We've had a pretty quiet, at home Memorial Day weekend so far. Cory has worked Friday, Saturday and Sunday delivering pizzas. Yesterday it was as if we went from our cool spring to the hot, humid days of summer right away. I think I'm going to be rather miserable over the next 11 weeks or so if our summer consists mostly of hot, humid days. Actually, it's the humidity more than the heat that bothers me, and thankfully we have air conditioning. We just didn't use it yesterday. Today, though, is starting out cool and breezy, so hopefully it continues like that.

Yesterday the kids and I picked up paint for what will be Accalia and Cole's room (currently Accalia's room), and Cory was off early enough yesterday that he decided to paint last night. Accalia and Cole had picked out a green that they saw in a Land of Nod catalogue, and we found pretty much the same shade at the store. Cory's already put two coats on, but it's going to need another coat and we'll need to buy another gallon. I had thought that covering the light pink walls currently in that room wouldn't be a problem, but Cory, the experienced painter, tells me it's usually more difficult to cover light shades.

Today Cory has the entire day off. Yay! So, we'll need to get that gallon of paint, and we're also planning to shop around for bunk beds. I'm not sure if we'll actually buy one today or not, but Accalia and Cole are very excited. It's really too bad that we don't have the money to right away buy the new bedding, curtains, rugs, etc. that the kids would like, too. It could end up being a rainy/stormy day, but there are a few outdoor things that would be nice to get done, too, if we could. We have pepper plants to plant, and we also have a mixture of sunflower seedlings (from storytime) and seeds (from The Great Sunflower Project) to plant.

This could be a slightly frustrating summer for Accalia and Cole when it comes to having the next door neighbors around. Yesterday the youngest girl was over here for most of the afternoon, which Cole loved but Accalia would have liked having the older one around, too. The girls have different fathers and therefore different visitations, and it seems that the older one is gone more often. Maybe the older girl's father lives out of town.

Lately I've had a really hard time thinking of new things for the kids to do, so if they come up to me saying they're bored, I usually don't have too many exciting ideas. So, I bookmarked a bunch of sites that have ideas for summer fun, including this one that lists a different thing to do each day.

Even without my help in the ideas department, the kids have been quite busy. Ella has recently discovered how much she likes computer games, although she just sticks with a Playdough game that's relatively simple to point and click to get results. She sits at our old computer playing that a lot. She also wants me involved in a lot of pretend play, but it's usually in the role of me just sitting where she points so I can watch her.

Cole is just so eager to be outside and work in the garden. If we're able to get outside to do that today, he'll be in heaven - especially if he's out there with Cory. We can tell that Cole has been missing Cory a lot because on the rare nights that Cory is actually home, He'll just follow Cory everywhere and talk and talk and talk. He does that with my dad, too, when they're together.

Accalia is spending a lot of her time preparing for future events, whether it's the baby or all of the activities she wants to do this summer. Right now she's just excited to get out and get bunkbeds and put the new room together. This week she starts swimming lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays and can't wait to do that.

All of the kids are up and about and wanting this or that, so I'll end this entry.

Today was definitely a better day in most ways. We all seemed to be in better moods. It was a cool, windy and rainy day - not exactly summery weather for the last day of public schools in Yankton. We took two shopping trips today - the first to pick up a few necessities and the second for Cole to pick up another Ben 10 action figure because he discovered he had enough money to do that.

On the downside, all of us (except Cory) seem to have a little bit of a cold. Accalia was the first to show symptoms, and now we're all kind of sniffling. Poor Ella and Cole are having the hardest time with it tonight, though. Just like last night, Ella fell asleep early but was waking up every 45 minutes or so. Now she's up and fairly content. Cole fell asleep early, woke up for a short time and is up in bed fast asleep. He must be feeling pretty poorly to have fallen asleep early.

Cory was home tonight, and you could just see how much Cole has missed having him around every night. He was by Cory's side most of the time and just talked and talked and talked. We have some pepper plants to put in the garden (put in some tomato plants Tuesday), but it was too wet today to want to get out in the garden.

Tossing in some pregnancy talk, I've noticed in the past week that the baby's movement has slowed down quite a bit. There are still really active times - usually right away in the morning or late at night like now - where I'm feeling the baby, but otherwise it's pretty quiet. Just a sign that there's not quite as much space to move. I'm curious what the next few months will be like. I remember with both Ella and Cole how active they were the entire time. I don't really remember with Accalia what it was like toward the end, though.

Cory will be working a lot this weekend, so we don't have any big plans for the holiday weekend. We might try out the new Mexican restaurant on Saturday. For the past couple years, our Memorial Day tradition seems to have been going to Lake Wilson so the kids can fish with Myron. When Cory asked about it this year, though, Myron said he might have plans with Joannie (we met her at Easter). So, I doubt we'll be going that way. The thought of not traveling on Monday is actually a nice one, especially when it costs nearly $70 to fill up the van. What we might do if we're in town on Monday is (if we get the paint picked out) paint Accalia's room in preparation for it becoming Accalia and Cole's room. We might also shop for bunk beds.

I'll close for now since the girls and I are going to head to bed soon.

I truly do love spring for the warm weather after a long, cold winter. I love being able to open up doors and windows and let the house breathe. I love being able to walk outside without putting on a jacket or even shoes for that matter. I love seeing everything around me green up and all of the beautiful plants and flowers appear. I love seeing how excited the kids are about all of the summery activities they are able to do now, whether it's playing at the park, running through the sprinkler or camping.

