Tuesday, March 27, 2007

All Day Long

We drove along the lonely highway, checking in the rear view mirror, to make sure that Brian was still behind us on the motorcycle. Yep, everything's good. Suddenly, I saw a car parked on the side of the road, flames shooting from the engine. The owner of the vehicle was running circles around the car, obviously not knowing how to put the fire out. I pulled our car over, and got out. I silently thanked my stomach for not being queasy and my brain for not being drowsy. I got a sheet from the car and started hitting the flames with it. A police man pulled up soon, and helped douse the flames. Once the fire was under control the man's father came out from behind it to thank us for helping. He found a gun somewhere and was "jokingly" telling us to hand over our money. I told him I didn't have any money, but felt in my pockets anyway. I found a 60 dollar bill in my left back pocket, and remembered that it was left over from when we stopped for lunch. I handed it to the man. Alyssa was with me, and I was worried about her, so when Brian pulled up on his motorcycle, I sent her outside to be with him. I don't know why the police man didn't arrest the jerk with the gun, I supposed it's only because he was joking about the whole thing. He got our money anyway.

There's two girls in the ballet class who know what they're doing. Their parents have money, and they're wearing special leotards and tu-tu's, and the teacher likes them better than everyone else. I can't remember what I wore to class, but the teacher keeps referring to it as "something dreadful." At least I'm not sick, or drowsy. I sewed myself a new tu-tu. The teacher thought it would turn out lousy, and I wanted to yell at her that I've made dozens of tu-tu's for my daughter that were just beautiful! While sticking the last bit of lace onto my yellow tu-tu, I overheard the teacher telling the two girls how ridiculous the rest of the class was compared to them. I marched over to her with my new beautiful ty-tu in hand and revealed who my father was, and he happened to have twice the money as the other girls' fathers, put together, and I would be going to another ballet class, and taking the rest of the students with me. Proud of myself, I marched from the classroom.

Those are just a couple of snippets from my life yesterday. We slept in, and Alyssa and I made breakfast in bed for Brian. It was her idea, something she came up with when I asked her if she wanted to do anything special for Spring break. After breakfast, I put on "Magic of the Rainbow" for the kids and crawled back into bed. Surprisingly, when Brian heard what was on, he said, "I haven't seen this Barbie movie yet. I'm going to go watch it." This is what happens when grown men have daughters. I love it. So he got up with the kids while I slept all morning.

I got up and made potatoes O'Brien for lunch. They were supposed to be for breakfast, but I had forgotten about them. (Would you like some potatoes O'Brien, oh Brian?) Once lunch was eaten, I went back to bed again, and Brian and the kids watched Hercules.

The whole time I was sleeping I would have these dreams where I was so thankful to be awake and feeling good and alert, then I would wake up to find out that I had been sleeping. I slept all day long. It felt so good. I didn't take my Unisom this morning, though. The house is a disaster, and I just can't go back to bed today.

Friday, March 23, 2007

It's the Little Things

I don't think I'm going to get super-sick this pregnancy! I'm about six and a half weeks pregnant, and the morning sickness is still controllable and work-around-able. I feel so blessed, because I felt okay setting up for New Beginnings on Wednesday, and then felt rotten sick while heading to the doctors, then felt fine again during New Beginnings. Everyone says it's adrenaline, but the event really wasn't stressful at all. I think Heavenly Father is making it easier for me to fulfill my calling this time around.

Like I said, I went to see Dr. Andrews on Wednesday, and he set me up with the regimen of medication and vitamins they had me on last time. (I'm writing this down for you, Kim, so you can try it out when you get pregnant someday. I don't want you to die.) I take one reglan 30 minutes before eating my meals, and one at bedtime. I take one unisom (25 mg) in the morning, and two at bedtime. I take one 100 mg tablet of vitamin B6 each night, but I could also take 50 mg in the morning and 50 at night. And then I take my prenatal vitamin in the morning. That's a lot of pill swallowing! I just officially started yesterday, and it seems like I'm taking something all the time, but so far it's working. I had a hard time eating dinner last night, but the point is: I was able to eat, and keep it down.

