5 months old!

Today Lucy is 5 months old. It's hard to believe how fast the time is going. She is so much fun at this age. She's a happy girl and smiles all the time.

I weighed her today and she's 19 pounds and some change. I wish I had a better scale so I knew how close to 20lbs she is.

She started rolling over a few days ago. I really thought it would take her a bit longer, but once she started rolling on her side, she quickly figured out how to go all the way over. Now we just need to work on getting her to roll from her tummy to her back.



Here is her 5 month picture.

Her hair cracks me up. It's growing in and sticking straight up on top.

There are more pics on my dropshots page. Check them out.

So much going on

I haven't blogged in a few days and it feels like so much has happened-where to begin.
I guess I"ll start with what we saw on our way to church this morning. About 9:30 this morning as we were driving down Eldarado Street we came to the stoplight at Rt51 South. I saw lots of police lights and at first I couldn't quite figure out what was going on. Then as we drove past I saw that down Rt 51 there was snow on the curbs and tons of people. Again, it took me a minute and then I remembered, filming on the movie The Imformant has begun. It's a movie starring Matt Damon about an ADM scandal that took place about 10 years ago. (If you want to know more, check out Becky's blog-she goes into more detail) As we drove past I suggested we turn around and drive down the block for a closer look. We were already late for church, but it's not everyday that we have this kind of excitement happening in our city. Maybe later today we'll go back down and take a closer look. We'll be among the huge crowd of people with cameras taking pictures.


More to come...

LUCY

Just thought I'd blog about some of the changes I am seeing in Lucy. She's almost 5 months old and in the past week I have really noticed her chewing on her toys. She tries to get her thumb/fingers and a toy in her mouth at the same time. This week she's also discovered her feet. Now when I change her she's grabbing at her toes. She is also rolling onto her side and sleeping that way at night. I was thinking that she would start to roll over soon, but I think it is still going to take her awhile. The doctor said not to worry if she's late doing that. She said bigger babies are slower to roll over. I am actually ok with her not doing it. Once she starts I'm afraid she'll do it at night and then get mad that she's on her tummy. We're all sleeping so well, I am preparing myself for a few bumby nights once the rolling begins. Lucy has also found her voice. She "talks" all the time and is always making noise. I think she just likes to hear herself.

I took a really funny picture of her the other day. I don't have it loaded on my computer yet, so when I get that done I'll post it.

Never say never

I am sure that before each of us had children we would say things like, "I'll never let my child do that", or "I will never give my child one of those" etc... I've tried hard not to say too many of these types of statement because I may end up eating those words some day. However, I do know that I have very clear goals for myself as a parent.

Ok, having said all that. I will never let my 3.5 year old drink from a bottle. In case you're confused, Leah Reminy in an actress from the tv show King of Queens. Yesterday she was on the Rachel Rae Show talking about life with her 3.5 year old daughter. I sat and watched this show with disbelief. Her daughter is 3.5 years old and still drinks from a bottle. She still gets up 6-9 times during the night to give her daughter bottles filled with water. 6-9 TIMES! These people haven't had full nights rest in over 3 years! The thing that really got me though was that Leah didn't see anything wrong with an almost 4 year old still taking a bottle. One of the things Leah said was that she just hated taking something away from her baby that gave her so much joy! Um, she's not a baby anymore.

I just kept thinking to myself, that girl is going to Kindergarten with baby bottles in her lunchbox.

So if Lucy is still taking a bottle at 3.5 years. Someone slap me. PLEASE.

Our new home

Just in case you're curious what our new house looks like, here it is.

Music to my ears

Here's cute clip of Lucy. Dan was making funny noises and she laughed at this one so he kept doing it. She really got worked up.

We are moving!

It's official. Dan, Lucy and I are going to be moving to Mt. Zion.

house update

We'll we still don't know if we got the house. The couple selling it are out of state and the husband is very hard to get a hold of. We put in our offer yesterday and they countered today. We sumbitted another offer and we're still waiting to hear. The realtors did a walk through today of our house. The original listing agent of our current home did a walk through assessment as well as our realtor. He knew what the house looked like when we bought it. I think he was somewhat impressed with all the work we'd put into it.

No turning back now...

Today Dan and I made an offer on a house. We haven't heard back yet, so we'll see what happens tomorrow. AHHHH. I can't believe we're actually doing this. I almost got teary eyed while going through all the paperwork today. I'm going to be an emotional basketcase in the upcoming weeks if this all happens. Pray for me!

