I love fall and winter, being able to wrap yourself up in the cocoon of a cozy home and wardrobe. Lately, though, I can't stand the cold. True, it's been really, really cold and not really ideal for frolicking outside in the snow. I think it has more to do with me being pregnant and apparently not able to handle extremes in temperature. Gee, I can't wait to see how I'll due during hot and humid July and August! We also don't have heated floors, so the main floor does get rather cold on some of these nights with our unfinished and unheated basement the only thing below. Maybe it all seems to be that much worse at night when I'm tired and start to feel bad, too.

At any rate, this only seems to bother me. Accalia and Cole are happily creating robot after robot. Ella fell asleep a little after 7 p.m. I just took a shower. Cory might be home in about an hour. Now I'm going to work on cleaning up the living room so that at least is clean.

Yesterday and today have been really, really cold - single digits for the highs - and today it's been snowing lightly since this morning. I'd prefer to not even have to go outside, but Accalia does have art this afternoon and can't wait to finish her bird watercolor that is being entered in an art contest.

Last night around midnight both Cory and I realized that the power was off. It probably came on an hour later (or even sooner), but I brought up a bunch of extra blankets in case it was off for much of the night.


Ella has been doing a lot of painting lately. She can't seem to get enough of it, and that includes painting her chest and belly. Reminds me of Accalia when she was that age.

I continue to struggle with keeping up with things around the house (reminds me especially of my pregnancy with Cole) and am really hoping that the end of the first trimester in about a week's time will remedy some of this.

I'm going to put together supper soon so I can just toss it in the oven later. Cory's delivering pizza tonight, so I need to have that ready since I'll be going back and forth to Accalia's art class and won't have time to prepare it then.

This morning, not long after eating breakfast, I was taking clothes out of the dryer. Accalia was standing near me. I stood up and said, "Oh no, I have to throw up!" and ran to the bathroom. Accalia was right behind me yelling, "Okay! Okay! Everyone out of her way! Don't go in the bathroom!" Then I heard her explaining to Cole and Ella that "sometimes when you're pregnant you don't feel well and have to throw up." It's ended up being a rather iffy day in the feeling well department, so that trend followed throughout the day.

While Cory slept in the morning, the kids and I did the grocery shopping. That, and buzzing Cory and Cole's hair. Ella kept climbing into the chair to have her turn, but I don't think I'm going to be able to cut off those curls. That was our big chore for the day. We've just hung around home the rest of the time. I'm not sure what it is, but Accalia has not been in a very diplomatic mood with Cole over the past few days. Something will happen and it won't be how she wanted it, and she'll either start to pout or start stomping around. Either way, it puts their previously peaceful playing to a halt. I asked Accalia what was going on, and she had no idea. Hopefully this doesn't continue throughout the week.

Okay, gotta get some food for the kids.

So I was going to post some pictures (cause I know you can't wait to see me in a King Kong mask), but now I can't find the camera. The house truly is a disaster, but I should have plenty of time this weekend to look for the camera. Cory works tonight, Saturday night and Sunday night, so I'll have the time.

Today is close to 30 degrees, and Accalia and Cole were so happy to go outside and try to knock icicles off of the house. It's such a difference from yesterday when we had a record low of minus 26 degrees. Yeah, you're all wishing you were here, right?

Accalia has tap in a couple hours, but that's it for the rest of the day. We did a little grocery shopping run (will have to do more this weekend). Last night we were catching up on episodes of Pushing Daisies (the whole family likes that show), and since one of the main characters, Ned, is a pie maker, I'm always craving pie after watching it. So I picked up a pie today - dutch apple. Anyway, we were standing there looking at pies and Ella started asking for chocolate. I told her that we'd get some chocolate next, and our dentist walked by right at that time. He just smiled and said hi. We've seen him and his family before at McDonalds before, so I'm not too concerned that he's horrified by our eating habits.

Hmm, I thought I was going somewhere else with that, but my mind blanked out. Okay, time to get off the computer, I guess!

I'm so tired today. It was a really crappy night of sleep for a variety of reasons, and I have a feeling I won't do very well staying up late tonight. It's too bad that Ella is napping right now.

I had my first prenatal appointment today. Cory took part of the day off and stayed at home with the kids. Usually they'd be coming along, but I knew that I'd probably also have a pap smear since my last was about a year ago, so we thought it would work out better to wait for everyone to come along until it was just a regular old prenatal appointment. Everything looks great. Dr. M agreed with my due date estimation of August 19. She even did an ultrasound, which I had no strong feelings about either way. It was wonderful seeing the baby, though, and watching the baby's arms and legs move all around.

