Finally at the END of the Summer
We finally got HM's family to actually SWIM in our pool
We've had "pool parties" who knows how many times
And no one actually swims!!!!!
So we complained enough i think that people actually came and swam

We even had our first game of Toothpicks
An Irish Family pool game
Here are the basic rules:

• Everyone stands around the pool
• One person takes a toothpick and takes it to the bottom of the pool
• Then they get out and then everyone tries to find the toothpick
• When you see it, you have to jump in and grab it.  If you miss you have to get back out of the pool before you can try again
  
• Pretty fun game and it makes for some really cool pictures....

L, this is my favorite one of you... lol....

What is Craiger doing in this picture??? lol....

This picture is funny because it's so typical: here are Sadie and Keiran playing together: lol...

Poor Sadie is STILL teething so even though you do this every other second:

It's still like this two seconds later:

Nothing like hot men swimming in our pool.... HM says these make him look fat but I think he looks hot :)

And speaking of hot, ow ow L... lol...

This picture makes me think of Sesame Street: Can you Guess What The People in this Picture are Doing?

Awh, how cute....

Sadie has recently discovered her belly button so she spends all day playing with it and show people how she now has one:

What's up Pam? Brandi was very excited she got a picture of you doing this...

Thank you to Brandi for taking  a lot of these pictures:

So here are the cute things I've finished lately
And see if I put them on here all at once
It's like I've got them all done at once!
Yup.... did these all in one day.... right...

1.  HO HO HO blocks
Gracias to RS Super Saturday!


2.  Menu Planner
I always try to plan a month of meals
But I've found that usually I don't actually follow it
Because most days I just look at ALL the days
And then just pick what I feel like that day
So L, J and I made these things to put on the fridge
And you just write 20 meals on cards
Put the recipe on the back
And those are all your options for the month or until you run out


3.  Halloween Village!!!
K, most people have Christmas Villages, right?
Well keeping with our tradition of having twice as many Halloween decorations as Christmas decorations
I found this Halloween Village at GoodWill the other day
Had to get it as it was only $15
Love love love
I am so excited to start decorating for Halloween!!!


4.  Pictures and Vinyl
Got this saying in Texas on clearance while we were there
And finally put it all together on our wall
It took awhile because as HM pointed out
I seem to have a problem with math lately
There are 16 pictures right?
Well, I ordered 14... and thought it was 16
So I had to wait another week for the other 2 to show up
For it to be finally done.... *sigh*
...being pregnant really screws up your brains....


P.S.  Chelsea I know you could have done this so easily since you are the vinyl master but I don't know the wording but when I see it I think, oh that would be cool!  So if you have any good ideas, I would love any suggestions :)

5. Winter Garden
aka: My first Garden
Peas, radishes, lettuce, onions, beets and green beans are all up and doing pretty well
So far no carrots or celery
Oh and some herbs and things too....
Can't quite get that 3rd box done.... *sigh* but soon!
Now don't you wish you lived in CA?

So we had our "Specialist" ultrasound with Dr. Fok
Nice guy
I was pretty grumpy by the time we waited for an hour and a half
In a the waiting room
About to pee my pants
But other than that it went good
He had barely even put the monitor on and he goes
Oh I see what they are worried about...
(I'm going Wow, you've looked at it all of 2 seconds!)

But he didn't explain but first asked if we wanted to know if it was a boy or girl?
(he acted like HE already knew)
And of course we did and "It" is definitely a "she" no question
Yay! :) told you so! :)

Anyway, then he showed us the "problem"
But his attitude was mostly "Geez... people worry too much"
(How many ultrasounds have you had now? he asked as he rolled his eyes)
Here is your placenta:
(massive organ as big as the baby)
And here is the problem:
Dark spot
First off, they are no where near each other
And whatever it is, is isn't harming the baby at all
She is growing normally and getting enough nutrients
So it doesn't really matter what it is really....