Pros and Cons

There's a good chance that our family might be moving. I never thought I'd leave this little house, especially after all the hard work we did to make it our own. I really don't want to move because, and I say this with no apologies, my house is cute! I love this house. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's a 1920's bungalow. It has so much character and charm. It has beautiful, thick crown molding and base boards, real wood doors, an amazing glass built-in cabinet in the kitchen and built-ins in the hallway. So, if I love it so much, why are we thinking of moving? I am asking that question myself. However, I know that realistically, we can't live here forever. The house is simply not big enough for the size of family we want to have. We would have to move at some point and I keep telling myself that moving with one child will be easier than moving with 2 or 3.
The house we are seriously considering is in Mt. Zion.They have really good schools and we could send our kids to public school. If we stay here, Lucy would be attending Decatur Christian -we won't do Decatur Public Schools. This "new" house is in a really nice subdivision, but it doesn't look sterile like some of them do. There are well established trees and also the houses are not all cookie-cutter style homes. This home has an attached garage which is something we currently don't have. It also has laundry on the main floor where as now I have to go to the basement and it's getting harder to do as Lucy gets older. As she becomes mobile, I won't be able to leave her for a few minutes to go change out the washer. It has a nice covered deck and a big back yard. It also has a big kitchen. It's not really my style, but I can live with it for awhile till we can make some improvements. It has lots of counter and cabinet space which I am currently lacking.
The downside? It is a newer home and has the inexpensive trim and the hollow doors and it lacks history and character. Some of those things can be changed. I keep telling myself that. It's also a great time to buy a home. Interest rates are low and we can get more for our money at this time.

I guess I'm writing this and telling you this because in a sense it's like therapy. I'm probably never going to really be ready to move because of all the sentimental attachment I have to this house, and writing this helps me to convince myself that we're doing the right thing.

*I keep asking Dan if we can use this as a vacation home. He says No. *

We'll see, by the end of this week we have have a new house!

A few pictures and an update

Today was Lucy's 4 month well child check-up. We found out that she weighs 18.12 pounds and is 27 inches long! She is off the charts. She cried right away as soon as they put her on the scale. I don't think she liked laying on the hard surface, or maybe she's sensitive about her weight? I'm not sure. So we were not off to a good start. She cried when the nurse took her temp in her bottom and at the same time she peed all over the table. We finally got her cleaned up and calmed down and she did ok while the doctor checked her over. Then of course she wailed when she got her shots. I hate that part. It's so hard to see them stick her. This was why I made Dan go with me today. She was so hard to calm down at her 2 month shots that I needed back up this time. She's been pretty good today. She slept quite a bit this afternoon. I am hoping she sleeps well tonight.

Here are a few pictures from the last few days.

Her shots didn't keep her from flashing a big grin this afternoon.

Sunday was so nice we layed outside for while enjoying the beautiful weather.




Her 4 month picture.

Calling all Lurkers

Becky and I were having a conversation the other night about our blogs on our drive up to see Michelle. We both were wondering just how many people are reading what we write. I know of several people who read my blog because of the comments I get, but I know there are many more of you out there that just like to remain annonymous. I don't mind that there maybe a friend of a friend that likes to read this. But I'm curious who's out there. If you enjoy reading bits and pieces of my everyday and sometimes boring life. Let it be known!

So, this post is for all you "Lurkers" out there. Those of you who read, but don't ever comment this is your chance. I'm challenging you to come out of the woodwork and make yourself known.

Oh, and thanks Gaye! You inspired me to do this post! :)

4 months old today!

I can't believe how fast the time is going. Lucy is 4 months old already. She is getting so big. We have her 4 month check-up at the doctor's next week. I am anxious to find out her true height and weight. I weighed her here at home and I think she's about 19 pounds! She definately a big girl. She must take after Dan because I wasn't a chunky baby.

After lots of hardwork and prayer, Lucy has become a sleeping champ. I am so glad I didn't listen to the many people who told me "Oh, some babies just aren't sleepers", or "Some babies don't need as much sleep". While it's true that some babies are just better at sleeping than others, all babies do need a certain amount of sleep, in my opinion. Their bodies are growing so fast that they need that sleep. Anyway, I was determined to have my baby become the best sleeper she could be. She now goes to bed between 6:30-7:30 every night and sleeps till 6-7am. She is still napping 4 times a day although her morning nap is starting to get longer and I'm waiting for her afternoon naps to consolidate in one long nap instead of 2-3, 1 hour naps. That will come with time as she gets a bit older.


She is getting close to rolling over from her back to her tummy. I think within the next few weeks she'll probably get it figured out.


I haven't taken her picture yet today. I'll post it later when I get it done. In the meantime here are a few others.

I call this one: My happy little prisoner

Here's a video clip of her playing with her toys.

We have a thumb sucker

Over the last week or so, Lucy has realized that her hands are great for chewing. She constantly has them at her mouth. Well, she's also finally gotten coordinated enough to get her thumb in her mouth. She loves sucking on her thumb. I thought I'd post a few pictures to prove it.

Progress!!

Last night Lucy slept from 7:30pm -5:00 am without making a sound. She cried a bit around 5am, but went back to sleep and then was up for the day at 6:30.

If you've read my blog with any regularity then you will remember my posts on Lucy's sleep, or lack there of. She was a terrible napper, and was still waking 1-2 times a night to eat.

