My birthday

It was my birthday yesterday! Thank you to all of you who participated in the last 34 years of my life. a special thanks to those of you who remembered how important birthdays are to me... you know who you are... Just kidding! Thanks for the well-wishes on my b-day and for the cards and gifts. It was great. Justin got my grandmother's ring sized for me. It is gorgeous and I will always wear it. She and I share the same birthday! I thought of her all day yesterday. This is my first birthday I have had without her. Anyway, Justin got a nice pie and I had a small slice. And the kids gave me a card and they all sang happy birthday. The kids were so excited! I was hoping for a whole night's sleep as a gift from Lorelai but I think she forgot my birthday. I will be awaiting a belated gift from her. I got many phone calls. My sister, my brother, Rich, my mom, my mom-in-law and my good friend, Erin! It was great to talk to her. She misses me. It is nice to be missed. Especially when I am missing my dear Rexburg friends too. My best bud, Vicki and I went to Tinsel and Treasures on Friday night. Her treat! It is basically like a huge craft fair that sells tons of stuff way out of my price range that I could only dream of owning. But you know me and shopping! it doesn't even matter if I can't buy anything! Then we went out to dinner afterward. That is one of the great things about Lafayette. There is no shortage of great places to eat. Rexburg, the big news on the culinary front was Applebee's. And that was HUGE news! So tomorrow, Vicki is watching the 2 big kids and Justin and I (And my appendage, Lorelai) are going out to eat. I am not sure where yet. But it is going to be somewhere really good because it is back to salads for me after that. I think I have cancer. Maybe a brain tumor. It could be something worse than cancer, although I am not sure what that would be. But right now I am ready to get back on track and start feeling better again. It is probably largely due to the fact that I am not getting as much sleep as I should. But I will truck along. Poor me... my life is so difficult! Please, feel sorry for me! I may have cancer! Or, or anorexia!!! That is it! I am sure that is what I have! I am so skinny, I can almost see the outline of the bones, in my fingers... ok, not really. Anyway, I am sure I just need to eat better, sleep more and exercise more. So I will do that. It is now in writing. Dang it! How do I erase this? Also, if any of you have been watching Jenny McCarthy on the talk show circuit talking about her son with autism, I hope you are paying attention. I have been and I am getting the message loud and clear. Please, if you are having a baby or have a young child who you are thinking about innoculating, please do your research. 1 out of every 94 boys is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. One out of every 150 children is diagnosed. This is a HUGE problem. Sermon complete...

Lorelai content and not content... which do you prefer?

Don't Call It a Comeback!

This is a silly L.L. Cool J reference. Many, if not all of you, will not get it... but sometimes I do things to make myself giggle...

Diabetes Stinks

I have had a rough week. It started Tues night when I went to a Girl Scout meeting. I got all shaky and I was sweating like crazy even though the air conditioning was like 50 degrees, I felt like I was going to throw up and I could hardly fill out the papers because I was shaking so badly. I left early because I just couldn't handle it anymore. I did not have my little sugar tablets, just a piece of gum, that luckily had sugar in it, or else I would not have been able to drive home. I got home and had a sandwich and I haven't felt right ever since. Of course, I am afraid to test my blood sugar and I am totally infuriated since I had no problems at all while I was pregnant. I thought that maybe I was getting over the whole diabetes thing. Maybe I never even had it! Maybe the doctor had been mistaken! But no... No I have to find a new doctor and go to him. I need to start watching my diet a lot closer again, and I should be checking my blood sugar twice a day again. I haven't checked it in forever. Stupid Diabetes. It is so dumb. I do not have time for this challenge. Oh, we decided against girl scouts since she is going to be starting activity days soon. It would be too much stuff. As it is she doesn't get home from school until almost 4:00 and then has jut enough time for homework. And heaven forbid she miss Hannah Montana!

