Elena

Just a funny thing about Elena. She just came in and has her little truck loaded up with people and animals. She said, "My boy is tryin to take my kids." I said, "your boy, meaning Eli?" "Yeeeaahh." (real pathetically!) Last night I was trying to go over Ema's spelling words with her and Elena was sitting there with a little book. She was using it as her song book and kept saying, "GIRL, hing with me." She still pronounces her "s" with "h". I couldn't hardly say Ema's words without her bossing me to hing. She was doing that the other day too, but had her hand moving in the song leading way. She is quite the little ham! At least she's not saying "dude" too much yet like Ema. Ema is starting to say it less, so that is good!

One more kind of funny thing. During my doctor's appointment Wednesday, (Daniel had gotten the day off) he took the kids and went to get the oil changed. I got out earlier than I expected and called him. He said it shouldn't be long so instead of waiting in the cold wind, I just started walking. There is a pretty long road around the hospital and medical complexes so I figured he would be back before I got to the end where it's a busy highway. I got toward the end where some guys were doing construction work and one was whistling at me and kept staring. I was a little creeped out because they didn't quite fit the mold of people that I would want whistling at me, if I even wanted the attention. But I was just thinking, "I am 8 months pregnant people. Just because a woman is walking by, doesn't mean you have to whistle. AND GET BACK TO WORK!" So when I told Daniel that, he said, "They probably just thought you would like it." Thanks babe for your vote of confidence! I can't even get a construction worker to actually think I'm cute! That's just one of those things that I get to tease him about!

Sleep, perfect sleep

I am trying to make myself wake up this morning. If I sit still for too long, I fall asleep. It doesn't really help that Eli likes to just sit with me in the mornings for a while. I woke up at 6 this morning (which I was trying to get into the habit anyway) but Elena had wet the bed. She does really good most of the time, but she kept drinking water last night and I kept having to take it away. She doesn't like to wear pull-ups anymore, so every now and then I get to wake up to a wet, crying child. Anyway, Ema woke up along with her and apparently was still on a sugar high or something. We got her off to school and then I sat down for too long. The kids do pretty well playing or watching TV or something on their own for a little bit, but I still feel bad. I honestly think I could sleep all day and still sleep well tonight. I wasn't feeling well yesterday and the night before. This baby is either really long or likes to stretch out or something. The night before last, it was moving all night long and if felt like it was lower than usual. Every time I moved, I felt really dizzy and my head was buzzing. Then all day yesterday I was so weak and dizzy I was starting to get worried. My blood pressure is normally pretty low, but it was down to 94/49. I kept resting and drinking water all day. It was up to 102/60 last night and is about the same today. I don't know if that's what it all was, but I am feeling better today. Just SO tired I can't hardly stand it. I know if I do something, that will help a little. My house is definitely in need of some tlc. I guess that's all I have to complain about right now. Oh wait-just a note for those other pregnant ladies out there. The "secret fit belly" pants from Motherhood aren't worth all the hype-to me anyway. I tried the mediums and of course I have to order online. I thought they fit really well, took off all the tags and started doing normal things. They kept falling down and looking real saggy and there is nothing to pull them back up with-no belt loops or anything to hang on to. The belly panel doesn't help get them up either. So I took the plunge again and spent the money on a pair of smalls. They do the same thing except not as bad. I just don't think they have enough denim to go around the necessary parts, and the belly panel doesn't fit tight enough (which is probably a good thing for many people) but I want some part of the pant to make me feel secure in my jeans. At this point I have to keep checking the back of my pants to make sure they are still up even though I know there is a panel back there. I haven't taken the tags off yet-I'm still trying to decide if I can live with it. Anyway that sounds like a review I need to post on the Motherhood website-or not.

