Its been a minute

Well, maybe a bit longer then that!

Time is a thief.

AND OH MY, has it been a crazy a year.

Today marks, one year.

One year since we closed on a home that had a huge hole in its cedar shake shingle roof.

One year since we purchased a 2nd home, not knowing if the 1st would even sell.

One year, since we  REALLY knew what we were getting into and really prepared ourselves for a long haul of a serious fixer upper.

What I hadn't planned on?

Delays in permits and contractors, resulting in living ONLY upstairs in the fixer upper with 4 kids.

363 days ago our first house had an accepted offer. So we knew we would have about 2 months before we would be moving in to the new house.We knew that meant we could potentially be moving into studs and subfloor. 

And thats EXACTLY what happened. 

What a whirlwind it was. Craziest thing?

We survived.

This is the first time we were in the house. Before any demo at the back of the house.

This is what the kitchen looked like shortly before we moved in.
The only difference when we moved in was that the tile Matt had jack-hammered up on the main floor was cleaned up.

This is the 3rd bedroom, Ruby's room. When the permits got pushed I knew there was no way we could live upstairs with this second story bedroom exposed. I mean really, the mom-fear was intense.
Matt and I drywalled and finished this by ourselves right before we moved in.
And when I say moved in, I am referring to the fact that all six of us moved into the upstairs of the "new house".
Every morning I run down to the basement where I had a simple set up of fridge and microwave to pop pancakes and breakfast sandwiches in the nuke for a couple minutes then carry it back up 2 flights of stairs. Of course we had the coffee maker set up in the master bedroom, I mean of course right?

Tiny Lil'Helmet Head

Of course I think my Rue is cute. 

But then you smush her chunky cheeks into this helmet and I just fall in love all over again. 

Part of it is because my heart is hurting for her and I want to just hold her close, squeeze her and tell her how much I love her to the moon and back. So I do. Then she pinches my cheek or tries to pull my ear off :) Gosh, I just love her. 

She is doing really well. Today is post 24 hours and I feel like she is exhausted. I don't know if its possible for the band to exhaust her but between the extra, but small, weight, along with all the sweating I think it can. You may not believe me, but REALLY the sweating is amazing. That a tiny little girl could have so much sweat coming off her head is profounding. Her hair is all wet and matted down when I take the helmet off and the helmet is speckled with droplets of water. She hates when I put the helmet on. Thats the worst part. After she is her usual Rubes. She has not been a good tummy girl. She sleeps on her tummy but playing on her tummy she has never been interested in, she prefers to sit. Now with the helmet, she hates being on her tummy even more. This is a problem as at this age being on your tummy is key to growth and hitting key milestones. 

The older girls don't seem to be too fazed by Ruby being in her helmet. However, when I take it off for her breaks, Peyton always finds it and sneaks off with it. I haven't figured out why or where she's going, but I kind of thing she wants to put it on her baby! The outer part of her helmet is a sold plastic life material. It apparently is begging to be tapped on as I find my husband tapping on it anytime he is holding Ruby!

The Things They say...

Ellee
"So I was just thinking...in my head."

"Hey Mom, if you just eat a lot of food, you know like a whole bunch, then you can just have another baby!"

Peyton
*Praying at dinner after the local festival*
"God, thank you for food. Mama, and Daddy. Peyton, Ellee, and wooby.. For dragon roller coast, bwoo bicycle, and Jesus. Amen"

A little bit kinda Busy Ruby Update

It seems the past weeks have been go go go. Oh and I wish it would slow slow slow. Its been a lot. With numerous doctors appointments and things to accomplish, along with multiple visitors and Ellee starting school (Yea, I know. But thats for another post) 

At the end of July we knew we needed a head CT done for Ruby. This is the first step to complete to confirm that she has no other cranial issues just shape problems. They specifically were looking for  craniosynostosis. This is early fusing of plates, but as presumed, she got the all clear. But that wasn't before an insane 3 week long process of trying to get her head CT completed.

We booked it the last week of July. I arranged to have Matt come with me, found a sitter for the girls. I had been forewarned by a friend that they sometimes sedate. Well we get there, I go in, they say they don't need to sedate. GREAT! But then the tech reads the order, talks to the radiologist, then decides they can't do the test because she definitely needs to be sedated since they need a very clear image for diagnosis. Great. So they tell us to go home and they'll call us. One day. Two day. Three day-I get a call and they just haven't got an order (basically a prescription) from her pediatrician for sedation. So you know the run around, I make a call here, a call there, and back and forth. Then finally we're good. I can book. But, not until mid August because they have to coordinate the scan with the pediatric unit and so on. Sheesh.