Honestly, though, I'm an even bigger lover of summer winding down and fall coming on down. I'm exhausted by the end of the three months and can't wait for school to start and for our days to become more focused on being indoors. I've always thought I'm a little odd for feeling this way, but I really do think it's my introverted self coming through. There's only so much of the doorbell ringing and kids running in and out to play and trying to get past my childhood memories of my dad insisting that if it's nice outside we should be outside and not sitting inside "wasting" our time before I just want to shut all of the doors and windows and curl up somewhere with an interesting read. Of course, this isn't really practical with a household of three active kids who love playing with the neighbor kids and love nothing more than to be able to run inside and outside with them all day long. So it seems that my introverted self and this season of warmth and outdoor activity are going to have to work out a compromise in order for my sanity to remain intact.

Or maybe it's just because I'm pregnant and am not really looking forward to trying to keep up this activity level for the next three months. In much warmer and more humid weather to boot.

Yesterday was not a pleasant day. There are some day afters when we return from a trip where the kids are so happy to be at home that they're relaxed and joyful and busy with all of the things they were separated from for a few days. Yesterday was not one of those day afters. We were all tired and had to make trips to two different stores for groceries. I told Cory that I was never setting foot in XYZ store with the three kids again. Ever. Of course that won't happen, but I sure wanted it to after leaving the store yesterday. Then, in the other store, I decided it wouldn't bother me much if I just left them all there to live for a year or three. Of course I didn't really mean that either. But I felt like I did at the moment.

So, by the time Cory got home, I told him I was going out to get myself a ginormous iced coffee as a reward for surviving the day. I did, but it contributed to an awful night of sleep last night. I woke very frequently and kept having brief dreams involving the Sex & the City ladies. I've never watched the show but was thumbing through a magazine filled with stuff about the television series and the upcoming movie. I really could have used a more restful night of sleep, but that just didn't happen. Thankfully all three kids are in much, much better moods today.

The trip to Mankato was fun and quick. When we weren't at my brother Anthony's open house or my cousin Matthew's wedding, we were going to parks and trails. I'm a little concerned about how I'll hold up during activities in a month or two as my pregnancy advances because this weekend wore me out.

So, I'm 27 weeks (almost typed months) and still doing fine as far as I know. It's a good thing this baby doesn't need my constant attention to grow and thrive because I would really be failing right now. The only things we have figured out for sure are that we have someone lined up to be with the kids (still don't know what the kids want to do, but that will probably wait until I actually go into labor like it did with Ella), we have my doctor and planned place of delivery set, we have a doula, and we have first names and one middle name figured out. Haven't even thought about that other middle name yet. Honestly, all of the other stuff isn't necessary for us to make it once the baby is here, but it would definitely help make life easier or at least more organized.

Tonight we have to run out to pick up Accalia's soccer pictures, but that's about it. This whole week is basically full of nothing needing to be done, and then next week activities start picking up again. And that is about it.

We've had construction on our street most of the week. It looks as if they're doing something with water lines and the gas meters. We haven't heard that they're going to tear up the street, although that would be nice to have a new street and curbs. The biggest inconveniences for us have been parking in back and Cory not being able to mow on Tuesday because of the construction equipment in our yard.

Today we've been busy packing and doing a bunch of other things to prepare for leaving for the weekend. We're going to take off after Accalia's art class in the afternoon, so we won't make it to Mankato in time for Anthony's pinning ceremony. I think our time in Mankato is going to fly by, and I think this may be one of our last visits to Mankato before the baby arrives. Family is coming out to Yankton in June for our annual camp out, and the kids and I are going back to Mankato in July for a family reunion, but that may be it. I guess our church is having vacation bible school the first full week in August, but I don't know that we'll make it. That's going to be when lots of summer activities are winding down, and frankly I don't know if I'm going to want to sit in a vehicle to travel that far at that point. We'll just have to see.

On Tuesday the kids and I went out to the Gavins Point aquarium out by the lake. The displays rarely change from year to year, but the kids still love to see the albino catfish, the huge snapping turtle, the endangered pallid sturgeon, and the buffalo fish (nicknamed sucking fish by the kids). When we went there, a school bus pulled in ahead of us, so we drove over to the campground to check out the loop that we'll be camping at in June. It's very nice and spacious. The bus was still at the aquarium when we went back, but it wasn't nearly as crowded as we thought it might be.

Cory's brother Mark stopped by to say hi yesterday. My heart skipped a beat when the highway patrol car pulled up in front of our house, so I was relieved when I saw Mark get out. He and the canine officer were patrolling Highway 81 (great drug running road), and they stopped in Yankton for lunch. Mark gave Accalia and Cole a ride in his patrol car, which they thought was pretty cool.

I think the kids and I are kind of going through an in between phase right now. We all seem restless and not sure what to do. I think Accalia told me she was bored three times yesterday, which was mostly because she wanted to play with the neighbor girls but they weren't home. I'd love to feel motivated to do things now because I know these three months before the baby arrives will pass so quickly. Hopefully that nesting instinct kicks in at some point! I know that no matter has lazy I feel right now during these last months, there's no way I'm going to want to do any of these things after the baby arrives.

Speaking of pregnancy, isn't it fabulous that I share a due date with Angelina Jolie? Considering she's expecting twins, though, I think she'll probably deliver well before me. Nearing 27 weeks, I'm still having relatively few complaints. Every once in a while I'll have painful sciatica, but it makes a huge difference after getting adjusted at the chiropractor. Our chiropractor was talking with me about how he'd adjust his wife when she started to swell and the swelling would be gone the next day. So far I haven't had to deal with any regular swelling, although there are times when I notice it starting on my left ankle especially. Taking a break and putting my feet up seems to take care of that, though. Lately, as it gets later in the day, I'll sometimes get sharp pains really low in my pelvis. That's not fun because it's really painful to walk, but at least it's not around constantly. Some women seem to deal with feeling faint a lot during pregnancy, but I usually only have one or two instances of that. One of those instances happened this morning when I was upstairs in the bedroom getting dressed. My heart was really racing (that doesn't happen very often either) and I started to black out. Thankfully I made it to the bed and only had to lie there for a minute before I felt fine.

