bump extraordinaire

These should keep the adoring fans satisfied for a little while!  We are at 28 weeks and counting.  Hopefully we'll be meeting our little guy in exactly 12 weeks. :)  Many thanks to our friend Lori, who lent us her talents for the afternoon.  

        

                   

what to do on a snow day

Thursday the kids were home from school due to snow, so we pulled out all the stops in the Valentines' department.  We made cupcakes and some decorations to bring some cheer to these winter days.

I read online how to make pretty decorations by melting shaved crayons between wax paper.  It was pretty time consuming - I think it took us about 2 hours - but we had all day!  

Of course making snowmen was on the agenda.  The boys rolled some giant snowballs that took all three of us to get to the right spot in the yard. 

Snowman Accessories:

 

And a snow lady:

unbelievable

Surprise.  It snowed again.  Wednesday night we got about another foot . . . on top of whatever we'd had before.  Observe:

First Snow:

Second Snow: 

Latest Snow:

Where is my house?  Back there somewhere behind all those snowy trees.  And each time we have our driveway plowed.  And each time it fills up like you wouldn't believe.  

We both went to work on Thursday.  Matt had parked on the street the night before since his work is vital and life-changing and hospitals never shut down.  So he left the house around six swinging a snow shovel and dug the car out.  That took an hour.   And when he picked me up from work that night, the car still had a foot of snow on the roof, like a mohawk.  I wanted to take a picture of it, but we hit a bump in our driveway and all of the snow slid onto the windshield.  It was like driving through a carwash.  

Around seven I left the house to meet my ride on the street.  I took these pictures of our winter wonderland while walking, thankful that Matt had already been that way and I could follow in his footsteps, which he made extra close together just for little old me.  

There's a road somewhere out there . . .

It's hard to tell from a picture how deep the snow is, but to me it just looks so different.  I really noticed it when we walked out our kitchen door.  Our large tree was more like a canopy, with the branches bent down so far the ends were stuck in the snow.

This is the tree in the fall, with our Very Tall Friend standing next to it.

 And in the winter:

It's safe to say that we are moving South after this residency is over.  

baby business

Hello, third trimester!

(and hello, Christmas boots!)

As we get closer to D-Day, the nester in me is ready to get going on our nursery and just baby world in general.  I really like 'nesting' and don't need a baby as an excuse - you should've seen how excited I was about the sheets I found on clearance for our bedroom!  Having a whole room to completely transform is quite fun for me.  The room is really tiny, just over 10x7 feet, so it is manageable and does not need much to feel full!  We'll also only be here for another year and a half, so I feel the freedom to make choices without having to worry about if our kid will like it in the future . . . because in the future we'll be long gone.  That being said, we're only here for another 18 months and don't need to go all out.  A coat of paint and some window treatments will be our biggest jobs.

We just started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class at our church last night, and we watched a session where Ramsey talks about the differences in shopping styles between men and women.  He said that men go straight to what they want and negotiate for it, while women hunt around for the best deal.  I laughed at this, because I have been hunting for what feels like AGES for the 'perfect' baby bedding.  I'm sure if you looked at what I picked, you'd be rather unimpressed, but I have certain hopes and dreams for this little space and this little set seems to reflect that.  I'm also hoping to make my own crib skirt so that we can adjust it to hide whatever we store under the crib, but I'm leaving the rest to Pottery Barn.  :)

After finally picking the all-important room scheme, I had to get cracking on the old Target baby registry.  Oh, my.  For such little things, they need a lot of stuff.  I've been talking to some varsity moms about what gear is best and slowly building a list.  Because I have some other friends who are approaching this stage as well, I thought I'd share some resources:
A spreadsheet of recommended baby items
A list of everything used by one mom in the first two months
I don't actually know the girls who wrote these up but I do appreciate the ideas and thought others might, too.  I am still trying to get a handle on what we need and what is not necessary.  Our baby room is tiny and I don't want to be left with swings and bouncers and walkers strewn about the house!  Thankfully a friend here will lend us some of those items as we need them.  I still have to measure to see what kind of storage bins and containers we want, but I was loving my time in the basket aisle of Target today!

So, varsity moms, what baby gear do you love and hate?  

travel insurance

My thoughts on travel insurance.  Is it worth the $20?

I normally do not go for the extra insurance when buying a ticket.  Most of our flying is done through Southwest and I don't believe they offer that option anyway.  But there have been a couple instances where I thought the insurance might have come in handy.

