blog is a funny word

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: blog is a funny word

I am finding myself embroiled in another mini-drama with administrative types at Kate's school. They are disallowing an assignment she turned in ages ago to the quintessential absent-minded substitute. They can't find the assignment, etc., etc. She redid the assignment, Mac and I have sworn that she did the assignment initially and turned it in, yet... The administration says it's "past the deadline". I'm so teed off about this. It's in science, which had been her reliable A class (as in, above 95% average), and now with this assignment and the previous one she screwed up on... She will be lucky to squeak by with a C. And I'm just plain mad on principle. I'm the first one to say that my kid needs to be penalized to the full extent of the system if it's her mistake. If she's not paying attention in class, and misses something important, that's totally on Kate. But in this case... It just makes me so mad. And it reminded me of why I never went into teaching. I just don't have the temperament for it. I took an ed class in college and I hated it with a passion. I hated the condescending professor who treated us like middle schoolers. I hated how he chewed me out for arriving late to class one time, AND pulled me aside after class to tell me again in case I missed it the first time in front of the whole class. (I had to walk over a mile to get to that class from my Physics class, in about 8 minutes.) Every run-in I've had with the administration at this school has been just frustrating. This time I'm going through the "center for the highly gifted" administrator rather than the actual school admin. Maybe that will be better? My gripes this year include:

*Bus drivers who disperse opinions about how unfair we are as parents. That's the tip of the inappropriate comments made iceburg.
*Security guards kicking kids off the bus for *gasp* waving out the windows. Then leaving the kids at the curb of the school for someone to pick them up from school, knowing full well we live in an area where over 90% of the kids have no one at home after school.
*VP of the school telling the kids to get involved in fights to try to break them up. Idiot.
*Teachers only give negative feedback about Kate. I've yet to hear anything positive about her. It's all, "she doesn't participate in class", and "she doesn't put forth any effort." And then when a teacher was handing back results from some standardized test, and saw that Kate again was in the 99th percentile for the reading, the teacher looked shocked, incredulous, and doubtful... And then there's the teacher who yelled at Kate for smiling at her friend (you know how middle schoolers have a zilliion inside jokes) and the teacher went off on how Kate is a "rude girl". :huh:

I just feel like this whole middle school thing has been a twilight zone experience. Common sense has left the building. The administrators and teachers seem to have the expectation that the kids will behave like 10th or 11th graders. And there is a world of difference between an 11 year old and a 16 year old. I just don't think the kids in general are ready to meet those expectations. They are still tweeners: impulsive, immature, self-centered, hormonal, insecure... I'm ready for summer.

Anyway, in other news on the spectrum of incompetence, the test results of my titre have been confirmed to be only 1:16. This is clinically significant, since for my blood incompatibility issue the benchmark at which the OB's kick you over to the high risk category is 1:32. That's when they start the amnio, the more regular monitoring, etc., etc. Turns out my first titre, which originally registered at 1:32, actually was 1:16. So this means all this time I should have just been having my titres measured and not had to worry about the extra ultrasounds, extra doctor appointments, etc., etc. I'm not off the hook, of course, because my titre very well could increase at any time, but still. I just wish I had the last 6 weeks back to not be overly concerned. I think I won't tell my parents about this new development, though. It will just increase the pressure for me to somehow convince the doctors that I can travel late in my pregnancy, when at the bottom of my heart I know that won't do any good at all.

I had a really strange dream the other night. I have very vivid, realistic dreams when I'm pregnant. When I was pregnant with Luke, I dreamed that Mac was having an affair. I was so mad, I woke him up and started to chew him out. I was ready to kick his sorry rear end out of my life forever. He was, of course, totally bewildered. It was so bizarre. (He wasn't having an affair, of course, which I knew when I thought about it...) So this last dream was that my dad had died rather suddenly, but from a health issue like a heart attack perhaps. He owns 3 medical clinics and has something like 25 employees. So, these businesses were going downhill, because he's a major micro-manager. My mom and sister were basically in a daze, and not doing anything about the clinics. It was so frustrating, that I woke up almost crying. It took me about 20 minutes to sort out that it was a dream. :huh:

In other news, today is finally sunny and nice. We had monsoon-like rains! Our backyard is useless b/c of the mud, but hopefully the sun and wind will dry it out a bit. I'll take the sun anyway. I hope the rain stays away for a while! Enough already!

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: blog is a funny word

The latest on the idiotic bus driver front--- two days ago she got "mad" at Kate and her friends for bothering her. Apparently she had a headache and the kids wouldn't stop talking to her and teasing her. Yes, the bus driver, their best bud, who shops at Hot Topic (screamer heavy metal type store that you actually cross to the other side of the mall to get away from) and tells Kate that we, her parents, are "totally unfair". Then yesterday she was over it, and back in living vicariously through the sixth graders, and she colluded with another one of Kate's friends to "dare" Kate to hug this boy that Kate likes... and the bus driver and Kate's friend would give Kate $5 for this hilarious stunt... So Kate did it ( ) and the bus driver and friend guffawed appropriately, the boy was mortified... Kate hasn't received the payment, and she was informed with great clarity by her meany parents that she will not be paid to hug anyone. Ever. Ever never never ever. I can't wait until this year is over if only because she'll move to the middle section of the bus where the 7th graders sit--- away from the bus driver. I remember my bus drivers-- they were mean, bald (even the women! ) and we had nicknames for them like "Kojack" and "Helga". We wouldn't talk about our families, our crushes, shopping... A whole new world, I guess.

In other news... Mac had a week of leave and I had grand plans for him to get all sorts of projects done, but he sort of wanted to follow me around to my daily stuff (like taking kids to school, shopping, etc) and so guess how much time he actually had to work on projects? Not much... The one day I forced him to work he restained the deck, and then later that night it started to rain. It washed off patches of stain, which has to be repainted... You can not beat the weather out here, though. It's insane. At least after spending a week in my life Mac was able to see why I can't get all that much done around here. When Luke's at preschool, I try to get as many boring shopping errands done as possible. After preschool, there's about 2 hours until the kids come home, and when they get home there is homework to deal with, and swimming and soccer and girl scouts and boy scouts... Mac was *giddy* to get back to work today-- even though he is only rounding. The big dork.

One thing he did accomplish in his leave week--- spending our "stimulus package" check about 2 times over. A new bed for Kate (this will be the guest room, too), a 90K service for his car ( OOOOOh I hate car maintenance-- I'd rather buy a new car), a new grill (our old one was completely kaput), and various "yard improvement" items which are sitting all over our yard... If I spent money like he spends money, we'd be through his annual income in about 3 months.

