James got his job!

The job James got is with Klein and Associates in Salt Lake City. They offered him a reasonable salary and pretty decent benefits along with the job he's always dreamed of. We are beyond relieved for this offer from them! He gets to work in a very small office (only 3 people - 2 full time, 1 part time) and they won't chastize him for keeping his desk too clean!

In order to keep the unemployment benefits, James was required to apply for at least two full-time jobs a week. After getting dead-end interviews for jobs in SLC, James decided to put the SLC idea on hold and only applied for jobs in our area for awhile. One week he couldn't find any jobs in the area to apply for so he broadened to SLC again, and applied for Klein and Associates. Two days ago they emailed asking him to come in for an interview, then called about an hour after the email to make sure he got it. He went in for the interview yesterday morning, met with the boss and the guy he would be replacing and they called him 3 hours later to come in for a second interview. Today he went in for his second interview, met the boss' son and they called him 4 hours later to offer him the job.

As almost everybody should know by now, I do not believe in divine intervention or intelligent design so I can't and don't attribute this success to any deity. Perhaps he got the job because of the dashing haircut I gave him the night before the first interview. Maybe it was because my favorite number is 13, and that happens to be the floor he will be working on (the power of the brain!). Could it be that he got the job because at the end of his interview he made it very clear that he had no idea what to expect as far as the type of job this was going to be but ended up really wanting to work there? I bet it was that James was more confident going into the interview because of his new suit, shirt and tie he got for Molly's blessing. Either way, James believes that prayers work, so I want to thank you for all your prayers towards us.

I want to make mention of the experiences we've had this last four months since James lost his job. We have been able to get plenty of government and church assistance to keep our house paid and food in our pantry. I have picked up a route delivering the SL Tribune and Deseret News to pay for our fuel and car payment. James got a part time job at UPS to pay for our other utilities. James has even started tutoring an 8th grader that needs math help and he's started selling his plasma. All in all, with the hard work and money that we've been able to bring in, we have been able to save up $1000 for Murphy (Google Dave Ramsey and Baby Step #1 to understand that), save up $1000 for James to apply for the CPA, get a month ahead on our bills, and we were even able to have a decent Christmas all things considered. -Note- my idea of a "decent" Christmas is changing... I think next year I am going to try to convince James and Annie to only receive one gift and they can take all the extra money and go buy gifts for people who can't give their families their idea of a "decent" Christmas. IDK... it's a work in progress.

Anyways, I love you all and I can't wait until the next time I see you again! ~Leisel

Annie's first tumbling demonstration (video) and Molly's first bath

Annie had a tumbling demonstration this week that we were able to attend. She is doing really well with her headstands, back bends, and running forward rolls. She needs lots of practice with cartwheels, but her teacher says that cartwheels are one thing that they will be working on a lot for the annual recital in June. I'm so impressed with Annie's determination to do well in this class. She's been working really hard.

Annie's headstand

Annie's back bend

"Merry Christmas!"

Here is a little video footage of the routine Annie did. She's really amazing, I'd have to say...

This week Molly is 3 weeks old and we finally got around to giving her a bath to celebrate losing her belly button stump. She did really well and didn't cry at all. (It's so awesome how babies can go 3 weeks without a bath and still smell WONDERFUL!)

Just got in the water... thinks it's time to eat.

Annie is doing a great job keeping Molly occupied while I washed her hair.
All clean! At this point during Annie's first bath, she was screaming her head off. It's so awesome to see the different personalities of my two little precious girls.

10 days old

Having a Molly in the house is so much fun! It has been the most wonderful experience so far next to when we first got an Annie!


Molly is a great sleeper, great eater, and she's growing faster than the doctors expected her to. Here are some stats for ya:

Molly's birth weight: 6lbs 12oz
Molly's weight when leaving hospital: 6lbs 2oz
Molly's weight at 3 days: 6lbs 11oz
Molly's weight at 10 days: 8lbs 5oz (wow! this is only true if my scale is correct...)

Leisel's weight at 39 weeks: 142lbs
Leisel's weight at 3 days postpartum: 132lbs
Leisel's weight at 10 days: 127lbs

I think I'm happy with the rate of weight loss I am having...