1) If you are a travel idiot or prone to unfortunate mistakes.  A few years ago a few of us decided that Puerto Rico was going to be our spring break destination.  For some reason, I volunteered to buy the vacation package for all four of us on my credit card, probably to get the points or something.  Later in the week I was perusing my credit card statement and saw the charge from Orbitz - TWICE.  Somehow I had bought the same package TWICE.  The largest charge I'd ever made in my life - TWICE.  After a near-tearful call to the Orbitz and airline personnel, they kindly undid one of our bookings but I think that's because God blessed me with a compassionate agent.  She asked if we'd bought the insurance (we hadn't) and I'm sure it would've made it easier if we had!  Incidentally, on the way home we all missed our flight - and no flight insurance - had to BUY a new one to get home.  But really, everything else about actually being there was great!  But that's where $20 would've gone a long way.

2) If you have reason to believe your flight may not go as planned.  During my last trip when weather canceled my first flight, I was really leery of airlines and decided to buy the travel insurance with my Jet Blue flight to Denver.  When that flight was canceled due to a missing crew member, my dad was quick to inform me of my passenger's rights and encouraged me to press for a taxi voucher home.  They are not quick to give away vouchers these days.  Since I'd bought the insurance, I called their emergency number to ask if they would arrange the taxi home for me.  They said they WOULD NOT, but that I could take a taxi and attempt to claim it later.  They were not very reassuring, so I approached the airline.  At first the manager said she would take care of it, but when she found out it was $150, she changed her mind.   After much begging and pleading, the airline agreed to pay half of my taxi ride home since I was sharing with someone from the next town over.   I still think that's ridiculous, but I was so anxious to get home, I took it, and was careful to get a receipts.  The next day I filed a claim with the insurance company . . . and this weekend I got a check!!  Wonder of wonders, it worked!  *I should clarify that all of my flights were fully refunded by the airlines because weather and missing crew members are good enough reasons for the passengers to get their money back.

So, sometimes it is worth it, although the language is very exclusive.  I will read the terms before buying it next time to see if it would apply to a situation we might find ourselves in.  Sorry this was such an incredibly boring post, but I thought it might be helpful.  I really couldn't believe we got our $75 back this weekend!  

checkin' in

I have been taking a break from the old blog because I have been feeling rather uninspired.  It is so wintery around here, and not in a fresh and fanciful way, but more in a humdrum problem-causing situation.  Also time has been moving right along and I am now 27 weeks pregnant, which means that during my afternoon blog time I've been falling asleep more often and spend my awake time mulling over baby things.  Babies apparently need a lot of things.  I am a little confused but I'll hit on that later.

I know winter has its perks and I'm glad to be living in the north for a few years and after this, I think I'll be done with it.  I think it was the combination of canceled flights and running out of oil that have caused me to dread every snow and the potential problems it might bring.  I haven't told the oil story yet because at the time it was a major stress, but in retrospect it was a bit humorous.

Background: Most of the houses here are heated with oil.  Every so often a big truck comes and hooks up to our house and pumps a bunch of oil into the side of our house and into a big tank in the basement.  We have a love/hate relationship with that truck, because while we're thankful for its service, it always means big money.  I think the 'oil' is similar to diesel so if you imagine filling up a 200+ lb tank with the current gas prices - yikes.  At our old house the landlord had us on a schedule so the truck would top us up monthly, but for this house we opted to call when we needed it.  During our December blizzard the day after Christmas, we realized we needed it.

Timeline:
Sunday - settle in while the blizzard starts.  Matt realizes we are low on oil.  We plan to call the company in the morning.

Monday - blizzard leaves us with a foot of snow.  Oil company plans to come the next day, as long as we plow the driveway.  After being quoted some ridiculous prices by local plowers, we chase down a rogue plow man and he plows away.  Later that night, I find out that my flight for the next morning has been canceled.  There seems to be no hope that I'll be able to travel.  I cry.

