To The Day

Today was a milestone for Annamaria. She took her first unassisted steps. Five of them. From me to her closet. This will be easy to remember because today she is 14 months old to the day. Sophia took her first steps when she was 13 months old to the day. And Harrison took his first steps when he was 11 months old to the day. Weird, huh? I think I just have very timely kids. Both Sophia and Harrison were born on their due dates, and Annamaria was 12 hours late of her due date. Now what the heck is going on with Harrison and his potty training, I have no idea, but he's definetly late. So much for his timeliness in that category.

Unfortunatelly I don't have any photos to post. Not of Harrison and his potty training, but of Annamaria taking her first steps. Not only did I not have my camera handy, but it wouldn't matter anyway since I'm stuck using Vince's computer in the pantry which doesn't have the camera software loaded on it. Sorry.

Real Estate Agents Suck!

O-kay, first of all, that open house we had last Saturday? Not one person showed up. Nope, not one. Granted it was in the 90's, but I figure if you need to buy a house, rain nor wind nor snow should stop anyone from looking. That's three weeks now that no has even seen our house.

Then sometime last week I got a call from some real estate agent asking me about our house. She asked how much commission we're offering to the buyer's agent. 2 1/2 % I told her. She then tells me that no agent is going to bother showing our house at 2 1/2% commission when the market is flooded with houses right now and other people are offering 3% and higher. So even if our house is the perfect match for their client, the greedy bastards won't show our house to them because they want a higher commission. And while I appreciate her honesty, it just solidifies my opinion of real estate agents being as bad as used car sales men. So Vince and I have discussed it and we're going to raise the commission we're offering to the buyer's agent. Another 1/2% will cost us about $3K, that's about one months living expenses to stay here, so if it helps sell the house and get people in the door it will be worth it. It's just the principle of it all.

Also last week, at my OB appointment, my doctor told me I'm to the stage now where I need to start scheduling my appointments for every two weeks. What? Every two weeks already? Yikes! We better get this house sold and get my butt up to Montana before I really do go into labor here.

Oh, I'm So Bored

I've been doing the "Stay At Home Mom" thing for a while now, but being at home with three kids and not catering is driving me a bit crazy. You'd think I'd be busier than ever with Vince being out of town and having to do it all myself, but no. There is only so much housework that needs to be done, there is no school to drive anyone to or from. And since I didn't think we'd still be here, I didn't make any arrangements for the kids to keep them busy. I did mow the lawn today though. There is a first time for everything. Yes, I'm 36 years old and have never mowed the lawn in my life. I'm allergic to grass and really am not suposed to. Vince made arrangements with the kid next door to do it, but it's been a week and I think it's rediculous that I should wait for the kid next door to get around to it when I'm perfectly capable of doing it myself. So today, about 6pm when it started cooling off outside I tackled the backyard. It reminds me of vaccuuming, only I'm cutting stuff down instead of sucking stuff up. No biggie. I'm glad we only have 1/4 acre and it's all flat though. I could see how it could be a real job over rough terrain or a large expanse of grass. Tomorrow's big plan is taking the kids to the farmer's market. The next day, the library. Thursday I have a doctor's appointment and my friend is taking the kids for the day. It's the little things that get me by. Friday I'm sure I'll be cleaning like a mad woman because we're having another open house on Saturday. Pray that it brings us a buyer. I don't know how much longer I can sit around and wait for this house to sell. Today marks my 28th week of pregnancy. It would be nice to not go into labor during the move. Whenever that may be.

All By Myself, Again

Well, yesterday Vince left for Montana again. This time he's gone up to start working while I stay home with the kids until the house sells. Hoping that won't be too long. The house has only been on the market for 3 weeks, but we're loosing the Helena house if we don't sell this one in like three days. It's inevitible I think. That's o-kay, we've reconciled ourselves to the fact that we will be loosing the Helena house, and other houses will be built or come on the market, it's in God's hands. No use stressing about it, there really isn't anything we can do about it.

