Laughter

Here is a conversation as overheard by my friend's priest:

Daughter: Daddy, are you the boss of this house?

Daddy: Why, yes, honey- I am the boss of this house.

Daughter: Is that because Mommy put you in charge?

I thought that pretty well sums up most American homes!

Bald is Beautiful and Fat is Fabulous (or not)

Audra has a little bald spot (I know, you all thought I was talking about Ben, but I wasn't!). It looks much better now- she was looking like a little cancer patient (I am not trying to be offensive, that really is how she looked). She had cradle cap and I took her to the doctor and she said to use T/Gel shampoo so we used it, and it got the cradle cap out, but it also took out huge chunks of hair. Now it seems to be growing back a little bit, which is good. The poor thing looked pretty bad for awhile! I don't think it was the shampoos fault, I think her hair follicles were stuck to the scales and when they came out they took her hair with it.

This is right before we went outside so she could play in her little pool she got for her Birthday- and by playing I really mean using Tupperware to dump all of the water from the pool onto the lawn little by little. Anyway, it's over 90 degrees today and is supposed to stay this hot all week! Good thing we have the pool to keep her cool! Thanks again Grandma and Grandpa Marriott!

Then, here's some 36 weeks shots of me- looking ready to pop. I went to the movies with some so-called friends on Saturday night and all they did was tell me how fat I was (I know, I need some new friends!). At least they said it was all in my stomach and not anywhere else! But, with swollen ankles, constant bathroom breaks, and impossible sleep time positioning, it is quite apparent this baby is about ready to make her grand appearance! I am predicting she will come a week or two early- Audra was 6 days early, and this baby just seems ready. Of course, that probably means she will come 8 days late and I will be miserable.

I think Ben and I are finally starting to get excited about this. We have been excited all along, of course, but also very nervous because we know firsthand what a challenge a newborn can be. But, Ben keeps reminding me that it can not possibly be worse then Audra, and we survived her. Plus, we know the signs to look for if this baby has GERD or other problems. We can handle anything! And, we are doing things a lot differently this time which I think will greatly help. I'm going to do a lot more baby wearing, which I am very excited about- I have 3 different wraps and 2 videos about how to use them, and I am really anxious to give them a try. We're also going to do co-sleeping (thank goodness for the king size bed!). We have done quite a bit of research on both of these and feel like this will work well for us, so we're excited to try it out! Audra is getting excited too, I think. She comes up to my tummy and pats it and says, "baby here!" Then, she'll pat her tummy and say the same thing. It is very cute.

So, only four more weeks- but I am really thinking more like 2. I go in Friday for another check-up, perhaps I'll know more then!

Shout Out To Dad!

Since Ben never reads my blog and my mom will make my dad read it when she sees this, I thought I would send HUGE Happy Father's Day greetings out to the best dad in the world- my dad! (sorry to the rest of you, but my dad wins)

Top 10 Reasons My Dad Is the Best:

10. Worked 2, sometimes 3 jobs when we were little to support our family

9. Let us call him Ronald McDonald when we were little (his name is Ronald)

8. Almost never missed a soccer, basketball, volleyball, or whatever game

7. Yelled incessantly at the refs on our behalf during aforementioned games

6. Shaved off his mustache for my wedding (true, he decided I probably would never get married when he made that promise, but he still held up his side of the bargain!)

5. Acts like a little kid with the grandkids

4. Makes a delicious FRENCH TOAST (not pancake) breakfast

3. He decided to become active in the church again before my oldest sister was born because he wanted to be the best father he could be

2. He took all 5 of us kids camping without my mom (presumably to give my mom a weekend to herself) on a regular basis

1. He has loved and supported all of us kids through all of our wild, crazy ideas and decisions

Here's some photos of the greatest dad in the world:




Now, the next couple of pictures are a little amsuing. I searched through all of my old photos, and I could not find a picture of just my dad and me. But, I did find these 2 pictures:



My father with my best friend Danielle having a "beer" (root beer) and at Gettysburg! I hope you are laughing, Danielle, because I sure was! I suppose this should be proof to me that he secretly wanted you as a daughter instead of me:) Or, maybe that I just need to be sure and get some pics of me and my dad!


And, finally, I know you are all surprised, but Ben has the audacity to argue with me and try to tell me that HIS father is the best in the world, so here is a photo of the two greatest dads in the world (notice the clean-shaven face of my dad- it was a once-in-a-lifetime look at my dad's upper lip!)

Mom Advice

So Audra has presented us with a couple of interesting situations in which some expert mommy-advice would be needed.