No I haven't been starving myself or watching what I eat... maybe it's just that I am an active person and I am *still* caught up on all my chores! (yay me)

I gotta tell you how great life has been for me... I don't really know what the turning point was from the lazy and angry Leisel to the motivated, happy Leisel. Perhaps I'll have to think about that one a little.

Molly is here!

I was expecting a bigger baby, but Molly came out to be only 6lbs 12oz. Maybe my body just makes teeny bodies. She also came out with a ton of hair when Annie came out almost completely bald. With what you hear about the correlation between bad pregnancy heartburn and newborn hair, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.

My midwife was so nice through the whole thing, and I thought it was funny that almost everything she said during the pushing stage had almost nothing to do with the baby, but with the pipe band that we both play in. It was great... Vivian is a wonderful gal.

Labor time was 7 hrs from start of pitocin drip. I had to have 2 epidurals because the first one started to wear off after about 2 hours. It was really no fun, but I am glad the 2nd one worked.

Here we are at the beginning of the day:

And here we are after all the hard work was finished:
The overall experience was a lot less stressful than it was with Annie. Probably because we knew more what to expect, and Molly didn't have to stay overnight in the NICU. Molly is even much better at nursing... I am eternally grateful for that!

Day 2: My doctor cleared me to go at the 24 hr mark, but Molly's doctor wanted her to eat a few more times before discharging her, so we had to stay for a total of 29 hours after she was born. I was so glad to get out of that hospital... the after-pains are no fun to deal with when the only bed you can lay in is the uncomfortable hospital bed. I ended up spending most of the 2nd day on one of the couches all curled up.

Annie was such a good girl through the whole experience. She was telling everyone that she saw at the hospital that she loves her baby sister and that she's "going to teach her to go potty, but not til she's older." Annie stayed at the hospital the whole time with us, from start to finish. I don't have any regrets for not having her stay with family while we were there. I'm happy Annie got to be a part of this big family event.Now that we are home, it has been pretty boring. Molly slept for 4 hour stretches last night, so I just had to get up with her once for a feeding. I think if she's happy with that, I can learn to live with it too! Molly is a happy content baby and she seems to be very healthy. Annie is being the best oldest child anyone could ask for. I am just so tickled with how great my little family is!

She'll be here Tuesday!

Things have been pretty easy-going this last week. All I have had to worry about is cleaning up the house. That isn't really a hard thing for me to do considering I love to clean, and I have been really good lately on keeping up with my daily chores. It's mostly been decluttering and getting rid of paper piles.

With all the spare time I've had, I went all out and designed and made a diaper bag I can wash! Since I'm doing cloth diapers for Molly, I figured the bag may need to be washed a few times as well. The time to do this project from start (getting designs on paper) to finish was about 3 days. That includes breaks for meals, daily chores, playing with Annie, and a few errand runs. I'm pretty proud of myself!
Yes I loved making the bag. Yes it was cheaper than a few washable bags you can find on the internet. No I will not make you one. :D

Annie is getting to be a very complimentary person. If I am cutting some paper, she comes up to me and says "Good job cutting that paper, Mommy!" If I am washing the counters, she says "Good job washing the counter, Mommy!" It's so fun to hear her say these things, and it makes me feel like I'm doing a good job.

9 days left

Weight: 145 lbs
Gained so far: 31 lbs

I have gained 3 lbs in the last week. I don't know what that means, but it is the most I've gained in one week this whole pregnancy. Currently I am on week 38. I've got (what I hope to be) my last doctor's appointment on Tuesday morning. Then she'll be seeing me next when I either go into labor on my own, or I check into the L&D the next Tuesday to be induced.

I don't have a belly picture for you this week... just take a look at the previous weeks' pictures. My midwife says that my belly hasn't grown since 34 weeks, though the baby is still growing.

I went with James on the paper route for the last time until I'm all healed up after Molly is born. One thing about Sunday papers is that it takes an hour just to prepare to fold the papers (inserting the comics section, tv section, and home section into the opinion section). So we are usually there standing at the folding table for up to 2 hours. I am officially banning myself from standing for that long again until after Molly is born... it was quite painful in my hips and back. I am very impressed with how James has the whole route memorized now, even down to which paper they get. We can stand in our kitchen and go through the route paper by paper and deliver the whole thing in our heads now! (I know it's a silly thing to be proud of, but what can I say? Our brains are amazing!)

