Good Luck

Several weeks ago BJ and I watched a short blurb about parenthood. Specifically, how bed time has changed from before and after children. Before children you say "good night" after you have kids you say "good luck."  This is so true in our house now days.  We could sleep or we could be walk a mile.  It has gotten to a point where I wake up in the morning and can't remember if I was up or not.  I have to check the fitbit. The other night I walked almost 300 steps. In a room that takes about 25 steps to get to and 8 steps to walk from one side to the other, that's a lot of steps.  The fit bit also lets me know how long was awake during the night.  So each night BJ and I crawl into bed look into each other's eyes pick a night from recent past where we almost slept through the night, wish we get that, and say "good luck." We then roll over and go to sleep...for an hour or two. 

It's awesome. I love parenthood.

So...That Happened

2015 was not a great year for me. Great things happened and I wouldn't trade them for then world, however, in getting to the end I can look back and see the blah moments more than the sunny ones.  

First off 2015 brought with it our second child.  Allison was born on "Star Wars" day (May the 4th). It was a beautiful day that day.  I woke up on my first day of maturity leave (a week before my due date) with a list of items to do while Elijah was at school that day.  I had plans for how to get him to and from school in case I went into labor I was all set. Except at 5:00 am I was convinced my water had broke so I woke everyone up dressed the boy put everyone in the car and made myself some tea.  We dropped Elijah off with my dad and went on to the hospital. I actually felt contractions this time around.  With Elijah it just felt like a continual Charlie Horse in my abdomen. This time around it was text book contractions. When they told me my water hadn't broke, I was fearful they would send me home, but since I needed two doses of antibiotics they kept me there and started the IV.  I don't remember this with Elijah but holy pain! I think that was more painful than the actual contractions.  Everything went well and after they broke my water they realized the cord was around the baby's neck so they had me wait 10 minutes which turned into an hour.  By 3 we were all so board and slap happy we were giving the nurses a run for their money.  3-4 pushes later baby girl was out and I was so relieved it was a girl I cried. I love baby girl but the road to get there was a very bumpy one. 

The first four months of 2015 were probably the hardest ones of my life.  I suffered from sciatic pain in both hips, lower back pain, and worst and most persistent was the dislocation of my pelvic joint. Every day one to all of the issues showed their ugly face.  I was also a basket of blubbering hormones. I was down right crazy pregnate lady. By about February I stopped sleeping more than 2 hours in a row and no more than 4 hours a night. 

After Allison was born I had an easy first few weeks with Elijah in school and a neighbor taking him to and from almost every day. Then the bottom dropped out. While in the hospital I received an email from the state saying I didn't have the qualifications to get my real school licenses unless I took 4 classes.  Because I didn't understand what they were saying I didn't take action quickly, turned out I really did need to take 4 classes by the end of January.  I am now a current student to the University of Phoenix.  I spend most my nights completing course work or projects, not fun. 

As with Elijah I wanted to nurse Allison as long as possible. She was born in the 80-90 percentile for weight and around her 2 month visit had dropped to 60 something percentile. I started going crazy about feeding, how much she was eating, how often, how to increase my production. I had gotten to a point that every 2 hours I was either pumping or nursing (all which took 20-30 minutes). When we went back at 4 months Allison was closer to the 20 something percentile than anything else.  That did it.  I was failing my baby, the world, life. It was horrible. On top of all that around 3 months I was trying to bottle feed Allison and she refused the bottle. The first 2 weeks at daycare she wouldn't eat...at all.  I was heartbroken and there was no one that I felt truly understood how I was feeling (I actually don't think I knew until after I was done). I introduced formula as a 2 oz supplement to bottles during the day and nursed at night.  By her 6th month visit she was back over the 50th percentile which helped calm me, but still made me feel like a parental failure. 

I started this pregnancy out about 15 pounds heavier than my ideal body weight, I proceeded to put on an additional 40 pounds.  After she was out the weight called my body home.  That and the food was so delicious. At this point (almost 8 months post) I am still 25-30 pounds over where I want to be.  But with the job, mom/wife duties and classes, there isn't much time left to be more active.  

