When it rains....

*Fair warning: This is a very long winded post, full of my complaining and worrying*
So it seems that since James and I got married almost three years ago, and haven't really had any real trials, I mean Thomas in the NICU was horrid, and we have had a few hard times, but really, we have just lived charmed quiet lives.  Seems our time is up, lol.  This week has been rather stressful, and the weeks to come promise a bit more stress.  To start, we decided we would finally fix the AC in our van, it's been a while, and 2 children in the Utah summer, well they deserve not to die of heatstroke on the way to the grocery store.  So we took it into the mechanic, and he said "One day, tops!" well halfway through the day, I call him to see how its going, and he tells me that he can't possibly do it in one day, because he has to order the parts. Reasonable enough it seems, so we tell him we will  bring it in next Friday, he'll order the parts and be ready. Fine. So James brings it in, and I have spoken with him on the phone, he promises it will be $750, parts labor, everything (gross right?) Okay, that's fine, we need it, whatever. He tells James the exact same thing, so we leave it with him, and he tells James he will have it done early afternoon.  So after he hasn't called by 2, I called him to see what's going on.  First he says that he couldn't possibly have finished it yet, and that he probably won't get it done by 6 (the time James would get off to come and get it) and that it's a very hard job, because the doors don't open (one of them gets stuck, but does open. also, a lot of vans only have one side back door, so deal with it!) and then he says to me "Do you know what's in this car? It makes it much harder to get to anything"  Of course I know what's in it, it's my car!  And we keep a lot of stuff in the car, we have 2 kids! He complains about the 2 carseats (really dude, it's Utah valley, I KNOW you've seen 2 carseats in a van stupid!) So I just keep my mouth shut, thinking "Fine, whatever, you complain, just finish it, I need my van back, I dont' want to argue with you"  Well after a few more hours, I call to see what's up, again ,since he never called. And he informs me that there is no way it will be done by 6, it's just too complicated a job to do in one day, it's usually a 2-3 day job, and he just can't have it done by then. At this point, he was rude, and I was pissed, so I said "You told us one day, we didn't ask for that, it's what you said. If you had told us you needed 2 days we would have arranged that, but you didn't. So now my husband is stuck at work, and I have no car and an 18 month old. How long?" So he promises 8 or 9 at the LATEST. My mom happened to call and offered us their extra car, we were so grateful!  So I went to get James, and we waited for the mechanic to call. And waited, and waited. So at 10:30 James called him, and he said "I told your wife it would be a hard job, I'll call you when I'm done!" So we wait a bit longer, and finally at 1 James gives up and goes to bed.  I gave up at 9... Anyway, at 5 am, 5 AM! the mechanic calls, of course we didn't answer, he leaves this message "Hey, your van is done, I will be here until 10am, if you can't come before then, well then I'm sorry"  Really?! So James gets up at 8, missing his Saturday morning class to get the car, and the guy gives him this huge hassel.  Wants him to pay $1,000, seriously!?!?  James argues with him for a while and ends up paying $850 (okay fine, more than he said, but he did work on it longer than he originally said, whatever)  So James comes home, and the AC works, but is making some strange noise, like air leaking, all  the time. So we run a few errands, and the van barely starts after one, kind of odd, but whatever.  We figured we'd deal with the noise on Monday, and just forget it and enjoy our Sunday.  We get to the van this morning for church, it's dead. Dead as a doornail, won't turn over, wont' do anything.  Fine, we'll just walk, its only 2 blocks, whatever.  I sure wish I hadn't chosen to wear heels lol Thomas was horrible. This was his worst Sunday ever.  We made it through half of sacrament before we were both in the halls trying to stop his screaming and tantrums, so we gave up and left.  As soon as we got home, he was fine.  Oh man, I was so annoyed!  He played us like a fiddle, got exactly what he wanted, and we just did it.  Needless to say we now need a new plan for church, any ideas?  So we get home, and I wanted to wash some clothes, so I push on the little thing on the detergent to get it out, and the whole shelf falls down.  Thankfully it was above the washer and dryer, so everything on it just fell on them, but I scared the life out of James and Thomas, who came running in worried something had fallen on me. Thomas was crying, and James was on the verge of tears, and so I cried, and we had a nice little family love moment.
On top of all of this last week Lorelai decided that she wouldn't move, for 5 hours on Thursday night. Nothing, not a nudge or a hiccup, nothing. So I called the Dr, and she said go in and have it checked, once I got hooked up to the monitors, I guess Lorelai didn't like them, because she woke up, started hiccuping and moving.  Of course we were so happy, but I felt so dumb!  Going in all worried something was wrong, only to find out she was just taking a break from beating me up from the inside.
Also, James's boss wants to talk to him on Tuesday about restructuring in his department, which scares us since a few months ago she said that his position may not last the next 6 months because they are trying to get rid of full time employees.  But then they have had him do a ton of training, and also had him take over a few of his bosses responsibitlies because she's been so sick.  Well, color me confused.  We were thinking things were going well, that maybe they were going to just have him take on more responsibilites and what not, but now this seems a little daunting.
So needless to say, the Harris house is a little stressed.  We are holding our breath that whatever news comes on Tuesday is good, and that hopefully the van can be fixed easily, and that Lorelai keeps kicking me and nothing else in our house falls apart.   I'll keep you updated :)

