Sentimental or Hormonal????

So I am either really sentimental or my hormones still aren't quite back to normal...and here's why...

Today Tanis & Shaylyn had their recital (more on that in the coming day or two). There was a duet dance performance with the name of "Two Little Sisters". I had never heard the song before, but the words really struck a chord with me, especially the chorus. I actually started tearing up, how silly is that? *FYI - the song & lyrics can be found below...*

Maybe the reason for that is because I feel so blessed for my sisters. I have 2, and while they aren't both younger than me - the song still applies. I could have been emotional because my older sister actually made the drive out here to support my kids and I knew my little sister would have been there if she hadn't been moving.

My older sister and I really didn't get along growing up as we were very, very different. But, as we've gotten older we've put our differences behind us and have learned to love each other for who each of us it and to embrace our common interests.

My little sister is honestly one of my best friends. We are alike in many ways - our hubbies even have very similar personalities. Even though there is a 10 year age difference, I don't feel it...Maybe that is because we shared a room for many, many years.

I was also blessed with a terrific sister in law, who doesn't even need the in law part added. She is a good friend as well.

So here's to my sisters! Thanks for it all!!!

* I apologize about the video. I tried many, many times - unsuccessfully - to get only the song to play, but it wouldn't. So I made a quick vid of some pics of me & my sisters to go with the song. You don't have to watch the video at all and the pictures repeat a few times. This was the only work around I could figure out so you readers could hear the song. *

TWO LITTLE SISTERS - Carly Simon

Two little sisters gazing at the sea
Imagining what their futures will be.
The older one says as her eyes looked around
I will go as far as the corners of the town
I'll plant a little garden flowers everywhere.
And pluck the most fragrant for my hair

Two little sisters gazing at the sea
Imagining what their futures will be
The younger one stands with her eyes open wide
And says I'll go as far as the corners of the sky
I'll gather all the stars each night as they appear
And pick the very brightest one to wear in my ear.

I didn't choose you
And you didn't choose me
I didn't choose you
Who would guess we're from the same family

But what will you do when the nights get cold
When the stars grow dim and your dreams seem old
What you gonna do when winter calls
And your flowers fall from the garden walls

I'll come home to you
You'll come home to me
My love will be your remedy
I'll choose you
And you'll choose me
We'll be two daughters dancing
By the edge of the sea

What Happens Next...

The Hardy Family & the Wild Thursday

You know how every once in awhile you end up having a jam packed day? Thursday was just that sort of day for us.

Tanis (and all the rest of the 2nd grade) had a dance festival thing at school that started at 10. This meant I had to get 4 people ready & out the door by about 9:30 if I wanted a seat. This was difficult as I got a late start that morning because our sweet Nate only allowed me 4 hours of sleep the previous night. However, we got out the door at a quarter to and still got a fairly good seat. I was pleased that the dance (from Germany) Tanis' class did made them go around in a circle, so I could get pictures & a small video of it.

After the dance performance, we headed to the school library where they were having a buy one, get one free book fair. So just as we are trying to leave a 5th or 6th grade class came in and talk about chaos...I'm glad we got out of there as quickly as we did.

We then head home so that I can straighten the house and get some lunch for Lex & Shaylyn before Shaylyn had to head to school. I finish all of that around 1:30 and decide I am going to rest a bit before we had to head to our next adventure.

It starts raining horribly around 3 or so and I knew I would have to go pick the kids up from school to get them ready. They had pictures for their singing and dance classes. Tanis' were at 4:20 and Shaylyn's at 5. It takes us about 15 minutes or so to get to the dance studio where they were doing the pictures at. I really didn't have a lot of time to do Shaylyn's hair, but figured I could just redo it the same way at the studio while we waited for her class. Tanis got ready quickly and I had to quickly comb his hair down, then I realized Lex needed a clean diaper. AHH! So after leaving 5 or 10 minutes later than I wanted, I was stressing. I didn't want Tanis to miss his class picture. Luckily for us we got there just in time (even though we were late) and his teacher was kind of keeping track of who was there and had the photographer do all the individual pictures first. I was able to relax a bit after that while we just waited for Shaylyn's time slot. Both kids posed so cute and I can't wait to see the pics.

After pictures it was time to head home to have a quick dinner before heading off to our next adventure. Eric decided he really wanted to see Indiana Jones that night and we figured we'd just take the kids. We didn't leave quite when we wanted to, and got to the theater with only 5 minutes to spare.

