O-HI-O

This labor day weekend we packed up our little Honda CR-V for what was really and truly our last road trip in the faithful vehicle. I had so many family members in Ohio (where all my extended family lives) who had never even met my husband and children. It was time! Grandmother and Grandpa are "getting up there" and I really wanted to spend some quality time with them. I hadn't seen my aunts in years. Additionally, I really wanted to meet my newly discovered biological sister, Marla! All of the visits were too short, but seeing everyone was so wonderful. As an adult and parent I have a new perspective and appreciation for my extended family. I found in spending time with everyone I really missed them. They have, after all, known me my whole life. It was also great watching my children interact with everyone, my grandparents in particular.


It was a lot of work getting my family of five packed, up to Ohio, and back. It was hot living in my grandparent's house for 3 days without air-conditioning (I still don't understand how 88 degrees feels cold to them, but they are my elders...I won't argue it!). The kids were very tired of being in the car for so many hours. BUT, all in all, it was a wonderful time of love and family. I've been inspired to go up and visit at least once a year. I hope that works out!!!!

"MY thing"

A couple of weekends ago while I was at work Trey surprised me by purchasing a few of my midwifery study books. I am SO enjoying studying! It's so easy because I am so crazy about the subject. Reading a book by Sheila Kitzinger to start off with. I know that I am doing the right thing both in becoming a midwife and in having a home birth. As I read her words I am not only educated, but also find myself smiling as I agree with all that she has to say. She is honest and open in informing her readers about all of their options when it comes to their birth, but also makes it very clear that healthy women with normal, low-risk, pregnancies do not have to go to the hospital for care. I am so inspired. It's also so nice to have something that is all my own. Trey has work and his Men's Health, Geology magazines, and (Lord help me) now it's football season, the kids have me running them around to all their interests, and now I have something that is mine...besides my family's needs which I am also very passionate about. :)
As for my own pregnancy, I cannot wait to find out tomorrow whether or not she has turned. I feel like she has. I am not feeling her big head at the top of my uterus. I am not feeling kicking on my cervix. I DO feel a lot of low pressure and occasionally some mild cramping. These little pains and annoyances make me smile. My body is getting ready. Envisioning her head down and putting pressure on my cervix makes my anticipation for my labor journey grow!
Mostly, if I had to guess I would have never guessed I would get to have a daughter and I am so incredibly excited to meet her. I am so excited to give her the gift of a natural birth. I can't wait to have her on my chest taking her first breaths and staring down at her in amazement. They say babies born naturally and in home environments tend to be a lot more alert, too...so I hope to experience that. (Cool book, "The Amazing Newborn" Klaus & Klaus)
That's all for now. About 7-8 weeks to go! While I hope they fly by, I also hope I find time to appreciate these final moments of my final pregnancy and of her being mine, mine, all mine!

technology!! grrr...

So last night my dear husband decided to do me a "favor" and upgrade all my settings on my Blackberry. I really didn't know what that meant, but he assured me that when he was done I would have a more efficient phone. This morning I woke up to a text message. T9...where did you go!? Keyboard of choice...gone! Preferred font...bye bye! As the day has gone on and I have tried to use my phone for various activities I am accustomed to using, it has been one dysfunction after another! (By the way, not to sound too Jerry Seinfeld, but what's up with the spelling of dysfunction? It's totally dysfunctional! The pre-text "dis" (which mean "to not to" ________, like discontinued: not continued) is spelled wrong! Why not disfunctional?) The most recent disappointment and frenzy of frustration has been with my mobile facebook. TOTALLY different version than I was using. How quickly can we change technology? My brand new Storm is totally out-dated...I just know it! It was probably out-date when I bought it. It was probably out-dated when the thing was shipped to the Verizon store for retail sale! I completely understand my grandparents now. I always wondered why they never ever even made any serious attempts to associate with a PC. I get it now....a typewriter has always done the trick...why mess with that!? (Okay, partly joking there...we all know that a PC has far more uses than word processing...but you get the picture.) Okay, that's my rant for now. I will try and be more open-minded when it comes to technology, but gee it isn't easy, is it!?

aren't we all growing up......