This Sunday night we started sleep training and each day we see more progress. Yesterday, Lucy took two 1.5 hour naps and one 1hour nap. This is great improvement over her little 30 minute catnaps she was taking.

I am so excited to have my 7-8 hours of sleep back as well as a few hours during the day to get things done. It's also so nice that Dan and I now have about 3 hours in the evenings to ourselves after Lucy goes to bed.

THANK YOU Michelle W. for lending us the sleep book. I've read 3-4 other books and this one is by far the best.

Photo of the week!

What are you talkin' bout Willis??

Happy Easter!

Finally!!!

I am FINALLY back into my pre-pregnancy pants!!!! YAY. It only took 3.5 months, but it's such a relief to actually be able to put on a pair of jeans that I wore last year at this time. Not everything fits as well as it did, obviously my body is slightly different, but I'm on the right track. The great thing is that I didn't even try to lose any weight, It's just come off. I guess lifting my chunky monkey is providing some extra calorie burning.


I'm still shopping for some new clothes though. I really don't have much in the way of spring or summer clothes anyway. Look out Mall, here I come!

They call it baby fat!

Saturday Dan and I, along with Lucy went to a birthday party for Dan's niece Monica. I had Lucy dressed in a cute denim jumper and I put her legwarmers on underneath to keep her warm. Now, if you've seen pictures of my daughter, you know that she does not go hungry. She has cute, chunky legs and thighs. The legwarmers are snug fitting so you can see all her little fat rolls. Dan's niece Natalie who is turning 7 in few months was looking at Lucy and asked "Why do they stuff her legs?" Her mom laughed and told her that is wasn't stuffing it was baby fat.

3 month pictures

Last Saturday we took Lucy to JCP to get her 3 month pictures taken. It was quite the ordeal as they were running 45 minutes behind schedule. I had timed everything just right so that Lucy would her happiest at our appointment time. But by the time they were ready for us I had decided to reschedule for another day. The lady convinced me to go ahead and try taking some pictures, if she got fussy we'd stop. I was skeptical because she was getting tired, but amazingly enough, she did pretty good. Here are a few of my favorites from that day. They are from the JCP website and if they look blurry it's because they are a lower resolution.

testing

I'm testing a new name for my blog. I'm not sure if I'll keep this one or not...it's all I could come up with this morning. If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

I came across this article yesterday and I shouldn't have read it. It's very disturbing and I haven't been able to get this little boy out of my head. It breaks my heart that this baby suffered like he did. Last night when Lucy got up to eat, I held her longer than I usually do. I just kept thinking about that poor baby.

Here's a link to the article. It is from the Peoria, IL area. This is one case where the death penalty is too good for these parents. Beware though, it is very hard read.

http://www.saukvalley.com/articles/2008/02/21/news/state/60183918800192.txt

my favorite photos

I made Lucy a tutu. It turned out pretty good, but bigger than I meant for it to be. I'm going to try making another one that won't be quite as big.

So much for that!

In my last entry I wrote about my excitement over Lucy's new sleeping pattern. I should have known it was too good to last. Sunday night was horrible! After an 11:30 feeding and 2:30 feeding, at 4am she was up about every hour. Last night was better, but I think I just need to accept the fact that no matter how hard we try, sleeping through the night is just not going to happen for us right now. And, that's ok. This too shall pass...

We're on our way

After weeks of praying over my daughter, I'm beginning to see my prayers being answered. We are on our way to sleeping through the night. This past week she's been doing very well. We do our bedtime routine after her bottle at 7pm and then she goes down between 8-8:30. She's been sleeping till about 2:30-3:00 am, we feed her, and then she's been sleeping till about 6:30am. This is such a welcome change from going to bed at 8-8:30 and then up at midnight, 3am, and 6am. I am also praying very hard that this will continue and every night she'll go a little longer till she's finally sleeping all night long.

Baby legs!

Dressing Lucy is so much fun. I found these baby legwarmers, called Babylegs, at Target.com. They are so cute. She can wear them like this, or I thought they'd also be really cute under a jumper. Poor kid, she'll be asking me in 15 years why I thought these were a good idea.

Two Things...

Here's my new post--thanks to Abbie for the idea


Two names you go by… Kristin and Kitty
Two things you are wearing right now… my maternity jeans (yep, still can't fit into my old pants) and a black sweater.
Two things you would want (or have) in a relationship… trust and respect
Two of your favorite things to do… sleep and go to estate auctions
Two things you want very badly at the moment… to be able to fit into my regualr clothes again and to lose about 20 pounds.
Two pets you have or have had… Jake and Molly, both childhood dogs
Two things that you did last night… Went to VisionWay's fundraiser and gave Lucy a bath
Two people you think will fill this out...Don't know since it's not in an email. Maybe Becky...
Two things you ate today… poptarts and vegetable soup, but not at the same time :)
Two people you last talked to… Dan and Dan's parents
Two things you’re doing tomorrow… staying home and taking care of Lucy
Two longest car rides… Our Road trip to Charleston, SC and driving to Disney when I was 14
Two favorite holidays… Christmas and Thanksgiving
Two favorite beverages… Diet Coke and ice tea
Two people no longer alive who you’d like to talk to… Grandpa Ryan and ??? not sure

Some recent pictures

Here are a few new pictures of Lucy.