We park the car and as we are getting out a girl says to us, "Something happened in the theater and they are evacuating everyone." I don't know if she is being funny or what so we still just head to the theater doors and see TONS of people just standing around. Then a fire truck comes along. We hear that we just have to get the okay from the firemen before we can enter the building. After a half hour wait we are finally able to get into the theater. I am not positive what happened, but because of it we didn't miss our movie.

Right when we got in there it was time for Nate to eat, so I fed him and then just held him for awhile. He did okay for a bit, but then got restless. All he wanted was to move around, so I spent a good part of the movie walking around the theater to keep him calm. After my legs could take no more (I am a bit worried about them as they seem very weak after sitting or standing for any length of time) I head back into the movie. Nate does well for a bit longer, but gets restless again. This time Eric is kind enough to take him down to the entrance (where Eric can still see the end of the movie) and walk with him. Nate was never crying loudly or anything - he just wouldn't be still in our arms. So our view of Indiana Jones? It was okay, but nothing like the 3 previous ones.

Next we head home, but I need Eric to stop at Smith's because we needed formula and my lips needed chapstick badly! I hurry through the store to get those few items and head to self-checkout. After trying my debit card 3 times without it getting authorized (no idea why) I finally just use the credit card...We finally get home and get a good night's sleep. Yah for me, I really needed it.

Here's hoping another day like that doesn't come around again anytime soon...Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend!

What Happens Next...

Ode To My Cricut

I am not talking about those black, or green, or whatever color those insects are. No, I am talking about THIS cricut. Familiarize yourself with this now - BEFORE reading on... :D

For my birthday in 2006, all I wanted was a Cricut. I figured Eric could get together with his parents and mine, then the price wouldn't be so bad. However, Eric purchased it on his own. I was so excited to have it, but I knew it was one of those purchases we probably shouldn't have made. Oh well - on to my story!

Fast forward to last week...I am trying to find something for Mother's Day gifts, and had an idea in mind. So I travel the 30 minutes or so that it takes to get to the nearest Roberts Arts & Crafts in search of the items I would need. I was sad to discover that they didn't have the main component. I walk around the store trying to find another idea and run across the fact that the cricut has vinyl! I was so excited and knew immediately what to do.

The picture below is of the finished product. I took unfinished frames, painted them, added the vinyl lettering to it and finally the pictures. I have many more ideas in mind for this vinyl as well. I forgot to take the picture before I wrapped my mom's and Eric's mom's, so it is just the ones I did for the grandma's. I am a bit frustrated about that because I liked the way Eric's mom's turned out best.

In other news, we are teaching Nathaniel about baseball early! It all started with Grandma & Grandpa H. giving him a cute little "ball" outfit when he was born - size Newborn... Then a few weeks ago MY aunt & uncle (who really have no idea how fanatic Eric's family is about baseball) gave Nathaniel a cute little bear that plays the song, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." This kid is going to know the song long before he attends his first game - which will hopefully be this summer!

The other day, I had Nathaniel lying down on the floor and had his bear in his eyesight. He had lots of fun swatting at it and of course, as I take the pictures he decides to spit up. So I apologize for the spit up in the picture, but you can see how much fun he is having with his new bear. :D

What Happens Next...

Just A Few Things...

Though most of you may already be aware, (seeing as how you are reading this) I changed the "location" of my blog. For whatever reason while I was hosting it through the family website I had some people who had issues with it. One person couldn't even get to the blog and another told me they weren't able to leave a comment, thus the reason for the change. Hopefully this change will help.

Now onto more "interesting" items.

I enjoy candles and a few years ago my Mother in Law got me one of those candle warmer things to use with my candles. I never really had trouble with it and even decided to buy another one so that I would have one to use in the bathroom and in the main area of the home.

A few months ago, however, disaster struck. I had purchased a cheap (yes, I will admit it - I was being cheap) candle from Smith's. You know the kind I am talking about - the no name brand, one that barely has any scent to it at all...Anyway, so I used it for a few days.

Then one Sunday afternoon Eric and I were watching some TV (which is in a different room) and the kids were playing. We came into the main area of the home after we were done watching TV to find wax splattered all over the wall! Automatically we assume that the kids knocked into the table it was on and just didn't want to own up to it, even after being questioned a thousand times.

So, we have wax on the wall and wherever else it ended up splattering, but figure it's no big deal we can clean it off easy. The next day I turn the candle on again and guess what the wax splatters all over the wall AGAIN. I then realized it wasn't the kids that did it, it was the stupid candle.