So this was his theory:
The baby is in a sack right?
And basically he said, the sack is usually plastered along your uterus wall
Part of yours is not for some reason
But give it a couple months
And most likely you won't even see that anymore
You don't have previa or anything else
Everything is fine and whatever that is
Who cares....
It might have had some blood in it at some point
But chances are you just irritated something
And now just be careful and all (no more Pelvic Rest!)
But everything looks fine

Yay!

So my scanner hasn't been working since we got our new computer
So these are fuzzy pictures of already fuzzy pictures
(I hate my camera)
But here are the ultrasound pictures:

11 Weeks:
(this picture really sucks.  You could see her arms and legs and everything and this was the picture she gave us....!)


15 Weeks:
She had her hands over her face and legs crossed but this is the cute picture of her behind :)


And now at
20 weeks:


These two are kinda creepy in a way I think
We couldn't get her profile because she was looking straight at the camera:


This one almost looks like she is smiling:
 

I must admit I'm a bit disappointed with the pictures
Sadie's was so good and she only had ONE ultrasound
This baby has had FOUR now and none of them are as good as Sadie's was
Oh well, it is cool to be able to see her so many times and see her move in "real" life anyway

So far she seems like a really sweet little girl
(not that Sadie wasn't)
But this one seems quieter than Sadie was
Just a little sweetheart

So yesterday Sadie and I get home from running errands
HM is doing some cabinets
And I put Sadie down for a nap
But a short time later she woke up
Because Burrito and a friend were trimming our palms
And making a lot of noise
So I brought her into our room and tried to get her back to sleep
When I hear a loud THUMP
And I thought: I hope that's wasn't one of our trees....

So I got up finally to fix dinner
And there on the side of the porch
Was not one of our trees....
oh no....
Just half of one.....


I guess they had been trimming the tree
And put the ladder too high up
So after they trimmed it all down
The ladder was leaning on the now weak part
of the newly trimmed tree
And the weight of the ladder
and the person on the ladder
Literally busted it in half

I stood at the door for a minute
and overheard Burrito and Friend looking at the trees
and basically going:
Uh..... what do we do now?????
Finally, Burrito comes to the conclusion:
Let's move it away so it doesn't look so bad
So right as they decide this
I stepped outside
And said: Hey, so uh... what's up?
Burrito smiled really big and said:
Uh.... So, Where's HM????
I said he would be home soon and just shook my head and went inside

They took the tree to the side and started kinda cutting it into pieces:


HM came home and talked to them
And Burrito did a very good job of smiling and trying to be positive
And really we weren't as mad as maybe we should have been
But man, the thing we are more upset about is this:
What do we do with half a tree????? lol....

So far we have brainstormed that we will slice it really thing
and make some little step "stones" for my garden
Maybe paint them and everything
It'll be so cute
But hey...
What else can we do????
lol.....

Recently HM overheard two ladies at church, and one says to the other:
"I can't wait to get home and check my crops!"
Now unfortunately, she didn't mean real crops
She meant her crops on a game
Do you play?
Do you know what I'm talking about?

If you are on Facebook
(and hello, who isn't? :) lol...What ever happened to MySpace anyway?)
Then you might be a Farmer
They are these games on Facebook:
Farmville
Farm Town
Where you grow "crops" kinda like a SimCity game but easier I think
It's pretty simple
But pretty fun
I have both :)
Farm Town I am a Level 21 farmer
And Farmville I am a Level 16
And I know a lot of people lately who have Farms!
It's amazing....

So here is my official review of these games, Pros and Cons
FarmTown:
Pros:

• You can work for other people to earn money--So good when you first start to play, you don't have to be poor forever
• You can hire people to do your work for you :) So nice....

Cons:
Animals are stupid: they serve no purpose, what's the point of even having them????

FarmVille:
Pros:

• You can make money off animals: milk from cows, eggs from chickens, etc
• You can buy cool heavy machinery: currently I have a tractor, a harvester, and a seeder BUT....

