Post 101 - childhood memories

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor.... would you be mine? Could you be mine? won't you be my neighbor! Hi neighbor!

I went on a little trip down memory lane the other day. Alina and I were grocery shopping and she spotted a DVD of Max & Ruby. I was previously in the dark as to who Max & Ruby were, and honestly I assumed it was a mexican tv show because there are so many of them lately... Dora being so popular and all. I didn't know for sure because its a show that's on Nick Jr and so she watches it at day care. Well, I was astonished to see two lovable little cartoon bunnies hanging out making a cake or something on the front of the DVD she was showing me. Who are they?





These lovely lovable little rabbits are something I cherish from my childhood! I remember going to the library all the time - we would walk there because it was so close to our house. Max and Ruby were cardboard books mostly, and I remember getting these to read to Alisha and Timothy. I was siked out that they actually made this into a TV show, and that it's one of my daughter's favorites.

Here's a few of the titles I remember most:

Goodnight Max
Max's Bunny Business
Max's New Suit
Bunny Party

This series is by Rosemary Wells and I'm totally buying some for Alina for Christmas!

Setting up the Christmas Tree

I took a bunch of pictures from the other day when we set up the Christmas tree and wanted to share them, because I think there are some really adorable ones! We printed a few of these and sent them in Christmas cards to the great-grands and I am really excited how they turned out.

Alina and Daddy putting together the tree


Raziel helping Daddy with the tree


Alina was allowed to help with the ornaments


Raziel was allowed to look at them


Alina wanted to pose by the snowmen to show you they changed colors - she didn't understand you'd only see one color.


Raziel and Daddy hanging ornaments


Alina and Daddy hanging ornaments

Alina posing by the tree (this was a christmas card photo)

Alina and Daddy putting on the star

Christmas card photo

Christmas Card Photo

Raziel and Daddy hanging out

If Raziel had been looking this woulda been a great Christmas card photo but I couldn't get him to stay still!!

Well, that's our Christmas Tree photos! Hope you enjoyed!

Show us your Life: Christmas Traditions

Well, when I was a kid we always used to cut down a fresh tree on the weekend after Thanksgiving. My husband's family used the same artificial tree every year and it became sort of like a tradition of its own to use that tree for Christmas. So, as much as I fought for the evergreen smell every year, we decided to go with an artifical tree and it's been a really fun experience using the same tree and having the kids help put it together. We put up our tree Thanksgiving weekend - this year we actually did it on Monday (before Thanksgiving) but we just felt like getting into the spirit a bit early. Now that we have toddlers, I sit on the floor and sort the limbs into piles according to the level they're assigned to and then hand them to the kids who carry them across the living room one at a time to Brent who puts the tree together. Then, we put the lights and ornaments on, cover it in tinsel and top it with the star (Alina and Daddy put that on together).

One of our traditions is to buy a new ornament for each family member every year. This is really neat because every ornament on our tree will eventually mean something significant. Right now we have a fair amount of specific ornaments and a decent amount of plain decorative balls as well - but we're only on year 5 so we've got a while to get some more.

Last year, I bought this one for Brent. He loves this musical and the whole story. I liked this ornament because the couple actually twirl and dance to the Beauty and the Beast song when you wind the thingy.


This is the shape and color of the ornament Brent had made for me last year. My big Christmas present was Orchestra Seat Tickets to see Wicked on Broadway on our anniversary trip (March), so he had the word "Wicked" painted on it and picked out the most adorable little polka dot ribbon to hang it by. I love this ornament!
Wow. Can you tell we like musicals? LOL! It's not like that every year - we've done all sorts of ornaments. It's one of my fav traditions!

Another tradition is our current rule to give 10 presents to each member of the family - no more, no less. While we only apply this rule to ourselves (IE we give 10 presents to each child but the kids only give one to everyone else) it's been really nice and alot of fun. This tradition sprung from our desire to have a "big Christmas" all the time. We both grew up in families that didn't always have alot of money for Christmas, and both know how it is to get a few small things for Christmas and want to avoid having that as a memory for our kids. So, while the budget for total Christmas spending may fluxuate (the first year was $250 a piece when it was just Brent and I, and this year it's $150 to spend on Brent, $150 to spend on me, and $50 per kid) the tradition is that we have to make that budget stretch over 10 presents. We also require that at least 1 present is handmade and not purchased.

While alot of other traditions vary with divorces, which family can travel when, etc, we maintain 3 others;

1) Each family member opens one present on Christmas Eve night (this helps build the excitment for the following day! After this we watch It's a Wonderful Life

2) We spend Christmas Morning as a family - just us four (plus any more that we have) and no extended family. No aunts, uncles, siblings, parents, nothing. We want to spend Christmas with our kids and let that be that.

3) We spend New Years Eve & Day with Brent's grandparents - we have one big Christmas party with all his extended family every single year. This is alot of fun and it's been a tradition forever and I love going!

Black Friday Shopping

Well I wasn't going to do it. I'd sworn it off since I worked in the mall for all those years and have seen people run, hit, bite, yell, scream, pinch and shove other people over getting hot christmas items on the day after thanksgiving. But, alas, I got online last night to check out some prices and saw an add for something I wanted to buy Brent for Christmas and figured Walmart would have a similar sale (which they did) and decided maybe I should go. I was undecided until Oden woke me up at 5:30 by getting his chain wrapped around the remaining pool pieces and barking constantly. The barking was bad enough but in his attempt to untangle himself he was trampling the wall piece of the pool and since that's made of aluminum it was quite noisy. So I rolled over, looked at the clock, went out to help the poor dog and noticed it wasn't that cold and then went on to get up the kids and put them into the car so we could go to Walmart.

I won't disclose the thing that I purchased for Brent although I will clue everyone in that it's something I'd already been looking at buying for him, and that usually costs about $40 or $50 at least... I'd found one at amazon for $20 but hadn't bought and then what do you know it was on sale for $3. I also purchased an accessory to go along with it for another $3.

I will show you the other cool stuff I got!!

First, something that's not a gift for anyone, just something we needed. A 30 piece Rubbermaid tupperware set. Usually about $25. I paid $7.


These are footie pajamas for Raziel, size 18 months. They've got Lightning McQueen on them, and aren't the super thick kind but they're nice. Usually footie PJ's cost $12. I paid $5.




Yes, it's a 3T. I couldn't pass up the deal, or find Dora in a smaller size. I know, they'll be too big probably but Alina won't mind. Usually a pajama set like this is $18. I paid $3.


Towels were so cheap I bought 2, just to help fill out our supply. You always need towels after all. Usually these towels are $5 each. I paid $2 each and bought 2 towels. I would have bought more but they were gone. The lady working that section said as soon as it was 5 0'clock (when the sale began), that people just picked up entire stacks and dropped them in their carts and took off. I wouldn't have bought black either but $2 a towel? Man. I put up with the color. I didn't find these in the stackout either, they were in the isle shoved to the side and probably not seen by shorter people. I didn't think they were the right style for the price but picked them up and price checked them and they were the right price!


These beautifully soft blankets (I got a light blue one as well) were so soft I was astonished at how many were still laying around when I showed up at 6:15. The lady who was shopping the stackout as I was standing there purchased about 10 of these blankets. She just picked up a great big box of them and went on her way. I chose this cute orange one for Alina and a light blue for Raziel and plan to sew fleece with their favorite cartoon character to the reverse and pattern sew it in the middle to help hold it together. I planned to do this anyway and it would cost more than I paid for this much fabric. Usually throws like this are $20 or so, depending on time of year. I paid $4 each.

Total spending: $38.41
Total approximated savings: $120

Man. They should let us do shopping like this more often!

Sad side note: the poor lady was that doing the same job Brent was doing, only at the store across town (loading the TV's into people's cars) got shot this morning. WHAT?!?! I know!! Essentially, to get your TV at Walmart, you buy the ticket and reciept and take it aound back and trade your ticket and show your reciept for the TV. This man drove up to the loading station at the store on the other side of town (thank God it wasn't Brent) and told the woman he wanted a 50" TV. She asked if he had his reciept and ticket. He said "I've got this" and showed her a gun. She said "okay" and got him his TV loaded up and everything. He shot her and left. What is the matter with people?!?! they were selling those for $600! $600 or someone's life!? And when he gets caught (because it's not like they don't have it all on tape) he'll spend life in prison for trying to kill this poor lady.... all over a TV

Everyone's Okay

I'm okay, baby's okay, everything's fine.

Tuesday I left work shortly after writing my blog and went to the OBGYN. They midwife poked around my back and stomach, asked alot of questions about my urination and checked my cervix. There was actually nothing going on with the baby at all (Thank GOD) and it was kidney issues. She scared the daylights out of me because she thought it was some terrible kidney infection that puts pregnant women in the hospital for weeks but they finally decided on kidney stones after doing an ultrasound to check it out.

The remainder of Tuesday I stayed in bed taking 2 Tylonol Codines every 4 hours. I didn't sleep much that night, I was hurting too bad. Brent didn't sleep much either because I was kicking and moaning and screaming from pain. Wednesday I felt all right in the morning and decided to try to go to work. Ten minutes down the road I puked because I couldn't handle the sudden pain that decided it'd announce itself. I took the kids to the sitter, swung by work to make sure I could switch my day off so I could get paid for the holiday, and went home. I continued my pattern of medication and screaming and writhing until about 11pm. I fell asleep and slept (still in pain some) until about 4 am when I woke up to pee, went back to sleep and then I woke at 8am on Thursday. That was when I asked for meds again, and Brent hadn't given me any since midnight so I saw that as improvement. I laid low for a while in the morning, took the kids to Nene and slept on her couch for an hour or two. By noon I felt really well and took the kids home for their nap. I was still taking meds but I'd cut back to one pill every 4 hours instead of 2. I decided to make us lunch after I put Raziel down and I sat down to have lunch with Alina. I ate about half of my grilled cheese sandwich and stuck her in bed with the other half because I felt like passing out.

I gave Alina a Jolly Rancher and went to bed. About 10 minutes later Alina started screaming. I leapt out of bed and went to her room and she was choking on the candy. She stuck her hand in her mouth to try and get it out and she told me "it's too far mommy." I took her into the bathroom because she was gagging and I thought she would puke it up. Nothing came. She was screaming and coughing and I was terrified. I called Nene and she came right over. In the meantime, I tried to get Alina to drink some water but she just got more upset. We couldn't get it out and didn't want to keep trying becuase as it was she could breathe and we didn't want that to change. So, we got her to settle down and she fell asleep. I took her to bed with me and watched her carefully to make sure she kept breathing easily. When she woke up about 45 minutes later she'd swallowed the thing compleatly and she wasn't choking anymore. She was a happy camper, laughing and chattering away so I was very relieved. I could tell she was relieved too - I'm sure that freaked her out pretty badly. She told everyone at Thanksgiving about how she choked on her candy and coughed and Mommy and Nene made it go away while she slept. I thought this was adorable. She has also been pretending that her imaginary friends are choking on candy and that she is helping them by rocking them to sleep. I love how she takes her experiences and acts them out -it seems to help her cope with the trauma.

Anyways, that evening after the candy trauma and everything, I was feeling all better. I was tired, but up and cooking and eating with everyone. I slept well last night and I'm all better with no meds today. I'm a bit sore and tired - like I'm recovering from a long trip or something - but I'm at work and all so I'm doing abundantly better.

Now that I've experienced both a kidney stone and childbirth, I will clear up this massive disallusion that men have that kidney stones are worse. Let me make this very very clear; Kidney stones suck really badly. The thing that makes kidney stones so terrible is that the pain never lets up - it's all the time and it takes longer than many labors - where as contractions are every so many minutes like clockwork. You know when your contraction will be done and when to expect another one. BUT the delivery of a child is much worse than a kidney stone. That 30 or so minutes of pushing and breathing and pushing and breathing beat a kidney stone by far. So, yes, kidney stones are worse than labor. Kidney stones ARE NOT worse than childbirth. Now - that's given you're doing the childbirth naturally... Epidurals don't count in this little comparison because I've never had one so I can't tell you. I took IV drugs for the childbirth (which takes the edge off the pain) and I had codine for the kidney stone which totally knocks you out but epidurals supposedly numb everything so I can't see how that would hurt anything like the other two...

Well that's my thoughts on all that and my update on my disasterous few days.

Complications?

Today I came to work, I was even 10 minutes early. I have had a decent day but my stomach has been hurting a bit all day. I ate potatoes and brocolli with cheese for lunch and have been drinking water but I keep thinking there's something wrong with the baby or with me. Baby's moving around just fine, but I'm actually in alot of pain and it's that lower abdominal pain that is familiar to the end of pregnancy. I rolled down my leggings so they weren't putting any extra pressure on my belly, I've been drinking water and peeing regularly to make sure there's no blood or anything strange going on down there but I am definitly contracting or something. I wasn't sure until just now when I was sitting here thinking "well maybe I'm feeling better" and then I started feeling the tightening and pressure of a contraction.

Brent's not answering, niether is Pam or Becca so I can't get a hold of him at all. I called the OBGYN and left a message for the nurse but they haven't called back and I am getting more and more worried as time passes and I continue to feel badly. I initally thought I'd just eaten something bad but I'm positive now that I've got something more going on. It has been 48 minutes since I left a message and I am going crazy. I can't decide if I need to go home or if I'm just freaking out but chances are the doctor's gonna get me to come in being as how this is my third baby and I know what is normal and what's strange. My palms are sweaty and clammy I'm having hot flashes and I feel awful. I think I'm just gonna go home but I hate to just work a half day but gosh I'd hate for me to be stuck here in Cleveland if there really is something wrong... but i'd hate to leave early if it's really nothing but I know its not really nothing. I am loosing my mind and just need someone to tell me "just go home" but I can't get a hold of Brent and have him make that decision for me.

Holidays

I've been online today looking at potential Christmas buys. I am so excited because we have found kids laptops made for kids aged 3-5. We had thought that we were gonna get this little spiderman one they had on sale super cheap at walmart but we were waiting for the price to drop as low as we knew it'd go and the toys girl came over to tell Brent it had finally dropped and by the time they walked back over there(3 minutes?) it had been bought. Man. But, that's ok, because now I'm looking at them online. Here's what I found and think we'll get


V-Tech Laptop


I read the reviews on Amazon and it seems like it'll be great for Alina - geared right at her age - a tiny advanced for some 3 year olds but she's smart and plus it seemed those people that said it was too hard weren't playing with their kids on the thing so I don't think that'll be a problem for Alina because we'll be playing with her alot of the time. It teaches letters and shapes and stuff and seems really cool. They have it at the Walmart here in town for $20 so we're gonna get it and use our discount instead of ordering it online.

Then I looked at what similar customers had bought when they purchased this item and another great idea occured to me.




Dollhouse

This dollhouse is only $30 at Walmart.com and if we do site to store (a nice little feature that allows you to buy online and have it sent to your neighborly Walmart) it's free shipping so that's a GREAT deal. I'm gonna try to talk Brent into getting this for her as well because we went to Tamra's a few weeks ago and they had a dollhouse over there and that's all Alina was interested in playing with. I think this would be great especially with the new baby on the way because its something she can do alone quietly. It comes with a momm, daddy and a baby and I think that's great too because she's started role-playing alot when she plays... she makes dinner, she rocks her baby to sleep, etc. I think the dollhouse would be a fantastic idea. It will take some room but I'm looking and getting a few of her non-used toys (that were free anyway) out of her room and giving them away or selling them to a kids shop down here for a few bucks to make up for the space.

I also found out in the progress of looking around on Amazon that they have a Black Friday sale (what?!?!) and that starts Monday. So, if you are planning to do any of your shopping online, check out pricing this next week on Amazon and other sites. I never woulda thought they'd do black friday sales online but they do so that's really cool -- you get all the pricing benefits of the internet and black friday but none of the waiting in line at those stores or the rushes or crazy people beating eachother for the last hot item. Its funny that I'm plugging the net stores right now because Brent and I have pretty much decided that's why the economy is doing so poorly but whatever - it's cheaper, right? lol. So, I am getting online this next week and ordering a few of my gifts for Brent at the discounted rates instead of waiting closer to Christmas, paying more and all that stuff. I'll blog about how much I save and what I get at what price or whatever (well the non-Brent stuff because he reads this blog so I can't exactly list it all lol)