Don't get me wrong, my life is still great, but I am having a crazy time adjusting to the new two kid family.  I have two weeks left of my last class, Allison is consistently eating stage two baby food but not yet sleeping through the night, Bj has a wonderful amazing job, the dog is getting along with us, and I have both a boy and a girl child that love each other. 

Here's to 2016 to become a steady, stable, normal. With 6 full hours of sleep a night. My goals are simple, yet extensive this year. 

How hard is it!? (by the Hubby)

So I am not going to say that I am a master chef or anything, but I will say that I know my way around a kitchen.  I can make a mean omelet, I love my grill and I can be pretty inventive with my combinations.  However for some reason I forgot how to make a hard boiled egg!   I mean really, "How hard is it!?"?
Step 1: Put eggs and cold water in a pot
Step 2: Boil said water
Step 3: Remove from heat, cover and let sit for 12-15 minutes
Step 4: Remove eggs and put immediately in ice water

I forgot to boil the water long enough as well as forgot to cover them.  So after dying the eggs, which was a lot of fun with Elijah, back in the fridge they went.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~2 Days Later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kelly and Elijah decided that it would be a great idea to have a snack and what better snack to have than a hard, or so I thought, boiled egg.  It turns out that when you do not follow the steps exactly, you end up with "semi soft" centered eggs instead of "hard" centered eggs.  Oh well we all have mistakes right?  I just hope my mistake does not kill my entire family!!!


HAPPY EASTER!!!

Surgery

Friday morning BJ had his surgery on his arm.  We rolled out of bed at 5:00 am and made it to the surgery center by 6:30.  They rolled him way around 7:30.  Then I got to wait all by my self.  It was freezing in the waiting room.  Thank goodness I had on my winter coat.  I might have lost fingers or toes without it.  at 8:30 the let me know that BJ was done in surgery and that he did well.  Once he came out of the anesthesia enough I would be able to see him.  I thought this would be very quick.  It wasn't.  It was almost a whole hour more before I was able to see him.  When I was finally brought back the nurse let me know that BJ was slightly flushed and he had been complaining that he was cold.  As I went into his recovery area he was whiter than snow and wrapped from head to to in about 8 blankets.  He even had one wrapped around his head.  I told him he looked like Mother Teresa, it made him smile.  He was also very proud that the nurse was able to see his underwear.  Ahhh, the things that are important to us when we are highly sedated.  Once we got home he slept most of the day but then couldn't sleep at night.  Today we were able to get some clothes oh him so we are real sure he can leave the house without freezing or getting arrested. 

Tomorrow we will take off the bandages.  I'll post pictures if I remember. 

Halloween

For Halloween, Elijah will be Mr. Potato head.  That is if I ever get around to making his costume.  After getting Elijah feed, and in bed and the house sort of straightened up I don't really want to do work on his costume. 

On another hand, BJ last night had a weird force take over his hand last night and it woke me up.  As I lay in bed watching his hand become a spider it ran up and down the bed and finally on me.  It was the weirdest thing in the world.  I was laughing so hard I HAD to wake up BJ.  He had no idea what he was dreaming about but I still think it was funny.

Modern Family

IT'S BACK!!!!  I love this show.  It makes me laugh every time.  Tonight lived up to it's expectation.  I can't tell you what exactly I liked because I liked it all.

Tomorrow is BJ's meeting with the Orthopedic surgeon.  So we will see what they say.  Cross your fingers, let's hope for a recovery that includes softball playing in the spring. 

SLAP!!!

Guess what BJ has... a SLAP tear.  If you know what that is good for you, for the rest of the real world it is a tear in BJ's shoulder.  Sometime during the summer while BJ was playing softball he tore a tendon in his right shoulder.  After polling some PT's it has been discovered that surgery is the best option.  After surgery comes the rough part.  BJ gets to be in a sling for a while (like 5 weeks).  Now BJ and I are sitting around and thinking about all the things he won't be able to do while in the sling.

• Picking up Elijah
• Putting on a shirt
• Buttoning pants
• Putting on socks
• Buckling Elijah in his car seat
• Cut food
• Showering
• Lift things
• But I love BJ and we will make the 5-6 weeks work.  I might be venting on here though when I can't handle the pain in the rear or the shoulder. 

