Bath Time - Fun Time

Last night was quite productive in the Vandeput household.

As I've previously mentioned, our house is in chaos. When our house is in chaos, it feels like my life is in chaos. I don't like to move as I'm too overwhelmed with the ridiculous state of my household and I just don't want to do anything as I know it's going to take a lot of work.

Well enough is enough. So I sat down and wrote a long detailed list that I could just check off throughout the next few days.

Jonathan became the world's best husband and when I got home, he already had the living room checked off (besides that i need to re-sort toys and get most of them back in Lyric's room) and the kitchen done.

I proceeded to go through and collect all excess dishes, throw away all the trash. Go through the mounds of mail, sort dirty clothes, etc.

I then proceeded to make a scrumptious meal of chicken spaghetti. Before commencing all of this, Lyric and I went down to Aunt CoCo's house because she was standing in the kitchen crying "dado" (which means CoCo) because she is used to going there directly and we deviated because I had groceries. She is quite in love with her Aunt and her cousins.

Well upon our visit, I decided to bring Kadyn home with us to entertain Lyric while Jon and I continued to cook and clean. It worked out nicely.

Then we ate and the girls got SO dirty, that I decided to give them a bath. Here is the cuteness of the bath time-fun time!





Lyric fell and bit her top lip. Look how swollen it is:


Here they are swimming (yes the floor was soaked)


So it was super cute and super fun.

Jonathan also decided to COMPLETELY rearrange our room. I don't know how much I like it, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. It just emphasised how much we need to get a bed frame (yes we are ghetto like that).

Anyways, today is my Friday as I don't work tomorrow, but it's already shaping up to be kind of stressful because the restaurant we are going to today refused to give us the back room by ourselves and we have a meeting where we need to talk, so we are going to have to be louder than normal... and of course this will be my fault, but I just now got ahold of the manager this morning to try to talk to her. But she said she could do it if we moved the lunch to after 1, which of course we can't do...

sigh.

Anyways, happy times.

I think this weekend is going to be great!

Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KORBIN!


Korbin turns 2 today and he is such a great little boy! Just ask him what a horse says and you'll be rolling with laughter :) His birthday party is Saturday, so be expecting a fun kid picture filled blog soon! :)

Ok, back to the grind!

Twilight Discussion Questions

We had our first book club meeting last night and had so much fun. It was a small group last night, but the conversation was great!

It was so interesting hearing other people's points of views, their theories and their outlooks on the novel.

I really had fun.

I didn't know what to expect because I've never been to a book club meeting before, but once we got started, it was a blast!

We had a list of questions (that I'll post here) and it just kept the discussion flowing. The only hard part was not talking too much about the other books in the series as we had a few people in the group that hasn't read them all. It was SO hard, and we let probably too many things slip out. :) oops!

We liked it so much that we want to keep meeting, even after the Twilight Series books are done. We were talking about other potential books to read... I think it's going to be a lot of fun!

I read all the time, in many different genres. Sometimes I wish so bad I had people to discuss the books with. This will be a nice outlet for me.

Anyways, here are the discussion questions we talked about. I also listed the overall basic answer to the questions (though our meeting was almost 3 hours long- so obviously there was lots of talking)

Twilight Discussion Questions:

1. What was your first impression of Twilight? Did you think that it was a good introduction to the series? Why or why not? Absolutely. It sets everything up. All the characters. Some people were hooked immediately, and some people it took until after he rescued her in the city, but we all came to the agreement that the story had us falling in love with not only Edward, but Edward and Bella's love story.

2.Did you see that Jacob would have some sort of involvement as a main character in the future? Uh YES, although some people didn't pick that up till half way through the 2nd. But just the way they introduced him, and how he kept coming back into the picture was an indicator.

3.What was your first impression of Edward and the Cullens? They seemed like they would be gothic, recluses. But when she describes them, they are stylish and beautiful. They seemed very quiet and not overly friendly. We were all immediately intrigued by them.

4. Did you find yourself able to relate to Bella in Twilight? If so, how? The basic consensus was no, however, we all found ourselves relating to her love story, which is amazing.
5. Edward and Bella are, of course, terrific characters. But the secondary characters are also great. Who is your favorite? Alice is the overwhelming favorite, followed by a close 2nd with Carlisle

6. What's the significance of the scriptural epigraph (Genesis 2:17) and the cover photo? The forbidden fruit. But the question was whether Bella is the forbidden fruit or is it Edward???

7. Did this book change your view of vampires? If so, how? Is it a positive or negative change? Absolutely, most people thought of vampires as being evil and unfriendly. With this series they take on an approachable viewpoint. (Though I always liked vampires)

8. Meyer says that the concept of "choice" is an important one to her. How does the book illustrate that concept? Everything about it is a choice. Edward is choosing to be near her, she is choosing to spend time with him, they are choosing to accept her, she is choosing (or trying to) choose to become one of them, they are choosing to love eachother, she is choosing Edward over other guys... it's all about choice.

9. Do you think that Bella is a strong or a weak woman? Is she a good role model for young women? How does she fit with your view of feminism? She is strong and a good role model in the way that she is very responsible. She loves and cares for her parents and takes on a very adult role. She seems mature beyond her years in that way. But then she is weak in the way that she does not have a very high self esteem and is constantly doubting herself and Edward's love for her. She seems so wishy-washy at times (especially in later books).

10. What about Edward as a role model for young men? He is awesome! He is a gentleman, has old world values and morals. He loves with a fierce passion and puts her needs above his own. He is caring and thoughtful. OMG, he is like the perfect man. He just happens to be a vampire :)

11. Which character (main or secondary) do you relate to most? Why?

Everyone had a different view point of this one.
12. Did the end of Twilight make you want to read New Moon? UH YES! Especially the teaser first chapter of New Moon!

So anyways, that was our take on our first book club meeting talking about book one of the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer.

Our next meeting is going to be on August 19th where we will talk about Book 2 (New Moon).

If you want to join us for our next discussion, go out, read the books and come on!!

15 Weeks

15 weeks. That sounds like a lot for some reason. I mean, I know it doesn't compare to 37 weeks, but seriously, this pregnancy is moving right along, which TOTALLY rocks.

This week has really marked the end of the nausea. I haven't thrown up in over a week. I haven't felt nauseous for quite some time. My mornings are normal mornings now.

