Oregon wedding trip

Okay--now I'm attempting to play catch-up with my blogging, and I'm blogging about a few of our summer trips and fun times. Chris and I flew to Oregon in June for my brother's wedding. Jen and Brian were great to stay with the kids, so I was looking forward to some R&R away from home before the baby comes. Anyway, the trip started out with an airline aborted takeoff (like, the nose of the plane had literally started to lift off the ground, then came slamming back down and the plane braked hard to a stop) because of mechanical problems. We had an hour delay while they switched planes. We should've just given up right then and gone home, because the rest of the trip wasn't a whole lot better. When we got to Oregon, we went to dinner with two of my college roommates, and that was the highlight of the trip. I hadn't seen Rebecca in eight years, and it's so fun to see how everyone changes but yet doesn't change that much. Anyway, we enjoyed a great evening with Becca and Kim and their husbands--and if you gals are reading this, I love you guys, and I did send the roommate letter to Stacie! Anyway, from there the trip seemed to go downhill. The next morning we were totally shafted by my siblings, who all went to breakfast but apparently didn't feel the need to invite us. That didn't put me in the best mood, and by thr afternoon of the wedding my allergies were in full attack on whatever was in the wonderful Oregon air. By the evening of my brother's reception, I was sneezing CONSTANTLY, could barely breathe, and my eyes were red and swollen. The allergies continued the rest of the trip, and I spent part of one night and another afternoon in the hotel room with a cold washcloth over my eyes. All in all, it was rather miserable. Chris didn't fare much better, and his allergies were just as bad as mine. Needless to say, we were rather glad to come home and get away from the Oregon pollen count! It was great to see my brother get married, and I'm so happy for him and Katie, but I have no desire to visit Oregon in June ever again!

Eggs for Everyone!

Well, we took Talia to the allergist three days ago, and happy news! She's no longer allergic to eggs! We were told she would probably outgrow it, and sure enough, she has. When Robbie and Sarah found out, they immediately requested breakfast food for dinner. So on Thursday night we enjoyed a dinner of scrambled eggs, hash browns, and waffles. These are pictures of Talia's first bite of scrambled eggs. I can't believe she's three years old and has never tasted scrambled eggs before! The dinner was a success, and she declared that she LOVES eggs now. I'm sure it's just the novelty, but it was exciting nonetheless. On the downside, we did discover from this trip to the allergist that she's actually more allergic to cashews than she is to peanuts. Besides the peanuts and cashews, she's also allergic to pistachios, Brazil nuts, and shrimp. Hopefully the list won't keep growing as she gets older!

The Last Stretch

OK everyone! I am finally posting--expect a flurry of updates since it's been a few months! We'll start out by saying that the last month of pregnancy STINKS! In an attempt to be creative, here are some things that I think STINK about 9th month.

S--wollen ankles, legs, face, hands, everything

T--ake a tumble. You may not remember that 4 days before Talia was born, I did a glorious belly flop in Jen's driveway while carrying a crock pot of beans out to my car. Well, I had a repeat the other day, but this time I wish it was in the privacy of Jen's yard. Unfortunately, it happened at the Gateway while we were there shopping with our friends Dan and Stacie. I caught the toe of my shoe on the edge of some bricks in the walkway, and couldn't regain my balance and ended up sprawled out all over the pavement. By the way, thanks for laughing so much Dan!

I--'m ornery. Let's face the facts and call it what it is. The other day, Chris pointed out how ornery I really am. I reminded him that an ornery day for me is a normal day for him, which he did agree with.

N--o sleep. How can I possibly sleep with my back and hips hurting this much, and a human inside me kicking to get out?! You may see more posts on the blog at odd hours of the night, because lately I've been wandering around quite a bit between the hours of 1 and 5 am.

K--ilograms (or pounds). Can the weight gain just stop already? Who knew I would end up this huge?! I cringe to think of all the lunges and squats I'm going to have to do, along with all the months I'm going to have to go hungry, just to get some semblance of my old body back. It's so depressing, I don't want to think about it. Hand me another cookie to take away the pain!