The summer finally comes to a close as we scatter for last minute school supplies, hair appointments, shoes that fit just right, and meet the teachers that will be expanding our children's minds over the next 9 months.
Last night was back to school night. I was so proud of Carly and Conner! They both walked in to their respective schools (Carly is in middle school now!) with such confidence and ease. They were both so eager to see wait awaited them for the 2009-10 school year. It's so wonderful to see your kids excited about school...even though they will swear they are so upset that summer is over and wish that the school year was as short as summer vacation. As for Mimi, I was a nervous wreck over the entire thing. Since this is one of those rare events where there is a lot of involvement with me and bio-mom, I really could have used a Xanax. I felt, as the involved bonus mommy I am, that I needed to be present. I mean, who is there every afternoon greeting the kids at the bus stop and helping with homework? Yep! It's me. (Wouldn't trade that for the world, by the way.) So this was another event sure to be graced with the bio-Mom's awkward presence. In years past I was a little more vocal on back to school night. I wanted it to be known that "hey! I am the step-mom, but I am also running this show!". This year? With some new perspective I took more to staying in the background. I made sure that bio-mom introduced herself before I had my chance. I made sure to put bio-Mom's name ahead of mine and Trey's when filling out contact information. I just let her do all of the talking. She embarrassed all of us, but hey, it is what it is! My new attitude made her having an attitude ridiculous. Mostly, I think it went much better than expected and I think the kids felt truly grateful to see a lack of conflict between parents. Slowly but surely I am growing into my role in the children's lives.
Being a stay-at-home step-mom is one of the trickiest jobs in the world...and emotionally confusing! I am raising these babies. Caring for them when they are sick, helping educate them, working weekends to buy their school clothes and school supplies, cooking their meals, keeping them clean...yet...they are not mine. I don't love them as anything but my own, but when it's all said and done, I don't get to be Mommy or Daddy...just a happy face on the sidelines of life. That's hard, but I think if I tried to do this any other way it would not work for my family. If I was hands-off, made Trey and Shannon figure everything out on top of their work schedules, didn't love and care for the kids as my own, and just completely un-involved myself, my family would not be happily and lovingly functioning. So I press forward in the role of stay-at-home step-mommy. Never imagined having to wear this hat in all my life. I could use a support group if one exists....
So right now it's at little after 6 a.m. I have been up since 4. You would think it was my first day of middle school today! I can't wait to hear all about it from Carly. Conner starts next week and will be at his mom's house...so can't wait to get the phone call from him saying everything went great! Can you believe it? A new middle schooler, a first grader, a toddler, and a soon-to-be newborn on the way. So many new experiences for us all at once! I love it. What a wild ride.

Third Trimester

We arrived at trimester three this week. I was so excited to get here, but with the 28 week marker comes a lot of "stuff" I could really do without. I am fatigued beyond recognition. Yes, that's what I meant to say. My skin looks awful from my face down to my toes. Blotches, bags and dark circles under my eyes, stretch marks, weight gain...the list probably goes on since I can't see a lot of "areas" at this point, nor do I have the energy to try and look or the energy to try and correct. Even make-up does not seem to aid in the monster I have become. Little Ailey (oh, that's her name...it's not posted anywhere but right here on this blog! shhh...) is probably going to be amazingly beautiful since she has sucked my beauty away...like the old wives said she would.
Okay, okay...enough complaining. I am not supposed to be complaining. I am supposed to practice keeping my negative energy to a minimum to help prepare me for my home birth. I do NOT want to be a complaining baby while delivering a baby. (Takes one to grow one.....oh wait, that's not how that saying goes...) Anyway, the Braxton-Hicks are in full-force. Practice little uterus, practice! My weight gain is at about 2 pounds a week which makes sense since I have an around-the-clock appetite. I am huge, but still happy with my weight gain so far. In 28 weeks I have gained a grand total of 15 pounds. Another 12 weeks at 2 pounds a weeks is another 24 pounds, but I don't foresee that happening. With Joey I do recall losing a couple of pounds there at the end...believe it or not. Can we get a reminder of what "the end" with Joey looked like....

Oh yeah! That was CRAZY! And I think I am not getting any sleep now. But Joey was a boy. Perhaps my darling daughter will be a petite little thing...wishful thinking?!? We will see.
So Damaris comes in 2 days. After that my check-ups go from monthly to bi-monthly. I need to get a shopping list from her of everything she recommends I have here on-hand for my special home-birth. Did I mention I am having Ailey in my house? And I am very excited about it?!? Oh, well I am and I am excited! I envision lighting some candles, pulling the curtains, warning the neighbors (haha, just joking...or is that a good idea? I could get vocal!), relying on my bath tub, playing some soft music, and enduring more pain than I have ever felt in my life to naturally welcome my baby girl into the world. Call me crazy, but you have no idea how wonderful that all sounds to a woman like me. How God intended it, I think! He will be there, too. :)
Okay, well, that's my Welcome to the Third Trimester Update. 83 days to go...I might be a second time Mom, but I sure am still counting!

The Busiest Week Ever...

