Wonderful People

In my life I am surrounded by many wonderful people.  For example, while on bedrest I have had so much help from loving family members, it's just wonderful.  To start, I have my amazing husband, he has taken up every household chore, completed all of the grocery shopping, and tirelessly takes care of Thomas every second he's home.  He gets up early every morning so that he can take care of Thomas, get him juice, change his diaper, and get him ready for the day so I can sleep a little longer.  He comes home from work and cleans and makes dinner and still manages to deal with an insanely emotional crazy pregnant woman.
Then there is my family.  My mom has been here every other day for the past several months, and in the past week she has been here pretty much every day. Taking care of Thomas, cleaning my kitchen, chatting with me (Thomas isn't much for conversation, he's only good for a quick word here and there) and spending way too much of her free time with me, rather than at home with my dad (where I know she'd love to be)  Then there is my dad, he hasn't been able to come up as much as we would like, but Thomas just adores him. Whenever we see him Thomas yells "PA!" and runs to him, it's adorable.  And my younger sister.  She has her life (I mean she's a 19 year old college student, there's always something fun to be doing) and still she came today and spent the entire day cleaning and taking care of Thomas.  She got him up from his nap so I could sleep longer, and fed him and dealt with his fussiness (I think all of the stress and hoop-la-la going on is hard for him, he's been acting out a bit) and spent her whole day just chilling and changing dirty diapers.
Then today my dear mother in law came over and brought my sister in law and they swept through my whole house, cleaning and organizing and scrubbing for several hours.  Making me sit and watch them do all of the things I should be doing (and feel like a horrible housekeeper for not being able to do) and did it with big smiles on their faces. They also kept me company for a while, it was nice to have a little group of people to chat with, I feel like I don't get a ton of interaction with anyone but my 19 month old, so it's really nice when I have someone I can talk to.
Both my and James's families are wonderful.  They come at a moments notice to watch Thomas, or call to check in and see how we are doing, they never pause when offering assistance and love to us, and I am so truly grateful for them.  In my life I have so many wonderful people surrounding me, I am so truly blessed. And with baby girl coming pretty much any day now, I am so happy to have such a wonderful family for her to be born into!

"Now, where were we?" "I'm huge"

Gotta love Madagascar 2, I'm actually stoked for the 3rd one (odd I know)
I know every post has been about being pregnant, and this one won't stray from the norm, but I promise soon it won't be a pregnancy complaining outlet for me, soon it will be all about my two wonderful kids and how I get to stay home all day with them! But, in the mean time...
We ended up in the hospital again last night... Lots of strong contractions for several days, none super consistent, but they were VERY painful, so I called my dr and she was booked solid, so they sent us in for a check up, to see what was happening.  So we got there and the nurse started offering James snacks and all sorts of things, and I started thinking "Oh no, we don't want to stay, I just want to make sure the baby is okay, stop acting like we are staying!"  So they checked me, and not good news, I've already started to dilate, I'm at about a 1 1/2, and 60% effaced and at -2 station (if you don't know what that means, count yourself blissfully ignorant, it just means my body is prepping for labor way too soon!) So they made me stay for a few hours to be monitored and ensure the dilation wasn't happening quickly.  Well after a few hours my contractions slowed down, and I hadn't dilated anymore, so they sent me home.  Well, before the sent me home they gave me a shot of morphine and some anti-nauseau meds. So I was very relaxed when we got home :)  So I have an appt on Thursday, we'll see how it goes.  Who knows what will happen at this point.  I really want to walk at graduation on Friday, so hopefully nothing has changed by Thursday.  I'll let you know!