So Sophia is out of school as of last Friday. Glad that's all over with. No more Mrs. Umbridge. O-kay, so that's not really her name, but Vince and I like to compare her to the horrid teacher in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I enrolled Sophia in Seton Home School. I figure I'm not sending her to public school, the only Catholic school in Helena isn't accredited, and I don't want to be driving her to school in yucky Helena winter weather anyway, so we're going to try home school for the second grade and see how it goes. Seton is a Catholic home school program, and it seems a bit conservative for me, but as long as it works academically for her, I'll be happy. They sent out a California Achievment Test for her placement into the second grade, and she aced it. Seriously, 100%. And on the timed portions she had anywhere from 7 to 11 minutes to complete a section, and each one took her 3 to 5 minutes. I was impressed. I had to send her test back in for scoring, then a counselor will contact us about the results. I'm wondering about what level she'll be placed in. Opposite of my wonder girl, Harrison is still working on the potty training thing. He really couldn't care less. I've even tried bribery. Sophia got a Leapster for Christmas, and Harrison wants it in the worst way. I told him if he gets the potty training thing down, I'll go out and buy him one of his own. No, he doesn't want one of his own, he wants Sophia's. Figures. In Annamaria news, she's just cut her fifth tooth. That'll make three on the bottom and two on the top. And the two on the top are so stubby and there's a huge gap between them it cracks me up. I call them her little hippo teeth. No pictures though, because of course my computer is in the office no longer hooked up to the internet, so I'm stuck using Vince's computer in the laundry room/pantry. I'm sure I could find a way to transfer some pictures, I'll just have to think about what we've got around here I could use.

Our New House . . . Hopefully

Vince found a house while in Montana, and as you can see from the picture it isn't completed yet. Which is fine since things seem to take a lot longer on the California end than we think they should. Anyway, we made an offer contingent upon the sale of our house, and it was accepted, so now the only thing to do now is sell our house, and pray we sell it quickly. Talk about stress. We're preapproved and have been guaranteed a bridge loan in case our house doesn't sell in a timely manner so we don't loose the Montana house. But I really can't see us making two mortgages. One is enough, thank you. But if all goes well, which I'm praying, praying, praying it will, this will be our new home. We'll need to put in a lawn, and get the backyard fenced, and pick out appliances, but that's the fun part so I'm o-kay with all that. It's all just a waiting game for now. Oh, and our new address will be on #### Stetson. How appropriate.

