Ready for Spring!

Today, the girls and I went to the mall to hang out while Ron played magic and in typical girl fashion, we did some shopping! It all started because Emi spilled an entire cup of lemonade all over herself and so I had to go buy her a new outfit (sorry didn't take any pictures of those) and since Emi was getting a new outfit, Annie, of course, had to have one too! There were lots of fun sales at the mall today. Here's the pretty spring dresses we found.

Emi and Annie picked out their own dresses but I got to pick Eden's little outfit.

Oh, and the coolest thing about the dresses is that they both came with a coupon for a free sitting and 8x10 photo from JC Penny! How cool is that!? Family photos are long over due.

Puff the magic steam mop

I woke up this morning to an entire bottle of teriyaki sauce broken on my kitchen floor, I just bought it last night.

Luckily, last night I also bought a steam mop. Ahhh, such a wonderful thing, I'm in love! I don't know why I waited so long to get one. There are a couple of things that I don't like about it, like it dosn't have a swivel head, it just goes back and forth and not side to side and I really wish that the water tank was larger. Other than that I think it's pretty great!

I think it's funny that almost everything Emi says these days includes the fact that she's now 5. "It's just me, your 5 year old daughter" and she's always wondering if everyone knows that she's 5. It's her most important news these days.

Today is the lottery drawing for the Charter School I'm hoping to get Emi into. They'll be posting the list on Monday. Fingers crossed!

I've been bribing my children to help me clean. I know it's bad, but you gotta do what works right and bribery sure does work! I bought a box set of 5 Strawberry Shortcake movies and every time they help me clean I give them a movie. It makes things so much easier for me, I just don't have the patience to stand over them all day long getting them to clean.

Ron sent me a link yesterday that said that EA the game studio is opening a studio in Salt Lake to work on some secret project and are recruiting. I told him to send in his resume, I'm sure they have amazing benefits! The health insurance offered through Wahoo is a joke, it's ridiculously expensive and sucky we'd be better off getting our own. Unfortunately, this means we're most likely going to have to pay for the birth of this baby out of pocket :(.

Today was nice, it actually got up into the 40's and there was sun...I'm anxious for spring. Winter lasts so long.

I love stocking up on all the leftover Valentines candy, 50-75% off is my favorite!

I just bought Eden her very own little seahorse night light, she's so cute with it. I don't know why we didn't get her one much sooner. And wow, it's really expensive on Amazon, I just got it at Walmart for like $12. Huge savings!

32 weeks and counting...it's getting harder and harder to function everyday. Contractions, siatica pain and pelvic pain, some days I can hardly walk. This pregnancy can't be over soon enough for me.

No Bake Peanut Butter Bars

Ok, I just made these today and they're fabulous and super easy to make. They even taste like peanut butter cups. I think this is going to be my new favorite dessert for awhile. I crave peanut butter like crazy when I'm pregnant and nursing!

1 1/2 c crushed graham cracker crumbs (you can buy them already crushed)

3 1/2 c powdered sugar

1 3/4 c smooth peanut butter

1 c butter, melted (2 sticks)

1 bag semi sweet chocolate chips

In a mixing bowl, combine powdered sugar, graham cracker crumbs, peanut butter and melted butter until well mixed.

Line a 9x13 pan with wax paper and spread mixture evenly in bottom of pan. (the woman I got the recipe from used a metal baking pan, I used pyrex so I skipped the lining with wax paper step) Spread mixture evenly in bottom of the pan.

Melt chocolate chips in microwave until smooth. Spread over peanut butter layer. Refridgerate for half an hour until chocolate is almost set. Remove and set on counter for a few hours before cutting. Enjoy!

Rough Start

Ok, so yesterday I made a vow to myself that I was going to get my house in order starting today...I'm not off to such a good start. My motivation really sucks today. All 3 girls are sick and Eden had a fever last night and was up and down all night miserable. In my defense I really didn't get very much sleep last night and I woke up with a raging headache.

I'm hoping to get to the store tonight, after Ron gets home from playing magic, and pick up some organizational stuff. I'm hoping that this will be helpful tomorrow.

Wish me luck, I really need it!

Pictures from the Marin trip

Here are the pictures that I took from our trip to Marin over Valentines weekend. Ron went to go play in a Magic tournament in Oakland and the girls and I went to visit my mom and sister in Marin.

We left on Thursday night and before we left we went to BYU so Ron could play in another Magic tournament.

Emi with chocolate muffin on her face

Beeba just looking cute

Ron playing magic

The girls cuddled up sleeping at the hotel in Oakland

Eden being tired, just woke up grumpy girl and grandmas house

Ginny and Eden

Beeba on the swings at Pioneer Park in Novato

My 2 sisters

Eden swinging

Reyna taking Eden down the slide

Noely and Emi on the swings

Fireflies

This song makes me feel happy

Pancakes!