It's been so nice to not feel like death warmed over all the time. Though the headaches have yet to subside.

My doctor suggested that I drown the headaches out with water, which I try to do. But if I drink too much water, I get sick. I think it has a lot to do with this heat. It's been over 100 degrees the last week. Just walking outside you feel like you are melting!

My stomach continues to pop out. Though I still don't feel the baby consistently moving every morning. I will feel the occasional popping or thumping, but it's still pretty random. There isn't a position I can get in where I can definitely feel him/her move. I was complaining about it last night to Jon, but then stopped myself and told Jon to remind me that I was saying this in 15 weeks, when that child won't sit still and is a few pounds and it hurts every time they roll over and I can't sleep because of the rolling, the heart burn and the constant pee'ing. He looked at me and said, "ya, I'm not going to remind you at that point." He's a smart man. He would probably get a fork in the eye.

Speaking of belly, here's the belly at 15 weeks

Funny weekly pregnancy view of week 15, click HERE

The classic version:

Although many women don't start feeling the baby move until the 17th week (or later), your baby has been having his own party in the amniotic sac he calls home. If you feel a little flutter in your belly this week, don't discount it as gas or hunger. It could be your babe banging around. Here's more to look forward to:

Baby's head is now resting on his well-formed neck instead of directly on his shoulders like Igor. He's beginning to grow eyebrows and eyelashes this week. (All the better to give you that "Mom, you're crazy" look when he's a teenager.) The hair on the head also begins to grow and, with some creative styling, you'll be able to turn those locks into a Maddox Jolie-Pitt faux-hawk some day.

Although baby's eyes are sealed shut, he's now able to sense light. His eyes and ears finally look like real baby features now. As your baby practices sucking and swallowing actions, he may actually hiccup. You'll know he's had one too many shots of amniotic fluid by the steady thump-thump you feel.

Over the next month, baby will grow faster than ever, so make sure you load up on enough nutritious food and fluids to support his growth. Your baby now measures nearly 4 inches, about the size of a Kit Kat "finger" (regular-size, not the Big one you get at the movies), and weighs almost 2 ounces.

So that's my week 15 in a nutshell. Only 3 more weeks till we find out if this baby has an innie or an outie! So excited! :)

Happy Birthday Christina!

Yesterday was Christina Smith's 29th birthday!
To celebrate a few of us, who were available last minute, decided to go to Outback to have a fun dinner. I was SO ok with that because a bloomin' onion sounded SO good to me last night.
Christina got a new camera from Aaron and Jon and I got her a memory card and a super cute camera case. She got some starbucks goodness and a haircut from Abby :)
All in all, it was a great night.
Here are a few pics:

Christina with her new camera


Some of the group


Lyric is teething, so not feeling well. So she basically sat on my lap the whole time


Which got kind of annoying


Korbin


Christina blowing out the candle


Trying to get the girls together for a group pic


The ladies


Me and the birthday girl


Good times :)

First of Many

I know, I know. I have been a horrible blogger as of late.
I can't help it! Would you like to take a look at my weekly calendar? it's nuts. I'm doing something like every night of every week.
Though I can't complain all that much because this weekend, I had my first of many long weekends. Yes that's right. My work schedule changed to 30 hours a week and now I don't work Fridays.
How amazing is that! It was so nice to fall asleep on Thursday and know that Friday morning your alarm wouldn't go off (though your 1 year old alarm and your baby dancing on your bladder would). Jon woke up when he heard the baby, I guess out of routine and got her up and fed her breakfast and I didn't wake up till after 9.
I then proceeded to do a boat load of laundry, which has hence found itself on the floor of the guest bedroom.
I also didn't get our house cleaned... and to many of you that doesn't seem that big of a deal, but we are now into the 3rd week without the floors/bathrooms being cleaned... it was not ok. But once again, we were busy all weekend.
Friday the Frederick's flew in from Cyprus to help prepare for Ryan and Tiff's wedding. We also celebrated Norm's birthday that night too.
Here are a few pics:


Praying over the birthday boy :)


Ashlyn Rose


Dad singing with the birthday pudding


Norm orchestrating his praise (please note he is not 55, but 51, however my mom could only find 2 fives)


Judah is now 6 months old, he is getting SO big!


Ry and Lyly


Maddy showing her braid


Landon, Austin and Hannah


Lynn and my mom


Court (looking oh so busty), Christina and moi!


Then on Saturday I finally cashed in on my Mother's Day present, and I got a "I survived the 1st trimester" pregnancy massage. OMG, it was glorious. I did not want it to end. I still have enough left on my gift card to get another massage, so I'm thinking I will wait till November then have a "I survived my 2nd trimester" massage. I get relaxed just thinking about it. sigh.
After that, we quickly had to leave for Ryan and Tiff's house in Dallas where they were moving in. When we got into Dallas, we discovered that 75 was shut down. So it took us forever to get to their house. Lyric was getting bored, so we stayed entertained by making silly faces.




She is getting so big!


I was of no help, but I did play house nanny (my sister and all her kids were there). We played hide and go seek and let me tell you. Lyric is the worst hider ever. She follows me and stands right in front of me smiling saying "mama" and pointing. I would be like, "go away" and she would just laugh. She totally kept giving my awesome hiding places away.
They also have a cute swing in the back that Lyric had fun on:



Sunday I actually got out in the sun for a bit. But I realized why I'm so white this summer. it's because I hate to be hot! And you can't go outside without getting hot.
We did find a way to ensure that my daughter does not drown in the pool. We put a floatie swim bathing suit on, with floaties. She resembles that kid from "A Christmas Story", you know the little brother Randy that has to wear that snow get up and he can't move or put his arms down? Ya, that's Lyric, but she has the summer version. But she doesn't go under and she can float around the pool without me holding her (or being in a floatie) which is what she wants because she thinks she's 6 and can swim by herself.

Anyways, this weekend was so nice. I can't wait to have a repeat this weekend! Working 30 hours is rockin' my world! :)

A tear jerker

Want to have a quick read that will tug at your heart strings? I found the Newborn Identity and I read the whole thing in one sitting (it's only like 7 posts). I was riveted and I totally cried.
It's about a dad's view of what it was like to have his tiny baby born 10 weeks premature, stay in the NICU and ride that horrible rollercoaster of health scares.
It's a great read.
So read it!

John and Kate Plus 8--- Evil??

