Wednesday, October 29, 2008

October in review





Whew, I never intend do go so long between updates, but this has been a busy month so I will have to go with a brief overview this time around.

Jenna keeps me busy! She seems to be enjoying joy school which is every Tuesday and Music Makers (our ward toddler group) every Friday. She seems to take a few minutes (more like 10-15) to get comfortable enough to join in, which doesn't work out very well when we are only there for an hour to begin with. We are still making slow progress with the potty training, but I am bound and determined to not have two in diapers so I have my work cut out for me over the next 2-3 months. Jenna is cooperative in the sense that she will sit on the potty without complaining when we tell her to, but she has yet to have any consistency in telling us when she needs to.

School is keeping Kristin busy...I don't know how we will ever have time to fit in any activities or clubs someday, a regular school day and homework is keeping her tied up from about 7 am to 5 pm daily. We will be going in for parent teacher conference on November 11, so we are anxious to get an assessment of her progress from her teachers perspective. She still has a difficult time staying focused, but her reading speed has improved a lot so she always seems to be making progress in one area when another is giving her trouble...the biggest obstacle right now is timed math tests...she knows the answers, but she doesn't do much of anything fast, let alone math facts. At any rate, we are happy with her determination.

I just finished my last general class!! Woohoo! So it only took me 10 years, but I am now 7 classes away from my bachelors degree. I had intended to finish by the end of next year but that may be delayed a month or two so I can focus on the baby without school hanging over my head. I am keeping busy working on crafts that I intended to make for Christmas last year and never finished so I am now attempting to finish in time for Christmas this year. I am also working on Sadie's bedding when I have a spare moment, but that is rare. In the mean time, I am now in charge of our wards craft group, so I have been teaching/helping twice a month and trying to come up with ideas for future months. This month was tutu's and wands, I will add pictures soon.

Jason is busy with his two classes he is in right now and my honey do list which now includes requests such as -can you please pick that up off the floor for me and will you help me find my tums? He is a good helper.
Anyone who knows Jason knows that he loves Christmas, but now that he is an adult he has a hard time holding back from playing with his new toys until society says he can, so I never can surprise him for Christmas. He is getting a grand total of 3 presents and he knows about every one of them. :( We bought him a bowflex off craigslist which is now set up in the middle of my craft room. He is happy with it, but he is definitely now waiting until Christmas to use it. Not much else to report for Jason right now...just working, going to school and working with the teachers at church...same old same old...

Now for the baby update...at my last appointment the Dr that I saw recommended a repeat ultrasound...she said that in my first ultrasound they had a hard time determining if the umbilical cord had the correct number of arteries in it. Then she ordered my lab work, which included my 1 hour blood glucose test. My ultrasound will be tomorrow and I am anxious to see the baby again.
I was told to eat an atkins style breakfast the morning of my blood glucose test, so I did...I got a phone call later that day that my levels were elevated, I did not pass and I would now need to do the three hour blood glucose test. I'll admit I was not thrilled, but in an effort to look on the bright side I decided that I looked forward to the three hour test only because I never have a three hour stint with no kids, so I would bring a book and enjoy it. I was wrong...the 3 hour blood glucose test involves a total of 4 blood draws over about 4 hours. So 2 blood draws into the test and about 2.5 hours of wasted time later my body decided it would no longer tolerate the glucose solution and purged it...yuck. My test was over (incomplete) and I was sent home. I waited anxiously to find out what comes next and was hopeful that I would not have to do the three hour test again. The good news is, I did not have to repeat the three hour test, so I am not checking my blood glucose levels 4 times a day (read 4 finger sticks a day) for a week. My last day is tomorrow and then I report my levels and wait to find out what comes next. My next appointment with the Dr is November 3, so between the potential Gestational Diabetes and the repeat ultrasound I am anxious to find out how the baby is doing and whether or not I am in the clear health wise.
I will do my best to update promptly once I have some news.
I have lots of pictures to add from the month including halloween costumes and the pumpkin patch. So that will follow soon.
-Melissa

Friday, October 3, 2008

One more post...whew!






I don't update the blog as often as I should, so when I do I usually have a lot to add. I have been crafting up a storm lately and at Amanda's urging I have finally got my craft blog off the ground. It can be seen here: http://modestgoddessboutique.blogspot.com/

It is mostly just pictures at this point, but it shows some of the things I have made recently. I need to go back in and add descriptions, but don't have time now, so I'll work on that soon. I just thought some of you might like to see what I have made.
I have my next Doctors appointment on Monday so I will likely post again after that, but in the mean time, enjoy the weekend!
-Melissa

House Update







I *think* I posted a few months back about the rental that we are in being put on the market. We have a little update. The landlord emailed me last week asking if we would like to sign another year contract on the house. We let him know we would love to stay in the house, but we needed to have stability so if the house was going to go back on the market in the spring, we would have to look for something else. He said that with the market down they feel like they have lost too much to sell now and that they would like to continue to rent it until 2011 before putting it on the market again. We will live in the area until early 2011, so we are thrilled that we may be able to continue to live in this house the rest of our time here. He will officially take it off the market by the end of November, so I'm not counting it a done deal until then, but we are hopeful that this works beneficially for all involved so that Kristin can go to school without having to switch, we won't have to move all of our things again (especially while I'm pregnant) and we can enjoy the extra space that give us room for our expanding family. The house being on the market has been a stressful situation and we look forward to having a sense of stability again. I can't remember if I ever posted a picture of the house, so here it is:

Family Fun time







These three little words strike fear in my poor husband, but lucky for the girls and I, he is outnumbered. Here are pictures of this weeks "Family Fun Time" Kristin checked out a library book at school on Origami and we made an attempt to create a few things. We gave up on the hard stuff and ended up making bunnies and puppies. Jason looks miserable in the pictures, but I think even he had fun.









I spy with my little eye...something green!









There is a bug in this picture. Can you see him? This was taken in the flower bed in our front yard. For the record, this is one of the biggest bugs I have ever seen in real life that wasn't pinned to a board in a museum. He scared the crap outta me when I attempted to pull some weeds and saw him stroll by near my hand. I'm not sure if you can tell in the pictures, but he was carrying a cricket in his left paw. This quickly ended my gardening days...I think I'll wait until spring to try again.
-Melissa