Day off finally comes. She has to be NPO for 6 hours prior to the scan. She did so amazing considering. I was so worried she was going to be so upset. She did surprisingly well. But she was done by the time we finally got her on the table. IV'd and all. She was screaming and flailing. Then they gave her the meds, and she calmed right down and stared at me like a unicorn straight out of fantasy world. It was bizarre to say even the least. I was quite concerned because I thought they were going to put her right out, but they did not explain the process to me very well. They basically give her the utmost smallest dose of meds, and add as needed. She responded quickly and well to the smallest dose and didn't need to be put right under. THANKFUL.

Now we are back on track for her helmet. Shell be fitted next week, and delivery will happen the first week in September. 

Amidst all of this had her assessed by a physical therapist and also by early intervention. She'll be completely assessed this Thursday by another PT as well as Developmental therapist. So in the meantime I've be persuing etsy and other sites looking for something cute to add to her "melon" gear. :) 

Ruby Jane...and her big noggin'

 Our sweet little gem. She has the softest cry, even when shes super mad. She has been through so much for her 6 months. I can go through her amazing birth story another day. At 4 weeks old she started to break out. My babies had never had baby acne, and always had great skin post birth, this was quite new for me. At first, I thought, oh just that baby acne the little ones can get. But it would come on so quickly! And it worsened, and worsened, and it started to bleed, and sort of puss. It was horrible, and worst of all, it was all over her poor little cheeks and face. I could take away most of the redness with breastmilk. After each feed I would just soak ever spot that I could find in milk. And it helped! But it didnt fix it, I decided I should get her looked at, maybe she had an allergy to something in my milk. The doctor said it was eczema. But if it was an allergy to food, she would have it on her body as well. So I treated it as I was told. Still no improvement, worse even. So I went back to only breastmilk treatment and shed the creams and ointments. Then I started rewashing everything in new detergent. To shorten this up, a few days without the cozy in her carseat and her favorite blanket, along with a chat with a friend at church, led me to believe it was a contact allergy, and I had narrowed it to polyester. We still keep polyester away from her and don't allow it to touch her. The eczema cleared up!

At 6 weeks old she was breathing very rapidly and had a mild fever and cold. After some advising from the on call pediatrician I found myself in the ER with her at 11 pm on a Monday night. Everything came back clear, thank the Lord. 2 weeks later at about 8 weeks old, she still wasn't over the cold. She was coughing and had such awful congestion it was making her vomit. I tried to not get super concerned but after 2 days of some scaryness I decided I needed to get her checked out and went to urgent care.  She was admitted to the hospital. I watched in horror as they tried and tried again to IV her and even blew veins. So terrible on such a little thing. But she got the treatment she needed. Their concern was that it was pertussis. I never heard back if it was but for the hospital stay they diagnosed it as bronchiolitis, scary in such a little one, and treated her as if she had pertussis as well (they actually send the sample out of hospital to be tested so it takes awhile). We came home but it still took a week for her to be much better!

 Fast forward to today. Ruby has a head tilt. I had noticed and did minor things to try and correct her preference. She has quite the noggin', in the 98% as far as size. I would tilt her head straight or try to get her to look the other way. Set her down for tummy time, or sit her up-she sits unsupported now. But to no avail no improvement in the past month. Then over the weekend, I noticed her eyes. One looks more open then the other, and one ear, it sticks out more. What was a mild concern for her preference turned to major concern. It was obvious to me, maybe to no one else, but as her Mama I could see, this preference was becoming a problem. Its called a torticollis.

You can see the tilt to her right side, and  also if you look closely, her right eye looks more widely open then her left, which looks like it has a bigger eyelid. And her left ear seems to be sticking out.

It can happen because of positioning in the womb, or maybe it has happened to Ruby because she has such a big head, and such a small body. Either way, it has tightened and strengthened the muscles on one side of her neck and weakened the ones of the opposite side. Imagine trying to stretch your calf muscle, every time I try to turn Ruby's head the non-preferred direction, shes uncomfortable. With the torticollis, comes the problems with her head. Keeping her head in a preferred position and direction results in a head that is not correctly shaped. Its called plagiocephaly, or brachycephaly, depending on how you look at it.