We tried everything we could think of to get the wax off of the walls, but nothing we did seemed to work at all. Then I heard someone say to try using an iron and a brown paper bag. This person was not speaking directly to me, but to someone else who had some wax stuck on her kitchen floor or something. I figured I would give it a try, but never got around to it.

My Mother-In-Law has tried a few things as well to get the wax off of the wall, but nothing that people suggested to her worked either. Somehow, while I was in the hospital with the baby, my mom suggested trying the iron and paper bag thing as well.

So, a couple days after we return from the hospital, my Mother-in-Law comes over to clean the house a bit, feed us dinner and to get the wax off of the wall. Seriously - she told me one of her main goals that day was to get the wax off of the wall! She tries the iron and paper bag thing and it works okay, but not great. But, being the smart person she is she decides to use the iron with the blue shop towel things. That worked great! It got all of the wax off and we now have a nice, clean wall again!



Just a tip for anyone with these nice candle warmer things...I would only use them with "brand" name candles. I have never had a problem with Salt City Candles exploding on me - even after leaving them on overnight...(I don't leave them on purposely, I just forget things)

As for adjusting to life with a newborn, it hasn't been too bad. Nate is such a good baby and last night was the first night he actually woke up every 2 hours to eat. Before that he would go a good 4 hours before waking up. While I miss my sleep, it is those late night/early morning feedings I love the most. Everything is quiet and it is just me and the baby - nothing else to worry about and my attention can be placed on just him.

The day to day schedule is getting better daily, we just have to keep at it. Time usually finds me scrambling to get in the shower and get ready in time to get Shaylyn to school. Lucky for us, Nate has a second sense about when we need to leave someone and wakes up to eat at the right moment, so that we are not late. Such a good baby - I am sure that will probably change though.

I feel so very blessed for my children. I just keep hearing all these sad stories about pregnancies ending badly and lots of miscarriages happening. I am just so thankful that I have been "lucky" enough to have my 4 children without any complications.

Anyway that's it for today...

What Happens Next...

He's Here!!!

Just want to let all of you know that baby #4 finally made his appearance, even if we did make him come. ;)

Anyway, so here is the story...

We were scheduled for an induction Friday, April 18th, but we didn't have a time as the hospital just calls when they are ready for you to come in.

We were told if we hadn't heard anything by 10 to call, so at 10:30 I called to see where things were. I was told that it was a crazy morning and lots of people had come in with natural labor so they had to still wait. She told me that if I hadn't heard anything by 2:00 to call back.

Eric and I decide to head to my sisters place to wait - just so that we would be close to the hospital when they called us in. 2:00 rolls around and we hear nothing. So, I call the hospital back. This time the lady tells me they still haven't slowed down and things were still crazy, but my doctor said that he was willing to deliver this baby at any time. I said okay and told the lady to call me back when she knew more.

The hours passed and we weren't hearing anything. I wasn't sure I could handle it if they called back and said, we can't do it tonight. Finally around 6:30 the lady calls back and says that she is ready for us. YEA!

So we say goodbye to the older kids and head into the hospital. They are still kinda crazy busy, but we get all in and settled by 7:30. Our nurses show up around 7:45 and explain that they are getting one lady cleaned up, but then they would be in with us.

Around 8:00 they come in and get more in depth info about me and stuff relating to the pregnancy. Finally around 9:00 they start me on the Pitocin to get this labor started and then they go to call the dr. to see what to do about breaking my water. My dr. decides to just have the resident break my water and so my water doesn't get broken until about 10:00 because the resident was crazy busy as well.

So, I deal through the contractions (I decided no epidural on this one) and around midnight I am asking myself why in the world did I decide to do this naturally??? This is a thought that occurs to me plenty before the baby is born.

Finally around 1:00 I am having pain that is very painful. I know it is too late for any pain meds or anything, and I am almost crying with every contraction I had. I wish I had a stronger threshold for pain, but I think I did okay considering. My dr. arrives shortly after 1 and watches my contractions and my reactions to them for a few minutes. He then figures out that it is time.

So after 3 or 4 pushes (let's face it, I wasn't really paying attention to the number) #4 is finally here!

Born at 1:20 A.M. was Nathaniel Eric and he weighed in at 6 lbs. 11 oz., and was 20 inches long.

What Happens Next...

Proof Positive...