Bates Musical

Last night was a rough night. Lorelai was very unsettled. She would not go to bed until midnight and she woke up twice until finally waking for good at 6:00. The other children woke up a few times too, which kept Justin on his toes. He takes care of the big kids when they wake in the middle of the night, and I take the baby. No questions asked. It is actually a very good deal. Caroline said she had a drea, that Lorelai was a dog and she was allergic, so she was allergic to her own sister. Caroline has a very active imagination. Both children were acting out High School Musical for us yesterday. They get so bored on Sundays. We are mean and don't let them do much being the sabbath. Anyway, Caroline was being Sharpei and Hilton was being Ryan. In case you are unfamiliar with the phenomenon called High School Musical, these are the two antagonists of the movie. They are snotty rich twins who are very talented in the musical theater genre. They sing a song and dance. The kids have the words and moves down perfectly. It opens with Ryan saying..."Mucho Gusto!" and the girl says "Arriba!" Then they go into a sort of Latin dance. Well, it goes without saying that this is so hilarious when Hilton is doing this. He is so cute, and he just can't contain himself. I just don't know where these kids get it...

Great kid book

I know a lot of you have children that are my kid's age and so I am going to tell you about a seris of books she likes. They are "Franny K. Stein" by Jim Benton. Caroline loves them. There are only about 6 of them, but it is wnough to keep most kids busy for a couple of weeks. They seem pretty easy. I think they are for ages 7-10. When Caroline asked the librarian for them she tought they would be out of her league. But she quickly learned that they were not. Not to brag (okay, to brag...) but Caroline is at the highest reading level in her class. They are not sure what grade level she is at because she has exceeded all of the tests so far! Yea! I would like to take credit, but the credit goes exclusively to reading the scriptures. Plus Caroline really loves reading so she does it a lot. That is what the key is, I imagine. Math, however is another story entirely. Don't get me started. You might as well be teaching the kid Swahili.

No Hurricane

The baby is in her bed crying right now. She slept for a little while and is awake. But I have things I would like to get doen. I just cannot be picking her up and holding her all of the time! I went to take her to the doc today for a well-baby visit and I had forgotten her insurance card, so they wouldn't see her. And the pediatrician is way out in the middle of nowhere! It takes 30 minutes to get there... Thanks HMO... so I had to reschedule for next week. It is raining today. We are all fine in case you are worried about Humberto getting us. It is not going to come near us. We will just get a lot of rain. Our lawn looks like a lake again. I hate when it rains here because it takes twice as long to get places.

Baby Stats

FYI Lorelai was weighed and measured today. She was 10 lbs 11 oz (double her birth weight) and 21 inches long. She will be 12 weeks old on Thursday! The nurse at WIC said that she is probably going through a growth spurt and that is why she is waking up so much at night. She said this is the typical 3 month old spurt. Last night she woke up 3 times! She is usually only up once. This makes me sad. But she is just hungry. I feed her and she eats like I have never fed her before! So I guess she will get past it. At least, I hope so!

Poor Professor

I went and signed up for WIC today. We had to break down because our budget seems to shrink daily. We will save quite a bit every month getting eggs, juice, milk, etc. It is a very sad state this country is in when college professors qualify for welfare services. Something needs to be done about the economy. Milk here costs almost $5 a gallon! It is insane! That is about $30 a month for us!!! I am just disgusted with this situation. I am not too proud though. Since I am staying home with my children I have to do what I can to make our dollar stretch.

I'm beat

This kid is kickin my butt! i am so tired. She just hasn't been sleeping very well and I am beat. I was hoping for a nap today, but no such luck. I had to make brownies for Institute tonight, and I was doing that while she was crying her head off. I feel like I could fall asleep standing up. The only time she won't cry is when I hold her. I don't know what her dealis. But she is just soooo cute, I can't even be mad at her! The little stinker!

Just to hear myself talk

Can I just tell you how very nice it is to have a computer and internet back! This one is a desktop that cannot leave the house so I will constantly have it here. It is so convenient. I had forgotten how helpful it is! The problem is getting on without a baby in my arms. And I am not very good at typing with one hand. But Lorelai wants my attention and it makes it very difficult to do this. I am stopping after every sentence to put her binkie in. And now I am holding hr again... this is a pain. I taught sunday school yesterday. We had 3 boys there. That was it... I never want to do that again. They are very good boys, very nice boys, but I just felt stupid. Anyway, Justin has to do the "keeping your body morally clean" lesson next week. Better him than me! We are going to the Waihi's (my friend, Vicki's) house for FHE tonight. I am so glad I don't have to prepare a lesson. I am so lazy!