A Bad, Bad Day

Let's see. First of all, yes I did get the dogs back. Another neighbor about a mile up the road from us called me at about 2pm on Wednesday to tell me she's had my dogs since last night. So I loaded Harrison and Annamaria in the car and hurrily got the dogs back home before having to go get Sophia by 3:15. I plugged in the electric fence, and secured any areas I thought they might take advantage of getting through. All was good. I thought. So Thursday morning I get up, get Sophia to school, make a short run to Target, come back home and get Annamaria some breakfast. I was feeling pretty good and thought I might have a productive day. While Annamaria was eating, Harrison was out back playing with the dogs. He comes running in the house and tells me the dogs got out. Apparently he pushed down part of their dog run and they skipped across the electric fence and squeezed between the gate and the fence. Ugh! So I run out to the front yard and start calling them. Nothing. I load Harrison and Annamaria back into the car and drive all around our neighborhood. Again nothing. I'm so angry at this point that I was in tears. Angry and fustrated, I returned home and called the Escondido Humane Society, for the third time this week, to report my dogs missing. I really was thinking that if they didn't want to stay in the yard then they could just go away, I didn't want them anymore at that point anyway. But I called them in anyway, just to clear my conscience. After a little while, I sat down on the couch with Harrison after putting Annamaria down for a nap. Somewhere along our day Harrison found some gum, probably already chewed but I'm not sure. I was even aware he had any gum and when I asked him about it he said he was hiding it from me. Yea, no kidding. He left said gum sitting on our couch and when I sat down with him I sat on it. Once again, here I am angry and fustrated. Now there was gum stuck to my butt and to our couch. So I changed my pants and got out the Folex to try to clean the gum off our couch. While I was cleaning the couch I sent Harrison to the bathroom to pee on the potty. We're still working on potty training. While he was in the bathroom he got into my makeup bag and came back with powder all over him. I got the powder cleaned off him, thankfully it was only powder, and went to take a shower. While I was in the shower, Harrison got the Folex and sprayed it all over the couch and the table. When I walked back into the den he told me he "cleaned up". My fault, I left the Folex sitting on the table. So after cleaning the puddle of Folex off the table I had to get ready to take Annamaria to her 3 o'clock one-year check up. Her doctor is in Encinitas and a pretty popular guy, so when you have a 3 o'clock appointment, that means he usually comes strolling into your waiting room around 4 o'clock. Knowing this I had already prepared myself for rush hour traffic on the way home. As expected, Dr. T came strolling into our waiting room about 4pm. I told him we'd be moving soon and let our insurance lapse since no where in Helena accepted Pacificare. I told him as long as her immunizations didn't come to over $800, we'd still be ahead of the game since that was what our Cobra payment would be anyway. Upon hearing this, he told me to save my money and take her to the Public Health clinic and get her immunizations there. Of course there are no appointments and I'm sure I'll have to sit there for hours, but he wouldn't hear otherwise. So basically my trip to Encinitas was for nothing. The only thing I got accomplished was getting Annamaria weighed and measured. She only weighs 16 pounds, she is 26 inches long, and her head circumference is 46.5 cm. She's a tiny. We got back to Escondido o-kay. Got Sophia picked up from the school extension program and were heading back home when my cell phone rang. It was the Escondido Humane Society. They had my stupid dogs. So I took a quick right and headed East to go get them back. Ninety-five dollars later in bail money, I had the dogs back and was finally heading home. I had planned on driving through Alberto's on the way home since it was getting too late to make dinner, and since the dogs were behaving pretty well, I decided to stick to my plan. I ordered cheese enchiladas for Harrison and Annamaria, tacos for me, and rolled tacos for Sophia. I pulled up to the window to pay, and the guy hands me two containers. So I repeated my order and asked that it was all there. He shook his head impatiently and tells me "yes, yes". So I took my change and drove off feeling like an idiot. I got home, got the dogs back in the back yard, the kids in the house and we settled down to finally eat dinner. I open the containers from Alberto's and guess what. No rolled tacos. I did the math in my head and at least I wasn't charged for them. Lucky for them anyway, because at that point, I was not to be messed with.

Dumb Dogs!

While Vince is away, we've been having the house painted. We got a good price and decided not to do it ourselves and just have it done. Something I am very thankful for. On Saturday, one of them came by and power washed the house. In the process of doing this he moved all the stuff away from the house and unplugged anything that was plugged in. That means no front porch light, no back porch light, and unaware to me no electric fence for the dogs. So of course the dogs got out right after the painter left. I drove around looking for them and called the humane society. At about six o'clock that night, I get a call from a woman who lives a few miles north of us. She had our dogs. They strolled right into her house and collapsed on her floor. She called the humane society to see if anyone reported them missing and they gave her my phone number. Here I am, five months pregnant and home alone with a seven year old, a three year old and a one year old. Like I really need to be running up and down my street chasing after my dogs. I was so excited to get them back. Sophia was in tears all day. So yesterday morning they got out again. So again I drove around the neighborhood and called the humane society. It's been over 24 hours, and nothing. I was saying to one of the painters that I couldn't understand how they were getting out since we have an electric fence. "Oh", he says, "I unplugged everything when I washed the house to get it ready to paint." Nice to know. Would have been nice to know this before the dogs got out. I could have tied them up if I had been informed of this. So now I'm wondering if the $750 cost of our pure bred Airdale Terrier, Annabelle, will be deducted from the cost of painting our house. I won't hold my breath.

All By Myself

Vince left for Montana last Wednesday. It was a grueling two day drive, but he made it safe and sound. He took a load of our stuff up there and was suposed to look for a rental house for us to live in while we find a place to buy. The problem is that anyplace that allows pets, our two monster dogs and one crazy cat, also allows smoking. So the couple places he checked out reaked of smoke. I swear that stuff gets into the walls. So after some discussing we agreed that we could buy someplace modest, but clean and relatively new and our mortgage would be the same if not less than rent. So that is his goal during his remaining time there, to find a house to buy. He'll be home next Friday, so he's only got a couple of days in which to get this done. I think he has appointments at eight different places today. Our place goes on the market on Friday the 26th, so once he gets back home he needs to boogy and get all the little stuff done. My dream is that our house will go on the market, we'll have an open house and someone will fall in love with the place and we'll have an offer within a week. Happens on Designed to Sell all the time, right?