I should get busy with some other things that I really need to do before we leave.

A belated happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there! Since Cory was scheduled to work from 10:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m., there wasn't much of a chance for me to relax or be pampered, but overall it was a good day. Before Cory left for work, he and the kids had a few things to give me. Accalia had made a card and then presented me with a box that turned out to be empty. "It's a box full of hugs!" she said as she gave me one. Cole's speciality lately is cutting out snowflakes, and he gave me one that had heart shapes in it. For a while now, I've wanted/needed something to serve as a night stand on my side of the bed, and that's what I got. I also received one of how many books on my wish list, Dr. Robert Sears' The Vaccine Book.

The kids and I went grocery shopping in the morning, and it was amazing how many dads were there with their kids. Cory actually ended up coming home for a couple hours in the afternoon because it was so dead at the restaurant. For supper, Cory delivered food to us. So, even though he couldn't be there to take us out or cook for us, he still managed to find a way.

Ella just went down for a nap and was very unhappy to have the neighbor girl ring the doorbell just as she was falling asleep. Ella may not get quite as long of a nap as she'd like, though, since we have to be at the chiropractor's in about an hour. Tonight I think Cory has to do a little supervision with a fellow counselor who is working towards her license, but otherwise he'll be at home.

The cold, rainy weather today has cancelled Accalia's two soccer games. It was actually announced last night after her game. That means Accalia is done with soccer this spring. There is one more game next Saturday - a make up game - but we'll be in Mankato for Anthony's graduation and my cousin's wedding.

Yesterday Ella was in an absolutely awful, awful mood. It came on so suddenly, too. One moment we were dropping Accalia off at the art studio and taking about going to look at the fish at the store, and suddenly nothing is right with the world. I tried to get Ella to nap, but she wasn't interested. Thankfully being outside and running around at Accalia's soccer game kept her mood happy for that time. I thought it would be a disaster, though, before the game even started. The field we thought Accalia's team would be playing on was closest to the playground, and Ella and Cole ran over there right away. Then we found out that they were actually playing on the field farthest from the playground, so I had to go over and get the kids and drag them halfway across the park. Thankfully there was a big baseball diamond nearby, and Ella and Cole ran around with a few other kids for most of the time.

So today it's just the LLL meeting this morning. Guess we'll see if anyone shows up! Cory does work tonight delivering pizzas, but we'll have the majority of the day together. Tomorrow Cory works all day (10:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.) delivering pizzas, so I'll definitely be putting my full mothering skills to use on Mother's Day. I'm sure Cory would have taken the day off if he hadn't already taken most of the past week off for Accalia's recital and his trip.

Guess I should get some diapers in the dryer before everyone else wakes up and I forget about it.

My friend Karine sent a few pictures of Accalia on stage during her ballet performance. Here are a few of those:





Cory made it home yesterday from his meeting in Sioux Falls. It was very nice to have him back, and the kids were very excited to see him. Otherwise, yesterday was a pretty quiet day. On Wednesday, it was the last day of storytime for the spring session. The kids had a lot of fun, and even Accalia took part in the activity of planting sunflower seeds to bring home.

Cory hasn't gotten a call yet about his car and the new transmission being finished. Hopefully he'll be able to pick it up before tonight since we're assuming he'll have to deliver pizzas. Accalia is supposed to play soccer tonight as part of a weekend soccer festival, so it could be interesting if we only have one vehicle. We'll get it worked out, though. Both tonight and tomorrow (Accalia has two soccer games then) it's supposed to be rainy, so maybe she won't be playing as much soccer as she's scheduled to do. I have LLL in the morning and need to come up with a plan for that.

Wow, I really wouldn't mind a quiet day very soon. It seems that the weekend being filled with so much has just continued over into the week. We're all surviving, though, and most things are good.

Cory delivered pizzas on Friday and called a couple hours into his shift to say that the check engine light in his car had gone on and wasn't going off and that I should be prepared to pick him up if he got stranded. Thankfully he made it through the rest of the night and took the car in right away the next day. Unfortunately, the computer diagnostics showed that it was the transmission, so his car was out of commission for the rest of the weekend until we could get it into a transmission place on Monday. We did and were told what we were expecting - rebuild the transmission to the tune of nearly $1800. Ugh. It certainly doesn't make the $1000 worth of repairs we're waiting to do on the van any more pleasant. The positive in this situation is that, while Cory's car is in the shop for most of the week, Cory is up in Sioux Falls for a department meeting and using a state vehicle. That means we're not struggling to figure out working around only one vehicle.

Cory's birthday was Saturday - 36 - and other than taking his car in to the shop, we spent a lot of time (more than four hours) at Accalia's two recital run throughs. I went to the one in the morning and Cory went to the one in the afternoon. My parents arrived in the early afternoon, and we spent the time waiting for Accalia to finish her second run through taking walks around the neighborhood and playing at a park. My parents took us out for supper that night to celebrate Cory's birthday, and then we went to the hotel they were staying at so we could swim in the pool. My parents decided to get a hotel instead of stay with us just so the kids would be able to go swimming in a pool, which I thought was very sweet. I was pretty exhausted after getting home, though, because I spent a lot of time climbing up and down the pool ladders following Ella around. There's nothing like being in the sixth month of pregnancy to realize how much energy your two-year-old has throughout the day.

Speaking of pregnancy, I had a prenatal appointment on Friday and everything is fine. I've gained around 28 pounds so far, which is unfortunately not much different than other pregnancies. Next visit will include testing for gestational diabetes and anemia.