Dinner last night was so good. I wish I could have enjoyed it a little more fully. Brian made prime rib sandwiches with caramelized onions and creamy horseradish sauce on ciabatta bread. So yummy! We were supposed to have artichokes with the sandwiches, but we both forgot about them until the last minute. Brian doesn't cook or bake very often, but when he does, he enjoys it. He was singing while stirring the onions, and he was singing while he was making the strawberry lemonade, and he was singing while he brought everything to the table. Such great service!

I tried to eat at the table, but found that difficult, so I moved to the couch. Brian brought my plate over, and he had cut my sandwich in half, for easier eating. "Oh, you cut my sandwich in half," I said, starting to cry, "That's so sweet."

"I love it when you're hormonal," Brian said. "I score points for the smallest things."

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

To Break the Monotony

Shaille' challenged everyone to post about the things they do to break the monotony of a boring, routine day. When we're feeling a little down because nothing exciting is happening, we play restaurant. My brothers and sisters and I did it a lot growing up. We would make menus for everyone at the table, and some of us would be waiters or waitresses, and as we got older, one of us would be the cook.

We haven't gone as far as making menus yet, but Alyssa and I have set up a restaurant in our house more than a few times to spice up our days. We make sure the front rooms are clean before Brian gets home, light a fire in the fireplace, light some candles, and use our "fancy" dishes. Instead of drinking our water from our Tupperware pitcher, we pour it into our pretty glass pitcher.

I suppose one reason we haven't made menus is that we've always played restaurant with a normal, everybody share type of meal. Like chicken divan, or spaghetti. Menus work best with omelets or hamburgers. That way the waitress (it will be Alyssa) will take the order of what you want on you hamburger, then I (the cook) will make it up, just the way you want it. Speaking of hamburgers, the Jacks family makes hamburgers better than any restaurant can make. And, boy, are they yummy.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Temple Miracle

Last night Brian and I were finally able to go to the temple. We haven't been since before Ethan was born; it's been so long. I was also able to wear the temple dress I started making before I got pregnant with Ethan. It's a simplified version of a wedding dress I saw in a magazine and fell in love with. I felt so pretty!

I'm five weeks pregnant, and so far I've been able to keep the nausea under control. I've discovered that if I take a Women's One-A -Day tablet each morning, it keeps the nausea down through the day. I've only had a few moments that were really bad, and luckily those have been at night time, so I could just lay there until it was over.

Yesterday I was determined to thoroughly clean the house and do the laundry. I woke up and scrubbed the bathroom, and put the whites in the washer. By the time the toilet was scrubbed and the darks were being put in the dryer, I was exhausted and feeling quite sick. I slowed down a bit for the rest of the day and although I wasn't feeling too bad, I wasn't feeling as good as I have been.

So after dinner Brian and I took off to the temple, and the minute I sat down in the endowment room, I realized that I didn't feel at all sick. I felt like a normal person! The good feeling lasted throughout the whole session and didn't leave until we were walking out of the temple. We were going down the front steps and I said to Brian, "I'm starting to feel sick again."

"Well, " he said, "You should go back inside and ask if you can live here for the next nine months."

It was a wonderful evening. I'm so thankful we were able to go to the temple and I was able to feel good and enjoy the spirit there.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Personal Progress Divine Nature #1

Last night for mutual we (the Beehives) worked on Personal Progress. I thought we would get through two or more of the shorter goals, but we had so much fun talking (about the scriptures) that we only got through one. We read "The Family: Proclamation to the World" and a few scriptures and talked about the divine qualities that we all have and how we can discover and develop these qualities.

Reading the proclamation on the family always reminds me of our divine privilage to be parents and to raise Heavenly Father's children. I think parenthood allows us to be like Heavenly Father and is the best thing to teach us to be like Him. We need patience, charity, love, devotion. We need to teach our children right from wrong, but like Heavenly Father does for us, we need to allow them to make their own choices. We also need to be good examples for them to follow.