So Mother's Day was different being a single mom. I got the house picked and cleaned up. My mom and grandma came over with a friend of the family, and we had a fabulous dinner just us girls. Harrison was the only trace of testosterone in the place. I have pictures of Annamaria taken to give for the Mother's Day presents which came out really well. I have a tradition of taking the kids pictures in the baptism gown and in a Winnie the Pooh outfit I bought when I was pregnant with Sophia. So I owed my mom these two pictures, I'm way over due. Annamaria was baptised about nine months ago, but better late than never.

The Big Birthday

First of all I want to start by saying that over the past few weeks, we've been asking Annamaria how old she is going to be. She responds by holding up her hand and showing us "one". Unfortunatelly I haven't been able to get a picture of this amazing feat. But honestly, she does do it. I have live witnesses, just no photographic proof. And not for lack of trying, I'll tell you that.

I think Annamaria had a nice first birthday. My mom, Grandma Dee Dee, and my grandma, Granny M, came over. Dinner went over very well. I made ciabatta (Italian Slipper Bread) and artichoke dip. She ate at least three pieces of bread before dinner. We had a spinach salad with a warm bacon dressing. I cheated, Annamaria is not suposed to have meat until she is two, but I figured a little bacon grease wouldn't hurt. And she loved it anyway, munching away on those spinach leaves. Now I've never made pasta primavera before, but now that I have I'm sure I'll be making it again. Even though I forgot to add the fresh basil and lemon juice before serving it. And I left the parmeasan cheese out by mistake too. But it was yummy anyway. Annamaria ate at least four helpings. And Harrison being the pasta boy that he is had several servings too.

The strawberry cream cake came out great. I think the strawberries were Annamaria's favorite part. And Sophia enjoyed having a slice for breakfast this morning. I figure it's fruit and cream, how bad could it be.

Annamaria was a little slow opening her presents, she just doesn't quite get it yet, but it was fun for us. I bought her a new package of tippy cups since she tossed one out of her stroller at Sea World the other week without me noticing, and we were down to just one. She was so happy to see the tippy cups she tried drinking out of them directly from the package. She knows what those are for. Sophia grabbed a stuffed animal from her room and wrapped it up for Annamaria. I thought that was very sweet, and Annamaria liked it so much she took it to bed with her last night. Annamaria also got a few very cute outfits, so she'll all set for summer. All in all I think it was a good day. Between that and packing up books and clothes for the move, I'm pooped.

The Great Baby Mystery and Other Things

I had my sonogram, and all went well, but the sex of the baby will have to remain unknown until it's birth. So sorry for the teaser, but Vince really doesn't want to know, but if I know then he wants to know, and I don't want to ruin the suprise for him. The countdown from here is nineteen more weeks. So far this pregnancy is going very quickly, but I think that's because we're in the thick of getting ready to move, and I feel like we're running out of time. Vince is leaving for Montana this coming Monday for about a week. He's purchased a 14' enclosed trailer, and the plan is to move as much as we can live without this trip. He'll be going alone, that way we can keep Sophia in school a bit longer, and while he's up there he can find a place to rent until we find something to purchase. Moving is so expensive and such a hassle, I'm not looking forward to it. Our "To Do" list is getting smaller and smaller everyday, we should be done by the end of this week. Then the only thing left will be getting the outside of the house painted. We've gone back and forth over hiring someone and just doing it ourselves. It would take us about four or five days to do it ourselves, or cost us about $3,000 to pay someone else to do it. Decisions, decisions. And as I'm tinkering away on the keyboard, I look out the window and Cooper, one of our dogs, is in the front yard. He belongs in the back. It's not even 9am yet, I'm still in my robe and I'm having to rustle our 50lb, marshmallow of a moose size dog back into the back yard. Apparently the battery in his collar for the electric fence has died, and Vince still has to fix our side gate. I don't understand how such a large dog can fit through such a small opening in a gate, but there's fur caught on the gate, so the evidence is there. That's another thing about moving I'm not looking forward to. A pregnant woman, a seven year-old, a three year-old, a one year-old, a cat and two large goofy dogs trecking it up north on a eighteen hour road trip. This should be interesting.

