Paper Shredder

I'm probably way behind most people in this area, but I finally bought a paper shredder the other day. I've thought about it for a while, but one of those Dateline or Primetime shows helped me actually jump out there and get one. They did an "experiement" where they ripped up a credit card offer that a man got in the mail (ripped it like four times, like a lot of us probably do). Then he actually taped it back together, changed the return address on the top with a marker and filled it out & sent it in. To his surprise, the credit card company sent him a credit card, even with the evidence of tampering to the application! I was a bit scared by this because we probably throw away like 2 credit card/loan applications per day! Imagine if someone scrambled through our garbage can! Anyway, just a thought and a reminder that you can never be too careful these days!

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2075981&page=1 (here's the link to the article)

Big Girl Bed

Well, Lexi is finally in her "big girl bed" - which is actually a toddler bed. But we figured it was time, since she's beed climbing in & out of her crib for like 4 months!! She had a hard time with the concept of a different bed at first, but once we put it together and made it all cute, she was all for it! We were shocked that she went to bed so easily on the very first night.

I was awakened twice in the night (from a dead-sleep) by a little voice saying "mommy, change my diaper" and a diaper being shoved into my hand. Maybe it was too tempting to get out of her new bed every time she wet her diaper, I don't know. Anyway, it was a smooth transition (at least the first night) and by the time the baby needs the crib, it should be "neutral territory" with no feelings of jealousy from Lexi (we hope!).

Garage Sale

Once I get an idea in my head, I usually have to do it RIGHT THEN. So last night at 10:00 (after our date and after we got the kids into bed) I drug Tucker into a last-minute project of "let's have a garage sale in the morning!". I've been noticing things around our house/garage the past few months that we really don't use or need, so we gathered them up and by midnight had our garage sale stuff set up in the garage! We jumped out there at 6:45 and pulled everything out. Unfortunately with this heat, by 8:00 it's in the upper 80's so it's NOT as fun to be garage saling by then! Anyway, in two hours we made $85. Not bad for a last minute thought! :-)

And now I'm ready for a nap...

Heat Advisory!

This is one of the fun "perks" about living in the Valley...(sorry it's in all caps, I copied and pasted it from weather.com)

THE HEAT WAVE IS EXPECTED TO BECOME WORSE OVER THE WEEKEND AS TEMPERATURES WILL BE DANGEROUSLY HOT ACROSS THE AREA. THE INTERIOR PORTIONS OF THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY ARE EXPECTED TO REACH THE 105 TO 110 TEMPERATURE RANGE TODAY. TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE TO RISE THROUGH THE WEEKEND WITH VERY HOT TEMPERATURES FORECAST FOR THE WEEKEND. A HEAT ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT FOR THE VALLEY FOR SATURDAY AND SUNDAY.

IF YOU PLAN TO BE OUTSIDE...PLEASE TAKE PRECAUTIONS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THE HEAT. REDUCE OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES IF POSSIBLE...AT LEAST FROM LATE MORNING THROUGH EARLY EVENING. WEAR LOOSE FITTING AND LIGHT WEIGHT CLOTHING...AND DRINK PLENTY OF WATER. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SHADE AND AIR CONDITIONING IF AVAILABLE. ENSURE THAT CHILDREN...THE ELDERLY AND PETS HAVE PROTECTION FROM THE HEAT.

Brighter Vision

I should probably wait to post about it until AFTER I have tried this for myself, but one of my good friends recommended it to me so I'm passing it on! It's a program called Brighter Vision for children and when you subscribe to it, each month they send you a package of learning material for your child - age appropriate. It comes with a book, stickers, worksheets...all focused around a specific subject and completely taylored to your child's age (ages 1-6). You can order the first package for free to try it out, after that it's like $18 per month. It sounds like something Jordyn would just love right now, and having it come in the mail for her would make it even more exciting. So I ordered trial packs for both girls and we'll see how it goes!

Pregnancy is Hard!

I'm going to try to make sense of my feelings...so bear with me.