I also had another Dr appt with the high-risk people. The results of the test were fine, the baby looks healthy, and she's confirmed to be a "she" now 3 times over so I'm feeling pretty confidant about that... I asked the doctor about the proposed summer vacation from weeks 32 to 35, and he nixed it. He was very gracious, though! He did say that things can turn bad so quickly in a case like mine, and if anything he'd want to increase the ultrasounds to weekly or twice a week at that point rather than give me even a 2 week pass. When we broke the news to Steven and Isabel they looked like their dog had just died. There were 2 very depressed kids sitting in the back of the suburban. Steven worked through the stages of grief, like he always does... Isabel got stuck on "denial." My parents are OK with it, but disappointed, and they are putting on the pressure for Kate to go out there alone to visit them. I have to look for a cheap ticket that may work for Kate to go out there, but she doesn't like to fly unaccompanied, and she keeps saying she has to see what her friends are doing because "that's the most important thing anyway."

As far as changing my summer tickets-- it only ended up costing $300, since the airline "waived" my change ticket fee b/c of my doctor's excuse, and I found tickets to change to that cost the same as the tickets I had purchased for the summer. (These were really cheap tickets, so I jumped on it.) Anyway, the new tickets are over Christmas break, and DH won't know what days he gets off until probably December 20th or so, so I have to take everyone, plus a 3 month old, alone on a cross-country trip during Christmas. Check that, not DURING Christmas, but ON Christmas. We could very well end up stranded in the Cincinnati airport on Christmas day. I'm going to book hotel reservations just in case. When, IF, we finally get to Washington state, we'll have 12 days there. I hope that Mac can come for at least a week of it. Oh well... We'll just celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, then again on the 26th probably! Whenever I tell anyone about my plans, they say, "Oh, well, Kate will be a big help!" Yeah.... I don't think so. She is always the most difficult one of the bunch! "Kate, can you take Isabel to the bathroom?" "No way, Eww, Ick. Isabel, just go there by yourself." "Kate, can you help the kids turn on the DVD player?" "They only watch stupid shows. If they watch something decent like "Full Metal Alchemist" maybe I'd help them." Of course I can make her do these things, but she throws in these barbs and insults along the way... And she walks about 40 ft away from us so that people don't think she's traveling with us. Yet she doesn't want to travel alone, because she "might get lost". Ugggh.

OK--- that's my update! We're just in a holding pattern until school's out, and then swimming starts... Along with more doctor appointments, bored kids, etc., etc. Good times!

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: blog is a funny word

Kate has decided that she does want to go back to my mom's house for part of Summer break. I've been shopping for tickets, but they are really outrageous. Easier to swallow when it's just 1 ticket, but...

IMHO, we need to drill for oil right here. I know, it's probably an unpopular opinion on this board, but I trust the USA to do the drilling in a better, cleaner, safer way than other countries. I just do. And it makes sense. And we *need* it. We really do.

So, my parents are planning to reimburse me for the ticket- splitting it with my grandparents apparently. I still have to sign her up for camp, too. Mom is going to accompany her on the trip back, but Kate is on her own for the trip out. (She'll be an "unaccompainied minor"-- she's done this before but just for a short flight.)

I have this headache that's driving me nuts. I can't take Ibuprofin b/c of the pregnancy, and Tylenol just has never worked for me. I call it my "pregnancy headache" because I get it pretty much every time I have been pregnant. (I'm really inventive with names that way...) I'm just about sick of it already...

Kate is holding on to a very low B in math... Cue Jeopardy music here... Will she make it? Will she pull out a "B" for the last quarter??? It's finally starting to dawn on me that school just isn't as easy for her as it was for me. She is too scatterbrained, whereas I was very focused. I just can't stand it, though. It literally drives me nuts when she says things like, "my friends are the only thing that matter anyway" and "school is only important to old people like you."

We celebrated Luke's birthday last night. Kate was "post-sleepover" and so she was a real gem. Someday we'll be able to play her tape for her (and her tweener :> )... Mac even got her to espouse her parenting philosophy for the camera: "My kids will never be grounded, because I'll be a really cool parent. My kids will be able to stay up as late as they want, have as many scoops of ice cream as they want, use the internet (in their rooms) as long as they want, play the Wii all night long..."

Ahhhh, kids.

Anyway, Luke is a big man now. He turned 4 earlier in the week, and he's fully embraced it. He has come *a long way* from a year ago. I'll post pictures soon from the event, such as it was!

The projects Mac finished over his "leave" this past week were:

1) restained the deck
2) assembled a new grill and got it working
3) built a sandbox for the kids, and did a tiny bit of landscaping with pavers, some landscaping edger, and bark.

The projects Mac didn't get around to:

1) converting Luke's room to a "boys' room" for Steven and Luke to share starting this summer.
2) moving the bunk bed from Kate's room to the boys' room.
3) painting our kitchen

Soo... any time off, there's at least something for him to do to keep busy!

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: blog is a funny word

Today is called: Mommy Guilt... I have totally sucked this weekend. We had the soccer marathon on Saturday, starting with a game at 9 am, and it was hot, muggy, sticky... I was irritated by the game because Steven and Izzy's league is so lopsided- usually the team they are on can't get the ball past half-field, and the field is 50 feet long... I just don't know why all the other teams are *so good* if you can say that 6 and 7 year olds can be *so good*. Usually I'm really chill about the whole thing, but for some inexplicable reason, their coach is sort of a jerk. He coaches a 10 year old boys' team in the competetive league, and I suspect he uses the same drills and techniques on both teams. Anyway, at least the kids still seem like they are having fun... But I am very tempted to request that they be placed on another team for the fall. They don't want to do that, though. They want to stay with their current team. I don't see why- the coach doesn't make it fun. There is no need to yell at kids about not following the "diamond formation" or for "not dribbling the ball" or for "not passing the ball" or for... you get the idea. What really irritated me about the coach this week was that he chewed out the parents who brought a snack for bringing chips (GASP) instead of oranges as he'd requested. The parents don't speak English, for crying out loud!!! Anyway, it's about time the kids get a snack they actually want to eat instead of oranges. So there. After the twins' game, we went to Kate's game where eventually it started thundering, and then there was a brief rain storm. The most irritating part of that experience was the idiot other team's coach who had a player fall down within our goal box, crying and acting like she'd been hit. She tripped over another girl, that's it. The coach got in the face of the ref and *loudly* screamed at him for not making a call. Meanwhile, the ref stood there, and a player from the opposing team took a shot at the goal! Our goalie luckily stopped the shot, but HELLO play was stopped anyway... And the ref didn't even kick this coach off of the field. I had the unfortunate experience of being a Volleyball ref for one LONG season, and if a coach talked to me like that... I would've kicked his butt out of there. I don't get it. You can't let coaches and parents approach the ref like this. And it happens all the time out here. Seriously annoying.