D&C 121:45 says that we need to let virtue garnish our thoughts unceasingly so we can be confident in the presence of God. This really stood out to all of us, because it's the YM/YW theme for this year. It's such a beautiful idea: that we can confidently stand before God at church, in the temple, in the Celestial Kingdom if we are constantly thinking of good things and doing good things. Sometimes it's hard not to grumble about life or to think kind thoughts about others who are upsetting us, but I know that when we do it's a lot easier to do the things the lord has asked of us, and I know that it makes our Heavenly Father happy.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Rain + Dirt = Mud

It's been raining an awful lot over here. Normally I love the rain, but this year I'm almost sick of it. It's been so wet and so cold this winter for so long, that I can't wait until Spring.

On Saturday we all woke up tired and a little grumpy. Brian was still recovering from staying up all night Thursday to study for his Friday morning test. The kids had been cooped up for so long because of the rain, that they were literally bouncing all over the house. With wood floors, that can be pretty loud.

The second counselor in the bishopric called and left a message Friday night that we didn't listen to until Saturday morning. Apparently, their speakers for sacrament meeting had cancelled and they were looking for someone else. Sure, we said we'd do it, but by the time Ethan was not going down for his afternoon nap and Alyssa was singing "Angel of Music" at the top of her lungs, Brian decided he had had enough. He called Brother Spencer and told him we couldn't speak, and he sent the kids and me home for the weekend.

We packed our bags (We, meaning Alyssa and me; she had to bring all her essential, can't-live-without toys) and took off within half an hour. It's the first time I've driven the whole way home without Brian with me, and I've got to say I was pretty proud of myself. I navigated through Portland just fine. I stopped at the "Old McDonalds" in the Dalles, and got back on the freeway without any problems. I didn't miss the turn-off to go North into Washington. And to tell you the truth, with just one mom and two kids, we made pretty good time.

Every time we drive through the Columbia Gorge, I love looking at the cliffs and hills around us and watching them either turn brown or green, depending on which way we're travelling. It's so wet over here for most of the year, that everything is naturally green, and of course everything on the desert side of Washington and Oregon is brown. I've never noticed, though, how the rain smells differently.

Over here it smells wet. It makes a lot of sense: rain smells wet. The rain disappeared once we got to the Dalles and reappeared again around Arlington, with the distinct difference that it smelled like mud. You normally don't consider "mud" to be a good smell, but it smelled so much like the Tri-Cities that it smelled so good! Even though we were leaving one raining city and travelling to another raining city, it felt so much better to at least have a muddy rain instead of just wet, wet, wet.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Summin' Up My Birthday

We went to the Macaroni Grill for my birthday last night. I kept wondering why we keep going to the Macaroni Grill for my birthday through the whole meal. My chicken was good, but not that good. We paid 5 bucks for Alyssa's spaghetti that she didn't eat (and that leaked through the plastic container, soaked through the paper sack we were carrying it in, and spilled all over the sidewalk right outside a very expensive shoe store). Ethan picked up a plate, and dropped it on the floor. When it crashed, someone across the restaurant hollered "way to go" and clapped. I hope he thought it was a waiter dropping things. Alyssa refused to sit on her bottom and tipped her chair over twice. Overall, it was quite stressful, expensive, and not at all worth it until they brought out the opera singer with the cake. Emphasis here is on "cake."

It was a huge piece of chocolate cake with chocolate sauce dribbled all around it and quirts of whipped cream by the corners. I haven't had much of an appetite for sweets lately, but that seemed to be pushed to the side for ten minutes while we ate my cake. It was great.

On the way home we remembered that we should have gotten gas on the way out, because we were getting a bit low and our fuel pump acts up - actually, doesn't act at all - when the gas tank gets low. We decided that the gas station would be our first stop once we reached Forest Grove. The problem is that we didn't reach Forest Grove before having our car slowly lose power and coast to a stop. This has happened once before and we discovered, after having our friends tow us to a car shop, that all it needs to do is sit for a while and it will start right up. So we waited, and tried the engine, and waited, and tried the engine. Nothing.