Ok, I love this show, but even when watching it, I could obviously see that Kate seems to be not a nice person. Not saying I wouldn't be crazy with 8 kids also, but she has always just seemed like a sort of over the line, obsessive compulsive, very harsh lady. However, even saying that, I love the show! I just always had my questions about Kate.

Well yesterday I started hearing rumblings that a family member of John and Kate's has started a blog basically ripping Kate.
Apparently, Jodi (the sister who always keeps the kids) was not allowed to be on the show again by Kate. The word on the blog is that Kate didn't want her to get paid for being on the show as a caregiver, even though she kept the kids the most. The network offered to pay her a caregiver fee, but Kate said no one makes money off their family but them... she had been blocking a salary for Jodi for the last 2 years. And apparently Kate admitted this.

Anyways, it's an interesting read. She's only posted like 10 or so blogs
http://truthbreedshatred.blogspot.com/

Just thought I would pass along the Internet gossip! :)

Team Edward Book Club

Ok, I know you've heard me talking about it, and most of my good friends are totally hooked on the books, so the only LOGICAL progression would be to create a Team Edward Book Club where we meet to discuss the Twilight Series books!

What a great idea I know!

So this time we are calling all die hard Twilight Fans to join our book club.

This is not just to socialize, we are wanting actual discussions, so if you decide to show up and are not desperately in love with Edward Cullen (or if you are team Jacob, we will let it slide) then do not even attempt to attend :) We will see through you immediately!

So the details are as follows:

Tuesday, July 29th at 7:30 pm at Abby's house in Arlington, Texas.

Please RSVP so we can tell you what type of snacky thing/drink to bring and we are asking that no kids be present as this is a discussion group and bringing kids would just negate the possibility of you really joining in (obviously tiny nursing babies that sleep most of the time are exempt from the above stated restriction).

Email me to RSVP desandjon@gmail.com

I hope you can come, it should be a blast!

14 Weeks

Well here we are, at 14 weeks!
This week has started the morning sickness relief. I've only thrown up one time and I think that's mainly because I tried to brush my tongue one morning. I pushed my non-nauseous luck a little too far.
Still dealing with headaches every day. They normally don't last too long and I can get rid of them by eating... speaking of eating, I had my 4 month doctor appointment yesterday and guess what!? I've only gained 4lbs THE ENTIRE PREGNANCY! and only 2.5 pounds since my last weigh in almost 6 weeks ago.
OMG you have no idea how happy I was to see those numbers not jump too high. It was a definite relief, especially since I haven't been watching what I eat AT ALL.
I know this will change. I had only gained like 15 pounds before my 6th month with Lyric and managed to gain almost 30 pounds in 4 months. 9 of which were gained in a 3 week period (I cried that day- but I had just gotten back from a 7 day cruise and Thanksgiving holidays- but still.) ALL of that to say, I was very happy with this weight gain, and hope to somehow keep it up... but now I have an overwhelming desire to go to Chipotle to celebrate :)
The babies heart rate is in the 140's... I can't remember, do girls have high heart rates and boys have low?? I don't think it always works like that right? Oh, I just googled it and the old wive's tale says lower is boy, but apparently, it's a load of crap.
Baby is doing great though!
And I'm SO excited because I scheduled my sonogram! I will find out what type of anatomy Baby VDP is sportin' on August 20th!
HECK YA! Gosh that doesn't seem very far away... AHH! It's first thing in the morning, so I should have a blog posted ASAP and we will announce the chosen baby names, though we haven't for sure settled on the boys full name, we definitely know what the girl's name is. Except last night I heard a name that I thought was really cool for a boy, so now we are considering if we should go through with our first name for a boy... but I think we are.
Anyways, here is my favorite site's week 14 update.

And here is the classic one:

Think of it this way: You're a third of the way through and baby's a third of the way cooked. Now that the "big stuff" (like skeletal and organ development) is taken care of, your baby starts a period of rapid brain growth, fat buildup and detail work. Highlights this week include:Your baby now has fingerprints! Book 'em, Danno! Believe it or not, he actually created them himself while swimming around in the amniotic fluid. As he moved his hands, the skin on the tips of his fingers formed unique ridges and folds. That's why no one on earth has the same fingerprints, not even identical twins! Cool, right? Baby's arms are now in proportion to his tiny body, but his legs are still on the short size in comparison.Meconium, that tar-like, sticky first baby poop, is now loading up your baby's intestines, which means you might want to set aside a bottle of olive oil, one of the few things that will get the gooey poop off of baby's bottom. Your baby continues to gain new and impressive skills such as practicing and controlling voluntary muscle movements (this will help him fling food across the room later in life). Your tiny dancer's movements are no longer the jerky, uncontrollable twitches of yore—he now moves with graceful control. Your baby now weighs about an ounce and is the length of a flip phone, or roughly 3.5 inches—he's tripled in size from a mere three weeks ago! Luckily, you haven't done the same.

So now enters the fun part of pregnancy! The part where I get my energy back, where other people besides me and my pants notice that my belly has a baby in it, and the best part: NO VOMIT!

Goodness the last few months have felt soooo long in the fact that I never thought I would feel good again, but then have gone by relatively quickly.

I'm going to be Aunt, AGAIN!

No, Courtney is not pregnant! :)

So yes, my brother Landon just got married in April, but they just found out this weekend that Holly is pregnant! :)
She is due at the end of March and we are all SO excited for them. This baby wasn't exactly planned, but I mean, it's a BABY! How awesome is that! Landon and Holly are so excited and I just can't wait to see what a Landon/Holly baby looks like!
Holly and I are right about 10 weeks apart, and it's going to be fun to have someone in my family to be pregnant with! :)
Anyways, I just wanted to share the news with all of you, but I am so excited for them!

