best-laid plans

you guys, i am for real having a baby. like, soon. like, sooner than i expected. i had my 38wk appt today. before he checked me, dr jones took a look at the notes from my last two appts. "come on, valeri, only a 1." i know, i told him. i need to get with the program if i'm going to have this little critter in time to claim him on this year's tax return. (i kid, but only kind of. $2500 is a good chunk of change we could most definitely use.) well, i surprised both of us; "you're a 3!" he said when he checked me. i was startled and told him not to joke like that with a pregnant lady. but, nope, i progressed faster than either of us thought i would. i asked if i should come see him next week, to which he replied, "go ahead and schedule to see me next thursday. if you haven't had this baby by then, we'll put you into labor." his tone implied he is NOT expecting to see me in his office next thursday. perhaps in the hospital but not the office. this is when the dread started. but...but...my mom isn't getting here until the 6th. you scheduled to induce me on the 7th. this is too soon. i'm not ready. we haven't even washed the baby clothes or picked up the carseat out of storage. we haven't picked out a name. and finn...he's still sick. he still needs me to take care of him. he's still too little. i couldn't even call my mom on the way home i was so distraught she might miss this baby; she might miss getting to stay with finners. i cried almost the entire 15min home. and i cried again when i finally had collected myself enough to call and tell her the "good" news. and she cried. in the middle hobby lobby. "but we planned..." stupid plans. the really important ones always seem to unravel at the last second. it's a good thing i've got the best sisters in the world. as meg perused the internet for flights, erica (and matty) made plans to get her here tomorrow if necessary. someone will be there, they told me. someone WILL be there. i cried again. and again when i closed the door after i read naptime stories with finners. and i'm still crying. (i'm afraid all this crying is going to make this kid come even sooner! sheesh. just another thing about which to worry.) i wish there was a way to focus on all of the amazing, wonderful things that are coming, but for right now, i think i'll keep on crying.

the holy grail

i'm feeling a bit smug tonight. the reason being...i found it and bought it. the unattainable. the unachievable. the holy grail. rip clutchgoneski. that's right, friendlies, the cars 2 diecast car that goes for upwards of $40 on ebay. i found it today at my beloved target for $1.99. i could have wept tears of joy and unbelief. unless you are morgan, or you understand my ocd about collections, i don't expect you to get it, but i had to let you in on my indiana jones moment of glory.

get this girl some xanax

(aren't palindromes fun?! even if it is the name of an anxiety med instead of something cute like racecar or radar? ah well...)
i've been starting to stress lately. and, if you know me at all, you know i don't stress. about much of anything. however, now that this babe is only 6wks (or fewer!) away, the stress is piling up...
will i really HAVE to be induced? my water broke and i went into labor on my own with finn, and i am nervous about what all an induction entails.
i've never EVER left finn overnight. with anyone. for any reason. ever. this might just be my most major source of stress. (assuming my mom is here when all this happens, i think i might send mor home and have my mom stay at the hospital with me. i want the smoothest, easiest, least disruptive transition for finners, and i think waking up with dad at home will help keep things "normal.")
i'm not looking forward to my exam appts. can you say "physically uncomfortable"?
please let this babe be a sleeper. i'm already waaay beyond being sleep-deprived, and i would love to not go into full-on insomnia mode. i'm grumpy without my sleep. just ask morgan. or anyone who has ever called and woken me.
is it possible to make it back to my pre-baby body? not pre-THIS-baby body, but pre-ANY-baby body. i once had a pretty great physique. i would like to have it back before summer 2013 rolls around. not that i'll be sporting any of my signature two pieces suits since these boys have wreaked stretch mark havoc on my stomach (why did my sisters get the good, stretchy skin? argh!), but i would still like to feel and look good when we hit up the pool this summer.
will we be able to decide on a name? i'm a perfectionist at a lot of things and naming a child is no different. besides rearing a child, naming him seems like the next biggest responsibility. i don't want to saddle this kid with a complete misnomer. and i want him to love his name the way i've loved mine (and my sisters'). this being said, we are still open to suggestions.
sigh. i would say that about covers it, but i'm sure i'm leaving out more than half of what is now causing me stress. pregnancy brain is alive and well here. double sigh.

