HALLOWEEN

I know this picture isn't too much different than the one from the morning, except Colette's makeup - I didn't think the one big eye thing was going to work out. So here they are right before trick-or-treating:


The weather was perfect...I'm not sure what the temperature was exactly, but I think it was somewhere around 50 degrees, and it wasn't raining! The girls had lots of fun tonight going to the trunk-or-treat at church, and visiting each set of grandparents. Hardly anyone could tell that they were aliens. People guessed bees, butterflies, fairies...one or two people guessed aliens. Oh well, the girls liked their costumes and that's all that matters to me!

Oh, and I'm 39 weeks today! I'm glad I made it through today because I wanted to be able to participate in Halloween. Now I'd just like to get to Saturday afternoon and then anytime after that is fine with me :-) We'll see if baby cooperates.

Halloween so far...

Somehow I didn't get the memo that the kids weren't supposed to wear costumes to school. And Adrienne's class was having a Halloween party that parents were encouraged to volunteer to help out with. Not knowing about the no costume thing I thought if I were to get Adrienne all dressed up in her costume and not Colette, that Colette would get upset...so Colette and I planned to come to the party, so Colette could get dressed up too and I would help out with the party. When we walked in the class I saw right away that no kids were dressed up, and here are Adrienne and Colette looking like this (they're aliens):

I know how Adrienne is, so I knew she was going to be upset about being the only one dressed up (she's a lot like me, I would have been upset too). I told her she could stay in her costume or we could go home and change and come back. She wanted to go home and change. We were back at the school in a half an hour - they still had pink and green hair, but didn't stand out anymore. By the way, I had planned to do a better job on their face makeup, but ended up rushed. I don't know if you can tell that that is supposed to be one large eye in the middle of Colette's face...maybe I'll do a better job later today.

So after that little hang up, things were a lot of fun. Colette was very well behaved, so that was good or I would have felt bad about bringing her. They had the kids divided up into four groups and the groups went around to different activities - like bean bag toss and bowling. I helped out at the bingo table - looking over the kids shoulders to help them spot the pictures that they didn't notice they had, or when they'd get a bingo and not notice.

After the activities they had snacks, and then a quick recess. Recess pretty much consisted of the kids running around aimlessly because they didn't have time to pull out the toys. Running around aimlessly never looked so fun! It was so cute. At one point Adrienne went up to her crush (he's adorable by the way) and he stopped running and let her give him a hug. Then later when all the kids were lining up at the wall to go back into the class, he and Adrienne huddled up together, and I'm not sure, but they may have been holding hands. Goodness, this relationship is progressing so quickly! I'm not nervous yet because it is all very innocent and sweet.

After recess Colette and I left, while the rest the class, along with the rest of the school went to a Halloween play in the gym. Later when I picked up Adrienne at the bus stop I told her that I got to see her crush - she informed me that the status has been upgraded from crush to boyfriend. Then she told me that he told her that she's his true love. Oh my.

Update on Adrienne's Crush

So Adrienne just informed me that she told her crush today that she's in love with him.

I asked her what he said...he's in love with her too. Then they pretended they were married and had a house.

I should be scared, but I think it's adorable. :-)

Colette's Art

Up until now Colette's art has consisted of scribbles with not much thought put into it, as far as I could tell. Well I know these don't look like much, but I was impressed by the difference of time and care she put into these. She did this at church, and even though it still looks like a lot of scribbles, it must have taken quite awhile to change crayons so often, plus it looks like there was more of an effort to stay in the lines.

On this one she put the stickers on a week or two ago at her grandma's house, today she decided to add the crayon - again she took more time and care to color that than she's taken coloring in the past (and more time than she took to put those stickers on!).
So it will be interesting to see what she does from here :-)

Puppy Love

Adrienne has a crush. She already loves school, and now even more she can't wait to go back as soon as she gets home because she wants to spend time with her crush. I mentioned that family or friends could ask and I would send the picture of her class, so far no one's wanted to see it. I probably wouldn't want to see a picture of a bunch of kids I don't know either, but if anyone wants to see her crush then again I'm offering to email the link to the picture.

Poo Poo Pee Pee!

My mom likes to think of the girls as little ladies, but Mike likes to taint them when he can :-) Looks like Mike's influence might be winning out a touch.