Tuesday - I wake up at 4am distressed about my travel situation and find a flight that leaves Wednesday night.  I buy it.  I feel cheered.  At 5am Matt realizes he can't hear the radiators and after checking on the basement, it is confirmed - we are out of oil.  No worries, the truck is coming today!  I am leaving to see my family tomorrow!  It's all good!  Matt goes to work and instructs me to stay put and wait for the tuck so that we can make sure our boiler turns back on.  He brings in logs and Moose and I hunker down by the fire and it's fun and feels like Kijabe, only colder.  I call the oil company at 9 am and tell them we're out of oil, they say they'll come soon, and I can put a few gallons of diesel in to hold us over.  Well, that's not going to happen, as I don't have a can to put diesel in and wouldn't know how to get it in the tank if I did.  Matt calls every few hours to see if the truck has come yet and insists I get out the space heaters to keep warm.  We are FINE, I tell him!  By noon I get a little impatient and call again and twiddle my thumbs for . . . four more hours.  At 4:00 I hear the oil truck lumbering its way down our long and freshly-plowed driveway.  Cheer!!!  A minute later I hear the beeping of the truck backing up and leaving our driveway.  I throw on my boots, grab the phone, and rush outside while dialing the company.  I explain to the woman that the truck is driving away and we have no oil!  She gets on the phone with him and tells me that the driveway isn't plowed enough and that he got stuck.  That is baloney, I tell her, he didn't even try, get him back here before I freeze to death.  I watch the truck pull out into the road and drive off.  She talks to him and then asks me if I have some salt . . . I run to the basement and grab our bag of salt and run back to the driveway, proclaiming that I'll salt it myself.  She talks to him again and then to me and says he's out of area and he won't come back until we salt and sand the driveway.  Since I have been up since 4 in the morning waiting for this oil truck to arrive, I don't take kindly to this news.  I burst into tears on the phone with the woman, standing forlornly in the driveway, clutching the remains of a bag of salt.  By the time I get ahold of Matt I am practically in hysterics and he thinks something happened to Moose . . . of course when he gets home he is a bit more rational about it, calls a different company, and we vow never to use the first company again.  Later that evening the new company comes and pours a little diesel in . . . I guess what I should've done in the first place . . . and they hook up the next day and pump our tank full and our wallets dry.

This is why I'm over winter.  It's inconvenient and expensive.  I am prone to overreacting under normal circumstances, but lately I've been even more emotional.  Lucky Matt.

So that was a couple weeks ago . . . and I'd like to say when I came to work a few days later, they had also run out of oil in the night, so it does happen to other people, not just us.  This week brought its own joys.  After getting my car stuck on ice on Monday, I was almost glad to see it rain all day on Tuesday, thinking it would melt some of the snow down.  It did, but it also made a big mess of wet slush everywhere.  It was so slick I couldn't get the car home on Tuesday night, and after spinning out for a few minutes, I got out of the car to walk home.  I didn't get too far, as I stepped in snow up to my knees and slush up to my ankles.  Fortunately Matt had been home all day studying, heard my dilemma, and was coming to the rescue in his pajama pants and tennis shoes.  After a good 15 minutes of reversing and revving and spinning and sliding, he got the car home.  We were cold and wet and I was cranky and I still had dinner to make.  Matt suggested I call the family I work for and ask if they could pick me up in the morning in case I couldn't get out.  At that point I realized I couldn't find my cell phone, and I imagined it in pieces in the slush, having fallen out of my pocket when I got out of the car, and then run over 20 times as we tried to get home.  Matt threw on some boots and headed to the car to see if it was there . . . and returned a minute later, triumphant with my phone safely in his hands, but his toes screaming for mercy.  I didn't realize he'd thrown MY boots on, my little ladybug spring galoshes.  It took the two of us to pry the boots off.  Which is why I had occasion to take this picture:

It snowed again this morning, causing a 2 hour delay and another occasion for me to be picked up to get to work . . . I am not a fan of sliding around on snowy roads!  So now we have quite the accumulation here with temps in the "very cold" and "frigid" for the next week.  But now that I've gotten that out of my system, I'll do my best to refrain from complaining about it.  :)  Stay warm, friends! 

winter weather

Snow day!  We woke up to a world of white and a blustery morning of snow still falling.  I was surprised to see how much we got - about 18 inches, more than out big snow right after Christmas.  We spent the morning lounging around and might have been in PJ's all day if I hadn't got a call from the family I work for asking if we had any hills in our yard.  Since our driveway hadn't been plowed yet, they had to hike about 100 yards through the drifts to get to our door, dragging sleds all the way.  So fun to have kids to enjoy the snow with!  

And of course Moose was in on the action.  Despite not wanting to leave the house this morning, he overcame his aversion to snow when he saw KIDS.  He played hard, constantly getting in the way as the kids tried to sled down the hill, and climbing onto the sleds to get out of the snow.  What a booger.  But the snow was so deep, he often needed a little boost to get back up the hill, as you can see below. 

