Letters

Dear Public Library,

I know that money is tight and budgets are slim. But, if you are going to insist on buying the cheapest toilet paper possible, could you either
a. start the roll before you put it on the dispenser
or
b. not put the toilet paper in impossibly hard to use dispensers that won't allow you to actually see or reach the beginning of the roll thus rendering the toilet paper impossible to use?

I tried all four rolls in your bathroom this morning and despite the fact that I have a bachelor's degree in engineering, I was unable to get ANY of them started - all I got was tiny scraps of paper. And my daughter was very ticked off because I kept coming in and out of the stalls and she was ready to GO!

Thank you,
Bringing my own next time
8 )


and


Dear Woman that works at the drive thru pony keg near the library,

The next time that a woman in a minivan comes barreling into the drive thru and screeching to a halt with a desperate look in her eyes and a screaming child in the back that is gnawing her arm off, please do not take your time putting down your cigarette before coming over. By the way, please stop smoking, it's bad for my baby. And when the desperate looking woman asks for a bag of pretzels, any pretzels it doesn't matter the cost, don't list the various types and brands, just grab the darn pretzels!

And, if they cost $1.59 and you are given $1.60, bring back the darn penny. My family and I would be financially secure if it weren't for people like you that keep our extra pennies or two!

Signed,
Won't forget the snack next time

8 )

Five!

In five short years, my baby has gone from this:



To this:



How does that happen??


Here are some shots of the birthday girl:

Enjoying some chocolate chips while she waits for her chocolate chip pancakes


5 Birthday roses from Daddy
(thank you Mommy for the suggestion)

Birthday chocolate chip pancakes

(We need to get one of those special "Birthday" plates!)

Opening her big present from Mommy and Daddy

A new (20"!!) bike!!!

A new helmet to match!

Birthday balloons from Grandma and Grandpa

Birthday dinner - spaghetti and meatballs

5 Candles!!

Wearing her birthday crown from Aunt B!

I think that she had a great day. She got to do a lot of her favorite things:

- make pancakes

- ride her bike (even though we had some light rain today)

- make cupcakes

- eat spaghetti and meatballs

- go out to lunch with Grandma (and the waiters and waitresses sung happy birthday to her!!)

- go to the movies with Grandma

- go shopping with Grandma (see a theme here?)

- have cupcakes and ice cream for dessert

- watch TV after EasternStar went to bed

I can't believe it's been five years!

Modest no more!

Today marked several milestones for RainbowBaby - I'm 32 weeks along (yay!) and I started my twice weekly NSTs and once weekly AFI. An NST (Non-stress Test) is when they hook your belly up to a machine and they monitor the heartbeat of the baby and they monitor for any contractions. The AFI (Amniotic fluid index) is where they measure the fluid in the uterus.

I started with the NST and the nurse hooked me up and then asked why I was being monitored; what was my high risk condition? The inside of me shouted "because my last baby died and with every ache and twinge and pain I'm convinced that this one will too!". However, the calm and rational side won and said "because I take heparin". 8 )

RainbowBaby passed the NST - although the nurse had to use the "cattle prod" to wake her up and the fluid level looks great. Since RainbowBaby is getting bigger, they don't have the luxury of being modest anymore. There just isn't room! Today we were able to see clearly that RainbowBaby is a girl. Yay! TinyDancer will be very excited to be getting another sister! EasternStar is going to be ticked, no matter what gender comes home. 8 )

I also had a growth check and baby is measuring right on track and in the 50% percentile for weight at 4 lbs.

In two weeks we'll find out our "real" due date - the date that RainbowBaby will be born. Our doctor's office delivers NET 39 weeks, so it'll be whatever day my doctor is doing deliveries that particular week. I'd guess that we'd better like, pick a name and maybe get out some clothes and stuff.

Another first

Another first today -

First Girl Scout Cookie

EasternStar enjoyed her Lemonade cookie this morning:

The bite......

Mmmmmmmm........

Drink!

I think she enjoyed the Thanks-A-Lot cookie that she had this afternoon more though. I think the Lemonade was a bit too tart.

I'm so glad that we are able to document all of these important firsts! 8 )

Food for thought.......

TinyDancer asked me at lunch today:

"What happens if you order a sad meal?"


I suggested that maybe they give you burnt food.

Her thoughts:
- they give you salad but no croutons
- they give you the wrong food
- they give you a drink but no straw
- you don't get a toy


Food for thought the next time you hit the drive thru! 8 )

Just realized.......

I just realized today that I am 31 weeks pregnant. My c-section will probably be scheduled when I'm 39 weeks along. That means only 8 more weeks until the baby comes! Holy cow!!

Happy Valentines Day - Belated

Happy Belated Valentines Day!

We hope that all of our family and friends had a nice day. We had a nice and relaxing day spent mostly at home. Each of my girls got a bouquet of flowers:

and TinyDancer and EasternStar got identical balloons.

SleepingAngel got a different balloon:

and a special note from TinyDancer.

We went to SleepingAngel's special park to dig out her headstone and see if we could get her Christmas tree. It was buried under all of the snow that we've been getting. When we got there, we could only see the angel that sits at the top of her tree! We left her some flowers and sent her balloon up to Heaven to her.

Even though we agreed not to exchange presents this year, Stranger got me these cookies:

They were yummy!!

Spaghetti night

I love spaghetti night!

Why does Daddy insist that we only have it on nights when he isn't home? 8 )

I just don't understand it!

