Winner-winner, chicken dinner!!

Okay, so I never win anything. I often have stopped entering contests because I don't win anything. But, a fellow blogger, Tracey over at Just Another Mommy Blog was holding a contest to win circus tickets and I figured, why not....right? Might as well try.

Check this link out:

http://tracey-justanothermommyblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/da-winner.html

....and see if I won....I know, the suspense is killing you!!

The Pumpkin Carving

We decided to carve a pumpkin this weekend, after much begging by the preschooler! When I say 'we carved', I really mean my husband and daughter carved. I got stuck with pulling all the insides out -- but, at least it was a family affair.

What sort of pumpkin face should we make?

How about this one? Or this?

Drawing the outline...

Using a child-friendly knife....(after my husband already cut around the shape with a sharper knife)

more cutting....

Viola! We have a jack-o-lantern!

Falling Leaves

We really LOVE fall around here -- the cooler temperatures, the crisp air, the jeans and sweatshirts -- it's our kind of weather!!

Raking leaves into a pile and throwing them all around the yard -- what could be more fun? (maybe watching our 75 year old neighbor with his lawnmover/leave collector contraption going around his yard collecting all the leaves so his yard is clean? Only to have our leaves blow over there the next day.....)

Fall Family Weekend

Fall Family Fun

Click on the above picture to watch a video of our fun fall weekend with family and cousins!

My Best Friend

My daughter has a new-found passion with a stuffed bear my husband and I bought for her while she was just a little embryo inside me. We went to Monterey, CA while I was pregnant with her and we bought this bear with a yellow 'bunny' outfit, thinking it was the cutest thing. It sat on her shelf in her room all this time, until last week when she decided, "Beary is my best friend". So, Beary now goes with us all sorts of places.

Here he is getting ready for his photo shoot in the leaf pile. I was able to hold Beary off until I got some good shots with mommy and daddy (posted at a later date).


The preschooler and her 'best friend', Beary.

"I just love him SO much!"

Baby Update

I haven't posted much, if any, updates or news about baby #2. Most likely, this is because of the troubles we went through last October and we are both hesitant about getting our hopes up. I just saw a picture of a mom who gave birth to a beautiful baby boy and I said to myself, "Wow, that baby is normal, it CAN happen. I CAN have a healthy pregnancy from this point on and deliver a healthy baby". My husband and I are just a bit skeptical that that can happen to us again, after having a healthy daughter 3.5 years ago. But, babies are born healthy every day, right?

Here's some pictures of our little one growing:

Can you see the head there on the far left, with it's hands together above the nose?

Here's a little foot picture.

Everything at my ultrasound was good -- all the measurements were right on track and the baby was moving around a bit, although I couldn't feel it. I feel the baby off and on, nothing consistent yet.

And in case you were wondering, NO, we didn't find out the sex of the baby and we won't find out until it's born -- early March. People are shocked beyond belief that we don't want to find out the sex of the baby, "don't you want to plan?", "Don't you want to know so you know what to buy?", "doesn't your daughter want to know?"

No, no, and no.

A baby is a baby, they have uni-sexual needs when they are born. Boys may need a little more care in the genital area, but a baby is a baby. A baby needs clothes, food, a place to sleep and lots of love -- no matter if it's a girl or a boy. We have unisex clothes from when my daughter was born -- we didn't find out with her either, so we're covered for the first month. My daughter doesn't want to know, because we haven't told her there was an option of finding out the sex. She thinks it's a girl, but she also thinks there's a girl baby in her tummy...so, I'm not relying on her intuition at this point!

I asked my doctor how many of his patients usually DON'T find out the sex of the baby. (he too was a bit shocked that I didn't want to find out). He said "very low, probably less than 5%". LESS THAN 5% of pregnant women DON'T find out the sex of the baby!! That shocked me!

I guess my husband and I are of the philosophy of that there are not many surprises in life. Yes we are having a baby, that's not a surprise, but after 40 weeks of aches, pains, growing, eating, heartburn, hip joints coming out of whack, not sleeping well, irritability, tiredness, moodiness, restlessness and worrying there's a little something waiting for us that we don't even know about yet -- that makes it all worth while.

(****DISCLAIMER: for those of you reading this who haven't had children yet, please know that the above list of 'nuances' of being pregnant are far less than the list of wonderful things about being pregnant, including: eating whatever you want, sleeping LOTS, not having to clean the cat's litter box, not having to carry laundry down the stairs, extra help around the house, people oogling over your growing belly, gaining weight and not really caring what your body looks like, thicker/fuller hair and finger nails, feeling the baby move inside you and knowing that you are the only one feeling that and connecting in such a way: PRICELESS)

Down on the Farm

A day at the farm....well, sort of. This is a pumpkin/apple/Christmas tree sort of farm in the far western suburbs of Chicago. So, it's really a Chicago-type of farm, not the 'real' farms where my husband and I grew up!

