You've Been Punked!

That is the phrase I was waiting to hear early Thursday morning.  Wednesday night I went into labor and things were going along quite well for several hours.  I was having good strong contractions every 2 minutes so we went in to the hospital.  When I got there, they put me in a triage bed, hooked me up to the monitors and asked me the million questions that they ask when you are registering.  The contractions were still coming strong and consistent.  By the time the nurse had finished with all the questions, they checked my cervix(fun!).  Unfortunately it was still quite high and not dilated at all yet.  By this time I had been having contractions for about 4 hours.  The nurse sent me to wander the halls for an hour with Jake.  That hour felt like 10!  We came back after an hour and they checked me again and guess what?!  No change in my cervix!  What the crap?!  A few minutes later they decided to hook me back up to the monitors.  That's when I noticed a change in the contractions.  They were coming less frequently.  The nurse told me that they were going to move me to a room and give me some morphine to help me sleep.  I had woken up contracting at 11:15pm and it was now almost 5 am.  I was so tired.  She also said that many times women wake up and are in better labor.  So I said let's do it.

I fell asleep and when I woke up I was feeling very little.  I knew what that meant.  They were going to send me home.  I mean what else could they do?  I was still 10 days from my induction date and 16 days from my due date!  Too early to induce.  By the time the doctor came to see me it was 9am.  I was hungry and still really tired.  The last time I had eaten was 2pm the previous day and had only gotten sleep at 2 hour intervals twice that night/morning.  The doctor ordered an AFI (where they measure the amount of amniotic fluid I have), and I asked one of the nurses for some food.  Well Jake leaves to go to the cafeteria to get breakfast and I wait for mine to come.  It never does.  So they come get me for the AFI and I think that my food will be waiting for me when I get back.

The AFI does not go well.  The sonographer had a hard time seeing my cervix because the baby's head was in the way and she was pushing really hard on the lower part of my abdomen.  She was surprised it hurt(clearly she's never been pregnant).  I told her, there isn't much cushion there.  It's just my skin and the baby's head(idiot).  Anyway.  The torture finally ends and I get back to my room.  Still no food.  Now I'm crying without stopping because I just want to eat and sleep, but no one seems to understand that.  Jake goes out to ask about the food and they say, "It's not here yet?"  So then they tell him they'll get some for me.  15 minutes later the nurse comes in to check me again and get me ready for discharge and finally the phone rings in my room.  They are asking me what i want to eat?!  Really!  I ask if they have eggs, no, because it is now 11:30am, only lunch stuff.  I look at the nurse and ask are you ready to discharge me?  She says they are so I say forget the food, I just want out of there!  We are discharged 10 minutes later.  Jake takes me down to the cafeteria to get me something to eat.  I'm not really in the mood for lunch food, but I don't have much choice.  So I grab a sandwich and juice.  I scarf it down and can feel my ability to reason coming back to me.  Needless to say, I did the ugly face cry A LOT that day!

We get back home and I promptly fall asleep for several hours.  I am thankful for good friends who offered to help out with my boys.  So that's it!  I was punked by my baby!

Resolutions

Every year I make New Years Resolutions, but I don't know that I ever take them seriously because I feel like it is the same thing over and over again.  My mom gave a great talk in church the Sunday after Christmas about New Years Resolutions and to take a different approach, by coming up with a theme for the year.  Hers was "Closer to Heaven in 2011".  She said that by focusing our goals around a theme that it will be easier to refocus on what we are hoping to accomplish.  I really liked that idea so I decided to come up with my own.

My theme for the new year is A.S.A.P.  Which will stand for "Always Say A Prayer".  I have felt the need to come closer to God and what better way than to A.S.A.P.?  Prayer is our direct line to God and a way to get to know Him intimately and come closer to Him.  So my goals to go along with my theme are these:

1. Have family prayer morning and night
2. Have my individual prayers morning and night
3. Offer prayers in my heart when I need strength and cannot pray allowed.
4. Encourage my children to say their personal prayers.
5. Have couple's prayer with my husband.
6. Read scriptures daily on my own and as a family.

So there you have it!  My new year's theme!  A.S.A.P.!

Technology!

I love technology, but it can be a real pain sometimes.  I have been trying to upload new photos onto my computer so I can put them up on my blog.  Well, I have had to do it at work.  The first day I brought my computer to work, I forgot the USB cable.  Nice.  So today I grabbed the whole box from when I bought my camera, which should contain the USB cable.  It was especially slow at work today, so I took out the box to go over the manual and add my pixs.  I open the box, no USB!  I know it was there when I bought it and I am now remembering that it is attached to my adapter that I use to charge the battery!  Really?  So, I think, "Okay, I'll just put my memory card into my printer at work and get them that way."  I put the memory card in the printer and get an error message saying "memory card error".  Now this is just getting ridiculous! 

I think I will wait until this week is over to post pixs and get "caught up" with my techno stuff.  I will be done with work after this week so I'm thinkin' yeah.

Am I done yet?

That is how I feel now that I am 35 weeks pregnant!  The doctors are estimating that the baby is already 5 pounds and will gain between 1/2 and and 1 pound a week from now on!  Monster baby!  No thank you!  The weekly stress tests and fluid checks have now begun to make sure everything is still good with me and the baby.  The first one was today and everything was fine.  However, I did gain 4 pounds over the weekend!  I really hope that is water!  My face and filangies look fairly normal as do my ankles.  Uh oh!  The heartburn is constant and my belly feels like it has stretched as far as it will go!  I am so glad this is our last one!  Can I get an amen anyone?