Tomorrow is Annamaria's first birthday. I can't believe how the time has flown. She still only has two teeth, can't weigh more than sixteen pounds and is still wearing size 3 to 6 month clothes, but she pulls herself up on everything and motors around like she's got somewhere to go. And she's quite the eater, so her birthday dinner should be most entertaining. I'm making her a baby spinach salad, pasta primavera and a strawberry cream cake for dessert. I'll be sure to get lots of photos.

I've got laundry to do and dishes to put away, so I'd better get dressed and stop procrastinating, but here's a photo just for good measure. I took the kids to SeaWorld while Sophia was on Spring Break and Vince stayed home and worked on the house. I'm sure Annamaria will get plenty of photo space tomorrow, so here's Sophie and Sonny.

To Know, Or Not To Know

As of yesterday, I am officially 19 weeks pregnant. The good news is that I lost some weight at the beginning of this pregnancy due to feeling green most of the time, and I'm now 19 weeks in, and still under my starting weight. Barely, but that still counts to me. Now that I think of it, maybe that isn't such good news because that just really says how much over weight I was to begin with. But since my last born was only seven months old, when I conceived this one, I'm cutting myself some slack. Anyway, today I have my sonogram appointment. The big sonogram appointment, where I have to drink 16 ounces of water in fifteen minutes an hour before my appointment and not pee before the sonogram is done. I really think that is cruel, especially when one has a tendency to pee when one sneezes when pregnant. I'm praying for a low pollen count today. So today is the day I can find out the sex of the baby if I wish. Now Vince likes the element of suprise. He places a little wager with himself on the sex of the baby and heartily stands by his decision if anyone asks him what he thinks the baby is. He answers as if he truely knows. And the first couple of times he was right. He was so shocked though that Annamaria was a girl. Honestly suprised that he was wrong. So I've indulged Vince in his request to be suprised, though he acts as though he has all the answers, and not found out the sex of the baby. It really is fun not knowing in a way, adds to the element of suprise, but I'm feeling restless about this one. I'm feeling like there is enough uncertainty in our lives right now, and maybe I would like to know the sex of this baby. Are we going to have a balanced team with two girls and two boys, or are we going to be a household of hormonal raging teenage girls in about ten years? Inquiring minds want to know. A friend suggested I ask the technician to write down the baby's sex on a piece of paper. Then if I decide later that I just have to know, the information will be there waiting for me. But that just seems torturous to me. Now if I find out the sex, I may be able to stop worring about a name. We have a boys name picked out already, so if the baby is a boy, I can just relax. But if she's a girl, I can get down to business and get serious about picking a girls name, since at this point I'm clueless. So really I'm torn. Ruin the suprise or be prepared. And I have about three hours to decide. And of course being pregnant doesn't help with the decision making process since my brain doesn't seem to function as well as it used to. Decisions, decisions.

He Is Risen!

Happy Easter!

Photo Bonanza

In all the stuff being done around the house lately, my computer has been unavailable to me. So I've been having to check my e-mail, etc on Vince's computer, which he conveniently set up for himself in the pantry. Anyway, he finally did our taxes yesterday, so he had to hook my computer back up since it's my computer that has the tax software installed on it. It is also my computer that has the digital camera disk scanner installed on it, so I was finally able to download the photos that have been sitting in the camera waiting to be transferred to the computer. That is why there have been no photos with my blogs lately. So here is my attempt to catch up . . .
Annamaria and the Pepper

Annamaria and the Marshmallow

Annamaria and the Cracker

Only having two bottom teeth doesn't slow Annamaria down in the eating department. Friday night she ate more than Sophia and Harrison combined.

Here are a couple of photos of Harrison after having a dirty good time in the backyard.

Thankfully he likes getting clean just as much as he does getting dirty.

Of course Sophia is usually away at school when I have the camera out, so I'll have to catch up with her later.