I've been trying to help Annie understand that all the toys in her room wont be just hers anymore. There are a few things that will be "just Annie's" but everything else will be "Annie's and Molly's". We experimented with moving Annie's booster seat to the middle of the car so the baby's seat could be closer to the door. It didn't work too well because the thing the seat belt buckles into kept getting hidden under the booster so Annie couldn't buckle herself in anymore. I think we'll just have to have both seats next to both doors, and if we happen to have another person riding with us we'll have to move Annie's seat temporarily to the center.

I hit the 50% off flannel sale at Hancock Fabrics the other day and made a rather cute infant seat tent for Molly's seat. It snaps to the seat handle, and it's even reversible!
A note on visiting us after Molly is born: Unless anything changes (extended hospital stay, for example), we welcome any visitors on Thanksgiving afternoon and evening, on the Friday after, and on Saturday the 27th. If in doubt, just call or text me or James, or post on my facebook wall (it gets sent to my phone). I really want to see all the family, and if you're in town and want to stop by, please do! I'll keep my Facebook status and Twitter status (can be seen on this blog's right-side column) updated throughout the whole ordeal.

Date night, and 2 weeks left!

Annie got to spend the night at Ollie's house Saturday and that left me and James wondering what to fill our time with. I checked the local dollar theater (two dollars really) and saw that Inception was still playing there. We hadn't seen it yet, so we went to see the movie (totally awesome!!!) and then went to Wendy's for dinner. Total cost for the night (since we're definitely trying to keep our expenses as low as possible) $12.

Still no great job for James. He is enjoying the UPS thing a little though. And he has been a champ doing the paper route for me. I miss doing it myself, but it is so stinking hard for me to get in and out of the car as many times as you have to in one hour every day.

Annie is trying to be a typical 3-yr old. My mom lent me this big book called The Power of Positive Parenting (I asked for it... she didn't impose it on me because she thought I was doing a bad job as a mom) and James and I have been implementing some of the techniques I read about in that book. Her age-typical behavior comes, and then it seems to go right out the window! It's really fun to watch her grow and learn.

Molly still doesn't realize there's no room to move like she does. Sometimes it feels like I have a belly-monster. A friend in the church threw a baby *sprinkle* for Molly on Saturday. It was pretty fun, and the potluck treats everyone brought were delicious. Now that the party is over and done with, I know what I need to head to the store for to be totally ready for Molly's arrival.

Halloween tidbits (or... Pumpkin chunks?)

Happy Halloween!!!

Some fun stuff from this year:

• Annie's 2nd year as Ladybug... still the cutest kid dressed up!
• Annie hit the jackpot... filled her little bucket all the way up at two trunk-or-treats.
• While we were out doing trunk-or-treating, we left our bucket of candy out on the porch with a sign that said: "Happy Halloween! Please take 2!" When we returned home, the bucket was empty. It had at least 300 smarties and dum-dums in there... someone got greedy!
• When we arrived to the trunk-or-treat events, Annie said "This is gonna be great!" (I love my daughter!!!)

Okay... that's all for now.

4 weeks 2 days until my due date! (3.5 weeks until I am induced)

Wow... I didn't think it was that soon. I seriously thought it'd be much longer before I get this gymnast out of my middle. I am getting so uncomfortable, what with the heartburn, leg aches, head aches, back pain, and Molly not realizing that she's out of room to move around as much as she has been. We are pretty much ready for her. I still have to make sure we have the cloth diapers and other small things we need (waiting until after the baby sprinkle to get the last few items), and I still have to pack the hospital bag, but other than that, we are READY!

Ugh... look at how FAT I'm getting! 35 weeks along.

At my check-up on Tuesday, Vivian asked if I wanted to schedule Molly's birth. I really didn't know I could do that, unless it was a C section! Well, of course I said yes, because I want her to be born before Thanksgiving. So if she doesn't want to come out earlier, Molly will be born on the 23rd of November. This means that Molly will be here to enjoy all the Thanksgiving festivities, even if we do come home from the hospital that day.

James started up at the UPS as a part-time package handler on Monday. He works from 6p-10p on weekdays. So far, he says he likes working there. The money we bring in from there should help a lot toward becoming independent again.

Annie and Leisel painting pumpkins. What fun!