I LOVE pancakes and this is one of the best recipes for them that I've found. I'm so excited about them that I'm sharing them with all of you :)

Blueberry Ricotta Pancakes

3 TBL all purpose flour

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

1/2 c ricotta cheese

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 ozs fresh blueberries

In a bowl combine flour, sugar and baking powder. Stir in eggs and ricotta until well blended. Gently fold in blueberries.

Pour 1/4 c batter onto hot griddle or pan for each pancake. Cook until bubbles form on the top, then flip to brown the other side. Serve immediately with your choice of toppings. Enjoy!

addendum: after making these I have a few revisions to make. First you're definitely going to want to double the recipe because using the 1/4 c measure the pancakes were really small and it only barely served 5. Second I ended up adding a bit more sugar, about another TBL just to make them a bit sweeter and another tsp of vanilla. Other than that these were awesome and I can't wait to try it with other berries!

Tarter sauce

In case you didn't already know, the latest and greatest conditioning hair treatment is tarter sauce. Really, it's great you gotta try it.

Job Update.

I really should have posted this yesterday but didn't, anyway, Ron started his new job yesterday at another game company here in Orem called Wahoo Studios. They're a smaller company and also make x box 360 arcade games. I have to say that it's been the smoothest job transistion ever and we don't have to move and it's so much closer than Chair was! All very good things.



After he got home last night, I'm a lot less excited...their insurance plan sucks in huge ways. They do it through this company called A Plus and they're ridiculously expensive and the deductables are really high. This makes me very sad, I'll also be uninsured for a month, this is not such a good thing when 7 months pregnant. I'll also have to see how much it will be to pay form my anti depressants out of pocket. Now that they're starting to work again and I feel much better I sure don't want to stop taking them for a month.

Sometimes,

you just find a song that speaks to you. The fact that it's from one of my very favorite shows makes it even better, this video is from the finale of Six Feet Under.

Pretty pictures

Watching Dora together.

They were very tired girls.

She looks so sweet when she's sleeping...lately she's been a

screaming monster whenever she's awake.

The winds of change,

Are once again at work in my life. I have to say so far this year has really freakin sucked! I was in the hospital, Ron had his appendix out and now yesterday he got fired. He went into work and was home a couple hours later and when I asked him what he was doing home he said "they fired me for no reason". Just like that the world turned upside down, no more health insurance and no more security. I mean seriously, he went into work asked to talk with him and handed him his termination papers, no reason given and I'm kinda pissed off that he didn't demand a reason. I sure as hell would have! I'm calling his boss today and asking him why, I think we deserve an explination. And if he signs a paper saying that he won't sue them for wrongful termination or breach of contract they'll give him 6 wks severance pay and cash out his 401k.

So, we should be ok with money until he finds a new job, it's just there is no way of knowing where this new job will be. There are a handful of other game companies here in the Salt Lake area so we'll see what they have to offer first. There is also a few really big software companies here, Ron dosn't really want to work for a software company and would rather be making video games he says that with his experience and qualifacations he could be making twice what he was working at Chair. I don't want to have to move, I hate moving. I'm also 6 months pregnant and already having enough complications that I don't want to have to deal with the stress of moving right now. It's just not good for me, or anyone else.

He went and interviewed with 2 other game compaines here in Orem yesterday afternoon, but dosn't think that either of them would be a good fit for him. We'll see what comes of it all...

I forgot!

I forgot to tell you all that I got a little camera for Christmas. Ron got me a little Sony Cybershot and it's been long overdue! So far I love it and don't have any complaints but I haven't really done much of anything with it either. I haven't taken that many pictures yet mostly because my house is just to embarassingly messy and because I just haven't been feeling that great. But here is what I do have so far :)

Eden and a naked Beeba.

Eden in the box

Beeba passed out on Ron in the office.

Emi and Annie "take our picture, mommy!"

I'm a bad blogger

I've been telling myself everyday that I need to sit down and blog but keep putting it off or am just to tired. Life has been pretty crazy recently, lots of exciting things going on over here.

Last Monday I got to go to the hospital to labor and delivery. I started having contractions on Sat night and they last through the weekend. I got barely any sleep because they went on all night. They wern't regular but they were strong enough to be painful. So I called my Dr's office last monday morning to see if I could make an appt to go in and have her check me to make sure I wasn't dialating. I was pretty sure they were Braxton Hicks but they just wern't stopping and changing position or what I was doing didn't make them go away and the Dr did tell me that with consecutive pregnancies they could get stronger and start earlier. Anyway, the nurse talked to the Dr and she wanted me to go to labor and delivery to have the contractions charted and to get a fetalfibronectin test to make sure I wasn't going into pre term labor. So I had Ron come home early from work and went and spent 3 hours in labor and delivery. The fetal fibronectin test came back negative, thankfully. So it was as I thought just very strong Braxton Hicks. I really hate being pregnant especially when I'm having contrations for 3 1/2 months before delevering the damn baby!

I've had so little patience recently, I feel bad for the girls. I feel like a terrible mother for yelling at them what feels like constantly. I started taking my anti depressants again so I'm hoping that they'll help. My house is also a huge freakin mess which dosn't help my state of mind much. Cleaning is such and ordeal and hurts so it's just not getting done. Here we are on the 13th day into the new year and I still haven't taken down my Christmas tree!