The other day Colette had a couple handfuls of rocks she brought in from outside. She was re-arranging them in different patterns, and stacking them, etc. Later she was sitting on the floor with her legs out to the sides and the rocks in a line between her legs and she says - "I'm pooping!"

The next morning as I'm helping the girls get ready for the day, Adrienne says "Get these yucky things off me!" (referring to her underwear) - Then she tells me about a dream she had that night where she needed to go to the bathroom, but it was taken, so she peed on the floor and wiped with her underwear. Guess it still felt a little real for her to cause such a reaction!

Chuck E. Cheese

Chuck E. Cheese is new to Silverdale. It opened in early September and I wanted to have Colette's birthday party there, but it was so booked out it was hard to find a good time. So Adrienne, Colette and I went with a friend to check it out. I've only been to Chuck E.'s one other time when I was about 10, at the one in Tacoma. It was lots of fun, and much more reasonable price-wise than I thought it was going to be, so I can see going more often than I thought we would.

Here are some pictures that some of the rides take while the kids are on them:

Colette & Chuck E.


Adrienne's 1st shot with Chuck E.

After seeing the first shot, Adrienne being the model she is took another ride - I think with the sole purpose of re-doing the photo shoot.

Pretty photogenic, I'd say.

Not me! - I look gross...my face looks puffy pregnant and my hair is blah. But Colette looks cute!

Updated House Pics

When there are a bunch of photos to upload, it takes too long to do them one-by-one on here, so I did them on Picasa where I could do five at a time.

Here are the most recent house pics with captions. For larger images, click on the slideshow:

Randomness

Counting down...I'm 38 weeks today.

Here's Adrienne's Kindergarten picture. For family and friends, if you want to see her class picture let me know and I will send you a link...I don't think I should post the picture of all those kids without their parents knowing.


The weather's been so weird...yesterday started out normally cool for October and nice because it wasn't raining. Halfway through the day and running errands I was feeling hot and actually had to turn the A/C on...thought it was just me and being pregnant. But when I got home I checked the temperature online and it was 80 degrees! It was so nice, I couldn't believe it was so warm on October 23rd! Today it's sprinkling and 52 degrees.

These are some pictures I was going to put up back in August about the time the computer died and we switched computers. They're of Mike putting up the trusses in his shop...quite a long way if he were to fall. It was scary to watch, especially since my dad had taken his fall just a week or two before this.

I'm planning on taking pictures of the house today to post night, so check back!

Fall Pics

So I went back to get those pictures I talked about yesterday. I don't know if you can tell how pretty this tree looks. With the way the sun was shining on it, when I turned the corner it looked like it was on fire it was so bright.

Cute mushrooms...reminds me of the Smurfs :-)

The pumpkins the girls colored

Missed photo ops

Today was one of those route days where I wished I had a camera with me. There were some pretty things - I love Fall (my favorite season) and really should just keep a camera on me at all times during this time of year. There was one tree in particular that I loved, and I think I may even make a special trip to take a picture, hopefully it will do it justice. I also have seen an abundance of many different mushrooms in the area, there was a cluster that was especially interesting looking that I would have taken a picture of - I think I'll still try and get a picture of those too. One thing from today I can't go back and get a picture of was an animal I saw walking along the side of a main road...a chicken. Just wandering along looking around like it was taking in the sights. No, it never did cross the road.

Feelin Lucky

There's been a windstorm here all day, and the power's been on and off - mostly just flickers, but enough to turn the computer off every time...which was sort of obnoxious since I was working on the bills which I eventually abandoned. When it came to be dinner time I didn't want to risk getting something cooking and then have the power go out in the middle of it and end up with half-cooked food. So we opted for Wendy's...as did everyone else in the county. Driving to get dinner I felt really lucky to have power, just about 1/2 a mile down the road from us the power was out and for quite a way into town. But lucky us again, Wendy's had power! So we're feeling quite cozy tonight in our crappy little trailer. :-)

Full Term

I'm 37 weeks today...let the waiting game begin!

