[ Posted by John
Sun, 09 Sep 2007 23:58:45 GMT ]
I have not posted to this blog ever but Hannah had a cute moment I thought I would share with you all. After eating some left over home made lasagna, which mommy had made a couple of days ago, Hannah said she was done. I dismissed her and told her to wash her hands. She went as usual and I followed after her a few minutes later.
I found her with her bib in the sink, the water running, and she was scrubbing it clean with her tooth brush. This made me laugh, but I told her I would take care of the bib and took it to the sink after putting her tooth brush back. Once I had returned after putting the bib in the sink I found she was cleaning the sink with her tooth brush.
It’s hard to tell her not to clean with her tooth brush since I don’t want her to stop wanting to clean, but not with the tooth brush she uses every night. I explained that as best as I could and then I took her brush away and figured we would get a new one later.
Posted in The Princesses | no comments
[ Posted by Maggie
Tue, 04 Sep 2007 20:52:39 GMT ]
I just made up a pitcher of powdered milk and decided I should weigh how much powder it takes to make a gallon to do proper cost comparison. Well it takes over 22 oz of powder to make one gallon of milk. If my memory serves me correctly the powder at Henry’s costs about $3/pound. So a gallon of milk is still $4!!! I just looked at the Vons website (to make sure Henry’s had a good price) and found that a 4 lb box cost $13.60, or $0.21/ounce. Multiply that by 22 oz $4.60, so no savings there. Several sites I found suggested powdered milk in order to save money, so I just assumed I was, turns out I wasn’t after all. I may have weighed wrong or did my math wrong, but for now I am done with powdered milk. I do have to say though having enough powdered milk on hand to make a pitcher does save those times when you run out and can’t make it to the store.
1 comment
[ Posted by Maggie
Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:39:28 GMT ]
Well Hannah and I have been home and we’ve been a family again for quite some time, but I haven’t written forever! Part of it was due to technical difficulties and the other part is due to the fact that our office chair has broken along with my back. My back is doing much better in general, but sitting in a hard chair makes it hurt very badly. So basically this blog post is to let you know that I will be out of the blog sphere for a while. The next couple of months will be preparing for baby number 2 and providing lots of love to little Hannie. She’s doing much better with potty training now, but still not quite there, she’s talking a lot more and learning every day. I really want to take the time before the baby is born to spend time reading to her and playing with her. Having a sibling will be a big adjustment for her, but she’s already talking to the baby and tries to feed it through my belly button. :) So I think she’ll do ok. Well my back is done so I’m going to go lay down for a while. I’ll definitely update when the baby is born, and hopefully that will cure my back as well. :)
no comments
[ Posted by Maggie
Mon, 23 Jul 2007 05:24:55 GMT ]
Just a quick update. After a very horrible first day of round 2 of potty training, things have been improving greatly. The past 2 days she has only had 2 accidents each day, and they were towards the end of the day, plus they were very busy days, so I think she’s doing very well. We’re also down to just reminding her to go every couple hours, she’s doing very well at holding it until she’s told to go (unless I wait too long). I’ll be thrilled when she starts telling me when she has to go, but until then this is working just fine.
Other than that we’re doing well here. We had a baby shower weekend, one at my mom’s on Saturday with her family and my Cindy did one for me today. We recieved lots of nice gifts and enough Target gift cards that I think we’ll be able to put a good dent in a double stroller, I think we’ll get the sit and stand kind, we’ll see. Well that’s it for now.
Posted in Parenting | Tags pottytraining | 1 comment
[ Posted by Maggie
Tue, 17 Jul 2007 20:12:41 GMT ]
Wow, it’s been almost a month since I’ve posted! Well a lot has been going on. Hannah and I have been in Sacramento since July 3rd and will be until August. We’ve been having a great time with family, but it’s time to update all of my good friends. :) We took our annual family trip to Sacramento for the 4th of July and had a great time, but John had to fly home very early on the 5th so he could go to work. :( We decided that this year Hannah and I would stay as we’re planning a family trip with John’s family to Idaho for the first week of August. When we decided this we thought it would be better for Hannah and I to avoid all the back and forth, we would be able to go to my parents’ church’s family camp (my home church since birth), and get to visit with family that we will not be able to at Christmas since we plan on staying home with our newborn.
