It's been a beautiful day today - 70s, sunny, a little windy. I could do without the wind, but you get used to it in South Dakota. The kids have been playing with the neighbor girls the past couple days, and today there were a few extra kids in the backyard who were apparently staying with the neighbor in the basement apartment for a little bit.

Accalia had a lot of fun at her soccer game last night. She was in the middle striker position, which means she was able to run all over the field and not be limited to staying in back by the goal or just on half of the field. Accalia loves to get right in there to try to kick or block the ball, although she's definitely not an aggressive player. Cole and Ella had a lot of fun running around with a boy who was sitting next to us. The next game is next Tuesday, but Cory won't be here for it. He's going to be in Sioux Falls for a couple days next week for a department meeting.

Cole is thrilled because it finally clicked with him how he could swing on his own without me needing to push him. He'd kind of had it figured out for a while now but didn't know that he was able to get himself started. What clicked with Accalia last night at nearly 11 p.m. is that she can tell time. She knew that there were 60 minutes in an hour and basics like that, but last night she realized that each number on the clock represented a five minute interval and exactly what that means when she looks at the clock. It's neat to see these moments when knowing how to do something finally becomes important to them and they do it.

Tomorrow Accalia has her tap dress rehearsal and will end up having to miss soccer practice since they're at the same time. I need to pay bills, which is always a thrilling task. Other than that, I guess I'll just keep trying to keep/put the house in order for this weekend. I also need to buy eggs so we'll be able to make Cory's birthday cake on Friday.

This morning Cory had a dentist appointment to take care of a small cavity between two teeth. His appointment was at 8 a.m. and at about 8:10 a.m. he called to tell me he forgot his wallet and asked if I could bring it to the dentist so he could pay. I told him we would be there in about 15 minutes. What I didn't tell him was that his phone call woke the four of us out of a dead sleep, so I'm pretty proud of myself for getting all four of us ready and out of the house and across town to the dentist in 15 minutes.

I'm at a point right now in this pregnancy (24 weeks along) where I crave sleep. Some nights I feel as tired as I did during the first trimester and nothing seems as glorious as crawling into bed. Sleeping in is so nice, too, and all three kids always seem to sleep in most of the time, too. Right now our general sleep routine seems to be staying up until about 11:30 p.m. (Ella will depending on if she napped). I'll wake up anywhere between 7 and 9 the next morning, while all three kids tend to sleep in until at least 9. I do enjoy having time to myself in the morning, but the idea of more sleep usually wins out. Thanks to us not needing to be up early every morning for school, the kids have been able to let their night owl tendencies shine through. I'm much, much more of a night owl than I was when Cory and I first married. I'm enjoying this sleep routine now because I know in less than four months that I'll be waking and sleeping according to this new little one's routine.

Accalia had her ballet dress rehearsal yesterday. I think dress rehearsals are rather agonizing to sit through because so much of the time is spent figuring out the lights and going over all of the details. It probably didn't help that I was trying to keep Cole and Ella entertained the entire time. We'll be doing this again on Friday for tap, but at least her dance is the first one so we don't have to sit through any other dances.

Tonight is Accalia's soccer game. It's the warmest day of the week so far, although that means it's around 60 and windy. It might be a little cool sitting out there for an hour. Accalia's really looking forward to getting out there.

Grocery shopping fell to the kids and myself today since Cory is working. It was a pretty small trip since we have limited funds at the moment, and it went fairly quickly because Ella decided she'd enjoy riding in the cart the entire time. Accalia and Cole helped me out by crossing items off the list, and we were in and out in no time.

This afternoon I cleaned our upstairs landing to remedy the toy explosion that took place up there sometime in the past week. Last night I helped Accalia clean her room per her request, although she still wants help cleaning up her closet.

With my parents coming this weekend (and Myron for a short time on Sunday), I have a few more cleaning things I need to do:

- clean both bathrooms
- vacuum stairs
- clean our bedroom (or just shut the door if I don't accomplish that)
- clean off top of art cabinet (The art cabinet is an old (probably antique), wooden cabinet that I won by luck of the draw when I was working at the paper here in Yankton. It has sides that can fold down, and the two doors open to reveal lots of drawers. Similar things are probably not used at newspapers quite as much anymore since so much more is digital, but it's what advertising departments would use to store the various proofs of ads, etc.)

