4D rules, and one for the Bibbs...

I had a most amazing morning. Again, the tales of potty training will wait. I am still not finding that funny. However, I did have my ultrasound today. Now, for those of you who may not know, we are paying for this baby out of our own little pockets. We do not have maternity insurance, and no, we are not ignorant, stupid, or any of the other absurd assumptions made about those who chose to pay themselves. Maternity insurance and the co-pays, 80/20, etc. ends up costing more in the end. We did the homework. So, now that you know I went into this with full understanding, I can get off my proverbial soapbox. :)

So, the ultrasound costs $378... we get a discount for being "self pay" so it winds up being $302.40. Let me tell you, I was thinking, theses had better be some good pictures for that much $$$ !! LOL. Well, our tech was AWESOME and she even let us look at the baby in 4D! That was so amazing, It is like a real picture, you can see so much more. The printed picture does not even do justice compared to what we saw on the screen. I of course cried, and was beyond speechless. She was so sweet and printed off one of the 4D pics for us too. That is the first one below. The best part-she was a scrapper! When she told us to be sure and store the photos in an acid free album, etc. I said, "Don't worry, I am an obsessive scrapbooker." She said, "Oh honey, so am I!" Love it... who knew being acid free would unite women all over the globe one day??? Here are the pictures... and no, we did not find out what it was!!

In other news, the evil scanner was nice today, so here is my week#14 card for the Deck of Me:

And just for Miss Dawn, aka the "Bibbs"... I took her quiz AND posted my responses on the same day!! :) (um, could someone please pick up the now fainted Dawn off the floor???)

1.Yourself? Quirky

2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend? Micah will always be my boyfriend :)

3. Your hair? Flat ironed!!

4. Your mother? Crazy in that weird crazy way, not literally.

5. Your father? Checked out after my birth

6. Your favorite thing? Back rubs

7. Your dream last night? I remember driving the boys to school reallllly fast

8. Your favorite drink? Kool-Aid, but i rarely indulge in it. I am a water drinker

9. Your dream car? I have it! The Excursion

10. The room you're in right now? The office

11. Your fear? People who do bad things to kids

12. What you want to be in 10 years? The same age I am now

13. Muffins? I always knew the word "boobs" would eventually run its course... okay, muffins they are!

14. Who you hung out with last night? Micah and the boys

15. What you're not? A kind speaker

16. Time? Um, this is a weird one... time? um, it passes?

17. What you're wearing? HA! PAJAMAS OF COURSE!!!!!!!!

18. Your favorite weather? Fall

19. Your favorite book? The Mark of the Lion series, To Kill a Mockingbird

20. Last thing you ate? Toe Nails... Just kidding. Seeing if you are still reading. :) Kielbasa, corn, lima beans.

21. Your worst vice? Talking too much and popcorn before bed

22. Your best friend is? Loyal, and knows when to lie and say "Of course you look skinny!"

23. What you're thinking about right now? Em in the other room still coughing, poor guy. I need to go snuggle him

24. Your car? Drives... ???

25. Your life? Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!

Some Circle Journal and Deck of me catch up...

So, it was a good weekend for creating. Meaning, I got to actually spend time cleaning off my impossibly messy scrap desk, thus allowing me to make some stuff. I like making stuff, making stuff is good. I even realized I needed a little inspiration, so I grabbed my Rebecca Sower book, looked at it for a while, then got busy.
First, I wanted to complete Corey's Circle Journal. I mail to Kim, who is in Canada, so I wanted it done and ready to mail early. Last time it took forever to get to her... I'll see how the USPS does with it this time. It is funny, I can mail one of those "Flat Rate Boxes" full of bricks to Buffalo for a mere $4.80. Yet, ask them to go 30 minutes further across the Peace Bridge, with an envelope containing a feather, and you'd think they were delivering furniture. But, that is not the point, the point was... um, I'll get there... Oh, yeah, getting the CJ done and off in the mail a little earlier. So... here it is... And by the way... Corey as I have already told her, is such a sandbagger! She acted all worried about hers looking "good"... It is gorgeous. I had such fun with it... you talented little valley girl Corey! :)

Page one... Her theme was "favorite things"...