Anyway, thus started the weekend of my bitchy mood. I can't shake it. Kate is pushing every. last. button. The theme of the weekend is her going off by herself and not meeting back up with the family at the appropriate place and time. This happened 3 times in one short weekend. She's now grounded for a week, and docked allowance. I hate that almost every dinner meal we have as a family is dominated by her making snarky remarks, and we have to correct her, and so on and so forth until the younger kids think dinner is just the time in which we discipline Kate, and pretty much nothing positive or happy happens. Do I make her eat bread and water in her room until she can be a *pleasant* dinner companion? Thank goodness for swimming-- it takes her out of the house during most of the dinner hour.

DH is on call today. Since we didn't have time for the Wii yesterday, what with soccer and shopping, etc., etc., I got to monitor Wii usage today. The twins played MarioKart for about 45 minutes, and then they played with Luke for another hour or so... Luke is becoming obsessed with video games. Just like dear old dad. Isn't that heartwarming?

Here's to a better week!

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: blog is a funny word

We have been over-the-top insanely busy...

Here's a rundown.

Luke's birthday. Fun, good times, but of course I had no presents for him so I had to run out to buy him some stuff he doesn't need just so that he could open something. He seemed to like the something anyway! I'll post pics when (if) I get my act together.

Next major event: We had a power outage while DH was taking call. It sucked. I had to grill something for the first time in my life. I thought I was going to burn down the house, and I had DH on the phone "talking me through it" as if I were landing an airplane or something. He said, "How long has the gas been running?", I said, "I don't know... I've tried to light it like 5 times." He said, "Stand Back! It's probably going to blow up in your face!" Then he told me how to turn off the gas, and then we waited for a couple of minutes for the propane fog to clear, then I finally lit it after 2 tries... Anyway, we made it through, and the electricity came on at 11 pm, and that was pure bliss! The hum of cieling fans combined with the A/C... Priceless!

Next major event: A camping trip. It was so hot. It was insanely hot and muggy, as in the temp was 102 not even counting the humidity. The camping trip was a Cub Scout event, and Mac set up the tent with his "helpers", Izzy and Steven. Then Kate, Luke, and I came to join them, to walk around the campsite, to decide it was too hot to try to find the flags that the scouts were running around looking for, and so we basically bummed around until dinner time. There was a lightning storm in the middle of it all, so that was exciting. Eventually I brought Luke and Kate home because they didn't want to sleep in the tent, and I certainly was not going to sleep in the tent (being 7 months pregnant bought me that right!). We went back up the next morning for breakfast and clean up. DH and I were *wiped out* from the extra work that is camping. Me from shopping, filling coolers, packing bug spray, etc., etc. DH from setting up the tent, staying the night in the great outdoors, shuttling the kids back and forth to the bathroom, etc., etc.

Next: We started swimming. Kate had been swimming since after Memorial Day, but we got a call from the coaches that they really needed a boy in the 8 and Under category to swim in a relay. Basically they are just giving away points every week. So they were thinking Steven might be able to do it... Now, Steven is 6 years old, and as skinny as a stick. He is quite tall, lanky, and bone thin. He wears Luke's 3T shorts in a pinch b/c the waist fits him fine. He doesn't have much in the field of body fat to help keep him afloat! And he hasn't learned freestyle yet, just basic kickboard stuff. He worked with the coaches diligently for a week, and this past Saturday he was in his first "A" meet! Crazy--- let me clarify that the "A" meet for us is really not a very competetive event. Our neighborhood team is not in a top division, to say the least. So little Steven did two events-- the 25m freestyle, which he started off strong but ran out of steam about 3/4 of the way and had to hang onto the rope for a good 15 seconds! He finished though, so good for him! Then he did the graduated relay with the big boys-- so there was a 14U boy, followed by a 12U, then a 10U, then an 8U (that's Steven). This is the race the coaches really wanted him for. He looked *tiny* around all those big guys! He did just fine! Kate also swam 3 races, and my parents were there to watch b/c they had arrived the night before. It was *hot* and hazy, but a good morning. Just the kind of morning that zaps every last bit of energy from you...

This week I am doing a lot of driving. I drive my parents to the airport a few times (they are going to visit my grandma in NY for a few days-- this is their "trip within a trip"), and Steven is at a Day Camp for Cub Scouts, and Luke and Izzy start their swim lessons, and Kate and Steven have swim team practice, and there is a meet on Wednesday and another one on Saturday... And I have to go to be the parent volunteer tomorrow at the Cub Scout day camp, along with Luke and Izzy... I am going to be soooo helpful I'm sure chasing around a 4 year old with an attitude. Kate is going to come along to earn some $$$ though, so I plan to work her! I'll try anyway. She thinks she's going shopping with her friends this weekend, but she only has... $15 or so. She knows better than to ask me for $ for her to go buy rocker t-shirts. So she's kind of got her back up against the wall on this one...

Finally, perhaps contributing the most to my stress, I was "borderline" for the glucose screening test, so now I have to do a 4 hour glucose tolerance test. I'm so ticked, I could kick myself. I had breakfast, followed by the nasty glucola drink (tastes like the orange kids' Ice-pops melted-- gag), and also my blood was drawn about 10 minutes too early, and so my body hadn't quite metabolized the carbs from the cereal plus the 50 g of sugar from the nasty drink. I have no other symptoms of "gestational diabetes" and I've never had any trouble in that way, my blood pressure is really good in spite of my crazy life, but rules are rules and the test's been ordered. So now I have this carb-heavy diet I have to follow, then I have to fast, then I have to go to the clinic for 4 hours of drinking water and having my blood drawn every hour... My parents are going to have to watch the kids for so long, just so that I can sit there and take this annoying test. It sucks...

Oh, and I'm slightly anemic so I'm supposed to take iron. Gag, yuk, gag, yuk. I don't want to. I hate iron supplements.

Anyway...... We don't have safe water right now, either. So I have to keep boiling water and letting it cool down so that we can do things like... brush our teeth. Yay.

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: blog is a funny word

Just an update from the pregnancy front... Basically, I went in for the super-long glucose tolerance test, and after drinking the super nasty 100g dextrose orange drink, the results came back that my sugar level is too high, and so some doctor, not sure who since my doctor is on vacation, diagnosed me with gestational diabetes. The next day, I got to go see my other doctor, who apparently doesn't talk to my regular doctor at all, and he told me that even though my titres for the antibody issue are stable and even decreasing, I have to continue having these special ultrasounds at 2 week intervals, then when I hit 37 weeks, as long as everything is stable, I have to have amnio to see if baby's lungs are ready for delivery, and if so, he doesn't want me to go past 37 weeks. He'll induce me and I will deliver no later than... August 21. That gives me less than 9 weeks. The clock is ticking! Thank goodness my mom is coming here to stay for 3 weeks starting on August 20! The kids go to school on August 26, so I am really hoping to be home by the 23rd or so! I *hate* staying at the hospital, but with Luke and his jaundice, we had to stay for 2 days, go home for 1, then go back for 2 more in the "family NICU" suite which just means you take care of your baby with nurses constantly checking that you're following their orders... It's tedious and boring.