As soon as I got home, the kids and I hopped in the van and went off to storytime. Then we came back home and that's where we've been since. Cory has a couple counseling sessions tonight but should be back around 7 p.m.

Today I'm having a very hard time functioning with all of the noise and activity of the three kids. I like to think it's because I'm functioning on much less caffeine than I used to, but that's probably not it. Before I became pregnant, I had gotten into the habit of drinking a couple cups of coffee each day, but for the last five weeks I've had absolutely no desire for coffee. It's actually rather repulsive to me right now. I also rarely drink pop because the sweetness is almost too cloying right now. This is actually the first pregnancy where I've felt like that.

I was supposed to go to my first prenatal appointment yesterday, but I rescheduled for this Thursday because the weather wasn't too great. We received about eight inches of snow between Sunday evening and Monday evening. It's a very light, fluffy snow, so shoveling was too hard. I think this is probably the latest I've ever had my first prenatal appointment - 10 weeks - but I remember thinking at my first with Ella (around 7 or so weeks), "Okay, what's the point of coming this early?"

I had my first pregnancy dream for this pregnancy. The really bizarre part was that I wasn't present for the birth. Cory and our doula were there, and I stayed at home with the other kids. I had a boy - 9 lbs. 5 oz. - that we named Raimi after Sam Raimi, the director of the Spiderman movies. I'm pretty sure we won't actually be naming the baby that, but it makes me wonder if there will be any connection between him and the name we eventually choose.

That's about it from here. I should post some pictures of the kids, although I haven't been taking a lot of pictures lately.

This morning I lay in bed waking up and I thought, "Wow, I feel really good!" Usually I wake up and can already tell that I'm feeling sick. And now I've felt great all day so far - great as in before morning sickness hit. I almost don't want to write that because I don't want to jinx it.

Yesterday I mentioned I've been catching up on LLL work. At the end of January, I'll be finished with my three year term as a division administrator (western part of the U.S.) for the Leader Accreditation Department (LAD). That means that I'll no longer be acting as a support person for five different areas (Minnesota and the Dakotas, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Oregon and Washington). I could have continued my term for two more years at the max, but I am ready to be finished. I'll still continue with LAD work, and I'm also serving as the Coordinator of Leader Accreditation (CLA) for Iowa right now. For a while now I've had the urge to really cut back on my involvement with LLL, and it's been easiest to cut out the bigger things first. I actually wouldn't mind cutting out all LAD work and just focus on our local group, but I would feel horrible cutting out on those responsibilities without a really pressing reason.

It's extremely cold and will be through the weekend. Think single digits. Cory doesn't deliver pizza tonight, so we'll have a rare Friday together as a family. Accalia has tap class tonight, but that's all. Tomorrow Accalia has a birthday party in the afternoon. It's actually a sleep over, but Accalia doesn't want to sleep over, so I'll pick her up in the evening before the other girls start getting ready for bed.

I think I'll throw supper together soon so I can just stick it in the oven while Accalia's at tap. Have a great weekend everyone!

Just checking in to say hi. I've felt absolutely horrible all week and just haven't been in the mood to do much of anything. You should see our house! I've had to do a bunch of LLL stuff, too, so that's where most of my computer time has gone these last few days. Will hopefully write more this weekend.

Ella decided to have another odd night of sleep on Friday. She fell asleep really early - around 6 - and I couldn't really get her to wake up again. She was determined to keep sleeping no matter what I did. I was up until 12:30 a.m. so I could talk with Cory after he got home from delivering pizzas. I was definitely not ready to get up when Ella popped up and jumped out of bed at 3:43 a.m. We went downstairs where I tried to doze on the couch while Ella watched The Wiggles, changed into a bunch of different dance outfits and had a snack. After a couple hours, we headed back upstairs where I was finally able to get her back to sleep. I was so happy about that, not only because I was tired, but also because I had La Leche League Saturday morning and knew I wouldn't be functioning well on three hours of sleep.

So, the meeting went well. There were four other mothers there - all "core" moms - so we had a discussion about overcoming cultural difficulties: coming from a family where breastfeeding isn't the norm, how to deal with separation, breastfeeding in public, etc.

There wasn't a lot going on the rest of the weekend. Cory delivered pizzas Friday, Saturday and then tonight. Next week he only does that Wednesday and Saturday, so we'll have a lot of time with him over the weekend. Of course, next weekend Accalia also has a birthday party to attend, but Cory will be working during that time.

I haven't felt too great today, but hopefully that will change tomorrow. My mom asked today if I'm starting to show at all. I'd say my belly has definitely gotten a bit more rounded, and I have three pair of pants that fit. That's the lovely part of subsequent pregnancies - you start to show a lot earlier than your first, so you're feeling so icky from morning sickness as well as having trouble finding clothes that fit. That was the nice part of my pregnancy with Accalia. I remember it wasn't until I was at least three months along that clothes started getting a little tight.