The Injured, The Sick & The Cranky

My Friend Sue

I have a friend named Sue. Sue can cook, sew, can food, make candy, stamps her own greeting cards, etc, etc. She is a very talented woman. She is no spring chicken, about 53 years old, she's my sushi buddy. She'll call me unexpectedly and announce that she's hungry. So I ask what time she wants me to meet her at Sushiya. Really it is quite nice knowing someone who can eat the heck out of sushi like I can. No standing on etiquette when it comes to Sue and sushi. Order as much as you want and don't be embarrassed about eating way more than you should. Now Sue happens to be one of the most accident prone people I know. A couple of months ago, she was watching her grandson Christopher, who turned one in January. She tripped while getting his car seat out of the car, with him in the car seat of course. She managed to save the baby, but hit her jaw on a table in the garage on her way down, and dislocated it. She's been having trouble with it ever since and has been having to go in for therapy. Now her latest incident happened just a couple of weeks ago. She was dropping off her grandson at her son's place. She noticed her son, Chris, was having trouble opening the gate to his place while holding the baby and all the baby stuff, so she jumped out of the car in an effort to keep the gate from swinging shut on the baby. Unfortunately she neglected to put her car in "park". So while holding the gate open she noticed her car rolling backwards into the street. Also unfortunately, her 26 year-old daughter Mary, who happens to have Down's Syndrome, was in the front passenger seat. So Sue runs to the car, and tries to get in, but the door knocked her down and she ended up running herself over with her own car. Oh, and Sue drives a mini-van, not some tiny car like a Volkswagen bug. Her can continues to roll into the street and smashes into a truck in the road, while Sue is lying there stunned. She is able to keep her cool, and tells her son to get her cell phone out of her purse and call 911. In the meantime, Mary gets out of the van uninjured, walks up to her mom, and asks her why she's just sitting there in the street. Got to love the innocence of someone with Down's. So in the end, Sue ended up with a fractured knee cap on her left leg and two broken bones just above her ankle on her right leg. After one surgery, a whole lot of pins, and a couple days of morphine later I found her in better spirits. I brought her sushi in the hospital, then again while she was in a recovery care facility, and now she's back home. Well, not back in her home, at her parents home. While all this was going on, Sue and her husband, Dean, were closing escrow on a new property they just bought. So while Sue has been in recovery care, Dean has been up at their new place painting, spackling and installing new floors. She hasn't even been able to get there yet, never mind help with the move.

My Husband Vince

Vince has been getting a lot of work done around the house. We have a new slider door leading out to the patio. New French doors from our bedroom leading out to the patio, all new windows in the den and kitchen, and a new full length window in the short hallway leading to Harrison's room. Vince had to move the baseboard while installing this window and didn't reinstall it yet. The baseboards are made out of Brazilian Cherrywood, which is very hard wood and when cut on an angle can cut like a knife. Thursday morning, Vince was heading into Harrison's room when he slipped, ended up taking out Harrison with him, and sliced the underneath of his middle toe on the part of the baseboard that was left sticking out. Harrison was fine, other than being upset, but Vince's foot was bleeding in puddles on the floor. So we all got packed into the car, dropped of Sophia at school and headed to Urgent Care. The Urgent Care doctor took one look at Vince's foot, and refused to touch it. He sent us up to the Podietrist, who told Vince what a fine job he did on his foot. It only took one stitch, but he cut down to the tendon sheath. Uck. So now my husband is gimpy, and there is still a lot of work left to do around here.

My Daughter Sophia

Sophia woke Vince and me up at about 4am on Monday morning to tell us she didn't feel well. She had a fever, so while preparing some tylenol for her, she ended up vomiting. My least favorite symptom of all time. This lasted for three days. The only thing that kept the fever at bay was more Tylenol. She ended up getting sick three times, but by the grace of God, I was always out running errands when it happened. For that I am truly thankful. Poor little girl was quarantined to her room for three days. We didn't want Harrison or Annamaria getting sick either, so for three days, she slept, played with her leapster, drew pictures and played Polly Pockets in her bed. I think she was really looking forward to returning to school on Thursday morning. But of course that was when Vince had his accident, so it wasn't a calm, pleasant return to school. I think that just gave her more incentive to get away from the rest of us.