I have had a lot of energy this last couple of days. I got my kitchen and bathroom totally clean (let's hope I can keep them that way), and all the laundry is done. It's been getting a lot colder around here, so we covered our swamp cooler and now the furnace is running to keep the house warm. I love the furnace... it reminds me of the winter holidays. It makes my house seem so cozy!

Annie is doing wonderful in tumbling class. The teacher is always commenting to us how cute and small she is, and how obedient and limber she is. I think James and I made a good decision for which extra curricular activity to put Annie into.

One last thing... CONGRATULATIONS TO NANA FOR HER RETIREMENT!!! Lewis Corp will be losing the best person when you've left, but your grandkids can't wait to be able to have extra time with you!

Ultrasound news, and a pack of deer

So I went in for the ultrasound today to make sure the baby is growing enough. Turns out she is measuring a week ahead (35 weeks). So my belly is smaller than it's supposed to be, but the baby is bigger than she's supposed to be. Interesting huh?

On my paper route the other day, I came across a pack of about 10 deer. One was in the process of crossing the road, so I couldn't just drive by them. I had to stop and sit there for a good period of time and watch as the pack saw each and every deer safely across the road, one at a time. It was neat to watch, and a little annoying because I wanted them all to cross quickly and at the same time, like wild animals are supposed to do. Oh well.

33 week checkup

I went in for my checkup today, and the baby's heartbeat is strong and healthy-sounding. Vivian, my midwife, measured approximately how big my uterus is in centimeters, and the number of centimeters are supposed to match up with how many weeks you are along. Well two weeks ago I measured at 29 cm, and this week I measured at 30 cm. So Vivian wants me to go in for an ultrasound on Friday to measure Molly and make sure she's growing good. Vivian thinks that the growth has slowed because of stress in my life right now. I can understand that. Either way, with as much as Molly has been moving around, I know she's strong. *maybe vivian will give me doctors' orders to lay low and not overexert myself, so that i can just be lazy for the next 7 weeks :) haha i know some people would not like that, but i think i can handle something like that*

On another note, my dog needs to go. If you may be interested, please check out this link to the ad I placed on KSL: http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=12794592&cat=105&lpid=3&search=

7 weeks left...

and I want it to be done right NOW!!!

It's been fun so far, but all this kicking my ribs and bladder and spine is getting a teensy bit old. I have been weighing myself religiously every Sunday (haha you could say it took place of my church attendance) and this week I weighed in at 135 lbs. That's an overall gain of... 21 LBS!!! I don't remember how much I gained with Annie, but I don't think it was much more than this.
You know what would be weird? If Molly's birth was exactly like Annie's. Annie is the only baby I can compare her to, so I can't imagine any birth being different than that. I'm sure it'll be different though, and I'm sure Molly's personality will be totally opposite from Annie's, but if it turns out the exact same, I would be thrilled.

So guess what! Remember when James lost his job, we were all sure that he would not be eligible for unemployment insurance? Well, James appealed the states decision to decline unemployment insurance. He had a telephone hearing with them a few days ago and apparently the judge decided that the situation under which James left his job was wrong and he approved James claim for unemployment. I can't tell you how much this will help! Well, of course you can imagine how much a little money helps when you have zero and mouths to feed and bills to pay. Anyways...

I made scones for breakfast with some Rhoades Frozen Rolls. This is the first time I tried making scones, and the second time I tried frying anything in oil. I'm pretty proud of my efforts to expand my cooking abilities. Up until recently, all I knew how to cook was pasta stuff. Next thing I want to try is lasagna.

Pregnancy (un)comfort, political party, and a lesson learned

In the last few days, I have noticed that in the afternoon I have been pretty uncomfortable. My belly feels pretty huge, and it's hard to sit forward, or even straight up. I have to be sitting back or laying down to be comfortable in the midsection area. BUT when I lay down, then my abdomen and groin area starts hurting. I have come to find the only time I am actually comfortable and not hurting is in the very early morning when I am on my paper route (thank goodness!!!). One new thing happening as a cause of my route though, is that my feet feel like I've been balancing for hours at a time on the first knuckle of my big toes. Maybe it's just because I was wearing the wrong shoes to work (sandal type shoes). I have started wearing my walking shoes instead, so hopefully that takes care of that.

