into the garage (1600lbs total!) Probably not the best idea, but I know my body would have told me, "Hey, you're doing too much!" if I had overdone it, and I felt fine afterwards. Tired, yes. Hot and thirsty, yes. But I wasn't sore or anything, so I guess I came out okay (better than Jeremy--he thinks he hurt his back unloading the remaining 16 bags that night... Guess I'm SuperWoman!) Another 30 bags or so, and we should be ready to plant (gonna ask the neighbor to help us with that--he's got a truck!)

Saturday was crazy. The original plan was to go "yard sale-ing" in the morning. I'm trying to find a covered sandbox and one of those Little Tykes Cozy Cars for Jeremiah (he loves the neighbor's) and maybe some 2T shirts for him (he's built like his Daddy--long torso, so all of his 18-24 month shirts are too short for the most part.) Well, that didn't happen. I couldn't get Jeremy out of bed before 9, and we still had to go to the store for the...

ANNUAL PIPESTEM COOKOUT! Okay, this is where it got crazy. Our neighbor, Rob, organized it (we had a blast last year--kinda our "welcome to the neighborhood" deal) and for some reason decided it should start at 1 p.m. Well, Jeremy had planned on setting up the inflatable 10 foot screen, and his projector so we could show a movie on the lawn... But ya can't use a projector outside until it's dark (or at least getting dark.) So the party went... 10 hours! And it was hot. We set it up under the neighbor's tree, but it was still pretty hot. It got to the point where the kids were spraying each other with the hoses (and Jeremy and Rob, too.) Jeremiah got up from his nap around 4, and within 30 minutes was completely soaked. I should have had my camera going, but I didn't. It was cute, and a nice break from the heat, but man... it was crazy.

Lots of fun, though! We watched Transformers outside, and other than a brief shower here and there, we had a great time overall. But man... it was long. Next time, we're starting at 5!

Sunday, the plan was, go to church, bring Jeremiah home for a nap, then go to the Mclean Bible Loudoun Campus Cookout back at the church. Well, after a 10 hour cookout the day before, we were pretty cookout-outed! So we went to church (again, fighting to get Jeremy out of bed before, this time, 8, but amazingly, he jumped out once I nudged him for the 2nd time--wanted to get me Starbucks before church. Aww...!) drove around trying to find some place in Leesburg that supposedly has a great brunch (friends told us about it... we never found it,) so we just came home and put Jeremiah down for his nap, and I took one too.

After Jeremiah woke up, we had some lunch, and then just kinda chilled in the family room. I was reading Jeremiah a book when we heard the front door open. We weren't expecting anyone (or so I thought), so I hoped that Jeremy was, since he was kinda relaxed about it (I always immediately assume the worst when it comes to things like that.) Who walks in but my family! Surprise! They had come over to surprise me with burgers to grill and a carvel cake. I gotta hand it to Jeremy--he may not have thought ahead to get the name of this brunch place, but he did think ahead to have my family come over after naptime! It was a nice surprise, and we had a good time. Jeremiah was genuinely stunned, too. He didn't know what to think of Grandma and Grandpa appearing out of nowhere--usually we're going to their house. But it was a good time.

And that's about it. Jeremy took me out to dinner last night--we got sushi! Yum. I know, I break all the rules. It was goooooo-ooood, though! But yeah, now we're back to the same old same old. Tomorrow's Jeremy's last day of work before vacation (yay!) We're going to relax a couple of days for the 4th, finish the garden over the weekend, and then next week, gonna paint some rooms! And hopefully, that'll all get done early in the week so that we can spend some time by the pool (at my parents'... I don't do public pools.)

Wow. He's still not back with my cupcakes. Well, let's see... Oh, we've got a babysitter for Jeremiah now. We finally talked to a neighbor who babysits (she's 16) and Jeremiah seems to like her, so hopefully that will work out. Yay! We can go on a date without driving out to Warrenton to pick up my brother! Woot. So that's nice. And she doesn't charge $10/hour (another plus... man, I definitely undercharged when I was in High school!)

Annnnnnnnnnnnd... Jeremy's back. Time to eat some cupcakes, and then go to bed. Have a great week/holiday!