She keeps her head 99% of the time tilted to her right shoulder. We have it caught in good time that there should be no lasting muscle effects, but she will be getting physical therapy to help get the muscles worked. The shape of her head and how it is off-setting her features is also of concern .To correct this secondary issue caused by the torticollis she will be in need of cranial band. AKA. helmet. To say I am not looking forward to the 3-5  months, 23 hours a day of helmet may be an understatement. But, I  have faith the Lord knows my sweet Rue better then I and He knit her together just so right down to her inner most being.

 From the front, the usual head tilt. You also can see the mild left ear sticking out.

This is not a direct above shot so it doesn't quite show the protrusion of the left side and flatness of the right very well. But you can note the overall flatness of the back of her head, almost creating a square look, this is the brachycephaly.

Ellee's 5th Birthday

I have so much catching up to. From Pey's 3rd birthday up until the present. But here's where I'll start!

Our Ellee is 5! An amazing 5. She was always such a sassy little toddler. I think some of our family and friends can vouch for her interesting antics. Whether it be snagging some of the "holy bread" post morning church, or plastering hard wood with diaper cream, all the way down to unwinding several rolls of toilet paper. Somewhere amidst all her little fun and games, she really grew up on me.
Much to my chagrin, she loves watching the food network. Particularly 'baking shows' she call it. She still adores pink and purple, and princess is in her vocabulary. She is a sucker for a fancy dress, any thing she deems beautiful. Amidst her sweet girly side, I see her feisty-ness still. She was totally willing to take out the other soccer girl when she was racing for the ball and she has no shame in revenge; funny or not, we're working on this! Haha! She isn't the most sensitive child, but I can tell she is sensitive to other people. If someone says or does something unkind she can really be quite a heartbroken child, if its her sister however, well revenge it is. :) She is so witty too. She knows the rules and somehow can coax Peyton so she really has no fault as she was not the one crossing the lines, its all a technicality which she is completely in tune with!
I look back on the pictures of her an yearn to go back and kiss her sweet cheeks. It makes me so excited for the future with her too, and even to see Ruby grow!

 Everytime Elle is instructed for a picture she always struggles to smile normally, her school pictures are going to be FAB! ha.

The Things they say...

"Mom you have glasses! Can you be my teacher?" -Ellee

"Wooby (Ruby) has pickups."
"Say Hicc-ups, Peyton."
"Pick ups."
"Hi-cups"
"Hi-pickups."
(I give up.)

*Matt doing pushups*
*Peyton sits on Matt's back*
*Matt continues pushups*
"Uncle D! You wan wride? Come sit D!"

Time.

My oh My, has time just so quickly passed!

It's been an awful long time since Ive been actively blogging, more the a year it looks like. Upcoming will be multiple posts about each of the girls. I haven't even dove in our a newest, sweetest little gem, Ruby Jane!

The things Ellee says...

Stands up on a chair, hands stuck out
"I am so FABULOUS!"
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Telling her papa about the shots she received at her doctors appt

"And I got 2! And I was freaking out!!!!"

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Talking about the baby

"But where will the baby sit in the van?"

"Well we were thinking since you can buckle, you can sit in the back and the baby can sit in your seat."

"I don't want the baby to come out! I want to sit here!!"

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While passing a spot on the road we've driven many a time...
"Look. This is where mama stop, and she throw up  bad on the grass!'
(Pregnancy with a 4 year old can be extremely amusing)
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"I don't like hot sauce! It has a fire in it!"

Elle Belle is 4 -Her Birth Story-

It amazes  me how quickly time passes. Our sweet Ellee turned 4 on the 3rd of July. Its crazy to think about her birth! I realized it is something I never shared on the blog and thought it would be nice to add the girls birth stories!

This is a disclaimer. This IS a birth story. Do I really need to say more?

Ellee surprised us , were not expecting to be expecting, and we were not expecting the delivery we got. My older sister was engaged and getting married July 23rd of 2011. We found out we were expecting in November 2010, the Monday after we had been to Canada for me to be fitted for my bridesmaid's dress. As soon as I found out, I used Google to figure out my due date, July 22nd. Woah. That just might not work out very well. From there our goals changed. I just wanted to be at the wedding and not worry about being in it.

