Ch-ch-ch changes

Things are a-changin' 'round here. Not only have we all switched rooms, brought in several large pieces of pastel-colored equipment, bought a mini-van, sold the car, etc, etc, etc.....

We got hair cuts!

The biggest change is Beta. Her hair has been super long and super tangled for many, many months. Combing it out after bath time usually results in both of us crying and yelling at each other. Not fun.

So we got it cut today. I mean, CUT. She wanted it short and now she's got it. Let's just hope it looks like this in the morning.

Without further a-"do":


Isn't she cute????

I'm worried it will not look like this ever again. I did try and explain that those ladies in the salon know how to style hair, and her mother doesn't. The stylist even used a Chi flat iron to make it straighter. (look mommy! That's what they used on my hair! You can buy them!!!) I'm not sure she understands that I am NOT going to be straightening her hair every morning before school. Hopefully the good old round brush and hair dryer will make it like this at night.

The stylist did say it should be really cute curly, too. That would be wonderful! At least it's shorter for now.

Alpha got her hair cut. But just barely. Tiny. Minute. Minuscule. She had a cute little bob similar to Beta's from about 1st grade up until now. We haven't had time for a hair appointment so it's gotten pretty long. She's decided she likes long hair and wants it to stay that way. Since she now does her own shower, complete with shampooing, and combs and dries her hair ALL BY HERSELF, I figured she can wear it longer if she wants to. (I think it looks cuter shorter, but what do I know?)

Anyway, she asked if she could have a centimeter trimmed. I told her an inch. She kept saying centimeter so I said how about 2.5 of them???? She replies, "Wait! That's an INCH! You wanted me to get an inch cut! No, a centimeter!" Darn public schools.....

We told the lady an inch, but she ended up, SERIOUSLY, only cutting about 1/2 an inch. Or close to a centimeter. Alpha still thought she had incredibly short hair and almost cried when it was done. This was all payback to me for the things I put my own mother through....Touche', mom. Touche'.

And due to sadness and other technical difficulties, we do not have a picture of Alpha's "trim."

I got my hair cut as well. It's shorter, but not too short. I had Beta take a picture of me, but it didn't turn out right. I'll try and get a good one tomorrow and post it then.

But hopefully, Beta will be MUCH happier. And so will I!

7 Things

Borrowed from Not That You Asked, here are 7 things going on in my life recently.

(Ok, there are WAY more than 7 things going on, but this is all I have the energy for right now.)

1. We bought a mini-van! woohoo! It's a 2006 Honda Odyssey. Yes, I know that when we got engaged, I made Jim promise me we'd never buy a mini-van. But that was before we had 2 kids and 1 on the way and had to transport all their STUFF.

2. We sold the Mercury. The old geezer car is gone! And you know what? I miss it!!! We sold it yesterday, and it didn't hit me until AFTER it was gone, that now we only have 1 car that will hold all 5 of us. We kept the Honda Civic. It'll transport 4 of us, but not a 5th one. ESPECIALLY not someone in a car seat. So now I'm sad and feel kinda stupid. But since that didn't hit me until after it was sold, maybe there's a reason we still have the Civic.

3. Last night we all went out to eat at Shogun's. It's the place where they cook the food in front of you at your table. Alpha got her 2nd H1N1 shot on Thursday and didn't get anything (ice cream, candy bar, etc) for it. So we let her pick and this is where she wanted to go. Both girls LOVED it! I was worried at first that it would be too expensive, but then I realized that we won't be going to places like that for awhile after the baby is born. So we splurged.

4. The girls sat in front of Harps today helping their troop sell extra Girl Scout cookies. They had a BLAST! When we came back to pick them up, Alpha was WEARING one of the cases some cookies had come in. Beta and one of her friends from the troop had made up a song. They were singing it at the top of their lungs to every customer who walked by! It was one of the cutest things EVER!!! They are selling again next weekend and both girls are really pumped.

