Friday, August 29, 2008

#3 update

this morning we had the second and last ultrasound for the baby and all went well. at 30 weeks the baby weighs approximately 3lbs 10oz, 51% so that's great. we were able to see the baby's profile really well, it's hand up near it's face and the mouth opening and closing. he/she has been head down the whole time and is still in that position so that's good (kieran was like that, andie flipped several times before she was born). the baby doesn't seem to have much, which is interesting, kieran and andie definitely had fringe that you could see from the ultrasound at this point. but there are still two more months to get hairy in there! we still don't know the sex, just like the last tech, this one said that if we didn't want to know she didn't even need to look in that area, so looks like we're still going to be surprised! and i'm officially penciled in for October 29 to have the baby, yay! it's cutting it close to Halloween but i'll be home for trick-or-treating and might be able to answer the door with a newborn in some cute little target halloween outfit! that may be a bit ambitious, we'll see ;) with both of the other kids i didn't go into labor on my own and they were a week late, luckily, i barely had to be induced with them and i immediately went into labor on my own. and for both kieran and andie my doctor was on vacation and i delivered with a different doctor, so this time he *promises* to be the one! but the the big reason for scheduling it is that i'm having a hysterectomy in december. i have been so fortunate to have carried three children and i do not take the gift of fertility lightly--i would never have this procedure if it weren't absolutely necessary, but unfortunately it is. at the beginning of the year i had the option of having a baby or a hyst. and amazingly we found out we were expecting a month later. but each subsequent child makes the condition of my uterus worse (pain, months of bleeding, and a pregnant sized uterine muscle--sounds fun doesn't it??) they can't perform the hyst. when i have the baby, the uterus needs to contract back up a bit and shrink down, so that's out. and ultimately, we save thousands of dollars by doing the surgery within the same calendar year as having the baby. and knowing that i could be having it done within months of having the baby anyway, 100% covered by insurance makes the decision that much easier. and the earlier i have the baby the more time i'll have to recover before the surgery go-ahead at my six week check-up. sooooooo, that's the update :) now i just have to figure out how to make a web poll so people can gamble on the sex of the baby!

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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

weekend girlfriend trip II

i've just returned from an awesome trip with girlfriends to the lake michigan shore. last year 8 of us went to st. pete's beach in florida to celebrate our pal dori's big bday and this year there were a couple birthdays to celebrate but really we're finding we don't need much of a reason to get some space from the daily grind and have some quality time with friends. there were 13 of us (yikes!) and we had a blast. the house we stayed in was goooooooooorgeous filled with everything we could possibly need (well....except for a full length mirror, it's not that we're vain, in fact, at home there will be entire weeks in which i realize i haven't looked in a mirror due to little voices screaming for juice or that they've peed somewhere, but i digress) and it had a lovely view of lake michigan and the beach. the lake itself was great, reminded us of the ocean, very blue, refreshing and not too cold, and only a teeny tiny bit lake-y smelling.

here are some pictures taken around the house (thank you michelle! and others who sent some that i haven't downloaded). there was a lot of lounging, wading, walking, drinking, dancing, gaming, reading, and chatting going on, but those might have to come later in other pictures.

i miss the weekend already :(

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Thursday, August 21, 2008

"Honey, we are living in swiss cheese with a door." ~The Money Pit

i caught some of the movie The Money Pit on one of our movie channels this morning, it always puts any home improvement project i have into perspective! i love it. and it's very 80's.

and speaking of, only in the 80's could Shelly Long have been a leading lady. she's not that bad but i don't know if she'd cut it these days.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

i love you monica lewinsky lipstick aka my dumbest post yet

recently i was having issues with Paypal. my bank decided to go from Visa debit cards to Mastercard and issued new cards (which i promptly misplaced along with assigned pin numbers and like a dork waited until the old card expired and was no longer usable to slink into the bank and request a new one, but anyway...) so i'd been updating all sorts of online accounts, Paypal being one of them. i was having a hard time determining if Paypal was defaulting to my credit card or my debit card, it just wasn't clear. so, i decided, "hey, i should buy something and find out!" so logged into ebay and tried to think of anything i'd been looking for recently. and then i remembered something i did a google search for years ago: Monica Lewinsky+lipstick. See, after the whole Clinton/Lewinsky craziness, Monica did Barbara Walters interview, remember that? I don't think I really watched it, I might have tuned in for a minute or two but the only thing I really got from it was "wow, i love her lipstick!" it did seem a bit strange and shallow to be fixated not on what the girl was saying but on her choice in beauty products but apparently i wasn't the only one. later when i was online it turned out a lot of woman had noticed the same thing and were desperate to track down the lipstick. which is just what i did on ebay and it arrived a couple weeks ago, yay! and for those of you who remember my "great perfume search", i sometimes become consumed with some bizarre item like this. my lipstick chase has been ongoing for years--i have looked for the perfect creamy, mauvy but not to mauvy, rose but not to pink, a little berry/plum hue of lipstick for sooooooo long i had finally written off as the elusive glass slipper i'd never find. most recently i was at the clinique counter three days in a row only to end up with something that looked passable under the harsh mall lights but outside in real life ended up making me look like i had written on my lips with a purple Crayola. but patience paid off and now my lips are happy and all that's left to do is collect to more of this discontinued shade and hoard it :)

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

not letting andie name the baby

i'm in the middle of making dinner and andie is sitting at the counter, playing with three paint brushes and pretending they're kids. she's singing songs, making up dialog as she goes. i hear her using one of the brushes to tell the other brushes, "you're in big trouble Wenis!"

i just love the names she comes up with when she plays.