Dinner

Was delicious.  BJ is the creative one in our family from art to building and somewhere in there cooking.  On Monday and Wednesday I work late and get home even later.  So on those nights I leave out meat or a box of something.  Around 6:15 B.J. will call me at work and ask me what is for dinner.  I always say ??? By the time I get home, there is some thing yummy on the table. 

Today, I put out chicken.  BJ decided we were going to have pizza.  So he made the crust, sprayed it with olive oil, put the chicken on it, and covered it in tomatoes from our yard.  It was so yummy.  I like the nights when I come home to this.  It makes me smile.

I've been displaced

With BJ's birthday came a personal goal for himself to workout everyday until her turns 30.  Therefore, I need to find a new place to get fat and watch TV while BJ works out.  Now I have to watch TV in bed while BJ makes my living room smell like BO.

Practice, Practice, Practice (by BJ)

So many of you may know, and many may not, but I have now been prescribed with an Epi pen.  Well, each prescription consisted of two Epi pens and a practice casing.  When I got home with them, I figured that I better know how to use them so that in the event I was dying, I could save myself.  I practiced about ten times on my leg and put it away for training others later.


Two days later...

Kelly tells me in the morning that she has a story for me that will make me laugh.  However she decided that she was going to leave me in suspense until later that night.  So later that night as we are getting ready to go to bed, she shows me three small bruises on her leg.  When I asked her what in the heck she hit, she tells me her story.

Kelly- So you know how you were practicing with the Epi pen?
Me- Yeah
K- Well I decided that it would be a good idea that I know as well.
Me- Yeah, and?
K- Well I was watching you so I thought it was easy and started using it.  However it would never pop out like it did for you. So...
Me- What did you do?
K- I didn't read the directions and...
Me- You forgot to take off the safety cap didn't you?
K- Maybe!?!?!?

Yeah she totally forgot to take the safety cap off and proceded to hit herself in the leg three times before reading the directions!  Like the title says, Practice, Practice, Practice!

If you ever need to use one here are some key parts to an Epi Pen

Mr. Itchy

Welcome to my home Mr. Itchy.  What might I be able to get for you tonight?  Some Steroids to decrease your inflammation?  Some Benidrile to decrease your itching?  You're crabby you say?  I'm so sorry to hear that.  Please sit down and try not to scratch so much you start to bleed on my couch. 

Poor B.J. he just can't figure out what is making him itch so bad.  he wakes up every day at 2:00am and his feet, hands, knees, elbows, and ankles are burning from whatever is making him itch so much.  After a couple of benidrile he is able to sleep.  Once he gets to work, the itching seems to stop, then he walks in the door and BAM, itching starts again.  The rest of us, no itching. 

Dreams

I had a dream last night that made me really mad at BJ.  Do you ever have those dreams?  You know the ones where you wake up and feel as though they really happened, however, you are 100% sure it was a dream.  It is just they have so much emotion behind them that even though you know it was a dream you are just so ANGRY?  Yeah that was me last night.  I woke up at 2:30 ready to take the baby, the dog and two days worth of clothes for us all and leave BJ to sleep at a hotel.  Yes that is how angry I was at BJ, I was going to take the Satin Dog with me.  Right, that would be a great idea, I see Rescue barfing in the car then eating the hotel room.  On second thought I think I should leave the dog with BJ.  But the rest of the night I spent revising the dream in the rest of my dreams, and all day I have been slightly annoyed at BJ.  Let's hope tonight will be better.

Brrr...

Tonight BJ is outside helping to raise awareness for the homeless.  Last year BJ spent the night outside, this year, he is feeling a bit under the weather and is unsure if he will spend the night outside.  Oh and mind you the outside we are talking about in a box outside.  I did this once or twice in collage.  I froze so bad and was so uncomfortable and in so much pain I wasn't going to do it again. 

I love my Husband

Four years ago today I got married to, in my opinion, the best man ever. So in honor of our 4 year anniversary I thought I would tell you some reasons why I think My husband is the best.