Here's what the week is shaping up to look like:

Monday: ballet dress rehearsal for Accalia
Tuesday: soccer game for Accalia
Wednesday: storytime
Thursday: tap dress rehearsal for Accalia
Friday: prenatal appointment; art class for Accalia
Saturday: run throughs for both dance recitals (2 hours each); parents come; Cory's birthday
Sunday: dance recital

I think Accalia will be pretty happy to be finished with dance at the end of the week. She loves both dances she's doing, though, and is so excited to be up on the big stage. My parents are staying at a hotel when they come because they thought the kids would like to go over to the hotel and swim. They'll definitely like that.

Now I have to do a couple things before I forget what I wanted to do.

My friend Shannon is a graduate student and is requesting participants for an online survey as part of her coursework. She's looking for women ages 25-44 who have given birth to a child who is currently under the age of three. The survey is about breastfeeding practices and attitudes. If you fit that description and want to take the survey, here's the link: http://s-2e033-44452.sgizmo.com.

Today seems to be passing very quickly. The four inches of snow we received yesterday is basically all gone, although Cory says we could get snow again tomorrow. Cory's delivering pizzas today and will again tomorrow, so we won't see much of him this weekend. Next weekend, though, he's taken off Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is his 36th birthday and Sunday is Accalia's dance recital.

It's shaping up to be a pretty quiet night around here. Accalia's in the tub, and Cole and Ella have just taken baths. I'll start washing diapers once Accalia's bath has run. That's about it! I wish Cory were at home so we could just hang out and watch a movie together, but I guess that won't be happening tonight.

Before I get too tired and just conk out at the computer, I'll get to that blog entry I said that I wanted to get to earlier. We "enjoyed" a spring snow storm today. I think Yankton probably only got 2-3 inches, but places north of us got more than a foot of snow. Mitchell had over 14 inches tonight. They always seem to get hit with the worst winter storms. It seemed that way when we lived there, too.

Because of the weather, public schools here called off classes at 1 p.m. Since schools were called off, Accalia didn't have art. I expected that she wouldn't have tap either since their policy is to close when schools do. However, today was a rehearsal at the theater where the recital will be held, and Accalia did have her rehearsal. She was so excited to get back on that stage. We'll be there again Monday, Thursday, Saturday and then next Sunday's recital. Whew!

I had another ultrasound this morning because the tech had forgotten to get pictures of the spine two weeks ago. Everything still looks fine. Baby's gender hasn't changed, although baby's position has. Two weeks ago the baby was transverse, and today the baby was head down. I kind of expected that because last night I could feel these huge shifting movements - such a cool feeling - and knew the baby was moving around. The other kids all seemed to turn head down during the middle of the pregnancies and stay that way. We'll see about this one. Nothing else too notable to report other than the baby's feet measure about two inches right now.

The rest of the day hasn't been too eventful. Cory is out delivering pizzas tonight and is crazy busy since no one wants to go out and get food. He's also dealing with emergencies at the prison, so it's a rather stressful night for him.

I'll have to write about what the kids are up to last on. I'm just too tired tonight to keep going.

