A New Week

As I started this post on Sunday night, I had no clue that Monday morning would bring a pre-labor scare. This morning I woke up with contractions that were 2-5 minutes apart for about 5 hours. They started at about 7:00am and Kyle had left for work. I figured they would let up, but then got to thinking that since he might be headed up to Ludington (2 hours away) I better call him and maybe see what to do. By 8:15 I called the before Dr. office hours phone line to see if the Dr on call wanted me to go in to hospital or wait for office hours. He said to call right at 9:00am for an appt. at office. So I got an appt. for 10:15am -meanwhile my mom had come to my house to sit with the girls while I beared thru some contractions. We also packed the girls stuff - at least we are all packed and ready when it is for real. At the Dr. I was told I was a 3 - so one more point dialated, and cervic was still not lined up. Not what I was expecting to hear. Kyle was with me by the way at this point - he turned around in Muskegon to come home. So, false alarm. I did continue to have contractions and they were the ones with the back pain - definitely different from what I had been having. I went to my mom's house then and laid with Braelyn for a while for her afternoon nap and then did a little scrapping (had my laptop packed for the hospital!). So - that was my day. We are about to have dinner here and then I am going to attempt BSF tonight - which will be VERY uncomfortable, so hopefully I make it thru the whole thing or at least half! I just popped tylenol so that should help a bit. Obviously missed work today and no work tomorrow b/c it is my normal day off, so I will go in Wed. if everything is still normal.

Here are a few of the things I worked on this week. The T-shirts are all done and ready for the girls. We got the girls final things hung in their room (I will take a picture of the name letters I did for Selah - they turned out great!!!) I also have the baby's scrapbook album half filled with pre-baby LO's and the visitor signing page, so I feel like I accomplished a lot!






Credits for LO found in my gallery link on upper right!

Hope you all did not have quite as an eventful day as I! We'll keep you posted from here on out!

Look OUT!!!

So I made it thru my Dr. appt. - the 36 week check. I am dialated to 2 and 50% effaced - we'll see where that leads. My guess is that I will stay like that for a while. I think I will just keep telling myself that it will be a while yet so that I don't get my hopes up. Really though, I am going crazy trying to get last minute stuff done! LOL - the nesting part of pregnancy.

Got the carpets all cleaned today. Last night was a BIG night of moving tables and little things off the carpet. I met the cleaner here at 8:00am and then came home from work to a CLEAN and good smelling home. Bad part is - we had to put much of the furniture back tonight. I am AMAZED with the carpet though - it looks like new - almost better than new! No more spots, no sticky feeling, etc... Well worth the money!

The apples that we picked on Sat. - we got those all taken care of now. I made one GREAT apple crisp, and then last night we were having fruit flys flying around so I told Kyle we need to cook the remaining apples. So at 9:00pm he started peeling and coring the apples. We did a HUGE batch of applesause that turned out great too. That will come in handy come next month for a good side dish with easy dinners once the baby comes! I also want to make a few dishes of cheesy potatos that I can easily throw in the oven. Better get some frozen hashbrowns and cheese.

Tomorrow's schedule: (this is more for me - skip if it bores you)

9:15 - leave to bring Braelyn to school

9:35 - drop of property tax payment

9:45 - Michael's Craft Store (to get: a black shelf for girls room, & iron on transfer paper for the girls' big sister shirts)

10:15 - home and do some cleaning - vacuum and mop wood floors (carpets are done - YEAH!)

11:15 - head back to school to get Braelyn

11:35 - home for lunch with the girls

12:15 - 1:30 - play time with girls

1:30 - girls down for naps and time for mom to sit and relax!!!

4:00 - girls up and play time - hopefully outside a bit
5:00 - clean bathrooms (bonus if I get this done before 5:00!!!)

6:00 - Kyle home and time to eat - easy Fri. night dinner at home.

We'll see how that schedule really pans out - LOL!