Landon and Holly Benjamin

The Woes of Motherhood

*WARNING- this blog is a long rant about how frustrated I am with motherhood. proceed with a sympathetic mind*

I'm sure mother's have this feeling quite often, but it was really overwhelming for me this weekend.
My daughter was on a rampage with her 2 favorite words "NO" and "MINE".
OMG, I've never been so frustrated and tired.
Jonathan was gone all weekend at a bachelor party, which left me and Lyric to fend for ourselves.
Friday night we decided to have a late night (8pm) swim at my parent's house. We brought some dinner over because we didn't have shabbat dinner that night, and then went swimming. Normally Lyric just sits on the steps and is normally ok and not too high maintenance when we swim. OH no. Not this time. This time she decided that she could swim just as well as her cousins and kept going off the side and off the step and under the water. I would pull her out and she would just sputter, then smile. Not even cry. Then she would immedaitely start squirmming trying to get out of my arms so she could go back in the water, off the edge again... so it was not a relaxing experience! She was stressing me out! I put floaties on her, but she has no balance, so she goes backwards and forwards in them. Then we get out, I take her swimsuit and swim diaper off outside, have her wrapped in a towel and go into my parent's living room to put her clothes on. The moment I put her on the ground, she runs off towards the toys and I immediately go run after her, but in that 5 seconds she was free, she decided to pee all over the floor. Fun times. Then I had her dressed and we went back down by the pool and she kept trying to get back in and was crying and throwing a fit when I wouldn't let you let her. I didn't have a passy, so that meant we needed to leave.
I get her home and in bed. But around 3am, she wakes up crying.
Normally Jon jumps up immediately because he never lets her cry it out, but he was gone. So I went in there and patted her back and got her to lay back down and I thought she fell back asleep, but by the time I get in my bed, she's crying, "mama, mama, mama". So I decide to let her cry it out, because hey, I'm a mom. I can sleep through crying and I was exhausted. Well I do fall back asleep, but I wake up like 30 minutes later and she's STILL crying. So I get her up and take her in bed with me and she falls asleep, tossing and turning, so at around 5 I take her back in her bed, where she stays asleep till 9:30.... LONG night.

Then my sister calls and wants to know if I want to go to breakfast (Nathan is gone also). So I'm like sure. So we pack up the kiddos (her two oldest spent the night with my mom) and we head out to Cracker Barrel. We called Abby who decided to join us with Sophie and Korbin.
We ate, but of course it's always a little stressful dealing with a table of 5 kids all 2 and under. But we managed. We then decide to go to Abby's house who so graciously (after we begged her and bugged her) said she would do our hair.
On our way to Abby's house, we get a call from the guys who say they are home for like 30 minutes and they "have a surprise for us", not a big one, but for us to come home. So we drive all the way back home (ok, only like 10 minutes, but still), and we walk in the door all excited, expecting something sweet for them abandoning us to go party, and they are standing there in their new suits they got for the wedding. They are really nice custom suits, but still, they are their suits.
And just in case you were wondering, yes that was their surprise. They wanted to show us their suits. Isn't that a great surprise for us! Courtney acted like she was happy, but I was like, "you made me drive all the way back here when I was on the way to get my HAIR DONE so you could show me your suit, which you can show me any time because I live with you?"
So that was a waste of 30 minutes. But we pick up Ashlyn and Madysen and head over to Abby's house.
So now we have 7, yes 7 kids ages 5 and under at Abby's house.
Things were fine, but nap time was soon approaching. She does have 4 bedrooms, so that makes it a little easier and thankfully Courtney had a pack-n-play. So we start getting kids down for naps (in between foils, bleach and hair cuts). Brad came home in between a photo shoot, so he was in his office, so we decided to put the pack-n-play/Lyric in the guest bathroom. Lyric goes down very easy as she was tired.
Well unfortunately, neither of us informed Brad of our plan and he walks in there and Lyric wakes up after about 15 minutes (TOTALLY not your fault Brad). And of course, no matter what I do, I can NOT get her to go back to bed.
So now I have a napless child on my hands who is already on a rampage that day.
So then let's get into the wonderful behavioral problems I've been dealing with.
First off, let's deal with the not sitting still while mommy is changing your clothes/diaper. We've never had an issue with this. I never have had to fight her to sit still during diaper changes or anything. We dealt with that early on and she now just knows she has to sit still. But this week? Oh she's pushing the boundaries. Squirming and trying to roll over, sticking her hands down there, just wanting me to go insane.
Then we have the "Lyric, come to mamma" then her looking at me with a gleam in her eye that says "now the fun begins" and turns in the OPPOSITE direction and takes off in a run squealing thinking this is some sort of game....
Then we have the newest word of "mine" that she perfected while we were at Abby's on Saturday. She constantly grabbed toys out of other kids hands and would get into a "MINE" fight with Korbin... I thought I was going to go insane! She just was not obeying!
I do realize that I need to start being more forceful with my discipline. Swatting her a few times on the leg is not doing anything anymore (yes I spank her- believe me, sitting her in "time out" would not work). I'm going to have to start being more forceful with my discipline, but I'm so focused on making sure she knows why she's getting disciplined, "you can't run away from mommy. That is disobeying and when you disobey you get a spanking. Mommy loves you that's why I want you to obey me immediately..." blah, blah, that by the time I'm done with my speech, and her looking at me with those wide eyes saying "ss'mm" (yes mam), I just don't have the desire to be real forceful in her spanking. But I know the point needs to get across.
My sister/Abby really encouraged me that day and pointed out that what I am doing is not enough, and I did give her one good spanking that really made a difference in her attitude I could tell. It's just HARD!
Every parent is different the way they parent. Even though my sister is an incredible mom/disciplinarian, I can't mimic everything my sister does because our kids are different and our own personalities are different. Finding that line of who you are as a parent and a disciplinarian is so hard because the line is always moving. Your kids are always evolving and maturing and your constantly having to adjust.
Jonathan is SO much better at it than me and I tend to let him discipline her the most. But then the problem is she acts fine for him, but not fine for me if he's not around- hence this weekend.
So anyways, we had a fun time at Abby's, but by 8:30p, with Lyric having no nap, Kadyn having just a short nap, Court and I were ready to get our kids in bed!
Lyric, who normally doesn't hit the hay till around 9:30, was zonked out in the car on the way back home and she was asleep in her bed before 9, and I didn't hear a peep from her all night.
I was sitting in bed trying to go to sleep that night and I was just so tired and so frustrated and I felt like all I did all day was spank her. And that all I did all weekend was have a battle of wills with her. I just felt like a failure! I know it's silly, but I just did.
Then on Sunday I was on worship team, so I had to wake her up early a little before 8. She was immediately in a bad mood and her bad mood did not change that whole day.
By the time we were at lunch after Church and she was crying and fussing and stealing books from her cousins and then hanging on for dear life yelling "MINE" I just about had it. I felt my blood boiling and I really did feel like slapping her upside the head. I know that sounds dramatic, but that's how I felt! I couldn't decide if I should burst into tears or scream right there in the middle of On the Border. I just looked at Jon and said, I need to get away from her.
She fell asleep in the car, so of course when I put her in her bed, she thought she had already taken a nap and wasn't ready to go to sleep. I just threw her baby doll and a book in her crib and left her in there. I could hear her talking, but she wasn't crying. I fell asleep and woke up like 30 minutes later and could still hear her talking (not crying or even calling for me), I fell back asleep and woke up an hour later and didn't hear anything. I fell back asleep again and this time woke up to her calling for me.
So I got like an almost 3 hour nap that day.
Then my sister called and her and my mom and wanted to go see the new Batman movie. So we left all the kiddos and had a good time!
I really needed that and Jon was due for some parenting alone time, so I didn't feel bad.