I'm pretty low right now on the whole pregnancy thing. I was not ready for this pregnancy at all, and it just is too overwhelming. I can't see when or how I'm going to manage more appointments, but I'm sure that is where they are headed with the whole gestational diabetes thing. Even though my results are not really high, they are high enough "to cause concern". Oh, and I'm still anemic, which I always am almost all the time regardless of pregnancy or not, but DH still hasn't been able to pick up my iron supplements. So guess who's going to hear about it from the doctor on Monday (whichever doctor I may end up having to talk to, that is...) Why DH can't just pick up stupid medication for me I don't understand. He's been short, impatient, and just not too fun to deal with lately. I'm about sick of the whole thing.

Anyway, on a positive note, on Friday DH gets snipped. So, while it means the kids and I have to schlepp to the doctor's office yet again , at least now the chances of me getting pregnant are around 1 in 100,000. I would feel better if it were 0 in 100,000, though...

It's stupid that I should feel too "old" for all of this, especially since I'm only 32. But I've been pregant, nursing, chasing after toddlers, and potty training for about 12-13 years now... I think it does catch up with you. And with the separation anxiety issues of my kids, and with DH's life/career/exercise plans priority numero uno, I haven't been able to get into any regular exercise plan, and when one's health deteriorates, I think everything else does too. All I can say is that after this baby is born, things have to change. I'll be damned if I end up with Type 2 diabetes.

Yuck... What a negative post. It's just... I feel like I've had it.

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: blog is a funny word

So I have to pick up "supplies" for blood sugar monitoring at the hospital pharmacy sometime, and I have to attend some class about gestational diabetes next week, and I have to continue with my ultrasounds... Typical. DH thought that I could just get a handout or something to tell me what kind of diet to follow. I knew that there was no way it would be that simple. Even though my results are borderline, and one was normal, I still need to jump through all the hoops. I already downloaded suggested diets, and I'm not eating or drinking any sugar at all, except for normal complex carbs... But it's too late, now... Sigh.

I just don't feel like hiring sitters for this stuff. Scheduling visits to the hospital is really tricky- it's only about 20 minutes away if there is no traffic, but if there is traffic it's more like 1 hour away. I refuse to go to the pharmacy. I'll send DH over there, but if I go it will take me over 1.5 hours to get my meds. (DH can move to the front of the line if he's in uniform, which is partly why it takes 'civilians' so long to pick up our meds... The other reason is that the pharmacy staff is slooooooooow.) That's no exaggeration. So, looking at having to go to the hospital 2 times next week, plus pick up meds, plus DH's procedure on Friday... I know I have to suck it up, but I just feel like whining! Or crying! I'm so frustrated, and I'm not quite sure why...

Today I took the 3 kids to Costco. It takes so long to navigate everything now! It's amazing. We were there for over 2 hours. And it wasn't even crowded! There's just a lot of retraining I have to do for the twins to get them to not sit in every chair and touch every item. I wouldn't care if they did that, except I need Luke to stay in the cart, and if he sees them having all that fun, he won't stay in the cart. The joys of summer... Ahhhhhh.

Anyway, I keep promising an interesting blog entry with pictures, because lots of interesting and fun things have happened. But I just feel like venting here, and then I have nothing left for good stuff! I apologize. It hasn't all been tedious- truly! We have had some fun times... I'll have to go through my digital files to remind myself of those!

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: blog is a funny word

OK... I'm out of my funk now. I'm much better. DH let me just read last night rather than do dishes, help with baths, clean up the kitchen, etc., etc. I did read to the twins their bedtime story, but that's b/c I wanted to see how the book ended. Besides that, I just got a little bit of a time out which is what I needed. We had my parents visiting for 10 days, and in the middle of it they went up to Albany, so I had a lot of driving and shuttling and activity- constant. Time to unwind...

I have my appts set up for the OB stuff, I've talked with my doctor, I had to call about 8 different numbers to get the gestational diabetes appt set up, but it's done. And I have a sitter, so I can just sit back, eat no more sugar, and go to the appts as scheduled.

At this point I'm just really happy that the baby's problems aren't serious- just things that need to be monitored just in case. And the clock keeps ticking-- I'm at 29 weeks today, so that means I have only 8 weeks to go until I'll be induced! That's only something like 12 more doctor appointments, so... I can handle that.

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: blog is a funny word

I just have to throw out a positive for my tweener today. As I've mentioned, Steven is swimming way over his head in high-competition swim meets because he's the only boy in his entire age category that the team has who can even make it across the pool! So last night we had the massive relay meet- a very chaotic event where every race is a relay. Every race that Steven was in, he basically lost it for the team. He's swimming against 8 year olds, and he's 6, plus this is the first year he's even been able to do freestyle at all without flotation devices. I'm quite proud of him, actually. I think the pressure is a lot, and he's well aware of it. For instance, after swimming the first race, I met him with his towel, and he said, "We'll... We're finishers!" (That's basically what it means to be in last place-- out of scoring range, but still finishing the race. They give you a ribbon for that, too.) I mentioned that maybe he could try to not doggie paddle so long when he needed a breath (he still isn't coordinated enough for the turn-your-head-and-take-a-breath motion) and he said, "Mom, I'm going as fast as I can." Sob!!! Bad Mommy! "Of course you are!! You're doing great!!!" is what I said.

Anyway, his teammates on the relays were fantabulous, all older boys who like to win, but still went out of their way to tell Steven "good job" and to encourage him. His coaches are just glad that he's willing to get in the pool! They are also positive and supportive. I was really impressed, and a lot nervous b/c of the nature of the meet. Steven usually got handed a lead of at least a few seconds over some other swimmer, but he just isn't fast enough to hold onto a lead against the bigger boys...

I was *not* impressed with a comment made by one of the assistant coaches of the pre-team kids. This girl is a teenager, around 17 or so, and she doesn't work with the kids a whole lot, and she definitely doesn't make "race-time" decisions as to who is in what event, etc., etc. She basically helps out in the pool with the little kids, making sure they keep a hand on the wall and what not. She was watching the races by Kate and one of Kate's friends. The assistant coach made the following comment to Kate's friend, "Oh great, this race has Steven in it. That means we're going to lose."