This Weekend

Yesterday was a long and tiring day, but fun! Route was sort of scary - the fog was so thick I had to run the wipers! As soon as I finished I had to get ready to go - I was able to go with Mike onto the shipyard at PSNS and see where he works! It was the first "Family Day" at the shipyard since before 9/11. I guess they had one planned for that year, and then when 9/11 happened they canceled it and a lot of people didn't think they'd be doing them again at all. It was pretty neat to see what was beyond those gates. It was like a town from a time-capsule. I got to see the Stennis in the dry dock and I knew it was massive, but to see it in person is really mind-blowing. It's amazing to me that us little humans take on such huge tasks. So that was pretty cool, but it was too bad that the girls couldn't come (actually they could have, but Mike thought they were too young and found out too late that they weren't) - hopefully they will do more in the future and they can come then. But we may be able to take a tour of the Lincoln (aircraft carrier for those who don't know) with the girls, and they'd probably find that more interesting anyway. One thing about touring the shipyard with Mike that was embarrassing - I am in the worst shape in my life ever (no exaggeration), and Mike is in the best shape he's been in since we were first married and doing HVAC. I can blame a lot of my slowness on the baby right now though - we walked about a mile yesterday and Mike said he felt like he was walking at a snail's pace - the sad thing was I was pushing myself HARD! What polar opposites we are right now - I can't wait to have the baby and start to catch up! I was actually having contractions all day yesterday afterward from all that walking. And it was only 1 mile! I've sure come a long way in the wrong direction since the triathlon two years ago! Oh well, soon enough....

So, Colette's birthday probably seems never-ending here on this blog - but we just had her birthday party last night, so wanted to put up some pictures. It was pretty fun, and not too hard to put on - I recycled some decorations from Adrienne's 2nd birthday party, and kept everything pretty simple. Since our trailer is still too small to host parties (maybe we'll be in the house by Adrienne's birthday in January!!), we had it at my sister's apartment complexes clubhouse - so nice not to have to clean before, and the clean up afterward was pretty fast thanks to my wonderful family's help :-)

I don't know what's up with my camera, but lately the pictures are coming out all blurry and I'm not sure what to do about it. These were the best I could find, and even a lot of these are blurry:

Waiting for the guests to arrive

The cake - by my talented friend Sarah

Those candles are so cool - the flames burn the color of the wax
(can't really tell by this picture)

Colette getting sung to :-)

Opening gifts. This one here is her most favorite - a Furberry - they're adorable.

So today was pretty exciting. We got to go visit some good friend's in the hospital because they had their 3rd baby. She had a scheduled c-section, so we knew two weeks ago that we'd be going today! Everything went well with the surgery, and the baby's beautiful. Being in the hospital made me feel eager to meet my own baby - I'll be back in that same hospital in just a matter of weeks!

Fruit Flies

This is sort of an odd and gross topic to blog about and I should be asleep, but once again I am amazed about...fruit flies! Where do they come from!? I just spotted one from out of no where and it got me thinking about this again...

I have a garbage can I keep on the porch outside the kitchen that anything that might attract fruit flies goes in. So I mostly don't see any in the house at all, but will see them swarming around the garbage can outside (which when it gets too out of hand or gross I'll spray with Raid). The times I do see them in the house are when I'm in the middle of cooking or eating - they just appear seemingly out of no where! They totally gross me out, but yet they amaze me!

A few months ago I was putting something in the frige and as I was shutting the door thought I saw a fruit fly in the frige. YUCK, so I searched and searched in the frige trying to find it and get it out and never did. I chalked it up to my imagination, or to being the one I saw a minute later hovering above the sink. But to comfort myself I went to the computer to see if I could find out at which temperatures fruit flies would die, hoping that the frige would be cold enough to do the trick if there was one in there. I never did find out, but on one site I came across, there was a Q&A section with these little known facts about the buggars:

Q: Is there anything unusual about fruit flies I might find interesting?

A: Fruit flies can metabolize alcohol fumes. Yes, FUMES. While they obviously can't lay eggs in a gas, they are able to "eat" the fumes to subsist.

A: Fruit flies can be addicted to crack cocaine. When "high", they groom obsessively, and walk sideways and backwards (which they never do naturally). Dead Easy did NOT conduct that research.

A: Fruit flies are the critter most used for genetic research worldwide.

A: Fruit flies learn some functions better without a head. Yes, that's right, decapitated.

...Again, disgusting, but amazing!

The Pumpkin Baby

Instead of carving pumpkins this year we just colored on them. Again, I need simplicity right now. I'm just glad the girls are young enough that they don't care if things aren't done how they're "supposed" to be.