And here is my reminder list of things to do in the next few days:

*hang the girls shelf and picture in room

*print pictures for the little baby album that Braelyn bought for the baby as gift

*print out the visitor signature page for baby album

*pack bags for me and Kyle and for the girls

*find pictures of both girls at hospital to hang in our hospital room this time to see if the baby will look like either of them!

I did finish a few LO's recently and uploaded them to my galleries tonight. This first one is for a new album I am working on that I will call my Praying Parent book. I am using the prayers from the book "Power of a Praying Parent" by Stormie Omartian. I read the book this summer and really found it helpful. I am not a good pray-er and I think having these to look at and read as prayers to start will help me establish my own prayers in time. I will stick with these similar papers and use these great doodle swirl overlays by the New Designer coming tomorrow to the Lilypad.

And this LO is a LO using Shabby Miss Jenn Designs new Cherrywood Farm kit. I can just say WOW for this kit - literally almost speechless. This kit put me in the mood for fall! I used this LO as my submission for the Hodge Podge challenge this week!

That is it for tonight I guess. My little gal is just a KICKING away - I hope she settles down so I can get some sleep - I think she is using me as a punching bag - super crazy hard. Oh yeah - she has completely dropped too - like she is down there for SURE. Crazy how I always wondered why pregnant woman "waddle" towards the end. Well now that is me - I have to waddle just because I feel like there is a watermellon between my legs - LOL! I just can't WAIT to meet her and to find out if she looks like her sisters did at birth or what. OK - NIGHT! (or good day if you aren't reading this until tomorrow)

MandaKay

I'm a mom of a school child!

What??? How can this be??? I cannot believe it. Today was Braelyn's first day of Three-School! She seemed to really enjoy it. For the first day she only went for an hour and I stayed with her to introduce her to all of the new things. She has a peg for backpack and a cubby hole for her papers. There is a cute kiddie bathroom and little chairs and tables. She thinks that is the BEST - everything is for her size! Her favorite thing about the visit was the pink barbie phone that makes noise - LOL. She wanted to take it home and told me she would take it back there. I explained that the phone can be something that is special to play with at school b/c if she had it at home she wouldn't be so interested in it. I think she let it go. After that I went with her to Target and she picked out a gift to give her baby sister when she comes to meet her at the hospital. She picked a sleeper outfit (b/c we don't have like a MILLION of those - LOL), and the Sassy book that the baby can look at pictures of those who love them. We will put pics of Braelyn and Selah in it (and of course mom and dad too!). I also got pj's for Braelyn and Selah that matched the babies new one b/c Braelyn wanted to be matching. Two little basic cream shirts to make the big sister iron-ons again. I better get on that!

I haven't blogged in a while - we had a busy weekend - Sat. we went apple picking which was great! Sunday was a nice day of church, home for lunch, naps, and then the Sam's Club spree. This week has been going good. Kyle is working lots of hours again this week so our nights feel real short. Other than that, not much going on.

Can't believe it's been 6 years since the aweful attack in NY - my thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims in those attacks and also with our servicemen fighting for our safety.

OK - this post took ALL DAY! Totally had to do it in between doing a bunch of other things - just multi-tasking I guess. Hope to update tomorrow with what my Dr. appt. says.

So many good challenges out there....

I mean - I can hardly keep up. The thing is I LOVE them! I usually need a good challenge to get my scrapping mojo up there. Once I get going it's a breeze, but the push of a challenge helps! The incentive of possibly winning something always helps! The Lilypad challenge this week has so few entries that your chance of winning is like one in one (at least there is only one comment on the post and I think it is a requirement to link up your LO in the comment section of blog after uploading LO) So play along - just use something bright and colorful in the LO, arrange some things in rainbow color order and use some Lilypad product - which I am sure you all have!

I am working on a LO for this challenge also. I hope to finish it up tonight - after our busy activities! Can't wait to show you - I like it so far. In fact - it actually is a LO that combines BOTH challenges. I am kind of killing three birds with one stone you could say. Two challenges and it is a LO of Lilypad goodies so that works for my team requirements!!! Just some good stuff out there!