Ethan fell asleep, so we covered him with a dish towel we had in the car, and Alyssa came up to the front seat to sit in my lap. This is when it got fun. Brian rolled down the window when the air got stuffy, and we listened to the frogs and owls outside. We sang "Kiss the Girl" from The Little Mermaid and a few rounds of "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes."

When we realized the car wasn't going to start, we called the Claypools for the Cluny's phone number, then called the Cluny's to come save us. They were the ones who helped us out when we ran into problems before, and they had possession of the gas can we had bought. (We didn't think we'd need it again.)

So there were some lows and some highs yesterday. My mom and dad called at 7:30 in the morning before my dad left for work to sing me "Happy Birthday." Alyssa got into severe trouble for not listening and ignoring both the house rules and her mother. Ethan took a good nap, and I was even able to get Alyssa to lay down with me for a nap. Grandma Orton called to sing her version of "Happy Birthday." (Happy birthday to beautiful, smart, fun, loving, wonderful Carrie who is special and I love so very much...) And we spent a beautiful Spring-ish evening as a family, enjoying nature and a broken down car.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Morning Buddies

Here's my usual morning routine:
5:45 Alarm goes off, I get out of bed.
5:50 I take off to the gym.
6:00 Walk, run, stretch, sit-ups.
6:35 Head home.
6:45 Arrive at home.

We took our car into the shop yesterday for a new catalytic converter, so I didn't go to the gym this morning. While sleeping in, I discovered that this is Alyssa and Ethan's usual morning routine:
5:45 Still sleeping.
5:50 Ethan wakes up and calls out a couple of times.
6:00 Alyssa wakes up and starts babbling with Ethan. She sings to him, and from the bouncing we heard, she must dance for him too.
6:35 Alyssa goes to the bathroom. Ethan gets upset and starts to cry.
6:40 I holler, "It's okay Ethan, I'm coming!" and Alyssa goes back to Ethan to say, "Mama's home!"

I had no idea that they spent the morning hours "talking" to each other. When we first heard them this morning, I mentioned my surprise to Brian and he said, "Oh no, this happens every morning."

I'm so glad I moved them into the same room; it's so cool they can keep each other company each morning.I think even though there's three and a half years between them, I think they're going to be good friends.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Realizations

This morning it finally hit me: I'm pregnant. Ever since finding out on Monday I haven't really believed that it's true. I don't have any symptoms yet, and I've just been waiting for my cycle to start over again. Then I woke up this morning and it seems like the minute I walked in the door from going to the gym, I've felt this overwhelming sense of "pregnancy."

I tried to tell Brian how I felt before he left for school. I'm a little off guard, because I thought that I would have a couple more months to prepare for a pregnancy. I'm a little disappointed, because the biggest reason that this year was great to go to Disneyland was because I wasn't pregnant yet. We talked about possibly cancelling our trip, just in case I get sick like I did last time, but really Disneyland isn't the real issue here. We'll go no matter what, and I'll do my best no matter how sick I am. Brian suggested that I look up ways to prevent hyperemesis (getting very sick) on the Internet, and that should help me feel a little more prepared. I did that, and it boosted me up a bit. I found hyperemesis information sites and message boards, and I learned that a lot of other ladies have gone through what I have. Normally the only other people who understand me is my mom and Christina. I felt so much better after reading about other ladies' experiences and knowing that I'm not alone.

So I headed to the shower, and the minute I turned the knob, I felt exactly how it felt to shower when I was pregnant with Ethan. The steam made me sick, the sound of the water made me sick, the feeling of the water made me sick, the warmth of the water made me sick...everything about taking a shower, besides being clean, was repulsive. Although this morning, I guess I didn't feel sick, but I remembered so vividly how sick I was that I became terrified. Everything started coming back. All of the little things (besides the obvious constant nausea and vomiting) that I had forgotten: not being able to kiss Brian, not being able to brush my teeth, having a constant lumpy, sore throat, everything. And I started to cry.