Ellee was our first everything. Even though we were VERY surprised, we were extremely excited. We couldn't wait to meet her. My pregnancy wasn't difficult at all, not sick really, no major symptoms, except one. Swelling. And a lot of it. It started before 30 weeks even and just progressed and quickly. I wasn't too bothered by it till about 35 weeks. Too much time on my feet and they would be extremely swollen. The swelling made my feet sore and tight. But other then that, I was dandy.

At 36 weeks, my dear sister (in-law) was getting married in Wisconsin and we easily made the trip. We came home on the Sunday evening. I had a doctors appt on Friday. Interestingly enough, my doctor had been on maternity leave from my 29th week to just before my 37th week. It was also her first baby. I went into the office at about 11:00. The nurse took my blood pressure. She took it again. She made me lay down. She took it again. I knew something was up. I saw my doctor, and she was the sweetest. But she told me I need to head to labor and delivery triage, my blood pressure was high, even while lying down , 150/110. She was doing a urine test already to test for protein, but given my swelling and my blood pressure, it wasn't worth the risk on the baby to wait it out. She did not know for sure if they would induce, but most likely if the BP didn't change.

Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic, I said in my head over and over. 

1. I was by myself. If  Matt was there I would have felt differently. 

2. I hated the idea of hospitals. A little bit of white coat syndrome I suppose. I have hated needles since I was little, frequently passing out after them. 

3. I hadn't even had my baby shower, it was on Monday!
So July 1st, I was admitted. And my BP did not change at all. I was 3 days shy of 37 weeks and I definitely had preeclampsia. Baby girl needed to come out. They started the process slowly before giving me the pitocin. They also had to give me something extremely terrible, a drug called magnesium sulfate which they were giving me to bring down my blood pressure. It was staying so high they were concerned about seizures. The drug made it extremely hard for me to focus and also made me lack strength. Even after I gave birth, they kept me on it and it still wasn't coming down 24 hours post-partum so the sent me home on a blood pressure medicine for a couple weeks after she was born.
By Saturday morning, I was 3cm. The nurse came in and told me doctor had okayed me to get the epidural if I'd like. She said given the amount of pitocin they were giving me, and upping it continually, things would pick up fast. Oh dear I thought, I signed the paperwork. Even though I hadn't decided what to do. I was feeling contractions, but it was really nothing. I said I'd wait though, and tell them later if I actually wanted it. At 4pm, I was only 4 cm, the doctor broke my water. She left and WHAM. A contraction, and boy it was just terrible. It lasted about 30 seconds. Then about 1 minute later, another one. About 30 seconds. And this continued for about 15 minutes. I knew I couldnt make it, I was only 4 cm! That pitcoin, I am telling you. GRRRRR. I sent matt out to bring me an anesthesiologist and FAST. Like  Mach 3 fast. He came back and tried to comfort me. Key word here is try. Bless that man, but I kept yelling at him to stop touching me.  I can't even remember how long it took, apparently he was in a surgery and would come as soon as he was out. My pain turned to anger quickly and somewhere in there I started saying stupid doctor, where is the stupid doctor. Well it worked, he waltzed in. The nurse followed and said I'd need to sit on the side of the bed. I hadn't moved that fast in 9 months, I HAPPILY swung my feet around, told Matt to go, and cuddled a pillow so I could be gloriously drugged. :)
As soon as it was done and they told me I could lay back- I should add, I literally didn't feel a thing. I was in so much pain it was non existent to get the epidural, which prior to that moment I was more scared about the epidural then giving birth-I fell asleep almost instantaneously. The only thing I really remember in between all that was Matt handing me my phone and telling me he would be right back after getting some food. I knew when he came back because I could smell this awful smell, it was pizza, and I got sick immediately. This was about 10/11 at night.
From there things seemed to fly by. I was 10 at about 1130 and we started pushing at about 12 or just after. I did not realize how long this process would be. I also didn't realize, in true Ellee Scarlett form, she was doing everything possible to make the delivery on her terms. She was sunny side up, face up coming out instead of face down. Which is basically just formula for trouble delivering. At 2:20 am I was still pushing. And my Doctor was standing there and I KNEW what she was thinking. So I said it. I said it to Matt, to the nurses to my Doctor. I DO NOT WANT A C-SECTION.  So  she stood there, thinking, then she pulled out the vacuum and pulled out Ellee. Matt's side to this story is a little more intense. I cant remember or relate to how long she was using the vacuum. But Matt said he was about to tell her to stop. He said he could just see her arm flexing as she pulled. But Elle was fine, so thankful for Gods hand on her birth! And she had a large hematoma on her head from the vacuum but other then that, nothing, thank goodness. We've heard horror stories about vacuum experiences.