So far we’ve had a great time. We had our annual block party at my parents’ house, we went to family camp and had fun playing in the lake, and have been sharing Dad and Cindy’s home with a couple from Germany, what great fun they are, and a big help too. We also started potty training again. Yesterday was day 1, it was Cindy’s day off work so we thought we would team up, well it didn’t go quite as planned, there were too many people in the house (my nephew, Grandma came to visit with one of my younger cousins, the German couple), it was just too much. So today it’s just me and Hannie. Cindy’s at work, the German couple is visiting a friend out of town, and it’s my sister in law’s day off so no nephew either. It’s very quite here, but peaceful and Hannah’s been doing much better, a couple of accidents, but a couple of successess too. Yesterday I lots count of accidents and there were barely enough successes to count (maybe 2 or 3) by the end of the day I was in tears. But we’re sticking with it, so I’ll let you know how it goes. Everyone is very optimistic (and I’m trying to be too).
On another subject. If any of you ever think about being away from your spouse for an extended period of time, be sure to think and pray about it very carefully. It’s harder than I though it would be. The last time we were apart for a long period of time was when Hannah was very small and my grandfather was very sick, and then again when he passed away. I don’t regret that time at all, it helped a lot in grieving for someone that I was very close too, but it’s a bit different this time. Logistically this plan made the most sense, and I still think it was a good decision. But being pregnant and hormonal and having a strong willed 3 year old without the one person who is to share all of this with me, is very tough. I am very thankful for loving parents who are a great help. It’s been a great time to spend more time with my sister in law, she too has been a great help, and I’m very thankful for her. :) It makes me feel for those who are without their spouses for extended periods of time without choice. A couple of my friends from church have husbands who are in the military and are deployed for 6 months at a time, and at times longer and they too have small children and/or have been pregnant while their husbands are gone. I need to remember to lift them in prayer more often and see if there are practical ways in which I can help.
The pregnancy is going well, I’m getting bigger and I feel the baby move often. My back hasn’t even been bothering me too much, but I did find a chiropractor close by, just in case. I’m again thankful for my sister in law who brought all of her maternity clothes by, I didn’t have much for summer, let alone summer in Sacramento (for those of you who don’t know it’s much warmer here, over 100 around the 4th, and frequently in the mid to high 90s).
Well I don’t know how much I’ll be updating while I’m here, but do check from time to time (RSS readers make it nice and easy) and please pray for me, especially with regards to potty training and being away from John. I’ll be very grateful when it’s all over. Lamentations 3:22 has been a good reminder for me lately. His mercies are new every morning! WOW!
Posted in Parenting, Family | Tags pottytraining | 1 comment
[ Posted by Maggie
Fri, 22 Jun 2007 21:37:29 GMT ]
So my house is a mess. First of all I’ve been very tired since coming back from Jen’s and second I’ve been spending too much time researching money saving tips, specifically at the grocery store. So I thought I’d write down a few for you all and then go clean my house!
Hillbilly Housewife, has some excellent tips. One that I picked up and decided to try was to reconstitute instant non fat dry milk. Hannah goes through a ton of milk, plus milk for mac and cheese, on top of oatmeal, etc. so it’s a major expense for us. Well Henry’s has it for bulk, so we bought just a little bit to try. 2 days later and it’s gone. Hannah doesn’t seem to care and it’s not bad on oatmeal and I’m sure will be fine to cook with. I tried drinking it straight, and had a hard time with it, but if I can get just a small carton for my drinking needs and use the dry milk for everything else I bet we’ll be saving several dollars a week on milk alone!
The other tip I’m trying is a price book. This is a notebook or spreadsheet where you keep track of all the prices of your commonly purchased items. I’m using a spreadsheet that I found here. So far I’ve entered in all of this weeks fliers and found some interesting things. Right now you can get 85% ground beef at Henry’s for under $2/lb. and Ralph’s has strawberries on sale for $1/lb! About 3 out of the 4 stores I entered had both of these items on sale, but they varied greatly. One place at the ground beef (same fat content) for $3/lb and another had strawberries for $1.99/lb, Henry’s had them for $1.50/lb. Normally I would trust Henry’s to be the cheapest price for produce, but not the case this week (although they were cheaper for most of their other produce). I wish I didn’t just pre assemble a bunch of ground beef meals for the freezer, I didn’t get nearly as good a price. Next time I know to wait for the sale. It’ll be interesting to see how Costco compares.
I’m also trying not to waste so much food, especially on Hannah, I usually give her way too much, so I’m cutting her portions and she can have more if she wants it. I also know that this last trip to Henry’s I bought enough fruit for each of us to have 2 servings a day, I’ll make sure we each get in our 2 servings so as to get in lots of good food for us and not to waste that nice fruit. I’m afraid my last shopping trip wasn’t so planned out and I have some rotting fruit from over a week ago that I need to throw out.
