A few pics from Easter

Here's a few pics from Easter. :) I think I emailed them out via snapfish, but just because there's some good ones...

The illness continues

Well, now I have it. Woke up with a 100.4 fever and horrid headache that still won't go away. Z was up all night screaming in my ear, and Doug left to go sleep on the couch around 1am, with no luck. Now Z doesn't want to sleep. He is happy as long as I don't lay down with him. As soon as he lays down he starts screaming (and this kid can SCREAM...in my ear...and me with a headache)- what's up with that???

Now that all four of us have had some variation of this same thing, and Natalya has been confirmed as having something bacterial...and she's feeling much better (and on antibiotics) I am wondering if we all were exposed to the same bacteria somewhere over the last week. Since Z likes to stick everything in his mouth, it's very possible. Which means we all need antibiotics. I will call the dr on Monday to ask his opinion. Doug still has a lingering headache, I have a fever of 99.6 (even with all the tylenol I've been taking all day) and Z is really unhappy, especially when his fever flares up (I've been trying to keep the motrin in him because he is miserable and makes me miserable when his temp goes up).

Please send healing vibes our way!

Good to be back!

It is good to be back- Internet up and running. I can't believe how much I missed it- on so many levels. Mostly for my coupon and deals though! Craziness.

We're doing good. The kids are getting so big. We measured Natalya in front of her growth chart yesterday and she's up another inch. That's over four inches since we put it up a year ago!

And Z has his 4 month well baby appt on Monday, but as of his appt Thursday (poor baby has a cold), he is amost 17 lbs and 25.5" long! Yeah. He's a big boy. And sweet! He has the best smile and giggle that puts a smile on my face any time. And boy does he love his sister. She entertains him constantly- makes him laugh and she loves his smiles almost as much as I do. :)

Natalya is doing awesome- she's writing her letters- capital ones, and learning her lowercase ones. She can write her name, but, let's face it, it's got a lot of letters, and she forgets how to spell it, but when you help her remember the letters, she writes them pretty well. She likes to write them HUGE though. LOL. Like, signing a card, she writes the N half of the whole space them tries to squeeze the rest in. :) And loves to sing. And...her memory is phenomenal. She remembers the words to books that I have only read her a couple of times. All the words. Unbelieveable. She is also great at sorting and series things, anything workbook related, she has several, she is great at it. It blows my mind.

Zachary is showing signs of being just as precocious and brilliant. He already can scoot himself into a circle- I put him in the crib while I was folding clothes and when I came back, he was facing the other direction so he could get a beter look at his crib toys and mobile. He watches Doug eat very intently and already is trying to grab things off my plate. He loves to reach out and snag toys and papers, and he has an odd habit of gripping things in his hands- he either grips his shirt, or my shirt, or just grips his hands together. And his grip is super strong! He almost cuts off the circualtion to my fingers when he grabs on.

Natalya is doing great at gymnastics. Her teacher recommended moving her up to the next level of class because she is so far ahead of her age group. We're also going to get her into soccer this year - a seven week program- and see how she likes that. She is so physical and loves being active. I have a hard time keeping up with her!

Doug is still at Pepsi, but just got his doubles/triples, haz-mat and tanker endorsements, so perhaps there are new things on the horizon there. And I am still working on my book, and also thinking of starting an online store...so we'll see! Lots of interesting and new developments for us.

Thanks for checking in with us...

Injection update

Yahoo! The heparin has been approved. :) So much cheaper than the lovenox! I am on day 5 of the injections and they're not too terribly bad. The bruises are no fun- I have a humongous one on my right leg, but I discovered yesterday that if I ice-down the injection site for about 30 minues after the injection, it prevents the majority of the bruising, so I will continue to do that.

I also found out some side issues regarding the disorder, which is technically a mutation in the human MTHFR gene A1298C, one allele, which is that I will have to continue to take mega-high doses of folic acid for the rest of my life b/c my body doesn't process folic acid properly, in addition, I will take one baby aspirin a day, and should I ever have to have surgery of ANY kind, I will probably have to do heparin injections after the surgery to prevent thromboembylism (a clot forming and making its way into lungs/heart or brain.) I also won't be able to take any kind of estrogen therapy, like oral contraceptives or medicines for menopause when I get older.

This particular mutation is known for causing third trimester stillbirth, rather than miscarriage early on in pregnancy. The likelihood that this caused M's loss? Very high.

Out of the Dark Ages and into the 21st century

Thank goodness. We're back online. Cable, internet and phonelines. YAY!