OK, first of all, let me interject that the coaches decided to put Steven in these races knowing full well that he's a good 15 seconds slower than the competetition in his leg... AND the BOYS on the teams are gracious and supportive of Steven. AND this girl is a coach and says something like that???

So Kate says, "Yeah, he sucks. But I'm allowed to say that because he's my brother."

ZAP! You might think this isn't really a supportive comment to say, but I think it was great. For her, at age 12, to tell a 17 year old this... Well... When you have a tweener who has done her best to pretend she's not related to any member of her family for a good 2 years, this was a striking example of family loyalty! Even DH was impressed, and let the "he sucks" comment slide... And Kate gloated to me, "The coach turned all red!"

Snap, snap, snap!

I love it.

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: blog is a funny word

We went head-on into the whole "let's buy a house now" scenario yesterday. Can we afford it? Not exactly. And we'd have to sell our current house first, but it's so exciting to dream big... The house we want has a very large basement, compared to our *tiny* space, and it has a formal living room and a family room- so that means I could institute a "no toys in the living room" policy. This would be great for me, especially since the kids broke out the bouncing balls that you sort of scoot along, and they've been going through our kitchen, hall, and living room constantly. That pretty much does it for our main floor. The house we want also has a very nice garage, which may not fit the very large Suburban, but it would store some bikes for the kids and my jogging stroller. Right now I have to keep the jogger in the back of the very large Suburban, and we just haven't bought any bikes because we have no where to keep them. We have a shed, but it's filled up with spare tires ( :huh: they are for the very large Suburban, they came with it) and our lawn mower. Maybe the lawn mower can stay outside- covered in a tarp??? I don't know. I'd like to get the kids bikes, though. So today, like a giant sugar crash, I crunched the numbers yet again, and... just keeping it real here, there's no way baby. It sucks because all the other residents seem to be in real actual single family homes with garages! And we're still in the medical school digs. With baby on the way!!! Yikes.

Anyway... In other news, I have been *religiously* following my gestational diabetic diet for about 1 week now. I really follow it very well, and I haven't eaten any simple sugars (nothing! I'm not even exaggerating!) for over 2 weeks. My sugars are usually good, except for my fasting level which is consitently too high. Oh, and the meter has a standard deviation of about... 40. I have worked with lots of testing equipment in my lab days, and a standard deviation of this magnitude is so unacceptable. I end up redoing my finger sticks and taking some type of an average... It's just amazing that they make actual medical decisions (such as putting someone on insulin) as a result of these finger prick results-- and when it comes to the results, the docs make medical desicions based on a deviation from the "acceptable" result of 1 pt! If the SD is 40 pts, how can they make a medical decision based on 1 pt? Anyway, tangent aside, my fasting levels are too high, which is a bit mind-boggling, except for when you go to Google and do a search about it and find that this is an indication of a "prediabetic" person.

Seriously, shoot me now. If this means more Dr appts... I think I'm going to scream. I have to go in for Non-Stress tests for the Anti-E situation starting next week, every week. I have my ultrasounds every 2 weeks, and I have special Dr appts for the gestational diabetes bit... And all these problems are because MY body is rejecting this pregnancy. MY antibodies are fighting against the baby's antigens. MY endocrine system doesn't want to produce insulin anymore b/c it's already producing all the other hormones that go along with pregnancy... *sigh* It's all out of my control, and it's a bit frustrating!

ETA: As a bonus, our AC system started leaking in our basement yesterday... The repair people can't come until Wednesday to take a look. And... the system is 3 years old.



I'm having an intense "I hate my house" moment here.

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: blog is a funny word

Well... The A/C problem was simple, so said the repair guy. He's older- middle aged, and been at it for a while, so I trust him a lot more than the usual 20 year old they send out. (The 20 year olds are so afraid of my kids, they usually do a really quick job just to get the heck out of here! Like it's a communicable disease or something. ) Anyway, grand total: $306. I hope that's it for a while... I hate home repairs. That is definitely one beautiful thing about being a renter- except for the calls to the prop management about getting the home repair done, that was not necessarily a joy...

We have had swim meets up the wazoo lately. We had one on Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, and now tonight also... We get Thursday off, then we have Friday, and Saturday... But the season is almost over, so I'll get a chance to breathe and maybe just take the kids to the pool to *swim* rather than to wait around to compete... Luke and Isabel aren't competing in the meets yet, except for the one this Friday. They can do some races in that one, because it's a "flipper" meet, or a "pre-team" meet if you will. Steven, after a pretty disastrous backstroke attempt, is sticking with the free where he's really improved. I don't know why, exactly, since he still stops to dog-paddle and check out where the competition is several times per race! But he's dropped about 25 seconds from the start of the season, anyway! :huh: He's stoked because he has earned every color of ribbon, including the really cool "finisher" ribbon which means you didn't actually place, but he likes it because it has stripes.

It's been pretty fun to watch Kate get more serious this year about swimming, and to enjoy the benefits of exercise. She says she doesn't like it while she's doing it, but she likes the way it makes her feel afterwards. That's great! She was seriously at risk for being the biggest couch potato ever-- she never liked exercise or sports but right now she thinks it's pretty cool.

Besides that, everything just keeps going... Mac is busy, but getting to do some surgeries and what not, so that makes him happy. He has not been able to make many swim meets, and he's taking call this weekend all weekend and basically has to be there all the time to check on a "flap" every 4 hours or so. No point in him coming home, since he'd drive home, be here for 2 hours, and have to drive back. It really sucks for us... Maybe I'll take the kids down to eat with him at the cafeteria, or take him to the zoo or something since it's relatively close to the hospital. We're also supposed to go to a picnic for the ENT residents... Busy, busy, busy. Looks like we'll be burning our share of fuel this weekend!

My sister gave away all the newborn girl clothes ( ) so my mom and she went out shopping for an assortment of stuff and they shipped me out a box of stuff. Apparently she only gave away the newborn stuff, but I know she consigned the good stuff from the bigger sizes (most of which I bought) and so who knows what's left. I was afraid of this type of thing every time I sent Izzy's clothes over for my niece... I told her I really wanted to save the clothes "just in case" and at the very least for my brother if he and his wife ever have girls... I did secretly save some really favorite dresses- especially after I saw how stained all my girl clothes were getting (my niece "doesn't like bibs" and so they never made her wear any bibs.) But... I may just have my mom buy a lot of new clothes, and then I'll package them neatly in my special OCD way so that my brother and SIL have a little layette at least. It will give my mom something to do!