in "related" news

the hometown paper did a sweet article on my little cousin who was recently diagnosed with osteosarcoma. he's a fighter, and i think we've all felt a sense of peace and reassurance that HE WILL WIN. here's the link...
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20121120/NEWS01/311200014/Faith-community-carry-family-through-10-year-old-son-s-cancer?nclick_check=1

question of the day #43

did you know turkeys have beards?
neither did i.
and did you know these beards grow out of their chests, not their chins...er, um...beaks?
probably not if you didn't know they have beards.
gotta love these shows i watch with finners. the kratt brothers have taught me oh so much!

that ain't apple juice in the fridge, pal*

i went in for my 32wk appt on wednesday (32wks?! already?!?! eek), and dr jones (whose name i can barely bring myself to say without short round's accent) said there was some protein in my urine sample. i remember this happened towards the end of my pregnancy with finners and didn't think too much of it. welp, jones tells me i have to do a 24hr creatinine/urine test. that's when you pick up a big ol' jug from the lab with instructions to preserve your peepee--EVERY peepee--for the next 24hrs, which basically means you will not in any way, shape or form be leaving your home for more than 30min at a time because who in the world wants to carry around a gallon container of pee? not me, i say. although finn and i did venture out of the house for an entire hour, and let me tell you, i barely made it home without wetting my pants. (better to wet myself than pee in a toilet since i could at least have wrung out my scoobs and pants, right?) the most frustrating part was when i had to pee last night. this was the process every time i had to use the bathroom : roll self out of bed, try to not trip over humidifier and cord, avoid shoes and hot wheels strewn in hallway on way to kitchen to retrieve jug out of fridge, avoid shoes and hot wheels strewn in hallway on way into bathroom, put special "urine receptacle" on top of toilet seat, pee into ur, transfer pee from ur into jug without spilling,avoid shoes and hot wheels strewn in hallway on way back to kitchen to replace jug in fridge, avoid shoes and hot wheels strewn in hallway on way back to bedroom, try not to trip over humidifier and cord, grunt while flopping down in bed. it was a pretty awesome night. i mean, i got to repeat above process about 5x. who WOULDN'T want to do that?! the next morning, i was lucky enough to carry the jug over to the hospital lab and have some blood drawn. (bright spot! the woman in registration told me i have the most beautiful hair she's ever seen. mind you, it hadn't been washed since the morning before, wasn't ever brushed and was thrown into a ponytail. my hairs MUST have been looking good for anyone except a bald, homeless person to tell me it was beautiful. whatever. i'll take it.)
results : jones' office called late in the afternoon to tell me...everything looked great. they don't want your creatinine (i think) level to be above 150; i came in at 74. the nurse then told me it gives them a good baseline because jones might want me to do the test again. seriously? no fanks.

*lucky for mor, the big ol' jug was a dark orange, completely opaque, therefore making it impossible for him to mistake what was inside for the apple juice that was in a different container in the fridge.

dear daylight savings

you're the b word, and i hate you.

with sincere loathing in my heart,

v

validation

every day i tell finn i love him about a million times. sometimes i'll switch it up and tell him i love his face or his lips or his stinky feet etc etc. it finally paid off today. he came over to where i was sitting on the couch, sat down beside me, leaned his head on my shoulder and said "i wuv your body, mom." then he slid off the couch and went to play legos. i freaking love this kid.

can you feel that? it feels like...snow

it hasn't. yet. which also means it isn't. yet. but, i have a feeling in my bones and soul and cold toes that it's coming. soon. it is the mid-end of october, after all. we're used to seeing those soft, fluttery flakes around now. it's already been spotted on the tippy tops of the mountains. finn keeps telling me that when it snows, it's christmas. and i kind of love that idea. why not begin celebrating the best of all holidays as soon as the snow falls? this kid of mine, he's a little genius. we should take more cues from our children i think. (perhaps not the gummi bears and chocolate milk for lunch, however.)