OK, all of that to say, I'm just really frustrated with my daughter. I know what I need to do to fix it, so I'm not at a loss. She just needs stricter boundaries. She doesn't act like it at home, it's just when we are out or around other kids. So I'm going to just spend some time with my nieces this week to specifically put her in those situations and then come down really strict on Lyric to deal with this.
It just makes me so tired...
BUT I started my new schedule this week and I get off early tomorrow to go to the doctor, so I have an easy work week, so we should be fine. I really think my new schedule is going to infuse a lot of life in me. Especially since I haven't been nauseous for the past few days. Still dealing with headaches, but I would take a headache any day over throwing up.

Well this was a really long blog, but I just needed to vent. So if you made it this far, you are a true reader! :)

I WON!

This is the first time, after entering drawing after drawing on all my favorite blogs, to finally win something!
On Celebrity Baby Scoop they had a drawing for Sweet Dreams T's. It's a company that sells super chic clothes and all of the "stars" have them for their babies! It's expensive too! I'm talking for a simple onesie, $80+!
Anyways, they had a drawing and I entered for the 3-6 month onesie thinking if I won I would give it to my beautiful niece (by choice) Sophie. Well I did! Sophie will have herself the most expensive onesie ever :)
Click HERE to read the details if you want.
I got an email from them this morning telling me they were shipping out the onesie today! :) Yippee!

On an entirely different note, I have the most awkwardly placed zits that will NOT go away! I call them my scowling zits, as they are two zits, parallel to eachother, in between my eyes. If I make a scowl, they fit almost perfect in my scowl face lines. Jon says I need to be happier then I wouldn't get scowl zits... well regardless, it's TERRIBLE! The gunk will just not stay out, I've had to pop them like a billion times. Seriously, how embarrassing is it to be talking with students at work and then you go to the bathroom and those stupid zits have reemerged with nasty white heads. ICK!
I think the one on the left is almost gone, but the one on the right quite possibly may be with me until I die. Please note their glory:


Pregnancy Forget Me Not #9585777389
FREAKING ZITS LIKE A PUBESCENT BOY WHO EATS GREASY FOOD EVERY DAY THEN SMEARS HIS FACE IN IT!

Today marks a momentous day for me. It's the last Friday I have to work at this job. Yes you heard that right, starting next week my schedule is going from 40 hours to 30 hours a week! Yippee! You have no idea how much this is going to help me. I was supposed to start my new schedule LAST week, but unfortunately, communication lines were crossed, but I am starting next week now. I can't wait to have LONG weekends every weekend! It's going to rockin'!

So I'm determined to keep my energy level up today, even if it means sipping on a diet coke in one hand and a glass of water in the next! I will have a productive day that passes quickly!!!

Ok, well early Shabbat Shalom to you all and I'm out!

BLAH

That's how my day has been today. Just blah. I woke up with a headache that has yet to go away. I had to change plane reservations which is a pain in the butt, still blah. Worked on the work website and can't get the changes to stick, blah. Did some internal PR work, blah. Hosted a table at a student lunch, blah.
Everything I am doing today I feel like rolling my eyes at it.

This may have to do with the fact that I am silently protesting my husband's lack of presence this week. He's been needing to be busy all the time, so when it comes to staying at home at night with me, he bails. Once dinner is eaten, he's gone. Up to the church, out with the guys, it doesn't matter as long as he's not at home.
That's fun huh? Real nice when you've had nausea and headaches, coming home after a long day at work...
And now I just found out that he is going to be gone literally the entire night on Friday and all day Saturday getting home after I've already gone to bed... how's that for ya.
Then dealing with unnecessary drama throughout the day has been an unnecessary addition to my already blah day.
Thank God tomorrow is Friday! That is the one good part. That and I have plans with my wonderful sister for Saturday. I finally got her hooked on the Twilight Series. She even admitted to developing a crush on the lead character, a crush which is inevitable when reading these books. If you've never thought you could develop a crush on a fictional character, I tempt you to read these books, really read them, and then tell me you don't have a crush on Edward, I DARE YOU! :) Ok, maybe Brad S. didn't get a crush on him, but other than that, you know you will. I'm so ready to re-read them. I just can't figure out who has my 3rd book! I lent them out to people so that they could get hooked, and now don't have one copy at home. Court has #1, the Shulls have #2 and I don't know where #3 is which makes me sad because I want to re-read the entire series before #4 comes out on August 2nd.
Good times! :)

Ok, well talking about Edward just got me a little more perky, so I'll end this blog on a perkier note quite possibly.

My round ligament pain hasn't been as bad today, thank God, but instead I woke up with a pounding headache that hasn't gone away no matter how much I overdose on Tylenol. Ok, I'm not REALLY overdosing, just 3 pills every 6 hours isn't too bad right? Well it's not really working, just makes the pain a little more dull...

Apparently some people think I complain too much on my blog, so I'll stop that train and just end right now.

Later.

Project Runway TONIGHT!

OMG, this show is premiering tonight!

It's the last season of the show on Bravo, and from what I've read, Bravo is none too happy about the departure. Apparently Project Runway big whigs felt Bravo was damaging the appeal of P-R by airing too many repeats and having so many copy cat shows like Top Design, Guide to Style and I want to be a Super Model. I can see that. Bravo (and Oxygen) are like the ultimate in repeats... it can be so annoying, especially because sometimes they list them as "new" and they aren't, so that means the tivo records a repeat-- SO ANNOYING! Anyways, there is a lot of controversy surrounding the move, as well as law suits and stuff.