Feeling a little silly, but still scared, I called Christina and she was able to help me calm down. "Don't stress about it. That will only make it worse. Try to stay positive." She was right. Those were the same things I had been telling myself before I dialed her number.

I'm not posting this looking for pity. I just thought that since this is what has been consuming my thoughts today, I might as well write it down. Brian gave me a blessing when he came home from school, and I do feel better now. I'm going to stay positive and do everything I can to try to be healthy. If I do happen to get sick, I have a good doctor who knows I'm telling the truth and not exaggerating my symptoms, and who will be able to help me get things under control as quickly as possible. So every thing's going to be okay, and now I can get on with the laundry and get through my day happily.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

And I Am Happy Now

I believe that Spring is finally here. It's still dark and rainy, but there's a completely different feeling to the day. I'm not constantly turning the heat up or cuddling in a blanket just to keep warm. The daffodils in our yard are blooming, and the tulips are popping up. Our neighbor got out his rototiller and prepared the dirt in his garden yesterday. Everything is beautiful!

And my attitude has changed completely. My alarm went off at 5:45 this morning. Brian leaned over, kissed me and said "Good morning," then rolled over again and went back to sleep. I got up and went to the gym, and while I was running I was reading the article in the March Ensign called, "Joshua's Towers." Halfway through the article I started looking at the pictures, and they looked familiar. It turns out that the Grittons are in our old ward (from before the boundary change in January). I started hollering "Oh my gosh! That's so cool!" and told the girl running beside me. Yes, she's LDS too.

When I pulled into our driveway Alyssa's head popped through the blinds and she waved at me. It was 6:45 and the whole house was awake. Brian carried Ethan into the room when I walked in the door. We had cake for breakfast (not too healthy, I know) and I think something is wrong with me. I could only eat half a piece. It was too sweet for me. It's been like that for the past couple of weeks. I've had no interest in sweets whatsoever. I don't even think I'm going to want a cake for my birthday.

Brian is the only sane one in our family when it comes to breakfast foods. He had a very healthy cereal and then took a shower. Alyssa and Ethan sat on the recliner in the toy room and listened to a Standing Tall tape, and then I ushered them into the car to take Brian to school. Alyssa and I were very careful not to step on the slug crossing our sidewalk.

I'm posting on my blog right now, we're taking our car into the shop at 9:00, and I have visiting teachers coming at 10:30. After that I'm going to finish the temple dress that I started to make before I got pregnant with Ethan.

We've had a very routine morning, and it's going to be a very simple day, but the whole point of writing about it is that I'm happy. I'm so glad for Spring. I'm so glad to be a wife and mother. I'm so glad that we live in a house. I'm glad for everything.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Early Birthday Surprise

I don't know exactly how it happened (okay, I guess I do) but somehow yesterday morning I found out that I'm pregnant! We weren't planning on trying until after our big Disneyland trip, so we were quite surprised to find out that it happened last month. We're so excited, though. I'll be 11 weeks along for our big trip, so hopefully (we're crossing our fingers) I'll be feeling fine and things will go well.

Monday, March 05, 2007

It Was Worth A Shot

So recipe week went astray pretty quickly. Alyssa has some preschool games on the computer, and she did a pretty good job of tying up the computer during the daytime, and that's how Brian relaxes in the evenings. (Computer games, not preschool games.) I had plans to post a potato souop recipe, and the fabulous (according to Brian; I don't like fish) clam chowder recipe from Brittany, but none of that ever happened.

And the sad thing is that I had a few things I wanted to post about, but I wanted to wait until recipe week was over, and now that it is, I can't remember anything. Something to share though: I love our weather! It's finally sunny and warm. We haven't turned th heater on since yesterday! We've been playing outside all afternoon. It's wonderful!