For me, pregnancy is hard. Everything about it is hard - how I feel physically, emotionally, how I handle everyday stresses, how I think, sleeping, eating, walking, cleaning, etc. But I feel guilty feeling these feelings because I think "Well I CHOSE this, I WANT this baby, this is a huge blessing, etc". So lately I've been pondering my feelings and I've decided that it's OK that it's hard for me. Just because it's hard for me doesn't mean I'm a bad person. And just because it may be easier for someone else (I swear it seems like I have so many friends who don't feel the same way I do about pregnancy) doesn't mean I'm a weaker person. It just means we're different. I always think in analogies, so this is my latest: It's sort of like how school is harder for some than others, or a job may be more challenging to one individual than to someone else, or some people are good at music and others are good at sports. It doesn't mean the person isn't grateful for the schooling or the job, or that it's not a blessing, it just means it challenges them more and is a little harder for them to endure. So, pregnancy is a BOTH blessing and a challenge for me.

As I feel this baby kick more each day, I feel so excited to meet her and also anxietous that something will go wrong. But at the same time I feel this excitement, I also feel like I'm holding on white-knuckled until this challenge is over for me. And I guess I'm just trying to accept the fact that it IS hard for me and tell myself that it doesn't mean I'm any less of a person. There. Thanks for listening :-)

Pools, Bikes and Frogs

Jordyn is LOVING swimming this summer (this is at my parent's pool)! She can finally be a free fish with the help of this tube! She would literally stay in ALL day long if we let her. Her stamina far outweighs everyone else's put together.





Lexi is still a bit timid around the big pool. She had a little fall off the step a few weeks ago and the memory is still too fresh for her. My mom has a kiddie pool outide too, so she sticks to that for now.

Jordyn has been begging for a two wheel bike for so long now and we FINALLY got her one this weekend! It was at Target for $35 and it should last her a couple years. It's a 16 inch bike - which is a tiny bit big for now, but within a month it'll be just right. At 9:45 when we made her go to bed, she was hysterically sad to stop riding. She said "but mom, there are lights on the street so we can keep riding!!".

We bought Lexi a bike too! Her's is a 12 inch, which is perfect for her too. Her's was $29 at Target.

I can't explain how many frogs we have around our neighborhood. Thousands! (Katie, I'm sure that makes you excited to come visit!). This one was just chillin' in the gutter tonight so I snapped a pic of it. Most of the frogs we have currently are tiny, like maybe as big as half your thumb. I guess they help with bugs (to TRY and look on the bright side?).

Recital Success

A big sigh of relief...the much anticipated dance recital is over and both girls got up on stage and did their dances! The bribary must have worked! They did a great job - I am very proud of both of them. It was a long night to endure...the recital lasted about three hours and Lexi didn't go on until the end! My Mom, Dad, Lindy and Ryan also came to support us, which was wonderful. Dance class resumes in a few weeks, but we (I) can put recital anxiety behind us (me) for another year! Hooray!

Practice AND Patience

Today the girls had their dance recital rehearsal. The dance studio they go to puts on a really major recital - only one per year and they rent out a huge theatre. Anyway, today was a full blown dress rehearsal. I was anxious to see how they would respond to such a new environment. Lexi started freaking out at first, and since she tends to be more tempromental, I assumed it would be a total disaster and she would back out. Instead, she performed like a pro! Acted like she'd been on stage forever. Jordyn, on the other hand, is my little performer and LOVES dance class. Never wavers on whether she wants to go. But today she threw me for a loop! Right when it was her turn to go on stage, she freaked out and started crying hysterically! Once she gets like this, there is NOTHING you could say or do to change her mind. So, she didn't do her dance that she's been practicing for 7 months.

Soooo, this is one of those hard times as a parent where you want to be mad and frustrated but you also want to protect their tender little feelings! I just told her its okay to be scared and nervous. But she was also sad that she missed out. So I told her she'd get a second chance tomorrow at the REAL recital and she is promising to do it. I took the girls to Target and let them pick out any barbie they wanted, but it has to sit on the counter until after they dance tomorrow night. (Hey, sometimes bribary is your ONLY option!).