I thought I had posted this on Tuesday, but I guess it never made it out of the drafts. Enjoy the belated post! I'm going to try to post again today.

`````````

Happy Earth Day! It's a beautiful day here in Yankton to be outside, so we'll be able to get out and actually do some things that help the earth. When the weather is nice, we usually go for at least one walk a day, and Accalia and Cole suggested bringing along bags to pick up garbage we find along the way. We are by no means the most earth friendly family out there, but we do try in a lot of small ways to make a difference. We've always recycled, and we'll bring our glass to Mankato when we visit because there is no glass recycling here. We also have cloth diapered since Accalia was around 9 months old, although we have used disposables when we travel. We've also switched over all lightbulbs to compact fluorescents, and since we did that we've only had a couple CFLs burn out. There isn't a local place where we can recycle them, though, so we're hanging on to them until we do find one. Don't want to add any extra mercury to the water and ground! I guess we also try to make sure that we buy phosphate free cleaning products (laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, etc.) And, while none are us are vegetarian, we usually eat at least one meatless meal a week. A book I love that has great ideas for greener living around your home is Better Basics For The Home.

One thing I'm absolutely horrible about is making sure I have reusable bags along when shopping. I need to just keep them in the van, and I need to get more so I'd have enough for our big grocery shopping trips. While we don't throw away the plastic bags (we bring them back to the recycling bins at stores), that still means we're continuing to encourage the production of those bags. I've also read that the bags in those recycling bins are just thrown out, so that doesn't do much good.

What sorts of things do you do to help reduce your carbon footprint?

Cory is up in Sioux Falls today for a conference, and I'm not sure if we'll even see him before he returns home and has to go to work delivering pizzas. This is his last Tuesday doing that, though. He decreased his availability there because he needs to make sure he has more availability for private counseling. They've finally gotten in with several places as network providers and have already been getting more calls as a result.

Yesterday we our appointments at the dentist. We go twice a year since our insurance covers most of it. Accalia loves going to the dentist, which Cole is a little unsure yet. He hates toothpaste and doesn't want them to use it on him, which they were fine with once I explained his hesitancy. We all had good visits. No cavities except for Cory having one small one between his teeth. Cole's six year molars are coming in, and I wouldn't be surprised if he starts to get some loose teeth in the upcoming months.

Cory took off yesterday since the dentist took up most of the morning, but he spent nearly all afternoon working on brochures to hand out to these new network providers. Then he had a couple appointments. Accalia had her last regular ballet class last night. Now they'll just have rehearsals for the recital.

The summer rec schedule came out today, which I have to tell Accalia about since she was so excited about seeing the offerings for this summer. Now I think we're going to head out on that walk. I have to check with Ella to see if she wants to keep on the Spiderman costume or change back into her regular clothes.

We survived the picture taking marathon yesterday! Hooray! It all went very smoothly even though we only had about two minutes to change Accalia's dance costumes and hair. The older girls that help out with class do such a great job, too, and that makes a huge difference. I was so glad to have Cory at home with Cole and Ella, though, because there's no way I would have been able to move as quickly as I did.

One of the moms with a girl in Accalia's ballet class was there with her three-year-old son, and she was in an awful mood. She was constantly scolding/yelling at her son to be still, which is really helpful in a crowded dance studio with kids and parents all over but also understandable that the son wanted to run all over with the big, open spaces in parts of the studio. Cole and Ella would have wanted to do the same thing if they were along. Then, when we were all crowded in the small changing room and I was helping Accalia into her soccer uniform, this mom was there yelling at her son to be quiet, yelling at her daughter that she was nearly nine and old enough to put a sock on by herself and yelling at both of the kids that she couldn't talk to Daddy on the phone when they were both talking to her. Then she asked them what they wanted to eat for lunch. I'm thinking it would have helped out a lot if they had been able to eat before getting pictures taken since it was past 1 p.m. at that point.

I've known this mom since Accalia started dance and her oldest was in the same class as Accalia. At that point she had two girls and was such a different person in public. Now, whether it's the addition of a third child, that the third child is a boy who seems to have quite a different temperament than his sisters, or whether it's something completely unrelated to the children, she's definitely changed. That's what happened a little after our sister-in-law Shannon had her third. It honestly sent her over the edge a bit, and I think that - at the time - they would have liked to reverse their decision to add on to their family. There have been times this pregnancy where I've wondered how well I'll be able to parent four children, especially when there are days where I feel as if I'm definitely not up to par. Of course, I also had those thoughts when I had just one child and then two children.