That's about all from here. I'm going to try to read a little while everyone is content.

Ella's early night last night apparently didn't mean she needed extra sleep all through the night. She woke up around 4:30 a.m. when Cory was getting ready to head to the gym and kept poking me until I got up with her at 5 a.m. She's napping now, so at least she'll be well rested for the rest of the day. I guess the positive side to first trimester fatigue is that I always feel tired so I'm not hurting too much - yet!

I need to get busy cleaning up a bit since we're having friends over tomorrow. That's about it from here.

Today I felt reasonably good. Still, it sucks to wake up each day just knowing I'll probably feel sick for the next 14 hours or however many before I go back to bed. Blah. I love pregnancy, but I do not love the first trimester. I'd love to be one of those women who never experiences a bit of morning sickness. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Well, I do have a friend who never has had morning sickness but would have horrible heartburn. I imagine that would be just as bad. I know there are women struggling with infertility who would like nothing more than to be experiencing my morning sickness, so I don't want to come across as ungrateful. It just seems that moms never get to whine and complain about feeling sick, and I'm taking this opportunity on this blog rather than complaining to Cory every night. See, isn't that considerate of me?

So now that you've all figured out that I feel icky most of the time and aren't happy about it, I'll leave it at that and stop complaining for the next four weeks or however long until I'm past it.

Ella is sleeping - has been since a little before 7 - which probably means she'll be awake soon and up late. Her favorite words of late are Cole and Accalia. She can't quite pronounce Accalia - sounds more like Accase or Accalie - but she never misses an opportunity to connect them with something that's happening. She loves to pick out crayons or markers and tell me which sibling would like it.

The other day Cole said: "I can't wait for it to be summer again so the neighbor girls will play." It's true. It's been months since we've seen them. How can you live right next door to one six-year-old and two five-year-olds and never see them? They can't play inside our house and vice versa, and apparently they don't want to play outside either. Even after all of the snow, we didn't see them at all. Our lawn was trampled with boot prints and covered with snow angels, but theirs remained untouched. Maybe they're dividing their time with their other parents or something. It's just really odd.

I really need to do dishes and clean up a million different things, but I doubt I'll actually get to any of those tonight.

This week is visiting week for Accalia's ballet and tap classes, so last night the four of us went to see Accalia. She always likes the visiting days when parents and grandparents come to watch. It's also the day where we'll see pictures of their costume for the spring recital. After that, we pretty much just vegged in front of the tv for the evening. Well, Cory sat at the table trying to catch up on a pile of paperwork from the prison.

Yesterday I really didn't do much of anything. I took care of laundry, dishes and the kids, but otherwise I just sat and read. I had wanted something fairly mindless and entertaining, so I picked out this Nicholas Sparks book that had been sitting on a bookshelf for a couple years. It turned out to be a book that probably wouldn't be recommended for any woman expecting a baby. If you don't want it spoiled, don't read this next sentence. At six months gestation, the baby is diagnosed with a potentially life threatening condition and the mother dies after childbirth.

Anyway, it doesn't bother me during pregnancy to read things like that because I don't tend to get too upset about all of the potential what-ifs. When I was pregnant with Ella and reading Ina May Gaskin's "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth", I remember reading in her introduction to the birth stories section about how nearly every pregnant woman hears gory or scary pregnancy/birth stories throughout pregnancy and is told again and again how horrible labor will be and how much it will hurt. She then talked about a novella that Stephen King wrote called "The Breathing Method", so I had to make sure I read that right now. Again, it's not a story to read if you get freaked out about unhappy pregnancy/birth stories. But did you know that King has had several children born at home?

I'd better make this short. Accalia wants to play hangman and Ella has me feeding her imaginary food from Spiderman's hands.

It's already Sunday evening. The weekend passed quickly! Yesterday we went sledding for a couple hours. We tried two different places. The first was a hill in back of the high school, and we were the only ones there despite plenty of evidence of others sledding. Accalia and Cole had fun, but Ella was a bit iffy with the whole thing. Then we went to a different hill at a park, and it turned out to be a much steeper hill. It was more fun for everyone, too, but it was so tiring to climb back up the hill. Ella wanted to keep going down again and again. We were all exhausted and sweaty by the time we got home.

After that, Accalia and I ran to the library to pick up a couple movies. She's been on a huge Jim Carrey kick and loves the humor in the Ace Ventura movies. Then Cole and Cory went on several errands around town. That night we watched the final Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Did that thing go on forever! The movies have been entertaining enough, but I haven't been that into them that I especially enjoy watching one for nearly three hours.

