Life Snapshot

• Putting eye drops in a 4 year old to treat pink eye is not fun.
• Thursday I got to hold my niece for a long time, then Aliza and Josiah wanted to be held when I got home. My heart was so full of love and good feelings. By midnight my children decided they had stuffy noses and were scared of lightening which kept me busy until 4am. The good feelings were no longer in my heart.
• Aliza has an imaginary friend. Tootie. We figured out that her Tootie is also the blue cat creature on Yo Gabba Gabba. Tootie pops up at the funniest times.
  
• Josiah and Aliza both played hide and seek outside with Daddy this morning. It's so fun that they can do the same things.
• I have a really neat idea for a scrapbook album.
• In retrospect I should have gotten my college degree in nursing instead of social work. Nursing is much more practical for a stay at home Mom. At home and for job possibilities.
• The book I'm reading now is satisfying my social work interests. When You Love Too Much by Stephen Arterburn. It's about relationship addictions. Very interesting to me.
• I'm thankful that God is faithful to supply all our needs. I'm on a faith journey that is new and challenging for me.
• I taught a friend how to make strawberry jelly. I wish gardening and food preserving were hobbies that I really wished to pursue. They may become chores that I choose to do for the good of my family instead!
• One of these weeks I'm going to look pregnant instead of just having a big roll of baby fat. I'm making bets with myself on how long I'll be able to hold off the maternity clothes.
  
• When I'm outside I'm still scared of finding a slithering creature in my yard. Actually I look up at the trees as much as the grass.
  

Learning

Every so often something "big" happens to let me know that learning is taking place. Aliza showed me the Magna Doodle the other night. She had written her name. She said I didn't know how to write a Z so I wrote a C instead. I showed her how to write a Z, but she wasn't happy with her Z yet.

Josiah surprised us the this week when he repeated numbers 1 through 10 after Aliza. Now he gets a little bit ahead of her. I caught him at the table again. This time absorbed in eating his Doritos--with applesauce.



On an entirely different subject. I am feeling so much better. Just like myself again. Jeremy has been especially great the last couple weeks. Offering to stay home a little longer in the morning, canceling a golf opportunity to come straight home to relieve me and just giving me a little extra space. Little things that go a long way to keep me going.

Garden Tour

Karen and I have enjoyed the Back Alley Garden Tour & Tea for several years now. It is fun to walk around in an historical area and enjoy the hard work that people have invested in their gardens. This year the rain held off and the roses and peonies were in full bloom.


Does it look like something is growing out of Karen's bag? It is. At one garden the owner was giving away starts of a ground cover type plant. Karen was happy to accept the donation to her own garden. Those starts were a conversation starter the rest of the tour. In fact after the tea we walked in a few shops (and got me some more food!) and one lady hounded Karen about that plant until Karen offered to give her one! I'm pretty sure we will be back next year!

Aliza made sticky buns with Grandma. They are yummy!

Josiah spent as much time as possible outside on the lawnmower, riding the tricycle and throwing balls.

Aliza and Brandi have a tradition now of having tea or a picnic together.

One thing I love about going to my in-laws is that I get to watch my children play from a distance. This time I most enjoyed watching Josiah on this tricycle. He can't pedal yet, but he uses his toes to go and he can go fast!

What is Hanging Out of the Bluebird House?

I was talking to my sister-in-law on the phone and looking at the bluebird house. It dawned on me after some minutes that something was hanging out of the house. After a few more minutes I realized that it was a snake. I have no tolerance for free snakes. They give me the creeps. My sister-in-law is even worse so after some exclamations of horror I hung up and started calling the men in my life. Jeremy was at the driving range and Dad was not in town. Meanwhile, Meghan called Brian. A couple minutes later the snake emerged....and kept emerging.....and kept emerging. Now I'm starting to sweat as it slithered toward the house. I call Meghan back with the status update and she informs me that she will call Brian back and tell him to get over to my house. Thankfully my brother is always up for hunting down animals and he was between jobs. He made good time getting to my house. In the meantime the snake headed back up the tree. By the time Brian got here he saw this:

Not one, but two snakes!

He disposed of the first one. The second promptly went inside the birdhouse. We waited for the snake to come out. After a while it started to come out and Brian stunned it so it went back inside. Brian then decided to open the birdhouse. I told him he didn't have to save it, but being the sentimental guy he is, Brian didn't want to destroy it since my Grandad made it out of kitchen cabinets from one of their homes. Brian carefully unscrewed the top, knocked the lid off and the snake came out. I'll spare you the details. He'll have the gruesome pictures posted on Facebook.

My children were intrigued. Aliza was most concerned for the Mama bird who lost her babies. The Mama will be so sad she said.

Brian with his trophies. Gross. Gross. Gross.

A Little Jelly Making

A little strawberry jelly making today and a lot of playing with children time. This was the first time that ALL 5 of the Sheats grandchildren were together. It was fun to have Renee with us. The purpose of the day (or maybe it was the excuse to get together) was to make a batch of strawberry jelly.

Mom had so much help. She was topping the berries just as fast as she could!

It was kindof fun to be the Mom that was most available to help. That will be short lived!

