More snow and cold!

As you can tell, yesterday was another snowy day here as was today. The stuff we have now, isn't going anywhere for a while. Jim took the kids outside yesterday even though it was very cold and very windy. They didn't stay out too long but you can't deny a kid from the pacific northwest a chance to play in the snow when you have it. Although these kids get it more often than others in the area since we are at about 1300 feet in elevation, they don't love it any less. It was chilly though around 18 to 20 degrees and the wind was blowing up here about 35 mph. The snow was certainly not falling, it was go every which way but down. They got to play crazy outside with daddy, do a little sledding, made a couple snow angles and came back in... and didn't ask to go back out again!

Luckily, we ate dinner early last night because with the east wind howling, it knocked our power out for a few hours. We got the stove going and were able to keep the house warm but the wind was scaring the kids even after the power came back on around 9. Rylan actually fell asleep in my arms which he hasn't done in a very long time. It was so nice though, you don't often get that from a big three year old unless they're sick. The combination of cold weather and lack of power froze up the pressure pipes for our water pump so we didn't have decent water pressure at all. So, around 10 pm, Jim trekked down the hill with the 4 wheel drive pick up truck to fix that in um, 12 degree, insanely windy, weather. He was able to hold the switch to fill the tanks in the basement so we had running water and power by the time we got into bed around 10:30 last night. Come to find out though, in that trip down and back up, the 4 wheel drive in the truck managed to get locked so that's not working right either. Of course! Luckily, that's just our back up vehicle and by this morning the road crews had, plowed, sanded and de-iced our hill so taking the car to work was no problem for him. It does seem that when something goes, it all goes though doesn't it?! I got the pump guy out here this afternoon and he explained where the issue really lies and I'll just say that we're lucky that nothing is broken down at the pump because there were frozen pipes, not a frozen switch - so Jim was messing with a whole lot of pressure that in the words of the fatherly pump guy "can often end up going boom, and nobody wants that." Yikes! So, the way to thaw it out is with a torch. Go figure. Who would have thought that using a torch would be safer than flipping a switch!?!

First Snow!

We have our first snow of the season! The kids were super excited when they woke up and saw it even though it's really just a dusting. We're supposed to get a fair amount more tonight. It's pretty much been snowing all day but the temp right now is at that right in between place where it's just soppy wet but still snowing hard. I can hear the few cars outside the window and some are having more luck than other navigating the hill but that's par for the course up here. So, for now, I'll just share a couple pics and then I think I'm going to join the kiddos for a nap!

This is the "this is the closest thing to a smile you're going to get since you made me stop playing to smile" smile:

This is the "you can't make me look at you" look:

And, what's a little slave labor? The snow was so wet that it stuck to the dish so of course very little was coming in!

That's it for now and hopefully, if we have to put up with this crazy cold snap that they're predicting, we'll actually have some snow to play in! If we get it tonight, it'll be sticking around for the next 5 days or so.

The Last You'll Hear of It...

Hopefully this is the last that you'll hear of the tooth. It's such a very small thing in all that we're all dealing with but it's a pretty cool thing when you're not quite 5 and I was reminded that I haven't shown a pic of the actual tooth, so here it is in all its wonky glory. The root really does come out at an angle like you see. Weird. And with that, that's hopefully that last you'll hear of the tooth!

I cannot believe that Christmas is so rapidly approaching - the gifts are all wrapped except for one last one for Karleigh which I have to finish up tonight and then it's pretty much hurry up and wait. We may bake some cookies this weekend for Karleigh to take into her teachers and aids since I'm sure no one needs another coffee mug and then we're good to go! But now I need to get to sewing that last felt sugar cookie!!!

Sleeping with a Smile...

This one's just a quickie but I HAD to share! I fell asleep last night, even with my nasty cold and the computer drama, with a big smile on my face. I decided to get out my doppler last night, squirted the aloe vera gel on my tummy and BAM! within 7 seconds, had baby's heartbeat! Such a great sound, beating away at 171 bpm. It is a great relief to know that the little one is big enough for me to spy on from time to time. I'm surprised how high he/she is already though - we're talking a good 4 inches above my pubic bone. I did know where to look though since I've had the three ultrasounds, I figured where they found baby before would be a good place to start! Crazy!

A "Model" Patient!