12 Long, Wonderful years!

On this day in 1996, Daniel and I became official with our first kiss. We had spent most of the weekend together while we were dropping Shellie off for college. He helped us find our way around Abilene, ate lunch with us, and helped carry all of Shellie's stuff in. Saturday night he and I got to watch "Independence Day" at the theatre. Sunday we got to walk around campus with our handsome tour guide, Daniel. We got to walk around the park for a while and talk and we went to Schlotchky's (I don't know if that's how you spell it.) oh and we shopped for a birthday present for his brother. Then, knowing that I was leaving early Monday morning, he kissed me outside of Shellie's dorm where I was staying. The dorm mom kept yelling out the door for everyone to get inside because it was curfew, but it was so hard to tear myself away from him. I cried quietly for a LONG time on the way home-partly because I was leaving my sister, one of my best friends behind, and partly because I had finally gotten to spend some time with this guy that I had been head over heels for, for over 2 years, and I had to leave him behind too. These crazy pregnancy hormones are making me tear up just thinking about it. I feel a little weird about posting this because it seems so personal-especially the kissing part-like I need to apologize to our parents or something! ANYWAY-all that to say, we try to do something a little special on this day. Tonight we are celebrating by going to a 1st grade orientation. Woohoo! Hopefully we can have a nice dinner or something too.

Anyway, I just wanted another chance to brag on my wonderful husband. He is so helpful and sweet, a great spiritual leader for our family, funny, a wonderful daddy, a hard worker and a great provider. We had a teen devo at our house last night so we had a busy weekend. We have a planter on our front patio that was driving him crazy, so this weekend, he smashed that up and got it out, he helped my parents tear out a couple of walls at their house, he fixed our toilet that needed the insides replaced, AND he helped me cook and clean. Talk about a great guy! So, happy 12 years to you, Daniel and I look forward to many many more. I love you so much!

An expensive drop of water

Last week, Ema had a friend over. They were using the computer to listen to itunes and Ema spilled a little water. I didn't realize it at the time, but it had gotten onto the keyboard and shorted it out. So we couldn't really do anything on this computer unless we just had to use the mouse. We tried everything we could think of to make the other one work, but it just wasn't happening. So, since we have a wireless keyboard, we got to pay $80 to have a new one shipped to us. We just got it today. I was glad it didn't take as long as my books from amazon that I ordered July 18 and they just shipped today. The new keyboard is nice though-exactly the same as our other one except without the dirt and grime!

I've been meaning to get on here and post some pictures from our weekend. Since Ema starts school on Tuesday, we decided we needed to do something fun so she might have something to say other than "My mom is pregnant so we laid around all summer." Daniel took last Friday off and we went to Carlsbad. There is a neat park there with a castle and everything that the kids have enjoyed so we were going to go there, but it was being repainted and worked on. So we played at a smaller park for a little while and realized how hot it was after 45 minutes. We got something to eat and headed for the caverns. It was nice to be "outside" but in a very cool place. We rode the elevator the 754 feet down and walked around the great room. It was really awesome and the kids enjoyed it. Elena fell at one point toward the end and Eli's legs were hurting. Daniel was carrying him and I carried Elena. Of course it had to be the part that actually had steep ups and downs. My hips felt like they were going to crack. Daniel offered to take both of them and put one sitting on each shoulder, but there were some deep pits, and I got a little too paranoid about one of my babies getting too squirmy and losing their balance. Not that Daniel would let that happen, but I guess that's just a mom's way of thinking. We finally got all the way through it-I think it was a little over a mile, we sat down to have hot chocolate and saw some bats deep in the cave. Then we went on to Pecos.

We spent the evening with Daniel's parents eating hamburgers and relaxing. Then we went to the ice cream shop and made a big mess. It was good though! Saturday we had heard about a fun place in Fort Stockton that had bowling, putt putt, a movie theatre, and arcade. So we all went there and were disappointed in it for the most part. We still had fun bowling, but the arcade games weren't working right, the bowling thing broke down in the middle of the game, but they got it back up, and it was kind of expensive for just a fun outing. We had read that the builders had wanted to have a place where families could come, and people could have something to do in a small town, but with their prices, I don't know how you could do it very often. Maybe we are just cheap, but I like to actually get something when we use our money instead of using it and only seeing the effects for a few hours. The kids had fun. Elena and Eli and I shared our turns at bowling because I knew none of the three of us would be interested or capable of doing it all. When it was Elena's turn, I helped her roll the ball and as soon as it was out of our hands, she would turn around and jump and yell really loud, "YEAH, I DID IT." It was cute. We even had the video camera and didn't use it. Bowling in real life is definitely not as easy as it is on the Wii.