Dropped

Baby girl has decided it's time to drop down even lower than she already was. She's basically getting locked and loaded and ready for her grand debut. She is a little bit early though, so I'm trying to convince her that while punctuality is good, there is a such thing as too early.  My doctor is rather pessimistic about making it until 37 weeks, which is not a great feeling. At my last appt she said "I don't think you'll make it to 37 weeks, but if you can make it through this weekend then you'll be 34 weeks and 34 weekers tend to do much better than 33 weekers, so hold out"  And my thought was "Well gee, you're really inspiring confidence in me about this situation"  So that's that I guess.  I'm just trying to keep contractions to a minimum, which means doing as little as possible, because doing anything makes them worse, it's a ton of fun.
We graduate next week!! YAY!  I'm pretty excited, hoping I can walk through the ceremony alright, thankfully James will be walking right beside me, so I think we'll make it!
Thomas is still the cutest kid ever.  He is learning so quickly it blows my mind.  If he sees us do something once, he has to do it too.  He now has to wash his hands everytime I go to the bathroom (so we wash our hands like 50 times a day)  he loves to help unload the dishwasher (for some reason he always goes for the knifes in the utensil tray (probably because they have colorful handles)) he loves helping James put the groceries in the fridge, he always wants to help me pick up his toys, and then of course get them back out.  His new favorite thing is to help me push the laundry basket around, half the time he pushes, half the time he wants to ride in it, but it's still really cute.  He is my perfect little helper :)  He also loves the nice weather we've been having. We have the perfect little yard for him to play in, and he loves it.   I am working really hard on getting him to tell me what he wants, he's got the whole point and grunt thing down, but I am trying to get him to say what he wants.  Mostly because it drives me nuts when I can't figure out what he's pointing at and I can tell it frustrates him, so we are working on using words.  He's really good at it, his new favorite word is M&M's :)  They are my go to treat for him if he's being good or if he ate his lunch well, mostly cause I can give him 2-3 and he thinks it's the greatest thing.  That way I control the amount, and he can feed himself with minimal mess, they are my favorite toddler candy.  He's getting really good with multiple syllables, pepperoni and pudding are what he says to his dad all the time (because those are James' favorite snacks, and so Thomas has to have what daddy is eating)  We got him some fish, and he has to show them to everyone who comes over, it's adorable.  He's got so much personality I almost can't handle him!  Today he brought me my hair brush and started to brush my hair, I guess I do that a lot too, cause he's really good at it :)  Apparently I'm more vain then I thought :)

"If you wonder what I'm doing, I'm being awesome"

That is what my niece said to me this last weekend while playing at my in-laws house :) They are such funny girls!  One is 10 and the other 8, and they provide me with so many laughs!  This weekend was pretty epic!  Friday started off great, James let me sleep in till 10! It was a huge party!  Then when we got up (mostly me) we cleaned up a little bit, and played around a lot.  We decided for James' birthday we'd get fish, that was super fun!  So we hung out all day, and it was glorious!  Then Saturday we got up a little early, and went shooting with James's family in Saratoga Springs. Brett and Becky surprised us and were there too! It was a great birthday surprise for James! Thomas and I mostly sat in the car making driving sounds and eating muffins and cinnamon rolls.  It was fun.  After about an hour of that we headed back up to South Jordan for some more fun. The Harris's threw me a baby shower, which was great fun! Lots of fun clothes for sweet Lorelai and some fun games and punch. While we baby shower'd all the boys went outside and had a Nerf war.  We had bought some Nerf guns at Christmas because they were mismarked and super cheap, then the Harris's bought a few more, so they guys when out and shot each other while we giggled about babies.  After that we had a classic Harris family bbq, with tons of yummy chicken, steak, burgers, potato salad, fruit, baked beans, and everything else good!  After that I took a nap (because my stomach is now larger than my 19 month old, and it's tiring carrying it around) And James and Thomas went to play tennis with everyone else.  I woke up and joined them all, and it was so fun watching James play! It's been a long winter it feels like (even though winter never actually happened) and I haven't watched him play tennis in a while, I love it!  Then we had an easter egg hunt!  It was great! Thomas loved walking around picking up the eggs, thankfully he didn't think to open then, and he had no idea they were full of candy.  I managed to empty them all before he connected it, phew!  Then we played a game of Bocce ball, James loves that!  After that we went and shot off model rockets.  Thomas was exhausted at this point, so he just sat on James lap (and refused to even talk to anyone else),  but it was fun for me to watch them cuddle, Thomas just adores James, and I love it so much. After that we went home, ate left overs, chatted, and put Thomas down. Boy was he mad at us, he wanted to keep playing! But he was so tired he couldn't walk straight, so I put my foot down.  And I thought, oh, maybe I can get to bed soonish too. Little did I know the Harris's weren't done partying yet (I'm not quite up to partying par when it comes to the Harris's and I'm 8 months pregnant, I just can't keep up!) We went to see Mirror Mirror. It was quite enjoyable!  A silly family movie, but they are my favorite kind.  It was a good movie. Quite the contrast to Hunger Games which we saw last week, both good though.  So then we finally went to bed, well everyone else did. I spent the whole night tossing and turnning, I ended up on the couch because we were in the same room as Thomas, and I keep waking him up... So I tried the couch, not much success. We went to bed at midnight and of course Thomas got up at 6, so neither James nor I got much sleep.  But we went to church still, it was fun. I had packed us all nice easter outfits (of course I forgot to take pictures, curses!) and Thomas slept through sacrament, I was a little envious. So when we got home, James and I napped, for 2 hours. Glorious! Then Brett and Becky headed back to Colorado and we had a delicious easter dinner of ham and potatoes, then we played games!  Charades first, which was great! Mary and I were on the same wave length, it was awesome!  After that we watched Emperor's New Groove, a gift I got James. I forgot to mention that he got a gift an hour all day Sunday (it was supposed to be Monday, but we had too much happening, so I did it Sunday when we'd be home most of the day!)  He got some fun stuff! I'll let him tell you about it :)  Then we actually went to be early, it was nice!  We got up Monday way too early (Thomas) and headed to Cabella's and the Dinosaur Museum. Thomas loved them!  I would have loved them more if I could have floated rather than walked.... Then we came home, and Thomas napped for almost 4 hours! I slept for 2!  And now we are playing at home while James takes a stupid test. Well that was our weekend in a quick nutshell, hope it wasn't too boring!!