Let's see, to catch up on the past two months in one or two posts... ;) the move was pretty good- the best out of state move so far actually. We tried to sell off and get rid of a bunch of stuff to only make one trip, but we ended up having to make two, which sucked. Then there was drama with the rental truck and Doug's paycheck arriving late, but other than that, everything else went pretty smooth.

My family drove down to Rome and helped with the packing, and thank goodness for them or we would have been in big trouble. Doug's Dad and uncle came and helped too, and that was awesome. Then we trucked on up the road and unloaded in Clarksville with the help of my family. Doug and I drove back the next day and did the rest on our own (Natalya stayed with her g-grandparents). :)

I am so happy to be back in TN. I see my grandparents at least once a week, as well as my Mom and my Dad and grandmother about every two weeks. I have needed several things since we moved and my grandmother and grandfather have come over to watch N so I could go take care of things.

It's good for my grandfather too. Over the past ten years or so, he doesn't get out as much, besides grocery trips and trips to Lowe's, that's about it. SInce we've been here, he and my grandmother have been to my house (about 45 minutes from them) three times now. I am also closer to help them out which is nice. We are looking forward to go over to spend the night with them and keep my grandfather company in a week or so while my grandmother goes out of town.

My good friend and ex-roommate from college lives about five-ten muinutes from me, and she has a 3.5 year old DD and a 6 month old DS and we've gotten together a few times to visit and the girls play pretty well together, not to mention that Natalya loves to hold "baby Ethan" ;)

As far as work, Doug's job has its ups and downs. Some weeks are great and some are really crappy. The week after Christmas was awful. He had one load in five days. If dispatch had told him that there was that little freight, he could have stayed home an extra week, but instead he ended up sitting at a truck stop in Indiana for 5 days freezing his toes off (almost literally, it was in the negatives there at night and he was sleeping in the truck). I am trying to get some things rolling for me, but it's a slow process. I am looking into doing the tutor.com thing now that we have internet, and possibly picking up some photography jobs, but we'll see how that goes. I am also awaiting a callback from my friend's husband to do some sales for him, which will hopefully be a good opportunity.

Natalya hates it when Daddy leaves and every time is worse. This time she refused to take naps the entire time he was here and then yesterday when we took him to his truck she started getting upset and saying she wanted daddy to come home and not go in the big truck and so on. Not even the distraction of an offer of chocolate milk worked. :-(

Lacey, our oldest setter, who is about 14 years old, had an incident right after we moved. I thought she'd had a stroke and was freaking out. It turned out to be an inner ear infection which was affecting her balance. She couldn't walk or stand without falling down and was moving to the right. She scared the crap out of me and I thought I was going to have to put her to sleep. Thank goodness it was minor. She is doing a ton better now.

Natalya is thriving. She is "reading" her books- some of her favorites she has memorized and will sit and turn the pages, reading the words, pointing out the words as she "reads". Next step- label everything in the house. She is almost totally pt'ed and usually wakes up dry from sleep- both naps and nights. The downside to this is events such as last ngiht when she didn't want to go to sleep so she told me she had to go poop- and then sat on the potty for thirty minutes. I finally gave up and told her to go poop or go get in bed, I was going downstairs. Eventually she went pee, then we finally got her to bed. Fun. She also LOVES public restrooms (gross) so she always wants to go when we're out which is really annoying. In fact, we were on the way home one day and she said she had to go pee. I said, ok, we're almost home and she said, no, I want to go pee at the pet store. (??) Restaurants are impossible because she wants to keep going to the bathroom. When Doug was home, we went to Applebees and used a gift card he got for Christmas, and we took turns taking her to the bathroom, we each took her twice and then I finally had to put my foot down and tell her that was it.

She has also discovered winking. She completely cracks me up b/c she'll turn her head to the side and wink one eye at you until you notice. Then she'll grin and be on about her business.

She is also smart as anything. I swear I'm in big trouble because she comes up with things that completely shock me. Like today she started taking her shirt off. I asked her why and she said "it's dirty". I said, where's the dirt? She said "here". I looked where she pointed and didn't see anything. I told her to leave her clothes on and she disappeared. I tracked her down and she was taking off her clothes. I asked her why she took them off and she said "they're dirty!" I asked her again why they were dirty. Then I asked her Where the dirt came from and she said "the ground". She says things like this all the time.

She recognizes about 20 of 26 letters and recognizes when there are two or three of something right away. (Mommy, look, three birds!) She doesn't need to count them to know. Sometimes she knows four too, but usually has to count anything above that.