Is there something on my face? By my eye?

Friendship Blossom Valentines

I love doing little art projects with TinyDancer and I can't wait until EasternStar is big enough to join in.

I've been waiting for years for TinyDancer to be big enough to go to school and have Valentine's day parties so that we can make her valentines together. I have a folder with ideas that I've been collecting over the past few years. This is the first year that she is going to have a real Valentine's day party and get to exchange valentines. For this year, we picked this to make from FamilyFun magazine:

http://familyfun.go.com/valentines-day/valentines-day-cards/friendship-blossoms-825185/


I cut out the hearts and the circles and TinyDancer cut out the leaves. She did an awesome job! She is working hard on cutting on the lines with her scissors. Stranger helped by cutting the designs on the edges of the circles.

TinyDancer was also in charge of the assembly, but she tuckered out after we finished the flowers for the girls. Here is the finished product:

Friendship Blossom TinyDancer style

Lastly, proof that I have the best husband ever:

After we made all 12 of them, I was wondering out loud where to store them until Friday. I poked my head into the living room to see if Stranger had any ideas. He went downstairs - during the SuperBowl - and made this little holder for the lollipops. Isn't he awesome?

Umm...Daddy......

When are you going to take me here???

Love,

EasternStar

Baby preparations - breakfasts

In addition to shuffling things around in our house (as if that wasn't going to be enough work), we remembered what it was like to bring TinyDancer home and how we never felt like cooking. Or actually, how she would never let us put her down long enough to cook. 8 ) Since we have twice as many kids now (wow!) and significantly less money, we decided that we'd better start doing some cooking now so that we can have healthy, homemade breakfasts, lunches and dinners when the baby comes instead of reaching for fast food at every meal. I'm making the food this month because Stranger goes MIA next month and the first few weeks of April.

This weekend I started on our breakfasts. I made:

- chocolate chip pancakes - a favorite of both of the girls - 6 dozen
- sour cream banana chocolate chip muffins - a favorite of EasternStar - 3 dozen
- blueberry stuffed pancake muffins - 2 dozen
- cherry poptarts - 21 - yum!
- farmer's casserole - 9 of them 8 )
- cinnamon rolls - 2 dozen - Stranger made the dough in our bread machine. We are never going back to store bought cinnamon rolls! 8 )
- breakfast burritos - 48

Cherry poptarts fresh from the oven

Cherry poptarts after being iced and topped with sprinkles.

Thanks for helping, TinyDancer!

1 of the 9 farmer's casseroles that I made 8 )


Don't the blueberry stuffed pancake muffins look yummy?

The hole at the bottom of the stuffed pancake muffins. 8 ( Unfortunately, this

happened to all of them! I'm not sure why - I experimented with a few of the batches

and it kept happening.

Now I feel as though these muffins have instigated a rivalry with me

and I'm going to keep making them until I can fix it. 8 )

The blueberry pie filling left in the muffin tin. 8 (

I was too pooped out to make the last recipe - 2 dozen eggwiches. I might make those tomorrow if the baby feels up to it. 8 ) And if Stranger lets me mess up the kitchen again.

Next weekend I'm going to work on lunches, then dinners, then snacks. TinyDancer is the most excited about the snacks because I'm going to freeze several kinds of cookie dough and she can't wait to help with that. She is also excited about the lunches because we are going to make homemade pizza crust in the bread machine and use it to make homemade hot pockets. 8 )

First day of preschool recap

TinyDancer had her first day of preschool last week. She was very excited. If you recall, Stranger was not. Thankfully, he's gotten over it. 8 )

She is loving it and making lots of new friends. It is fun to see the projects that she brings home. This week they talked about space and she brought home a rocket ship which has made for some fun goofing off antics after dinner the past few nights.



Here are some pictures of her ready to leave on her first day:

Excited in her new outfit and her pigtails with ribbons.




Holding up her Hello Kitty backpack.

Estrogen

Come April, there could be a lot more estrogen in our house!


During my 28 week ultrasound last week, RainbowBaby showed us a very brief glimpse of her(?) parts. It was enough for the tech to call this one a girl - but we aren't calling it yet. I'll start getting weekly ultrasounds at 32 weeks to check growth and fluid levels, so maybe we'll get another glimpse. 8 )




P.S. Before you go thinking "Aww.....poor Stranger......" just remember which one of us gives the "X" and which one of us has the option to give an X or Y. 8 )

Sleep over!

One of the great things about living close to grandparents (in our case, my parents) is that sometimes they'll let their grandchildren spend the night at their house. Or, in some beautiful cases, the entire weekend. TinyDancer has gotten quite used to spending the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house about once a month or so. She even has her own suitcase for such occasions and she packs it herself. It's one of the things that I love about living so close to family. I never got the opportunity to spend a lot of one-on-one time with my Grandparents and I am so glad that we were able to move close enough to one set of our parents so that our girls can have that. If only we could convince Stranger's parents to move closer....... 8 )

Until this weekend, EasternStar has taken naps at Grandma's house, but never spent the night. So, this weekend, she had her first sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa's and she did awesome! Stranger and I got some much needed grown-up time and the girls got spoiled by their grandparents for almost 24 hours. I was a little curious as to how EasternStar would do going to bed - at home she will only sleep in her crib in her room for naps and at night but she's used to their pack & play for naps at their house. I'm so glad that she did great.

Umm......mom and dad - when can we schedule the next one? 8 )