Last night we went to Mike's parents' garden to pick out some pumpkins and they each colored one.
Not the best picture, but you get the idea. The plus about not carving them is that they'll stay good for awhile.

I also picked one out for making pumpkin stew. This recipe is not much harder than making regular stew and it's so yummy and so Fall (my favorite season)...I highly recommend trying it!

Adrienne pretending she's pregnant...she has Colette's little pumpkin under her clothes.

After that they've been referring to Colette's pumpkin as "The Pumpkin Baby."

Speaking of pregnancy...I've had a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions this week. I didn't get them much with the girls, so this is new.

We're still walking to the bus stop and boy I didn't even realize how bad I needed the exercise until I started getting it! This'll be a good jump start for getting back in shape after baby. It's been so nice lately, we've only had one day where we've walked in sprinkles.

Colette's Birthday

It's weird having a kid's birthday on an ordinary busy Tuesday. Her party's going to be Saturday - just family - I need to keep it ultra simple this year with everything going on with the house and baby (sorry to friends reading this!). She's enjoying it anyway, I sang to her when she first woke up and she got a birthday donut at Walmart. Adrienne's giving her special treatment today - letting her pick first on everything, and get away with things she wouldn't normally. Here are a few pictures of Colette on her 3rd birthday morning!


I just love those cheeks, I want to squeeze and kiss them all the time!

Bizarre

I had a really bizarre experience today. I went to Walmart to pick up some things I'd bought online for the baby. I came for two things and the lady brought out three boxes. I told her I'd only ordered the two things, so she proceeded to open up the boxes - the first two boxes were the two items I came for. The third box was addressed to me and had my correct address on the packing slip - she looked at the packing slip and it said it was a Moses basket. I told her I'd already picked that up a few weeks ago. So she opens up the third box, and of all the things to have accidentally sent to a person......this is what was in the box!


Totally freaked the lady out. I just started laughing, although it was slightly disturbing...thought for a second someone was playing a joke on me, but I really think it was just a mistake.

She says "We'll be denying this one...just try to forget about this."

COLETTE'S BIRTHDAY

Okay, so it's not Colette's birthday yet, but I have time to do this now and I may not have time on her birthday.

Her birthday is Tuesday and she'll be 3!

While I'm on the topic of Colette I'm going to catch up on some of the cute things about her from lately:

She loves to cuddle. She'll say "I wanna cuddle you" - the way she says "cuddle" sounds a bit like "curdle" - which somehow makes it even cuter.

Since Adrienne's been at school I thought she might like the one-on-one time with me. But whenever I've asked her while Adrienne's at school "Colette, is it fun when it's just Colette and Mommy?" she says "No, I want to pick up Adrienne."

She loves cantaloupe and first thing she says when she wakes up is "I want cantaloupe."

She loves butterflies and has a favorite shirt with a butterfly on it she calls her "by-by shirt." You can't see it too well in this picture, but you get an idea. This is at her cousin Charlotte's birthday in July:
While I was looking for this picture of her "by-by" shirt, there was also this one of Adrienne from the party I thought I'd throw in because I like it:


She also has a favorite hat (see it in this post), she seems to be very fashion conscious even at age 3 - I have such girly-girls.

She made a little friend recently, she calls it her "prend." The only thing is she shudders and recoils every time she sees this friend. It's a spider on our porch. Once she gets past the shuddering and recoiling she'll watch and talk to it.

My kids are so odd, but in a good way. Adrienne loves school and homework - the teacher wanted to conserve paper and isn't giving kids homework for the letters they already know. Adrienne wants to do the homework and so I'm asking the teacher if she can do it if I give her an extra ream of paper. And then there's Colette. She is so easy to get down for a nap, and I am praying it keeps up after baby as well. The other day I told her it was naptime and her response was "Yay! I LIKE nap!"

House Pic

So the most noteworthy change is the sheeting is all done and the roof is on. There've been other changes that aren't as visible. The next most visible change outside will be the siding. Then things inside will start moving along and I'll post more pictures from inside.