Anyway, back to pictures...

Accalia was so relieved to make it to her soccer pictures on time, and I think that's what she was most worried about missing. Of course we ended up parking on the wrong side of the huge park since they hadn't told us where the pictures would be taken. How hard it is to say the east side near the middle school? We ran about half way, but I had to slow down to a walk, me being pregnant and out of shape.

Cory did have to work yesterday afternoon and evening. The kids and I went on a walk, went to two parks and hung out in the backyard during much of that time. It was such a nice day yesterday. Today is supposed to be even warmer, but I wonder what will happen since it's been cloudy and overcast since I woke up. The first warm days of spring are always a great time for the kids because everything outside is new to them again. The swingset, sandbox, all of the outdoor toys - it's as if they're going to a different park each day.

Right now Cory is doing a bit of grocery shopping. It's so nice to have a week where the kids and I aren't going out and doing that. He'll probably be home soon. I think I'll see if the kids want to get dressed and have something to eat.

Ella was walking around here just a couple minutes ago with a soaking wet washcloth on her head. I have no idea what prompted that, but it's made her very happy. That's a good thing since it's nearly 7 p.m. on a day without a nap.

I'm trying to psych myself up for tomorrow when Accalia and I attempt to have three different pictures of her taken in the course of an hour - three different costumes and not all pictures taken in the same location. The good news is that she'll get her ballet costume on at home so I don't have to struggle to try to put a decent bun in her hair in two minutes. Unfortunately I will have to change her hair between pictures, but it won't be that complicated.

I've also packed up everything she'll need for the second dance picture and am in the process of drying her soccer uniform so that will be ready to go. What's going on tomorrow makes me so glad that our lives aren't constantly at this frantic, rushed speed of going from one thing to the next. We all love our days of not having much scheduled. These next few weeks just won't allow for that, but I'm sure it'll make us very happy to go back to it.

So, that's really the most important thing going on this weekend. It's supposed to be really nice, so hopefully we'll be able to spend plenty of time outside, too.

Our scanner is working just fine now, so below is your first glimpse of the newest Nelson sucking what looks to be a thumb.


All still seems to be going well at 22 weeks along. Over the past week I have noticed more aching and pain as my ligaments are stretching and making room for this expanding person and space. I've also noticed that I really feel it if I'm on my feet too much. I hate to think that at 22 weeks I already need to make sure I'm taking the time to stay off my feet for a while each day, but I'll just listen to my body whether I think it's too soon or not.

Ella's probably toward the end of a long afternoon nap. She went to bed earlier yesterday and was up before 7. Cole really, really needs to take a nap even though he hasn't done that in years. We had to be up and out of the house earlier today to take the van to the repair shop. We need the door handle replaced on the passenger side sliding door because it broke off and we can't even open that door from the inside. We also have an exhaust leak, but I'm not sure if we'll get both of those repaired at the same time. Depends on how long it would take. We walked home from the repair shop - probably under a mile - and Ella insisted on being carried basically the entire way. I was planning to take the stroller, but of course it rained overnight and of course I left the stroller outside.

Today we made banana bread, and all three kids painted once we discovered we had big jars of power tempera paint still sitting around from when Accalia was much younger. Ella, of course, painted much of herself, but she does like to wait for me to help her to the sink to wash off so she doesn't leave paint prints everywhere.

It's a cool, cloudy day, and Accalia has soccer practice tonight. I have a hair cut after that. Cory was supposed to have a counseling session after work but rearranged his schedule when he realized it conflicted with the hair cut. Nice guy.

I think Accalia wants on the computer, so I'm going to sign off.

So, this week has been warmer. It's also been extremely windy, which makes it rather difficult to have an enjoyable time playing outside. Yesterday, after lunch, we went to a park. It was around 50 degrees, but with the wind it felt a lot cooler. The kids still had fun. The first thing Ella went for was the tallest, swirliest slide which, of course, she insisted I go down with her. My thought was that this is going to get a lot harder the more pregnant I am. But, for the rest of the time we were at the park Ella was going down slides and climbing all over rarely asking for me to join her. Go figure. There were a few other little kids there for a short while, and their dad just happened to be one of those parents who keep a constant chatter of instructions going: "Be careful of the little girl! No! Wait your turn! Okay, sit down now. No, don't go yet. Okay, you can go. Let's go to the other slide. You can go down twice. Okay, let's go to the swings. Okay, we have to go now." And on and on. After the park, I got each of the kids huge ice cream cones. Ella dumped hers all over the car seat by the time we made it home, but amazingly enough it stayed in one unmelted lump for me to do easy clean up.