This monday Ron was scheduled to go in for a colonoscopy to check for Chron's Disease. For the past year he's been having random joint swelling and pain and they can't seem to figure out what's going on with him. He's had x rays and endless lab tests but they still don't know what's causing the swelling. So his rheumatologist wanted him to get the conlonscopy done. So we took him in monday morning at 10. The girls and I had to go with and wait for him while he had it done because it'd done under sedation and he wouldn't be able to drive afterwards.

About 45 mins after he went back a nurse came into the waiting room to get me and we all trooped back to the recovery room, or rather the recovery cubicle. The Dr promptly comes out and tells me that they didn't find anything indicating Chron's Disease but did find that his appendix was extremely infected and pussing, acute appendicitis. They wanted to send him over for a CT scan to confirm the diagnosis and remove it. Ron of course is still knocked out. We got him into a wheel chair wheeled him outside and across the parking lot to the building next door where the CT and MRI machines lived. Ron woke up, literally, when they came out to take him in for his scan. I quickly had to fill him in on what was going on. The girls and I waited some more.

After the scan he was wheeled back across the parking lot to the surgery center and back to the recovery cubicle to ready him for the appendectomy. 4 different people came in to tell us what was going to happen and explain the procedure to us. I had to sign a bunch of paper work, giving permission for the surgery, permission for blood transfusions if things went wrong and several other things. They took him in for his surgery and the girls and I finally got to leave for awhile to get some lunch, drop off perscriptions and go home and rest for awhile. Anyway, we finally got to bring him home at 10 that night. The girls were surprising well behaved, or as well behaved as children can be when they have to sit and be good for hours on end. But the whole experience did me in, I think I'm still recovering form the insanity of it all.

He's recovering well, there haven't been any complications, of course he's in a lot of pain and can't work for the week but he's getting better each day and tomorrow he can take a shower. In the mean time I have another person to take care of...

We still have freaking mice! I've caught 8 of the damn things and there. are. still. more!! How many freakin mice are in my house!?! They are, seriously, driving me insane! I can here them all the time in the walls scratching and gnawing, scurrying and fighting and squeaking. Fortunately, they have stopped scratching and gnawing in the wall behind my bed at night. They were doing that for a few weeks, in the wall right behind my head. It kept me up, it's hard to go to sleep listening to the creepy little things right behind your head. I think I'm developing a mouse phobia.

We've been using the glue traps and I have to say they work really well. But as much as I hate the damn things now I feel horrible guilt having to dispose of them alive...I feel like an awful person but having small children I don't feel comfortable having the typical snap traps laying around my house.

So this has been my life recently, dealing with mice, lots of contractions, guilt for being an animal torturer, guilt at my impatience with my children, taking care of a sick post operative husband and feeling like crap!

Aye, me...

...a broken computer that likes to turn itself off at random times and then not turn back on, sick puking children, out of town visitors, Dr's appointments and mouse extermination. This is what I've been up to the past week.

You'd think that having a computer programmer for a husband would speed up the computer fixing problem, sadly, no. It's still having major issues and Ron keeps saying that he's "fixed" it and that there's nothing wrong with it. I beg to differ.

Ron's ex Teneka and their daughter Jamie have been in town since last wednesday. We met up with them Friday evening after my Dr's appt and took them out to Pirates Island, the girls all had a really great time running around playing. They then came over to the house and we watched a movie and let the girls stay up till midnight...it was pretty insane. Saturday we met up with them again at around 4ish and took them to the Lehi Legacy Center to go swimming and then to the Asian Buffett for dinner. In the middle of dinner Emi suddenly threw up all over the table and floor and we sick throwing up the rest of the night and all of Sunday, too. She's much better today but now Beeba is sick and so is Jamie. Taking care of sick thowing up children is never any fun.

I had my ultrasound last Wednesday and I'm having ANOTHER girl, 4 girls, the teenage years will be trying. I'm 23 wks now and the due date is 21st of April though I'm sure she'll be born more the end of May or very beginning of April as my children like to arrive about 3 wks early. I'm still having lots of contractions, which, unfortunately, is a theme with me. I've been having very strong painful contractions for the past 2 1/2 wks now. The Dr says they're just braxton hicks and that with each pregnancy can come earlier and get stronger. Yay, me, I get to be in "labor" for the next 4 months!! God, I hate pregnancy.


My house has been infested with mice for the past couple weeks as well and after trying to get Ron to buy mouse traps everytime he went to the store finally had to take care of it myself after he told me that the store didn't have any mouse traps. It took me all of 5 mins to find them, right where I thought they'd be, next to the insecticides and bug killers. I caught and disposed of 2 last night. Good riddance!

That's it for now, I just wanted to jot down a quick update. I'm feeling kinda sick myself and am not sure if it's from cleaning up all the puke of if I'm actually getting sick myself...hopefull I'll be back soon.