S--upport hose. What a marvelous invention! When it's a hundred degrees plus outside, let's make poor pregnant women with bad veins wear glorified nylons that are so freaking tight they take 15 minutes to put on and raise your body temperature another 20 degrees! Curse the women in my family for giving me the varicose vein genetics! Let's hear a round of applause for laser vein surgery, which has replaced a tummy tuck as #1 on my list of procedures to have done in the near future!

Another fear alleviated...

For those of you who heard about my mouse predicament, I have good news! The mouse I saw in my basement a few weeks ago has successfully been caught and killed! Halleluia! I DO NOT like mice, and the thought of one running around free in the my basement was giving me the heebies. We have more traps downstairs, just in case there was more than one, but so far they have caught nothing and I am sleeping easy again!

Loose tooth!

If you look closely, you can see the gap where Sarah's tooth used to be. Yep, that's right, she lost her first tooth! She came home on a Friday and told me that her tooth was loose. I felt it, and that thing was barely hanging on. She worked with it all afternoon and evening, and all day Saturday she complained that she couldn't chew anything because the tooth was too loose. Well, finally on Saturday night she let me have a go at it, and I pulled it right out! No tears or anything! She looks so cute with her gapped smile! We sure do love her!

The day I've been dreading...

Okay, so I knew this would happen some day, and I'm just glad it happened when I was at home and not out running an errand. Last Thursday I was at home getting the house ready and dinner preparations done because I was going to teach my last class at that hospital Thurs night. I'd finally told my boss that I just needed to be done working for good, so this was my last time working and I was trying hard not to feel sentimental about it. The kids were at school and Talia was at the neighbor's playing with her new BFF Addie. And then I get THE CALL from my neighbor--Talia is coughing nonstop, and then my neighbor's voice becomes slightly panicky as she says, "And I can hear her starting to wheeze". Well, at that moment I know what's happened--peanuts! I rush down to my neighbor's, and sure enough, she's having a full-blown reaction to peanuts. It turns out that her and her friend snuck some chocolates when my neighbor wasn't watching, and they had peanut butter in them. Anyway, I give her an epinephrine injection, and she proceeds to throw up all over me and my neighbor's kitchen. Then it was a mad dash to the Dr's office to get there in 20 min before the shot wore off. Once we were at the Dr's office, it's a steroid injection, 2 breathing treatments, and a mega dose of Benadryl before she's stable and we can go home. Can I just say that this allergy sucks big time! I knew that one day she would get into something she wasn't supposed to while away from home, and I'm just really glad that it happened when I was four doors down (my neighbor is very glad too!). Anyway, it has renewed my vigilance for checking all labels and being extra careful--not an easy thing to do with Easter coming up! Well, I did end up going to work to teach that class Thurs night, and I told the nurse I work with about it and then said, "And this is one of the reasons I'm not working anymore! Stuff like this always happens on nights I'm supposed to work!" Well, I'm just glad Talia's okay--if you ask her now, she'll tell you that peanut butter makes her sick and she doesn't want it. Poor thing!

Where have I been?

I was reading Summer's blog the other day and decided I probably needed to add some posts, one of them appropriately titled (like Summer's) Where Have I Been? Well, let me tell you, if you notice the new addition to our blog--the baby ticker--you'll know that we're expecting this summer, and when I'm pregnant I value my sleep too much to stay up and blog! So I guess you could say that I'm in survival mode around here--I'm struggling to get the bare necessities done, and not worrying too much about anything else. That being said, I can't complain too much about this pregnancy. I wasn't nearly as sick this go-around as I was with Talia, and not nearly as emotional as I was with Sarah--maybe that means it's a boy! Either way, we're ecstatic about the upcoming addition to our family although I am dreading the HOT, LONG SUMMER I have ahead of me. Can you say swelling and water retention? Anyway, hopefully I'll get into more of a normal routine again (if there is such a thing as normal) and post a few more blogs to let you all know what we're up to! Here's a few pictures of things I missed blogging about this winter.


Robbie's baptism day--I can't believe he's that old! It was a very special day for him, and we're so proud of him!

These are pictures from our snowmobiling trip to Island Park in January. There was tons of snow, and we had a blast! Thanks, Worthingtons, for the invite!














Robbie played Jr Jazz again this winter, and ate it up! Way to go, kiddo!