I fell asleep when we got back to Fred and Nyla's house. The girls chased the turtles around for a while, baked cookies with grandma, and then splashed in the little pool. Eli had a really bad headache, so he fell asleep for a while. He was pushing on the sides of his head and crying. He's never done that before which broke my heart. We didn't know if it was just too hot, or if the tejano music that was blasting at the bowling alley made him have a headache. We also wondered about the elevator ride from the day before. He was better on Sunday though after 3 or 4 doses of tylenol. We got to go to church on Sunday morning and enjoyed seeing all the familiar faces. We went to Daniel's grandparents house on the way out of town and visited them for a while. The kids love to go there because of the loft. They like to stick their heads through the rails and wave and scare us all. This time they got the futons (or flutons for some of you that know this joke) and blankets down and were playing house. They were all tuckered out on the way home, so Daniel and I actually got to talk for a while. It was a really nice weekend though and hopefully the kids will remember it.

Now we've just got to be ready for school in 5 days. Oh and Ema has 5 more days to practice the whistling that she finally picked up on today. She's been trying so hard lately and today-during nap time-you could just hear her blowing and blowing and whistling a little, then blowing. . . . Then she got the hang of it, and is now whistling one note. I think that's the way I learned to whistle too, I just think I might have to work on showing her how to make different notes. She even had her roller skates on (that I just got put back in the garage) and was whistling. Talk about talent! I will try to post pictures later.

Oh and I almost forgot. I had my doctor's appointment today. My titer count went from 4 back down to 2. I didn't know it could do that, but it's great news. We don't have to take the trips to Lubbock for now. I am at 30-31 weeks. (I can't keep track of the days-weeks are hard enough for me to remember) My next appointment is in 2 weeks now. I can't even tell you how excited I am to be going down to just two weeks. Not that I want to sit in the doctors office, but it's just getting closer and I'm so ready to not be pregnant anymore. On a side note, I really enjoyed being at the Pecos church because people were saying things like, "you're just as small as can be," and one lady said, "you just look better and better with each pregnancy." Here people say things like, "OCTOBER! I don't think you're going to make it." or "you look like you could pop any minute." And nobody is trying to be ugly and I feel the same way, but sometimes it is nice to hear the Pecos compliments! Now I've given you all too much to read so I am closing now. (Shellie is that what Grandma always used to write in her letters? "am closing now") It just sounded familiar.

A bunch of nothing!

I hadn't posted in a while so I thought I would give it a shot! Yesterday was very chaotic and today is a lot calmer, so I feel like I have a minute to post something. I had to babysit the little 18-month old boy from church yesterday. I need to tell her that I can't do it anymore, but I know she's having a hard time finding anyone else so it makes it harder. Right when he gets here, my kids morph into terrors. Ema and Eli want to play with him, but if they get too close, he slaps them in the face. Elena seems to be jealous of him and will take anything away from him and clamor for my attention. So from 10-6, I feel like I just say "don't do that, don't hit, get out of his face, you can go potty by yourself, don't eat that dried up piece of macaroni you found on the floor." (That last one was to Dalton who finds anything that you don't want him to, and tries to eat it.) Yesterday was a little better than most of my days with him because Ema actually took a "nap" for me. I don't try to make her go to sleep anymore, but she has to stay in her room and rest, coloring or whatever. She started cutting out pieces of different pictures and making a new picture out of it which I thought was very creative and cute. She only called to me a couple of times because the glue was coming out too fast and even when she called me, she wasn't too loud and then waited patiently for me to come in. I was so proud of her. So I got payroll done, and some other things picked up, and then went and played dolls with her while the others still slept. I always need a few minutes in the day where I can have some quiet time away from the kids, even when I'm working on something. It makes my mood much better.