I’ll also be going back to using my bread maker and saving a ton of money on bread. Guess I better get to that. We need enough space to pull out the bread maker before I can make bread.
no comments
[ Posted by Maggie
Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:48:39 GMT ]
It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I have a great post for you today, it’s a post about a little baby boy coming into this world, which is always a joyous occasion. (Warning: It’s quite long!)
My dear friend Jen (see sidebar for her blog, which will have pics on it soon), got pregnant a little over 9 months ago, and it has been a blast sharing this experience with her. She has been so excited to be a mommy. We’ve been great friends for 9 years, and she was there for the birth of Hannah. She really wanted me to be there for the birth of her little baby boy, Alton, and I did too. She was planning on a natural birth and took Bradley classes.
Well her due date came and went. Then we had our family camp, I was certain that I was going to miss the birth, but knew it was in the Lord’s hands. When we got back she was still pregnant and a week overdue. They scheduled an induction for Monday, June 18th, if this little boy wasn’t going to come on his own. Jen wasn’t sure if they were going to go through with it though, but wanted to make sure her baby was ok so they went to the hospital for the pre-induction testing. His non stress test was jut fine, but when they did the sonogram the fluid levels were only 3 cm! (5 cm is the low end of normal) So they admitted her immediately and started the cervidil.
Travis called me, I went home (I was running errands), packed up and hit the road with Hannah. Travis’ oldest cousin was going to watch her once I got there. So I dropped Hannah off and then headed to the hospital. Jen was doing just fine, no contractions yet. I remember this time of the induction, a whole lot of nothing, I slept, but they started me right before bedtime, Jen was wide awake. Since Jen was doing fine Travis went home to check on some things for work. Jen and I played Uno and she won (really I let her win so that her blood pressure would stay ok). :) When Trav came back I went to go feed Hannah and the sitter. After dinner I came back to stay for a while longer. Everything was going well, and I decided that I would stay with Jen overnight and call Travis if anything happened. After looking at the cot it was clear that he wouldn’t be able to sleep much at all on it and this would be his last night of sleep for a while, plus I fit on the cot much easier. :) All was going well until little Alton’s heart rate started to race. The nurse decided to pull the cervidil and he finally recovered, but it took a while so bed time was much later than planned. Pitocin was to be started at 1. Travis went home and we settled in. After they started the pit the nurses were in to adjust the monitors quite regularly, so while we did get some rest, we didn’t really sleep much. Then problem number 2 came. Around 5 Alton’s heart rate started to drop after contractions. They tried different things, but then stopped the pit and called her doctor. The doctor ordered a c-section. I called Travis, he came straight over and I was getting ready to go transfer Hannah to the next sitter. We thought that Travis’ family would be able to watch her but they had something going on, so a mom from their church home group took her. So I rushed to Jen’s house, changed Hannah, threw her in the car, relieved Trav’s aunt, and went down the hill. On the way Jen called and said that the surgery could be within the hour. So I went to this very nice ladies house, handed her my undressed, unfed child and then ran. I jogged from the car to Labor and Delivery.
Once I got there the nurses told me I couldn’t go in, but I looked down the hall and saw Travis in his scrubs, so I went to go talk to him and the doctor came and talked to the anesthesiologist and gave me the all clear to be in there with her. Jen was having some difficulties with the spinal and started to panic, it was quite hectic in there, but Travis was able to calm her down just fine. I was able to get pictures of baby Alton as soon as they pulled him out at 8:21 am. He was beautiful, nice curly red hair and quite a set of lungs. They then took Travis, Alton and I to the nursery while they finished stitching up Jen (who was much more calm after they let her hold him for a little bit). I was able to take pictures of the vitals, 8 lbs 7.6 oz and 19.5 inches, and then they shooed me out. By this time I just sat in the hall, realizing that I hadn’t gotten much sleep, only ate a banana for breakfast and jogged my 19 week pregnant self to get there on time. I then went to go see Jen in recovery, had some water and a protein bar and was feeling much better. Jen was doing superb, she was already able to move her legs, and was chatty. Family started to come and we enlisted their help (the ones we could pry away from the nursery window that is) to move all of their stuff to Jen’s new room in post op.
Jen finally got to hold her baby for real a couple of hours after the birth, by this time the family had gone, and would come back later. It was so neat seeing them all together. Poor Jen was a little stoned at this point, they had given her some benadril to help with itching and it made her drowsy, but she was able to try nursing her son and he did great! A quote from the nurse (slightly modified) “Oh, my gosh, he’s a Hoover Vacuum!” It made us laugh, but she sure was right, he’s a pro. Family came back and got to see and hold him up close and then they left again to let Jen (and me) rest. I slept on the extra bed and Jen took a nap and Travis sat and held his son, he’s such a good Daddy.