The day of the recitals was pretty packed. It also happened to be the day of the art show at the art studio Accalia has gone to for the past few years. We ran over quickly after lunch and then raced home to get Accalia ready for the first recital. Both recitals went really well and Accalia really enjoyed herself. My parents took Cole and Ella home about half way through the first recital since there's no way they would have done well sitting through four hours of dance recitals. We already have Accalia's professional pictures back, so I'll have to scan those to show what her costumes were this year. Accalia was also very happy to be finished and just relax that night. She and Cole were talking about all the good things that had happened, and Accalia said this was "the best day ever!" (There are a lot of those around here.) Cole replied, "Yeah, except for the dancing!"

I was really hoping to catch up with stuff on Monday, but the youngest next door day came over a little after noon (she goes to preschool in the mornings) wanting to play. She (and later her older sister) ended up being here more or less until around 8 p.m. I think the only break was when Cory came home from work and we took his car to the shop and had supper. Now that Ella is older, it's not as easy to do things inside the house and keep an eye on the older kids outside because Ella won't tolerate being inside if everyone else is outside playing. She was going strong after everyone else had gone inside because she wanted me to jump rope. I'm sure that was an amusing sight to see, although I'm glad to know I'm still coordinated enough at this point in the pregnancy to be able to jump rope.

Today really didn't have any more of a chance to play catch up. We had the van (Cory took it to work Monday), so the first thing we did was go to the store to pick up some things we had run out of since we hadn't had a chance to grocery shop over the weekend. Then the phone didn't seem to stop ringing most of the day. Sometimes it was Cory in Sioux Falls. Or there were LLL helping calls or calls from people around town. I was on the phone a long time on Monday, too, talking with a friend who likes to talk quite a bit. For someone who just is not huge on talking on the phone, I think I'm worn out partly from that alone.

Tonight Accalia had a soccer game. We had a thunderstorm pass through earlier in the afternoon, and it was growing dark again by the time her game was supposed to start. The girls started playing and played nearly a quarter before the game was called off because of lighting. We never actually had another storm, and the lightning and rain stayed to the south. They must have policies, though, about getting off the field after seeing so many lightning strikes Hopefully this weekend will be a bit better for soccer since Accalia has a soccer festival and plays one game on Friday and two on Saturday. I have my LLL meeting on Saturday morning, so I'll have to miss one of her games.

Okay, that's a brief rundown of the past few days. Hopefully I can catch up with things tomorrow and get back to normal.

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.

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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.

Cory has been working since 11 a.m. delivering pizzas and is scheduled to get off at 4 p.m. When I talked with him earlier, it sounded as if it was a pretty slow day. He also worked Friday and Saturday nights, and Friday was nuts because of a basketball tournament in Yankton on those days.

It'll be so nice to have him at home for the evening. He's craving spaghetti, so that's what we'll have for supper. Since Cory likes his spaghetti sauce best, that means he'll be the one making the meal instead of me. Nice. Having Cory around also means I'll get to take a shower with the door closed since I won't have to listen for the kids. Well, I don't have to listen for Accalia or Cole, but I need to keep the door open so Ella can come in and out. Ah, the simple pleasures in life that you don't even think about when you have no children or at least have another adult around more often to help out.

I really wish I could report on exciting happenings this weekend, but there hasn't been much. Today the kids and I went to the dance studio to buy recital tickets and then we went grocery shopping. We're stuck in a bit of a rut lately since grocery shopping seems to be the big outing and one that no one seems to particularly enjoy.

This week will hopefully be a little more interesting. Keep your fingers crossed that the Cubs start off the season with a win tomorrow. I might have to find something to take the kids and myself out of the house during the game. Cory doesn't exactly relax when the Cubs are playing. I'll have my prenatal appointment in the morning. Accalia will have ballet and I'll have her recital meeting for that class at the same time - this time sans the other two children. Accalia is supposed to have her first soccer practice on Tuesday, but the forecast is calling for freezing rain tomorrow and Tuesday with snow possible on Tuesday. We'll see if the weather allows. Wednesday will be storytime for Cole. Thursday we have nothing scheduled. Friday will be art and tap for Accalia. On Saturday, there's an art reception in a nearby town for the show that Accalia contributed a picture to a while ago, so we'll try to go to that in the morning. Then, on Sunday, Cory and Accalia are driving over to Pipestone, MN, to watch Myron perform with the Al Opland Singers. Accalia is really excited about this daddy-daughter trip. It'll be interesting have just the two younger kids for most of the day since that rarely happens.

So that's what on the schedule for this week. That, along with the rest of life.

Apparently I just need to blog about the baby not moving enough and the baby gets the hint and starts kicking and/or punching up a storm. Cool.

We're still mostly hanging around home and running errands when necessary. For a few days this week, Accalia and Cole actually played with the two neighbor girls. The younger one (5) came over on Monday and asked if they could play. I was shocked since we haven't seen them since last November. After supper, both girls were over for a while. Same thing Tuesday. We didn't see them Wednesday, Thursday or today, though. Accalia and Cole were thrilled to see them again.

Accalia had tap tonight and I had the informational meeting to go to to pick up her costume, find out all of the details about hair, make up, etc. Cory had to go to work, so I wasn't able to leave Cole and Ella with him. I was a bit concerned that they'd be too big of a distraction, but it worked out just fine. I brought along new coloring books and crayons for both, and Cole spent the entire time sitting on the floor and coloring. I had to wake Ella up to go to dance, so she just sat on my lap the entire time. I'll have to repeat the entire thing again on Monday for Accalia's ballet class, but this time Cory will be home and can keep Cole and Ella with him. I'm already exhausted thinking of everything leading up to the May recital and I'm not even dancing in it. Lots of rehearsals and so on, especially with Accalia taking two classes this year. She's loving it all, though. If she ever gave any indication she didn't want to do this, she'd be out of there as soon as she wanted to be.