The show is airing tonight at 8 Texas Time and should be great as usual! It's all screwy though, because the 6th Season is coming on Lifetime this November. It used to be a summer show, but then became a fall show, and now is a summer and fall show... I know, all screwy.

Here are some short bios on the contestants this year:

Blayne from Yakima, Washington. He is 23 years old and attended the Art Institute of Seattle. Blayne was named Seattle's “Most Stylish Male”.

Daniel from Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He is a 25 years old and attended the Pratt Institute of Art and Design. Daniel originally thought he wanted to be a zoologist.

Emily from Sacramento, California. She is 27 and attended the Otis College of Art and Design. Emily launched a design team that has become a popular LA brand.

Jennifer from East Syracuse, New York. She is 27 and attended the Fashion Institute of Technology. Jennifer lived and worked in Italy for Blumarine.

Jerell from Houston, Texas. He is 28 and is a former model. Jerell describes his design as “raw beauty”.

Jerry from Butte, Montana. He is 32 years old and attended Parsons and Fashion Institute of Technology. Jerry has created his own label, FORM.

Joe from Troy, Michigan. He is 41 and attended Parsons School of Design. Joe is a sportswear designer and owns two boutiques.

Keith from Salt Lake City, Utah. He is 26 and attended Salt Lake City Community College. Keith is self-taught and values originality.

Kelli from Columbus, Ohio. She is 27 and attended The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandise. Kelli got a full scholarship from Bob Macke to attend school.

Kenley from Pompano Beach, Florida. She is 25 and attended Florida State University. Kenley has her own line in a small boutique.

Korto from Liberia, Africa. She is 33 and attended Fashion School in Ottawa, Canada. Korto likes to use tribal designs.

Leanne from Yuba City, California. She is 27 and attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandise. Leanne received a scholarship from Levis/Dockers.

Stella from Astoria, Queens. She is 42 and a self-taught former make-up artist. Stella likes to work with leather and denim.

Suede from Seven Hills, Ohio. He is 37 and attended Kent State University. Suede works mostly in sportswear, but has a passion for couture.

Terri from Chicago, Illinois. She is 39 and attended Columbia College. She works for Victoria's Secret as a visual manager.

Wesley from Blackstone, Massachusetts. He is 23 years old and attended Fashion Institute of Technology. Wesley describes his style as classic and clean.

Should be a good group of contestants. Based on their bios alone, I think I am going to be routing for Suede (cuz that's a cool name), Leanne, Blayne and Daniel (because he wanted to be a zoologist)

So here's to another great season of Project Runway! Yeah for good TV watching!

Round Ligament Pain

I just don't remember it that much from Lyric. I mean, I remember having it, but I don't remember if it was a constant pain.
From what I remember with Lyric it was just sharp pains and stretchings, maybe lasting for a few minutes at a time, but not for days.
I started having a pretty serious dull pain in my left side yesterday around lunch and it hasn't gone away. It gets worse when I walk obviously, but even when I'm sitting or laying down I feel the pain constantly.
Last night I was in a dead sleep and it woke me up. It was REALLY intense last night. I almost couldn't get out of bed to try to walk it out.

So anyways, I'm 99.9% sure this is just round ligament pain, but I would like some verbal reassurance, so mom's and other pregnant ladies, please reassure me. I get super paranoid really easy when it comes to pregnancy :)

13 weeks

So here we are at 13 weeks pregnant! Yippee!
I'm now officially 4 months pregnant. I am technically 4 months, because by 17 weeks, I will be starting my 5th month of pregnancy due to the fact that pregnancy is actually 10 months long, not 9... it all gets confusing which is why mother's always say how many weeks they are as it gives other mothers a better gauge on how far along they actually are. But when talking to people who've never had kids or guys in general (er-like MY HUSBAND), it's best to use the months, less confusing that way.

So 13 weeks, my stomach has really started to pop out more. Good times. :) I need to gather maternity pants from my sources (Abby and Court- already got a few from Morgan). Because as of now, I just wear my work pants unbuttoned all day :)

Still dealing with random nausea and headaches. This past weekend was exceptionally bad. I threw up so much and so hard that I popped all the blood vessels under my eyes. Then Sunday I had the WORST headache of all times. It was so bad that it reduced me to a 5 year old whiney girl. I whined more on Sunday than I can EVER remember whining. Believe me, just ask my family. But I just want this random nausea to leave...Even this morning, I upchucked. WHERE ART THOU 2ND TRIMESTER?!?

But one thing awesome is I am 90% sure I felt the baby move last night. I was in a strange position with my legs up underneath me and I was kind of hunched over and I felt the little poppings, but I thought it was just gas, but then it was consistent, and all over random. Once I moved I couldn't feel it again. But just those few seconds I got SO happy! You have no idea what an infusion of life that is to feel your tiny baby moving around. It's indescribable. I love it! It is my FAVORITE part of being pregnant by far.

Here are some comparison photos:

Here I am 13 1/2 weeks pregnant with Lyric


And here I am a little over 13 weeks pregnant with Baby VDP


I think I'm bigger this time around. What do you think?

For my favorite pregnancy commentary on week 13- click HERE

For the basics on week 13, read on:
The baby is getting so big now he's starting to push up your uterus. He weighs just over an ounce (30 grams) and measures almost 3 inches (about 7 centimeters). When not pregnant, a normal uterus is about the size of a small pear. Twelve weeks into the pregnancy, the uterus has grown to the size of a big pear, after 16 weeks it's as big as a grapefruit and when you're 20 weeks pregnant it's the size of a small melon. After 24 weeks of pregnancy it has become as big as a baby watermelon and after 28 weeks it is similar in size to a balloon that's not fully inflated. By the time you're about to give birth, your uterus is as big as a fully inflated balloon. Your cervix represents the tightly closed mouth of the balloon.