After nap time Trav had to go take care of some work again. He hasn’t had much for a couple of weeks and then the day his son is born he has clients wanting his attention (he’s in commercial real estate), but Jen and Alton were in good hands, after my nap I was able to be the responsible adult in the room again. After surgery they don’t let the mom be alone with the baby in case she dozes off, it’s a good rule, she was quite drowsy and would snooze almost every time he nursed.
When more people came I left to go get Hannah. She didn’t want to leave! She had a great time playing with their 2 year old, ate well and took a long nap. After prying her away we went back to the hospital and then went to eat dinner with one of their friends. Finally around 8:30 Jen and Trav were left alone and Hannah and I were on our way home.
I feel so privilege to have been a part of the whole thing and see how God worked in so many ways:
1. Hannah did great being taken care of by strangers, and was cared for. It worked out better than we could’ve planned she was being cared for by a Christian stay at home mom and was able to play!
2. Although surgery wasn’t something they desired they saw the need for it far before she went through any real labor, and it seemed to be the only real option, since he wasn’t responding well to labor.
3. I was able to be there for the delivery and didn’t pass out on the OR floor! :)
4. Although the surgery itself was a bit traumatic for Jen, it was a short time and she’s recovering great. Yesterday she was walking around and in her own clothes!
5. Alton is in perfect health and nursing was not hindered by the surgery or the separation.
6. I was able to be there for a couple of days which allowed Travis to take care of some important business and get some sleep the night before the birth.
7. Hannah and I made it home safely, after 2 days of little sleep.
Sorry this is so long, I wanted to make sure I got it all down for my sake and for Jen’s. I know I don’t remember much of anything of the first day of Hannah’s life.
1 comment
[ Posted by Maggie
Wed, 13 Jun 2007 19:19:51 GMT ]
As a follow up to my previous post, Hannah hasn’t showed much of an interest since that day. She did ask to go again that night, but that was it. I have Dora panties hanging up in her bathroom and will periodically ask if she wants to wear them, her answer is generally “no”. Oh well, I’ll still encourage her if she wants to go, but like I said I’m not pushing it until we come back in August.
Tags pottytraining | no comments
[ Posted by Maggie
Mon, 11 Jun 2007 17:56:52 GMT ]
Hannah told me today that she needed to go potty! I haven’t asked her for quite some time, probably a few weeks. So I asked her if she wanted to be changed or go potty and she went to the bathroom. Her diaper was dry and she went potty all on her own! Maybe she’ll do this on her own. I’m still not ready to be aggressive about it, but if she does it on her own I certainly won’t complain. I’ll start carrying her fold up potty seat with us, just in case she wants to go when we’re out and I’ll be sure to have jelly beans ready too, but other than that, we’ll see what she does and then when we get back from our trip in August I’ll try and focus more on it.
Tags pottytraining | 2 comments
[ Posted by Maggie
Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:42:42 GMT ]
Here’s a topic that most of us don’t like dealing with, our finances. Well we have some things going on right now that are requiring us to take a deeper look at our finances. Our first step in our current situation was realizing that we needed help.
John has some co workers that have a financial adviser that they recommend so we made an appointment. We were relieved to know that this wouldn’t cost us more money! He waives his right to charge a fee and asks for referrals instead. (If anyone is interested I’d be more than happy to pass his info on.) We enjoyed talking to him and were pleased with his finance philosophy. He said that he wouldn’t put us in any situation that he wouldn’t put his own family in in our circumstance, and he has 3 little ones who he obviously dotes on. :)
After talking to him we were feeling pretty confident, we had a lot of things in place that he said we all should have. Things like life insurance, a will/trust, emergency fund with 3+ months salary (not quite there yet, but working towards it), etc. But then he gave us homework. He wanted us to do a budget report of last month’s spending. Well this morning I printed out bank statements and started adding. OUCH! I’m not going to share with you my findings.
This was a wake up call for us, finances are something you need to be attentive of 100% of the time, no sticking to a budget one month and then slacking off the next. The Lord has given us many resources that we are to be good stewards of. I’m thankful that we have someone that will work with us to get on more stable ground (not that we’re in dire trouble, just not where we would like to be).
So here’s a question for you, how are you being a good steward of your finances? If you’re in charge of them, are you being diligent? If your hubby is, how are you making that money stretch? I realized that I spend much more money on groceries than I thought. Any ideas on how to reduce that? I already shop in bulk, visit a few stores, plan meals, make a list and usually do a good job at sticking to it.
Tags finances | 1 comment