And lastly I am contemplating taking this challenge. My reservation is in the fact that you need to do a LO a month between (official rules) Sept. 19 and Oct. 30th. which I think means about 6 LO's. Problem with that is that I will be having the baby in between there. Yikes - do you think it will be too hard to keep up with three kids (one being a nursing baby) and do the challenge. Either way I will be buying the kit b/c it looks awesome and is done by a TON of great designers. So help me decide if I should just buy the kit or if I should buy the kit and enroll in the challenge. The prizes are awesome - for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place - not that I would even win, but at least it is incentive. Ugh - what's a girl to do?

So tonight we have my niece Isa's b-day - that is at 6:00 and thenat 7:00 Kyle and I have to skip out for a parent meeting at Braelyn's Three-School. Hopefully that takes an hour or less - don't want to miss out on too much of the party! This weekend will be pretty laid back - no real plans tomorrow night (although Kyle has mentioned the fireworks downtown G.R. for Celebration on the Grand) and then Sat. we are going to go pick the first honeycrisp apples at Crane's Orchard. It is a ZOO there on the first weekend of these apples, but I am willing to brve it! The girls will love it! Plus I think we will do lunch there in their restaurant - make a day out of it! At night we will be going to a derby that my brother-in-law is in - girls have never really been to one of those I don't think - so hopefully they like it. Sunday is church and I don't think either of my sets of parents are doing sunday lunch so maybe just home at a decent time.

I am totally getting the whole anxiety thing starting with this pregnancy now in these last few weeks. I keep thinking something is happening and keep thinking I will go early, and yet I wonder what I will do if I don't and if I will want to be induced if that is offered closer to due date. I had two totally different labor onsets so I wonder if this one will be comepletely different too. I am sure all of you mom's out there remember these feelings. It is so exciting - really. The unknown. I am ready to be done being pregnant and yet I totally enjoy it. I have slight fears that this might be the last and I can't imagine never having the feeling of a moving baby inside of me. It is so amazing to me. I can sit and just watch my stomach move. I can feel the feet on my stomach - it is WILD. This little girl as I have mentioned before really makes herself known. So anyway - next Wed. I have my 36 week check so i should know more then! At least they will tell me if ANYTHING is happening down there. I feel like it is, but I also keep telling myself - "don't get your hopes up". In reality it would be nice to make it past the weekend of the 21st - because that weekend is full of adult nights out - our last real weekend I figure of dates like that for a while. (it includes a dinner banquet on the 20th for a local non-profit, small group at our house on the 21st, and then a Professional Bull show on the 22nd) So I do hope to make it until then - which I am sure won't be a problem! It is just fun sometimes to sit and wonder though!

Time to sign out. Thanks for listening to me blab (although I would blab on here even if no one was listening - LOL), and don't forget to take a challenge this week if you digi-scrap!

MandaKay

We're back!

So we're back from our little weekend get-away. It was so nice to spend time as a family and have Kyle helping with things! The weather was GREAT this weekend and we just had a lot of fun! I have a few pics to share that just highlight our vacation.
















Mac Woods Dune Rides

This was our first year actually doing the dune rides. It was $40 for our family - but it was SOOO worth it. Braelyn smiled from ear to ear the whole time and the views were GREAT!

The girls were so excited to go on this ride! it took us thru the dunes and out to Lake Michigan - got us a little wet and then back to the shop. It was so much fun - Selah loved it and I even think the baby in my tummy loved it! I did sit in front seat since it was the least bumpy and really - the ride was the same as riding in a regular vehicle - nothing crazy on this!

We did the beach on Sat. and Sun. - great weather each time - a little windy on Sunday, but bearable. Again - the girls just enjoyed playing. This little "creek" runs into Lake Michigan on this beach - so great for the kids!

Selah needed a little rest time I guess. She kicked me right out of my beach chair and made herself comfortable. Of course she was pulling her hair and sucking on her first two fingers - double barrel!

