Sisterhood Award

A special thanks to Allanna for the nomination... It was a pleasant surprise since I'm so new to blogger!

The rules for accepting the award are as follows:


Put the logo on your blog or post. Nominate at least 10 blogs with great attitude and/or gratitude. Be sure to link to your nominees in your post. Let your nominees know they have received the award by leaving them a comment on their blog. Be sure to link this post to the person who nominated you for the award.

Okay, here's the thing... since I'm so new to blogger I don't even have 10 blogs that I subscribe to (yet). So I'm going to bend the rules here and just say if you're reading this, I give you this award to pass on to others! Share the love!

MIA

I've been wanting to blog regularly like I would a real journal, but I haven't been feeling well and just didn't feel up to sitting at the computer. With this pregnancy I've had chronic pain with a pinched nerve in my neck (from an ancient injury) that causes severe headaches, and last week I had to get a morphine shot for it. I'm ready for this baby to come just to stop being in pain! Even I know that 5 bottles of Tylenol within 7 months of pregnancy isn't a good idea.

I have a lot of posts to do with things that have been going on, and I'll try to get those up tonight and tomorrow!

Our new library

The new library is open after a month of being closed for the big move, and today we went to check it out.

It's nice to be back on our regular Friday-is-library-day routine! I've been taking Isaac to the library (Salem at that time) since he was a baby and I was doing childcare for my niece. Every Friday we'd walk down to the small library location near our apartment and I'd let the kids play and pick out some books, and that's how it all started. I'm proud of myself for starting Isaac on books early... I loved books growing up! And I know it's because of our own huge library collection of kids books at home, and our weekly library trips for almost the last 6 years, that has led to Isaac's love of books. I hope Brooke develops a love for books that Isaac and I have (Dan's the black sheep of the family... he doesn't read much).

The new library is nice when you overlook that new building smell. I'm glad they passed out maps so we could find our way around. We even used their new bathrooms (Isaac used the potty in a public place!!!! WOW!!!!) and of course had to ride the elevators. I was especially grateful for their large number of places to park my preggo butt while Dan and Isaac searched and searched for Lego books. Isaac loved all the huge windows ("I can see our van!") and loved looking at people below us from the second floor. We used their new self-checkout which was super fast, and even learned how to open the DVD cases ourselves... sure saves time from standing in line! Then it was time to head home with our treasures and I had the pleasure and relief of icing my Sciatica.

It was a nice way to spend a Friday afternoon, and I'm hoping the library gets loads and loads of new books to fill all that new empty space!

Hiccups!

Yesterday morning I felt Brooke hiccup for the first time! I'm sure she's had them before and I didn't feel them, but yesterday was the first time I've felt them. At first I was thinking, "What in the world...?!" before I realized and remembered what it was :)

That got me thinking: Guys are pretty lucky because they get to do the cool stuff like peeing standing up. But with this pregnancy I've felt sorry for Dan and other guys because a man will never, ever know what it feels like to feel a baby tumble and stretch and even hiccup inside you. Pregnancy isn't pretty, but feeling that baby move is the most awesome thing in the world! Dan likes to hear how much Brooke moves during the day, and at night he'll put his hand on my belly and feel her kick, and that thrills him. But he'll never know what it really feels like and that makes me sad for him.

In other news, Isaac attended the birthday party of a friend from church and had a great time. So I hear. I stayed home for some R&R and I had Dan go with to keep an eye on him. It was a Pirates and Pixies theme, and there were supposed to be about 20 kids there! We got his little friend a Princess coloring book and a box of new crayons, and I hear that she opened Isaac's present very first. Isaac did a great job tracing over the letters for her birthday card too.

Here's our Isaac on the right, enjoying his cake, and sitting next to him is his other friend from church, also named Isaac.



Isaac brought home a goody bag from the party, and one of the items in there was a pirate earring! ARRRRRGH! It didn't fit very well on mommy or daddy's ear, and Isaac didn't want to wear it, but he found that it was a perfect fit for Teddy Bear!

If you can't tell, this bear is OLD. Mom made him for me when I was little, like Isaac's age or younger? She made one for each of us kids and stitched up a note inside of it. At some point years ago Isaac got attached to him, so I opened the bear up, found and removed the note, and stitched him back up. He's very well loved!

