Ice Storm 2010

So we are back with more bad weather--same time as last year--at least this year Shon is home and we have not lost electricity (yet). Last year my sweet friend Jennifer took us into her home and we ended up being their house guests (me and the kids) for 1 week--they never lost power and were very hospitable to us, especially when you consider we had 6 kids 7 and under in the house at 1 time:-) When Shon was finally able to fly back into town, we drove to his parents house and stayed there for the weekend and finally came home once we knew the power was on. We lost a lot of food (since I had just gone to the grocery store before the power went out) but that was all, aside from the expense of the gasoline. I just hated the helpless feeling of being here alone with the kids without power.

So this year we bought a generator and stocked up on flashlights and gasoline to make sure we were more prepared. Shon drove home a day early from his work and we managed to get accomplished everything I think we needed to before the storm hit. He even went out last night and got me my craving of Chinese food:-) What a great hubby! So today we are hunkered down watching the beautiful snow falling (it finally changed to snow about 11 am for us). It almost looks like a blizzard outside with the wind swirling the snow all around. I am snuggled up in my Snuggie (thanks dad:-) and have the fireplace on and the laptop fired up--the kid are quiet for now and life is good! Hopefully the power will stay on since we are overly prepared this time:-) Hope everyone stays safe during the storm!

Blog failure--for a good reason this time:-)

Well, I once again have been failing majorly at blogging--at least this time I have a good excuse. We found out right before Christmas that baby #4 is on its way--due date sometime in August. We were initially very surprised but are now very excited that this blessing is coming. However, I have been exhausted even with napping with Jake and most days do not even have the energy to pick up toys, much less find the time to blog. So I have fallen behind.

We did have a great Christmas--we spent a week at my in-laws and it was a lot of fun. However, I think it will be the last year we can travel--with 4 kids and all of their stuff, we would have to rent a trailer to pull behind the van to carry everything:-) As it was, Caleb was squished next to a bike and a Handy Manny repair shop on the way home:-) The kids had a great time opening everything all week long. They were allowed to open presents from my in-laws as soon as they arrived, and then on the Sunday before Christmas they opened presents from my sister-in-law and then on Christmas eve they opened 1 gift. Then of course, there was Christmas morning. Caleb received a Nintendo DS from Santa, Emma received a bike, and Jake received the Handy Manny repair shop. Jake and Emma also got game systems--a Leapster 2 for Jake and a Didj for Emma (great sale at leafrog.com right before Christmas). Caleb got some Star Wars people and they all received books.

My mother-in-law got sick while we were there, so I did a lot of the cooking--which was fun. We had told our parents about the baby but held off on telling the kids until after the first appointment. So they understood my need to sleep a lot:-)

My first OB appointment was during the very cold, very icy week that everyone was out of school. It happened to occur on a day when every one of my kids had no school. So I bundled them all up and took them with me:-) The nurse was wonderful and let them stay in the office playing their video games while I had my appointment. I was able to hear and see the heartbeat, and so when Shon arrived home later that night we told the kids. Their reactions were quite amusing--Caleb said he hoped the baby was different from the other 2 kids, Emma wanted to know if she could name the baby, and Jake surprisingly said the baby could share his room. Then a few days later, Jake asked me if what I did was make people:-)

So, all in all, right now I am tired and nauseous in the afternoons--mornings seem to be ok for me. I went for my prenatal nurse visit today and got lab drawn and answered all the medical history questions (Jake was ready to go by that point--he told me --all you are doing is saying no mom--let's go!) Hopefully I will do a better job of keeping up with this blog once the 2nd trimester is reached, but no promises.