Talking to daddy.

I LOVE my thumb! And my pacifier too!

2 months old!

I could be a supermodel if I wanted to.

It just never ends...

After getting our sewer problems taken care of a few weeks ago I was hoping that our water issues would become a distant memory. Not the case. In fact it's become a nightmare that I hope to wake up from soon.
As I last reported we were still waiting on the plumbers to come back and hook up our floor drain. This should have been done when they replaced our sewer, but they thought that the drain was an old connection to the old storm drains when the gutters used to tie into the sewer line.
Over the weekend as we got closer to Monday and Tuesday and all the forcasted rain, I was starting to get very nervous. Our floor drain was not connected to anything. I just kept thinking that if the ground becomes saturated then eventually that water is going to come up that drain and we're going to have a muddy basement once again.
Monday came and went and everything was fine, but Tuesday brought a whole new set of problems. Dan was home working that day and late in the afternoon he came upstairs to tell me that the laundry sink was full of water and about to overflow. How could that be? We have a back water valve in our line that is supposed to close when the city mains can't keep up. This back-water valve is supposed to stop any rain water from coming up our line. Since our laundry sink was full, obviously something was not working right. We also had water coming in from the small room off the steps. This is right next to where they dug outside, so the soil has not settled. There are lots of air pockets allowing water to pool and allowing it to seep through our foundation. It was gushing through at alarming speed. All that water was running across the floor and pooling up around our second floor drain where the washer is hooked up.
Poor Dan. He had to stop working and get our small pump and start pumping that water out our basement window. He hooked up the long hose and ran it out the window and down our neighbors drive far away from our house. Then he had to keep moving the pump from the laundry sink to the floor drain. They both kept filling up so quickly. Thank goodness the pump was working. I am sure that if we had not been here to pump this water out, we would have had a flooded basement once again and this time I think it would've been more than 3 inches.


Dan made another call the plumbers and yesterday and today they've been out to try and fix the problems that should have been done right the first time. All I can say is that they better be giving us a nice discount. The price for this job was not cheap and I think we've been put out one to many times. Not to mention Dan's lost work time.

After all this I am seriously ready to start house hunting. I don't know that we will, but I've just about had all I can take of this.
Anyone want to buy a house?

2 months

Lucy was 2 months old on Monday. We went to the doctor today for her wellness checkup. She weighed 13lbs 14oz and measured 24 inches long. She is getting so big so fast. She's already outgrowing her 3-6 months clothes and even wearing a few 6-9 month things. Lucy had to get her first shots today and I hated seeing her cry in pain. Her face got the brightest shade of red I've ever seen. She cried for quite awhile afterwards. I think partly from the pain and also because she was overly tired. She's been doing pretty good this evening and is sleeping at the moment. I am not looking forward to the 4 month shots!

I forgot to take her picture yesterday and was going to do it this evening, but with her not feeling well I think I'll wait till tomorrow. So I'll only be 2 days off. I'll post those pics when I get them.

Mom advice needed

I'm posting this so that maybe some of you who read this can give me some advice. We're having trouble with Lucy's naps. She won't sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time. I'll put her down and she'll go to sleep and then like clockwork, 30 minutes later, she's crying out. She's still tired when she wakes because as soon as I pick her up she goes right back to sleep in my arms. She'll sleep at least 3 -4 hours at night (thank goodness) so I can't figure out why she's waking during the day and I'm not sure what to do about it. If she woke up and was alert and happy I wouldn't worry, but it's obvious she still tired but just won't sleep.
And I have tried letting her cry for a few minutes to see if she'll go back to sleep. She sometimes will but only for another 5 mintues or so and then it starts all over again.

So for all you ol' pros out there, any advice??

There it is!

I finally caught one of Lucy's smiles on camera. Her smiles are becoming more frequent now which is a lot of fun.

And we thought we were done...

After all the sewer and plumbing craziness that happened 2 weeks ago we thought we'd gotten everything taken care of. I think I mentioned in my last entry on this subject that we had to have some guys come and snake our drain because they thought that after all the work being done the trap was clogged. Parks Sewer came out and did just that, but all that happened was black muddy water pooled up around our drain. Still nothing would go down. Parks contacted the people who did the job and told them what happened and come to find out that when the guys were hooking our new sewer line back up they didn't connect this drain. Luckily we have 2 drains and this was the floor drain that is just for draining any water we get in the basement. All the water from the house and laundry goes down another drain and then out the house where the two lines are supposed to connect. So, they have to come back out and dig up a section of the trench again and reconnect this line. This is getting frustrating!!!

