Baby #3

Well, I got a surprise back at the beginning of July. I will be having a 3rd child at the beginning of March. She will be our second girl. I had to find out at 16 weeks what the gender was. This entire experience is such a surprise, I couldn't wait any longer. My feelings are very mixed about this whole thing. Lila will be almost 4 when this baby comes. I was thinking about my "5 year plan" and it involved possibly finding a part time job. Now that has been pushed back even more. Maybe in 7 or 8 years I'll find something to do during my days while the kids are in school. I have always hated being pregnant. It's a scary time for me because of possible complications. I hope to make it to March without going on bedrest. I don't get morning sickness, but I was exhausted for nearly 12 weeks. I was taking two naps a day. I had all sorts of plans for the summer, but they went out the window because I was tired all the time. My poor kids were bored to tears often. Now that Grant is in school I have more energy, so Lila and I do some fun things during school time. I still get tired and need naps, but not as often as before. I am always congested. I can't sleep if I can't breathe through my nose. I haven't had a good nights sleep for months and I won't have a good nights sleep for many months to come. I find myself bursting into tears because I don't want to be pregnant. Then I feel ungrateful because I should see this as a blessing not a burden. I have friends and family that can't get pregnant. I should be thankful that getting pregnant has never been a problem. I just have to get through another 5 months of this. Then I will have to deal with all the newborn stuff. I guess I'll deal with things as they come. I will search for the good in this situation. But I am still having a hard time with this at the moment.

Who's reading?

I would like to know who is reading this blog. I am looking into going private so leave a comment so I get an idea of who needs invites.

Finding motivation

For the past few days, things have been quiet here at the Ashby house. I haven't wanted to do any of the big projects that are crying out to be done. I know the weather is great, but I can't bring myself to paint the doors in the basement. It's too much work getting the doors off and outside. I have sewing projects I need to do but I just need a break from my sewing machine. I finished one big upholstery quilt only to have another one to start on. My craft room is a mess and really needs some attention. But I am lacking the motivation to get any of this done. I clean the house instead. I am avoiding folding laundry or cleaning the kids rooms. I made an attempt at cleaning Lila's room. The gullywumpus bag ate a lot of her toys, even some of her dress up clothes. We are still working on just how she can earn them back. The kids are getting restless with the activities I plan. We did lots of fun stuff in the beginning of summer so this last month seems to be dragging. I know it will go by quickly and I should be preparing for school. But I'm still having trouble finding the motivation to do stuff. Maybe I just need a few lazy days.

A new look

I didn't want to cut my hair and I don't have money to buy a new wardrobe right now. So I thought I would change the background on my blog to give me a new look. I seem to be putting things on facebook more than on my blog lately. Grant learned to ride his bike without training wheels on Thursday, July 8th. He told his dad later that evening that he "felt like a new man". We are looking at buying him a bigger bike soon. We have to pay off the vacation before we can do that. The kids are enjoying the grass in the backyard. Grant still misses his dirt. He thinks it was much more fun than grass. But yesterday he did somersaults all the way across the backyard. He was laughing and really enjoying himself. I think he just needs to spend more time outside and he'll see how much fun grass can be.