1. He is super cute

2. He is super strong- can open any container

3. He is super brave-can kill any spider big or small.

4. He always remembers to give me a kiss or two or three before he leaves for work no matter what time of day.

5. He ALWAYS puts our family first.

6. He can cook-he knew how to do that before he figured out I can't.

7. He is crafty and can do anything with color, wood, or nails that I want or wouldn't even think of.

8. He enjoys most of the same TV as I do.

9. He lets me watch TV even when he wants to watch Sports

10. He works super hard.

11. He lets me put my really cold toes on him in the middle of winter.

12. He loves me.

13. He is a great father.

14. He is supportive over many of my decisions.

15. He pushes me to be my best.

16. He has the ability to drive the get away car and not crash it in case we ever need it.

17. He makes me laugh.

See I told you he is the best hubby ever.

Thanks babe. I love you so much. You are still my Favorite, however, that little bundle of joy upstairs is coming in as a super close second.

Why I too will be getting a new dishwasher for Mother's Day (unplanned)

No Elijah didn't break it, I just thought a cute picture of the boy was needed!

This all started hmm.. when we bought our house, I guess. Our dishwasher has been the root of many a household problems for us. The builders initially decided that it would be a great idea to puncture the body of the dishwasher with the tiniest little hole. For the first couple of months we were always running the dishwasher at night when we were heading to bed or right before we left for work in the morning. However, as time went by we ran the dishwasher while we were actually home and started noticing a puddle of water on the floor in front of it. Now please note, we never really were pleased with the dishwasher we picked out, it was the base line model that I think even if you walked into any home appliance store you would have to buy a model better than ours because this cheap model was only sold to home builders to help keep the price of the homes low. ANYWAY, upon further inspection we noted that there was a leak in the tub. So off we go calling the builders to say our home warranty covered the thing and we wanted a new one. They sent out a guy he took 2 seconds to look at it and said, "you need to call GE- it's their problem." Fine. So I do. I take off a day of work, wait for the GE guy to come out and check out our dishwasher that is peeing on the floor every time we use it and see what he has to say about it. This guy at least took the time to look at it and says, "well who ever installed the kick plate on this thing put a pointy screw in a whole that should have had a flat screw. The builders were the ones that caused this error." GREAT! I then asked him to type it all up and as he is walking out the door, I am back on the phone with our builder saying I have paper work to prove it is their fault and they need to bring be back a new dishwasher. They then come back to the house check the paper work and order me an new dishwasher. However, me being smart asks if we could get the up grade and pay the difference. Yeah, no such luck. So on one of the super cold winter days of 2008 a new one arrives at our door step. They come out and install the thing and great!

A couple weeks later it starts making a real weird noise but it is still cleaning so no biggy, just super annoying.

Now let's jump ahead several years. We head over to my father's house to discover that they are having a jet land in their dishwasher and are having a repair man come out to fix the part. First of all the repair man, he knew his dishwashers and was very open to answering questions about them. BJ then told him about the weird noise ours makes almost every time we use it. The repair man offered him some suggestions on how to make it stop making that noise and BJ was all excited to get home and "fix" our $50.00 dishwasher.

We get home we pull out the tools and out come the screws easy as pie. but the piece we need to move still isn't coming off. A little pull here, a big pull there, nothing. Hmmm, it just seems to be stuck on something. Now don't get me wrong, I love my hubby very much, but he inherited his patients from his father. And let me tell that isn't very much. BJ loves to fix things, he loves to learn to fix things, but the second it can't be fixed on the first try, or doesn't go the way exactly planned, all logical thinking goes out the window. So when the dishwasher wasn't coming apart exactly the way the repair man had described it, that was it we were done. Instead of looking around to see where we might be getting caught up we just pulled with all our might to loosen up the piece we needed off and snap. First words out of BJ's mouth, "that's broken." On the positive side we found out that our lovely dishwasher had plastic wrapped around the motor that chops up the food to go down the drain. That was the noise. However, now we really can't put the dishwasher back together. We will try it out a couple of washes to see how it works with how we put it back together but I see a new dishwasher in my future. Here are some picks of what we found inside our dishwasher.

Warning if your eating, you may want to wait a bit before checking this out:

I love you but go away

After a long family packed weekend with, uh, well family, I am ready to be done. I love family, and I especially love family that is close and gets a long. However, after so many days and hours and minutes together I really can't handle any more. BJ's cousin said it best, this has been great to see you all and spend time with you all, but now I want all of you to leave. I even started to get sick of my husband. Almost to a point where I almost jumped out of the car about 10 miles west of the Minnesota/Wisconsin border. When I decided that probably would have ended badly, I then just stopped talking with my husband and when I did finally get a hold of me crabby emotions I told him off. That was probably about 30 miles East of the Minnesota/Wisconsin border. Then BJ let me drive which aloud me to calm down a bit but still I am ready to go back to work tomorrow just to get some quiet, wait..., um, how about time away from my child and husband.