I got one little ride in, too.

It's all fun and games until somebody gets a face full of snow. 

 Time to get out of the cold and take a break at home with some hot chocolate.  

We walked them to their Jeep, and then stayed inside for the rest of the day.  

This is the long walk that the four kids did to get to our house.  Imagine the two year old in his "I do it myself!" phase, up to his chest in snow.  Matt is marking our driveway so the truck knows where to plow.  It's quite long.  

And of course little old Moosey, who stuck to the tracks we had made, or else turned to the last-ditch effort of eating himself out of the predicament he was in.  

So even though this was a massive amount of snow, I'm told the kids will have school tomorrow.  Which makes me laugh, because I heard Charlotte was on their third snow day.  Sweet Carolina, I like how you do things.  

NYC for NYE

As it's a new year, I don't want my posts to be centered around disappointment . . . so I'd like to share all the details of our rockin' New Years Eve.  Which is a joke, because I actually fell asleep before midnight.  But I was in New York City.  Woohoo!   We headed in Friday morning in time to meet our friend John Black for the Kentucky game.  We decided to watch it in the comfort of JB's apartment and ordered up some tasty lunch from S'Mac, a restaurant that only serves macaroni and cheese.  Yes, mac n cheese.  Of course mine was made with brie, rosemary, and figs, and it was tasty.  And no, I could not finish the whole thing.  And yes, Kentucky won. 

After we were filled up with cheese and carbs, we headed out to see what was up in the city.  We tramped about from Union Square up to the theater district and as close to Times Square as we could get, which was not very close as they had it blocked off already at 4pm.  That is kind of a nuts, not really sure why you'd want to stand up there all night barricaded in with all the other loonies.  So we walked around the square and headed on our way.

It took us a while to get hungry for dinner but when we did, we ended up at a place that serves only meatballs.  I know, only in New York.  Matt had heard of the place and was pumped to try it out.  They had a special corned beef and sauerkraut meatball so one could get their new year's meal taken care of in just a couple bites.  After dinner we wandered about and ended up at JB's place with thirty minutes to go before the ball dropped, so we watched that from the comfort of his living room.  Or, they watched it, and I fell asleep, and woke up as they were counting down the last minute to midnight.  Perfect timing.

So, welcome 2011!  This year is sure to be an exciting one!

disappointment

I think of all the emotions, disappointment is one of the worst.  If your parents tell you they're mad at you, you don't feel bad at all because you're probably mad at them, too.  But if they tell you they're disappointed . . . that's the worst.  And that's how I feel about my air travel experiences.  Sad. Crushed. Disappointed.

Because of two canceled flights, I never got to Colorado.  I missed our family Christmas and my cousin's wedding.  The first flight was canceled the day before I left and I was able to stay home and search for a new flight out the next night.  But the second flight was a more painful experience that robbed me of 12 hours of my life, chewed me up, and spit me out on the other side.

Train and shuttle to JFK: 2.5 hours
Waiting in line to check baggage and security: 1 hour
Waiting at gate for delayed plane: 3 hours
Hearing plane was cancelled because they were missing a crew member: 5 seconds
Waiting at JetBlue service desk while on hold with JetBlue on the phone: 1 hour (no open flights this week)
Waiting in line at baggage services for taxi voucher whilst watching for my bag to come down the ramp at baggage claim: 2 hours
Waiting for taxi: 15 minutes
Taxi ride home: 1.5 hours

I admit I was trying to work every angle to my advantage to try and get the airline to take care of me . . . so I thought a little tummy rubbing and exhausted flopping down in a chair behind and employee's desk would help get the message across, but really I'd say this was the first time I felt uncomfortably pregnant.  I'm not huge or anything, but all of the standing around coupled with the fact it was 1:00 in the morning just made me achey.  And cranky.  And in the end the airline only paid half of the taxi home, even though I shared it with another girl from the next town over.  Jokers.  So I got back at 3:15 am and after all that I was so thankful to just be safely home.

It's been a couple days and the wedding is over, my family has dispersed and are all safely home, the morning brunch that I would've had with my friends is passed, and I'm able to be thankful for the time at home I've had this week.  The Christmas tree is outside and I made another pillow case on my NEW sewing machine (so far I'm sticking to what I know!).  I am relaxed and recharged, which doesn't often happen during the holidays.

Also I took this picture:

Seriously, Moose?  You want to sleep with your tongue hanging out like that?