After waiting for what seemed like forever, we finally found out that me and Annie are approved for Medicaid. James' status on that is still pending, but it is rather nice that I don't have to worry about how we are going to pay for Molly's delivery. I really never wanted to use government assistance for anything in my life, but I gotta say it is wonderful that stuff like that is available to us when we need it. I am so grateful for all those people who actually end up paying taxes every year so those less fortunate can benefit from welfare programs and such.

Speaking of politics, I was listening to the radio a few nights ago and the show hosts were talking about how they had friends who considered themselves Independents, but the hosts could tell that they had conservative beliefs or liberal beliefs. I really have not thought much on what my political party of choice is, as most of my life I've followed my parents' choice to be Republican. I would really like to investigate this further though, so if anyone has any tips for determining which party you most agree with, please let me know.

On my paper route, there are several subscribers who desire their papers on their porch. Since it was pretty warm outside a couple nights ago, there were a lot of moths flying around several of the porch lights I neared. I wore a white shirt to work that morning, and for some reason all these moths were attracted to my white shirt. A couple of them hitch-hiked back to my car where they flew around and "bugged" me for half the route. Lesson learned: never wear white near bright lights on a warm night.

32 weeks!!!

I am so excited, it's almost unbearable. AND I have been so good at not trying to rush things or dwell on the fact that our number of kids will double in just two months (super tax refund???). I only just last week realized I had not thought of any cute designs for a baby announcement or gotten addresses together yet, and I'm still pondering whether we should have a baby *sprinkle* for Molly. Every baby deserves a party though, right?

Well, here is a picture of my belly at 32 weeks:

This one was taken at 29 weeks - almost looks like I was bigger then, huh? Maybe the baby was just sitting lower for the 32 week pic.

So last week I started delivering the Salt Lake City newspapers in the middle of the night. It takes me about 3 hrs every day, and hopefully this will make us enough money so we can actually pay our car payment and utility bills. It does put about 40 miles per day onto my car, and I do have to drive to Kaysville for my route, but it is actually one of the funner jobs I had as a teenager and I am happy to be doing it again. The newspaper delivery carriers here are kind of like a special club... everyone is happy to see each other at 2:30 in the morning, and we look forward to seeing everyone again the next morning.

When I get really close to my due date, James will take over the paper route for me so I can rest and hopefully have a stress-free delivery, and he'll give me about 2 weeks off from delivering after Molly is born.

Job Update: No job for James yet. As I said, I am delivering papers now so that will be something, and on election day I signed up to be "on call" as a poll worker so I get at least $100 for that day alone. James has been applying like crazy for any job he can find, and so far he has had next to nothing as far as interviews go. The holiday season is upon us though, so I am sure there will be several places hiring seasonal positions for Christmas. Overall, we are optimistic about our situation.

Update on how things are going (just in case you were wondering)

James is still on the hunt for a new job. I'm getting the beginnings of uneasy feelings towards how we are going to get by after August. He had an interview last night for a position in Midvale (which is rather far away, but if it was our only choice, we'd take it) but he wont find out the decision on that for another 2 weeks.

I'm trying harder to save money (starting to make our own bread, detergent, cleaner etc) and to make some extra money by giving bagpipe lessons. I need to buckle down and start getting some cute designs made up for Christmas cards for www.kgleisel.com... BTW anyone who reads this should order cards from me for Christmas! It's basically the same price as anywhere else you can get photo cards from. I can even do out-of-state orders! Shipping is cheap!

Annie is so excited for everything. You name it, she's excited for it! She asks me every day if it's her birthday yet, if it's time to go to the hospital to get the baby out yet, and if it's snack time yet. She's gotten into wanting to wear the same colors as mommy too... if I'm wearing jeans and a red shirt, she will request to wear jeans and a red shirt as well. It works out pretty well, except for when I wear a brown shirt... she doesn't have any brown shirts that fit her right now or are right for this season.

Annie wearing mommy's maternity pants.
We've been teaching Annie to "ask nice" for things she wants. She remembers most of the time to say "Please can I" before her requests. Chocolate milk mix has gotten to be a luxury in our house since we drink so much more milk when we have nesquik around, so we hardly ever hear "please can I have chocolate milk" anymore. But there are plenty of "please can I play iPod" and "please can I have a snack". It's cute.