Speaking of Cory and Monday, he's taking the day off. Why? The Cubs open their season, of course! It works out really nicely since I have a prenatal appointment in the morning. I think it'll just be me going alone this time. I'll have to leave the house around 9 a.m. and it'll just be much easier for everyone. Happier kids, too, not having to get up and go at that time.

We've spent a lot of time this week cleaning. It hasn't been any major deep cleaning, but it's nice just to get things picked up and organized. I've also been washing all of my maternity clothes and getting that hung up or put in drawers. It's sad, but I have more maternity clothes than regular clothes.

Ella is starting to say more and more full sentences. That's a lot of fun. We still don't understand a lot of what she says, but she's becoming more and more verbally clear to us each day. Ella and Cole are spending more and more time playing alone together. They'll disappear upstairs and I'll hear them laughing and running and making up all sorts of games.

That gives Accalia and myself the opportunity to read without interruption - at least for a short while. We've started reading the Little House on the Prairie series. Cory had read the first in the series, Little House in the Big Woods, a year or more ago to Accalia. She really enjoyed it and wants to read it again. All of this was inspired by me showing Accalia and Cole a pamphlet about the Laura Ingalls Wilder pageant in Walnut Grove that Cory had picked up for me on our trip to Mankato. That definitely peaked their interest. They don't care about the pageant itself, but they were excited about the different things at the museum and in and around Walnut Grove. So the kids and I may try to do that this summer. I'm not sure if Cory would be able to come or not.

I feel like there's more I wanted to write about, and I'm sure there is. I need to take care of some laundry, though, and start cleaning up the living room.

There are times where I can see so clearly how Cory comes through in the kids. Take the following dialogue between Accalia and Cole as they were performing a finger puppet show for me that involved small animals in the forest.

Accalia: Hi, we're a couple of married animals!
Cole: Yeah, we live in the ground so don't dig down there. That's our duty!
Accalia: You said duty. Heh.

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These last few days have been filled with doing things around home. Everyone is trying to survive this cold, although I'm pretty much finished with it thanks to being the first to have it. Ella hasn't really seemed sick - no stuffy, runny nose, etc. However, she's sleeping a lot more. Ella's taken a super long nap in the afternoon every day this week, which is highly unusual for her. Last night, after a monster nap, she decided she was ready for bed pretty early for her. Every time she heard someone say the word "bed", she'd run for the stairs. Then she'd get distracted by something and stay awake. At one point, she brought me the sweatshirt and pants I usually wear to bed and said, "Mama! Bed, bed!" Poor thing.

Today we all agreed it would be a good idea to stay home from storytime with all of the sniffling and coughing and Ella's extreme crankiness. Accalia and Cole asked me to make up our own storytime at home, so I did that and they've been busy much of the afternoon with all of that fun.

Yesterday was my grandmother's 82nd birthday. She's still going strong and told me this weekend how blessed she feels to be this age and still have my grandfather with her to share it. Today my dad and a couple of his brothers (I think) are in Sioux Falls for the funeral of one of his cousins. We were talking this weekend about how, as you get older, funerals start to take on the quality of family reunions many times.

I'm 19 weeks along now and everything appears to be going well. I have an appointment next week. I do wish I felt more movement, though. Every once in a while I'll feel a little bump or shift. I really can't remember how much movement I've usually felt at this stage, but for some reason I was expecting more. Maybe that's because I'm apparently looking so big that I must be carrying twins (according to someone at church). I should go upstairs and change the bedsheets in the guest room (aka Cory's bed when all of the kids want to sleep with me). Then I have to get an early supper in the oven since Cory is heading off to deliver pizzas by 5 p.m.

Oh, please keep Cory's coworker's father in your thoughts/prayers if you're so inclined. There was a bad bus/car crash near Madison (SD) this morning that killed the driver of the car and for sure injured most of the 56 passengers on the tour bus. The coworker's father was apparently one of the passengers with minor injuries, but I'm waiting to hear from when Cory gets home.

We made it back safely from our Easter weekend trip to Mankato. The kids were all so excited to be back at Grandpa and Grandma's and to see all of the cousins. We got to my parent's house while everyone was at Maunday Thursday church services, but after that everyone came over for a while. On Friday, we ran a few errands and came back shortly before Anthony, Kathy and the kids showed up. They were here until after supper. My grandparents and uncle came over on Saturday morning to visit for a while. On Saturday afternoon, we all met at the Lake Crystal Area Recreation Center to swim and then stopped back at Anthony and Kathy's place for a short time. The kids were so exhausted by then. Cole was definitely not in the mood to go back to Grandpa and Grandma's and trip on the stairs and walk away with a fat, bloody lip. Poor guy. It took him quite a while to recover from that.

We woke the kids up fairly early on Sunday for church, but they didn't mind too much once they saw their Easter baskets. Ella threw up twice before church, though, and this was without the benefit of eating anything. I'm not sure what was going on, but she was fine for the rest of the day. Just exhausted like the other kids. After lunch at my parents', we headed off to Lake Wilson. Myron had planned a big turkey meal for 3 p.m., so none of us were terribly hungry after recently having lunch. Cory's brother and family were there, so the kids were able to see their cousins that they rarely see. We also met Joanie, Myron's new friend. She seems nice enough. Mark and Shannon had huge Easter baskets waiting for the kids (put ours to shame) and had an Easter egg hunt. The kids loved that. They would have loved it even more if it hadn't been hovering around 30 degrees, I'm sure. We just stayed a few hours in Lake Wilson and make it home between 8 and 8:30. We were all so tired last night and all came home with colds. We also came home with a tv (that will go in Accalia and Cole's room once that's ready) and a printer/copier/scanner courtesy of my grandpa. He was getting rid of them and gave them to my parents to either find a new home or just set them out for the citywide junk days coming up.