Here's her new smile! Karleigh did so great today, the dentist called her a "star patient". I was very proud of the little peanut. She has some spatial issues, loves to cuddle but doesn't like to be held down at all and can get a little claustrophobic at times. You never would have known it today! We gave her some Motrin about an hour before the appointment, as suggested. We got there and she colored for a while and we went back to "the dolphin room" - which is conveniently located back away from the cleaning stations. Her only request was a pair of sunglasses to wear during everything. She picked raspberry for her smell of the nitrous but man they had a bunch of different options from peanut butter, to chocolate, marshmallow, grape, watermelon and more. Then they numbed her up with a gel, I'm assuming much like Ora-gel and then she got the Novocaine. She did so, so great. Never complained about the pressure and there was no pain at all. They used a little thing to push the gum away from around her tooth a couple of times and then basically used a pair of pliers to wiggle, wiggle, wiggle it out. It slipped out with what looked like a huge, long root on the end. Karleigh was quite proud of herself. It didn't bleed as much as I expected since mouths usually bleed quite a bit. She got a cute little pink tooth fairy box (I'll take a picture of that tomorrow since she asked the tooth fairy if she could keep the tooth) a popsicle - actually two - one for her, one for Rylan and a couple of tokens for the prize machine. She's such a little creature of habit and got herself another ring and a super bouncy ball for Rylan. I love how she ALWAYS thinks of him and shares with him even when he's not standing right there, he was in the van with Jim, watching a movie. Jim picked up a few soft snacks and Horton Hears a Who... though Karleigh said she thought Horton looked more like a Larry... and we came home.



When we got home we were greeted by a laptop that wouldn't power up at all which made me less than happy, to say the least. This really isn't the most convenient time of year for me to be without my computer and photo editing programs and I could go on and on about that but I won't. Though I pride myself in giving great customer service... I'm not always the best customer. Jim, however, is generally a great, calm, mellow customer so he got to handle it and I stayed home. He managed to get us a loaner laptop (since ours won't be back until the 27th at the earliest) and an external hard drive which has every little bit of data that I had on my dead laptop. It took a few hours but he done good!



While Jim was gone, Rylan and I snuck outside and took a picture of the moon since he was so impressed with it coming up over the barn tonight. Just thought I'd share... looks cold doesn't it!?! The kids are keeping their fingers crossed for snow this weekend - we'll see. We're at the right elevation for what the forecast is predicting so far so time will tell!

One for the Memory Book...

One last snapshot of the "mutant" tooth for Karleigh's memory book! That silly thing gets wiggled out, as the dentist puts it, tomorrow at 2 pm. She's actually quite excited about losing her tooth again and I think she's become a bit self conscious about it. Even her pre-school director joked that she looked like a jack-o-lantern... I'm sure it was said with love but why draw attention to it? Bottom line is it's coming out to protect the health of her gums and the permanent tooth that is right up against it. She should have one interesting Kindergarten photo next school year though as her two bottom, middle teeth are loose too and I figure once one falls out, the other will be right behind it. She may have to give up her love for apples for a while in exchange for applesauce at the rate she's going!

I've been quiet because, frankly, I've been sick as a dog. No, I can't blame baby... I'm the baby. I have a cold virus that's got me all messed up - fever, headache, sinus cold that's working it's way into my chest, knotted up neck and shoulder muscles that keep me from holding my head like a normal person (thank goodness for the back up camera on the van!) Blah.

I hope to have a photo of the chicklet tomorrow after she gets that tooth taken care of - I'm sure she'll be happy to show off!

First OB Appointment...

Huh?! Yah, technically today I had my first OB appointment. The others were intake and ultrasounds. So, I went today... I hate how nervous I get before my appointments now but I guess that's going to be my reality. I went and they got me right back, urine sample, weight (already gaining like I did with Karleigh) and bp. I also had my pap and got my girls felt up (for a good cause of course). While listening to my heart, Doc C asked me if I was a runner... that is laughable! He said that my heart sounds like a runners heart so I must be in great shape. He did commiserate with me though about how "annoying" a heart beat like mine can be, he has the same thing. It has actually been bugging me a lot at night the last few days. Back in high school, my cardiologist diagnosed it as a "regular irregular heart beat". So it speeds up a lot, fills in with extra beats and it's very easy to feel it until it gets used to the increased blood flow - anyway, also explains why I was able to run long distances (though I don't particularly enjoy it) since it easily reacts to my body's increased needs... who knew?! He did not try to find baby's heart with the doppler today... instead he brought in the portable sono machine. Ahhh, there he/she was, wiggling a little bit with the nice strong flicker of the heart beat. Doc C also said that though the Subchorionic Hematoma is very unnerving for everyone, he wasn't positive, looking at it, that that's really what it is... and that's why all my sonograms are sent to the perinatologist's office. He thinks it looks more like a hypervascular area in preparation for a very healthy placenta. ... I like that diagnosis better but I will still continue to take it easy because to me, "hypervascular" also sounds like it could bleed easily. We all know that I don't want to see any blood even to the point that he gave me the option of opting out of my pap until my 6 week post partum appointment. I went ahead and did it though and so far so good.

Even though my nerves were on the high end... I think they will always be now, it was a good appointment. I go back again in two weeks. I wonder if they will be seeing me every two weeks from here on out or are just going to wait until all of us are feeling better about everything. For now, everything is good!