made by e for m

so hopefully i don't show miles the blog for a little bit. but my sister sent this link to me a while back and told me that her SIL had done Idea #10. i loved it! so my sister, ever so great, sent some blocks to me, along with the fabric-paint shirt package. (i don't have a single store here that sells blocks.)

so i started working on a puzzle for miles' birthday. i did 6 different types of birds on it - parakeet, duck, eagle, peacock, loon, and a robin. it's really neat, i think. :) of course when i took it out to take the pictures, i noticed how "rough" it really is. but i don't think miles will mind.

i think it will be hard for him, too, seeing as the blocks are a little small. but i think he'll love it and he'll love working on it with ben or me. :) i'm trying to convince ben to make a neat little wood box to store it in.

fun, fun, i can't wait for his birthday! i love special days.

here are 2 pictures of the puzzle:

i set up our house to get vandalized

so we were coming home from taking miles and i notice 2 kids at ________ (i'll leave the address out of my post) - i think they were trying to throw snowballs at cars. i knew they were punks and i KNEW they were gonna knock down our snowman's head. i just knew it. well i didn't see them, but i did see them vanish from my view and then reappear. so i grabbed up emmy and started walking fast and . . . behold our snowman was beheaded and one of the kids had littered their trash on our yard (which i had seen him drinking).

so i was classy and yelled at them - they had crossed the street and were past that nurse-lady's house (i forgot her name). i thanked them and then called them lame. i don't know if they knew what i was saying?

so then i got even classier and stupider and got the 2 kids in the car and drove to _______, i think. one kid was still there and so i handed him his trash and told him to stay off my property. he just had this retarded look on his face.

well at least i could pick him out in a line-up, right? sheeeeesh.

i also want to write the alternative school and let them know that their students are living well up to their reputations. but maybe i shouldn't.

anyways, thought i'd tell you. sorry!

love you.

love me.

(some background info: this is a letter i just sent off to ben. we have had our snowman beheaded once before and i know it was done by kids from the same alternative school, if not the very same boys. i know kids will be kids. and i know this is pretty harmless. but really? these high-school/alternative school kids know that 99% of snowmen are probably made for/by/with little children. and i find people who cannot respect little ones despicable. harsh, i know.)

(so - pray for our house that we don't get rocks thrown through it again, or worse. also, pray for my cousin's preemie who has been admitted to the hospital with RSV. she is a tiny babe and so this is not the best of situations. and, please, if you only have time for one extra prayer tonite, pray for the little babe. :)

Pictures by Jonas

Our lovely piano and family-picture wall.

Emmy's socks. Typical - just thrown on the floor.

Self-portrait.

A close-up of his shirt and motorcycle. By the way, this is day #3 of wearing the shirt. What? It's still (fairly) clean and he gets dressed before he leaves his room every morning. But I think I'll put it in the hamper tonite. . .

Our office door.

Brother Miles.

Sister Emmy.

Made by m, j, and e

So my sister is pretty great, in case you didn't know. She has done quite a few of "freezer paper stenciling" on some shirts recently. Check them out here (these were made by her husband) and here. She sent us a package that had some for our kids to make. She picked out a bird for Miles, a motorcycle for Jonas, and a puppy for Emmy. We all had a lot of fun working on them. We started out on the back and I thought I would let the kids do that all on their own, and then help/do the front for them - so it looked good for the front. But that didn't work out. The kids had too much fun and were way more creative, so they got to do both (well not Emmy - she's crazy with paints. So she did her back and then while she was sleeping on Sunday, I did her front.)

If I did them, they would have been different. Simple, clean, and precise. Which would have looked really nice, I think. But the kids wanted so much color and they didn't want to stop with just painting the stenciling part - they had to paint more and more. So I think their shirts turned out pretty awesome. They definitely think so and just adore their shirts! We will definitely be making some more at sometime.

So here's the front. Miles: I did help with the outline of the sun and the clouds. The bird was 90% done by him. I also did help with the flower stems. But he really did a lot of it. Jonas: Ben helped with the sun (we were covering up a splotch-mark). Jonas did the road, but later (with permission) I added the yellow lines. I also added the smoke coming out of the motorcycle - once again covering up a splotch-mark. Emmy: I did the front entirely. But I was told what to do by Ben. :) I would have probably done a simple brown dog. Ben thought I should make it more Dr. Seuss-ish. So I tried to do that with green polka dots and purple eyes.

Here are the backs. Miles did this all by himself. Jonas, too, I think. I helped Emmy make sure she got the outline all painted, but she obviously did the rest. :)

SO CUTE. THANKS AUNT-E!

Finally

It pretty much snowed all weekend for us - finally. We have not had any significant snow-fall since Halloween, so this was pretty fun. It's a wet, heavy snow and so it didn't accumulate as much, but I still think we got about 5 inches or so.