Returning home ended up being fairly traumatic for Accalia because we discovered that her fish, Little Cinnamon, died while we were away. She hadn't been looking very good in the week before we left, so I'm not sure if she was sick or just old. Accalia didn't mourn nearly as long as I thought she would, and I think that's partly because Cole asked her if she wanted to share his fish, Little Blue Sunset. We're going to put LBS in a smaller tank today, and Accalia and Cole are excited about the change.

The next time we'll see the grandparents is when they come the first weekend in May for Accalia's dance recital. Then I think the kids and I will come back to Mankato the third weekend in May to celebrate Anthony's graduation. He'll have his RN degree and already has a job lined up at the Mankato hospital.

Today we need to pick up a few supplies at the store. Both Accalia and Cole have money they want to spend, so I'm sure we'll spend a good deal of time looking at toys, too.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Anthony and Kathy gave us part of the baby's present. They passed along the cloth diapers they had been using with Lizzie - a few Mother-ease diapers and a few covers. What's great is that these will actually fit Ella right now, and she really needs to move up a size in covers.

Better go. It sounds as if one of the kids is waking up.

Now that I got my current events rant out of the way...

I am so, so jealous of Ella right now. She's been napping for the past three hours. Three hours! I guess that's a good thing to do when you're ready to hop out of bed at 3:30 a.m.

It's been a pretty quiet day around here, especially with the two-year-old asleep. Accalia spent some time playing around on the San Francisco Symphony Kids website. Cole has alternated between experimenting with watercolors, salt and pepper as well as filling water balloons in the kitchen sink. I had a friend drop something off and we chatted for a few minutes. Right now Accalia and Cole are putting together an old Imaginext castle that we gave Cole one Christmas.

Tomorrow shall involve packing and story time. The kids are so excited to go to Mankato.

Dear Relative Who Is Not a Barack Obama Supporter,

I've been up since 3:30 a.m. with a two-year-old who decided she was not meant to sleep any longer. That means that your email about Barack and his hidden Muslim agenda really didn't put me in a better mood. I get it. You don't like Obama or, most likely, any Democratic presidential candidate. You know what, though? Is it really helping your cause to tell me that Obama, who does indeed attend a Christian church, is actually trying to spread the Muslim agenda? I was shocked to discover that all Muslim are intent on killing anyone who does not believe in Allah, including babies. That must have been very time consuming to interview all estimated 1.2 billion Muslims in the world.

I would certainly never tell you not to feel free to express your own opinion because it is a free country and I enjoy expressing my opinion. Perhaps, though, if you really want to spread credible information about presidential candidates, could you reference non-partisan sources? Please?

Thank you.

Your Relative Who Will Not Be Voting For John McCain In November

On a related note...

Dear Barack and Hilary,

I'm not saying that either of you is perfect or will be able to successfully bring us out of the hell hole that W has dug us into over this last eight years, but I'm really not enjoying watching the two of you self-implode as you and some of your supporters continue to focus on race and gender rather than the issues. Could you please knock that shit off?

Thank you.

A rare non-Republican in South Dakota

Cole is turning into a miniature version of my dad in regard to this blast of cold weather over the weekend. Those of you who know my dad may either find that hilarious or damn frightening. Poor boy. He has all of his destruction (as he refers to it) vehicles in our front flower bed and has been busy digging and building. Ella has been thrilled to put on Accalia or Cole's bike helmets and be pushed around on the various wheeled contraptions we've taken out of the shed. All three kids have been loving the new sidewalk chalk purchased over the weekend. Unfortunately, all of these things have had to be done in short bursts over the weekend because it's in the 30s and hands get a little cold without mittens still. Tonight and tomorrow we could end up with more than 10 inches of snow. Nothing like late winter in South Dakota!

Cory has been working a lot this weekend. I think we're all looking forward to our break in Mankato. We're leaving at some point on Thursday and coming back on Sunday. It'll be really nice to get away and see everyone for a few days.

I felt a mild cold coming on a couple days ago, and that's all it seems to be at this point. No one else seems to be sick. Hopefully it stays that way. I have noticed that even being just a little sick has also brought back a bit of nausea. Isn't that lovely?

My fingers are dyed green because I was busy rolling tiny marshmallows in green food dye so the kids can discover leprechaun "poop" tomorrow morning. I know, aren't there better ways to celebrate St. Patrick's Day? If I could partake in alcohol, I'd definitely be downing some Guinness. Hopefully we'll be able to get out tomorrow so I can at least get some for Cory.

Today is a really, really nice day - sunny and probably close to 60 degrees. Yesterday was a bust for most of the day. It was cloudy and cooler and started raining while I was pulling Ella around in the wagon. We still have some snow in our yard - in the back by the pop up camper and along the side of the house where it's less sunny. Still, there's less mud to maneuver around. That could change over the weekend, though. I think Sunday or Monday (or both!) we're supposed to get a storm. I hope most of it comes in the form of rain so we don't have to wait for a bunch of snow to melt once again.

I have been craving egg salad lately. So, how pleasant for me that the kids dyed Easter eggs yesterday!

Cory just has one client to see tonight and then he'll be home for supper and an evening of watching Survivor and Lost. Yay!

I'm really, really falling behind on responding to emails, most of which are LLL related. I know, maybe I should work on that instead of blogging, right? LLL work seems to go in cycles. I went for a few weeks without much in the way of work (at least immediate, have to do work), but now it's picking up again. Hey, at least all of us involved with LLL are mothers and know sometimes other things take priority. Like blogging!