Blackberries Update

Update on my blackberry bush/vine...I harvested my first "crop" today! A big bowl of scrumptious blackberries and it seems as though I'll be getting quite a few more crops before the summer is over! It's very satisfying to eat fruit you've known since it was planted as a little tiny seedling. Now I'm starting to sound a little crazy...

Ultrasound

Here are a couple pics from the ultrasound. My mom went with us - it was helpful with the girls and special for her to "meet" the baby for the first time. (Don't be dis-illusioned, my stomach is actually 40 times bigger than it looks in this pic!!)

The Verdict is In

According to the ultrasound technician...and she's "pretty sure she's not wrong"... it's a GIRL! Can you believe it? I guess somehow we knew it deep down, but we still thought there was a 50/50 chance it could be a boy! But I'm starting to think there is some medical explanation that my family (me, my sisters and my mom) have 99% girls.

The baby seems healthy and normal, which is GREAT. But I have to admit I felt a little tiny bit of sadness. The only way I can explain it is that I'm NOT at all sad it's a girl, I'm just a little sad it's not a boy. It sounded fun to experiene something different. And since we're not sure if we'll have another one (even IF we do, it would be just one more), our chances of having a son are slimming down to almost none! Tucker could not hide his dissapointment. I have no fear that he'll love this little girl with the same devotion as the other two...I just think it's more the possibility of losing a dream he's always had...does that make sense?

Anyway, there's the (not so shocking) answer!! No more mystery (unless by some small chance the tech was wrong...does that even happen nowadays? We thought my sister was a boy till she came out, but that was 17 years ago. Hmmmm)

Like Mother Like Daughter(s)

I discovered this picture in my car today...randomly. And I showed it to Jordyn. She said "Mommy, is that me?". I said no and explained that it was Mommy, when I was little (maybe three years old, on my new canopy bed...is that right mom?). She was fascinated by the fact that I WAS so little but I'm now so big. It was cute. Anyway, when I showed it to Tucker he said it looked like a mixture of both girls. Funny how I can pass on genes to create two girls with such different characteristics, yet they both resemble me. Genes are amazing, aren't they? Makes me even more anxious to meet #3.

Five Random Thoughts of Mine

1. You guys are no help to me! The vote for boy vs. girl stands at 50/50! I was hoping for SOMMMMEEE clue! Ha ha. Our ultrasound has actually changed to Tuesday, so I will make the announcement then. The baby has been kicking a lot lately...Tucker actually felt it for the first time last night. That's the #1 highlight of pregnancy...until it starts to hurt of course :-)

2. I had my carpets professionally cleaned a few days ago and I feel like I'm living in a brand new house again! To the normal visitor, it probably doesn't look that different, but I can FEEL that it's cleaner and I love it! I've done it a few times on my own, but they came and did virtually every square inch of the 1800 sq ft - which would have killed me off. So, thanks for encouraging me to do it, Mom!

3. Lately it's started to hit me that in a few months, any errand I run or task I want to accomplish will become a LOT more difficult with a baby in tow! Three kids at Target sounds almost impossible because the way I'm bombarded with "MOM, MOM, MOM" the whole time I'm there with just two kids NOW wears me out! So, even though my energy level doesn't feel up to this, mentally I'm starting to feel that I should run errands every single day - even if I don't need anything!! :-)

4. It's always important and fun to be pregnant at the same time as SOMEONE you know. I have one of my best friends, Beth, who is three weeks ahead of me. She lives here close to us and our kids are really close as well. It's both of our third babies and we can complain to eachother and not feel bad! It's great.

