And we are so lucky!

A tornado did hit the area, and some of our friends sustained some damage to their homes & property, but we are just fine.

Yard work galaore

The Pond is almost an ex-pond! Today the missionaries in our ward came over to do a few fun filled hours of service, namely hauling smelly pond water out and dumping it. They dumped it under the swingset, the grass, the flowers & the fence. Hopefully it is good fertilizer and not bad for the yard in general. It certainly is smelly! It took them about 2 hours to get most of it out. Then they were able to pull up the tarp and dump the last of the sludge into the hole, which I plan to fill with dirt as soon as possible. I need about 5 cubic yards of dirt. I called and asked a "dirt expert" to be sure. It will cost about $220 including delivery to get the lovely dirt. I am hoping to get some grass to grow there and mesh with the rest of the yard.

I am also hoping so we will no longer be home to the charming barking frogs of Virginia. It was about this time last year that we discovered they really do bark during mating season, and I don't need to repeat lesson this year. There were 4 frogs in the pond which the missionaries thoughtfully transported down the street to the much larger neighborhood pond. I am sure the frogs will be much happier there. The elders also got all of this done in time for them to get headed home before the Tornado warning struck. Yeah!! We saw some clouds that looked like they were trying to funnel up, but so far just thunder & lightening has come our way. Well, and lots of rain. It sure is a good thing that tarp is gone so we don't collect anymore rain tonight in the pond. Karl was thinking that we could keep the pond and use it to scoop water and water the garden that way, but I am tired of the overall yuck factor, and since he didn't actually scoop any major number of buckets, I hope he won;t complain about the lack of pond. He was also thinking maybe we could get it all clean and try again, but let's face it, if you want a fish killed, I am your girl! Anyone need about 3 lbs of fish food though? I have some!! I'll keep you posted on the dirt!

And did I mention I got rid of the palm trees about a month ago??? It was so easy! I put an ad on craigslist and they walked away the next day with no effort on my part! I probably should have charged a little for each tree, but I just wanted them gone. We replaced them with 4 lovely hydrangea and 4 crepe myrtle. I will have to baby the hydrangea this summer, but hope to have them flourishing soon. the rose bushes which were never really noticeable behind the trees are also doing very well. They burst into bloom this week and are just lovely.

This is the Before shot.



I think it says a lot about the general feeling about the palm trees when total strangers pullover to stop and let you know how nice your yard looks if they happen to see you outside! But hey, someone who really loves those trees has them now! And I love what I have instead so it is a win win situation.

I will take some after pictures too and show off the garden improvements, just after I get some dirt! I planted everything on my list, and then added some strawberries that friends had that needed a new home. They won't flower and produce berries this year, but next year, if all goes well we should have some yummy berries!! As for the rest for the garden, I see lots of sprouts, but mostly lots of grass so I have being working on my weeding. I have not started in on the front flower beds yet.

Hip Hip Hurray!

We're cleaning out the office, we're cleaning out the office! Hip Hip Hurray it's a wonderful day! (Now sing this 3 more times to some odd little children's song ditty and you will get my happy mood! ) We started working on this yesterday, and while it isn't done, it looks better than it has in months. We realized 3 things. We are having a baby and it will probably live in our room for the first few months. Karl can't work in his office space in our bedroom/messy area after we have the baby, and we can't claim the home office because of the complicated non resident status, so.....bring on the family office yet again! I am just thrilled on so many levels! The bedroom will be cleaner, the office will be cleaner, and Karl's large desk which was just sitting there collecting and paper that could be stacked there will be usable space! I'll post pictures once it is closer to being finished, but I am just so excited!

My apologizes to everyone who has gotten a chance to sleep in the office/guest bed space. You can come back now and marvel at the transformation!! And by guest bed space, I mean the largest clear space we could make so that we could put down an air mattress. Nothing fancy here folks, maybe next time!!

We mentioned to the girls the whole baby coming equals baby needs a place to sleep, and asked what they wanted to do to solve the problem. Naturally they thought that the baby should just sleep with us. But when asked if they would like the baby to sleep in their room, or if they would like to give up some toys to combine their bedroom & playroom, they counter offered with the suggestion we either build a baby room, (Sydney) or move and get a new house (Emily). This is funny when you know that Emily always bursts into tears when we talk about moving next year. She has never offered that we do this, so I was pretty interested to see exactly how much she is willing to put up with to keep her space. It doesn't solve the problem though.

If anyone has any brilliant suggestions with regards to combining a bedroom, playroom, and 3 kids, let me know. I am all ears! We plan on 4 months with us, but after that, we are just not sure the best plan. I am not against putting the baby in the playroom and letting him us that as his room, but the kids are not excited about not being able to us it during his nap time. And to be fair, the odds of this baby being able to sleep during the dancing elephant hour, well, let's just say I hope this little fellow is an easy going baby who is already hearing the noise of his sisters, and will be born not really caring what it sounds like in the house. If not, well, maybe they make baby sized ear plugs. If not, maybe I'll get rich inventing them :) I am sure other mothers could use a pair or two.

First time Rollerskaters

I will have to upload some pictures, but yesterday was the girls first time on skates. One of Emily's primary classmates had a birthday party at the local roller rink and we were all invited. Emily got her skates on, and went out on the rink. I told her to hold on to the wall and take tiny steps. As I was getting Sydney ready, she turned to April and said, "But I could fall! and hurt my bottom."

