Reindeer, Meatballs and more, OH MY!

We made it through our first ever bought with a bad dream. The other night I was woken out of a dead sleep by my son screaming "mommy" at the top of his lungs, boy that will shake you out of a fog quicker than anything! I wasn't even aware of what time it was. He crawled in bed with us, trembling lip and all, but not really awake enough to tell me about it. So he laid with me and I rubbed his back, and after about a half hour, shipped him back to his bed (otherwise I wouldn't have gotten any sleep, the boy is a cement mixer!). The next morning, vaguely aware of what happened during the night, he told me that he remembered his dream, but wanted to get dressed first. Guess being in his underwear made it seem scarier?? His dream involved him finding a dead reindeer in our backyard, crazy how a 4-year old mind works. Poor guy, do we now have to worry when Santa visits about the reindeer falling off the roof? Hopefully its forgotten by then. Although getting him to sleep alone in his bed the next night was a bit of a task, but I think he'll survive.

The next night we tackled a very large batch of meatballs. I've been on this make ahead food kick lately, hopefully it sticks around until the baby is born and we'll be eating good for awhile. I mixed up a large bowl and Logan helped me shape them. He did a whole pan all by himself, he was not however too keen on the idea of eating them. He's always been skeptical about "meat" of any kind, goofy boy, his carnivore instincts will kick in soon enough. He would try one of the ones that HE had made though. They were so easy to make, and very tasty, but the heartburn wreaked havoc on me for a few days.

And I did have a doctors appointment yesterday. As always everything is looking great, measuring right where I should be, blood pressure was good, and weight gain has been very minimal (YAY!). Once again this baby, like its older brother, likes to hide out in the back of my uterus, so finding a heartbeat with the little Doppler was tricky, and it made it known that it did not want to be found by letting out two HUGE kicks. Still not having any feelings as to what it is, unlike with Logan, I knew he was a boy. Nothing yet with this one. One more appointment on the every 4 week schedule, then I have the lovely Glucose test, yuck! Although I was pleasantly surprised to learn they don't make you fast anymore, just avoid sweets prior to. Always wondered what evil monster would make a pregnant woman fast! Then after that, we'll be on the every 2 week appointment schedule, makes it seem closer!

Also was able to get a flu shot, but seem to be suffering some side effects today with a sore throat and running nose. The nurse at the doc's office assured me it was common, and because it was effects from the shot because it contains an active virus, that my chances of being contagious are very unlikely, and symptoms should pass in a few days. So in the meantime, I'm drinking up the OJ (always my favorite).

Music is my heart

"Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.”

I stumbled across this quote yesterday, and realized that it really is true. It also got me thinking just how much a part of my daily life music is. I've been pondering this as a blog topic for quite some time, finding this quote is just a sign I guess.

I LOVE music, any and all types of music. If you were to flip through my iPod you'd find quite the range, from Carrie Underwood, AC/DC, Black Eyed Peas, Willie Nelson, Jim Brickman, Third Day, etc. Any and all genres, I just can't get enough of music.

All day at work I'm plugged into either my iPod or Pandora radio on my phone. Music helps me focus, tune out the background noise and just make me feel good. It 'soothes my soul'. It has a way of drawing out emotions of all kinds.

As a kid mom always had music playing, then factor in band and choir throughout high school. I actually miss the good old band days, of diving into a new piece of music and picking apart its parts to make up this whole divine production. It helped that I had the most fantastic band director a person could ask for, it was easy to love it learning it from someone as passionate about music as Mr. Stender was. I do kind of regret not keeping up with piano throughout college, now I might be able to plunk out twinkle, twinkle little star, but that's about it. And someday I think I might like to learn to play guitar.

In college when Richard and I started dating, I found that he too liked quite the range of music. It was him I think that turned me on to some of the things I listen to now. But he listens to all genres as well. Also when we first started dating and were at separate schools, I'd check my email in the mornings and would often find a message containing lyrics to a song that he found and had written to me, such a romantic :)

And now I'm so glad to be back in choir, however singing this fall/winter is going to be a challenge. I am diaphragmatically (yes I know not a word) challenged these days and get out of breath quite easily. So my choir director and I have worked out a plan that I can practice with the group, but I won't be performing until after the baby is born, keeps me part of the group, but also prevents me from passing out wearing wool choir robes. And now since rejoining church that genre of music and ignited a new passion in me, those composers back then new what they were doing, the harmonies, the melodies, such beautiful music.

One fun thing that I like to do with music is challenge my mom! We play a lyric game on occasion where I will send her the first verse to the song and she has to come back with the artist and title. She always does quite well. I'm sure it doesn't help that no matter what the topic of discussion she can come up with a lyric to match, I think she was a rock star in a former life, haha!

Besides all the big ways music is in me, just small things, the ringtones on our cellphones, being put on hold with the doctors office, commercials on tv and radio, music is everywhere. Also one of the new things I learned is that the hospital where I will be delivering plays Brahms Lullaby every time a new baby enters the world, very cool.

I can only hope that my love and passion for music gets passed onto my children. I can already see it in Logan as he will sometimes sing "You are my sunshine" to my belly, makes a momma proud!

Summer Photo Catch-up

I finally, got the desktop hooked back up to the internet, so I thought I'd do a catch-up of pics from the summer. And I don't really feel like a clever, fun post today, so just enjoy some pictures.

Summer and baseball, a popular combination.