***

busy busy busy

i feel like maybe i should just get my camera surgically attached to my arm now, i've been working like crazy and taking hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures lately. lots of senior shoots for high school students. it's been a really fun departure from the tikes i'm usually chasing down for a picture! i also got to work with my friend amanda's daughter kara and her sister's little boy owen, cousins born only days apart who just turned one. they were just too cute!

more to come but here's a few recent shots:


kara:
amanda's sister's fam:
our cute babysitter, isn't she lovely? not only does she photograph well, she's awesome with kids! she brings puzzles and Star Wars printouts for them to color. we love her and encourage her daily to stay in town for college :)

this girl was so sweet and up for lots of fun shots, we just kept shooting and shooting and i took waaaaaaay too many pictures!

she was my "american's next top model" girl, she worked the camera like nothing i've seen. i love that one of her outfits was a family kimono, it was gorgeous.


Thursday, August 14, 2008

pee

i was sitting peacefully (well, in mid-type on the laptop which i've been tied to entirely too long to this morning already) when andie, seated next to me on the couch, announces, "PEED!" so we jump up and just as i go to the kitchen to retrieve cleaning supplies, kieran yells from the bathroom, "i peed EVERYWHERE!!!" at least he can clean it up himself but it's my job to get in between the cushions with andie's accident. luckily, the couch is leather.

then just after checking kieran's clean up work in the bathroom (and hearing him boasting to aidan "i peed EVERYWHERE!!!") i go back to the couch and find the cushion dripping in Febreez. such a good cleaner that andie is.

sigh.

now kieran's playing happily with his buddy right now, andie is half naked and playing with my dish towels (don't ever expect hand or dish towels to dry your hands at my house, andie confiscates them and uses them for who knows what), and i'm back to typing. for the moment anyway.

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edited to add: not more than a few minutes later andie, who is playing on the floor in front of me, yells, "i pooped on my foot!!!" she barely misses one of my dish towels (don't worry, i wash these things all the time anyway! did i mention they are usually strewn all around my home?) and it was a speck and then she went to the bathroom, but geez! sometimes all i can do is shake my head. and wonder what #3 will do to me.

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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

bday, our trip, baby, work

well geez, it's about time a update this thing, don't you think?

so much to chat about, so little uninterrupted time online. right now kieran is "using the force" and playing nicely in my midst and andie sitting next to me being sweet and content for a change. it's as peaceful as it gets :)

kieran had a really great birthday yesterday and has been playing with all his great new star wars gear. i hear the constant humming of the star wars music and various lightsaber sounds right now. i'm going to post some pictures of our little family party last night later :)

***

we've all been well, i'm waaaaay overdue in posting pictures from our MGM Studios excursion and Carnival cruise family reunion, i'll get to that. we had a nice time but the cruise itself was a little goofy. there were 25 or so of us altogether and you'd think that when you're held captive on a giant boat you'd have lots of togetherness time but in actuality once you leave your tiny cabin, it was nearly impossible to determine where anyone was on the ship. and there was no way to reach anyone. often we only saw family members at our designated dinner time and even then we were all separated into two tables and there were still a kid or uncle i never talked to the whole time. oh well. and the cruise was a big vegas-y, which is great for you if you just want to drink and gamble the whole time but didn't really pan out well for us. and lastly, there was only one pool. ONE pool! for a whole ship of people. well, there was also the "Waterworks" in the back of the ship which was a couple waterslides and fountains, but it wasn't a real pool. however, it was very kid friendly and we therefore lived there for the four day we were aboard. key west and cozumel were nice, though very touristy, and overall it was a nice vacation but it didn't exactly end on a good note when our return flight was delayed, we returned after 1am and then had kieran vomiting at 4am, along with, ahem, other not so pretty bathroom issues, combined with pink eye and possibly a case of ringworm (we're still figuring out a mystery spot on his face). thanks for the souvenirs carnival!

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i'm still pregnant and plan to be for several more weeks. i'm about 28 weeks along and will only get bigger and bigger. the baby moves all the time, sometimes waking me up at night (but it's nothing compared to being awoken by a newborn throughout the night, so i'm happy with this for a while!) we've started working on the nursery and i can't wait until it's more done and i can post pictures!

i've been completely swamped lately with photos, lots of high school senior sessions which i have been absolutely loving! i didn't expect to enjoy big kids so much but it's been great and i've met some really fun kids along the way. the past few weeks i've just been trying to keep my head above water between sessions and editing and family and i'm starting to catch up this week but i have more bookings on the horizon that will definitely keep me occupied.

well, i'm off to a check-up, i'll try to post something more interesting later but i wanted to finally post so people wouldn't think we fell off the face of the earth!

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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY KIERAN!!!

can't believe my guy is 6 today!
happy birthday kieran

xoxo
mommy

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