Blackout!

I'm a little tired today. Okay, alot tired.

Last night I made it to bed by 10pm. Was up at about 12am for the bathroom, then up again at about 3:30am for the bathroom. At about 4:30am Isaac wakes me up by coming into our room crying because the lights were out.

I had him crawl into bed next to me and I got Dan up to check the breaker switches. That didn't work. In fact, the whole neighborhood was pitch black. He got out the box of candles and flashlights and brought some upstairs, and that helped Isaac feel a little better. Then Dan called the power company, and after that there wasn't anything else left to do except go back to bed and try to sleep.

We put Isaac in the middle with one of the flashlights on sitting on top of our headboard as a makeshift nightlight, and Isaac had ahold of the other one. Dan fell asleep right away (he snores), so I was left to comfort Isaac. He'd calm down for a little while, then start crying again. And I accidently made it worse when I made the comment that he needed to sleep because the cartoons and movies won't work until the power comes back on. That set him off! Autistic people/kids tend to be attached/obssessed about a certain thing or topic, and for Isaac it's movies.

About 5:55am (Isaac can get up for the day at 6am if he wants to, and he usually does) all the power in the house comes back on. Isaac wanted to go back to his room, so I took him back and tuck him in and told him to get some more sleep. I looked outside and it had SNOWED! Not alot, but a good dusting. I crawled back into bed, and then at 6am Isaac came in to get us up for the day. I woke Dan up and told him since he got the most sleep out of the 3 of us, he had the priviledge of getting up with Isaac. I was able to sleep for about another hour, which was heaven.

At about 8am I had Dan run out and snap a picture of the snow before it all melted away. There was more on the ground at 6am, but it was still neat to see.

And ya, that's our "new" van, but that's a whole other blog tale coming later...

I feel pregnant

Pictures are from my 19 week ultrasound...


Today was my 25 week appointment, and everything looks good! Since my visit last month, I've gained just less than 3 pounds, which brings my total weight gain with this pregnancy to just less than 3 pounds. Brooke is active as ever, and I notice she has fewer and shorter resting periods than she used to. She knows how to hit my bladder and kick my ribs all at the same time, what a talented girl!

The doctor told us we'd schedule the ultrasound next month, which was fine. We did ask her what days she does c-sections on so that we could try to plan ahead as much as possible (Dan's PTO and all that), so she looked at the calendar and said she'd try to reserve June 2nd for the c-section. A few hours after the appointment I got a phone call from the office, and they have already scheduled the c-section! WOW! It will be June 2nd at 7:30am. I can't believe how fast it's going by.

Even though it's going fast, I look forward to having my body to myself again. I'm uncomfortable. If I try to stand for long periods of time, I get a pinched nerve in my leg and my back kills me. It hurts to sit on the floor and play games with Isaac. I'm one of the typical lucky women who also gets those tendon pulls that supports the uterus, and it doesn't hurt with the first pregnancy but hurts like the dickins for the 2nd and on. I'm not swollen which I'm grateful for. And at this time with Isaac, I was already seeing the doctor on a weekly basis and in roughly another month is when I was put on bedrest when I was pregnant with him. Mostly I'm TIRED. I try to get to bed early, but still waking up multiple times during the night to try to turn and get comfortable, a couple of those times actually getting up to pee, then crawling back into bed and trying to get to sleep while listening to my husband snore and shoving at him to roll over on his side, and trying to ignore my growling stomache which thinks it's time to get up and have breakfast at 3am... It's all preparation for after Brooke arrives.

My next appointment is in 3 weeks instead of 4, and after that it will be every 2 weeks until the very end, when it will be every week. Seven months down, 3 more to go! Ya, you read that, 10 months = 40 weeks. Count it. The doctor told Dan they go be weeks which equals 10 months, and like I told him, any woman who's been pregnant KNOWS it's 10 months! Ten whole months of crabbiness, cramps and sore boobs. But it's worth it in the end.