5. Tucker amazes me all the time. I have honestly never seen someone who genuninely has as much fun playing with kids as he does. He can almost always come home from work and immediately go into "fun daddy" mode. They just love it. But what impresses me the most about it is that he has a TON of fun, plays and laughs with them, but he somehow always accomplishes something more than just play with them. OK, for example, last night they wouldn't eat their food so he sat with them and played a game of questions...like "What is your middle name, where were you born, what color eyes do you have, etc" and gave them points if they got it right. He made it seem so exciting. So while he was playing and having fun, they were also learning things. AND then on top of it, he pretended that every bite they took they would grow bigger and showed them and they totally believed it and ate every bite! Anyway, I'm sure I'm not doing justice in explaining...but I just watch in awe a lot of the time because he has so much patience and has so much fun with them. I just feel SO thankful that he is their dad - he teaches me a lot AND especially HELPS me a lot! I love you Tucker!

I did a bad thing...

I made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies tonight...and ate just that for dinner! How could I NOT do that with FRESH cookies? They were so good. But doesn't it help that there was oatmeal in them? And doesn't it help that I actually rode my bike today? Sure, of course it does!!! :-)

Fruit & Flowers

I just LOVE to plant things and watch them grow. I get such a thrill from it! In my backyard I have planted (edible things) limes, lemons, dwarf Fugi apple tree, tomatoes, jalapenos, onions and a blackberry vine. The blackberries take a lot of patience because they vine one year, then flower & fruit the next! So I'm really excited about these!

Here is the Blackberry vine...they blackberries are starting to turn pink! Yummy!

In my front yard we have lots of flowers. I love to have lots of colors and varieties. We've got lots of bulbs that sprout up for a few months straight, but since those only last a short period of time, I love to also plant lots of summer flowers that bloom for a long time. So far, things are looking quite beautiful!

Here is part of our front flower bed. Sort of an eclectic look of lots of beauties. I just love it!

Slip N Slide!

We found a fun surprise package on our doorstep last night from "Auntie" Tiffany! When we opened it, the girls were thrilled to see a Dora Slip N Slide and have asked ALLLLLL day long to do it! Finally we set it up this evening and they had a blast (so did Daddy, of course!). Thanks for the fun Tiff! (Our strange cat actually plays with water...unlike most other cats who hate it!)

Dance Class Pictures

Today the girls had pictures taken with their dance classes. They wore their little outfits that they'll wear for their recital in a couple weeks. They were SOOO excited to get all dolled up and girly with their makeup and costumes. It was just too cute. Lexi is in a Toddler gym class and Jordyn is in a Tap/Ballet/Jazz class and they've been practicing their "routines" since January. So hopefully they're ready! At the very least, I hope they'll have fun doing it.

Baby Magic Lotion

My family has this thing about SMELLS. We have extra keen noses and can smell anything bad from miles away, but we also love good smells. One example is (and this was taught to us by our wonderful mother) that babies MUST smell GOOD - all the time. There are lots of baby lotions to help accomplish this (not that a natural newborn smell isn't THE BEST...but add on some spit up, etc and you DO need some help!), but Baby Magic has always been our favorite. For as long as I can remember! Well, sadly enough the company was bought out by Playtex and the lotion was re-bottled and COMPLETELY changed! No remnant of the original smell left at all - zero, zilch, zip!

Long story short...NOT that there aren't other good-smelling baby lotions...but this has been the smell of our babies for the past, who knows, 16+ years. SOOOOOOO, since it is discontinued and GONE from any store shelf...good ol' ebay came in pretty handy. I bought three bottles of it for like three times as much as I would have spent at the store a year ago, but I couldn't bear the thought of my next little one not having this yummy smell on him/her! I'm pathetic, I know. But I'm happy about it!

I'm Such a Wimp!

I feel like such a wimpy mom lately. But, seriously, it's 95+ degrees here and the kids are begging me to push them on the swingset. OK, so I'm feeling officially pregnant and can already tell my feel are swelling, PLUS I have arthritis in one foot & knee which isn't that comfortable...so I can last out there pushing them all of about 5-10 minutes and then I find myself madly thinking of ANYthing else we can do except be outside!!! How sad is that! My poor kids don't care if it's 1000 degrees. But I can see their cheeks flushing fast and I know we still have like 15 degrees hotter to go. Ugh. Summertime in Central CA is the price you pay for beautiful winters I guess.