6 weeks old

Here's a picture of Lucy. She turned 6 weeks yesterday. I wanted to take a one month picture, but we were in the midst of our sewer problems and staying at my parent's house when she turned one month. With all that was going on I just didn't think about it, and when I did I didn't have her outfit or the camera with me.

Why is she wearing a huge onesie? This was mom's idea. She saw this done on Martha Stewart. I am supposed to put her in this each month on her birthday and take her picture. Then at the end of the year we can look back and see how much she's grown into the 12 month outfit. I am not sure what to do if she grows into it sooner than 12 months. I'll have to figure it out when the time comes.

I can't believe that she's already 6 weeks. She's changed so much already. She just started smiling but she makes us wait for them. She's only doing it about once a day. I can't wait till we see that toothless grin all the time.

Home Sweet Home

Well, after a week of being out of our house, we are finally home. The plumbers finished up on Thursday and got the water turned back on.

I last blogged on Tuesday about our flooded basement. That was just one of the many "incidents" that happened during the week. After all that rain on Monday, the workers could not come back till Wednesday to start up again. They had a few setbacks that day that prevented them from finishing the job by that afternoon. First the Bobcat they were using broke down and they had fix it which took a few hours and second, one of the guys was injured on the job. While working down in the trench, a 10-12 foot section of our concrete curb broke off and fell into the trench landing on this guy's foot. They had to take him to get it looked at to make sure it wasn't broken. Last I heard, it was just a bad sprain.

Then Thursday morning I called Dan to see how the work was going and he was in the process of trying to locate the breaker for the garage. The pump they were using to get all the water out of the trench was plugged into an outlet in our garage. The pump tripped the breaker and Dan was trying to locate the box. Just as he feared the box was in the garage. for most people this wouldn't be a problem, but you see, we only have an overhead door as access to the inside. The only way inside is to use the garage door opener. With the breaker tripped, the opener doesn't do us much good. So Dan had to break the latch on the window and one of the workers crawled through and all was well. Except now Dan has to fix the broken latch.

Finally, Thursday afternoon, they were filling the trench in with dirt and cleaning up the huge mess in our neighbor's driveway. With the exception of our torn up front yard, it looked like things were going to get back to normal...we couldn't get off that easy. In trying to get the basement floor cleaned up, Dan sprayed water on the floor and it collected at the drain like it's supposed to BUT it won't drain. The other drain that's connected to the washing machine drains just fine. We now have to have it snaked because they think the trap is clogged.

In all this, we got the nicest note from our neighbors down the street. Inside was a giftcard to Pizza Hut. The card said, "Between the plumbing and the new baby we thought you could use a pizza". How nice! So last night, we ordered pizza.

And the water saga continues....

I was wrong. Now things have gone from bad to worse. Yesterday the plumbers came and started digging up our sewer line and they got about half way to the street and then quit for the day. With the rain coming they didn't want to tear out our backwater valve and leave the line open. They said they would come back today to finish the job. Dan got up early to go to the house to be there when the plumbers came back and then he was going to work. I also went in to stay at the house, since Dan had to go to work, so that they could have access to the basement. I got to the house this morning, took some stuff in and found Dan talking to one of the workers in our backyard. I stepped down the back steps off the kitchen and looked down into the basement and the sight I saw made me want to cry. Our entire basement was flooded with about 3 inches of muddy water. When the plumbers left yesterday they capped off the line as best they could, but we got so much rain last night that the 6ft deep trench was half filled with water and all that water seeped into our basement. I'm assuming Dan called them this morning when he discovered the mess. By the time I got there they had a pump in the trench that was pumping the water out into our backyard. I'm hoping the basement will be drained by late aftenoon. Dan is needing to work down there to get orders out. The plumbers obviously can't do any work today because of all the excess water. They are supposed to come back tomorrow and I HOPE they get it fixed and we can be done with all this mess. Although, now we have an even bigger mess to to deal with. Once this water drains we will be left with a muddy basement that will have to be cleaned. I don't think too much will be lost because we were always prepared for water and kept everything in rubbermaid tubs or up off the floor. BUT, all those tubs will need to be moved so the floor underneath can dry.
I guess we'll be staying at mom and dads for another night.

Welcome to the Ryan Motel, We'll keep the light on for ya

(This is an update to my last post. So read that first if you haven't done so already.)

Well, this past week our water problems went from bad to worse. Thursday evening Dan came home from work and went down to the basement to do some work. He came back up and told me we had water coming through the cracks in the cement floor. We are assuming the water main leak has gotten progressively worse and with the ground frozen this leaking water had no where to go but under our house and up through the cracks. We'd already scheduled the plumbers to come Monday morning and start the huge undertaking of replacing our entire sewer line, but this new problem could not wait till Monday. The water would just continue to seep in and have no where to go. The solution? Have our water shut off. Dan called the emergency city number and a truck came out right away to shut off our water. This was about 8pm when all this happened. We could not stay at a house without water so I called mom and dad and asked if they'd like company for a few days. Dan decided to stay behind for the night to try and get some work done, but I packed Lucy and myself up and headed to my parents. So, we've been camping out here for the last several days and the workers are supposed to come tomorrow but they are calling for rain. I'm not sure if they can do this job if it's raining.