Page 2... I am so glad I made Jen take that cheesy picture of me outside the Bakery now!!

My sign tag... (front)

My sign tag (back)

I also got to make 4 of my Emily Falconbridge "Deck of Me" cards. I only have three to show though, because my scanner is evil... pure evil I tell you. So here are the three I got scanned. I did not go in order, I made a list and did the ones I wanted... at least I am getting caught up!

This is Week #8 (yeah, yeah, I told you I was behind... I blame it on the knockedupedness.)

This is week #10. I have been using more pink in my stuff lately, and I gotta' tell ya... I am liking it. Partly because it matches my favorite greens so well... I will not embrace purple though. Do not hold your breath there... No amount of knockedupedness will change that one.

Week #11... The "Your Initial"...

So, that is all for today. I am too ill about the state of Emerson's Potty training to even write about it yet. Lincoln potty trained literally in ONE day. He had two accidents, one at nap, one at night and only because he didn't realize he was allowed to come down and go to the bathroom. That's it. No pull ups, no fights... Emerson is not taking quite the same approach, and it is making me nuts... maybe soon I'll be up for telling the tales of this Urine deluged land I am currently residing in...

Who???

So I need to know... should I be insulted by a gentleman who waited on me today calling me "REBA" ????
Now remember all you born and bred southerners... I was raised in the North, and that is why I am a little sketchy on this being a compliment thing... Maybe it is because I had someone recently say to me the following...
Clueless Person: "So, how much weight have you gained so far?"
Me: "None, actually."
CP: "Oh. How far along are you?"
Me:"17 weeks."
CP:" Well, you know my husband said I looked much smaller with my last pregnancy too because I was SOOOO overweight when I got pregnant."
Me: ...
See, I did not respond. What am I supposed to say? Cause that is clearly a little dig, but its one of those If- you -call - me - out -on -this- I -will- act- shocked- and -like -I -was -making -an innocent -comment. Digs. So, I just sighed internally and said nothing.
So, would you consider it an obnoxious comment? Am I being overly sensitive? (Micah of course says Yes! I think that is because guys are so fundamentally different than woman. Seriously, if a guy puts on a bunch of weight his friends call him Lard butt and make him join a gym. If a girl gets fat her "catty" friends take her out for dessert and introduce her to afternoon television. Her TRUE friends however, take her to StarryB's then drink the fraps while going for a walk in the park or the mall. :) )
So, lay it on me. I can take it... well not really. I just say that because I will blame this whiny over sensitivity on my current state of knockedupedness. (Have you noticed, that is how I will hereto refer to this pregnancy. I feel like a rebel mom to be just typing it, and since the highlight of my day today was the 5$ off coupon on baby wipes at Costco, I am embracing it.)
I digress...
Digress from what you ask?
Yes, this has been a most sporadic and pointless post, but since Chrissy and Dawn both ribbed me about not posting more often this is what you get.
So, this is 5 minutes (or 10 depending on how you faired with the hooked on phonics program) of your life that you will never get back, and all you have to show for it is the knowledge that I am now endorsing the phrase "knockedupedness".
I am thinking of having t-Shirts made with that on them... do you think they'd sell? Maybe with Reba's face on it???? ROFLOL............ :)

An update... finally!

Ugh, I have such good intentions of getting this thing updated more often, but then things get crazy around here, and I don't get to! I was sooooo giddy this morning as Dawn chose me as one of her favorite blogs to read, so Dawn this update is for you!! LOL. Really, I was so happy that she enjoys reading the mundane things of my days here... She likened it to winning a "Blog Award" and so now i must get this update done so I can go get on my evening gown and write my speech. :)

Okay, before I share the cute Easter pictures, do you want to hear yet ANOTHER embarrassing lawn maintenance story???