Berkley (dog) and Maestro (cat) get along some of the time. Berkley loves to "mouth" Maestro... she puts her open mouth over Maestro's back while he's walking past. He hates that. If everyone in the room is calm though, they can both be in the same room without Berkley chasing Maestro back downstairs.

Well, I suppose that's it for now. I'm glad you stopped by to see how things are going. Next time bring some cookies!

It's going to be another girl!

We went in for the first ultrasound for this baby, and came out with relief that we don't have to buy any more baby clothes! Since Annie and Molly were both due in the same season (fall), the clothes we have from Annie will fit Molly just fine.

Molly is growing right on schedule for her due date (Nov 28th). Her heart rate is 142. Overall she's a very healthy baby, in spite of my atrocious prenatal pill taking :P

Here's a short clip of some ultrasound printouts.

I got scared yesterday...

Here's the story. I promise, I really am trying to be a good mom!

Yesterday afternoon we were waiting for James to come home from work (he takes the car on Thursdays so I can get to bagpipe practice on time) and I decided to spend some time in the backyard with Annie and Berkley. I was watering our veggies and threading the bean plants through the trellis netting I had just put up, when I heard Annie and the dog in the driveway where I couldn't see them. I got up to go make sure they were staying on our property and when I got up to the driveway they were nowhere to be seen. I know that Annie can't get operate the screen door outside knob yet, so it was unlikely that she and the dog went inside. I checked there anyways. Finding nothing inside, my heart started pounding and I ran outside and to the sidewalk. I couldn't hear any dogs barking, so I figured Annie and Berkley didn't go down the street to the west. The only other way they could have gone is to the east and up or down Main St. Since this was rush hour time, Main St was very busy, and I wasn't hearing any car horns or squealing tires, so I assumed that someone had seen Annie and the dog somewhere and either kidnapped them, or was just holding them and called the cops. In either situation, I knew I had to call 911.

I had already called James and he was more than 10 minutes away from arriving home. He said he'd help drive around to look for Annie when he got home. Well, I called 911 and gave them my address, phone number I called from, and my emergency. I told them I lost my kid and dog. I gave them a description of Annie, and the dispatcher said that they just received a call from someone who had found a little girl, and there was a puppy with her. It was instant relief for me, though I wasn't sure if the little girl was Annie, because I wouldn't exactly say Berkley is a "puppy" size. Anyways, the dispatcher asked me what my kid's name was, she put me on hold to talk to the people that called in, and then switched back to me. She said that they couldn't tell what she was saying when she said her name, but she gave me the location where Annie was so I could go get her.

Turns out the car dealership just across my little street had seen Annie and the dog running up Main street and went out and brought them in. When I got there, Annie had an otter pop, and Berkley was just sitting around being a good dog. The dealership people probably couldn't tell what Annie was saying when she gave them her name because she was too busy eating her otter pop (her most favorite summer treat). The 911 dispatcher told me that I needed to stick around and wait for the police officer to show up so he could ask me some questions and make sure Annie was OK, so I stayed there at the dealership for a couple more minutes. While I was waiting, I was giving Berkley some commands, such as "Come" and "Sit" and she was doing all of them and everyone around was very impressed with the obedience level of our seemingly rambunctious and unruly puppy. That made me feel pretty good about myself, considering we've only had Berkley for a couple weeks, and I've been consistently training her on those obedience commands.

Well, the cop showed up, asked me and Annie and the dog to step aside and asked me for my name, address, phone number, and date of birth for me and Annie. He asked me how Annie and the dog got out and I explained it just how it happened. He asked if our yard was fenced, and I said it was, I just had the gate open because I was keeping either an eye or an ear on the "kids" the whole time. He didn't seem to have anymore questions, so he got into his car and I called Berkley to come so we could walk home, which she obeyed, and of course even the cop was impressed with her obedience level.

In the two weeks Berkley has been here, she's never given us any reason to think she'd run away from us. We started last week to let her outside to do her "doodie" without a leash because she would just come straight back to the door to be let back inside. I think the only reason she and Annie had run so far away from home was that Berkley had one of her "peoples" with her and she figured they were just going on a walk. I am feeling rather lucky to have that dealership there where they are constantly on the lookout for people in their car lot. They were able to spot Annie and the dog pretty quickly. I'm going to send them a cute Thank You card. Do you think I should include a pic of Annie and Berkley?