I'll keep ya posted on the situation.

The joys of being a homeowner

Many of you who read this know that Dan and I have had water issues with this house from the very beginning. Our house was a rental before we bought it so since the owner never lived here, he couldn't say whether or not the basement got water. Well, it does and has been a constant source of problems for us. The first thing we did after moving in was have a back-water valve installed in our sewer line. This was supposed to stop any city water from coming in our line during heavy rains. We forked over $1500 to have this put in and while it does work, we still got water during heavy rains. Then we put new gutters on the house and had the backyard patio redone and those two things helped keep the water out some as well. Our latest problem has been that our drains have been backing up. I usually discover they are clogged when I'm doing laundry and the washer is draining. The line can't keep up with the flow of water from the washer and it backs up into our laundry sink or onto the floor. We've had our drains snaked at least a have dozen times since we've been here, and 3 of those have been in the last 6-8 weeks.
Well, after 3 years of trying to figure out this problem, we've finally figured out why all this keeps happening. When the sewer guys were here snaking our drain, they would get about 20 feet out and then not be able to go any further. They suggested getting someone out to put a camera down the drain to find out the problem. They thought we might have a slipped tile.
Sure enough. We have a slipped tile which is causing debris to get clogged easily, which is why the line won't drain. But it's worse than that. There's a whole section of old clay tile that is slipped and broken AND there's a leak in the city's water main that runs to our house. The leak is before our meter and so we never noticed it on our water bill. This is why we are continuing to get water in the basement when it rains. The back water valve is doing it's job, but this leak is pouring water into our line and then it comes up in our basement.
So, what's the solution? We have to replace our entire sewer line and get the water main fixed. The line runs along the north side of our house next to our brand new curb and neighbor's drive way. The new curb will most likely get destroyed when they dig, so we'll have to have that redone as well as replace a section of the city sidewalk.
What's all this going to cost? Yeah, don't ask. Let's just say when it's all said and done and we've paid for the new line, the new cement work, and the leveling of the yard, we could purchase a VERY nice used car, or take a 2 week vacation to Hawaii at a top resort.

I guess this is the risk you take when you buy an old home with 100 year old sewer lines.

Reason 1001

I love my husband. Tonight he sat and watched the movie The Sound of Music with me. He said he's seen bits and pieces of it over the years, but never seen the whole thing all the way through. I love this movie and never get tired of seeing it, so we watched it together. He must have enjoyed it a little, because even as I sit here typing this, he's watching the end of it by himself. Gotta love a man who'll watch a movie like The Sound of Music and not make gagging noises through the whole thing!

First Christmas

Here are a few pictures of our first Christmas with Lucy.




And baby makes 3!

Lucy wearing the new hat from Aunt Lori. She looks pretty cute!

Settling in

Well, we've been home with Lucy now for almost one week. Overall it's going well. The nights are tough because I've been spoiled and 8-9 hours of sleep was normal for me. Now, I'm not sure how much sleep I'm getting. I try and sleep a bit during the day when she's napping, but sometimes I feel worse after that.

Today was my first day home alone with her. Dan took the week off, but had to go in today and do the bulletin. He's the only one who know's how to run the program that it's designed in. He's taking next week off too. Most of you know that Dan runs a decal business from home and December is our busiest month. After not working for 5 days because of staying in the hospital with me, he's trying to play catch up. Just to give you an idea, he had over 800 emails to reply to and he has over 500 orders to get out. Soooo, he needs time to work at home to get caught up. I told him we'll have to try and plan the next child during one of our slower months!

We've been blessed with great friends who have been bringing us meals in the evening. It's so nice to not have to think about cooking right now. We have friends bringing us meals through next week. I will have to do some major grocery shopping after that.

Here's a picture of Lucy that I took today. Take note of the onesie she's wearing. I could not resist buying it when I saw it.

SHE'S HERE!!!!!!

Many of you have heard by now that I had our baby this week. Lucy is doing great and I am slowing recovering. If you want to see pictures you can go to our website and open an account to view all the pictures from the hospital. Go to niebrugge.com/lucy and you'll find what you need to do.

I'll post more when I have the energy.

Ramblings

Dan and I slept in till almost 10:00 this morning. Dan's been getting up really early to do decal work before actually going to his job at church and so he deserved a day to sleep late. I also figured that we need to enjoy this time as much as possible because in a few shorts days, we will not have the luxury to lay in bed for as long as we please.

I got started on my holiday baking today. I made cut-out sugar cookies. It didn't take long, and I'll save the decorating part till I actually need to take them somewhere. Till then they are in the freezer. I also started my chocolate dipped pretzel rods. I made the white chocolate ones today and I'll have to do the regualr chocolate ones later.