My Son Harrison

Vince was having fun with Harrison last night while putting him to bed. He does this all the time, and usually there are no incidents. But last night there was. Vince drops Harrison in bed, and he usually bounces on his pillow and just loves it. Last night Harrison bounced forward and hit his head on his nightstand. He hit the bone just above his left eyebrow, which immediately swelled up like a rhino horn, big and purple. Harrison really made a big deal about it for quite a while. And while I know that hurts, I think all the fussing was about the cold pack of frozen corn niblets that he didn't want put on his head. But I think it payed off because this morning he looks back to normal except for a little blue where the injury was.

And Me

Last Saturday, Vince drove up to Los Angeles to pick up a new sliding door for Harrison's room. While he was gone I thought I'd take it upon myself to raise the curtain rod above the window in the dining area of our kitchen. So I got up on a chair with Vince's power drill and got to task. A lot harder than I thought. I ended up hurting my back so bad, that I've been all but useless. My back finally started to feel better yesterday. That's a week of ice packs, heat packs, and Tiger Balm. Then the morning Sophia returned to school, and Vince sliced open his toe, I noticed my sinuses were driving me crazy. I figured it was allergies, but I'm very limited as to what I can take while pregnant, so it's been down to Singulair, which I take for my asthma anyway, and Alavert. Neither have been helping. So after a couple nights of restless sleep from my face hurting so bad, I awoke this morning and came to the conclusion that it's not allergies but a sinus infection. No wonder my teeth feel like they're going to pop out of my mouth.

I am happy to report that Annamaria is just fine. No accidents or illnesses. Although she can be quite the crank when she puts her mind to it.

Movements

I was sitting here at the computer, just wasting time. Dinner is prepped, and I'm waiting for Vince to return from Home Depot to finish it off. Shrimp fajitas, in case anyone is interested. Anyway, I was wasting time, reading random blogs from people I don't even know, when it occured to me. I can feel the baby move. In my abdomen, just below my bellybutton and to my right, I keep feeling a little poking sensation. How exciting. I have an OB appointment tomorrow afternoon too. Not that that is really anything exciting, but it seems like progress in my otherwise limbo life.

And So It Begins

The night before last, I woke up just after 1am, with the need to pee. I hate having my sleep disturbed. Not that I sleep all that great to begin with, Vince thinks I have sleep apnea, but who knows. All I know is that I never wake up rested, only sleepy wishing I could sleep longer. Anyway, aparently I've gotten to the point where enough pressure is on my bladder that I can no longer make it through the night without having to take a break from sleep to pee. As if feeling green most of my days were not enough. Also, a couple nights ago the acid reflux started. Last night it was so uncomfortable I fell asleep sitting up in bed. Tums did not help. At some point in the night Vince told me I was keeping him awake. So I moved myself to the big chair in our bedroom, and finished my night of fitful sleep there. I spent half of my pregnancy with Annamaria and Harrison sleeping in either the chair in our room or on the couch. I'm not looking forward to a repeat of that. So let the discomforts of pregnancy begin. My favorite of course is peeing my pants whenever I sneeze. Ahh, something to look forward to.

A Little Sad

At our church we have a general reconciliation service twice a year. Once before Easter, and once before Christmas. At this mass, most of the priests in our area take turns at each other's parish to help hear reconciliation, or "confession". So there will be about eight or so priests at this mass, to help go through the crowds in a more reasonable about of time. Before this service, the "host" priest either takes out the other priests to dinner, or has them over for dinner to socialize before the reconciliation mass. For the past couple of years, Father Jim has hosted the dinner at his home, and I've been his caterer. Father Jim is known for appreciating the finer things of life, and really enjoys a good meal, so it's been a pleasure cooking for him. This morning I got a call from my friend Sue, who received an e-mail from the parish secretary, Elizabeth, this morning, asking her if she would be interested in cooking for the priests before the reconciliation mass this year. Elizabeth knows we're moving, and knows I've been turning down work, so I'm sure that is why she approached Sue. Sue called to ask what to expect, what I've been serving, etc, etc. It's just a little sad to work so hard to build a business, to gain a good reputation, and to have repeat customers, only to have to let it all go and move on. I'll miss those dinners for the priests. There is one priest, Father Beaugious, who's is retired but always shows up to help. And he is such a pleasure, so warm and friendly. I'm really going to miss him. And sometimes the priests conversations get pretty interesting. I felt like I had an inside tract on what was really going on sometimes. Sometimes it's just hard to let go.