Here I sit in a pair of comfy gray sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt that is covered in spaghetti-o's...finally concluding what has been the "busiest week ever"! On my last post I blogged all about our weekend adventures. What a great weekend that was, but in hindsight, I should have kept that weekend simple to prepare what awaited in this past week. Last Sunday I got a call at work from Carly. "Mimi, I started my period!" Oh boy. Here we go. "Do you need me to come home, baby?" "No, I will be okay." "Are you comfortable? We already bought everything you need, right?" "Yeah, I'm good." "Wow! You are a little woman! I love you sweetheart. See you in a few hours." "Bye Mimi". So of course when I got off of work there were some celebrations in order. Carly and I headed to Hershey's for some ice cream and girl talk. I was so amazed at how prepared and mature she was with this milestone.
Monday morning it was get Carly off to horse camp, Trey off to work, and me and the boys off to vacation bible school. After VBS it was down to Waxhaw to pick Carly up, get the kids home, cleaned, fed, and napped. The rest of the week followed this suite.
Wednesday Carly baby sat while me and wonderful neighbor Erica went to visit our friend Amanda and her new baby girl in the hospital. That evening was church followed by my small group study (appropriately titled, "Calm My Anxious Heart"...blogging to be done on that later) followed by a very special gathering of women. Since Carly was now a woman we, the women of her family, decided that we needed to begin a new tradition...a tradition that is to be carried on for all the girls turned women in our family's future. So after Carly fell asleep I blindfolded and kidnapped her and took her to a ritualisitic (think YA-YA!) ceremony where we let her know how special she was and adorned her with family heirlooms. The ceremony was followed by chocolate fondue and sparkling grape juice. She kept saying, "I feel so special!" and we, of course, assured her of just how special she truly is.
Thursday night it was time for us all to enjoy our favorite tale of all time on the big screen...Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It was soo good! We all enjoyed it, but Conner definitely felt it was a little long for his tastes. Afterward it was time to drop the kids of at bio-mom's a night early because they were going to be off to Ohio for the weekend for a wedding!
Friday Joey and I concluded the long week of VBS and celebrated with an extended nap. After nap time it was all aboard the light rail to watch Daddy's co-workers play basketball in the rented-out Bobcat's Arena! Wow was I ever exhausted at this point! We came back and by 9:30 I was OUT. I have been working all weekend and boy am I ever ready for the upcoming week. I need so desperately to get some cleaning caught up around here. I am so much happier in my usual routine! However, in conclusion, I bet the kids made some memories this week that will last them for forever. A first period, horse camp, vacation bible school, a special womanhood induction ceremony, the movies, and game at the arena! It was all worth it, but for now....sweet dreams to this Mommy!

Summer Fun With the Family

We were so over-due for some serious family fun time! Even though we went and broke our budget, we had such a fun weekend. We started things off on Friday by getting the heck out of the house. It's my own fault, but for the past 3 weeks I have been such a lazy home-body. I have been hiding away in my air-conditioned house and doing nothing but cleaning and cooking...and a whole lot of eating what I cooked! (What can I say, my appetite is quite grander with baby girl than it was with Joey!) So we headed to the park in Pineville. I am not a huge fan of "p-town", but the kids like it because there are always loads of geese (and poop to boot!) and it's really big. That was fun and it got Joey nice and worn out for nap time.
After an extended nap we picked up my mini paycheck from Banfield and headed out for all the necessities for hot dogs a'la'grill and S'MORES! The original plan was to camp at Andrew Jackson State Park, but the weather was calling for thunderstorms all weekend long, so we cancelled and cooked-out in our drive way. It was SO MUCH FUN!
We ended the night all cuddling-up in Mommy and Daddy's bed to watch the Phantom of the Opera. The kids absolutely love the music and were very jealous Trey and I couldn't take them last week when the show was in town at Blumenthal. So we watched the movie and let them ask us 100 questions about the live musical.
It was up at 7 as usual Saturday morning. Trey made really yummy French toast and then we were "all aboard" to catch the light rail to Discovery Place downtown. They were having a new UnderWater and Pirates exhibit we were very eager to experience!
We got to Discovery Place after the very crowded train ride (I was a nervous wreck that I left my hand sanitizer in the car...icky icky public transportation germs!!!) and everyone was off to play and experience the Circus exhibit. We had all already been so it was a bit of a review, but a fun one! Then we went to explore the deep! We saw so many artifacts that had been extracted from as far as 1700 feet deep! Most of them were from the SS Republic that sunk in a Hurricane in the 1800's. The kids had fun with video simulations of being under the ocean using the mechanic extraction devices that scientists used to discover the artifacts. Very cool! They took turns steering the helm in a hurricane and what I thought was coolest of all was being in the hurricane simulator! (We all got to experience winds up to nearly 80 mph!).
Then it was off to the land of pirates! These days, someone just says the word "pirate" and thinks 'fun'! We learned all kinds of interesting factoids about pirates through history and even met a live pirate! We learned about "privateers" who were private pirates hired by the governement. Queen Elizabeth had one! Finally, we met BJ, a very cool talking parrot. Did you know that there is no historical account of pirates ever having a talking bird?!? Wonder where that part of the story came from.
As we were leaving DP we passed a pizza guy carrying pizzas from Fuel. The cravings hit me really quick! It was only 2 blocks away so we headed over for lunch. What a fun place to eat with kids! They provide the kids with pizza dough to play with at each table and boy was the food ever yummy!!! We got some great shots of the kids (and Daddy!) playing with the dough.
As we headed back to the train station we decided to swing into the ImgainOn really fast. There we wound up playing in a Charlotte Trolley (that's what the pictures are from), watching a puppet show by puppet master Carly, and getting a library card and taking home a big stack of books...chapter books, picture books, children's books. What a great thing for the kids to be excited about!
We were very excited to get back home and finally get to nap! We are by no means Disney Land parents...so it was very fun to break out of our normal routine (which is still fun!) and try some new things. All our experiences were not just fun, but educational. Since Trey and I are huge fans of this type of fun....it was a perfect day full of exciting adventures!