last night, i slept with adam levine

i know, i know. sounds very risque and sooo unlike me, doesn't it? i'm pretty sure it was the result of these pregnancy hormones and mind games. don't you worry your pretty little heads, though; i told mor all about it when he got home from work this morning. (maybe that's another reason it happened : mor wasn't home, so i found comfort in the arms of my maroon5 frontman.) mr levine isn't necessarily the guy i would have consciously chosen to star in my dream, but the choices we make in our dreams aren't conscious, are they?

poor man's thanksgiving

i was in the mood for stuffing this week. and, well, i'm not proud when it comes to stuffing; stove top will do just fine. in fact, i kinda prefer it over homemade. (so sue me.) i scoured the interwebs for something simple involving chicken (turkey = blech!) and stuffing. what i found is exactly what i was craving. (^ indicates changes i made)

insanely simple chicken and stuffing

4 chicken breasts, thawed

1 6oz pkg stove top chicken-flavored^ stuffing

1 15oz can cream of chicken soup

1/2cup sour cream

1 stalk celery, diced^

in crock pot, place chicken breasts on bottom. cover with unprepared stuffing. combine soup and sour cream and spoon over stuffing, covering well. cook on high 1hr, turn heat to low and cook for another 3hrs. add celery after cooking on low for 2-2 1/2hrs. fluff stuffing and shred chicken breasts until everything is well-combined. add a touch of chicken stock if it's too dry for your liking. (for moi, the drier, the better. just like humor should be.)

i'm not kidding you, this was delicious. i told my mom it seemed too simple to be any good. not to mention you cannot actually see the chicken until you are ready to serve it, so i was incredibly nervous about un/der-cooked chicken. (salmonella, anyone?) i told morgan i was taking no credit if it tasted like poo. i called my sisters to tell them to make this. (even if they didn't answer. their loss.) i'm just a bit sad i halved the recipe because the little bit i warmed up for lunch today was just as good as it was last night; i'm pretty sure i could eat this for days. yummm...

picture this

in all of my ginormity, mor being a family picture taking hater and despite finn having a 2hr+ nap, we have a few i'm willing to share. and here they is...

to heck with the "family" in this picture; i think i look goooood (and yes, georgette had finn move his head so as to cover my...ahem...generous amount of cleavage; good thinking, george)

finn is explaining the finer points of zombies. seriously.

how most turned out, classic "us"

thanks to georgette and sarah for "braving the wilds" of the alpine loop. (thomas and emily were terrified that a bear was going to come get them; bekah's biggest fear was some family's teacup poodle running around loose...hahaha!) i'm thinking we might have to make another go of these family pictures, though. after i perfect the "look, ma, no more double chin!" head tilt angle perhaps.

24wks and all's well

i had my 24wk appt yesterday (even though friday marks my "change of week"). we were supposed to discuss the glucose test; you know the one, you get to drink a super-charged version of sunkist in too little time to see if you're likely to suffer from gestational diabetes? that one. well guess what. this girl, she doesn't have to do it! something to do with my very minimal weight gain (still only about 5-7lbs) and finn weighing less than 9lbs when he was born. whatever the reasons, hallelujah! one less thing to worry about finding the time to do.* dr jones and i did discuss my upcoming rhogam injection...ooh the excitement! i don't have to do it until closer to 28wks, but it involves some bloodwork beforehand and blah blah blah. i need to start planning now on when to have it done. (i don't have taterbug on the friday of my 28wk appt, so i'm wondering if it would be okay to do it the same day...? any suggestions or opinions are appreciated. ahem, may, i'm talkin' to you, sister, since you have experience with this.) jones asked me if the babe is active, to which i responded something about how "active" is an understatement. this kid is punching and kicking up a storm. so much so, in fact, that i'm surprised my insides haven't fallen out yet or at least turned to mush. he makes such big movements, you can already see my belly contort. sometimes i cannot tell if he's pushing up against my belly or if i'm having braxton hicks. either way, it's a bit uncomfortable. it is so much more rewarding though, feeling him move and roll around, knowing he's growing and developing. there aren't too many more wonderful things than watching little brother try to kung fu his way outta here!