The next 30 years

Yesterday Daniel celebrated his 30th birthday, and to make the day extra special he had the day off from work! We spent the day doing boring grown-up errands like getting the van into the shop and getting groceries, but it was so nice to be able to do those boring grown-up things together. A normal day is usually him coming home about 8:30pm and I've got my nose in a book and he gets on the computer, then it's bedtime. It was nice to be able to spend the day together just talking and being with each other. Who knew you could have bonding time while dividing up raw hamburger meat for the freezer?

Due to finances (the VAN!) we couldn't afford to go out anywhere for his birthday, so he decided he wanted pizza and jello for dessert. I can handle that! Isaac helped me pick out the jello (lime) which made me a bit nervous when I was mixing it up and it smelled like Pinesol. Dan wanted fruit in it so I made it all fancy just for him. While Isaac was at school we picked up the pizza and stuck it in the fridge to bake later. We had yummy pizza for dinner, and even Isaac ate it with the toppings on it!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, the only meat that child has ever had has either come from a corndog or from the occasional Happy meal! And the jello turned out super yummy, especially with Cool Whip on top. And it didn't even taste like Pinesol.

Our Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was really special this year. First of all, we don't have any babysitters. With Isaac's special needs, I don't trust anyone who's not familiar with Isaac and his needs, and he doesn't trust anyone he doesn't know. That leaves family (my mom) to be our sitter, and she lives an hour away. That also means that if Dan and I are lucky, we get to go out on a date once a year.

This year, Valentine's Day happened to fall on a Saturday that Daniel had off! I explained to my mom that because of work and school obligations, we haven't been able to do anything special for V-day since 7 years ago when Dan proposed and I'd made a homemade dinner. I asked her and her husband if they'd watch Isaac for us for a couple of hours, and they agreed! It's been a very long time since I've looked forward to a day as much as I looked forward to V-day this year! I became weepy everytime I thought about how I was actually going to be able to spend V-day with my husband. My mom took this picture of us before we took off for the evening. I like how it shows baby Brooke, but it would have been nice if the camera had taken off XXX number of pounds from me and if Dan hadn't posed with robot hands :)

We dropped Isaac off at about 4:30 and made it to the Olive Garden by about 5pm. Only to be told there was a 2-hour wait (YIKES! We needed to pick Isaac up by 7!) So we got back in the car and began driving around, trying to figure out where we could spend a nice dinner. There's a Marie Calendar's not far from the Olive Garden, and since neither of us had been there before, we headed there. They were busy, but just normal busy for a restaurant on a Saturday evening. I had a tri-tip steak and Dan had a pot roast. YUM! They had a sale on pies, and since the cost of ordering 2 pie slices was the same as ordering a whole pie to go, we ordered a whole cherry pie to go. We had a really nice time, and even made it back to my mom's place before they'd had a chance to finish their dinner. Isaac didn't like the idea of being left behind, I guess he thought Mom and Dad were going to leave him at Grandma's house for good! When Dan and I tried to remember the last time we'd been on a date, neither of us could remember, so it's no wonder Isaac was worried.

Since V-day fell on a Saturday, Isaac's class had a Valentine party on Friday. Isaac picked out his own Speed Racer valentines, and I even helped him sign his name to each one. He came home with a bit of candy, but like me, he's not a fan of candy unless it's chocolate :) The small box of chocolates he received, he finished it off today after lunch. And Mom and Dad were so good, neither of us did a taste test!

Isaac's school in lockdown

Here's a link to what happened:
http://www.democratherald.com/articles/2009/02/11/news/top_story/5aaa00_manshot.txt

Yesterday was a normal day feeding Isaac lunch and getting him ready for school, and I was thrilled that we were getting out the door right at 12:20 so we would have plenty of time to get Isaac to class and not be rushed (the side of the building where we have to park is locked so we have to walk around the school to the only entrance that's open and then go upstairs, walk thru the school and downstairs to get to his class). Since it was rainy out I decided to drive, but with the school being 2 blocks away when the weather is nice we walk.