Accalia is still on her cleaning kick. She's been emptying the dishwasher and loading it back up and has also reorganized several kitchen cabinets. No complaints from me! It's a pretty cool feeling to have to ask your eight-year-old where she put such and such a dish.

For the past few days I hadn't been feeling much if any baby movement. At 17 weeks, of course, that's not really a big deal, but it still worried me just a little. Today, though, I've been feeling a lot more movement - a few flutters and lots of shifting - so that's a relief.

Since it's been nice these past two days, we've been spending more and more time outside. We took a walk around the neighborhood, too. The downside is that it's so muddy since there's still plenty of snow to melt away.

Guess I should go back to working on some things that need to be done!

This weekend has flown by. It's too bad it wasn't actually warm like the forecast first predicted. It's been cold (20s), cloudy and windy.

Yesterday Cory worked from noon until 8:30. I had La Leche League in the morning, so he dropped the older two off on his way to work. The meeting went well. There were three moms there and we had a nice discussion about nutrition. In the afternoon, Accalia and Cole decided they wanted to go out that night and look for owls. I said I wasn't exactly sure where the best places would be for that and I really didn't want to take the kids out to isolated country roads in the dark with just me, so I suggested we go out right them and do some bird watching. That was just as good to them, so we headed out around the Gavins Point Dam area along the Missouri River, Lake Yankton and Lewis & Clark Lake. On our way to the dam, we saw a bald eagle. Down by the lakes, there are tons of geese and ducks heading north and stopping here for a bit. We got out at one place and watched the geese for a while. We were there when they all took off, and it's always such a neat sound to hear the whoosh of the geese taking off. I think I even got video of it, but the camera battery is low and I need a new one before being able to transfer anything. After the bird watching, we stopped at Wal-Mart for a few things. Ella had fallen asleep in the van and didn't really wake up when we got there. My back and arms still ache from carrying my 40 or so lb girl through the store. I tried to lay her down in the cart, but she would have none of that.

Today Cory is working from 4-8, so we've had a little more time together. After lunch, I ended up taking Ella grocery shopping and Cory took Accalia and Cole to the dollar store because they wanted to spend some of their money. This afternoon I made fruit salsa and cinnamon chips, something I've been craving for a while. Yummy.

We have a quiet night planned around here. There's nothing crazy planned for the week either, so we'll see what happens.

I don't know why, but lately I've been waking up earlier and earlier. Today I popped out of bed at 7 a.m. It's probably not pregnancy related since I'm far from the stage of being unable to stay comfortable in bed. I'd say it has more to do with the approaching spring and the mornings getting lighter earlier. This week all of the kids have been getting up earlier, too, but not necessarily going to sleep any earlier at night. I can tell it's starting to wear on them a bit. I'm sure we'll all get our body rhythms straightened out before long.

Last night, after Ella fell asleep, I took a shower. When I got out, Accalia was taking clothes out of the dryer and folding it while Cole was washing dishes. They had both decided it would be fun to "do my chores" and let me have a break. Isn't that sweet? After they finished there, they decided to empty the dishwasher and load it again.

This morning I have La Leche League, so I need to get moving and get ready. Cory delivers pizza today (noon-8:30 UGH), so he'll need to drop off Accalia and Cole at the meeting on his way to work since I probably won't be back yet. I'm not sure what the kids and I will do today. We may go to the store to pick up a few things, but I'm not in the mood to do a big grocery shopping trip today. We'll have to do that tomorrow, though.

After yesterday's cold temps, I think we're all going to enjoy the warm up that begins today. Don't forget to set your clocks ahead one hour!

Isn't it fun to see how your kids pick and choose patterns of speech and certain words as they grow older? One thing that kind of surprises me with Accalia and Cole is how they don't use a lot of brand name terms despite plenty of exposure to and access to all sorts of media - commercial or otherwise. Accalia and Cole never say Kleenex when they ask for something to wipe their nose. It's always tissue. The other day at the store we bought grape Jello to make Jigglers, yet they never use either of those terms. They always ask for gelatin.

Cole especially picks up the oddest phrases or words, things that aren't usually said in our house. Yesterday we made brownies and Cole said he didn't want to eat one until they were cold because "when they're warm they burn your mouth like the fires of hell." I could barely tell Cory that one because I started laughing so hard. Then the other night Cole challenged me to fisticuffs, which he told me later he picked up from the cartoon Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

Yesterday was supposed to be warmer than it turned out to be - only in the mid 30s and light snow in the evening. Today it's colder and windier with a little bit of snow once again.

I have to remember to be very careful about using the word nap around Ella. For some reason, she always hears "bath" and runs for the tub as soon as I say it. Yesterday Ella was nursing down for a nap and I happened to say the word when Cole came into the room. Ella was close enough to sleep at that point that she didn't insist about taking the bath. When that word mixup occurs, it reminds me of our dog Lucy and how excited she would get at the word "walk." If Cory or I would say something that sounded almost the same (talk, etc.), Lucy would cock her head and her body would start to tremble with excitement. We only did this intentionally right before we were going to walk her anyway. It would have just been too mean otherwise.

Cory has to work for a bit tonight but will hopefully have an earlier evening than last night. Poor guy is really tired this week.

I made two quick trips into the basement today without seeing a bat. I'd be a lot more worried finding a bat awake during the day and worry about it being rabid, so that was a relief. It's possible the bat is sleeping down there somewhere, but I'm really hoping it went back to wherever it came from last night. This spring Cory and I will have to go around the foundation of the house on the outside and down in the basement to patch up any entrances we find.