I need to get a video camera so I can catch her in action. She's such a nut! When we take her in public, people think she's at least three, if not older because of her vocabulary and pronunciation. Her memory is insane too. She got a new ABC book for Christmas which I absolutely love, and recommend (it was just released so there are few pics on the internet, it's called Animal Babies A to Z by Chuck Murphy, http://westfield.com/product_details/show/18 ) and she knows and can even say almost all the animal names, including vicuna (with a ~ over the n, spanish pronunciation) and quetzal. At least we know she got my verbal skills! I love Doug but he has trouble with the English language. ;) (he readily admits this)

She loves animals too. This house has woods at the back, and we put up a bird feeder and get tons of birds, lots of different kinds and she recognizes most of them! Mommy, a daddy cardinal. Mommy, a chickadee. Mommy, a Tufted Titmouse. and so on. Taking her to the pet store to buy crickets is an hour long procedure because we have to look at annd pet all the animals (and I am highly allergic to rabbits, much to her dismay because she loves them).

The house is great. It feels more like home already, more so than the house in Rome ever did. Something about that place always felt 'off' so it just didn't feel like home. I like it here, Natalya likes it here, and Doug, well, he feels like a visitor when he's home, but we're working on that.

I am sure, more to come later. :)

Yummy Dreams

I had the strangest and best dream last night! I dreamed I was in a store and Chris Daughtry (pictured above, yum) was seranading me and trying to win me over. um, "you had me at hello!" :D In fact, I think I told him that in my dream! LOL! After he hugged me. Lovely man, that.

Writing a novel in a month? Maybe

I did it. I signed up for Nano after much harassing from Susan. If you haven't heard of it, you write a novel in a month. 50,000 words- that breaks down to approximately 1700 words per day. Of course I'm moving in November, so I don't know if I'll complete the goal, but I'll do my best.

Now...what on earth am I going to write about?

www.nanowrimo.org for those interested in trying it with me!! My username is mom2natalya if you want to be my writing buddy. :)

Moving sucks. Part 1.

Ugh. This is the part I hate about moving, except for the moving. :) The packing. Even harder that I have a 27 month old daughter who goes behind me taking things out of boxes that I just put in there.
This makes my usual packing method of, start packing a box in the kitchen, find a sock, take it to the bedroom and start a box for clothes we're not wearing, find a photo album, take it to the office and start a box for books, find a tupperware lid, go to kitchen and put in kitchen box, etc, especially difficult, so I've had to adjust my packing methods. This means I have to finish and tape a box before little hands can start pulling things out. This also means little helpers beg to help with the tape, and writing things on the boxes.
My boxes will soon be labeled with Natalya writing and no one will know what's in them anyway, so I should give up on my organized packing and just throw everything in boxes and get on with it already.
Then there's the fact that I am doing this entire packing thing by myself. That's fun too. It will be even more fun when husband goes to look for something and can't find it because I've already packed it away. :) And don't remember what box it's in!

It will soon be all a distant memory...

It's official

We're moving! I just got word from the agent that the house we looked at in Clarksville is ours! We get keys on Nov. 17th.

Now I have to pack the house!

Dare I hope?

Dare I even hope the dark cloud is lifting?? We had a wonderful day yesterday (except for some sleep patterns being completely off and an incident involving my bare foot and a pile of dog poop, but we won't talk about that right now). There was the news I won the writing contest, then I found out Doug is getting a promotion, more money- YAY! And I have a line on the PERFECT job in Clarksville- I just have to get up there so I can get started. It was going great!
I talked to my grandmother this morning, and she said that my cousin started a job yesterday, and so far so good :) and my brother was hired and starts a new job tomorrow. YAHOO!!

Time to play the lottery. ;)

And, the picture, well, that's just for smiles.

I feel like the Dad in the movie A Christmas Story - I WON!! I WON!!!

This has been super happy day!!!

I entered a local writing contest here recently and I just got a call from the editor of the paper- I WON!!! I get to meet Maya Angelou!!! I am SO EXCITED!!!

This was the contest:

One Book 2007 Writing Contest
Deadline: September 1st 2007
Contest Guidlines:
Since it was first published in 1969, Maya Angelou's " I know why the Caged Bird Sings" has remained a favorite of readers of all ages and backgrounds.
In 500 words or less, reflect on what the book has meant to you. Entries may be prose or poetry. They will be judged on originality as well quality of writing.
Student contest: Students from Rome and Floyd County public and private schools are eligible to compete. A winner will be chosen from each school-Plus one high school level home school student. Community Contest: All citizens of Rome and Floyd County are eligible. Two winners will be selected.