Dan put together the pack-n-play. It didn't take long, but it's nice that it's ready to go. It's bigger than I remembered it being. I don't really like where it's sitting in the living room right now, but until the tree is taken down this is the only spot for it.

Dan also started working on installing an outlet in the baby's room. We needed a plug behind the dresser for the lamp and cd player. It's turned into a much harder job than we expected. There's a light switch above it and Dan was going to tie the wiring into that. Well, we have an old house and some of the wiring has been updated, some hasn't. He can't tie into the switch, he'll have to run a whole new line. So this "quick and easy" job is going to take longer than we thought. Oh well.

I'm kinda wanting to go to the Olive Garden for dinner. We have left over soup from last night, but pasta sounds so good right now. I don't really feel like getting out though. But, this could be our last chance for a nice quiet dinner out by ourselves-just the two of us-no baby to worry about. I don't know what we'll do yet, we still have some time to decide. Their open till 10 or 11pm right?

Those are the highlights from today. Sorry it's not very exciting. Hopefully I'll have an exciting email to send out here in the next week.

Place your bets

Anyone want to place a bet on what day you think I will deliver??? No money, this is just for fun!

Come out, come out wherever you are...

I'm officially full term today! I had my 37 week appt today and everything still looks good. I got another ultrasound. The doctor said she wasn't worried but wanted to check the baby again. So we got to see her. Well, saw a little of her. She's been head down for months now and she's so low that the tech can never get a good look at her face. She's measuring 6 lb 11oz already. If I go beyond my due date, she's probably going to be a little fat thing. So I am really hoping I go on or before Dec. 10. I really don't want to be pushing out a 10 pound baby!

My doctor doesn't do internals either, so I really have no way of knowing if I've started dialating.

We have the nursery all done. I am still on the look out for an antique mirror to go over the changing table, but it might take me awhile to find exactly what I'm looking for. So that part of the wall will be empty for awhile. I took a few pictures so you all can see what our baby girl's room looks like.

The crib we bought new but the other furniture I found at antique stores or flea markets and painted it white.

I love the way this shelf turned out. It was the molding that came from the bathroom window we replaced. I painted it and antiqued it and Dan made the letters for me. The hooks came out of our house, I think they were in another closet at some point. The vintage dress came from my Grandma Eva's house. They think it might have been my dad's when he was a baby. I don't know, looks a bit girlie to me.

The set of frames also turned out really well. Right now they are pictures of my mom and the middle one's my dad's cousin. I eventually will replace these with a picture of our baby and her handprints and foot prints. I really like the way the pics look in there now, so if I don't get around to changing it, then that's ok too.

Just about ready

I think we're just about ready for this baby. I've had all my showers and gotten lots of great stuff. I went to Babies-r-us Wednesday to pick up some of the things we still needed and we're going back tonight to get a couple of the big items we didn't get. I have been busy putting everything away and getting it all washed up.

The only thing we don't have yet is the video camera. Dan's been wanting to get one and he realized last night that we shouldn't wait too much longer cause I could technically go anytime.

I really need to start Christmas shopping. I think this year all the nieces are just going to get cash or a gift card. That'll make things easier on me!

34 weeks

I had my 34 week appointment today. I had the usual weigh in, urnine sample, and hear the heartbeat routine. I was surprised though that the doctor ordered another ultrasound. My belly growth is way behind and since I haven't really increased in size much, she wanted to check and make sure the baby is still growing on schedule. I was glad Dan came with me today because he missed the last ultrasound I had done. Anyway, everything still looks good. I just hide the baby well I guess. In fact the technician said the baby's even measuring a day ahead. She's already up to 5 pounds and I still have 6 weeks to go! This little girl may end up being a 9 or 10 pounder. Who knows, though. I am hoping that their guess is a little off and she's not quite that big upon arrival.
It's hard to believe though that in 2 weeks I'll be full term and we'll just be waiting for her arrival. I'm so glad that everything is ready to go and we can enjoy the last few weeks without having to get any last minute projects done.

I just found out today that our neighbors are moving. Unfortunatly, it's not the hoodlums who live on the South side of us and like to throw hot-tub parties. No, Brian and Betsy are moving. They have been very good neighbors and I will be sad to see them leave. It has me a bit worried because you never know who's going to be living next door to you. I am hoping whoever it is will be as nice and courtieous as the Yeagers.

Dear Neighbors,

Thank you so much for inviting Dan and I to your hot-tub party last night. I'm sure you sent out a formal invitation, but since we didn't receive one, I'm assuming it just got lost in the mail. Normally, at 2:15 am, we are sound asleep in our beds, but how exciting it was to be ripped from our slumber by the shrieking of half naked girls and yelling from you and your roommate. We loved listening to your loud and annoying chatter that I'm sure was alcohol induced. We especially liked that you continued your party until 4:30 am, ensuring that we stayed up with you while you enjoyed your good time. We hope you liked the gift we sent over. We called in a special delivery from the Police, just for you. We'll be more than happy to call them again, should the need arise.