I was so distracted by the bat situation last night that I didn't feel like blogging about anything else, even though yesterday happened to be Dr. Seuss' birthday and the kids collected all of our Dr. Seuss books and movies so we could read/watch them. Here's what we have in our house:

Movies
- Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat (the Mike Myers version)
- How The Grinch Stole Christmas (includes Horton Hears A Who)

Books
- A Hatful of Seuss (includes If I Ran The Zoo, Sneetches, Horton Hears A Who, Sleep Book, Bartholomew and the Oobleck)
- Gerald McBoing Boing
- Green Eggs and Ham
- Happy Birthday To You!
- How The Grinch Stole Christmas!
- Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?
- My Many Colored Days
- Oh, the Places You'll Go!
- One fish two fish red fish blue fish
- There's a Wocket in my Pocket
- The Cat in the Hat
- The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
- The Foot Book
- Thidwick The Big-Hearted Moose (Cory's favorite)

Mary and Myron gave Accalia that Seuss treasury when she was really young. Mary told us she wanted to give Accalia the entire collection of Seuss books. I always try to remember to tell the kids things like that about Mary so I can try to keep her memory alive. It's hard because Cole doesn't remember her and Accalia says she doesn't remember her. She was five when Mary died, so I suppose that's possible.

Cory went in to work early and has left early so he can get a couple tires replaced on his car. He found out that one of the tires is wearing really horribly and he wants to take care of that before tomorrow when he drives up to Sioux Falls for a meeting.

Accalia has ballet tonight, but that's the only thing we have going on today.

Yesterday Ella fell asleep close to 6:30 and was down for the night. She woke up extremely early, though. I got out of bed with her at 2:42 a.m. I'm not sure how long we were downstairs, but it wasn't too hard to get her back upstairs to sleep after a while.

Just a few minutes ago I opened the basement door and turned on the light as I was getting ready to bring a few things down, and I saw a bat fly by the bottom of the stairs. We've had problems with bats on and off since we bought this house, and a couple years ago we paid a company to "bat proof" our house, which should have consisted of them finding the main entrance for the bats and fixing it so the bats could get out but not in again. Oh, and plugging up any holes that bats could get through - anything as small as the size of a dime is a possibility. Obviously they didn't do a very thorough job. Yuck, yuck, yuck! I hate bats! Thankfully the bats don't seem able to get into the rest of the house, but there is some way they must be getting into the basement from the walls or wherever they happen to be calling home.

So much for a peaceful end to the day.

Did everyone have a fun Leap Day yesterday? When I told the kids that they would have to leap around like frogs all day, they seemed unconvinced. I had a prenatal appointment in the morning, and everyone came along. All of the kids thought it was neat to hear the baby's heartbeat and loved that Dr. M. said the baby was moving around because you could hear the heartbeat fade and grow loud again through the doppler. Ella even had Dr. M. check out her belly and wasn't too upset that there were no babies. Everything was fine - blood pressure good and all of that. I gained four pounds since my last appointment and have gained 11 pounds total. I'm not looking forward to the weight gain, especially since I always seem to gain so much. With Ella, I think I gained around 50 pounds. I do lose almost all of the weight, but I think this last time I still had about five pounds hanging on. I suppose it would have helped to actually exercise, but that's never been a huge priority.

After we got home, Dr. M. called and said after looking at my urinalysis said it appears that I have a UTI. Did I have any symptoms? Uhm, I guess I have to pee often, but I am pregnant. So this weekend I'm drinking lots of water and cranberry juice and will call on Monday. I have a feeling that I'll probably end up on antibiotics anyway, but I suppose that's preferable to getting a kidney infection. I don't even remember the last time I was on antibiotics.

The rest of the day was busy. Accalia had art and then tap. We received the tentative dance recital schedule and were not happy to see that Accalia's performing in both of the recitals (2 and 5 p.m.). We were hoping she'd have both dances in one recital. So we'll have to figure out what we're going to do and what the grandparents will do. Cory worked last night and didn't make it home until 12:30 a.m. The kids and I were all in bed at that point.

Today has turned out much differently than we had planned. Cory had today off, but around 10 a.m. he got a call that one of the driver's called in sick and could he come in just for a couple hours? He did and was there for maybe two hours. It was super slow and he came away with maybe $5 in tips. After he came home, Accalia, Cole and I went out to do our planned shoe shopping while Ella hung out with Cory. We first stopped at the children's clothing consignment store where I found a new spring jacket for Cole for $5. Then we moved on to look for shoes and found exactly what both kids wanted. Accalia said she wanted a break from tying shoelaces and found a pair that requires no tying or velcro use. Then Cole found what he was looking for: shoes that have velcro and that light up. I also found a pair of dress shoes for Accalia on clearance for $5. Then I just happened to find winter jackets on clearance for $5 and picked one up that should fit Accalia next winter. She's fit into the same jacket for the last two years, so I doubt she'll be able to do that three years in a row.

Once we got home, Accalia and Cole put on their new sneakers and went outside to play, and Ella went down for a late afternoon nap. Then I went out and picked up pizza from Little Caesar's for supper. Just as we were finishing, Cory got another call from Pizza Hut. One of the driver's on tonight had thrown up four times since getting to work but apparently didn't feel bad. Could Cory come in and work until 10? Apparently three driver's who had all recently worked together were all sick. I just hope that Cory doesn't bring it home. Our plan for tonight had been to watch 30 Days of Night, but that probably won't happen. Maybe if I can stay up late enough tonight it will. The good news about Cory working unexpectedly is that, when he called me after being at work for almost an hour, said he's already made nearly $30 in tips. Not too shabby.

On a completely unrelated note, does anyone keep up with celebrity baby news? J. Lo and Marc Anthony recently had twins - a boy and a girl - that they named Max and Emme. Did it pop out at anyone else that their twins have the same names as the characters on the PBS Kids show Dragon Tales? I doubt that was intentional.

Okay, there are about a million things to do around the house, and now I don't have the promise of a movie to use as an excuse from not doing any of it.