Pictures of Berkley

Berkley going for her toy

Not Berkley
Berkley being rather nice and sitting next to Anniecakes

New pet (no pics yet)

We just acquired a 5 month old chocolate lab/german shorthair pointer mutt. Her name is Berkley. She's been decently trained by her previous owners but she still needs work, especially in the housebreaking area. I've only had half a day with her, and already she's proving to be very easy to train and handle. I think we got very lucky and in a few months, she'll be as good as any show dog out there (as far as obedience goes). She only barks when she's left alone in the kitchen while we are eating, and for a few minutes after we turn off the house lights to go to bed. She's also very very good with Maestro (the cat). Maestro was hissing all evening and this morning at Berkley, and just now (after lunch today) they are able to sit in the same room without trouble. Berkley doesn't run up and try to play with Maestro, she just comes to about 3 feet from him, lays down, and just sniffs. I think Maestro (and the rest of us) are very glad for this behavior from Berkley.

James took Berkley for a walk yesterday while I was at pipe practice and he said that he gained a lot of respect for the dog on that walk. He says they came across several other dogs, half of which barked and tried to run at Berkley, and she didn't get all excited or start barking back at them. She's going to be a wonderful dog as long as she lives I think. I am confident that I'll have her trained to be a nice quiet house dog before the baby comes in Nov. I've got 5 months to do it.

The only thing I'll have a hard time with is the need to walk her every day. James can do it most days, but when he can't I'll have to just to make sure she's good and worn out. I grew up with smaller dogs that didn't seem to need much one-on-one exercise such as walking, so this will be something new to me.

One thing is for sure, Annie LOVES "barkley". I have it (already!) so that Berkley doesn't jump on Annie, just playfully licks her (which Annie just loves) and they will be great friends as they both grow up. Berkley is pretty lucky to be in a home where all the kids will be hometaught, so that means more play time! And almost no alone time.

Alright, I'd better go take pictures now. I post from my laptop, but the loaner camera we are using is only compatible with the desktop, so it may be a couple days before pictures actually make it onto the laptop so I can post them.

An announcement, and some Easter fun

I'm pregnant! We found out on March 31st. The baby is due November 28th. Just thought you'd like to know.

We took a trip to Nana's house in Pocatello for Easter. It was super fun, and Annie got to eat tons of candy. Here are some pictures of our adventures:

Coloring eggs at Nana's. What a chaotic mess! Kudos to Nana for somehow handling it all!
Still coloring eggs. Annie had red fingers the rest of the weekend.
On our way to Shelley ID for the easter egg hunt. Annie looks so cool in sunglasses! Haha
Annie did pretty good with finding eggs, considering they were just laying out in the snow. It was very cold and windy there that morning, so there weren't a lot of kids to compete with.

At Aunt Annette's house after the hunt divvying out our loot. I got all the chocolate eggs and Annie got all the jelly beans and laffy taffys.
Annie got a shot at the pinata... she did pretty good, but didn't break it open.
On Easter morning. Annie got lots of candy, a few coloring books and some sidewalk chalk. We left her original basket at home by accident, which had some candy, bubbles, and new white sandals in it for her.
Annie the Easter Bunny. She's such a cutie with her fake smile. I need to work on getting her to smile without telling her to "show her teeth".

Square-foot Garden time!

We finally got our money all in one place and went and spent all morning spending money on lumber, compost, and garden supplies. Then when Annie went down for her nap, we went out to build the boxes (with the stupidest battery-powered power drill) and then when Annie got up we went outside to mix up Mel's mix and finish the boxes. i am way happy we got this done.. it was incredibly fun.

James and Annie starting the job.

The boxes built and waiting to be filled.James and Annie with the peat moss.
James and Annie with the compost.
Vermiculite added, now it's time to mix.
Beautiful blend of peat moss, compost, and vermiculite! Yum :P
Annie and James watering the filled boxes.
I love when Annie wants to help... this is how I know she's motivated to learn.
Annie getting into some nails... still a cutie though!
James laying out the squares... Annie was in charge of holding the nails.
The finished project. Hopefully in a month or so, we have lots of green stuff growing in them.