Ok, the first guy that saw me in all my hair coloring glory, he was just hear to rid our yard of weeds and moles. While I was in NY Micah set up a time to meet another gentleman to price the mowing of the yard. As they chat they realize that Micah in fact knows the man's wife, and has done business with her before. I have in fact met her, she is extremely nice. So, they are chatting and the boys come running out sans shoes, and Micah says, "Sorry, I am a single dad right now. My wife is on a trip." This guy takes that to mean I have LEFT Micah. He gives him a pat on the arm and says, "You gotta hang in there man. Gotta stay strong for your boys now." Then he invites them to Easter at their house! (See, I told you the guy was so nice!) So, Micah does not want to embarrass the guy by saying no, you have misunderstood, etc. SO... This man thinks I left my husband and children! When I got back on Monday, they were here finishing the mowing, and he saw me come in the house. I went to hand Micah the checkbook, and let me tell you... the man was less than thrilled to see me. He gave me the death look, and when I introduced myself he begrudgingly shook my hand and barely spoke. He thought i was a RUNAWAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!
So, now I have one lawn guy who thinks I am a freak with color on my head, and another who thinks I am a horrible mom... nice.

I told Micah he must clear this up with the man. Although now it may look less that believable!

Here are the Easter pictures... they may help prove my love for my children... :)

Emerson seeing the egg change color for the first time...

Lincoln masters the dipper...

Me and the Em... Yes, I look terrible. In my defense, we got up and did this in our pjs on Saturday morning.

The finished eggs.

Micah took this shot... Its like he has been reading some scrapping mags or something... :)

The Resurrection Eggs... they all have a little verse and some object to go along with the Easter story. The last one is empty and the boys loved it.

I am back...

Hello all. I have returned from the cold, yet thankfully NOT snowy Buffalo area. Seriously, they are supposed to get snow this Thursday-Saturday... so glad we were not there for that. It was not so bad though, and thanks to the fact that my sister was willing to spend her retirement on keeping her heat jacked up to keep me and Jen warm, we survived!

Let me recap...

Thursday we left at the butt crack of dawn. I was in Jen's driveway at 5:o8 am and she was ready to roll, with her Coke in hand. (it is her morning drug.) I swear it was dark and raining until about 7:45 am. Once it was light out we read the adorable note my DH left for us in the glove box... he had even attached a $10 bill for each of us as "Starbucks cash". Then he told us to look under the seat, saying we would find our reason for leaving, and returning there... Under each of our seats was an 8x10 picture of our 4 kiddos together last Easter. Is this man amazing or what??? I will tell later about his birthday gift.... he got me good.

So, we made it to the outlet mall point of the trip. This is a mere 2.5 hours from my mother's home, and I always want to go. If we do, I am in running shoes and do a mad dash in the Nike and the Gap outlets while Micah is going "Are you done yet? Are you done yet?" I probably look like a shopping spree winner the way I jet throught the stores. This is because men and women are different. Yes, shocking, but true. See, Micah wants to get there. To finish the trip. I want to relax, stop and stroll. Time??? Who cares. Plus I can always deduct the time at the outlets from the actual drive time. So we got there at 1:30 pm. Great time. Then we shopped and ate lunch for 4½ hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ah, the joy of a girl's road trip!!

We got to my sister's got settled in and got ready to start scrapping Friday afternoon. That was AFTER I introduced Jen to some of Buffalo's finer points...

Yes, that is me looking adoringly up at the Bakery sign. We don't have bakeries like this here, and this one makes a wedding cake frosting that is out of this world. Really, my family always brings me a cake when they come. My mom even had one as her carry on for the plane once.

Jen was hilarous trying to pronounce the word "Fastnacht". It is a fried type of pastry, very delicious, but still pronounced using the German name.



The Meat Market. Yes, there are no such things as meat markets here, and I really miss them. The guys was clearly getting impatient with us until I explained that Jen had never been in one before and all that... then he was all into the "Help the poor meat-market-less girls out". I made Jen buy a butter lamb too...especially since she first asked, "Why and how would you make butter out of lamb?" It is a lamb shaped butter for Easter!

Making the careful selections... I brought back some Shalen's hot dogs, they are so good, and I don't even eat hot dogs!

And of course... Niagara Falls.Thankfully it wasn't too cold. There was still ice in the Niagara River, which Jen could not believe. She was duly impressed by the rushing waters though... and the fact that the Niagara Falls gift shop can charge $3.50 for a coke. Welcome to the north my friend...

So, all in all, it was a great trip. We had fun, chatted, scrapped, ate lots of bad for you food, and what not... :) I even brough home a cooler full of "Yankee Groceries" as we call them.