A uterus can be positioned leaning towards the front or the back. If yours is positioned towards the front, you can feel your uterus with your hands above the pubic bone from now on. You can also have your partner or your children feel it if they want. If it doesn't really work out yet, try it again in one or two weeks. Throughout the entire pregnancy you can have normal 'pulling and stretching' pain. Sometimes during the little one's growth spurts, your organs - such as your stomach, liver, pancreas and gall bladder - literally have to make way for your rising uterus. Your uterus is a hollow, muscular organ that always has a certain amount of tension and responds to its surroundings, such as during an orgasm. Now that there's a baby growing inside you, your uterus can harden or tighten briefly during such a growth spurt or when you're doing familiar activities or having an orgasm. That's all normal. You may feel it more often when you're stressed or have a full bladder. These mild uterine contractions are good for the baby -- it feels like a kind of hug, a sign that his mother is there for him. They even have an official name: Braxton-Hicks contractions. First time moms may not even notice them until week 20 or so, where experienced moms may notice them much earlier.- *great, that's all I need. Early braxton hicks... sigh.*

I pushed my appointment back a few days, from this Friday to next Tuesday due to my work schedule, so I won't know how I've gained in the 1st trimester till NEXT week. Oh the joys. I haven't been weighed in almost 2 months. I'm guessing 5lbs, but I hope it's less. PLEASE GOD DON'T LET IT BE MORE THAN 5 POUNDS!!

I Married an Immigrant

As much as my husband's European pride doesn't allow him to admit it, he is indeed an immigrant. Yes, you read that right, he is a resident alien. How cool is that, I am married to an alien. Fun times right?
Sure when you think about the fact my 1 year old daughter understands French and English, that I get a "french" version of Ricky Ricardo when he gets mad at me and starts jumbling his English, I get awesome vacations traveling about Europe, and a great European outlook on life, but it's totally sucky when it comes to paying the freaking immigration fees! Are you kidding me! As discussed in a previous post they raised the immigration fees like a million percent. What used to be around $200 is now close to $600.
So anyways, here is where the fun part comes into play.
Jon and I both thought his residency expired on August 15th. I had printed off the petition at work and had brought it home on Friday. I wasn't planning on doing anything with it that weekend, but it was sitting on end table and I grabbed the folder and randomly decided to grab his residence card so I could fill in the number on the application.

WELL LO AND BEHOLD THE FREAKING EXPIRATION WAS JULY 15TH! THAT IS TOMORROW PEOPLE!

I seriously almost had a heart attack.
You see if we would have missed this deadline, Jon's residence would have immediately been revoked. I could have appealed, but the reason "I forgot" probably wouldn't have gone very far.
Jon would have had to immediately leave the country. Which means he couldn't work. We would have had to start the process over from the very beginning, which due to the hikes in the fees would have cost several thousand dollars.
I wouldn't have been able to float all of our bills on just my income alone, which would have left us in dire financial straits. Plus the simple fact that my husband just had to leave the country without me and I don't know when he is coming back and I am pregnant with our 2nd child would have not sat well with my emotions. Jon said that if this would have happened, we would have immediately put the house up for sale and moved to Belgium as it would have ruined us financially for me to try to stay here without him and try to keep everything together. He said he would have rather just started back over in Brussels.
I can't believe we came within 2 days of this happening to us. How totally crazy! But God is in control and I know that he gave me one of those silent urgings to look at his card in just enough time to get it all done.
So today I had to take a 2 hour lunch to run around and get affidavits from Tiffani and Nathan both attesting that we are married, have been married and are living in the "married life" basically saying "No, Jon didn't marry her for a green card".
Tiffani is going through a STRESSFUL audit this week (just 3 weeks before her wedding), but still managed to get me the affidavit (you rock!).
Then I had to get copy of our tax returns (I didn't have a copy of 2006), bank statements, our deed on our house, our home loan, Lyric's birth certificate, copy of her passport, and other misc. stuff. It wasn't difficult because obviously we are happily married and truly are living as man and wife. It was just kind of stressful getting everything together so last minute.
With US Immigration, you never want to make a mistake as it can be detrimental to your case. I normally like a lot of time gathering all my info to make sure that I am submitting everything that needs to be submitted. I did the best I could do with a 2 day notice, I'm just feeling nervous.
Oh plus I had to dip into our Belgium fund for the $550 filing fee. Fun, fun!

Anyways, the good news is Jon picked it all up and got it overnighted. It should be in their hands tomorrow at noon.

Crisis is indeed averted, but my nerves are shot. Thankfully this is the LAST immigration issue we will have unless Jon decides to become a dual citizen, which I don't think he is going to do.
My little temporary permanent resident will be a permanent resident very soon! :)

Now if only I could get him to wear an American Flag tshirt on July 4th! :)

Ok, in honor of our immigration issues today, I will leave you with some funny political cartoons/pictures:

Oh so relaxing

Today has been nice.

It started off gloriously with Jonathan getting up with the baby and letting me sleep in till 9:30! That is the latest I have slept since I don't even know when and it was SOOOOOO nice!

Last night was Austin's birthday shabbat. We had a good time, but I was really out of it most of the night due to my incredibly tiring day yesterday.

Here are just few pictures:








We went and saw HellBoy later that night. I thought it was really good, but I am a huge fan of stupid comic book type movies.

Then today I slept in and then Lyric and I took Maddy to Build-A-Bear to celebrate her 1/2 birthday! :) She had so much fun!

Maddy helping to fill her bear up


Getting the heart ready to go in the bear


Giving the bear a bath


After "Lyla" was all ready in her pink and rhinestone outfit


Then we came home and ALL took a LOOONG nap and then decided to go to Olive Garden where Aaron Goodman waited on us and I proceeded to eat waaay too much and now am sitting on the couch trying not to upchuck my dinner while Jonathan is playing xbox and Lyric is playing with her babies.
She has a baby packnplay that she likes to climb into. Here she is:




Tomorrow Jon and I are on Aaron and Christina's team. I need to get Lyric bathed and in bed and somehow manage to keep my dinner down. So wish me luck!

Why Lyric? Why?

I've already been ridiculously tired all week. Like someone has sucked all the energy out of my body and given it instead to my 1 year old daughter.

Because it seems that the more tired I am, the more energy she has. Why is that? I figured I can suck the life out of anything if I'm in a bad enough mood, but she seems to sustain her energy despite anything.

Well after an evening of a hyper daughter, I get her bathed and in bed. She went down like usual without a fuss. But then, an hour or so later, up she goes.

I think she had a bad dream. Jon was watching Pans Labyrinth and she was interested in it and there are these scary monsters. I kept trying to distract her, but she was mesmerized. So I think she had bad dreams of scary Pans Labyrinth Monsters.