Now to all my kids, I don't have the patients to deal with your crabbies tomorrow, so I only expect wonderful children to show up. Thank you.

The Mystirious Flashing Light

Way long ago (about 9 months ago up till about 4 months ago) I would be awake chilling and I would see this car. But not every night. Just every once in a while. Unfortunately, with my lack of sleep and being up at 3:00 am I could never really remember it to much the next morning to look into it further. The reason this car would catch my attention is the flashing light on top of the car. When I was up with Elijah in my room, I would see the car come down our street, turn into our driveway, then in less a minute it would come out of the drive way go back up the street in the same direction it came from and turn up a near by street. Once I moved my 3:00 feedings into Elijah's room I would see the car more often. But I was still too sleep deprived to draw any similarities between the days and times. All I was able to do was know it was the same car. Finally right around 5 or 6 months into this whole thing, I finally remember to tell BJ about it. In less than 6 seconds he goes, "It's probably the newspaper delivery person." I just look at him in aww. How could I not have thought of that, the car only was coming on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday morning at 3:00 am. The only days we get the paper. DUHHH. Oh well I guess that's why I love my hubby, because he is so smart!

Happy Birthday BJ!

Today BJ turned 28! Goodness we are getting old! Anyway, BJ celebrated his birthday yesterday with two of his friends and his father by going golfing at a computer simulated indoor golf course, then we went down to his parents house for dinner, then to the neighbors house for dessert. Today, we did the church thing and grocery shopping, then back to the neighbors for dinner. Now he is off to church again while I hang with the house work and get things done.

Happy birthday B! You know I love you!

Personal Image

BJ came home from youth group last night and they had been talking about body image and how we put so much of our lives into making sure everyone else likes us. Every one reaches their ability to accept themselves they way we were made at different times in our lives. But BJ pointed out that he became comfortable in his own skin when he was in middle school. That made me start thinking. BJ was comfortable with who he was before we started dating by I definitely was not. I started trying to figure out when I became comfortable with me. I think it was some where when I was in college, before grad school. But I really have to say BJ's model really helped me get to where I was comfortable with me. I think many people in the world would be much happier about life in general if they were able to enjoy who they are. I know that I am not the tallest, athletic, most gorgeous (or even wanting to put the time into making me that way), but I do know that I can just about make everyone laugh, I can be smart but I don't like to, I enjoy my inner child.

I wish I could help others figure out how to get to that level of confidence and be comfortable in their own skin. Because once you accept your faults for things you can't change, you will be happy!

Change

I don't like change. Change is difficult, however, I know that the majority of time, I will not be able to go very long with out a little bit of change. The biggest change in our lives lately (other than the baby) has been BJ's job. He has gone from a 40 hr work week behind a desk, to no job at all, to 50+ hr work week doing promotions at all hours of the day and week, to 45+ hours doing manual labor for food processing plant. In a very short amount of time BJ has been able to dip his fingers in many different areas of "work" and has been able to figure out where he feels happiest. In the end he has decided, and I agree, that he feels the best, both emotionally and physically, in hard labor. Looking back on BJ's jobs over the past 10 years this is true. Other than some technical issues his favorite job was working as a packer/mover for a moving company. Now that he is back in a job where he has physical work to complete he is happy again, most of the time. Starting in about 25 hours from when I am writing this post, BJ will be heading off to work the 3rd shift. Something BJ has never done before, leaving me here with the baby. BJ was told that this is only temporary but things change and I get worried that the time I used to spend with my husband are now gone. For it is early on a Saturday night and when the baby was being put to bed so was my husband. Tomorrow, to get ready for the new work times, BJ will be spending most of the early morning cleaning and hanging around the house until we are off to church, then coming home to sleep as much as possible. I just keep hoping that the sacrifices our new small family is making for this new job will be worth while in the long run. If not, it is back to the drawing board for more change. Just keep us in your prays that eventually we will be back to a routine as a family and happy.