2:29 am.

5lbs 12 oz

And just so tiny.

The funniest thing is the whole time the nurses kept saying "We see here!!" "Strawberry blonde hair!" "A little redhead!!"

It was basically hilarious when she was born and covered in Matt's dark hair. She even had hair on her ears. so sweet.

To this day, Ellee likes things on her terms. She full is of ridiculous surprises and when she wants to do something, she'd like it to be done her way if at all possible. But when things aren't going the way she would like, its hard to even reason with her.

Oh this girl!!

Finding my blogging groove

Totally need to get back in the groove of blogging! Its definitely one of the best ways to remind me of who said what and what happened when! Between school and work things are crazy, as usual. Nothing less from us Dudgeons!
But by summer  I want to be in regular swing. Hopefully my new phone will assist  in the process  :)

Peyton Is 2!

I remember the day we found out we were pregnant with Peyton. I was surprised. But happy! And then I did some quick math and realized how little the age gap between the girls would be. People do it, my brother and sister in law have 2 only 15 months apart. I could manage 2 under 17 months apart.

It was fun. And looking back, I would go back. So many little memories that  were going by and I just didn't stop worrying about the laundry, toilets, and floors to take the time to savor them.

Peyton has been so sweet, and up until her second birthday she seemed to as passive as her Papa not seemingly minding the usual control of an older sibling. But she has flowered and she certainly minds. She has lungs of a lioness. Take a toy, or causer any abrupt change to her world and you will know it. Peyton is particular. She doesn't like socks or shoes. She hates them. Ellee wasnt like this. Peyton doesnt really like footie pajamas, and she hates coats. Anything that affects her particular usually behavior or limits her she is complete loathe of.
Peyton was pacifier free right after her second birthday. It went relatively smoothly, as she got a really bad cold and couldnt suck on the pacifier while falling asleep. So we ditched it. She seems to have gotten obsession with bringing water to bed with her now in a sippy. Its not that she may be drinking it, she just wraps her arms around it in an obsession.
Peyton loves to give hugs and kisses. Even on a whim. Its so sweet. She does live up to her Sweet Pea nickname :)

The Crunchy Boat...That I missed

 

I got married at 19. Before I was married I was a college student and planning a wedding. After, I moved  my entire life to the U.S. and settled myself into a new area started a new job and was back at school. Somewhere in this time I think the boat took off without me, or maybe I just decided to not get on?

Lets be honest, I am not a crunchy person. The oils, the natural births, the no high fructose corn syrup, no nitrates, all that stuff. Yea, I missed most of that. And then all the sudden I'm like, what is eucalyptus oil? (Apparently if you put it in your kids rooms you can take their common cold and cough symptoms edge off?? )

Its not that I don't believe in the importance of good health, I just was raised on the occasional hotdog and slice of bacon along with a treat of coca cola. My mom did the whole natural birth thing, and I consider it when I think of more children but then...I REMEMBER. And I am like praise the Lord for human intelligence that created such a great thing as an epidural :) I don't have a particularly high pain tolerance and may or may not have been referred to as 'low tol' once or twice before.

I read an article once on how you should not feed your kids nitrates they're bad for them, carcinogens, and so on. But then I found out our bodies actually make nitrates...Bacon for all! Not exactly, it just reminds me that my Organic research was useful in other areas as well. Eating well is important, and the occasional nitrate hotdog or delicious nitrate cured bacon in the morning won't kill you.

And then I read this article and loved it. Perfect. I love his choice words "Maybe we need to not swallow as much". 

I haven't got too much to say about the high fructose corn syrup. I really don't think its great for health. It usually means high sugar content and that means sugar crashes and extra weight. Not even to mention what work it puts your body through. But again, I am not going to say its bad to drink it occasionally. My father-in-law would completely disagree as he is pretty healthy and he has AT LEAST a coke a day.

I try to be a little bit more on the crunchy side, but I just can't do it like some others I believe in eating your fruits and vegetables and more recently the HUGE importance of water.  But beyond that things just fall where they like. If I have a craving I'll be the first to admit I just plain fall for it, my insides are made of chocolate and pastries, and I love a good cupcake. 

But I push my children to try good foods but again, my kids eat what I eat and that includes the occasional chocolate, and they've had soda before.

The point of it all, I am not crunchy, but like organic foods, you don't need to be a certain way or feed your kids a particular way to be a good mama!