Cons:

• You can't make any money from working at anyone's farm so the game is really slow at first
• ...Big machinery is cool but what's the deal? Fuel is an arm and a leg! Can't we even get a break on a game???
• Animals are kinda creepy... they never move so if you have a lot (like Amanda) they end up looking like armies waiting for battle....

HAPPY FARMING!!!

So a few people have asked:
How is work going this year?
I'm going half days this year
Which means instead of having to wake up at 5:30am
Get out of the house by 6:30 or 6:45 to get to school
So I can get my classes ready to go for the day
And get Sadie to whoever is watching her that day
And then getting off work at 2:30
Going to pick up Sadie
Running errands
Making dinner
And then having most of the day gone already....

I get to wake up at 6:30am
Sadie and I get ready and leave the house by 7:50am
I drop her off at Daycare and get to school by 8
My classes start at 8:30 and I teach 3 periods
Then I am DONE and out of there by 11:50am
And I go get Sadie, come home
She goes down for a nap
And then I have 1-2 hours to do whatever I need to do
Let me tell you:
It is GLORIOUS.
LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT
I can't figure out why I didn't do this last year!

And what do I do with all this time on my hands?
Well lately, I take a nap too :)
Yesterday Sadie and I both took about a 3 HOUR NAP
But other days if I am not tired from work
I work on all kinds of things around here:
my new garden, straighten up, write on this, play games, all kinds of stuff
And it's just nice to not have so much stuff crammed into a small time period
I can put dinner in the crockpot for later
I can not make dinner at all until later....
I can run errands and not have it take up all the afternoon
It's just nice
And it's nice to just be able to go and take a nap when I'm tired.
Like I said, it's GLORIOUS.  so nice....

So I guess I should finally update this  a little
I had another ultrasound a couple weeks ago
Baby looks great
But she wasn't very cooperative
She had her legs crossed, her ankles crossed
And both hands over her face
Little punk...
But we did get some rather darling pictures of her little behind
And her fat tummy

The technician showed us exactly where the blood pool was
Still there
But her thoughts were that it was just draining off
And that was why I was still spotting
And also because the blood is dark and old (and gross!)

So then I went to my Dr's appointment a week later
and he said he thought she was totally WRONG
That he thought that I had what is called Placenta Previa
He didn't really explain it that well
But said things like:
"You should start taking Iron and eventually you might need a blood transfusion at some point"
I was like... whoa, wait, what did you just say?
So whatever, I came home and looked it up on the internet
And this is what HE thinks I have:

So my placenta is over my cervix
So in simple terms, the drain hole is covered up
That doesn't really explain why I started bleeding in the first place though.....

So this is what I found out:
Most people with Placenta Previa don't know they have it until the 3rd trimester
When suddenly they start bleeding when their cervix dilates
Because it's rubbing against their placenta
And then it's this big thing
They are put on bed rest in the hospital under constant surveillance
Because at any moment their placenta could basically rupture
They would start massively hemorrhaging
And the baby would be emergency delivered by C-section to save the mom's life
Even if it wasn't ready
And even afterward, the mom is at a higher risk for infection
Usually has to have a blood transfusion to replace the massive amount of lost blood
And in some cases, for a mandatory hysterectomy to save her life
(great, and see, why was i worried? lol....I could just die in childbirth... great...)

I went to a baby shower the other day for a lady in my ward
And a lady told me a woman in her ward had this
And she was on bed rest in the hospital for 3 months
And her baby was finally emergency delivered at 4 lbs
(don't you love being pregnant and having everyone tell you horror stories??? lovely... feel so much better, thanks for that... and here I was worried....)

Anyway, BUT, it also said that 90% of the time
Women who have this in the first trimester
(Me)
the placenta moves up as the baby gets bigger
And no worries.

So what causes this?  Good question
Nothing.
It just happens.
Here are the "risk factors" though: