Cory

I had my doctor's appointment this morning. He's a little over 6 pounds now, so that puts him around 9 pounds at birth. We also saw that he is no longer breech (yay! no c-section!) and that he's breathing the amniotic fluid, which means that his lungs should be good and strong! It was all good news! The only bad part of the appointment was when I almost passed out... Cory likes to position himself on my right side, which cuts off my blood flow. Usually when this happens I just lay on my left side and push him over until I stop seeing spots and can breath ok. But the doctor was pushing the baby even further right so she could check everything on the ultrasound... and I was on my back, not my left side. She had to stop the ultrasound for a few minutes so I could turn over and breath! It was not pleasant! All in all, though, it was a good visit!

Baby News

I received the cloth diapers today. I'm pretty excited about them... but we'll see how excited I am when I have to actually wash them. I struggle to keep up with laundry as it is. But this would really help us save some money!

I've been asked what exactly pre-folds and snap covers are. Here ya go:

The big square on top is the pre-fold opened up. It's pretty thick so I think it'll hold everything well. On the bottom left is the snap-on cover all snapped up, then the cover without the pre-fold and then the cover with the pre-fold. So it's pretty much like disposal diapering now, only with snaps instead of Velcro. No pins and folding!! Just pull out the pre-fold and put in a new one. You don't even need to switch out the cover.

I would've normally cropped my belly out of the picture, but these diapers ARE for Baby Cory... so I left it in there!

Here's a close up of the cover all snapped up. Simple enough!

I have another doctor's appointment tomorrow. She's doing another Ultrasound to check his position... we're praying he isn't breech!! I'll almost be 37 weeks tomorrow so he'll only have about 2 more weeks to turn on his own if he isn't. He'll be cutting it short, but I have hope!

Shopping!

I finally broke down and did some fall/winter shopping for the kids. Fortunately we can combine our fall/winter clothes around here since the two seasons sorta blur together until sometime in February or March. But... shopping for 3 now!! Good gracious! Thank goodness we'll be getting some hand me downs from Cousin Tyler! I didn't have to buy as many warm jammies as I thought I would.

The first thing on our list to buy was a Halloween costume for Baby Cory. I wasn't going to get him anything for Halloween but when we were shopping for Nora's costume she insisted that we find something for Baby Cory, too. The kids decided that he should be a tiger... it was between a pea pod, a tiger and a dalmatian. The tiger is really just footed jammies made from a tiger print, so he'll be able to wear them past Halloween. (Nora, by the way, is going to be Rapunzel and Collin is going to be a Texans football player.)

All the kids got various fall/winter play clothes and church clothes. Here are two of Nora's dresses-- The first one is her Thanksgiving/Christmas dress and the second one is her winter coat that came with a matching dress.

And then I got all of the kids Big/Little Sister/Brother shirts. I could have bought a different one for Buddy so that the boys weren't matching, but I thought the camo ones were fitting!

I still need to buy a few things for Buddy but I can get them cheaper at Wal-mart. I'm relieved to have most of it done, though. And I'm relieved that I won't need to buy them anything for our trip to Florida. We have plenty of stuff leftover from summer for them! Oh, and I'm also grateful that Ms. Ashley came with us! It was nice having an extra set of hands with the kids!

A Princess Party

Nate and Heather's niece, Izzy, had her 5th birthday party on Saturday. It was a princess party which Nora, of course, loved. She got to make a crown and was given a wand! We had to leave a little bit early so Michael could get to work, but she had a good time! And, as you can see, she LOVES the wand... she's playing with it right now. She's already turned me into a horse and a flower with her magic wand. She's amazing!

Yummy Food, Crazy Kids

I tried to get some good pictures of the kids playing but they were running all over the place! I finally gave up even trying. I also couldn't get any of the adults... they were too busy eating and visiting and wouldn't pay attention that I was taking pictures. So most of the pictures have people with food halfway in their mouths or with their mouths open to talk! I didn't think anyone would appreciate me posting those!

Thanks, again, Ms. Vicki for the great food! And for sending some home with us!

(P.S. Buddy just came over and saw these pictures. When I asked him if he remembered playing at Ms. Vicki and Mr. Mike's house he said, "James. Buddy scared." Crazy kid.)

Heard in the Car... and a couple other things

We were stopped behind a white truck and, as usual, Buddy was telling me to "go, Mama! go!"
Me: We can't go, Buddy.
Nora: Ya, there's a truck in our way.
Buddy: Go! GOOOOOOOOOO!
Nora: We can't bump into them without asking first.
Me: Ummmmmm

Someone's gonna have to explain that to her before she starts driving!

After my doctor's appointment on Thursday I went to get my hair cut. I went to Master Cuts where Ashley just got a really cute cut. It's also where I took Nora. I went in and asked for it to be shortened and layered. About halfway through the cut she started saying things like, "are you sure you don't want it stacked?" and "you have these crazy waves that I don't know what to do with". Ok, first of all I specifically said I didn't want it stacked. Second of all... what do you mean you don't know what to do with it? I looked at the back of my hair and saw these crazy waves. I don't have wavy hair! I have know idea what she did! So she started in on the stacking thing and I agreed to have it stacked thinking that at least I'd have a decent hair cut even if it isn't what I want. Um, ya. She did NOT stack it. I ended up with a cross between a modern mullet and a Carol Brady shag. It was awful!! I got out as quickly and possible and started trying to figure out what the heck I was gonna do! I tried to fix the waves at home but not even the straightner could fix it! And the mullet part... agghhh!! Last night we had a friend and family get-together where I was able to horrify everyone with my new hair-do. I knew at that point that SOMETHING had to be done. But do I let it grow and then try again? Or cut it again now knowing that it'll have to be pretty short? I asked Heather about a different cut and she thought it would work. So I went to the salon that she goes to and came out a happy lady!! It's not a cut that I would normally ask for but it's very cute and it's 100x better than that mullet/shag that I had before. I don't have any before pictures of the bad cut, but here's a picture that I took tonight of my new cut:

On yet another note-- we looked at a couple more houses today. One is already out of the running but the other one is a possibility. They are in a new subdivision that is still building homes and the builders are getting ready to build 4 new houses next month... we might possibly buy one of those. We still have some questions to ask and decisions to make, so we'll see where this takes us.

Baby Stuff

I finally ordered the cloth diapers today. I went with the Econobums because, as the name suggests, they are the most economical. It cost $48 for 3 covers, 12 prefolds and a wetbag. Other brands sell for about double that. They don't have the pretty designs on the covers that the more expensive ones have but I'm not too concerned about that!

(In case anyone is interested, here's a link to the diapers I bought: http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_info.php?cPath=138&products_id=2533)

Now I need to get Michael to take a look at the toilet and see if he can hook up a sprayer for me. You can buy them for about $60 but I'd rather see if Michael can make one before we spend that kind of money!

We also got our Moses Basket this week! That was our baby gift from Mom and Dad. We used my mom's old Moses Basket for Nora and Collin but by the time Collin was too big for it we really couldn't use it for another baby! It was used for 4 babies, so I think it was time for a new one! The one from Mom and Dad is very nice... and it has green bedding in it. We can switch it out with the yellow bedding from the old Moses Basket so we don't have to buy any extra.

Now we just have to get the car seat. We'll probably go buy that sometime next week. We'll be getting this one: http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2919722

It's the most expensive car seat we've bought, but since we're skipping the infant carrier this time around and since the church in West Columbia gave us some money for baby gear, we decided to go ahead and spend the extra money. It reclines, which will be nice for long car trips, and it goes all the way from infant seat to booster seat. So hopefully we won't have to buy him another car seat.

After we get the car seat I think we're good to go! We still have the cradle, swing, play pen, etc from before. I also think we're pretty good clothes-wise. I was concerned since Cory is gonna be a fall baby but I've picked up a few things for him, as have Nana and Grandma (of course!) so we should be good to go! Now we just wait on Baby Cory to arrive! :)

Pre-School

Nora is doing really well with pre-school. I was going to take pictures with my good camera this morning but the batteries are dead. Instead, I decided to take some with my phone camera. They aren't as good but you can still get the picture... heheh. Get it? Get the picture WITH a picture? OK. Sorry. Moving on...

Oh, she wanted to do her school work on the floor today. Normally we're at the table, but I don't really care where she does it. I'm just glad she likes doing it!

Thanks to Aunt Shelley we have this really cool writing tablet from A Beka. So everyday, after we're done learning how to write a new letter, we're able to go back and practice some of the old ones. Not only does that reinforce the previous letters it allows us to practice the sound of the letters over and over. The first couple of weeks doing this was a bit rough, but after I started pairing it with more phonics computer games (the kid LOVES computer games) she started catching on. She now knows the sounds for the first 10 letters that we've learned to write (Kumon doesn't do letters in alphabetical order... it sorts them by how they are written. Our first letters were L, T, H because they all have easy to write vertical and horizontal lines.) I don't know how quickly kids are supposed to pick these up but I'm happy with where she is. We'll be able to go back over sounds when we start on the lower case letters. Hopefully by then she'll know them all.

Her counting is getting better, too. Now instead of the numbers after 12 being "fourteen, fourteen, fourteen" she remembers thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. We're working our way up to 20 in her Kumon book.

Her favorite activity is still the prompt and draw journal. Today she was asked to draw Nana's garden. She drew vegetables, seeds, flowers and even the dock and Pawpaw's boat! But she never wants to stop drawing in her journal.... she insists on drawing the beach and ocean pretty much everyday!

Buddy is learning his colors, numbers and shapes... but it's hit and miss. He doesn't have a great attention span so we just do his 'school' when he feels like it. So far he knows blue, green, yellow, orange and circle. He can also count to thirteen. And sometimes he 'accidently' picks up on some of the letters and Bible verses that Nora is learning.

Thanks, Honey

I posted this first picture on Facebook last week ( I think it was last week) and bragged about how Michael picked out this shirt (and 2 other shirts) for me. Most of my maternity clothes are too small at this point (I've actually boxed up most of my maternity clothes) but I felt that I was too close to my due date to buy anything new. But while I was at the church cleaning and getting ready for the anniversary service he took the kids and picked out the new shirts. I don't have any pictures of the other shirts but they are also very cute!

And this is Ashley and me goofing around... I don't think she could get her tummy out as big as mine even if she were pregnant- she's so tiny!

Some Home Time

We're finally getting some time to just be home this week. The week before last we were running crazy with the house stuff. And then last week I was sick and then had the wedding stuff. But this week we finally get some days to stay home and catch up on stuff! I finally got around to shampooing the carpet and washing all the sheets, blankets and pillow cases. I also got a chance to clean out the pantry and re-organize the desk in the kitchen. We also finally got a wall mount for our TV (we found a cheap one at sams)... no more worrying about the little monster breaking the TV! Now I just have to get some wall mount shelves for the playstation and surround sound (although I'm trying to talk Michael into boxing up the surround sound for now... he isn't going to put the wires behind in the walls in this house and I don't want wires running all over the place). I still need to do some organizing in my bedroom and closet but I think I'll put my feet up for a couple of hours this afternoon and do some reading for my thesis... I started swelling on Friday and I haven't had a chance to just stop and try to get the swelling to go down. I don't want to go to my doctor's appointment on Thursday this swollen!

A Tantrum in the Sand

 Nora was trying to help him... but he decided a trantrum was needed at that particular moment and no amount of coaxing could change his mind.

Big Sister

Nora just came into my room, apologized for being soooo late and told me that she dropped Buddy off at Nana's house and the baby off at Grandma's house. I hope they were prepared for the company!

Lots of Sand

For some reason this trip to the beach was a VERY sandy one. The kids were covered in it. They always make sand castles but this time they seemed to have rolled around in it!

More Pictures

I do have more new pictures but Nora is hogging the big computer... so I'll have to wait until later to post them. And by later I mean tomorrow.  I'll be getting supper together soon and then I have to go to the wedding rehearsal tonight at 7. But I don't have to go up to the church tomorrow until sometime around lunch. Tomorrow morning I'll be juicing 35 lemons and getting the stuff for the apple cider together. At least my kitchen will smell good!

Oh, and I had another doctor's appointment this morning. She thinks that Cory might have turned but we won't know for sure until she does an ultrasound. So I go back next week for a regular check up and then a week later for the ultrasound. If Cory hasn't turned then she'll try to manually turn him when I reach 39 weeks. If, at that point, he still won't turn then she'll schedule me for a c-section that week. Hopefully he has turned and it won't be a problem! Another high point-- I lost 4 pounds so I didn't get into trouble! That puts me back at 22 pounds gained, which is just about where she wants me at this point. :)

A Beach Day in September

We're fortunate enough to be able to go to the beach even in September around here. The days are still very hot and humid and a beach day is the perfect solution!

I have new pictures

but they are on the other computer. And I am in bed. Sick. It's annoying to be sick when you have two kids to keep up with. I could probably get up and make my way to the other computer to upload a few but Nora has been playing on it. I don't usually let her play on the computer for this long but I don't have the energy to entertain her with anything else. Or to deal with a bored, cranky kid. Buddy was pretty cranky this morning... and then he was needy. But I got him lunch and then sherbet so he's a happy camper right now. Hopefully he'll nap pretty soon... and stay asleep until Michael gets home. That sounds awful but my stomach hurts so bad right now and anytime I get up I end up getting even more nauseous.

I'm praying that it won't last long and I'll be back to normal by tomorrow morning. The wedding is this week and, starting Wednesday, I have a lot to do. Being sick isn't on my to do list!

Siblings

Not Meant to Be

After a roller coaster ride with this house the past couple of days we've decided not to go forward with it. To make a looooooong story short-- there are just too many obstacles and repairs that are hindering our way forward. We both feel that the door on this house has been closed. We're disappointed, but we don't want to buy something that we'll later regret.

So what's next? We're not sure. I suppose we'll keep looking, but with the baby coming so soon I'm not sure if now is a good time for us jump into something else. God has been good to give us this great rental house so we'll just stay put for a little while longer. Or, perhaps, for a good while longer! We'll just have to wait and see what God sends us.

Inspections!

The inspections on the house are today at 1pm. Hopefully all goes well! I spent the morning running around dropping off checks and paperwork. Now the kids and I are back home waiting for Michael to get home... he's coming home early so he can be at the house for the inspections. I am looking forward to seeing the house again. We've only seen it once and there are a few details that I can't remember. Imagine that... I forgot something! Heh.

The kids did well with our errands this morning. After having such a cranky week last week I was afraid that I'd have my hands full this morning. But they were great! Hopefully that means they are feeling better. And hopefully their good moods last all day.

Another Dr's Appointment

I just got back from an appointment where I had an ultrasound. Good news- Baby Cory is doing great! Bad news- he's in a breech position. There's still time for him to flip around but he's already pretty big (his head measured 35 weeks and I'm only 33 weeks and he's 5lbs, 4oz-- which means we're looking at birthweight of around 9lbs, 4oz). If he gets too big too fast then there won't be room for him to move. While I can't help that he has a large bone structure I can help him not too put on too much chunky weight. So no more carbs for me! :( I've already cut back on my carbs but apparently not enough. I only have 7 weeks left, though, so I can manage it!

If the baby doesn't turn then the doctor will try to manually turn the baby. And if that doesn't work then I'll have to have a c-section. It can be dangerous to try to normally deliver a breech baby that is over 8lbs... and this baby will definitely be over 8lbs! We're praying that he turns on his own before that has to happen, though. I, of course, do not want a c-section!

Crazy Day

The day went from bad, to good, back to bad, to worse, then to great, better, a little worse and then back to better. I'm exhausted from the ups and downs. And from the house cleaning. I'm only about half way through with the house cleaning. Ugh. But the guest room and extra bathroom are ready for Grandma and Grandpa-- and that's what really matters! The rest of the stuff will get done. Hopefully!

Basically the downs were cranky, sick, tantrum throwing kids and a very messy house (I've been swollen and tired this week so the bare minimum has been done as far as house cleaning goes). The kids have drippy noses and hoarse throats. And we HAD to go to the grocery store (I've been putting it off all week but since I refuse to grocery shop on Fridays and Saturdays we had to go today). We only had one complete meltdown in the store, though, and a very kind grocery sacker came to the rescue!

The ups included finally getting the contract back from the bank, a visit from Nana and Pawpaw, getting the inspectors scheduled for Tuesday at 1pm and a 2 year old who is FINALLY napping! He has skipped naps all week. And he has woken up in the middle of the night all week. I guess he was getting sick and the symptoms just showed up today.