The first night

Thomas is sleeping in his crib, like normal, however, tonight we took off the side of his crib. It's actually convertible to a toddler bed, but my mom got him the cutest train bed that we couldn't hardly say no, so we are trying to transition him into it.  Well, we have tried a few times to get him to sleep there, and it won't work, he just freaks out when he wakes up or notices something different around him. So in an effort to slowly work his way into his toddler bed (so Lorelai can have the crib a few months after she makes her grand appearance) we took the side off his crib, so he can adjust slowly to not having four walls around him while he sleeps. Naptime today was a huge success.  Which was a huge relief, and then tonight, that is the real test. We put him down for his nap differently then we do at night.  For naptime I always sing him to sleep (which I know it probably a bad habit, because when I have 2 kids it won't be so easy, but I can't resist. He cuddles up next to me and hums to the songs I sing until he slowly falls asleep in my arms. He is so sweet and peaceful, I can't bring myself to stop. It's the only time I get to hold him close anymore, the rest of the time he is all about playing, and daddy, and exploring. I am holding on to his baby time a little bit more)  And then at night we brush his teeth, sing him a song as family (he hums along) have family prayer (which he now wants to participate in, we let him "Say" the prayer) and then I hug and kiss him goodnight, and James cuddles with him for a while humming to him, and then we lay him down.  He always goes down really well, our routine has worked wonders for him, but when we lay him down he's awake still. I was so worried he'd just get up and go play. When he woke up this afternoon he got up, went to the door and yelled for me. It worked out so well!  So now I'm nervous about how tonight will go. He went down great, and so far he's still out, no noise or anything.  We shall see!  I hope it works, I have been worrying about transfering him into a toddler bed, and it would be nice to take a step in the right direction!

Title

I'm pretty sure my blog is becoming a place for me to vent and rant about my annoyance with people and things.... I promise my next post will be happier.  Mostly because this weekend we are celebrating James' birthday and it should be a ton of fun!!  But in the mean time....
I'm annoyed with NuSkin.  They were good enough not to fire James, but they have been really sucky about it. He was transferred to another department, which is good, we get to keep our insurance and he's still full time. however, he now has a job he dislikes, a lot.  He's a phone agent now, taking all incoming calls fro NuSkin distributors.  He's not excited.  Then they promised him an 8-5 schedule, and they emailed him and said it's 10-6, so we are working on figuring that out.  His boss is just not good at what she does.  I swear everytime she makes a decision I think to myself "What, seriously? Do you have any idea what you're doing?"  And she doesn't.  She and James agreed that he would work 8-5, explicitlly agreed, now she's changing it. Well what she obviously doesn't know (and I learned in my employement and labor law class) is that she created with him an implied contract.  Which is just as good as a written contract, she made certain promises, and she actually has to keep up with them, because she said it would happen that way.  This is not to say that I know everything, or really anything about managing employees, I just know what I have read in books and learned in classes, but I do know that according to every great business mind I have studied, she's not good at what she does.
We are resident managers for a company called REMS. If you work with them, be warned! They never respond, and then when they do they yell at you for not taking care of things sooner. I kid you not, I left 20 messages in 5 days because a tenant had a plumbing problem, finally I was able to find an alternate number to try calling (they told me it was their old number and probably wouldn't work anymore)  Well come to find out they got a new phone system, and even though I called and got their answering machine they didn't get the messages.  And then started talking to me about how I need to get things done quicker and blah blah.  Well I got so annoyed after one person called and left a message saying "Amanda, you're a resident manager, you need to answer your phone. I need this information so I can get this done, we need to get it done quickly. Call me back and answer your phone"  So I called back, and I said "I got your message, it was really rude. Here's the information you need. And just so you know, I have 2 kids (I was watching my niece) and I will answer my phone when I can. If I can't I will call you back as soon as I can. Thank you, bye"  In an earlier call he had been talking about how to get a hold of him, and he said "Just so you know I always answer my phone unless I'm on a ladder or have my hands busy with electrical wires, but I always answer"  In scolding me for not getting a hold of him sooner (Which I had been trying to do, but no one told me that they changed their phone numbers and answering machines)  AH!  So annoying!

Anyways, sorry for the complaining, I am just in a bit of a foul mood.  I swear this baby grows by the hour, and she finds the most uncomfortable positions to lay in.  I get tired so easily, we went grocery shopping and I could barely make it, it was 9am.  I'm pathetic.  And annoyed.... Looking forward to the weekend for sure.