I was also very proud of Eli because he ate his dinner so well last night. I made some of that wacky pasta and added hamburger and sauce, and green beans on the side. Eli fed himself-nobody had to jam it in his mouth-and he didn't cry and throw a fit. He ate his whole or most of the portion of green beans and probably 7 bites of the pasta mix. Then he got some jello. I know this doesn't sound like much, but we have made big strides since I starved him last Tuesday. He could only drink water and eat the supper that he didn't eat the night before. He slept for 4 hours that day because he was upset, and finally at 4:00, he ate the warmed and cooled, warmed and cooled, then warmed up supper! Last night, he wasn't real enthusiastic about chewing the food, but Daniel is a great encourager and Eli really likes to please him.

After supper, my body was aching so bad that I asked Daniel if he would help the kids clean their rooms while I took a bath. He gave me one of his "that's good for you" smile looks, but he let me anyway. I felt SO much better and the bedrooms were mostly picked up when I was done. Ema likes to have "help" so I pointed out the things that are hard to see, like the cards strung out on the floor, and the toys that had climbed out of the toy box.

So today I am staying in again for most of the day anyway to try and get my laundry done. I've got so much that I could pile it up and the kids could jump in it, but we won't today! Sorry I can't give you all anything more exciting, but this is my life! Tomorrow will be our "going out" day because I'm going to get so much done today! The free kids movie is "The Waterhorse" so we are going to meet some friends there. Then our 4D ultrasound is in the afternoon. I'd kind of like the kids to go with us, but I don't know how many they let in. They love to feel the baby move and Elena likes to "take it out" of my belly button and hold it in her hand. I tell her it's too tiny, so she'll have to put it back and let it grow some more. I'm sure she's thinking like everyone else, "how can it mom, you're hUGE. (The silent H thing is for Shellie!) Oh-one more quick thing. I was talking to Ema the other day about one of our spats. I was having to physically move her and put her on the bed over and over. So afterwards we were clearing the air and I told her as a sidenote that she weighs 60 pounds plus this big belly adds 25 pounds so it is too hard on me for her to be acting that way. She looked at me real skeptically and said, "that baby can not weigh 25 pounds." She wasn't challenging what I was saying, she just couldn't imagine a 25 pound baby. I just thought it was kind of funny. Elena keeps turning my chair around which really annoys me, so I better go!

Your opinions

I just wanted to see what everyone thought about this subject. We are still trying to figure out names for the new baby. It's not consuming our every thoughts or anything-just a nagging, we-need-to-get-that-done kind of thing. First of all, I'm a little irritated that we have gone with the whole E thing because it's hard to find something that works all together. We didn't intend to have all E's. When I was pregnant with Eli, we had the name Elena picked out for a girl and something else for the boy. But that didn't work out and we ended up with Eli. Then we still really liked Elena so now we have all E's. Here is the main problem though. After Elena was born, Shellie was so kind and insightful to point this out! We have Ema Cheri, Eli Douglas, and Elena Elyse. EC, ED, & EE which was completely unplanned. So the question is, should we continue with this and use the initials EF for the next one. I think it's kind of neat, but at the same time, no one will really know unless we point it out. Plus it's hard to find a good E and F name. But I don't want someday to be saying "well we did have EC, ED, & EE but then EJ came along...." and have that one feel like they messed it up or something. Maybe that is over-thinking it, but you never know. So what does everyone else think? If you'd like to contribute ideas for E names as well, you can and they will be considered!

The other thing is-I'm feeling totally overwhelmed with my tasks now and the task ahead of me (raising four children) and I feel like my head is not screwed on straight much of the time. So the other day I was thinking maybe a palm pilot would help me to be a little better organized. I am a crazy to-do-list maker. I just have to see things. I would also like to use it for things like grocery lists, budget and money type things. I don't need it to stay connected to my clients or email or anything like that. Does anyone know what to look for with that? I found one called a Palm Z22 I think and that looked like what I was wanting-it also is compatible with our mac and pc so that is nice. Just curious if anyone had any insight on that.