So... swimming, diabetes diet, ultrasounds, non-stress tests, etc., etc. That's my summer so far! I planned a mini-trip for us (I'm not telling my doctors! and anyway it's only to Pennsylvania so :P ) so at least the kids will have something *exciting* to remember about the summer of '08! Luke is just about driving me nuts with the whole "what is my baby saying?" thing... He is still asking me this question and other variations on it ("what is my baby doing? what did my baby see?") seriously at least 100 times a day. At least. And he's taken to lifting up my shirt so that the whole world can see his baby. Or at least where his baby is living. Whenever he washes his hands, he first lets his baby "smell his hands" so that she knows he used soap, and then he lets me smell them. Yesterday at a swim meet some family had their baby with them- she looked to be about 8 weeks old. Luke just stared at that baby and asked me what that baby was saying, etc., etc., until someone came up to the group and blocked Luke's view. He said, "HEY, now I can't see the BABY! I want to see the BABY!" A little baby obsessed. The sad thing is that he's going to be the one asking me to take the baby back to the hospital after he's had his fill-- which will be probably after 1 week or so!

ETA: Just to elaborate on my previous gripe about the whole sugar monitoring thing--- I just checked my sugars and I had a 171 (which is like, call your doctor and get on insulin now) but I feel normal, and so I rechecked, and it's 111 now... My poor fingers need a break. I feel like taking a 3rd reading just for comparison's sake, but I'll just record it at 111 and gripe to my doctor at the appt on Friday!

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: blog is a funny word

Well... I've been kicked out of my regular Dr office and into the dreaded (for me) high-risk pregnancy clinic at the hospital. A nurse tried to sell it on us at the gestational diabetic PITA class I had to go to. She actually thought it was a benefit that we'd be seen by "real doctors" including "residents"! Yippee. It is July and I'll be dealing with fresh residents, too. But, such as life at a teaching institute. I just liked the clinic where my doctor was calm, reasonable, nice, let me bring the kids if I needed to, and the appointments were *fast*. Now I'll have to see a junior resident, have them stumble around and ask a zillion questions about my history, then I'll see the junior resident with the chief resident, and then I'll be asked to "sit tight" for a while until the "attending" can see me. When the attending comes in, he or she will look at my chart briefly and tell me something I already knew because the chief already told me that, and then I can finally be dismissed... to the nurse for scheduling another appointment. Yes, I've been to the high-risk clinic before. I know the drill. So now I'll have weekly non-stress tests, weekly appts with the high-risk/diabetic care people, and ultrasounds with the super-duper-high-risk-people every 2 weeks... I feel like all of this is somewhat warranted, but mostly not. They botched my bloodwork at week 20 or so, and that is what landed me in the super-duper-high-risk department for the ultrasounds. Then my diabetic screening came back just barely positive, by only a couple of points, and that lands me in the high-risk/diabetic care situation... So... I hate feeling like a lab rat, but there it is. Bottom line: I need to find lots of sitters. It's sort of good that it's summer, because now I can hire teeny-boppers to do the job. But it's sort of bad that it's summer, because the kids aren't in school and my friend who usually watched Luke for me (for a type of child-care-swapping arrangement for which she owes me many, many hours) is not available... Anyway... I have less than 6 weeks to go, so that means about 10 doctor appts if I can combine some visits. I just may maintain my sanity, but not if I have to deal with a medical student in my state.

DH and I had a big blowout over... life I think. I am just about sick of his stupid career. I just wish he wouldn't tell me how "schedule friendly" his job is, compared with..., or how "nice" his coworkers are being, etc., etc. I don't care. He doesn't seem to get it that even though he's been told that his days should end at around 4:30 pm, they actually end later than 6 most of the time. He especially doesn't get it that even though they told him that he'd have the "weekends free", he actually has 1 weekend free perhaps, because the other weekends have classes to attend, weekend surgery to do, call to take, etc., etc. He really really doesn't get it that even though he was told that taking home call on the weekend means you have to round and answer your pages, but you only actually have to go in to the hospital to see a patient maybe 1 out of 10 times or something... So, DH believed all this stuff he was told about his job, and I of course did not, and guess who's right? Guess who's been at the hospital since about 4 am today? And it's a Saturday, and he's on "home call". What a joke.

Anyway, I've been feeling... depressed about the whole job, and what it means to the kids, and what it means to me. Is it worth it? I know the answer now. No, it's not. I can't even remember what it was like when I had ambitions for myself, and goals of things I want to accomplish. Life just took over... I told DH that by the time he can control his schedule, it's too late anyway because the kids will be too old and not impressed. But, that's life, and I'm in the 3rd trimester, and it's hot, and I'm about sick of swim team... In other words, state of mind is not so great right now. Meanwhile, DH is doing "really important stuff" and we are waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

To occupy our time we had a swim meet, of course. During the swim meet, in which several of our swimmers didn't swim to potential because they'd been at camp all week :huh: , the whole meet came down to the relays at the end. As if that's a logical expectation-- the relays have always been point losers. Always. That's mostly because we are week in an age category for girls, and very week in one category for boys. The relays have a swimmer from 4 different age categories. We always get our butts kicked. This is also the event that the coaches really wanted Steven to start swimming for--- so that they could even ENTER a team, because they had NO boys in the 8 and under age category at all. So standing poolside at this event this season I have heard lots of neat comments:

"Oh look, that boy can't swim" (that would be my Steven)
"You guys need an 8U boy" (this by the grandma of one of the swimmers on Steven's relay ) She went on to add "You were winning, but he lost it for you" (FWIW, we were in 2nd when Steven got in the pool, and 2nd when he ended his race)
and various other "he can't swim" comments.



I'm about sick of it. Steven's swimming against 8 year olds, at the start of the season he couldn't even swim across the pool at all, and anyway chill out people. We are NOT in a highly-competetive division. The swimmers are in it for the fun of it mostly. Steven is psyched to get a ribbon. There are lots of swimmers out there, especially in the younger categories, struggling to make it across the pool. Why do parents and grand-parents make it all about the BLUE ribbon? Why are they so damned competetive? It's so stupid. I just want to throw these people in the pool.

Another fun thing at the pool was that one of the moms asked me if my husband was out of town again! I said, no, he doesn't travel for work. She thought he was the dad who was home for only 3 days a month or so. Probably she assumed he's a long-haul trucker! He sort of looks like a long-haul trucker, so... I was *this close* to saying that he's the idiot who when he makes it to a meet is answering his pager like it's a direct call from God and talking to some nurse or something like it's his absolute pleasure to do so... Seriously, his phone manners tick me off. He's so... accomodating and gracious to other people on the phone, it makes me want to hurl. Especially when he gives me "the look" that says to remove his 4 year old from his presence so that he can fully attend to the "very important" conversation he's having... Oh, and these calls for the most part happen when he's NOT taking call. :huh:

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: blog is a funny word

OK- sorry to disappoint if you have only tuned in for yet another tedious update in the pregnancy drama... I'm not intending to touch on that this post, because I am finally getting around to my photos (I'm backed up to May) and so I thought I'd post some photo-heavy entry to make it take forever and a year for the page to load! You're quite welcome.