So now Nora is doing school (since we had to shop this morning). She's making a Creation Collage. And I'm over-seeing the work while blogging and checking out the recipe for tonight's supper (Trenette with Eggplant and Basil Pesto). Did I tell y'all about last night's recipe? It was veggie soup. SPICY veggie soup. I ate leftovers for lunch... mmmmm!

Mmmm... Eggplant

We once again enjoyed some fresh veggies from Mom's garden. This time it was eggplant! I've only cooked eggplant once before- and it was a while ago- so I was anxious to try it again. But I had to figure out a way to cook it so the family would eat it. Since Michael likes chicken parmigiana I thought maybe he'd like eggplant parmigiana. I made some chicken and eggplant so he'd for sure have something to eat! He gave the eggplant a 'fine' rating because of the consistency and the chicken received a 'very good' rating. My mom told me a way to make the eggplant have a meatier consistency so I'm gonna try that next time.

On a side note, our rating system is very important around here. If it were up to Michael everything would just be 'fine'... how was the burger? fine. did you like that soup? it was fine. In my world, fine means "I ate it but I'd rather have something else". Once I realized that Michael wasn't dissing all my cooking and it was just a misunderstanding of adjectives I made our rating system. So-so = it was edible; Fine= better than edible but don't fix it too much; Good = I enjoyed it and would like to eat it again; Very Good = I loved it and you can fix it anytime you want.

Now that you understand our oh-so-important rating system, here's the recipe I used:

•1 large firm eggplant
•3 large eggs
•Salt and freshly ground black pepper
•4 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs
•1/2 cup olive oil, approximately
•1 cup part-skim Mozzarella, shredded
•2 cups prepared marinara sauce, warm

Directions

Slice the eggplant crosswise about 1/4 to 3/8-inch thick - make slices as consistent as possible. If the base of the eggplant is very large, cut it in half lengthwise. Soak the sliced eggplant in a large bowl of warm, salted water for 1 to 2 hours. Make sure the eggplant is completely submerged in the salt water.

Scramble the 3 eggs with salt and pepper to make an egg wash. Remove eggplant slices from the salt bath, shake off excess moisture, and dip into egg wash. Then dip the eggplant slices, 1 at a time, into a flat plate filled with seasoned bread crumbs, covering all surfaces, and set aside. Continue breading the eggplant until all slices are done. Discard excess egg wash and bread crumbs.

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan and allow it to heat up. (Add more oil as necessary during cooking.)

Add the breaded eggplant slices to the pan, cover and cook until you begin to see the eggplant become translucent, about 5 minutes. If it begins to burn, lower heat and allow it to cook slowly. Using a large spatula, turn eggplant onto the other side and cook 1 to 2 more minutes.

When eggplant is completely cooked, remove from frying pan and place onto paper towels to blot any excess oil.

As you can see it's just an Eggplant Parmigiana recipe, but I used the same amount of egg and bread crumbs and was also able to make 2 chicken breasts (I also used 2 eggplants instead of just 1). It had a great flavor and was very crispy... I'm not into soggy parmigiana. My mom suggests not doing a salt bath, but instead layering the slices of eggplant into a colander and covering each layer with salt. It will drain out a lot of the moisture and take out some of the bitterness of the eggplant.
 
For the marinara sauce I used my tomato basil soup recipe and added tomato paste until it was thick enough. Yum, yum!

Preschool

We started preschool on Monday. It takes us about 2.5 hours to finish everything. So far she has had no problems sitting at the table for that amount of time. We do lots of different activities so she doesn't just sit there and listen to me teach for 2.5 hours! After we're done at the table she gets on the computer to play alphabet and counting games. She does very well on the computer... most of the time I can't get on the 'big' computer because she's playing her games. Maybe for her birthday next year we'll get her a little computer of her own!

One of the things we do each day is prompt and draw in her journal (as you can see, she decorated her journal with princess stickers). It's a precursor to regular journaling-- since she can't write yet I give her a topic and have her draw things about that topic. The first day we did A Day at the Beach and yesterday we did My Favorite Things to Eat. She gets very excited about her journal!

Buddy likes to sit at the table with us. Well, on Monday he did more tantrum throwing on the floor than sitting at the table, but he was better yesterday. I have simple worksheets for him, too, when he feels like doing school with us. He's learning his shapes and colors... this week it's the color blue!