Here's my winning entry... it gets printed in the paper on Sunday and the editor said they are considering having the winners also read aloud their winning essays so they can have them online since Angelou is known for reading her work aloud.

Anyway, here it is:

Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is probably the first book of real significance I can remember reading. A voracious reader, I have read many novels, both those of literary acclaim, and those just for fun, but this one is one of the first few I can still remember feeling emotional highs and lows while reading.
As a mother myself, I now understand better the end of the book, appreciating the true depth of emotion that comes with having a child that is solely dependent upon you. But more than that, this book is about triumph. Triumph of the human spirit over adversity beyond anything you could possibly imagine ever having to go through. And it is that triumph that I have been holding onto with all my will and might over the last eight weeks.
Eight weeks ago, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl 9 weeks early. Weighing 5 pounds and 3 ounces, and 16 inches long, my baby girl was perfect in every way, except she was born still. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t wonder why my daughter was taken from me. There are days that my two-year old daughter kisses my belly and says, “Mommy, when baby being born?” and I hold back tears and try to explain that the baby is gone away, that instead of having a sister here with us, my daughter has a sister that’s an angel. She is too young to understand all of this, but she accepts my explanations and we move on to the next item of interest to her two-year-old brain. Caged Bird is a book that reminds me that the human spirit has the will to overcome anything. Time and time again we hear of those stories, women who, like Angelou, have survived degradation and abuse and then gone on to create unimagined beauty. Stories like those of Aron Ralston, who cut off his arm rather than die alone in a cave, pinned in by a boulder.
It is these stories, and the light that my two year old daughter brings to my life that help me get through each day.
What does Caged Bird mean to me you ask? It means hope. Hope that one day I won’t hurt so much; that my arms won’t ache to hold a baby I will never again see. Hope that each day I have the strength to be the Mom that is an honor to both my daughters lives, both the one I hold onto and kiss and hug each day, and the one whose only memories I have are of a painful birth and holding her warm weight in my arms for a half an hour. I treasure writers who have the courage to put their desperation and found hope into words so that people like myself can hold onto it tight and know that it can happen to us too.

What next?

Woke up at 2am and I was sweating bullets. Checked on Natalya, who was whining and she was sweaty too. I laid down with her and finally she went back to sleep- checked the thermostat and it's 83 degrees in here, but set on 75. Air is coming out, but it's not cold.

I've been having on and off problems with the a/c for months, but it's never just gone out. So I flipped the breaker and turned off the ac for a bit, then turned it back on and thought i felt cold air coming out so i went back to bed, after turning the fan on myself.

Natalya wakes up at 7am (after I've had about 4 hours of sleep, waking up every half hour) and it still doesn't feel cool.

Check the thermostat- 80 degrees. I think the only reason it dropped those few degrees was because it's cooler outside.

UGH!!!

What Next?????

A Lesson In Banking

Friday, I was checking my account balance for my checking account, and I am overdrawn: $105.94.
As I check further into the matter, $105 is overdraft fees. This morning I went to talk to the bank, because I couldn't figure out how I was getting charged three overdrafts for being 94 cents over. Literally. 94 cents. I knew one thing was over because I made a mathematical error, so I was ready to suck it up for one fee, but three!!??

So here's the deal- let's see if I can explain this so it makes sense-
I made several purchases in one day, the last three were one $84, one $25 and one $13ish. The $84 and $25 ones and then the $13 one. When I made the purchases/transactions, for the first two, the merchants pulled their money aside and "held" it. When the $13 one went through, I only had $12and change left and it went over. Ok, my fault, end of story, right?

WRONG.

The two for $84 and $25 didn't "clear" the bank, the money was only "held".
So essentially, the merchants pulled the money from my account to "hold" it and make sure they got their money, but didn't complete the transaction, they only started it. So...by the end of the day, I had one overdraft for the last transaction, and -94 cents in my account (plus the $35 fee from the bank for the overdraft).
On Friday, the two merchants for the $84 and $25 transactions decided to complete the transactions and "clear" the money. But I was overdrawn. SO those two transactions overdrafted. Even though the merchants already had pulled their money, they hadn't "cleared".

The branch manager told me that this happens to people all the time because people don't realize that merchants are essentially processing two transactions for one transaction.

BUT because I had a "courtesy credit" for an error back in May they wouldn't work with me on these. Even though they're not my fault. The bank chooses to charge me $105 for a 94 cent overage.

And this is legal??? Even Clark Howard never told me about this! (even though he does say not to use debit cards, so I can't fault him).