*i started watching tate everyday except wednesday, and i still have porter on tuesdays and wednesdays, so my weekdays are pretty well spoken for.

the day we went fishing and i lost my rings

yesterday, the three of us met up with finn's good friend, ruthie, and her daddy, steve, to go fishing at a little reservoir. neither mor nor steve had been fishing there before, so we were in for an adventure. all we knew was that the reservoir is stocked with rainbow trout and there is a 2-fish limit, or you can only take home 2 fish and must release any others you may catch. we made it with only one minor directional glitch; in my defense as navigator, the directions said explicitly that there would be a sign where we needed to turn, and there was no such sign. for the shooting range/gun club, yes, but not for the reservoir. whatever. mor and steve were able to post up on what would be the boat launch were boats allowed in the reservoir. it worked out great because the kiddos played on the gravelly beach the whole time. they had a ton of luck with their marshmallow bait and caught fish after fish. the first one mor hooked we had to keep because the darn thing had swallowed the hook all the way into its belly, making it impossible to remove (without killing the fish, obviously). the same thing happened twice with fish steve caught, so we started looking forward to a fresh fish dinner. yum! the most impressive part of the fishing was when steve caught an albino trout! it. was. awesome! without further ado...

with mor's first catch (and keeper) of the day

it was a good pound or so

steve's first catch (and another keeper)

finners and ruthie before they were brave enough to venture into the gravelly sand

right after this, the fish started flipping around and splashing, scaring ruthie to tears

finn with dad's first catch

playing trucks on the beach

the albino! oh yeah, and steve (haha)

reelin' it in

this is the spot, about an hour+ later, where we found my rings; maybe ruthie was trying to tell me something then!

finn, mor and dinner!

steve and pantsless ruthie with the haul

i took off my rings at one point to apply some sunscreen on finn and put them in my lap. before i put them back on, i stood up. if i had realized immediately what had happened, that would be the end of this story. however, i didn't realize it until we were leaving about an hour later. i started to panic, told mor, did a cursory search of where i'd been sitting, and didn't see anything. mor and finn went to buy a metal detector, steve and ruthie went to clean the fish, and i stayed to look. a couple that had been admiring the guys' catch volunteered to help but were nervous it would create a "too many cooks in the kitchen" sort of thing. (all the feet walking around, possibly burying my rings even further or kicking them into the water, etc.) i thanked they profusely for even volunteering to help. then, i called my mom. i freaked her out that something had happened to finn or morgan because i was crying before she even answered the phone. she reassured me that whether i found the rings or they were lost forever, my family was safe and "they're only rings." she said a prayer, and i got back to looking. not long after, steve and ruthie came back to help. (i learned later that they were supposed to take lunch to kam, who was at work all day. i would have felt ridiculous that they stayed to help me instead of feeding their wife/mom, but i was too unbelievably grateful for what they did. we have really great friends.) ruthie got into the water, and i went to sit by her and recheck the sand steve had already sifted. if ruthie hadn't gone swimming when and where she did, i wouldn't have found my rings. i was talking to her and absentmindedly brushing the sand underwater with my foot when i looked down and saw the part of my solitaire where the gold comes up from the band and makes a V. i knew instantly what it was. i picked it up and showed steve and told him i couldn't care less if it was the only one we found; the relief was complete even though i just had the one. ruthie kept swimming and moving deeper, so i kept following her to keep her close. about 15min later, the same thing happened, except that i was talking to steve and brushing the sand with my feet. he looked down the same time i did, and we both saw the silvery circle of my band. i grabbed ruthie and smooched her head and told steve i didn't know how i could repay them for helping me. it was right after i picked up my band that finners came running up the steps into view. "mom! did you find your rings?!" he shouted. i held up my hand so he could see them safely replaced. as the four of us were walking to the parking lot, mor was standing at the car, metal detector in hand, ready to start his search. we made plans for dinner, returned the metal detector (the guy at the store was relieved the rings were found too!), said a prayer of thanks, and talked about how much fun we had fishing. oh, and i might have promised mor to never ever remove my rings EVER again.*

*may i tell you just how hard it has been for me today to NOT take off my rings?! i have always taken them off when i shower, put on lotion, cut up chicken--all things i've done today. i've had to remind myself aloud to leave. them. on. oh, i hope this gets easier.

august...in pictures

finn loves the rides at trafalga, and thanks to our pass of all passes, he gets to enjoy them for free!

his 2nd favorite, after the go-carts der

too excited to get started to listen to the rules

action shot!

he has REALLY started loving baseball

notice the mitt on left, bat in right

and now bat in left, mitt on right; he just might be ambidextrous

"hey, batter batter!"