Braelyn had fallen asleep on the way to the beach on Sun. We had some trouble with parking since the beach we like has only about 30 parking spots. We waited on the road for about 5 minutes with cars behind us just to wait for one car to leave. Ugh - that is the only downfall on Labor Day weekend - the place was PACKED! Chad drove around for about 20 minutes so we waited for him (he dropped his wife and kids off at the beach) and we let Braelyn take this cat nap. She was OUT!

And here is Selah while we waited - just re-hydrating and getting ready for a beach party!

That's it for pictures - sorry for the rawness of them - I am not the type to fix up pics until they go on my LO's! I also hope they don't post all funny on the actual blog - that is one bad thing about blogger is the layout of it is not the best!

We got back Sunday night around 9:00pm which was great because we got all unloaded and started on all our laundry. We have gotten smart with laundry though - both while camping and really for any little get-away. We take a larg garbage bag and as we have dirty clothes we throw them in there so by time we get home all our dirty laundry is all in one place - and anything left in the bags then is still clean and can just be put away. So laundry even went fairly quickly! Monday morning we went to breakfast with my sister Kim and her girls and my mom and dad. IHOP - nothing fancy. After that we headed down to our Holland Market Place where they finish off a "truck" parade and the trucks all park and hand out goodies and you can look at the semi trucks and sit in them. It is just a little tribute to some local businesses and fun for the kids. They got lots of candy and little toys! We were home by 10:30am and then it was clean time. Kyle did yard work while I kept trucking on the laundry and cleaning house. I put the girls to bed by 12:30 since we were skipping lunch and doing an early dinner. Kyle then came in and we went thru our house room by room and threw away a TON of crap. 2 LARGE garbage bags full! And a pile for GoodWill. Feels good to de-clutter! I did my cousins nails last minute for her senior pictures and then it was shower and off to dinner - again with my mom and dad - LOL! Dinner was Logans - the 2 dinners for $12 deal is GREAT and kids meals are only $2! Our kids split a meal b/c they NEVER eat even half of a half - LOL! Good food and it is always nice to have a little extra help along like mom and dad - LOL! After dinner we went to Target, Best Buy, Michaels, and Bed Bath and Beyond. Talk about errands. Didn't get everything we needed, but we made quite a bit if headway! Home by 9:00 and kids RIGHT to bed since Kyle bathed them late afternoon. Good day! Kyle and I watched a movie once we got all settled to unwind before the work week!

Today I have been busy cleaning again! Talk about nesting - right?! Basically I am going room by room again starting on one end of house and cleaning floors, washing base boards, and scrubbing walls where they need it! Feels good to have this done now that we know we are staying. In the next two weeks I will be calling to get the carpets cleaned so they are all ready for a new baby to be laying down on! Plus I must admit we have only had the carpets cleaned ONCE while living here - like 4 years! YUCK. I just HATE forking out the big bucks for it, but I know it will be worth it. I think I might try the company my sister uses b/c she swears by them - and I want them done RIGHT! I am going to try to scrap here for a bit during naps - I am sooo behind!

Well, my oven timer just went off and I can smell the scruptious blueberry crisp which must mean it's done! Have a great day and week!

On the Catwalk...

yeah on the catwalk, yeah I do my little turn on the catwalk! Sorry - just had to sing that classic 80's song. I know I know - two posts in one night - don't forget the one right below this, but I had to share this! I just made my debut on the THE CATWALK. The fashionistas at Scrapinstyletv.com pick their favorite LO's each week. Well, my house for sale LO got chosen by Kayla (cool name!). I am SHOCKED. That LO was by NO means a favorite of mine so to see someone - a great scrapping someone pick it - is just amazing to me. I know you don't read my blog Kayla - but THANKS! That just made my night!