Ella's quite tired right now, but I'm hoping to keep her awake just a little longer so that she'll hopefully be down for the night instead of waking up after a couple hours. Cory's working for a few hours tonight. Tomorrow we're supposed to get snow. Accalia has ballet, and it's visiting day. That will be interesting for Ella since she'll most likely want to be in there with the girls dancing.

I've felt worse these past couple days. Today I thought back to my early pregnancy with Accalia when I had started my final year of undergrad in Vermillion. I think I had arranged my class schedule so that I had maybe three days per week at the most that I had to be on campus, but at least one of those days was so long. I remember sitting in the library studying and laying my head down on the table trying to stay awake and/or fight off the nausea. I also remember a few times when I anxiously waited for class to finish because I had to run to the bathroom to throw up. Ah, those were the days.

Anyway, Ella isn't feeling too hot today either. She woke up this morning sounding as if she's smoked four packs a day for all of her 26 months. Hopefully this cold doesn't last too long. At least she tolerates me wiping her nose, which is more than Accalia or Cole would do at this age.

I ended up rescheduling my haircut. Ella fell asleep, and Cole and Accalia were having a very hard time enjoying each other's company. I just knew that trying to keep that combination of children happy for 10-15 minutes of my haircut while waiting for Cory would not work at all.

This afternoon I was lying up in bed nursing Ella down for a nap. She had already fallen asleep when Cole came upstairs and crawled into bed. I whispered to him that Ella was falling asleep, and he replied with such a deadpan expression on his face, "Oh my, how awkward!"

Cory's working tonight, so the kids and I are having a very quiet night at home. Tomorrow Cory doesn't work at all, so we're all quite excited. I suggested to Cole that we go sledding, and he was very excited about that. Maybe Cory and I will actually watch a movie tomorrow, too.

I'm feeling a bit better now.

Yesterday, after lunch, we went to the library and picked out some new books and movie. Almost as soon as we walked in the door, the phone rang. It was a friend who happened to be in town and wanted to stop by with her youngest. I warned her that the house was a complete disaster, and I loved her reply: If I want to see the house, I'll make an appointment. I'm coming to see you, though. So we hung out for a couple hours. Her youngest is six months old, and Ella had so much fun with her. So that's a good sign that Ella enjoys the company of babies so much. I just have to hope she'll also enjoy living with one.

Accalia's in quite a sour mood at the moment because Cole didn't want to do exactly what she wanted when she wanted. I'm going to see if she's ready to let that slight go or if she still wants more time to stew in it.

I decided to try to post in the morning instead of at night because I usually feel much better right away in the morning. That's not the case today, though. It could be a really long day if this keeps up.

Last night Cory was home for the majority of the evening, and it was so nice just to all be together. Tonight it will hopefully be the same. Cory has a 5 o'clock client, and he'll be finishing up just as my haircut will begin at 6 o'clock, so there will be a bit of an overlap and the kids will have to come with me so he can pick them up and take them home. Hopefully all goes smoothly.

We'll see what the day brings...

Brr!! It's really cold here in Yankton. Thankfully it's going to warm up for the rest of the week. While Cory was making chili this afternoon and the kids were happily occupied, I ran to the grocery store to pick up a few items. I really didn't want to bother getting any of the kids bundled up to go out. It's perfect weather for chili, but it ended up being too spicy for me. That's too spicy for first trimester me - not regular me.

It was a crazy night for Cory delivering pizzas last night. He was supposed to get out at 8:30 but ended up staying until nearly 10. He's working again tonight and called to say tonight made last night look like fun. I get that it was New Year's Eve yesterday and lots of bowl games today (and a lot of people not wanting to go out in the cold to get food), but it's almost obscene how many people order pizza and do so quite often. What gets Cory are the people who actually tell him that they can't tip him because they're out of work. Umm, so why are you spending $20 or $30 to have a pizza delivered?

Cory did bring home pizza for us last night (as I now finish complaining about people ordering pizza), and the kids were so happy as they'd been expecting it more than an 1 1/2 earlier. Cole had actually fallen asleep for a short time but woke up only to begin laughing hysterically about anything and everything. I started laughing so hard every time he'd laugh, and Accalia came downstairs and asked why I was so sad because I had tears streaming down my face. So we all had our pizza and watched the ball drop twice on tv (once with Dick Clark and once with Carson Daly). Ella was out before midnight, but both Accalia and Cole stayed awake. Accalia really wanted to do that and was excited to welcome in 2008 ("I'm 8, too!"). She's also excited that this is the Year of the Rat, and we spent a while today looking at what years of the Chinese Zodiac we were born in and what characteristics those years have.

I guess I'd better clear a path through the living room so Cory doesn't trip over something when he comes home.