Blessed or Cursed, You Be The Judge

Well, the cat is out of the bag. The grand-parents have been informed, so the secret is out. Baby Booth #4 is currently in development. And I must say, I think I'm handling it all very well. Our house is even more of a construction zone than usual, but that's because of all the progress being made. My husband has been unemployed since December, but he has a job waiting for him in Montana. When we finally get there that is. And my youngest child is only 10 months old, and will only be 16 months old when this one is born. But I love her to death, so how bad could another be? I really freaked out about having #3, and she is nothing short of perfection, so I'm now actually kind of excited. In a "oh my gosh, what have we done" sort of way. A friend of mine once told me, "once you have three, you might as well as have six". Three is the breaker. Well, I don't know about six, but I'm really o-kay with four. Besides, I'm 36 years old. Advanced maternal age. And while I certainly don't mean to be greedy, that biological clock is ticking. Loudly. Who ever thought an only child, me, would end up having a large family? Not me. But they do bring me joy. Along with a lot of other feelings, but mainly joy. So I'll take the bad with the good, and consider myself blessed.

Are We Really Moving?

The answer is yes, we really are. Vince was let go at work (again) back in December. That's five jobs in four years. I don't know what kind of company lets someone go two weeks before Christmas, but at least he doesn't have to work there anymore. He got a little bit of a severance, and has filed for unemployment. The job he left, Chemical Diversity, to go work at Structural Genomix said they'd always have a position for him. But they just laid off six of their chemists last week. This is one of the reasons Vince wants to get out of San Diego, and possibly stop working as a chemist. The pharmaceutical companies are just so unreliable, and there is no thought to the employee's welfare at all. So we're taking advantage of the fact that he is no longer spending a minimum of 60 hours a week in a lab somewhere, and he's busting his butt to get this house ready to put on the market. There is a lot to do. I also stopped catering for Titan regularly. I told them if they have a working lunch on occasion and need some meals to let me know, but it's too much bringing them lunch twice a week, taking care of three kids, and trying to get stuff done around here. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed.

We have a lead on some property in Helena. It's not exactly what we want, but it may be enough to get us up there. We'll be making another trip up there probably around the end of March to scope things out. My cousins husband, Chris, has offered Vince a job. Chris is a land surveyor. Something Vince knows nothing about, but he's a quick study, a hard worker and is looking for a change so you never know how things might work out.

It's all very scary, sad yet exciting at the same time. We really believe getting out of Southern California is what's best for our family. It's too loud, too crowded, too much traffic and too much crime. I know I'm glad I didn't grow up here, and really I just want the same for my kids.

A Lazy Day

Today is Presiden't Day, so Sophia gets the day off from school. Unfortunately she's not feeling very well. She's been complaining of a sore throat for the past couple of days. She doesn't have the hacking cough both Harrison and Annamaria had, so far anyway. So she gets to spend her day in bed and on the couch vegging out. Annamaria is feeling much better. Back to her old smiley, kicky self.

We finally hired a dry wall guy to come in and cover our ugly, ugly 70's paneling in our den. Not only is it on our walls, but it's also on the ceiling. What were people thinking when they made that decorating decision? He's coming in on Friday to start work, so we have four days to get all the stuff in the den boxed up and moved out so he can get to work. I've been assigned the computer desk area, and let me tell you, it's not pretty. I'm wondering how much junk I'll be able to get rid of. I think once I get into it, it won't actually be that bad, but getting started is the hard part. And I need boxes. I can not box things up without boxes.

I did actually get some work done on the house this weekend. I got the carpets cleaned in both Annamaria's room and in the den. We're thinking about replacing the carpet in the den before we put it on the market, but I think just cleaning it really helped. It may not need to be replaced afterall. It would be nice not to have to spend that money.

So no more procrating, and off to work I go.