Cory had a couple appointments after work, so I took Accalia to and from ballet. I think this was probably the first time since I started showing that I've taken Accalia in and haven't been wearing a jacket or a big sweatshirt. All of the moms started exclaiming about me being pregnant.

Last night Ella fell asleep a little after 7 and actually was in bed until 7 this morning. She fell asleep for a nap around 12:30 and is still sleeping two hours later. She's wearing Cole's footsie pajamas and no diaper, so hopefully she doesn't wet the bed.

Not much for tonight. Cory doesn't work, so we're going to grill and just hang out. Gotta watch American Idol, of course.

Ella drew on the tip of her nose just a little bit ago -- with permanent marker. We usually don't have permanent markers within her reach since she doesn't know the difference between those and the washable ones that she can draw with all over herself. Cole has been using the permanent marker lately, though, and no one saw that they hadn't been put up. Ah well. It's not as if we have anything going on that requires no permanent marker on the face.

I wanted to expand on what I had written about Cory's aunt Pat earlier since I talked with Cory and he seemed to know a few more details. While we have no idea how successful the treatment could be, a lot of it depends on the organs affected by the protein since this protein basically harden whatever it attaches to. Unfortunately, Cory told me he believes it's affecting Pat's heart. Depending on which organs are affected, the life expectancy is usually 1-3 years. Pat has always seemed larger than life - so active, so social, the one planning events and keeping everyone in touch. She and Mary were probably fairly opposite since Mary was always quieter and didn't want to cause waves. I don't want to sound as if I'm writing her obituary already because she might have years and years left. We just don't know.

I'll end this brief entry on a slightly less serious note. How about something I'm grateful for tonight? I'm grateful for my pregnancy-induced stuffy nose that keeps me from smelling nasty diapers. Apparently Ella had one tonight that spread throughout the house. Diaper are washing right now so that will be taken care of, but it's nice to not have to smell it in the meantime.

Lately I've been waking up early but not getting to sleep very early. Today it's starting to take its toll. I don't mind getting up early at all because I've missed having some quiet mornings before all of the kids are awake. Perhaps my body is already trying to get me prepared for the odd hours of sleep I'll get once we have a newborn in the house again.

Yesterday no one showed up for the LLL meeting. All three kids stayed home with Cory this time (usually Ella goes with me), so I sat for a while waiting to see if anyone would come and was able to read a magazine article that I've wanted to for a month or two. After lunch, Accalia and Cole wanted to spend their money, and Accalia picked out a Littlest Pet Shop VIP stuffed animal which allows her to access a virtual world for her pet. She's been loving that all weekend. Cole wanted to get a couple Ben 10 action figures, and he's kept them close to him all weekend, too.

Yesterday was a cold, windy day, but today we can see that the spring warm up is finally here. While it struggled to get to 50 degrees, it was sunny and a nice day to walk around the neighborhood and poke around the yard to see what is growing. We can see the buds on George, our willow tree. We can see the tulips and lilies popping up in front and along the side. Accalia and Cole keep asking when we can plant the garden, but we probably won't do that for at least a few more weeks so we're past the danger of any more freezing/frosty nights.

This past week has been rather rough for Cory's side of the family. His brother, Mark, is a highway patrol officer in Mitchell, and on Friday he was working during snowy, icy conditions. He was about 30 miles west of Mitchell responding to two semis in the ditch. While he was talking to the other truckers, another semi went into the ditch. Then, as he was headed back to his vehicle, he could see another semi coming and losing control. He saw that the semi was headed right for him, so he jumped in his vehicle, stood on the gas, and managed to get moving. The semi hit him, though, and spun him 180 degrees into the ditch and blew out a couple windows. It's amazing that there was so little damage that he was able to drive back to Mitchell. Also, thankfully, he wasn't seriously injured. He's pretty sore, but as far as we know wasn't more seriously hurt. That semi driver did get a ticket for overdriving the conditions, though.

The other bit of bad news is that Cory's aunt Pat (Mary's sister) has been diagnosed with primary amyloidosis, which is something I'd never even heard of before. It's a disorder where protein is deposited on tissues and organs. It's extremely rare - 8 in a million, I've read - and there is no cure. It is life threatening. Pat is being treated at the Mayo Clinic, and it sounds like the treatment consists of chemo in pill form. There are some forms of amyloidosis that are heriditary, but this kind isn't, so Pat is very thankful that her children won't have to be tested and worry that this is something they may develop and pass on to their children, etc.