We found this apple-picking place last year when we were living with our babysitter (in our transition to moving into our new house). It was SO much fun -- you go on a short hay ride out to the apple orchard and you pick your own apples off the tree. You can eat as many apples as you want while you're out there. It's quite expensive, but oh so worth the fun!

This was our second trip there this season...I didn't take picture the first time.

Trying out the tractor -- like the one Papa Bill probably drives now, right? (long story short -- my dad is retired, but now 'working' the farm behind the house I grew up in, so we are now calling him a 'farmer'!)

Riding some sort of tire-turned-into-a-horse-thing.

Riding out to the apple orchard.

Getting ready to fill that bag with apples!

I like this one, mommy!

Lounging with my daddy, enjoying the nice day and eating another apple.

These two are like peas in a pod on the weekends -- she follows him EVERYWHERE!!

Our "loot". You see, my husband is an engineer and the engineer brain knows how to pack an apple peck bag to get the most apples humanly possible -- the most for your money!

YUM!

We brought home quite a few apples. Just a tip: you can keep apples up to 2 months in the fridge in a ziplock bag and a wet paper towel.....we'll be eating these until winter hits!

It's FIXED!

YEAH! My washing machine is finally fixed! After 2 weeks of not having a washing machine, I'm happy to report that I am now a full-fledged wife and mother. I can go back to doing laundry and stop begging friends to use their washing machine. Thanks to some WONDERFUL friends who let me use their machines and those who offered to let me come over. I actually went to a baby shower this past Friday and brought my laundry with me -- nothing like a little modesty when you need some clean clothes, huh?

So, after our $100 deductible was met (since we bought a 1 year home warranty), I received a new control panel for my front-loading washing machine and it's as good as new! I guess the control panel was burned out and the machine wasn't registering the water level. I learned quite a bit: a front load machine uses 5-7 gallons of water per load, while a top-load machine uses 30-40 gallons per load! That's why the front loads cost about $1,000, huh? We are on well water on our property, so I don't have a water bill, but I bet it would make a big difference only using 5-7 gallons of water.

So, I'm off to start my first load....hope it's as good as I'm expecting!

Make you laugh?

Lately, I've been seeing lots of laughs in my life and I'm trying so hard to hold on to those moments and realize that life is not as serious as we all tend to make it....

#1:
At work today, I was evaluating a 60 year old lady who had a stroke. She also had a bilateral amputation below the knees (meaning, she has no legs/feet below her knees). But, this bilateral amputation has nothing to do with her having a stroke, so I didn't pay much attention to it...maybe I should have!

I was asking my regular slew of questions, "what's the date, where are you, why are you here, how long have you been here?", etc, etc. Then I moved on to the comprehension questions: "are apples always red?", "Do you answer a phone after it rings?", I have a set of questions I ask all my patients, that it's really second nature to me and I don't really pay attention anymore. I think proceeded to ask, "Do you put your shoes on after you put your socks on?". The patient's response: "Oh, I don't wear shoes or socks".
-- DUH -- foot in my mouth! I should have been paying better attention, but she was kind about it and not offended.

#2:
We were talking at dinner tonight about our plans for next week and Monday I have a doctor's appointment that my husband is going to come with me and we were trying to figure out the plans with our daughter. I said, "Oh, she doesn't have school on Monday, it's Columbus Day." My daughter said, "What's that?". I told her, "It's Columbus Day, the day Christopher Columbus discovered America."

The preschooler's response: "The day he discovered America's Got Talent?"
--YES, we watched that show and she's VERY sad it's over!!

It's 'officially' Fall!

Nothing says fall like picking out a pumpkin and taking it home to decorate! Thanks to my friend Jen, she and her son and myself and my daughter went to the pumpkin patch after school today and Jen bought us a pumpkin!

We came right home and had decorate it!

First, we painted it -- the fumes got to me after a while, I had to step away and open the windows.

Then, what else would you do after you paint it? Put 'little' things on it, of course! I like to collect art supply stuff, so we had lots of googly eyes, foam shapes, puffy hearts and lots more fun decorations!

SEE? The finished project is just beautiful, isn't it? Not sure if we'll carve any pumpkins this year -- seems like a lot of work. This painted masterpiece is just fine for me!