June

June went by so fast, but we managed to pack things in. We put in the grass and it survived while we left on vacation for 16 days. My sister came to stay at my house to watch the cat, and make sure my garden stayed alive. The grass is green, thick and is right out of my dreams. My lettuce bolted so I have to pull that out and start again. I think I'll try a different kind.
Our vacation took us through Wyoming, Nebraska, part of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and South Dakota, back though Wyoming, then home to Utah. It was just over 4000 miles in total distance traveled. We had a wonderful time seeing old friends and showing the kids where Mommy lived when she was a little girl. Here's a list of some of the things we did on the trip:
Steamboat Arabia, Missouri
St. Charles Historic Downtown, Missouri
St. Louis Science Center, Missouri
River boat tour of the Mississippi River in Hannibal, Missouri
Historic Nauvoo and all that entails, (many activities, a day and a half stop), Illinois
Wisconsin Dells, Upper Dells Boat Tour, Wisconsin
Miniature golf at Pirate's Cove, (Grant got a hole in one all by himself) WI
Lake Michigan, at the beach in Sheboygan, WI
Bonfire in the backyard, (how I miss that)
A friends' farm where the kids rode horses and pet all kinds of animals
Parnell Tower, 60 ft tower tall enough to see the Kettle Moraines
Kids did Blue Harbor indoor water park with Gma & Gpa Schuette
Crystal and David go to Six Flags Great America (since kids were otherwise being entertained;)
Milwakee County Zoo, WI
Toy Story 3 in 3D
Vollrath Park in Sheboygan to test out David's new golf discs, all 5 of them
Lots of Wii games (we won't ever have one, I'd never get Grant away from it)
Playing in the hot tub, (it makes a good pool for 6 and 3 year olds)
Walking around Wall Drug, Wall, South Dakota (what a tourist trap, but fun)
Mt. Rushmore lighting the mountain at dusk, ( at 9:30, late for the kids especially with a time change) South Dakota
Badlands National Park, SD
We missed driving through the Black Hills because of a severe thunderstorm that we managed to get caught in. We went back to the hotel and watched a movie and played in the pool, there was a slide.
In between all of these activities, we drove in a lot of rain for the first 4 days. Rain is different in the Midwest. It comes down in sheets for long periods of time. We don't get rain like that in Utah. We saw one amazing lighting storm coming home from Great America.
It was a great trip and the kids did pretty good in the car. We had no "Are we there yet?" statements, but we did hear, "Where's the hotel?"
We saw a lot of water towers on the trip and somewhere along the way the kids thought that if you were the first one to see it, you got to sing a song. Lila always sang "Follow the Prophet", and Grant's choice was "Book of Mormon Stories". So as you can probably guess, there was fighting over which song was going to be sung. My kids were fighting over singing Primary songs.
Now we're back and have no plans for the rest of the summer. I pulled out my "Oh, what Do You Do In The Summertime" calendar and started filling it with activities. We went to the craft store and got supplies for craft days. Grant wants to do them all right away. We have library trips planned. The Living Planet Aquarium was on the schedule for today. The kids were well behaved, and since they are both getting older it is easier for me to take both of them out. I had to stroller or diaper bag with me. I loved it.
I know my schedule will fill quickly one middle of August hits. I better get started on some of my craft projects that had to be put on the back burner for the month of June. I have two upholstery quilts to make for friends who got married in June. they make great picnic blankets.
I did both of my bike rides the first two weeks of June also. I wasn't able to go as far as I wanted due to time constraints, but I rode 33 miles the 1st week and 25 miles the next week. I love getting on my bike and riding forever. I might try to get another supported ride in this year. We'll see what July brings.

My backyard

I have lived in this house for 6 1/2 years now. We finished the basement in Feb-Mar '09. Now it was time to finish the backyard. In May we had someone come and put in a sprinkler system while we were in California. We thought about doing it ourselves but after looking at things closely we knew it was out of our league. Then it was time for grass. David took off work on Tuesday the 1st of June. It rained so we couldn't work in the yard. On Thursday we were able to go out and till the yard some. Weeds were an issue. I used the tiller during the day and David was able to come home and work in the evenings. I put in 4 terraces on the south side of the house all by myself. I leveled most of the yard. David moved more rocks than we ever thought possible. But after all this prep work, we had sod delivered on Wednesday the 9th of June. With the help of two wonderful people in the neighborhood we were able to lay the sod on both sides and the back of the house. We no longer have dirt in the backyard. The kids want to go play on it but we must wait. We are going on vacation for just over 2 weeks so when we come back the kids should be able to play on it. The timing of things was done on purpose so it would be easier on the kids and us parents. We have been having some rain so the grass is staying wet. The temperatures are in the low 60's which is strange for Utah in June, but works out great for the new grass. David made a comment about everything being done with the house. I made sure to tell him our next project is hardwood floors in the upstairs. But that is for next year.

Milestones

Lila is now a 3 year old. Her birthday fell on Mother's day this year. We were in California on our Disneyland vacation so we celebrated at Grandma Harriet's house. We gave her a fabric sided market and lacing books. Grant gave her a Snow White crown. Grandparents gave her a bunch of new clothes, (little girl had very few shirts). Her cake was pink with princess things on top. It said Happy Birthday Princess Lila. It was a quiet day. The week that followed was crazy. We went to Disneyland 5 days that week. We are now ready to rest from playing. The kids had a great time. We made Grant ride the Tower of Terror in California Adventure. He covered his ears the entire time and wouldn't go on it again. Lila was afraid of the Matterhorn, but she liked the ride when it was over. We made her go at least 4 times. We did get to the beach, but we only stayed for a short time. The water was cold and the temperature was only in the mid 70's. They kids collected shells and sand. We went to some tide pools where we found some hermit crabs. We had breakfast in the park with Minnie. It was expensive but the smiles and laughter from my kids was worth it. My favorite ride was the Toy Story Midway games in California Adventure. Grant gives me a list when I ask him what his favorite was. Lila doesn't have a favorite but she asked for Alice. We saw more characters than we did two years ago. Lila went to see the princesses. She was brave and went up and gave them hugs and had her picture taken with them. The weather was perfect every day we were there. The kids stayed happy most of the time. Now we have to plan for the next vacation in June. I have two big bike rides before then. School is almost over. Summer is coming. Full steam ahead!