So I drive Isaac to school and I park on the street and had just gotten Isaac out of the car when his teacher, Elizabeth, comes running out of the building and approaches me. She tells me that the school is in lockdown and so it's up to me if I want to leave Isaac at school or take him back home. I asked what happened, and what she'd heard is that someone had escaped from the courthouse which was about another 2 blocks away. She explained that all the kids were inside and safe and they had the blinds drawn shut, which I thought was great because Isaac's class is in the basement level and being outside you can see directly into the classrooms. I decide to take Isaac with me, and Elizabeth stayed to make sure we got loaded safe and I wished her luck and we drove off. I had a few errands to run, so I had to take Isaac with me. We drove out from the school to get the the bank, and just as we went thru the major intersection there a bunch of police cars and fire trucks blocked it off. I did my bank business quickly and had Isaac say a prayer that everyone would be safe. I was going to head to Rite-Aid next, but from where I was at all the on-ramps to the highway were blocked by police by then, so I made a huge go-around and went to the pharmacy first. As we're driving towards a further entrance to the highway, I notice police and firetrucks completely surrounding our neighborhood, and I still thought it was something to do with someone from the courthouse, so I'm thinking this isn't Michael Phelps who hit the bong too many times, this is someone who's probably dangerous. And it obviously had just happened with all these police suddenly showing up. From the route I had to take they had about a mile radius blocked with all sorts of police and emergency vehicles. I was able to get to Rite-Aid which is a few miles away, and we spent extra time inside there and I let Isaac browse their toy aisles. I have to go to the bathroom ALOT so I know we have to head home, and as we're driving home I notice that the police cars are all gone and kids are also out on the playground. So I figure everything is okay again. I had Isaac say another prayer of thanks, and we went home and stayed inside with our doors locked the rest of the day.

Today when I took Isaac to school, they gave me a note that had been sent home with the kids yesterday. I did ask if lockdowns are something that happens often, and the one teacher aid who's been there 5 years said that's only the 2nd time it's happened at our school. It was a really scary thing, seeing the school in lockdown and all the police everywhere. We never had lockdowns growing up, so this was a new thing for me too. I'm glad I didn't know exactly what was going on until I saw the website today, because I was already scared and weepy (aka pregnant), and I think if I'd known it would have terrified me that I would've left town the entire rest of the day. I won't live my life being afraid to go to my own home.

The note from the school says:

Dear Parents, Central School was in secure lock down due to some police activity near the building today. Students were in lock-down from 12:15-1:00 and then were given permission by the Albany Police Department to resume our normal school activities. During this time lunch was interrupted, although, after the lock-down was concluded we allowed those students whom may have missed lunch to eat.

You must know our students and staff did an amazing job implementing the lock down and making Central School safe.

I have been told a suspect was apprehended not too far from Central School and the situation was indeed a potentially dangerous one.

Thanks to the Albany Police Department for their diligent response to this event and assisting to keep our students safe.

Sincerely,
John Hunter, Principal

Scary, huh? I'm grateful that the timing was just right that Isaac and I were right on time for school because if we'd been running late then we wouldn've been in the middle of the police surrounding the neighborhood instead of seeing it happen in my rear-view mirror. I'm grateful we were driving instead of walking thru all that. I pray that it doesn't happen again at any school Isaac attends, because I would have been worried sick if he'd been in the school when that happened and I wouldn't have been able to keep him safe. The rest of yesterday afternoon we played games and watched movies, and so today he asked me if today was another "special" day (meaning movie day) and he was disappointed when I told him no, everything was back to normal :)

My heart is full

Today our March Ensign arrived, and right in the middle is a 3-page article about the Church's new disabilities web site. We are fortunate to currently live in an incredible ward where the people are so friendly and flexible and willing to do whatever they can to help Isaac fit in and belong. But in some wards I have felt like that understanding wasn't really there, and for those people I'm grateful for this article about the new website. The website is www.disabilities.lds.org and right near the top is a list of different disabilities that people can suffer from, with Autism being at the top of the list.

Reading the article had me in tears (maybe partly that's horomones) because I'm just so grateful that rather than just touching on disabilities here and there, the church has taken an active role in promoting acceptance and love for those who are living with a disability. It also reminded me how incredibly blessed we are in this ward with Isaac's Primary leaders. They don't pressure him to participate at the front of the room if he doesn't want to. They ignore the head-spinning and other self-stimulating things Isaac does. And even though they encourage kids to raise their hands to be called on, they don't come down on Isaac when he calls out "Pick me!" because he really wants to participate too. They include him just like any of the other Primary children. And I am so grateful.