So that's what's happening in some of our extended family. We'll see how this coming week goes. The weather should be nice enough that nothing should have to be cancelled because of the weather. I think Accalia's a bit bummed that she'll miss her first soccer game on Saturday because dance pictures are at the exact same time, but the pictures have been planned for much longer than the soccer game. Accalia also has soccer pictures that day, and it may be a challenge to get there from the dance pictures. It rarely happens that so many things end up coming together at the same time like this, but that is just one of those days.

Tomorrow I'm sure we'll enjoy the outdoors more. Other than Accalia having ballet, that's about it for planned activities.

The lack of spring weather is taking its toll on the start to Accalia's soccer season. Her game for tomorrow has been cancelled mostly due to the extremely wet fields. We had close to an inch of rain and then an inch of snow yesterday. We're getting a little bit of snow today, but it's nothing much at all. Just lots of wind and cold temps. I think Cory is glad the game is cancelled since that means he and Cole won't have to sit out in thirtysome degree weather to watch it. My LLL meeting for tomorrow should still go on as planned, though. I just have to get ready for it today.

This morning was my ultrasound, and the baby was very cooperative and photogenic and active. The ultrasound tech even got excited at one point because we could watch the baby sucking his/her fingers and thumb and could even see the sucking motions of the jaw. So sweet. Yes, we did ask about the gender, and the tech told us that's she's about 80 percent sure of the gender. We don't have plans to share that news before the birth, although if one of the kids lets it slip it won't be a horrible thing. This is the first time we've found out beforehand, and I'm so hesitant to think of the baby in terms of a specific gender. That's probably because of all of the people we know who were told they were expecting one and were surprised with the other. So we'll definitely have boy and girl names decided on.

Soon Accalia will head to the art studio and later to tap, but that's about it for our Friday. Cory works tonight. Last night our one remaining fish died. Accalia asked if we could just flush it right away, but Cole wants to have a proper burial outside, so we'll do that tomorrow or Sunday when the weather's a bit nicer.

Ella wants to watch a movie on the computer, so I'll end for now.

I can't believe tomorrow is already Wednesday! The days have just flown by since I blogged last Friday.

I'm trying to remember what happened on Saturday. Cory worked most of the day, Cole helped me haul some junk to the front curb for this week's junk days pick up, and Cole and Accalia picked out new sandals. After Cory got home in the evening, we just hung out and watched Saturday Night Live.

Sunday was Cory and Accalia's big trip to Pipestone to watch Grandpa sing in a group called the Al Opland Singers. Accalia was so excited - new outfit, movies picked out to watch in the car, backpack filled with things to do. Grandpa took them to McDonald's after the concert. She seemed to enjoy the day even though the concert was probably not the most exciting part for her. While they were gone, Cole, Ella and I went grocery shopping, watched a movie, hung out, and ate Taco John's for supper (probably the most exciting part for Cole since Accalia never seems to want to eat there if we go out). While it certainly wasn't quiet with Accalia gone, you could definitely tell the difference in the noise level once she returned. Accalia and Cole were so happy to see each other. They hugged and sat in a chair together to talk about everything that had gone on that day.

On Sunday I really felt like another cold was hitting me, and it has. I'm so sick of feeling this way! I've spent most of this pregnancy with a stuffy nose, which isn't an unusual pregnancy thing, and I know for some people being sick seems to happen more easily during pregnancy. Hopefully no one else follows suit with a second cold. I woke up around 4 a.m. this morning with my left ear throbbing. I had been up just a couple hours earlier to use the bathroom, and everything felt fine. It's strange that the ear ache came on so quickly like that. I was up for an hour or so because the pain was too unbearable to lie down and sleep. So I took some homeopathic belladonna, kept a heated rice compress up to my ear and massaged along the back of my ear. It seemed to work because I was able to fall back asleep within two hours without a painful ear. My ear's been a little tender today, but it hasn't been anything major. Guess this is just a nasty part of this particular cold.

Monday wasn't too exciting of a day. We all went to the chiropractor in the afternoon, and then I took Accalia to ballet. I had her informational recital meeting for that class and was finally able to see her costume and watch her practice this dance. It's a very classic ballet look - bun, long skirt, etc. It's really beautiful to watch.

Accalia was supposed to have soccer practice yesteday since they had to cancel last week's, but she missed it since it was at the same time as dance. She had another practice tonight, though, and had a great time. She was very excited to be back. While she was at practice, Cole, Ella and I had fun vacuuming out the van. That was way overdue.

I guess Ella has decided that she isn't going to be down for the night. She fell asleep around 7:30 but is back up and not in the best mood. Better get to her.

Here's my 20 week belly. Accalia took the picture. I hadn't asked her to keep my head out of the picture, so I apologize to those who wanted to see my face, too.