Unfortunately she was not a natural skater. She had a funny little sidestep shuffle that she used to inch along which usually made her lose her balance and fall down. She fall at one point & hurt her head, but not too badly. we got her a new pair of skates, tightened so the basically didn't roll, and she tried to skate for the rest of the party. Sydney also had non-rolling skates, so she had a good time too. She was annoyed at how little she could roll, but she didn't fall.

On the other hand, both girls are doing wonderfully well in their swimming lessons and Emily can swim now without her float belt. She can't swim too far, maybe 10 feet or so but she is swimming! Yeah!!!

As heard at dinner

We were eating dinner as a family tonight and talking about different things when Emily asked a question with her mouth full of food. Our rule is "No talking with food in your mouth," so Sydney turned to her and said (with her mouth full of food) "Emily, do we talk with food in your mouth?" Emily grinned, shook her head no, finished chewing, then swallowed. Both of us turned to Sydney and said, "Sydney, you have food in your mouth!" She gave us one of her little faces (the classic, man, I am busted face), chewed, then swallowed hers down too.

It doesn't sound as funny in print, but it was pretty funny at the time!

Can I just add for the record that Karl is a Proofreading Punctuation Pain in the Patootie!  He has been editing over my shoulder, and I hate it! I admit it; I don't use commas well.  Apparently he is helpful at work with editing government papers.  His coworkers have come to love him. (In fact he was quite helpful with this paragraph too.  And he just gave up and told me I can write what I want.  He would also like to add that in all fairness I should have left my errors up there so everyone could see his corrections in all their punctuated glory.)

It's a boy!!

We found out on Monday that we are definitely having a little boy. We are really excited & have decided to use the name we chose 6 years ago when I was pregnant with Emily, Joshua Alexander. My due date is still September 17th. We told the girls Monday night and they seem to be excited about having a boy. Emily is more excited than Sydney, but both girls seem to be ok with it. We will just have to see how it goes as we get closer to the date.

And baby makes 3!

Well three kids that is! We are happy to let you all know that we are expecting another little baby in September. My new official due date is the 17th of September. (I thought earlier I was due on the 1st of October) I had my first appointment on Friday (It is a long story about why it took so long to see someone, but I was trying to get in earlier) I met with my new doctor and like her a lot. She did a quick ultrasound because we thought I was about 14 weeks, but think based on the ultrasound that I am closer to 16 weeks :) That is lots of fun to skip ahead 2 weeks like that.

I am feeling better than I did at first, and very grateful that this seems to be to going very well so far. I have been pretty tired, but what can you do!! We are definitely nervous about adding another munchkin into the mix, and the girls have mixed feelings about it all. We think Emily is excited, but Sydney seems slightly more reserved on the subject. Hopefully she will get used to the idea:) We hope to find out what we are having in just a few weeks. I have an appointment on the 21st, so we will keep you posted.

For those who have a hard time reading ultrasound pictures, that is a head in profile. The baby was pretty wiggly and not all that interested in cooperating as they measured the little thing, so this is the best we could get. I am hoping to maybe get a chance to have one of the very fun Level II ultrasounds later on at about 28 weeks, but we will see if that can happen.

Still recovering!

So far things are going very well with Sydney. She seems to be perking right up and for the most part not in too much pain. She isn't talking as much, and her appetite is not back to normal, but she is playing happily with Emily now and so we are hoping things continue this way for us!

A long but successful day

Sydney had her operation today.  We left the hosue at 6:45am and came home at 5:pm. The adenoids & tonsils were removed smoothly, and they decided judging from the fluid/pus that filled up in her ear in 2 weeks that she would benefit from tubes.  So they performed that as well.  The doctor said the adenoids were incredibly large and almost completely blocked off her nasal airways.  He is hopeful that the removal will substantially help her overall health.  The tonsils were enlarged, but not on the same scale as the adenoids.

Luckily for us our good friend & bishop of our ward is an anesthesiologist, and happened to be working at the hospital this morning and picked up Sydney's surgery.  If we had thought about it, we would have asked for him specifically.  He was able to calmly take Sydney back into the OR without any major hassle.  He is also her friend's dad which helps a lot!   She woke up a bit grumpy & in pain so she got  some painkillers and antibiotics and after a struggle over her IV, she finally dropped off into a fairly calm sleep.  She would wake up every hour or so for some water but slept for 4 1/2 hours overall. When she finally woke up, she had a popsicle half, some more water, and another dose of painkillers, milder this time, and some more antibiotics.  She also got her iv out, which meant she could get her favorite "stripy tiger" pjs on.  There was a bit of an issue at the beginning of the day about the hospital pjs they wanted her to wear, and even the tigers on the pjs could not make her happy. We can expect bad breath, a sore throat, somewhat cranky behavior, and a major lack of interest or need for food.  She had a tiny amount of chocolate pudding tonight for dinner, but it didn't stay down. We are going to leave the soft solids for another day. She is in bed right now.  I am hoping that she will sleep well tonight.  The doctor recommended she stay home from school for a week, which is sad, but hopefully we will muddle through!!

I am going to crash now in case she has a bad night!  Love to you all!