 

The things they say...

Upon seeing a bruise on my back...
Ellee: 'Oh mama! What happened?'
'I fell.'
'Oh you fell down the stairs!'
'No I fell when we were swimming last week.'
'Oh..Okay. Papa spanked you!'

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 Driving through the Wisconsin dells, we see tonnes of water slides and amusement park rides.
Ellee " (SHRIEKS of magnificent proportions) (covers mouth) OH MY GOODNESS!!! (SHRIEKS of magnificent proportions)"

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Ellee come down for breakfast. Teddy bear in tow.
Walks into the kitchen, still half asleep, then Gasps!!
'What?'
"Mama! I tooted!"

3 years Ago

3 years ago this little baby girl was born.

Everyone told me how hard it would be. How I'd never sleep again. I'd never get to spend real quality time with my husband again. 

But no one told me, how much I'd love it. Love her! How fulfilling my life would become. How amazing a child...A BLESSING from the Lord would be in my life.

I had no idea how she'd change our world. But she has and it's been amazing.

Between her charisma spunk and sassy ness there is never a dull moment.

She loves ice cream, yogurt tubes, and blueberries.

She hates band aids and anyone who tries to be helpful. Really though, if you do something for her that she knows she can do for herself, she turns into a melted Popsicle all over the floor. She likes to be self sufficient and as independent as we will let her.

She's potty trained and pacifier free now, and happily strips down when were not looking. Camping, church, you name it. She's a free spirit, no shoes, and no clothes is her happy place. We don't condone it and try to keep her clothed as much as possible. The shoes always seem to be off however. Which is odd, because she loves shopping for clothes, shoes and all. She'll grab things off shelves and proclaim so cute, and always request to wear a 'pretty ballerina' dress.

She amazes me with her wittiness and smarts. She knows all her alphabet and shapes, colors are still in the works. She has a great vocabulary and picks up on words and context and uses them back on us correctly.

She can be so aggressive, then completely loving, she'll randomly give kisses on hands and legs, and proclaim her love for me or her papa.

This little spitfire is such a blessing. I wouldn't trade her for the world, but I'd do anything to go back to her first years and savor them a bit more. I am so thankful for these past three years and pray for more!

What NOT to say to the prego

So I have been thinking about this for awhile, and so many friends are pregnant I have been thinking of all the ridiculous things people said to me through 2 pregnancies. Like bizarre. And so people, didn't need to say anything their reactions were enough.
Below you will find some of the numerous things people, some acquaintances  some strangers,  felt the liberty of saying to me.

"Just a couple days left!"
"Actually, I have 10 weeks left."
*jaw drops, then spins on heels and walks away rapidly*
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When buying a pregnancy test
Cashier hands me receipt, "good luck with the test!!"
Me, "um, thanks." Spins on heels walks away rapidly :)
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"Oh look you have a girl, now u have baby boy coming soon!"
"Actually it's a girl."
" Nope! It's a boy!"
*Proceeds to lift up my jacket checks out my waistline before declaring "yup, a boy!"
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"Wow! You look like an overstuffed sausage!"
( obviously I had nothing to say to this, really people?)
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"So are you like, pregnant again, or.....not?"
Me "yes, I am pregnant, not just fat"
(In these kind of scenarios I totally need to start taking advantage of the other person. Making them feel bad and think I am just fat would be quite fun. It's kind of like when you're pregnant and some one touches your belly and rubs it, just do it back and they probably never rub your prego belly again)
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" Have you got a name picked out?"
" yea were going to name her Ellee and probably Scarlett for a middle name"
" that's, different...."
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And really, it doesn't end there. This is what I could think of and I'll add if I remember any other absurd pregnancy encounters. Having kids, I still have bizarre encounters. But I have always been the type of girl attracting crazy people to have conversations with me and my kids...

Pray More Worry Less

I saw this over the weekend and it really should be my motto for life. There's an amazing God  up there wanting to carry my burdens so I don't have to, I just need to truly give them over to Him.