I had all three kids with me for this appointment, and it ended up being a much longer affair than it needed to be - not because of the kids, though. We had to wait a half hour in the waiting room, and then once we were back in a room, we waited another 20 minutes before Dr. M came in for a grand total of 10 minutes. It wasn't that she was trying to rush me through once she got there, but I just didn't have any questions or concerns at this point to eat up her time. Everything is just fine. I've gained a total of 20 pounds so far, but I've decided to just ignore my weight at this point. For whatever reason I gain more than average during pregnancy, but I also lose the majority of it without any effort on my part, so I'm not going to get too concerned. I'm also measuring where I should be at 20 weeks. Next Friday I have my ultrasound. Beyond that, though, it will hopefully be an uneventful month until my next appointment.

Since the appointment ran longer than expected, we had to hurry home, grab lunch and take Accalia to art. We found out that Accalia didn't win a prize in the bird art show that has its reception tomorrow. When I asked Accalia if she wanted to go to the reception, she didn't seem too interested, so I think we'll skip it. Accalia had tap later in the afternoon, and that basically brings us to this evening. Cory is working tonight, so it's just the kids and me.

Unfortunately, Cory works most of the day tomorrow, so it'll be just the kids and me once again. We'll haul out a few things for next week's citywide junk days, and Accalia wants to go out and buy sandals or flip flops since we haven't gotten around to it yet.

I should wrap this up. The dishwasher needs to be loaded, the laundry needs to be taken care of, and approximately a whole crapload of stuff needs to be picked up off the floor. What I'd really like to be doing is to sit down and read the book I'm in the middle of, but every time I've tried to do that Ella has jumped into my lap and started hopping up and down.

Accalia and Cole managed to pull one more April Fools trick on Cory when he came home from work yesterday. Accalia had gotten together all of her soccer uniform (shirt, shorts, cleats, socks, shin guards) and was using pillows and long foam sticks to assemble a dummy of herself. She hadn't even thought to use it as a trick when I said it might be funny to set it up on the couch and cover up most of the body with a blanket so Cory would only see the shoes sticking out. We did that, and Cory had no clue it wasn't actually Accalia under there.

Today we took advantage of the free printer cartridge refill that Walgreens had today and had one of our color cartridges filled. Went to story time, too, where one of the librarians told me I've really "blossomed" and asked when I was due. When I told her, she commented on how huge I'll probably be by then. Gee, thanks. Accalia took a picture of my belly today, which I'll have to post so that you can judge for yourself just how big I am.

I thought there were other things I wanted to write about, but now my mind is blank. Oh well. I think Ella is falling asleep. Tomorrow our excitement will be taking the van for an overdue oil change. Hopefully it will be nice enough so that we can walk around downtown rather than sitting in the waiting area. That place just isn't designed for three energetic kids.

Happy April Fools Day! Accalia and Cole have been trying to think of tricky things to do since the weekend. Last night they put a stuffed snake in bed so Cory would discover that, and I ended up warning Cory ahead of time (so he could let out a big scream for the benefit of the kids) since I had no idea which snake they used. Turns out the warning wasn't necessary since it was a huge snake. Yesterday Accalia and Cole were also trying to trick me with tales of giant bees and owls upstairs, so I played along with that. Today I printed out these mazes I found online that can't actually be solved and gave those to Accalia and Cole. I hesitated before doing that because I wasn't sure if they'd get too frustrated or actually enjoy the trick. They took it well, and that has been the extent of our April Fools Day so far.

Yesterday we had a spring snow storm that derailed our plans for the day. We received about five inches of snow and another inch of rain. When I woke up in the morning and saw what was happening outside, I called to reschedule my prenatal appointment for this Friday (third time in a row I've had to reschedule due to weather). I had no idea if the snow/rain mix also included freezing rain, and I had no intention of driving a half hour on country roads just to find out. Thankfully Cory didn't have to drive anywhere for work. He spent the afternoon watching the Cubs season opener, which included two rain delays. Unfortunately the Cubs lost in the 10th inning.

Accalia and I headed off to her ballet class only to discover the studio closed. I hadn't even thought to check on closings due to the weather mostly because we've had worse winter weather where things have remained open. It turns out schools closed yesterday along with a few other things.

Accalia's soccer practice for tonight has been cancelled since there's snow on the ground and it's only in the mid 30s. I still have to go to pick up her practice and game schedule. We did go out today and pick up new soccer cleats for her, though. I was really hoping her shoes from last fall would still fit after only two months of use, but they were too narrow for her. Apparently her feet have widened over the winter. So we consulted with the sales person who told us brands that have more room than others. Adidas and Puma are roomier whereas Nike is quite narrow.

Cory doesn't work tonight, so I'll go off by myself to get the schedule and stop at the store to pick up a few groceries. One trip to the store with all three kids seemed to be enough for all of us today.