Long story of getting up and calming the screaming daughter down resulted in finally at 3:30 this morning her falling asleep in our bed. Which of course resulted in me having to do some sort of special forces move to get untangled from her and out of bed without waking her up.

This morning I was tired. After lunch I can barely move or function. I don't think I've ever been this tired in my entire life. I'm sure that's not true, but still it sure feels like it. And to make matters worse, I have a butt load of things to do, so it's not even like I can just call it a day and leave work early...

I need to sleep.

A Day In the Life

Yesterday was a typical day for me... typical meaning random.
That's how most of our nights are. There isn't ever anything planned. It's not always KNOWN that we chill out at home on week nights.
With all my family living in a 2 mile radius, and more specifically my sister living 4 houses down, it's always a draw where we'll end up.

Last night Jonathan informed me that he was taking a pastor who was in town from Belgium out to dinner. Not speaking French all that well, I was able to easily get out of having to go with him.

So... what does an extremely tired pregnant, full time working mother of a toddler do? Calls her sister with 4 kids under the age of 6. No one can be more tired than her right? True, but still even though she's always crazy busy with 4 kids ages 5, 4, 2 and 5 months, when I'm super tired, she always helps out with Lyric because she's super mom!

So she told me they were going up to the Church because the youth group (which my BIL is one of the pastors of) is having a summer party complete with dinner and a bounce house. At first i was like...nooo... I'm tired! But then she gave me the whole, "Lyric will have so much fun..." line and I figured I better do it. And Lyric did have so much fun. My niece Kadyn and her always have a great time playing together, and so they kept eachother company.
Here are some pics:

Aunt CoCo and Lyric on the slide




Kadyn and Lyric playing






We didn't stay too long because it was freaking HOT, which caused me to get a headache. We did stay long enough to snag some food for the kids and catch a bit of Princess Bride which they had playing in the Atrium.

Then I went and got Courtney and I some Pei Wei's and we went to her house and watched So You Think You Can Dance.

Good times had by all!

I was just thinking about how random my life is. It's not scripted in anyway. Jon and I rarely get into routines. But it's nice. It's fun. It's different. I like that.

Which brings me to blogging. My sister is about to start up on her own blog. I'm sure that is going to be really interesting as her life is FULL of crazy stories.

Are you BLOG deprived and interested to know what other Mom-Type blogs I read on a daily basis? Come on, you know you are a sucker for reading about other people's lives! Don't try to deny it! Well here is what is in my RSS Feed in alphabetical order.

Adventures in Baby Wearing- I really enjoy her posts. She is a SAH mom of 3 boys and is pregnant with her 4th which is a little girl! She posts a lot and it always seems to be upbeat and genuine. It's a great read.

Chicken and Cheese- I just recently started reading this blog. She is also pregnant with her 2nd child... though she is just about ready to pop.

Culture Feast- This one isn't a Mommy Blog. But it's a blog with many different authors and just talks about life and culture as it relates to the DFW area and other random things like book reviews, movie reviews, political analysis and more.

Dooce- I mean, can you seriously have an RSS feed and not include Dooce in it? She's basically one of the most popular bloggers in the world and always has something wildly inappropriate and over the line. She talks a lot about her daughter and her life as an ex-morman. Really funny stuff, if you don't get offended easily. She also has a new picture of the day, a new dog picture of the day and a new style section of the day. Dooce is one of my faves. I was watching an interview with her and do you know she makes like $40,000 a MONTH off of her blog. Wow.

From Dates to Diapers- This is a mommy of SIX kids AND she homeschools! Wow. Mostly this blog is a product review, but she does giveaways ALL the time. I have yet to win, but I'm going to keep on pluggin away!

Her Bad Mother- Ok, this one is a bit crude at times, but still always makes me laugh. She just had another baby about a month or so ago and a rough time at it. And boy does she let you know! It's a great blog though!

I Should be Folding Laundry- Once again, this is a great blog. It's a mother of 2 who recently just lost her identical twin boys when she was around 20 weeks pregnant. She is openly grieving and I find her blogs so raw and honest and I really enjoy them. She also is just a great blogger.

It's Not Me, It's You- Which is my friend Liz's blog. Though she doesn't update NEARLY often enough... but when she does, they are always fantastic blogs!

Jessica and Her Boys- another friend of mine's personal blog. She has two boys and is pregnant with her 3rd boy.

Motherhood Uncensored- once again a little R rated, but I love this blog. It NEVER ceases to amuse me. She is OH so honest and OH so blunt about it seems everyone in her life. I wish I could be that blunt on my blog, I think I play politics too much... Great blog!

Musings of a Housewife- Ok, I just subscribed to this one today, but in reading it over, I think it's going to be a good one!

Savvy Auntie- This AMAZING website is going to get it's own post very soon. I just need to get it all together. But if you have EVER thought of starting your own business, you need to eat up all the wisdom from Melanie. She is absolutely awesome and gifted.

Alexis Neely- This woman is a lawyer focused on the family and helping families have the right kind of planning in bad situations. She's pretty stinkin' cool from how her blogs and Twitters portray her. She doesn't update super often, but I always enjoy it when she does.

Twilight Series Theories- this site will give you ALL the goods on the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer. This site updates A LOT, so be prepared to have a full RSS feed every morning.

Penelope Trunk- Her blog subjects don't always apply to me. She writes a lot about business and what not. But they are always great reads.

Of course this doesn't cover all the MySpace blogs I keep up with, plus a few others I peruse via Twitter links. But those are the ones I read daily in my RSS feed. I encourage you to click on a few of the links and check them out for yourself!

Happy Birthday Austin

It's my little brother Austin's 23rd birthday today!
For the next 2 months, Austin and I are only 1 year apart. Although I am and always will be WAY cooler than him :)

Austin is a great brother, son and Uncle. Although we have yet to get him to change a diaper, be that poopy or pee filled... one of these days it's going to happen though. Maybe even on his birthday shabbat... hmmm....
But seriously though. Austin is a great guy and is one of the funniest people on earth. He can always make me smile when I'm feeling grumpy.
:)

Happy Birthday Austin!
I love you!

Here are some old school pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Austin is the cool guy with the tucked in jersey


We are so cool


Princess and her frog


And here are recent pics of Austin-
He's GQ


He's a hunter


He's off the market (him and his girlfriend Hannah)


Happy Birthday Aus!