It's been a week since I got home from my trip to Saskatchewan to visit my sister. One thing I have never been good at dealing with has been my absurd fear of flying. From my first flight, when I was 10 years old and it was surprise flight to Disney world, in which, I cowered in the back seat of the van bawling my eyes out and shrieking, only to be pry ed out of the van by my parents. Fast forward to a couple months ago when I booked my flight. I was anxious booking the flight. Fast forward to the actual flight, I was terrified and uneasy. And I got there fine and all was well. Of course my Hubby dropping me off, logically explains in his engineer way that it was more likely I die in the car on the way to the O'hare airport. And honestly, its not the fear of dying, I am definitely afraid of the heights, and the putting of full faith in the pilot to land and all, but a part of me is terrified the plane will start to go down and the idea of being trapped in close quarters with 50+ hysterical people before we crash, terrifies me. Its crazy how our minds drum up these ridiculous things. 

All in all my trip was terrific, I got to spend time with sweet Julia and my sister and brother-in-law, and my planes arrived and departed safely. 

Another incident, made me think of my need to pray more often. I pray daily, more then daily, but maybe I need to be praying more avidly about specific people and things. A friend passed away last weekend, and it was so unexpected, she fell and broke her neck. God took her home to Heaven. It made me be anxious about my kids, what if their lives ended so unexpectedly? But its truly out of my hands, and I prayed at that moment for the Lord to help me appreciate the moments I have right now with my kids, and to remember He has our little family in the palm of his hand. 

1 Peter 5:7

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. 

Weekend Shenanigans and Upcoming activities

The weekend was relatively usual, except Matt worked most of Saturday doing some carpentry for a friend. And then he played basketball most of Sunday afternoon. But Saturday we palyed outside and enjoyed the day.  Regardless that it felt like a weekday workday I was bent on relaxing and not doing anything too work like. I did go to the grocery store. Interesting, as usual. In the middle of checking out Ellee grabbed Peyton's hand, slowly selected her victim of the 5 fingers and then bit down on her middle finger leaving teeth marks. BIZARRE. I still have no idea what posessed her to do such a thing but I am SURE it won't happen again. 

That afternoon Ellee was outside and I was inside. I all the sudden hear her screaming at ridiculous decibels. Why? She can hear the ridiculous music of the ice cream truck. Our mistake of course for introducing such a thing to her.  Here's what I caught on video. 

You can check out my Instagram for her ending excitement once she got her well sought after ice cream.

That night we ended at the home depot and Menards. Its taken about 24 years for me to like that store :) 

We drove by a diary queen, so of course we swung by, its definitely my weakness. A midnight truffle blizzard NEVER gets old. 

Peyton loved it. She hadn't got any ice cream that day and it kept her ridiculously happy through Menards. 

The summer months are upon us. Which is secret code for busyness. I am so relieved to be done school, but that doesn't mean things slow down!

I head to Saskatchewan on Thursday and the usual anal way that I plan and organize our life, I am looking ahead at the next two months and planning how everything should go, and how to help it go smoothly. It's filled with trips to Canada and Wisconsin, and plenty of visitors in chicago. One of the bigger ventures is a camping trip with the dudgeon side in Wisconsin. 2 kids under two camping....does this scare anyone besides me?if I being honest I am actually a little worried aim going to lose a kid. Ellee is so quick to wander and live her life how she pleases that she'd probably leave us to go do something on her own. I need to be prepared and be on high alert the whole time, it may be a very draining experience, but it will definitely have some memories, I think. We've rented a cabin, good thing which good for multiple reasons. 2 kids, and the fact that it keeps ellee contained so she can't run lose on us at night time. Also I don't want to interrupt the people sleeping in tents with the sound of shouting toddlers instead of the nightly crickets. 

The there's my sisters wedding in July. Matt and I are both standing up and then the girls are flower girls. No, I am not joking. Thank goodness we're bringing a "Nanny". 

Pit and Peak Thursday

Peak: Ellee pooping on the potty

Pit: it was a fight and we sat like this for over 20 minutes till finally she gave in. 

Peak: coming back into the room and seeing has taken the initiative to feed sweet Peyton her yogurt and fruit. I am not sure what provoked her to just do it, but it was so sweet to see. And the funny thing is it takes so much work for Peyton to eat from us. She constantly rejects whatever we have on the spoon, but of course, ellee fed her the entire bowl, no complaints...

Peak: munchkins passing out in the car. So sweet. Can never get enough of them!

Judging a Banana by its Label

I’ve spent a lot of time this year working on my college courses. I haven’t finalized what I’ll do and exactly what my degree will be; I am not in a rush with 2 little ones at home.

