Sleep

Late pregnancy is an awful time to try to get any sleep. I always love how people will say "get sleep now, while you can". Speak for yourself. YOU try sleeping with that big belly and heartburn and the back pain and the need to go to the bathroom every 2-3 hours. It's an awesome night for me when I only get up once (this does not mean I only wake once....I still wake several times). It rarely happens. And, while Tylenol PM is approved to take when needed, I'm afraid I'll sleep too soundly!

I do have to say, though, that thankfully Lacey has been sleeping so well for weeks now. It's been a huge blessing. We'd planned to push her to her big bed before Leah was born, but with a toddler that finally sleeps consistantly through the night, we aren't messing with it! Not a chance! Not when in a few weeks (less than 5 until my due date by the way), we'll have a newborn waking us up throughout the night. I don't need a toddler climbing out of bed or adapting to a new environment.

What's funny is that I'm normally wound very tight and I stress over things like this. But, amazingly, I've been pretty laid back about it. (Potty training, too, by the way. I thought I'd be so insane if she wasn't showing more interest in it. Maybe I'm learning to let go of small things or something.)

She is taking a nap in her bed today - 2nd time she's done it. The other time she napped there, it was much shorter than normal (90 minutes instead of 2-3 hours). But, she's easing into it at her own pace. I think eventually, it will just happen if we let it go that way.

TV

I have to say that I'm glad the season finales are all done. I have TOO MANY shows that I love and they take up so much time. By far, the Lost finale was the very best. Now we have 8 months to wait for the next season. Ugh. I've been reading posts on lostcasts.com and checking out everyone's theories.

The good news is that I now have more time to read and do projects around the house!

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, our weekend has turned out different than we had originally planned. Agnes & Trampas were supposed to come for a visit. But, Trampas ended up having to work. He's an FBI agent and these things come up sometimes. I was looking forward to seeing them, but told Butch we would just have to look on the bright side and take advantage of the sudden "free" time.



So, what have we done?



Friday night I was going to head to a scrapbooking thing, but didn't have the motivation to get my butt in gear, so we just stayed in. Saturday morning, we headed to Shlagel Farms since we didn't make it there Mother's Day weekend. We picked lots and lots of strawberries. Our camera batteries had died, but thankfully we had our cell phones.

Lacey had fun for a short while and then didn't want to stick with us anymore. Butch kept picking and I walked around with her.

Then we headed to the mall to look at patio furniture and bought something at Sears. They were out of stock, so we won't have it until next weekend. Lacey found the toy section while we were there & ended up getting her first Barbie, which she adores.

I thought for sure she'd crash for a long nap once we were home, but HA! She kept going. I could have forced it, but she was being good, so I let her stay up. She ended up crashing around 4:30 and I let her sleep until 6:00......which screwed up her bedtime, so she was up late. Oh well.

Sunday, I made a Pampered Chef breakfast I'd wanted to try - Brunch Pizza (or something like that). The crust is hashbrowns and the topping is eggs (of course), peppers, onions, bacon, etc. Pretty good. We all went to Wawa around lunch so I could get my fix of a fountain diet coke (yes, I have my quirks). No matter what anyone says, there is a big difference in taste of a soda in a can or bottle versus one from the fountain. Lacey didn't even eat lunch...she fell sleep right after we came home and slept for over 3 hours!

Then, we headed to Dad's house for a cookout with everyone. It was still early when we got there, so Butch got in the pool. He was the only adult that was brave enough to get in the cold (76*) water. The rest of us were content to put in our feet. Lacey soon decided the pool wasn't so scary & got in with her daddy. She LOVED it and put up quite the fuss when it was time to get out.

Dinner was delish. Burgers, mac salad, potato salad & strawberry spinach salad. Dee & Buck also brought a Carvel Ice Cream cake to celebrate Mom's birthday. She would have been 65 on Saturday. (Appropriate, by the way, that we went strawberry pickin' on her birthday. She loved to do that before she had her own patch.)

Rick & Kristina (really Jessica) were dog sitting for a cousin and had a little chihuahua named Tink at Dad's house. I have *never* seen a nice chihuahua like that. Lacey & Tink had a ball running in the back yard chasing each other. It was awesome. We have video, but I don't know if there is a way to post video here.

After getting home late, another late bath for Lacey and another late bedtime. Oh well. Summer is here.

Today we are just hanging out. She woke up at 6:15 -- despite the late bedtime -- and is already napping (fell asleep on the floor at 9:45). Butch is doing some work. I'm updating you. Not sure what else we will do.

Butch has a cold. I've threatened him about not getting Lacey or me sick. Even with being sick, he's gotten a lot done around the house/yard. Cut out some more brush out back, trimmed the hedges in the front, etc.

Oh - the a/c upstairs isn't working. I posted about that a while ago - that it wasn't working properly last year and we knew it would need fixed. Well, we turned it on for the first time on Friday night and it wasn't really doing a thing. It's about 85* in our rooms when we go to bed. Blah. So, I'll be calling around tomorrow to get someone out to fix it. We've just turned all of it off (even downstairs). Even though it's supposed to be pretty warm today (upper 80's again), there is a nice breeze and I love to hear the birds.