Gideon helped with the lids. He is one smiley little boy!

Just the proof that we did indeed make jelly!

Meghan gave Janell a Moby wrap today. I think Renee loved it. She looked so sweet. I love the little hand over the side.

Everybody listening to a story.

Janell and I traded babies...

The boys reading tractor books.

Persevere

Some hard days. I suppose it was inevitable that the thyroid stuff would get worse before it gets better. This week I have good reason to count down to the weekend. I should start to notice a difference by Monday.

Our First Glimpse of Baby #3

I'll be 12 weeks this weekend! My due date stays November 28, however my plan is to schedule the c-section early enough that I'll be home for Thanksgiving.

It was thrilling to see that little heart beating. There were 2 arms, 2 legs, spine, and head. We are good to go!

So Jeremy and I have decided that waiting for the doctor for a GYN appointment is the most awkward thing we do as a couple. Especially when we have to wait for 30 minutes. Trying to ignore the fact that I'm wrapped in paper. There isn't really anything to talk about. I keep fussing with the top. Jeremy finally got sick of the fidgeting, found tape on the counter and taped the back of the top together. It struck me as really funny, but was much more comfortable--and warm!

I admit that I pumped my fist and let out a Whoop! when I was told that my thyroid was low. Not just a little low either. Way off! The high end of normal is about 5. My level today was 13.99. To put that in perspective, when I had my radiation treatment my level had to be 30. Now I have a new prescription and should feel different in a week or so. I was so incredibly relieved. It's been a couple weeks that I've suspected that it might be low, but it is hard to put my finger on one thing that I can blame completely on thyroid. Some days I have felt like lead. So heavy and tired, fuzzy thinking, light headed and short on patience. This is after I sleep all night (with a few brief interruptions usually) and take a nap in the afternoon. Nap time has been my lifesaver. I have to keep my children in a quiet time routine for my own health. I would not survive these fluctuations with any sanity without naps.I usually beat myself up for sleeping too long in the afternoon, but today I gave myself permission to sleep. I slept solid 2 hours. By 7 I was yawning again. It is really crazy.

Spring Supper

One of my favorite magazines right now is Life:Beautiful. In the spring edition there was a menu for a spring supper that included vegetable soup, breadsticks and strawberry popovers. That sounded good to me so I used a vegetable beef soup recipe that we like and tried out the magazine's popover recipe. I really had no idea what popovers even were, but based on the picture they looked good! I was pleased that mine turned out well. Popovers in themselves don't have much taste, but combining it with ice cream and strawberries was very yummy.

New Mom and Great Husbands

It takes a great husband to have a great Mother's Day. I have a great husband! My gift was a scrapbook day yesterday. I had a lovely day scrapbooking with Chrissy and visiting with my Mom. Jeremy had Aliza and Josiah color me special pictures that they were very proud to deliver to me at church last night. Today Jeremy had the toys picked up when I got up after sleeping in. He made some cinnamon rolls for me, washed the lunch dishes and now is tucking both Aliza and Josiah in bed. Janell just come home from the hospital today (more later in this post!) and Laura and Linda are out of town so it was Brian's family and us at my parents for dinner. The men made the meal, served and cleaned up. It was great!

Dad made ham, macaroni and cheese (from scratch), and salad.

Jeremy made dinner rolls and sweet tea.

Brian made and decorated this cake. Himself. Impressive!

Janell had her baby girl on Friday, May 7. Renee Autumn. 6lbs 8oz. She is so precious to hold. Janell has some cute pictures of her with bows in her hair. Thanks to Brian coming late at night to stay with my children, Jeremy and I were able to meet Renee at the hospital soon after she was born. That was extra special for me. I'm afraid I was emotionally involved from a distance all day while Janell was in labor! This afternoon Jeff and Janell came home with Renee. We stopped in so Aliza and Josiah could meet their new cousin. Aliza has been very excited about this baby. This morning she said, "Mommy, I am dying to go to my Janell's house."

On Being Pregnant

I have wanted to write some thoughts about this pregnancy, but I've had a hard time formulating my thoughts into words. I am thrilled to be expecting a baby. Jeremy is thrilled for me to be expecting a baby. Aliza is thrilled to know that "Mommy has a baby in her tummy." It amazes me how excited children are for babies to join their family. They instinctively know that there is always room for a new baby in the family. Aliza has told me that she is going to feed the baby and wash the baby when Mommy is tired. How does she know I will be tired???

I know I will be tired. This being my third pregnancy I don't have any wild expectations of glamor. I know how tough those first months are. I know what tired is. I have also learned that there are seasons and phases. Some are tough and others are not as tough. Some are even fun and easy!

I'm a person who likes to please other people. Going against the cultural norm of a 4 person family was a little scary for me. I wondered how my friends and acquaintances would respond. Two of my retired neighbors gave me the same response that made me smile. They said, Oh! 3 is wonderful and 4 is even better!

I feel really good. Most of the time I would forget that I'm pregnant if it were not for my thickening waistline and outrageous appetite! I gain so much weight--and it starts right away.

First sonogram is a week from Friday. According to my calculations I'll be just about 12 weeks by then! Time flies....