First, Luke's birthday. Back in May, Luke turned 4! He's been really into cars lately, so this was his little cake creation:



He also managed to blow out his candles for the first time ever--- mind you, it's not because he hasn't had lung power to blow them out, it's just that every single birthday before this DH has been operating the cheapo video camera and I've been taking pictures/handling the cake... And Luke has stuck his fingers into the flames... This year he actually stayed away from the fire, so that was a definite improvement!





Luke had a great birthday, and he's had a really good year. He's grown so much! He's still quite shy, but he has his clowning-around moments in public now. He has started to come out of his shell a bit in social situations, like on swim team and in preschool. I suspect that someday he'll be the class clown! Or at least the class flirt...

Next major event: The Cub Scouts camping trip. No, I didn't stay the night in a tent. Are you insane?? I was in my 2nd trimester, the tent was plenty big, but it was HOT HOT HOT. It cooled down to something like 92 that night. And there were lightening storms going on! DH (bless him) toughed it out with Isabel and Steven. Kate bailed on the whole scene, and Luke chickened out from staying the night when we turned out all the lights and showed him just how dark it gets in the great outdoors!! Funny thing, though... The campsite was literally next door to a new subdivision of townhomes... I don't think we saw much of the ambient light, but still. When I used to go camping, we would drive for about 1 hour to get deep into the woods, like the stalker-Ted Bundy-isolated woods. So... camping about 15 minutes from our house in the barely-qualifies-as-woods area was a bit odd to me. That's just how they do it out here I guess! I've heard that the die-hard campers go to West Virginia! That may be a little too wild for me!

First, the place was crawling with caterpillars! Everywhere.



Here is the tent! DH put it up with the help of Steven and Isabel. I assisted by keeping Luke home for the tent-putting-up ritual. We joined later to take pictures...



Then, of course, the campfire. Isabel was quite excited about it, but Steven was a little concerned by the flames! Luke just tried to figure out what he was supposed to do with the marshmallows... He ended up burning them and dropping them into the fire. He doesn't like 'mallows anyways, so that's OK... Once again, I was surprised by the Scouting way to do s'mores-- "go into the woods and find a stick!" All the boys scrambled into the woods and came back and started sticking marshmallows onto totally dirty twigs with who knows what growing on them... Yuk. My friends and I would cut our own sticks down, carefully clean them, then sharpen the edges with our knives, and then burn them a little in the fire to "disinfect" them! Ahhhh, to be a boy.





That will have to do it for now! I have to run to go pick up the twins from their "Fossil Finds" daycamp adventure! I'll finish up this photo-journey next post!

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: blog is a funny word

OK... So to continue our story of this summer...

The next major event of the summer was my parent's visit. This visit involved lots of driving them around (I really wish we had a 3rd car whenever they visit. I should just let them rent a car, like they always suggest, but...). Anyway, just one picture from that visit! My parents were introduced to the newest member of our family: Wii. Avid anti-gaming people they are, they totally loved it. They ended up buying a whole bunch of extra Wii stuff for DH for "his birthday present". (His birthday was months ago, and so it was actually kind of an excuse for them to go hog wild at Best Buy!) Here's a picture of my mom playing MarioKart with the kids. Notice all the wheels! And each wheel has a remote to go along with it!



While my parent's were visiting, Steven went to Cub Scouts Day Camp. Swimming practice had begun by then, so there was *a lot* of driving around. Kate to practice, Steven to camp, Izzy and Luke to swim lessons... Exhausting! As part of the daycamp experience, I had to help one day. My parents were on a little trip up to Albany to visit my Grandma, so I had to bring Izzy and Luke with me. Kate came along to earn major $$$ by helping me keep track of Luke. Thank goodness she was there. Honestly, she did great. She ended up taking scouts to the bathrooms (port-a-potties), keeping an eye on Luke, helping with crafts, etc., etc. She earned her money that day. Luke caught some type of bug during the day, and ended up lathargic and with a temp of 102.6 by the time we got home. :huh: It seemed to go away, so we'll chaulk it up to heat exhaustion?

Here is Kate with Luke:



And Steven and Izzy are in this mess of kids- Izzy was not allowed to do any of the crafts or activities b/c she wasn't "enrolled" in the camp. That really annoyed me... Poor kid. Next year I'll look for a daycamp she can do while Steven is in CubScout daycamp, because it's really hard on her to sit by watching the boys do crafts when she dearly loves crafts. It's like having them all eat ice cream in front of her and she can't have any. It was painful to watch!



Next, the dominating feature of the summer: Swimming. This year has been... CRAZY. I think we were in every A meet and every B meet, plus the Flipper (pre-team) meet, plus the A and the B relay meets... So that was a lot of swim meets people. And a lot of $$ spent on snacks at the swim meets. The best thing about swimming was that the kids and I were so busy and exhausted that we barely even noticed that DH wasn't there. Now that swimming is over, we really notice that he's not home for dinner, bath, or bedtime. Bummer.

First, Steven was the token 8 and under swimmer for the entire boy's team... And, at age 6, he wasn't ready for that responsibility, but at least he made it across the pool!! He enjoyed it, and really learned a lot. He ended up with three trophies: the regular trophy for every team member, the "most improved 10 & under boy" trophy, and the "high point getter" for his age category trophy . It's absolutely huge.

Here he is jumping in the pool. He never mastered the dive! But a cannon-ball works for freestyle races, apparently...



After his first race! He finished!!! Such a big moment! (His time was something like 1:15!! By the end of the season, he was down to about 32 seconds, so yeah, he got a little better!)



Here he is taking a break while swimming... He can't do the "side-breathing" yet, so he sort of doggie paddles and takes a breath at the same time... Yes, this slows him down a bit too! But it gives me a chance to cheer for him so that he actually hears me!



Next I'll show the pictures of Luke and Isabel from the Flipper (pre-team) meet. Luke did the kickboard and Isabel *almost* could make the whole length (25 meters) doing freestyle, but not quite... She was bummed to not be on the "team", but next year... It was kind of obvious how tired she got, though. She had a coach basically with her in the lane for the whole race, and she started out on her own with lots of energy, but at about 16 m or so she lost steam and said, "NOODLE!". So, probably not ready for the whole length by herself yet! (They don't let noodles into the regular races!)