Here are some pictures of the kids having fun with the snow:

A great big snowman. Rotten apples for the eyes and a parsnip for the nose.

And so fun: snow treat! Snow with maple syrup drizzled on top. Sooooo good. (Good thing I was off grocery shopping b/c Miles gets no treats until Friday. And Ben had forgotten, as well as Miles??? Truly, I was glad I was gone so he could enjoy this treat - that probably won't still be here by Friday. :)

Friday Fun

Little updates on my kiddos:

Emmy is just a delight. She is so sweet and fun to be around. She loves her brothers - when they are nice to her. She plays "grrrr-dinosaur" with them all the time. She likes to talk a lot now and mimics just about everything we say to her. She now sleeps in a "big kid bed" as she calls it. If I tell her she is a "big girl," she says, "No, big kid."

Jonas is really fun to be around, too. Unless he's whining. Then I don't want to be around him, truthfully. He's a pretty good listener. We still do our little "mommy 'n me school," but I have to figure it out more b/c he is different than Miles and so what I did for Miles isn't really working for Jonas. I haven't figured anything out, yet, though. He loves to ride his bike and is excited for the spring/summer and for when he can do it again without his training wheels.

Miles. I could spend the whole paragraph on negative things. But I won't. He is a great student and does very well in school. I haven't had a negative report in a very, very long time. He's a good kid. Oh Wednesday he gets to walk home 2/3 of the way by himself. And he's soooooo cute. He just runs the whole way until he meets me. I just smile the whole time seeing him. A while ago he got to the crosswalk before anyone else was there - including the crossing guard. Nobody was coming any time soon I could see, so I started walking towards him. I heard him yell calmly and nicely to me (shock - whoops, one negative), "No, mom! Don't come." He then waited until some mother and her child were at the crosswalk and crossed with them. Then, of course, ran up until he met me. :)

And here are some videos for your viewing pleasure:

I'm A Quitter

and I mean this in the most literal way. I quit my nursing job a few weeks ago. I was working only once a week, but that turned out to be once-a-week too much for me. How lame? I could say I quit because I was pregnant - but that is not true. I never even thought about quitting because I was pregnant. With my 3 other pregnancies I have worked up to the very end, so I couldn't use that excuse.

The bottom line of why I quit: I hated it. Really. I don't hate nursing, I just hate med-surg night-shift. I think because I only worked once a week I wasn't super familiar with the policies, procedures, etc., and so it made everything all that more difficult. I routinely had 6-7 patients, with usually 3 of them being what I would call "high-acuity." High-acuity as in very high demanding. Very. Most nights I would be done with receiving report at 7:30pm and would not get a chance to sit down (literally) until about 2am. That was rough. I had oodles of charting to catch up on - while still tending to the needs of my needy patients.

I have not regretted quitting at all. It was definitely the right choice for me. But I wish I didn't have to feel that way. I wish I could still work and enjoy it. But I cannot and will not do med-surg. again. I've done it ever since I've graduated - 8 years almost. Not full-time of course, but still.

There are nursing opportunities I would love to try. . . someday. When I have more time to get comfortable with something new.

But for now I'll stick with my day-job of MOM. And, yes, while I still have 3 high-acuity "patients" in my care; and my "shift" is still about 12-hours a day, (but 7 days a week); and the pay stinks; and sometimes I truthfully "hate" it too, I'm in this job for the long run. And that's the best career choice I've ever made.

My Parents' Home

We left late afternoon last Thursday to go to my parents' home. We had a grand time hanging out, going on a few adventures, watching the Olympics, and visiting with friends and, of course, family. Here are a few pictures of our trip:

There is a man in Midway that creates these "ice castles." They are so beautiful and amazing and artistic. Wow.

Walking through one.

Friday afternoon we went ice skating at the Midway Rink. Well I didn't ice skate. But both boys did. We were amazed that 1. Miles wanted to and 2. He didn't give up right away after falling down. Not that Miles is a quitter. I think he is more of a perfectionist and doesn't like it when he can't do something perfect right away. He actually had a good time.

Jonas has been wanting to ice skate ever since we went last - but this time we were able to get more size-appropriate skates. He did not want Ben to help him at all - he wanted to do it all by himself. And he did. He wasn't skating mind you, just walking and scooting around. For over an hour. He loved it and was very proud of himself. So cute.

Emmy actually went on the ice for a little bit, too. It's just a little too hard for her, though, I think.

2 random pictures:

Emmy, or Annie. However you look at it.

And, unfortunately, time-outs still exist even at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

But it was a great trip and we miss it already. 5:30 came a little earlier this morning. . .