St. Michael's

Butch & I went to St. Michael's last weekend. It was really nice to get away for a couple of days. We waited until traffic died down on Friday to go, so we didn't get there until about 9:00. But, we had all day Saturday to play. We had a nice breakfast at our inn before heading out to explore. The morning was filled with a lot of walking....about 3 hours worth. We just walked around the town and checked out all of the shops. By lunch, my back/butt was killing me. We had a good lunch at Key Lime Cafe, then headed back to our room to relax before getting massages at 3:00. Ahhhhh. We had dinner at Town Dock and enjoyed the view.

Neither of us slept very well while we were there....I think it was the bed. So, we ended up waking up before 7:00 on Sunday morning even though we could have slept in. Since we were up, and nothing in town was open, we headed out.

That afternoon, we went to DC for the Closing Ceremonies of the Avon Breast Cancer Walk. Kristin & her friend Jill walked it --- they made it 32 of the 39 miles (in 2 days).

Lacey stayed at Dee & Buck's house while we were out of town and did really well. Apparently, when she saw our van leaving Dee's, she said "uh-oh....what happened?". We laughed at that most of the weekend. Crazy girl. And, when we returned, she was running in circles, screaming "mommy, mommy, mommy". Dee picked her up b/c she was afraid Lacey would fall & get hurt.

Mother's Day and general update

Happy Mother's Day to all of you momma's! When I picked Lacey up at daycare on Friday, she had a nice little gift bag for me. They "made" bookmarks and flower pots (with violets). The bookmarks have a flower on them and the petals and leaves are from Lacey's finger prints. Very cute. The flower pot has an insert that she colored on. Of course, when she saw the flower pot, she said "Mine!" and I told her we would share. Butch got me lots of Burt's Bees things and some chocolate (he knows me well).

It's been a pretty nice day. Lacey has been a complete joy all weekend. Friday night she slept for 12 hours. Bliss. Last night was only about 9.5 hours, but she woke up happy and has been really good playing on her own. She is still in her crib, and I think we're going to leave her there for a while. I wanted to transition her to a bed before Leah's arrival, but when she is sleeping so good, I don't want to mess with a good thing!!! Most advice suggests keeping them in a crib until they are closer to 3 years old, anyway.

utch has been doing a lot of house cleaning today.....God love him. With my low back issues, vacuuming kills me, so he's taken over.

We are thinking about going to Shlagel Farms to pick strawberries later if she'll go down for a nap early enough. Little stinker is still running around with tons of energy right now.

I'm 33 weeks today. It's really hard to believe I only have about 7 weeks to go. Crazy. All is still going well with the pregnancy (other than my back complaints). Dr. Aron assures me that I'm measuring on target....even though I feel HUGE. My weight is about the same as it was with Lacey at this same time.

We're hoping to clean the carpet in the nursery yet today so we can start organizing in there over the next few weeks. We shouldn't need to get much, but I hate feeling disorganized.

Oh - about the yard projects, they are temporarily on hold because I remembered 2 more important things we have to get done. The roof above the garage needs repaired. And, the a/c unit for the upstairs had a leak last year and needs repaired. So, for now the money is going there. I'm still hopeful that we can at least level off a very small area to put in a swingset this year. It shouldn't be that difficult since it's not a big area and I doubt a "professional" would do it since it's such a tiny job.

I hear Butch asking Lacey if she's tired, so I'm off to check on her.

House and Yard Projects

Well, now that Spring is here, we've come back to talking about all of the projects we'd like to do around here.

For those of you that don't know, we got an estimate on having the basement finished (and turned into a walkout) about a year ago. But, we really wanted to buy the minivan and the minivan won. The other project we've talked about a lot for inside the house is tearing out the wet bar (dry bar.....plumbing was never installed by the previous owners) that is in the living room. We'd either replace it with built in book shelves, or something along those lines.

As far as yard projects go, we have drainage issues that we need to fix. When it rains, it takes days for the front yard to dry out. So, Dad & Rick have some ideas of how to fix that and we are hoping to get that done soon.

Our side yard is pretty level, but there is only an upstairs window that overlooks it, so it's not a good play area for little kids. The backyard has lots of windows overlooking it and it's fenced in. But, it is pretty sloped. We can't use it for a swing set or patio furniture or anything. It's sort of wasted space. If we were going to do the basement project, they would be leveling out the yard in order to make the walkout. Now we are considering other options.

Ultimately, I want to dig out the yard to level it off (and have it ready for a walkout when the time comes). But, we are also considering putting a 2nd, lower deck at the bottom of the stairs from the existing deck. That will give us a lot of level space.

And, we were talking yesterday about just leveling off a portion of the yard to have a good space for a play area. Since it would be such a small area, we should be able to do that ourselves. Then we can get a swing set for little miss. I know she'd love it. It would be great to get that part of the project done before Leah's arrival. We'll see how it goes.