Chilling in the paddleboat at Grandma Sherry and Grandpa Dave's in CF over Mem. Day weekend.

Richard teaching Logan to fish for the first time.

One of our scarier storms this summer, the worst of it missed us, but the clouds were pretty freaky. I think we ended up in the basement for a bit during this one.

Slip-n-Slide Fun :)

Fun at the sprinkler park. In Indiana we lack lakes, but there is no shortage of sprinkler parks, always goood on a hot day. The boys always have fun.

Guess I need to get out from behind the camera more often :)

A long week......

This week is taking forever! Mr. Logan was sick this week, ugh! He's never been one to really get sick (knock on wood). He's only had two ear infections, a few colds here and there, but nothing too major. Monday, on my way to pick him up from school, his teacher calls to get my permission to give him some tylenol because he was running a fever of about 101. WHAT?? Yes, of course tylenol please.

So I get there and he is crashed in their reading loft. She said he was great at lunch, but was very restless during nap (totally unlike Logan), didn't want to play outside much, and wouldn't eat snack. Again, all not Logan-like symptoms at all! Poor little guy looked at me when I got there and started to cry :(

Monday night was rough, drink or eat, just layed around. Still running a fever. So on Tuesday he stayed home from school with my mother-in-laws husband, who fortunately for us isn't working right now. He just laid around all day. And Tuesday night he slept a marathon almost 13 hours! And Wednesday I worked from home to hang out with him.

So he's back to being Logan, thank goodness. I hate when my little guy is sick, especially since it doesn't happen very often. You feel so helpless, not much to do, but cuddle, which we did plenty of.

Also had a doctor appointment yesterday (21 weeks). Everything looks good, measureing good. Baby's heartbeat was around 142. My blood pressure was perfect and weight was good, I've only gained about 6 pounds so far. Think I do have a bladder infection though, so just waiting on my labs to come from that. But nothing major to report there, things are going well. I'm in that feeling pretty good stage, first trimester yucky stuff over with, the uncomfortable stuff hasn't kicked in yet. Just enjoying being pregnant!

Strange Laws

I came across a website that listed strange laws that are actually still listed on the books in their states, just thought I'd share some of them on this hump-day. Enjoy!

In New York, it is against the law for a blind person to drive an automobile. (My thought, then why do most ATM's have braille on them?)

In Utah, birds have the right of way on any public highway. (Good thing that isn't an Indiana law, I would then have to apologize to the few that I've hit)

This one is for Rochelle, just in case she was considering trading in her car.
In the State of Kansas, you're not allowed to drive a buffalo through a street.

In Michigan, married couples must live together or be imprisoned. (Isn't that the same thing, haha)

In Washington State, you can't carry a concealed weapon that is over 6 feet in length. (And just how in the heck are you supposed to conceal a 6 foot weapon)

Just thought these were comical. Makes you wonder, that for these to be actual laws someone at some point had to do this to make it illegal. Kind of like the 'don't use in a bathtub warning" on a hairdryer.

Happy Hump Day!

Halfway there!

20 weeks today! Whew, where does the time go? Really no too much to report, since we've gotten everything done so early already. I'm feeling pretty good, although the 90 degree heat and 100% humidity this past weekend were really not much fun. Just the usualy stuff, more frequent trips to the bathroom during the day and at night. I finally broke down and bought a body pillow to help with sleeping. We have a check-up next week to see how everything else is doing.

My mom returned last week for the school year. Logan was VERY excited to have gwamma back. He helped her get settled into the new digs, and got to spend the night at her new house. So gwamma had a dose of Logan right out of the gate, but I think they both survived. He was precious on Sunday after she left. He's getting a good grasp of time and distance, so he understood that she was just at her house not all the way by Papa, but I think he thought it would be a whole summer again before he saw her, so he cried himself to sleep on Sunday night. But after that I think he was okay, goofy boy. He sure loves his gwamma.

Richard is back on his working out of town swing again, ugh! I really hope something changes on that front once the baby is born, or I might just run screaming into the night! But work has been slow, we've taken a hit with the economy so we just have to go with the flow on that one, especially since really no other opportunities exist around here, and I don't think we'll be making a big move anytime soon. At least I hope it doesn't come to that.

Picnic Days

We had our company picnic on Saturday at a place here called Connor Prairie. It's one of those interactive history places, with villages and homesteads from the 1800's and actors that teach you what life was like back then. I have to be honest, it was neat but I'm glad we didn't pay the $18 a person to visit on our own. I think we weren't into it because Richard and I have both experienced places like that in Copper Harbor, and on Mackinac Island. It was obviously geared towards 'city-folk'.

And being that Logan still thinks that hundreds of years ago was last week, didn't really much care about the history stuff. He did however enjoy the interactive animal barn. He got to pet a cow, a lamb, a goat, and hold a baby chick. So that was cool.

They also had an 1800 balloon ride, that he loved watching. However we WERE NOT going up in. It's tethered to the ground and goes up about 350 feet, but you're completely at the mercy of the wind. That things gets blown around so much, some people were looking mighty green coming off of there.

They did have some neat things there just for our picnic group. Pony rides which Logan rode for the first time, a bouncehouse, and a dunk tank for our executives to be dunked.

Now we can say we've been there I guess. Here's some pictures from our day.

Here we are holding the baby chicks.

And here's his first pony ride, the pony's name was Teddy.