Miscellaneous

So this post is just some silly random stuff we entertain ourselves with here. I was making paper cut-outs of different shapes for the girls - spiders, dolphins, butterflies, cats (see below), etc. I tried making a rabbit, and I thought it was funny because it turned out looking like Stitch from "Lilo and Stitch" which also happens to be Adrienne's favorite T.V. show (there's a T.V. series of "Lilo and Stitch" also - because of it being Adrienne's current favorite show, the girls are going to be aliens for Halloween this year :-) Adrienne cut the 4 Stitch's apart - here's one in this pic:
What you see below are video games Adrienne made. She'll sit and hold them and press on the buttons and make exclamations as if she's playing a real video game. What imagination...that would bore me to tears.

Adrienne playing "paper girl" - delivering newspapers like her mommy.

Guess when the baby's birth date will be!

(Update: I changed the post date on this post from the due date to the date I posted this on, and put another link to the side so it's visible for those seeing it for the first time.)

I'm copying friend Jen who also did this...Go to the link below and enter your guess about when this baby will be born. Whoever's closest wins (you don't actually win anything, except the satisfaction of knowing you guessed right :-)

Can you believe I'm 35 weeks!

A Summary

So the arrival of the baby is very close! For those of you that don't know...37 weeks is full term, so the baby could come anytime after two weeks from now, to two weeks after the due date. I would expect to hear a lot less out of me after he's born, but I'll try to still do quick updates, or summarize every once in awhile like I'm about to do here.

I've gotten behind on the blogging recently, but kept notes about what's been going on, so here's a summary:

• Birthday/Reunion: Going back to August - I'm sure nobody remembers but I said I would say how my birthday was :-) Since I've "grown-up" I don't expect anyone to make a fuss over me, and so I just make a fuss over myself. If anyone else acknowledges it, or gives gifts or cards or whatever, it's a bonus! I was going to make one of my favorite cakes (strawberry, chocolate), but my kitchen is just too cluttered, and I was too busy anyway. So I treated myself with a manicure and pedicure and eyebrow wax. Which worked out well because my 10-year high school reunion was also on my birthday, so I looked extra spiffy, and being 30 weeks pregnant then, it was a nice treat! So that was my birthday in a nut-shell. I did have some family and friends give a some gifts and cards, and that is always really fun. The reunion was good too, not awkward and horrible like you see on movies. I think the next one will be better because I think a lot of people had a good time so maybe we'll all be less nervous next time. Okay, so this is supposed to be a summary, and already with the first topic I'm getting long-winded. I'm trying to prevent breaking this up into a bunch of posts to make it more readable like I did when I was catching up in June...so, let's see if I can get more concise from here on out.........
• Pregnancy related: September - pretty much in denial that it was so close as I was so unprepared. And when I wasn't in denial I was in panic-mode. I still had a lot of annoyances like the sciatica problem, or headaches. Didn't have leg cramps, but had leg aches instead which were almost worse because instead of pain that came and went, they just ached and kept me awake. Also, this may not be pregnancy related, but I think it is because I don't usually have problems with my teeth when I'm not pregnant and I think the calcium is leached from my teeth while I'm pregnant weakening them (doc and dentist also thought this could be a possibility, so not just my own crazy theory) - So, after all that work I had done in April and thinking I was all squared away - my tooth farthest back on the top right broke. UGH.... October: Not as many headaches and back issues, I actually feel pretty good except for it being hard to get up and down from couches, beds, etc. I went to the dentist this week and luckily the tooth can wait until January (when I'll have insurance money again, used it all up early on this year and that's why I'd gone to Mexico for all the rest. We had to pay ourselves for the appointment this week.), so that's good news, and it can be filled for now, but will need a crown later - so good news about being able to wait for the crown. But, not so good news about the work done in Mexico. Apparently my dentist thinks the crowns are too big and making my gums a little swollen and is suggesting the four crowns be replaced. They're going to check them out again after the pregnancy too, because the swelling could be related to that. Either way, it isn't urgent and so I can do one a year or something. I don't regret getting the work done in Mexico though because the crowns were $1000 for the 4 of them. If I had them done here I would have paid $1000 for each because our insurance was out and would have had to pay the full price - so $4000. Now I can do one a year with half the cost covered by insurance, so $500 - if you include the $250 I paid for each in Mexico, that's $750 for each and still less than the $1000 I would have had to pay to do them here earlier this year when they were an emergency. So yeah, still no regrets, but maybe I should take back my referral to that dentist. So this started out as pregnancy-related, but I went off on dental-related :-) Plus this isn't very concise. So to finish up about pregnancy-related for this month so far - So I said I was in denial and panic mode last month - Well I'm not that much more prepared this month than last month, but I'm feeling less worried and know it's all going to work out. I just can't wait to meet this little person! ..............So really, I'll be quicker from now on :-)................
• House-progress: I'll put up pictures tomorrow. The roofing is almost done. This month should bring a lot of progress - siding, plumbing, electrical, and HVAC. My dad working on siding with some help from Mike, Mike doing HVAC, and we're hiring out the plumbing and electrical. We're estimating to be done by the New Year, so that would be great. Worst case scenario is late February when the lock on our loan expires. The biggest factor effecting when we finish may not be how quickly people work, but with the financing. With all the turmoil in the market lately, it's causing the bank to be really stingy with getting us our money. We've been using credit cards to get by and will pay them back when the draws finally go through, but if this keeps up it can really start to hold us up. One fun thing has been taking advantage of craigslist and other deals - since the carpet and tub, we've also saved a bundle on - siding, doors, base & case, range, dishwasher, roofing materials, and roofing labor.
  