So, this is just to prove that I haven't been sitting around twiddling my thumbs EVERY day. I will admit, I do sit around a lot as I seem to have no energy, but yesterday it wasn't the case.

Because of all the craziness last week I missed some emails from members of the Enrichment Committee, where they chose what they wanted to take on for our upcoming activity. So, my project got chosen for me.


Lucky for me, however, one thing that wasn't chosen was the posters for church. This is something I could actually handle. It took me a couple of days to figure out what I wanted to do and how I wanted it to look. But once I figured that out - I was set.


It is in no way original or anything, but I did it. And I know it doesn't look like it, but it took me about 3 hours to complete. That is usually how things go for me though. Anyway, here is the finished product. I should mention that I actually had to make 2 and maybe that is why it took 3 hours. :D

What Happens Next...

A Lesson on Patience & Heartbreak

Okay, so I totally admit it. I am not a patient person at all. I am probably one of the very least patient people I know...That being said I have had a very hard time waiting on this baby. Keep in mind that Tanis was 4 weeks early, Shaylyn 3 weeks early and Lex 2 weeks early.
Rewind to last Wednesday, April 9th. I wasn't quite to my 38th mark (that would happen on Friday) but ended up with contractions every 5 minutes and they were very painful. I waited an hour and a half with having them before I told Eric to come home.
Eric arrives home and I've still been having them. So, we get everything packed up (including a bunch of stuff for the kids for 2 days) and head to the hospital. We had to stop and the school and pick up Tanis and I was still having contractions. During the drive to the hospital the contractions hadn't stopped, but I kinda stopped keeping track of how frequently they were coming.
We arrive at the hospital and I get all set up to be monitored to see what is going on. Eric's dad came and got the kids for us and we were in for the long haul. The nurse came to check every hour on me and the contractions weren't doing A THING!
The nurse gave me the options of hanging out for another hour to see if anything would happen, taking a walk to see if that changed anything or just to go home. After she left the room I broke down in tears. I pretty much knew we weren't going to have this baby. It was a total of 5 hours of contractions that did nothing.
After the nurse came back after the hour we asked her to see what the dr. would say. Eric explained that the same kind of thing happened with Shaylyn, but the dr. just started us. So after she went and called the dr. she came back and told us that they would have kept us and the dr. would have started us, but they didn't have any rooms available for "elective" things. But, that they had an induction set up for us on Friday morning at 6:00. This was okay. I wasn't as upset knowing that there was an end in sight.
Eric didn't want to take any chances of me actually going into labor and us being at home, so far away from the hospital, so we made plans to stay Wednesday night and his parents home and Thursday night at my parent's.
Thursday came and I spent a nice day with Eric's mom. She is just amazing! We went to a few stores and then back to the house while she prepared dinner and I tried to keep the kids from driving her insane.
About 4:00 I get a call from the hospital verifying information for the induction planned for the next day. She asks a bunch of questions and finally gets to the insurance. When I tell her what insurance I have she tells me they don't accept it! She is a very kind lady and volunteers to call the dr's office to see what to do next.
The next call I get is from a nurse in the dr's office. She is kind of snide and says, "You can't have the baby there, because they don't take your insurance." DUH! We already figured this out. Then she tells me that the dr. probably told me to go to that hospital cause the last insurance card they have from me is from 2006. That right there is off - they have been billing the RIGHT insurance company for everything, so they must have the right info somewhere, right?
Anyway, she then tells me she will call the dr. to see what he wants to do as he wasn't in the office that day. She calls back after about a half hour and tells me that they called the correct hospital for my insurance and they have an induction set for the 18th as this hospital won't do it until you are at 39 weeks.
So Thursday night I spent most of it crying. We still spent the night at my parent's house Thursday night as I just wasn't quite ready to go home. Thanks Mom & Dad for letting us crash! My mom was understanding, but laughing on the inside as well. (I was almost 2 weeks late, so she doesn't really have a lot of sympathy for me, except for the way things turned out)
Friday I kept my emotions mostly in check, thanks to my little sister being around and keeping me company. When we got home Friday though, once again I was in tears. Saturday we headed to WalMart to pick up a few things and of course you see a bunch of babies, but I was still okay.
I am still frustrated with the whole situation and trying to be patient. Waiting to see if this baby comes on his own before Friday, or if I will have to be induced. I am kind of scared to be induced, but only slightly.
Anyway, just thought I'd give you all a notice of how things are going. I will post again when this kid is born - whatever day it happens to be.

What Happens Next...