Two long days

So I am just going to say that the last two days have been tiring! A lot of fun, and two good days off, but tiring! Physically tiring - like last night after salon night I could barely stand, luckily when I woke up this morning and got ready for our trip to Shipshewana I felt none of the soreness from the night before. Tonight - kind of sore again due to just a long hot day shopping and traveling. We had a great day though and it was good to get out. We left at 8:00 this morning and stopped and had breakfast at a great place in Kalamazoo off the highway - kind of became a tradition for the drive to Shipsee. Then back on the road for the rest of the trip. We hit a TON of construction so the drive up there took about 3 hours - with breakfast. Hope mom didn't hate my driving too much - I know i stressed her out a bit b/c I like to just GO - don't get in my way - LOL! We shopped at the flea market for about 2 hours - that was enough. It was HOT! I got my nippers, cheap sunglasses, two watches, looked for a quilt and didn't find one for the right price. The girls got a few things too - some little cheap plates/bowls, and $1 toys. After the market we ALWAYS head to Das Essenhaus. I LOVE this place. Great family style dining - with a TON of good food. Mom tried to talk me into eating on the regular restaurant side since it was just us two and the girls. I would have nothing of it - LOL. I looked at the price of a roast beef dinner on that side and it was $10 - not including drinks and desserts and only 2 side choices. The family style is $15/pp, but you get a little salad, bread (with amish peanut butter - YUM), chicken, roast beef, corn, potatos, stuffing, amish noodles, a drink and a dessert (uh - yes - we took that to go b/c we were STUFFED). So for $15 - you get all of that that you want! Good deal I would say. So we enjoyed that food - although would have enjoyed it more without Selah, but nonetheless we enjoyed it. It was good to be in the air with an ice water and a fountain pop!!! And we couldn't head home without my mom getting the girls new horse stuffed animals and a ride on the amish horse and buggy around the grounds. I stayed back and went in two shops and then got the car ready for the ride home. It was thundering off in the background so the ride was just a shorter one and we just beat the rain while we scurried into the car! Off we were on the way home! Again - more road construction and oddly enough - we got stopped on the road just by the Michigan border for a TREE that lay across the whole road. There was some amazing lightning and we assume that some hit the tree and made it fall. Luckily no cars were under it - kind of scary. If we had left 5 minutes before, that could have been scary. Some guys had gotten out of there cars to somehow manhandle the whole tree to get it off the road so cars could continue on. Just bizarre stuff on our travels - kind of thanking God right now for protecting us b/c it was crazy! So we had a great time - home by 6:00 to my mom and I came home with the girls here by 7:00. We took a shower together (so much easier for me to have them in the shower with me than to lean over the tub with my big belly!). Girls were in bed sleeping by 8:00!!! So two great busy days off! It will kind of be nice to be at work tomorrow - b/c work is actually relaxing to me - a break. Kyle is gone again tonight helping his brother move some last things from their sold cottage!

Have I told you I feel like a single mom? Well I do - still haven't gotten over it - sorry for bringing it up again. I am not complaining - just saying I am kind of sick of it already. The girls miss their dad like crazy. Everyday when we are heading home from somewhere they ask "will Daddy be home?" I am sure they just expect me to say no. And basically that is the fact - he's not home. I don't blame him either. He is just working hard - doing his best. He aims to please - everyone. Just right now it seems like he's aiming to please everyone but his family. Work is VERY demanding for him right now and then he needs his time too - so it's not like I can blame him for needing to get away either - just feels like it's a lot! This too shall pass!

OH yeah - had my 34 week appt. yesterday! Wow - like next appt they will start "checking" my "progress" (if you know what I mean LOL). I had lost a pound in 2 weeks - kind of odd at this point and I cannot believe. I EAT! I eat a TON! I love my ice cream and sweets. I think it can only be b/c I have been busy chasing the girls! We haven't had time to do our bike rides or walks so it's not from that. Who knows - I am sure it is no concern - next appt I will probably have gained 5 - LOL! The babe is definitely growing b/c she is so right there. Just still shoving my insides around like mad! I totally know I will miss that feelingin a little over a month. :(

OK - this ended up being a longer post than I thought - LOL! That's what you get when Kyle is gone - you get me talking to you b/c I can't tell you the last conversation we had together. Oh wait - it was the night we got to go out together just us two - two weekends ago! So you get my blabbermouth instead of him - LOL! This will probably be my last post until next Mon./Tue. We are off on Fri. morning to the cottage! Hope you all have an awesome Labor Day weekend!