Down came the rain...

It rains pretty much every day here. But yesterday was especially crazy. The drainage problem here on the streets and everywhere is bad. This is our front yard! We have a ditch that is supposed to drain the water, but it obviously doesn't cut it. It is definitely a change from living in the desert! We have to carry around an umbrella where ever we go.

The Girls

Sleeping through the night was a one time only thing. She was up every 2 hours last night which is not like her at all! These are pics from yesterday.

A better day

Today was a better day at school for Hilton. He said that Ms. Beaudreaux was nice today. That ptobably means that she wasn't fussing at the children today. Tomorrow night it is his open house so we will learn more about the Montessori school approach. I am excited to learn more about what he does.Lorelai was fussy again today. I think she was feeling crummy. But she slept through the whole night last night!!! From 10:30 to 6am! But I woke up every hour as usual. I just didn't have to get out of bed, which was very nice. But I am concerned it was just a one time thing. We shall see. Justin's first night of teaching Institute was tonight. He said it went very well. He had 8 students, which is wonderful! He has CES (Church Education System) training in Baton Rouge on Sat. So We will probably all go and just do something in Baton Rouge that day. There is a huge mall there that is fun to look around in. So that will be fun. Tomorrow Caroline is off of school so we are going to have a mother/daughter day. We are going to have lunch and do some window shopping and we have to make some banana bread for our neighbors who mowed our lawn. I'll let ya know how it goes.

More update

Typing with one hand is hard, but I'll do my best... I have a baby in my arms. We took the kids to Chuckie Cheese on Friday after school. We had promised them we would since we found out we were moving here. They were in heaven. It was Lorelai's first Chuckie Cheese experience. She loved the pizza and riding the rides. Only kidding. She was unimpressed. But she was good. She just looked around and took it all in. Okay, so here is the low-down on school. Caroline doesn't like it. Things are very strict here. They have to say Yes, ma'am and No ma'am, they have to wear uniforms and she doesn't like wearing skirts and jumpers all the time. They have to be quiet in the halls. It is just not what she is used to. She feels like the teachers are always yelling. Which they probably are. The people here are very loud. Everyone is! It seems like people yell at me! One of the teachers yelled at Caroline to get back in the car because she got out in the wrong spot. The pick-up/ drop-off process here is ridiculous. Anyway, I just about lost it with that woman. I am the only one who can yell at my kids!!! She was surprised, to say the least and apologized and said she didn't realize we were new. (By this time she has seen my Idaho liscense plate.) Anyway, I don't think she will be yelling at Caroline again anytime soon. Hilton has the same problem. The teachers talk really loud and it seems like they are yelling. But they are just trying to keep order. He has to wear a uniform too and has to walk down the hall with one had on his hips and a finger on his lips. He is there all day. It is a little much but it is the way they do things here. They learn the things they learn in Kindergarten in pre-k, so I don't want him to get behind if we do end up staying here. The plan is just to be here a year, but Justin has to find another job before we can move... I have white ceramic tile floors. They are a pain. They are gorgeous when they are clean, but they do not stay clean for very long. They are throughout the house except for the bedrooms. We have a rug in the livingroom, but that doesn't cover the whole room. But it's okay, because they are nice, and they are cool on my feet in the morning which is nice! Another plus about Louisiana is that we don't have to water the lawn. It is very humid here and rains pretty much everyday, but only a shower. But it keeps our grass beautiful and clean. Unfortunately we haven't gotten a lawn mower yet, and our across the street neighbors came over yesterday and mowed our lawn for us! They are so nice. We really lucked out. They have a daughter Caroline's age and the girls love to play together. They are very friendly people and just very generous! Eventually, when the time is right, I am going to tell them about the church. I have yet to lose anymore weight. But it has been a very stressful time. I cannot say I am very excited to be here, so that has contributed to my nightly ice cream habit. But I will get right on that! My birthday is coming up! I will be 34. I love my birthday. I like to get cards... hint hint! :) I am kind of silly that way. But anyway, just FYI, it is on the 26th, in case anyone has forgotten!!! I better go now. It is after 9am and I am still in my pj's.