My Garden

I love having a garden.  Okay, truth be told, I love my grandpa having a garden.  His harvest is always delicious and nothing else compares - even my parents garden doesn't hold a candle to it.  When I lived near him, I always enjoyed visiting them and eating their homegrown tomatoes.  Yummy!  Since being married, I've attempted to have a garden each summer.  It has always been in containers.  It usually does okay for a month or so, then it dies.  But I will NOT give up, so we're trying again this year.  Here is a picture of our garden.

We've planted tomatoes and basil from starts, and carrots and cucumbers from seed.  We're keeping our fingers crossed that something will grow that will be yummy to eat!

Timing

On April 8th, I started to potty train my toddler.  On April 9th, I stopped potty training my toddler.  I decided that when your head feels like it's going to explode every time you bend over is a bad time to potty train.  So we stopped.  She missed her "potty toilet" for a few days, then seemed to forget about.  She brought it up again a few days ago, and I thought, "Sure, we can try again.  We'll start with the new week."  (tomorrow)  Well, my baby has a dr's appointment tomorrow, play group is on Wednesday, and I know my toddler would love to go, after being cooped up in the house for nearly 6 weeks (due to both new baby and sickness that would not leave our house), my toddler has a dr's appointment on Friday, and story time at the library is always a favorite Thursday activity, if baby cooperates.  Baby is nearly out of diapers (that one crept up on me!), and I haven't been grocery shopping (with a list) in over a week.  Case being, except for Tuesday, this week really isn't good for potty training.  Then the question arises, which week will be good?  Is there any week when we will have absolutely no obligations? Doubtful.  And like my husband said, "There's no point in dreading it."  

Forgetfulness

There are things that your forget about until they come around again.  Here are a few things that I forgot about babyhood:

1. Babies are fussy.  You comfort them, they still cry and it's okay.  It's normal.
2. Babies sleep A LOT.  We all want to play and cuddle with him, but all he want is sleep.
3. Babies have their own schedule.  There's nothing you can do about it.  
4. Babies use a TON of diapers.  And here I was thinking that one 200+ box would last us all month.  Not a chance!
5. Babies are adorable!  At ALL times.  It probably helps that they can't disobey or talk back.
6. Getting out of the house with a baby is a big job.  Making sure the diaper bag is fully stocked, baby is dressed appropriately and all of the "what if's..." are covered.
7. Your time is not your own.  You must be ready to drop everything at a moments notice.
8. How cute baby clothes are!  And how small!

Life goes on...

I really don't have much to blog about. I'm getting accustomed to 2 kiddos. A little at a time, it's seeming more normal. We haven't left the house much, and now we're all sick, so our plans to get out today were foiled. Maybe tomorrow.... My house isn't as clean as I'd like, but I've decided that some things, mopping for instance, can wait. As long as the kiddos are out of their PJ's by 10am, I feel good. I'm a zombie by 9pm, so I go to bed. Life goes on...

Freezer Meals

In January, my ward did an enrichment activity on freezer meals.  A couple of girls did demonstrations to show how easy they were to put together, and talked about how convenient it would be to have something in the freezer and not need to think about which ingredients you have and how much time it's going to take, etc, etc, etc.  When I left, I called my mom to tell her about how great this was and wouldn't it be perfect for when my baby came?  She looked up the book that the girls had used on Amazon and ordered it for herself, along with a couple of other cookbooks for make and freeze dinners (my mom really enjoys cook books.  She's always buying new ones, and gets emotional when she has to make room on her shelves by getting rid of some.  It's great for me, because she does the legwork and then passes on the good recipes).  After looking through her new books, she decided to order them for me and for my sisters-in-law.  The week before I had my son, I prepared a freezer meal every night.  Because most of the recipes make 2-3 dinners, we would eat one, and put the others in the freezer.  It didn't take any more time, either, to prepare 3 instead of just 1.  All of the ingredients were out anyway.  Add my husband's thoughtfulness of making frozen pizzas (he makes me pizza every week.  I love pizza!  Now we have some on hand for whenever I want one!), and we have enough meals for a good two weeks.  It has been FANTASTIC!  The RS brought in meals, of course, but they can't do that forever.  So having meals in the freezer and not needing to think about preparing anything has been wonderful.  I will get back to cooking one day, but until then, this works.  The freezer meals even taste good after they've been frozen.  And even when I do get back to cooking, I will definitely be preparing 1-2 freezer meals a week, because, really, it's awfully nice to know that you don't have to spend time in the kitchen when you have other things you need/want to do.  

He has arrived!

My baby was born on Wed. March 11 (he has his own blog, so no more details here.  If you would like an invitation and haven't received one, let me know and I'll send you an invite to see his blog).  We're now home and getting accustomed to life as a family of four, instead of three.  So far, so good!