Valentines

Well Miles has his little valentines exchange today at school. He is oh so excited; me too! I'm not going to his party, but I love this type of stuff - the stuff that makes school a little bit more fun than just academia. I had found a few cute ideas of valentines to make on familyfun.com and had Miles choose which one he wanted to make for his classmates. He chose a butterfly one. No surprise there.

As we were at Target getting the supplies to make them, I noticed all the "pre-made" valentines - fun dips, mini candy bars, nerds, etc. I told Miles he could get those instead. Nope, he wanted to make the butterflies.

So we worked on them together and had fun. They are all ready to be passed out today. :)

Questions and Answers

this is for my sake. questions asked by and answered by me.

1. When did you realize you were pregnant?

well close to jonas' birthday, the 14th of december. things started to get a little suspicious that weekend previous while we are jim and diana's home. ben sealed the deal by stating, after his mother had given us this adorable set of 3 ornaments to put pictures of our kids in, "See, we can only have 3 kids now."

2. So. . . was this planned?

no. and a little yes. we had not ever concluded a final yes or no to having another child. but i think we both knew it would happen - despite ben's weekly comments of being content with 3 children. :) timing is something that was definitely NOT planned. seriously, to be pregnant again in the 3rd trimester during my least-favorite of all seasons, summer? oh poor me.

3. So when are you due?

aug. 23rd. i'm 12 weeks along.

4. Are you showing yet?

ugh yes. we hadn't told the kids yet, but this morning jonas looked at my stomach and said, "you're going to have a baby." so then i told them. they were pretty darn excited; it was adorable. miles said, "i hope you have a girl for emmy!" cute, cute.

but i really wish i didn't have to show so early and so much. all my babies do are pop OUT. never up and down (no space). just OUT. oh man.

5. So do you have any ideas of what you are having? What you want to have?

no idea. never have had any "intuitions" either. oh what do i want? so hard! another boy would be delightful and fun. and we have a name already picked out. another girl would be super fun for emmy and all of us as emmy is just a pure, silly joy. BUT. . . emmy is our baby! she will have been the baby for almost 3 years - the boys were only the babies for 21 months. so it will be sad for us (us being ben and me) to have emmy lose her "status." but. . . if it is a boy then emmy will still be the Baby Girl. the Only Girl. so i don't know. i'm just glad i don't have to decide.

6. So you have names picked out?

we have a boy name - i have the middle name, too, but might need a few more months to convince ben of it. no girl names yet (that was so yesterday, i totally have a girl name all picked out now. ha). and we aren't really going to be telling many people until the babe arrives. :)

7. Any cravings, sickness, etc.?

i had some "waves" of nausea, especially in the evening, but that has passed and that was pretty much all. my stomach was quite tumultuous for lack of a better word, but didn't make me sick. just annoyed. my biggest thing has been fatigue. up until a few weeks ago, by 9am (i do get up at 5:30 mind you) i could have taken a 3-hour nap! i'm doing better, though, but still get tired. it doesn't help that when my thyroid was checked it was at it's highest level it's been - higher than when i was first diagnosed and not taking synthroid (the higher the value, the lower your thyroid).

cravings - well i pretty much always crave salty foods when i'm pregnant. like chips. and fast food. but i've only really caved in to my cravings for fast food twice - once at taco bell and once at mcdonalds. but i probably could have eaten there every day and been really happy. oh, i have also craved orange julius. YUM. but i still try to be cautious of what i eat. even though i'm already FAT. so not fair being 4'10 - sure i'll blame it on that.

8. Anything else?

if i'm going to be truthful i'll say that i am even holding my belly in in the above picture. seriously. seriously, i'm so mad. so mad. i'm only 3 monthse. argh. maybe miles' wish of me having twins will come to fruition (great word, love it!). but i doubt it. i just get (boo-hoo) so (moan) darn (sigh) big.

Well. . .

I guess it's time we became a little less ODD. . .

and a little more even. . .

100-Day

Today was the school's 100-Day, a day Miles has been looking forward to ever since he found out about it. And he had a great, great day! They did all sorts of different activities with the whole kindergarten and so that was fun. I remembered from last year that some of my friends' kids had worn 100 things to school in honor of the day. So I wasn't sure if we were to do that, too. When Ben picked up Miles on Monday they were talking about 100-day and Ben asked if Miles could wear 100 things and Mr. James said, "Huh, I hadn't thought about that. Sure."

So we stuck 100 stickers on Miles. He loved, loved, loved it. I think he was the only kid in the school with 100 things on. Which I think made him love it even more. :)

(This was the after-school pictures. I sent a note to the teacher telling him that I had told Miles that if the stickers became a distraction, Mr. James could ask Miles to take some/all of the stickers off. Looks like he did a pretty great job in class.)