5. We have been crazy busy buying baby stuff! To date, we have a crib, car seat, dresser, glider, baby book, "Big Sister" shirts ordered, nursing pillow, mobile, bassinet/travel crib, sheets for travel crib, valance and wall art for nursery, bumbo, lamp, and some clothes. It's been hectic trying to get all this stuff since I'm working extra tax-season hours. But somehow we've done it. The only thing I'm missing is a diaper bag. But I've got a lead on one of those and will probably have it soon.

6. Baby stuff we still need is a baby monitor, baby bathtub, stroller, and a few other little piddly things like diapers and wipes.

7. Last, but certainly not least, we think we have a date for the c-section! Provided the baby and the Lord don't have other ideas, our first son will arrive on either March 18 or 19. I will be 38 weeks pregnant then. This time around, unfortunately, I have placenta previa. This means the placenta is covering all or part of the cervix. Apparently, if you go into labor with the placenta first in line, that is really bad. So my doctor doesn't want me to have any chance to go into labor. And I'm ok with that, having experienced it twice. (at least the start of it)

Thus begins our final countdown. Less than 1 month! We are all tremendously excited! I'm a little nervous. But that's for another post.

Hope everyone has a good week!

I love my nitpickin' husband!

Saturday, January 16, we encountered a heretofore unseen menace.

Head Lice.

ICK!!!!!! EWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!

I have heard of head lice. I remember lice checks during school. They NEVER found them on me or my brother. I have somehow managed to make it 35 years without so much as an egg or nit showing up in my hair.

But on that fateful Saturday night, I discovered what millions of moms all across the world fear. Both girls had head lice.

We skipped church the next morning (the other moms will thank us) and shampooed the girls' hair. Then we began the process of using the "nit comb" to comb through every square inch of their hair! It took us about 2 hours PER GIRL! Thankfully we did them concurrently. We also washed EVERYTHING that their hair could have touched. The washing machine ran constantly from about 10:00 until 6:00.

The saddest part for the girls was having to bag their stuffed animals. They both cried and cried. We told them that yes, it was sad, but they wanted the bugs to go away, didn't they? That helped them a little bit.

For our next move, we weren't sure what to try. We got several suggestions.

We ended up going with the Robi Comb. Jim saw it at Walgreens. It sounds farfetched, but I'm happy to report that it worked! You use it on dry hair so there's no pesticidal shampoos or greasy things to try and wash out. It takes about 15 minutes per kid. It zaps adult lice with a small static-electricity charge that either kills or stuns them. It also detects eggs and nits (empty egg sacks....I know....this is all just SO GROSS!!!)

Jim is now an expert nitpicker! It all started with the shampoos. Since they are really just pesticides for your hair, we decided that I should stay away from them. (and...quite selfishly, I was ok with that......) So he had to wash both girls heads.

Then, with the Robi Comb, we used it at least once a day, sometimes twice. Since it takes me longer in the mornings to get ready than it does him, he always ended up being the one to comb their hair out. He has become an excellent spotter of all stages of lice! He can tell at first glance if it is an egg or a nit and can chase down live ones with amazing accuracy!

After much painstaking work, as of tonight, we are declaring the girls LICE FREE!!! They got their stuffed animals back and are very happy to be sleeping with them again. We are happy the lice appear to be gone. We owe it all to Jim! What an awesome daddy!

I've said many times before, that if other women knew what kind of husband I have, I'd have to fight to keep them off of him! LOL! I am so thankful and feel so blessed to have been lead to such a wonderful man!

Love you honey!!!!

The main website we used was HeadLice.org.

Did you know there is an entire non-profit set up to educate parents about headlice? Weird.

She's destined for great things.

This is Beta all dressed up to go buy party supplies for her birthday party next weekend. She's wearing hot pink boots, brown leggings with green and blue dots, a green striped skort, orange shirt with sparkly silver butterfly, white sweater, hot pink Hannah Montana hat, and carrying a blue velvet purse (blocked in the picture by her baby doll).