First, she has completely regressed out of her toddler bed. She will only sleep in her crib. We think it has to do with all of the changes, staying with Ben's parents for awhile, the madness of the house, etc. We don't know- but she won't sleep in her bed. She has not fallen out, to the best of our knowledge, she just has lost interest. Any ideas?

Then, at the same time she has regressed in that area, she has now taken a great interest in potty training. We bought her a potty for her Birthday, and for the last little while she will sit on it fully clothed when I go to the bathroom (sorry if it's TMI, but if you're a mom then I know it isn't).Today she decided she wanted to sit on the toilet without her diaper and she would say, "go potty, go potty." Of course I let her, and now she continually takes her diaper off and wants to sit on the potty. She has not gone on the potty, and I don't think she knows when she needs to go, so that is the dilemma. I have everything we need to potty train- pull-ups, plastic pants, etc. but I wasn't planning on even attempting to train her until after the baby was born- fearing a regression. What sould I do????

Turning a House Into A Home

On Thursday we FINALLY got our house back! On Thursday night my father-in-law came over to help Ben move all of the furniture in (huge thank yous to Mac!!!!), and then Friday and today Ben and I have cleaned, organized, and put things back in order! I must admit, the house looks amazing- I couldn't be happier. I have pictures to post- sorry, they are from my cell phone as I can't find the battery charger for our camera batteries- hey, I didn't say we organized and cleaned everything yet! But, before you view the pictures, there is one rule:

I don't care if you absolutely hate what we have done to the house. You are required to lie and tell us it is beautiful and amazing, even if you think the exact opposite. As my friend Arienne said, "you paid enough and deserve to be lied to."

We put an area rug in the family room so we could still play on the floor with Audra. Things are back to normal when Audra and Daddy can play house in the family room again!!

I personally think the living room looks absolutely stunning, but I am a little biased!
After three weeks a functional kitchen! I never thought I would be so incredibly excited to cook dinner!

This picture isn't too exciting- but since the French Doors are the whole reason we committed to this madness, I figured I should throw in a picture of the new French Doors.

This is a picture of our front entryway- coming at it from the living room instead of the front door. I put this one on because Ben and I came up with the design- diagonal boards with a border along the edge- and we thought it turned out pretty cool.

Regardless of what anybody thinks, I will say that it is wonderful to have our home back! No more eating breakfast in the basement hallway downstairs!!!

Small Gestures

Sometimes it is, unfortunately, easy to take your spouse for granted- even though we try hard not to, considering it a cardinal sin of marriage. The other night, Ben reminded me once again why it is that I am so incredibly in love with him.

It was early in the morning- about 2 AM and I was in a semi-comotose state of sleep (I find it difficult to be entirely wonderfully asleep at this stage of pregnancy), when I noticed Ben was putting the blanket over me. It had gotten cold and he was carefully trying to cover me up so I wouldn't wake up because of the cold. I know this is an incredibly small act, but isn't it the small things that keep us in love with each other? He didn't know that I was awake enough to notice what he was doing, he was just doing that because he didn't want me to be uncomfortable. I thought to myself, "He really does love me!" What a lucky girl I am!

What Mess?

I thought I would show you all the chaos that we now call our lives:
Holes in the wall, with varying levels of flooring. Also, NO furniture on the entire main level- makes eating at our house an interesting experience.

Rotten boards sticking out all over.

Disastrous kitchen- I know, I should be embarrassed, BUT: we had to empty out a bit of our storage, and it was better for us to just put it on our kitchen counters then box it all up and have no access to our food for a week (not that I can cook in this kitchen anyway...)

No diswasher- that's why there's a hole underneath the counter. That's the hardest part for Ben.

Fridge in the dining room. As of Wednesday it will be on our back deck so they can sand and stain the floors. That will be fun!

We couldn't end this post without a picture of our little gangsta Audra- she put the hat on herself and started strutting amidst the mess. I am feeling very much discombulated- I HATE that our house is virtually unlivable right now. But, Ben's parents have been AWESOME and have made our experience tolerable. They have invited us over for dinner several times, sent us home with dinner so I didn't have to try to cook or we didn't have to go out, they let Aud and me come over during the day so Audra can take a nap- they have been such a huge blessing- THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!

Our contractors are awesome as well- I can't say enough great things about them. They come in and they get the job done- they're clean, they show up on time, they're honest, they find the root of our problems (they also found a leaking roof- oh, yippee!) and fix it so we don't have to worry about it. They can do it all- I HIGHLY recommend them if you need any kind of work done- call or e-mail me and I will give you their info. The company is called Capricorn Construction, and they are fantastic!