Thomas

In the following blog post I am going to talk mostly about my children.  What else is new? you might ask, well, this is my blog, and so therefore I get to talk about/brag about my adorable children.  I love being a mom, they are my joy, so I like to talk about them :)
Yesterday we took a CFP (concealed firearm permit) class, it was all day long.  But we did learn a lot of good stuff, and while I am still not sure about carrying around a loaded weapon everyday, I always like learning more.  And it was really important to James that I took it with him, so I did.  Thomas got to spend the day at my parents house, which is so cute, because they get just as excited as he does for him to come over.  He now recognizes my parents house, and as soon as we get out of the car he starts to yell "PA!" which is what he calls both grandma and grandpa, not sure why...  And then of course the dog hears him, and starts to bark, and my parents meet us at the door, and he can't wait to say hi and play.  James and I are basically just Thomas's chauffer's, and we get a hey, how's it going? and then they pull out the toys, or go to the backyard, and we are superfulous :) It's fun for me actually, I never had grandparents around growing up, and when we did see my grandma she was never really into doing anything but watching movies and sitting down... So Thomas having 4 grandparents that love to play and dance and laugh with him is one of my great joys.  They spent all day yesterday together, and by the time we got back, they were all exhausted :)  Thomas slept in the car on the way home (he never does that) and my parents were both totally pooped.  I just love it.  They were so excited to show us what he had learned, first off they have a bell on their front door (partially cause it's leftover from Christmas, and partially because my dad likes to know when someone is coming into the house) and Thomas asked them to see it and they told him it was a bell, so for the next hour he just ran around saying bell and asking them to ring it. Then it was story time, it was a peek a boo book, and one of the animals is a duck, and so he picked upon that  and when they asked him what a duck said he looked at me and in a high pitched voice said "wack, wack, wack"  It is my new favorite thing that he does, I ask him to do it about once and hour cause I think it's so cute!
Lorelai is growing so much.  My belly is huge I feel like.  I don't ever remember being this big with Thomas... even looking at our family pictures from Hawaii, 3 weeks before I had him, I feel like my stomach is bigger now. It's probably not true, but I actually love it.  I did finally gain a couple pounds at my last appointment, I am almost back at my pre pregnancy weight, so I didn't have to have any more annoying tests done.  And I just love looking at my growing belly.  She is getting to be a lot stronger, and sometimes her movements stop me in my tracks because it hurts, but I just love it.  I am getting so excited to meet this little girl.  I did so many girl crafts this week that it's just adding to it, and I love looking at her little clothes hanging in the closet, and the nursery is getting turned into half boy half girl, and I can't wait!  James is also very excited, every time we see a cute little girl he just smiles and gets more excited.  We can't wait to have 2 children around here, we are stoked.  Thomas is such a wonderful little boy, so much fun to have around, and we love him so much, we can't wait to have Lorelai.  Thomas will be such a good big brother. There is so much excitement around our house these days.  Our semester ends in 5 weeks (YAY!) then we have my two favorite relatives coming for my graduation and then baby girl gets here!  So we have so much to look forward too in the near future.  James birthday is also coming, and I am planning some fun stuff for him.  I got him 2 days off work, and planned a Harris family party day, and it's easter, so we are taking Thomas to an easter egg hunt, and a few other things that he doesn't know, and I don't know if I should say, in case he may actually read this blog... Long shot I know:) 

Recharged

This week has been my spring break, and let me tell you, it came at a perfect time.  I was beginning to think I would never make it through the semester.  But this week was perfect.  James had two random afternoons off, due to construction mishaps.  Fine by me!  So on tuesday my mom and I made about 25 freezer meals for after the baby comes, then James got to come down and we played, and relaxed and went to see John Carter, it was really good!  Then the next day we ran about a million errands, reorganized the nursery, folded, sorted and organized all of the clothes we have for Lorelai and got their room all set!  I'm stoked :)  I also made a stuffed giraffe, burp cloths, hair bows, blanket and cleaned my house.  Its been a good week, with much needed rest and a ton of accomplishing.  I love spring break.

1, 2, 3

I feel that I should preface my story with 2 other stories first.
When I do laundry I like to put all of the clean clothes in a big pile in the living room so I can slowly work it down, and Thomas has unfolded clothes he can throw around, hopefully preventing him from messing with the folded clothes. It doesn't actually work, but I like to think my efforts are worthwhile.
Second, Thomas loves to play on James and my bed, especially when we are throwing him on the bed.  We will count to 3, and throw him on the bed.  He laughs and giggles and just loves it.
So, here's the story:  As I had all of the clothes in the floor, Thomas climbed on top of them, and said "One, two, threeeeee" and then fell over backwards and laughed histerically at himself.  I thought it was the most adorable thing ever, I laughed with him, and he did it over and over again.  He is learning so much! He picks up on things I don't realize he notices, and he is taking it in and getting smarter and smarter.  I just love him.  So, short story, a lot of back story, and a little bit of me bragging about my son :) Enjoy your day!

Oh baby...

Thomas has become obsessed with babies.  We have watched my niece a few times and he loves her, he just kisses her and tries to give her a pacifier or bottle.  It's cute :) So I pulled out his baby pictures so he could look at them, and he loved them.  He kept saying "baby!" and trying to talk to the pictures, it was adorable.  It makes me feel really good about the fact that Lorelai is getting close :)  And looking at his baby pictures makes me really excited too!  I have around 2 1/2 months left and I am so excited!  For multiple reasons, the first being I can't wait to meet her, I am glad to not be pregnant anymore because it's been so hard, and it also signals the end of college, FOREVER.   Can't tell you how much I am looking forward to May getting here.  I have been getting all of the newborn baby stuff back out and organizing it, we are so excited, and almost ready.  I still have some things I want to buy, mostly frilly stuff we probably don't need, but i can't hardly stand not owning.  But either way, we can't wait!