• Route-related: So part of the reason I got behind on the blogging was because of route issues. We're going to need to come up with some more income once the house is done so I thought it would be a good idea to take on some more routes. I tried some out for about a month from mid-August to mid-September and it SUCKED. My count was up to 1800 (up from 1400), won't go into it, but that extra 400 papers added almost 3 hours to my already 5-6 and it was just TOO MUCH (more than just delivery time there was time spent going to the dump,more stops for picking up papers and gas, etc.). Besides having more papers that time I was doing the new routes was horrible because the papers were late on a regular basis and so instead of finishing at 1:00-2:00 a.m. on Tuesday nights I'd be up until 4:30 a.m. AND have to go back out and finish in the morning. Then on Saturdays I'd be delivering till 12:00-1:00 p.m.(instead of 10:00-11:00 a.m.) and going out again Saturday night to finish. Couple cool things I saw while on route recently though - I saw a fox - I stopped right in front of it and it stared at me, so I'm sure it was a fox. The cool thing was it was all black, except for a white tipped tail, and white eyebrows. Also, the same night I saw a shooting star that was really bright and wide, and BLUE. It was so pretty. (Just looked up "black fox" on google, found some pics - see this link)
  
• MISC-sort of route and house related? In one week we had two tires go flat - one on the van while Mike was driving it, one on the CRX while I was doing route (sucky). We know the CRX one was caused by two nails in the tire, and don't know but suspect the van had a nail in it too. We have some large magnets on a stick that are sold for the purpose of picking nails and other metal objects on job sites, so it had been too long since I'd gone out and swept the area with those - will have to do that again very soon (Mike went over real quick). Luckily the CRX tire was patchable (thank you to Les Schwab for patching it for free!), so that's good, and the van needed new tires anyway, so that just sped that along - will be going back this week to get the other three.
  
• School-related: Weird how quickly we adjust. I thought I was going to hate getting up early, but like I thought it would, it's brought more structure to my schedule and it's been a good thing. There's already been a day off from school (last Friday) and after only a month it felt weird for there not to be school - how quickly we adapt! Adrienne still loves it and can't wait to go to bed at night, hope this keeps up! I mentioned in a previous post that she's just recently been riding the bus. It had rained a lot at first, but since it's been nicer Colette and I are taking advantage of every sunny day and walking to pick her up. It's 1/4 mile each way, so a good walk for my pregnant self - not too long, but long enough to feel like I got a little exercise! (especially going up the driveway) We've walked 3 times now (would have been 4 if I weren't late one day), and I plan to go every sunny day and if I can find my big huge umbrella we'll go on slightly rainy days as well. I learned after the first day that I need to allow five extra minutes to put my shoes on...the way I'm carrying this baby I feel like I have a piece of wood strapped around my abodomen, it's so hard to bend. The girls I carried more in my pelvis and they sort of folded in at the hip.
  
• MISC- I saw a documentary on TLC about the Duggar Family - I thought it was pretty amazing learning about them and found their family very inspirational (there's hope for me if they can do it with 17 kids!) - if interested, here's a link to their site.