I've got a lot to get done to get ready for our trip so I guess I better end here. Thanks for your opinions!

We're still here

I haven't blogged in so long, I thought I should sit down and write for a minute. I've been cleaning all day today and my eyes are screaming at me to go to bed so it might be short. It seems like we've been so busy, but to actually write it out, it doesn't sound like much.

Ema has been out of school for 2 weeks now. It's been a bit of an adjustment with her home because she doesn't take naps and the other two still do most of the time. She still has to stay in her room and color or play quietly, but she finds any excuse to come out and tell me something. She has also decorated her room quite extensively with pictures and school papers. I will have to take a picture and show everyone. There is a lot going on in there! We've been trying to go to the library for the summer reading program and the free programs they offer during the week. She seems to enjoy that, but when we go to check out books, it's hard to find one that is right at her level. I want to get out as fast as we can because Elena is pulling books off as fast as I can put them back up (I was a library aide in 8th grade, so it's against my nature to put it back in the wrong spot). But she likes to read to Eli and Elena and is very helpful when they are all in the right kind of mood!

Eli is going through a real whiny stage that I'm not real sure how to deal with. He's starting to actually talk when he's upset now instead of "UUUUUHHHHH, UUUUUHHHH sob, sob UUUUUHHHH." But it's a very quiet talk. I've gotten to where I can ignore the fits while he sits in his room and yells, and pretty soon he calms down. I really hope this stage gets over soon though. I'm being as consistent and patient as I can. When he prays at night, he always thanks God for Ema, Eli, Elena, and mommy's new baby. I think he's excited about it. He does want another sister though, which may seem odd, but he's very good with his sisters. I tried to let him feel the baby moving, but he's not quite patient enough to wait for it.

Elena's just as ornery as ever. She's been doing really well with potty training. I know I said I was going to do that long ago, but we went backwards for a little while and I got lazy with it. But we're back to it and as long as she wears panties, she does really well. She does okay with pull-ups, but not as well. I'm just not brave enough to take her into public with regular panties on yet. I just need to keep extra clothes in the van I guess. She loves to make Eli and Ema laugh at her, and will do just about anything to make it happen-either that or have them chase her, usually with something that they've been playing with, in her hand.

Daniel has been playing softball in the church league for a few weeks now. We started off really well-winning our first 2 games, but then we went up against some really extra athletic teams and lost 2. The first loss was by just a little, but last night, we got smeared. Hopefully they can do better tomorrow night though. It is fun to watch when the teams are pretty well matched, but last night, all their guys must have been college aged, ball players from the time they were tiny, and in Daniel's opinion, on steroids! That's not as fun to watch!

I have been feeling a lot better now. My morning sickness FINALLY went away and aside from my body telling me that I shouldn't be pregnant for a fourth time, I'm doing pretty well. We had our ultrasound last week and found out we are having..................................




only one baby! Some people at church were thinking I might be having 2 because I look kinda big, but that is just because of the poor muscle tone in my abs. I can't hold anything in. For those of you that know about my antigen issue, they tested my blood at 4 months and the level was at a 2. When I was pregnant with Elena, it was around 16, so we got some excellent news. I was under the impression that it could only go up from 16, but apparently not. They will test me again at 6 months and probably every month after to monitor the change in the number. That's really what is more important-to make sure it doesn't jump up. This baby is really active. I can't really remember how it compares to the other three, but it has kept me from falling asleep at night sometimes. My favorite part of pregnancy is feeling the baby moving and letting Daniel and the kids feel it. Hopefully it's just feeling really cramped in there and it's not an indication of what this one will be like on the outside!

Okay so that was as short as I could make it. Hopefully I'll write again soon! I'm going to bed!