Luke with his favoritist coach ever:



Isabel holding on to the lane rope!:



I don't have any pictures of Kate... She's a hard one to catch. She had a good season, though, and she really improved all her strokes. She didn't quite make divisionals, because you have to be in the top 2 for your age group, and she was #3 in freestyle... She was bummed, but now she's motivated to work on swimming during the winter to see if she can make it next year!

Finally, we celebrated the twins' birthday this past Monday. It was a few days late, due to the swim meets, end-of-year swim party, and Kate's sleepover party, but we finally got it in... I still have to figure out how/when to fit in a friends party for the kids. They really want one this year, and they've never had one, but due to my impeccable planning (none) it would have to be held in our rather small and terribly disorganized townhome... And I'm not doing 2 parties, so that's a lot of kids potentially... *sigh* I'm waiting for a bolt of enlightening on this little dilemma, but anyway, we got the "family" party done...

*Pathetic Cake Contest Winner* I usually use frosting that is from the store, which is thicker... But when I went to open my container of vanilla frosting, it was half-eaten! And stored in the pantry. Yuk. Either Kate and her buds got into the frosting and put it back on the shelf or I bought it that way from the store. :huh: I don't know, but anyway I was stressing, because I had to figure out how to make frosting with only 2 cups of powdered sugar. The frosting was a little runny... But Kate said it tasted good. Of course I can't eat anything like that with the gestational diabetes thing... Anyway, these are the cakes. Since they aren't exactly obvious, they are supposed to be "7s" for 7 years old...



Here is a classic Izzy shot. She is *so* excited about anything having to do with a party. Anything at all. Bless her! If I could bottle her enthusiasm I could throw an awesome party! I just never have been into parties at all, I'm afraid...



And Steven, proud of himself for having blown out his candles more quickly than Izzy... We didn't time them or anything, but he has to "win" everything...



And that does it thus far... Summer is only about 1/2 done!!! We still have more fun and games to conquer... Kate is gone for basically the rest of the summer, visiting her grandparents in Washington state. She'll go to camp, go to the Oregon Shakespearean Festival with them, hang out with her Washington friends, swim, eat out a lot, get new haircuts, learn to play the guitar, spend too much time on the internet... Summer stuff. I miss her around here! She talks to me a lot-- she never seems to run out of stuff to say. I know all about her friends, the bands she likes, her crushes... She tells me all about it all, and I know I'm very lucky that she does. As much as I complain about sass and attitude, I do miss her and it gives me a small sense of *empty nest* syndrome, which is really bizarre considering there are 3 here in my nest and one ready to kick into this world quite soon! Parenting is confusing...

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: blog is a funny word

So... One week to go until I have a newborn. I am so not ready, and resentment is *bubbling* up in me b/c of DH's schedule and the fact that when he's home he is NOT on his game. I am called upon to muster up sympathy for an inconsiderate attending or yet another PMS moment from one of his chiefs, and I'm just about out of "there there dears" especially when his alarm wakes ME up at 3:30 in the morning (idiot, why does he set it to 3:30 when he doesn't need to leave until 5:30?? Just to wake me up I guess), and then he goes downstairs to *close his eyes* on the couch for a bit, oversleeps and so doesn't have time to empty the dishwasher which is basically the only chore he ever does anymore. Except that he's been sleeping at the hospital because of his awesome "q2 home call" schedule for which "you barely ever have to go in to see a patient" except that he's only NOT had to go in to see the 10 pm "emergency consult" 2 times I think. So... he doesn't empty the dishwasher when he sleeps at the hospital either. Honestly, what good is it to have him come around if he can't do that one simple thing!!!? (Only a half-hearted here.)

The things I need him to do for me, and he just can't. And if I ask him when he's home for the 2 hours before he runs off to answer some stupid page... he just puts it off, checks email, eats something, then gets paged, and what I needed stays sitting there in the foyer for me to stare at. Boo-Hoo! Honestly. Today I had to clean the 2 upstairs bathrooms. I'm so ticked. He *promised* me he'd do it about 3 weeks ago. And so I plugged the kids in to the TV, then the Wii, to have Luke hit Izzy with a Wii remote, and .

So, in other news... I got all the kids school supplies together and stuffed into backpacks, and assembled the huge bags of "shared classroom supplies" to be delivered on the day before school when we go to find out who their teachers are. DH may have to be in charge of the entire back to school process, since I will be otherwise occupied. I'm hopeful that this baby won't need time under the bili lamps like Luke did, because I was a hostage at the hospital for 4 days just to watch him under the lights! Talk about Bo-Ring. I have *no idea* what supplies Kate will need for school, apparently middle schoolers don't need anything, but I bought her a binder (trapper keeper style) and an expensive graphing calculator, and she can pick through my little storehouse of school supplies for whatever else she needs. All we need to worry about for the back to school process now is getting Steven's medicine properly filed in the nurses office. There's a new nurse this year. I am not sure if I trust DH with this task, but I may have no choice. Sigh...

So, school supplies, check. Everything else? Not done. Seriously. I have to sew curtains for our kitchen b/c I decided DH needed to hang a different curtain rod. It really was necessary, but getting out the sewing machine to just alter my previous curtains has proven to be... an Olympic challenge. I have to defrost our freezer. I have to buy lots of frozen stuff to put in the defrosted freezer. I have to figure out where I put all the receiving blankets. I have to buy or make some burp cloths. I have to launder all the baby clothes. I have to get DH to assemble the bassinet. I have so many other things to do... There's nothing like procrastinating, I tell you...

In great news, I had my last complete-waste-of-time OB appt on Tuesday. I gave up on finding sitters for my appointments and just schlepp the kids with me. I get lots of appreciative looks for that, let me tell you. I know my kids, though, and they don't mess with 3rd trimester mommy... I bring the DVD player and let them watch whatever. It's worked out well. They really behave at the doctors, probably b/c they get all the fighting out of their systems at home! I still have 2 more non-stress tests to go, and then no more appointments for me! I'm so excited about that. The end is in sight! It's worth it to have the baby 3 weeks early because that means I'll miss 3 OB appts, 6 NST, and 2 u/s checks!!!

Anyway, that's a quick check-in. We are just in a holding pattern. The kids are getting kind of tired of hanging out at home waiting for daddy. Our outings have been pretty much all to stores (shoe shopping, school pictures, grocery shopping, school supply shopping, bank runs, etc., etc.) and so I'm hoping to get the kids to IKEA (at least there's a play room there!) and to the pool a few times before D-day... We'll see what happens. DH doesn't actually get a complete day off (he's doing "weekend surgery" and helping out the single young guy who lives 2 minutes from the hospital with single young guy's overwhelming call obligations this weekend)- but honestly, should he get 1 day off out of 17? No, that would be a silly waste of his incredible doctor skills.

To round out the post, I start by complaining about DH's schedule and end on the same note. The *story of my life* I think...