weekend project....

Well, would you look at that! The concrete truck paid a visit to OUR house this weekend!

hello summer!

.....15 tormented fish so far!

Tales of snakes, yaks, bobcats and Gloria

randoms from this past week...as seen from my chair :)

Sydney had the priviledge of dressing like the zoophonic character "Yancey Yak" in her end of the year kindergarden program. She did a great job...and is already a bit disgruntled with the idea of going to school every day next year :) Much to my dismay, Dylan found a baby snake and was brave enough to catch it and bring it to the door. I can't take this country living! He has been playing with it and carrying it around for the past week. He and and his little partner Sydney have been catching worms, crickets and slugs all week to feed it. It WILL be set loose tommorow after Syd has a chance to bring it to school.

When we said goodbye to the excavator a few months back, we welcomed the bobcat to our home :) We are never without a project here....so the sidewalks and patio that got ripped out with our kitchen addition will soon be replaced....and then on to the yard- it never ends!

Miss Gloria is growing nicely and measuring in @ almost 16 weeks now. The hemotoma is the same size and shape as it was 2 weeks ago. They say this is a good thing. It is stable and appears to have stopped growing. However, it's still huge so i unfortunately have to stay on bedrest. I had a good chat with my dr. I think I have a better understanding of what I should and shouldn't be doing now. She gave me the "okay" to lift Stella a few times a day so that helps a little. I go in again in 2 weeks for another ultra sound, so pray that it starts to go down some. I'm starting to realize and accept that this isn't going to be a quick process....I've got 4 1/2 weeks under my belt now, and it's no smaller than it was when the trouble started.

Going Postal

I don't usually use my blog to share much of my opinion... i'm actually much more of the peacemaker type....however, let me share a little story with you that i've been stewing over all week. Perhaps the bedrest is getting to me, and i have too much thinking time on my hands.

okay, on with the story.....

So, I get the mail last Friday(May 22) and I glance it over and set it on the counter before we leave town. Fastforward to Monday when we get home. I send Sydney down the driveway to get Saturdays mail. She comes back up to tell me we don't have any... okay, so i start opening up Fridays mail.

I open up a letter from the post office... dated Thurs. May 21...to sum it up it states that due to the decline in mail, they are consolidating routes and this effects the placement of our mailbox...."effective Sat. May23 your box must be placed on the East side of the street...after the 23rd we will hold your mail at the post office if it hasn't been moved."

What?!?

Since when do you get 1 days notice? this is the govt! did i miss another letter somewhere?

Timeline aside, the real angst comes down the principle of it. About 2 years ago our road was paved, much to Tims dismay. Our mailbox, which was indeed located on the east side of the street was yanked and relocated for the summer. After the project was done, the govt. workers put our mailbox back in on the west side of the road. I thought this was weird, and slightly inconvenienced me might i add, but i thought- well, they're the govt, that must be where they want it.

Are you kidding me? The govt. moves our mailbox and then says we can't have our mail until it's moved back?

I will not share Tims opinion on the matter since this is a family blog :) But, don't send us any mail we might not be getting any for awhile.....

a girl and her dance mat

Memorial Weekend

In my last post I shared the encouraging results from my ultra sound. I should have mentioned that this was my interpretation, because when my dr. called me the next day with the official results she did not share my optimism, and consiquently put me on bedrest.

Because the hemotoma has grown there is something still bleeding inside of me that needs to clot off before it can even start to heal. The only way to clot it off is through rest.....24/7....no lifting anything....especially not 25lb. 1 year olds. A tricky order when you have 4 kids, and all the household tasks that come along with them.

I must say we're making it work. Austin has stepped it up and been a HUGE help. He got himself up every morning last week for school and made breakfast for himself and the others. I am so proud! I do understand that I need to heal, so I'm taking the drs. orders very seriously. I want to protect this little baby, and i'm hoping if I really rest now, I may kick this hemotomas butt before school gets out in 2 weeks.

Back to the original subject of my post.....we bought a new camper this spring and decided that we would go camping Memorial Weekend. I found an available lot at the Yogi Bear Park in Silver Lake a few weeks back. The dillema we faced all week was whether we could camp and have me continue to stay resting. Tim, who I must say has been absolutely wonderful, told me we could do whatever I wanted. He was afraid if we went camping I would be bored out of my mind since I would just have to sit there. None of the usual fun...no bike rides, hiking, walking etc. However, by Thurs. night after 3 loooooooong days of sitting on my couch, we decided to go.

It was a good trip.....different, but good none the less. We explained to the kids before we left that we wouldn't be able to do all the things we usually do when we're camping.

When we got there we were pleasantly surprised to find that they had put us on a lot one away from the bathroom and the heated pool. Perfect! I was able to lounge at the pool and actually work on my sunburn :) The kids had a great time. Yogi Bear has activities all day long that we don't usually participate in b/c we are usually at the beach or on a bike ride...but this year we got our monies worth out of Yogi.

That being said, here are some pictures of our weekend....

This girl took first place in the "Yogi Bear Jump Rope Jump Off"

Stellas thoughts on the kiddie pool....her reaction the same every time she was put in.The kids entered the box car making contest and race.....right up their alley!
These fierce competitors managed to snag first and second place. The prize? One yogi dollar to spend in Yogi Camp Store on candy....it was a good day :)

Isn't she a filthy mess? She literallly rolled in the dirt, and took off after every dog she saw. After dealing with this "little grill" all weekend, I think Tim finally understands why I get nothing done when she is awake. She has a mind of her own!

On Saturday night we broke the rules and indulged in mini golfing and ice cream....with the understanding that I would walk slow, and sit on the bench at every hole, and not even think about picking up Stella. It was quite comical... Austin was very serious about keeping score, Sydney just kept hitting her ball not really trying or aiming, Dylan kept losing his club and ball and himself to the water, and Stella would steal everybodys ball after they hit it....causing great upset from the others. We are years away from competitive mini golf!

Gloria

Sydney has decided we should name the baby Gloria- i'm quite certain it's after the booty shaking hippo in Madagascar. It's better than "Heart Face", the name she had picked out for Stella. I think it's cute, so thats what we go by for now...

An update....I went for another ultra sound yesterday. The hemotoma has not improved at all, it's still the same size maybe a tad bigger(if the first measurement was correct). If you look at the picture below, it's that big black circle that the babys laying on.

However, the great news is that the placenta did not attatch to it! She said I would have all kinds of problems if it had. Praise the Lord! The other great news is that the baby is still right on pace growing and still measuring a week and a half ahead of schedule. Thank you for all your prayers for this precious little life!