50% of the time, he hits the ball AND the tee; we're working on it

still an insanely sweaty kid

whenever he finds these glasses (without lenses), he must put them on

mor asked finn if he knew what kind of car this was, so finn told him "yeah, dad, it's a shelby cobra." the owner of the car was behind us, heard finn, and said "any kid his age who knows that, deserves to sit in the car. climb on in!" finn (and mor) was pretty excited.

a totally weird picture, i know, but we wanted finn's reaction to seeing the baby on the big screen; he was concerned that it wasn't a baby at all but a ghost, which made us all laugh out loud

@ wheeler farm

mor couldn't get over how huge this cow is, and it has blue eyes...weird

waiting his turn to drive the tractor; and what better place to wait than on the wheel?

my sweets

in the rickety old tree house; mor remembers this from when he was little

finn loved that this cow was standing in the stream getting a drink

 

all tuckered out on the way home

with his baseball clutched in his hand

july...in pictures

the first week of july, we trekked up to washington for ainsley's birthday and baptism. grandma connie drove back with us and stayed for a week. how did we get so lucky?! too bad we couldn't use the ac through idaho's 106degree+ heatwave; the poor subey kept wanting to overheat in the middle of nowhere. i almost died of heatstroke. i kid. but not really.

he wasn't afraid of the sparklers this year...success!

coop, sawyer, uncle matty, beckett, ains and emerson

thatcher and uncle jason

grandma connie and all her grandkids : em with thatch, ains, grady, beckett, coop and finn, sawyer and grandma holding baby quinn

aunt erica and uncle matty bought this for beckett, and we could hardly keep the little boys out of it!

in olympic national park

mor, finn, ains, sawyer, coop, grady, em, beckett and uncle matty; before em fell off and into stinging nettles

not even close to one of the biggest trees in the forest

all the myers (hawley/shank/slopsema/wall) girls : me, mom, em, meg and quinny, e and ains

checking the current; yep, freezing!

our two skinny long-legged beauties

tender family moment...aww!

@ tolmie state park, very low tide (we went here last year, too, when we were in wa for coop's baptism)

finn was terrified of these teeny crabs and refused to walk in the sand; the crabs are a little smaller than a silver dollar, legs included

the mountains to the south

the mountains to the north (please excuse our expressions, yikes)

em and ains put on a dance show in the backyard, and of course finn and grady had to get in on it too

ahahaha! this is SO ainsley

and the reason for being in wa, ainsley's baptism; all the family that was able to make it : all my family (minus grandpa dave), dave and gavin, ben and blake, gary and ellie

that's all she wrote for wa, because finn decided to come down with bronchiolitis and had to be taken to the er for breathing treatments, an antibiotic and chest xray. (if you're keeping track, this means EVERY time we have travelled to wa, finn has managed to get sick. something to do with all that evergreen-scented air, i guess.)

finn couldn't get enough of grandma reading to him, esp from the dinosaur book she got him

penny couldn't get enough of grandma and finn taking her for walks up and down the street; i love how he's looking at her while she explains something to him

we HAD to take grandma fishing, and she caught one! (obviously i'm terrible at taking pictures, so it looks as though my mom wore the same outfit every day she was here visiting; she didn't, i promise.)

spending some extremely precious time with great grandpa gb and great grandma tootsie

got his stunner shades on

finn got to be a shark in the basket; he wasn't too impressed

probably hiding from ruby, the little girl in his class who "took care of him" she was actually very sweet, and her little brother was in a different class, so she couldn't mother him!