Grinchy Christmas

I'm not gonna lie, I feel like a Grinch this Christmas.  I am totally having a pity party, so if you decide not to read this post, I understand. 

It has not felt like Christmas at all to me this year.  I have been working so much I have not had time or energy for anything Christmas.  I haven't been involved in ANY music this season and that is really what makes it feel like Christmas to me.  I love singing the Messiah, going to Holiday Dinner, conducting the ward Christmas program, preparing a piece to sing for a recital that is Christmas related.  It makes me so sad that I have not sung really at all this season.

All my kids, and husband, have talked about have been gifts.  What we are going to give and what they want to get.  To be honest, I don't even really want anything.  I take that back, what I want this year is to be able to rest and relax, be with my family, make Christmas goodies for our friends, go caroling and revel in the goodness of my Savior.  I feel like our Christmas has become too commercial.  It has not been Christ-centered.  Maybe that is my fault.  I just want to feel the joy of the season.  I hope that happens when I go down to San Diego to spend Christmas with my family.

Okay, I'm done now. 

A grateful heart!

I am writing this post in the hopes that I will stop focusing on all that is wrong in my life and realize that I am so blessed.  It takes a consious effort!  So here goes!

#1 We went through a tornado that damaged one of the windows in our home that needed to be replaced and because of the broken glass our carpet had to be ripped out.  Blessing:  We have hated our carpet and have been wanting to replace it and now we can do it for free.  We were able to replace the carpet in our dining area with beautiful ceramic tile thanks to Jake and his brothers.  They did the install and it turned out awesome!

#2 My growing baby has a single umbilical artery.  It can cause developmental problems.  Blessing:  Lord has blessed this baby to be growing the way he should so far.  I am grateful he is healthy so far.

#3 We needed a bigger car and refuse to have a payment(thank you Dave Ramsey).  Blessing:  We found a minivan with 88,000 miles on it that might work.  So we tried to sell our Sorento.  We placed an ad and it sold in 24 hours for $5500.  Exactly what we had been hoping for.  We went to the dealership with the minivan we were considering and offered $5000 total all taxes/fees for the van.  They countered with $5610, I countered with $5500 and they accepted!  New car with tons of room, no car payment!

#4  As of Monday the 22nd we will have spent over $2000 repairing our vehicles.  Blessing: Because we have been doing the Dave Ramsey Total Money Make Over, we have had the cash to pay for those repairs.

#5  Three days after we bought our van the check engine light went on!  Blessing:  It is under warranty still so we can take it in to find out what is wrong and, hopefully, get it fixed for free.

Additional blessings in my life are many, but I will name a few.  I have a good job that allows me to be very flexible with my schedule.  My MS is under control right now.  I have 2 beautiful boys that I adore and that give me so much love in return.  I have a husband who gives so much to me and who loves me despite all my faults.  He is always looking for ways to serve me and make me feel loved and valued.  He is the perfect eternal companion for me.  I have the best brothers, sisters, in-laws, parents(step and natural), step-siblings(although I think of them as my real siblings), nephews, nieces, cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents and friends!  I am so blessed with so many wonderful people in my life!  Great, now I'm crying!  Well what do you expect from a hormonal pregnant woman?! 

I think my grateful heart grew a few sizes today!  What are you grateful for?

And you thought your week was bad.

Wednesday morning I awoke to the sound of high winds and heavy rain and hail.  It was about 5:15am.  Jake was at work, Sean was asleep in bed with me and Kurtis was asleep in his room.  The wind was becoming more intense and the house groaned in protest.  Then the whole house started shaking.  Being a California native, I thought "earthquake", but I knew that was not what it was.  I sat up in bed and pulled Sean close to me, ready to run for it.  It sounded like a roaring train and I thought our roof was about to be ripped off.  The power went out and, being in Bellemont, it became pitch black.  The shaking stopped, but the wind, rain and hail continued.  Kurtis burst into my room crying, shaking and saying that his window had broken.  I hugged my boys and reassured them we were safe.  The first thing Kurtis asked was if we could say a prayer.  Of course.  We had a prayer. 

After the prayer, I said, "I think that was a tornado." I couldn't see anything outside it was so dark.  I took the boys night light downstairs to get another flashlight.  I heard voices that sounded closer and clearer than they should have been coming from our dining room window.  As I moved closer I saw all the glass.  I put shoes on and went into our backyard.  Both fences were severely bowed and one almost completely torn down.  I then saw the roof of our shed on the ground in front of our window.  The tornado had ripped the roof off the shed and thrown it against the window.  I went around the house with the flashlight to make sure everything else was still intact.  Other than the window and fences our house was okay.  Many of our neighbors; however, were not as fortunate.  I will post pictures of where we were soon, but this is the destruction from the tornado in another part of the development.

Both houses in this photo had almost all their windows blown out by the tornado and part of the roof ripped off.

This is our friend's boat that was catapulted into another friend's house above her son's bedroom.  They got out in time before the ceiling collapsed over all three bedrooms.

This is another friend's home.  They must have been in the eye of the storm at one point.  From what their daughter relayed to me.  Everyone in that home was lucky to be alive.

I know without a doubt God was watching over the families of Bellemont.  There were no major injuries, not even the woman who was picked up and thrown 5 houses down by the tornado!  There were a few broken bones and some needed stitches, but that was it.  I will post more photos soon.  We just praise the Lord that we were held in the hallow of His hand that fateful morning.