For my English class, the major assignment was writing a research essay. We spent most of the course working at researching our chosen topic. We could choose anything. I tossed a couple different controversial ideas in my mind and then decided to go for something a little less controversial, and more something I actually wanted to know about. Now I think it’s probably still pretty controversial, as a lot of people have their own ideas about everything, but why don’t I share with you what I found out, about Organic food.

Everyone knows somebody who devotes the majority of their eating habits to organic foods, at least I think so. Especially in a metropolitan area, there are plenty of grocers with their own organic sections and some whole stores are devoted to 100% organic. My husband is a farm boy, raised in Wisconsin and grew up on a cattle farm, owned by his Veterinarian father, who actually just enjoys having cattle on the side. They didn’t eat organic anything, except for the produce from their own garden. It was store bought milk and their own non-organic beef, and to this day the 10 kids of his family are all alive and well, so it’s easy to see why he has so many uneducated and firm ideas about organic being ridiculous, which of course have rubbed off on me.

I decided this was the perfect opportunity to research this unknown water to us, I mean it’s really not fair to pass judgment discriminate against the organic bananas if you don’t really know about them, right?

Well, after 12 weeks, a tone of research, and a 3,500 word research paper later, I am informed. And this is my way of sharing with you what I learned without throwing 12 pages of words and citation in front of you!

I had so many questions, and I dove in with the question I had assumed for some time to be true: Why is organic food better? Let’s get right at it, it’s not. This is a total misconception. After looking at several studies completed, there is no firm evidence that organic food is better. Some organic potatoes showed to have a little more phosphorus, but our diets are more than potatoes, or at least mine is and I hope yours is too! The process of making organic produce is actually more environmentally friendly and research shows this is proven, less synthetic pesticide run off and such.

And how about those pesticides? Organic foods aren’t made with pesticides right? Yea, actually they are. They are just environmentally friendly pesticides, approved by the USDA, which breakdown in the environment. So if they break down easier in the environment this also means that sometimes, organic farmers have to use larger amounts of pesticides to find success for their crop. Keep in mind too, just because they’re more environmentally friendly does not necessarily mean they are more human health friendly. Some of the pesticides, rotenone and pyrethin, used on organic crops are 10x more toxic then roundup by weight. Lovely. A lot of people seem to fear the synthetic pesticides on regular old produce, but there’s no research proving them a problem, and the FDA monitors this closely.

Not only is there organic produce, we also see the +$6.00 gallon of organic milk at the grocery store, and the (usually) grass fed organic beef. A lot of people will buy organic milk to stay away from hormones given to the cows. But really, those hormones rarely make it through the pasteurization process and even if they did our bodies ignore them and can’t break them down. So unless you’re getting your milk from your pet cow, or buying raw milk, don’t use the excuse of avoiding hormones to spend extra $ on organic milk. In fact, a study done showed that the average range of hormone byproducts in both organic and non-organic milk was in the same range, that’s ironic.

The beef issue pushed me into an interesting area of my research. I got to bond with my father-in-law and talk to him about his experience as a veterinarian and a cattle farmer. He had a lot to share and I was extremely enlightened. As a vet he actually goes to some organic farms and provides hormones or antibiotics if necessary, yea, to organic cows. But the USDA actually offers farmers waivers for certain situations. So the beef can still get that ‘organic’ label even though they’ve received antibiotics or hormones. Other farmers can actually obtain waivers if they live outside of 100 mile radius of organic feed. So they feed the cows non-organic feed and then get a waiver from the USDA to maintain the organic label on the beef. Kind of contradictory, right? So what about antibiotics and hormones in regular old beef? My father in law has cattle and according to him, if his beef tests positive for antibiotics, well, it can’t be sold. The FDA does a pretty good job, I am not sure we give them enough credit, probably because most of the times were too busy criticizing.  I think it’s really important to remember the FDA will test things accordingly and it’s up to us not to do drastic things to our bodies.

After all was said and done- and 3500 words later-my husband was happy to know that based off current science and knowledge, we can still buy the non-organic products without fear. Maybe over time research and studies might show a difference, but for now, organic foods are better for the environment, but not proven better for us. I am not saying you should not buy organic, you should just make eating a healthy well rounded diet a priority, not the ‘O’ word. My main purpose in my research was to make sure I was making good decisions for my family and also be able to know why I don’t buy organic when asked about it.  Its best for us to eat a good variety, keep up with our vitamins, and if you really want something good, grow your own produce! I think anything we grow ourselves is going to taste a lot better, and be a lot better than what we buy at a grocery store.