Paying for Peace of Mind

I got to take a little trip yesterday. We went up to the good ole labor and delivery floor at the hospital! I wish it had been a sight seeing trip, but it wasn't. I had a slight concern.

But it wasn't labor!

Ever since about Thursday, my left leg has been KILLING me! My left inner thigh was throbbing in pain most of the time. The pain only went away maybe 2 or 3 times and it wasn't for that long when it did. Some tylenol helped a tad, but not much.

Fast forward to Saturday night. I've been complaining to Jim that my leg hurts and I don't know why. This starts to concern him because the pain had not gone away or gotten any better. He gets on webMD and pulls up a page about blood clots. I was under the mistaken opinion that you couldn't feel blood clots. Oh, no. There is tenderness, redness, swelling, etc. So we check my leg. I had none of that. But Jim says I should probably have it checked out. I told him it was too late to go to the emergency room tonight and besides I was tired. So we just went to bed. :)

Sunday after lunch, I realized my leg was still hurting SO BAD. I was ready to cut it off. So I called the after hours line of my doctor. Surprisingly, the doctor who was paged called me back in less than 5 minutes! Once I described it, she said I'd better come on in and get it checked out because she can't diagnose anything like that over the phone.

DARN! DARN DARN DARN! I was looking forward to my Sunday afternoon "Sabbath" time.

Getting the 4 of us ready and out the door proved to be a daunting task. It has made me nervous for when the real time actually comes. We will have to have some advanced planning.

At the hospital, Jim stayed with the girls in the waiting room while I was sent back to an actual labor and delivery room. Once back there, they HOOK ME UP TO THE MONITORS! I had a doppler on the baby's heartbeat, a contraction monitor on my belly, a blood pressure cuff, and the finger-thing that monitors your oxygen level and heartbeat. (Or something like that.) I was sitting there thinking "holy cow, this is like the real deal!"

All they did, after asking me a million stupid questions (do you do recreational drugs?) was an ultrasound of both legs and some blood work. Everything came back normal or negative. So thankfully, there was not a blood clot in my leg. YAY! It was nice to know I was not going to be admitted for a life-threatening condition.

But that was my whole Sunday afternoon darn it! Plus, I'm sure they charged us for the privilege of using their facilities. I sat in their bed, watched their tv, rode in one of their wheelchairs, saw an actual ultrasound tech, and had blood drawn. I'm no health care expert, but I'm an accountant. And that stuff ain't free. Jim keeps reminding me that at least we know it was nothing and not life-threatening. I agree. If it had been a real blood clot and I hadn't gone to the hospital, something bad could have happened. So I guess it was worth it for that. It's still annoying though.

It was a good trial run through the whole process, though. We learned a lot. Some parts of it scared me, but it was neat to get to see everything back there under a (mostly) non-stressful time.

Lastly, in a wonderfully ironic twist, my leg today is PAIN FREE! How's that for timing?

First Post!

Welcome to my first post of 2010! We will start this year by showcasing

SNOW!!!!!!!!!

Since we don't watch the news on the weekends, we had quite a shock this morning when we woke up. The entire world was blanketed in white, puffy stuff. The roads weren't really bad at all so we managed to make it to church. The girls were excited because I let all of us wear jeans. :)

But enough from me.....Here are some pictures I took when we got home. Enjoy!

For starters, here are my new rain/snow boots! I got them for 1/2 price at Shoe Carnival back in the fall. Yes, they're zebra print....they were the best of the worst and I got them for about $10. So don't knock 'em! haha!




Inkblot test! These are the girls' snow angels. Can you see them?
The rest of these are from the front yard.

LIghts! Camera!

We went down to the square tonight and got some pictures of the lights. It is supposed to be the warmest night of the week. The temperature was in the 50s. We still had to bundle up, but it wasn't freezing cold like it has been or will be.

The girls got to see the lights up close and ride the ponies! Thankfully it was only $5 a ride. We topped the evening off with some yummy hot chocolate when we got back home. I love family outings!

Here are the pictures you've been waiting for. Click on each picture to enlarge it.