One funny story about the whole experience.  When the nurse decided that I was ready to deliver, she sent word to the dr. and got the delivery room ready.  Halfway to the hospital (his clinic is attached to the hospital) the dr. got a call from the other hospital that he services, saying one of his patients was ready to deliver.  Since she was going  with natural labor, and I was on an epidural, he went to deliver her baby first (I had no problems with that.  Kudos to her for going natural!).  So the nurse then de-prepped for delivery, since she wasn't sure how long it would take the dr. to get back to my hospital.  He delivered the other baby, and made it from one hospital parking lot to the other hospital parking lot in 7 minutes.  I'm not sure which hospital he was at, but I'm pretty sure there are no hospitals within that range, if you stay in the speed limit.  He made it back in time though and then our son was born! 

Countdown

Well, we're down to less than 2 weeks.  The doc said he would induce me on the 11th.  Wow!  That seems a lot closer than the 18th!  People keep asking me if I'm ready, etc, etc, etc.  Are you ever really ready for a change when you're not totally sure what it's all going to entail?  I mean, we have clothes for him, a place for him to sleep, a baby bathtub, etc.  But does that mean we're ready?  I'm don't know.  I think we'll know we're ready for him when he comes home and there's no turning back.  Not that we'd want to turn back.   But we might find we're less prepared than we thought.  Or maybe we'll be amazed at how easy it is to go from one child to two.  My big wonderment is how our toddler is going to take to not being the center of attention.  She's enjoyed two years of stardom.  Being a big sister might not be as much fun as being the one and only.  We've tried to prepare her, but we'll have to see how much she's really been understanding.  

Note:  When he does come, he'll have his own private blog.  If you'd like an invitation, just leave me a note in the comments and I'll be sure to send you an invite.

New Blog

Because of my interest in photography, I've started a new blog, just for my photos. Because I know that all of you are deeply interested in my gorgeous art, I've decided to share the link with all of my loyal readers. I would love to receive feedback (positive and negative) on the photos, so that I can know what non-biased people think (because my husband is definitely biased when he says that every single picture is incredible!  Though having a biased opinion definitely helps my ego!). Enjoy!

changraphics.blogspot.com

Friends

I really like being in the west again. We're so close to so many of our friends! It's been great to be close enough that people can say, "We'll be in town. Let's get together!". Blogging and calling and emailing are all well and good, but there's just something about talking face to face with people that you know and like. It's nice to know also that they like you well enough to tell you that they'll be in town.

It's a bit weird to think that I left home nearly 10 years ago to attend college. But in those 10 years (and while still living at home, of course), I've met some incredible people. They're not all exactly the same as me, we don't necessarily have the same interests, but we're friends. And it's also funny how the same people can cross paths with you so many times. One girl was in a student ward with me, then I graduated and moved, and she showed up again in my singles ward! And that happened more than once! The Lord truly does have a hand in our lives, directing us to the people that we need, that will help us grow and develop.

I'm happy to say that I'm still friends with people from my freshman year of college, and the years since. And now that I've moved across the country and back again, and as my friends have moved literally all over the globe, we're still friends. I'm so grateful for technology that allows easy and convenient ways to keep in touch, because I'm a slacker when it comes to snail mail, even though I love being on the receiving end.

So, to all my friends, if you're going to be in the area, let me know! I'd love to get together! And to those that have already stopped by, thanks and come again anytime!

Civilian Health Care

Having just left the military, I was very much looking forward to civilian health care. I could choose my doctors, make appointments that fit with my schedule, be more than just a number, and have the doctors be real doctors - not nurse practitioners or some such.

And then reality hit...

For my first OB appointment we were in the waiting room for just under an hour - luckily there were toys for my toddler to play with. Like I've already posted, I liked the doctor, he was knowledgeable and listened to my concerns/answered my questions. And the long wait really could be attributed to being a new patient.

Today, my daughter's diaper rash is incredibly worse - for the second time this month. We decided that she ought to be seen, because even applying a thick coat of desitin at each change, it hasn't improved. We got a recommendation of a pediatrician, made an appointment and quickly got ready to go (they asked us to be 30 minutes early to fill out paperwork. No problem). I signed in and was told that i'd be called to get the paperwork. 30 minutes later (at the time of our appointment), they copied our insurance information. 20 minutes later, I was called again to fill out paperwork. An hour and ten minutes after our appointment time, (over an hour and a half of sitting in the waiting room - with no toys, and we were on the Well Child side of the waiting room. There was a wall to separate us from the Sick Child side) the nurse came to get us. She took my daughter's vitals and said the doctor would be right in. 20 minutes later the doctor made it in to check the diaper rash. She said that on a scale of 1-10, the rash was a 2 (may I never see a 10!) She basically told me to keep doing what I was doing, and that the rash should be looking better after the weekend. I asked what would cause such a rash to reappear so soon after the previous bad rash. She said it was caused by irritants in the poop. So why don't all kids always have awful diaper rashes? And why has it only gotten this bad this month and never before? I told her about previous rashes that I linked to my daughter's eating oranges and other citrus fruits. She said that the acid from those would have been digested out and wouldn't have an effect on her bum (like I was crazy for thinking that something she ate could be giving her diaper rash).

What was the point? 2 and 1/2 hours for what?