Sincerely,

You're sleep deprived neighbors

I think I can, I think I can

Last week I wrote about my pregnancy blahs. I was seriously wondering how in the heck I was going to make it 2 more months. Well. thanks to Dr. Penwell I am feeling sooooo much better that the end of this process actually seems bareable. I have been seeing Dr. Penwell (chiropractor) for over 2 weeks now and I feel like a new woman. I get adjusted 3 times a week and I'll probably have to continue with at least that for the rest of the pregnancy. That's okay by me, as long as I continue to feel better, I'll go as much as necessary. I am just so thankful to be able to walk normally again and go up and down stairs fairly comfortably.

Now, if we can just get Dan's foot out of that cast....

Welcome to the Neighborhood...Now Leave

I've always joked around that I am a nosy neighbor. Actually, I think that I am just aware of what's going on around me. I pay attention to things, kinda like the neighborhood watch program.
Anyway, a few weeks ago I noticed that our neighbor on the south (the bachelor guy) was moving out. I saw a truck in the drive and some men were loading furniture. This guy was living in a house his parents owned and he was hardly ever home so it made sense to Dan and I that he was finally moving. Then the next day I heard some commotion and looked out to see several ladies carrying in cleaning products and a vacuum cleaner. I figured they were going to get the house all clean before they put in on the market.

Dan and I were looking forward to a "For Sale" sign going up cause we wanted to go see the house. Not that we're wanting to move, we are just curious to see the whole house.

A few days after they ladies came to clean, I happened to look out the front window and saw a U-Haul truck out front. I then started noticing some movement in the house. (They keep the blinds open, so it's hard not to notice things at night) I kept seeing different people come and go and I couldn't figure out who was living there.

I'm still confused as to what is excatly happening over there, but here's what I've figured out so far. There's a white guy who drives the car with the CiCi's Pizza logo on it, there's a black guy and then there's a blonde lady who either lives there or is the girlfriend of one of the guys.

They have 2 small black and white dogs, one of which chased me back in my house last week. He came charging at me and was barking in an aggressive tone. This has me concerned. We saw the dogs loose again yesterday. I don't want to have to be afraid to be in my own yard. I'm tempted to call animal control.

They also like to have very loud conversations in the backyard at 3 am! We woke up last Saturday in the middle of the night to the sound of yelling and loud talking. They were out there for a long time and it really started to get annoying. The next morning, I found a pair of shorts in our driveway. I threw them back over the fence. I guess they got in the hot-tub after all!

Anyway, if this is going to be the norm, then I'm ready for these people to move out. Who'd have thought that I'd miss David.

AND THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS

I am 31 weeks today and I am sooooo ready to get this baby out! I have read that all the misery that comes with the 3rd trimester is getting you ready for labor. Instead of fearing what is going to happen, you are so uncomfortable and miserable with pregnancy that you don't care as much about the pain of labor anymore. You just want the baby out.

I'll have to say that I was doing pretty good up till last week. I think part of what's making it worse is that Dan is on crutches and he's unable to help me do the little things around the house that are becoming harder and harder for me to do.

I went to a chiropractor last week and will continue to go as much as necessary until I deliver. It made me feel better to know that there was someone who really believed me about how much pain my hip has been causing me. I told my OB about it and she did finally schedule me for some physical therapy, but the first few times I mentioned it she just told me "pain is normal". Well, DUH! I realize that I'm going to be uncomfortable, but when you are no longer able to move, I think that's a problem!

What I want to know is, why don't pregnant women really tell you how they're feeling? It's a question people ask almost every time they see you. I know I asked my pregnant friends many times how they were feeling and the answer was always the same. Fine. It wasn't till I got pregnant and started asking them questions about pregnancy that I learned they didn't really feel that great. Maybe it's seen as complaining, or they just don't want to go into details, but I wish I'd known some of these things ahead of time. Now, I realize there are women who have wonderful pregnancies, but I think they're the exception.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm excited to be having a baby and I can't wait to meet her, but the process of getting her here... not the best. I'm going to definetly need a couple years to forget before I want to do this again.

Okay, vent over. Time to move on.

Update on Dan

Dan went to the doctor yesterday and they ended up putting a full hard cast on his foot. It goes up to a few inches below his knee. He goes back in 3 weeks and they'll take the cast off, xray the bone and then decide if he needs a new cast, or a boot that will allow him to walk on it. The doctor told him it could take 6-8 weeks to heal. I'm due in 10 weeks. Let's hope I don't go too early or they'll be wheeling us both into the hospital when the time comes!

Updates

Today I'm 30 weeks pregnant so I thought I'd share a new picture. The comment I get all the time is "Well, you're not very big". I may not look big, but I'm certainly feeling every bit of weight I've gained.

I thought you might also like to know that Dan did break his foot this weekend. He's going into the doctor's this afternoon to see what they'll want to do. I'm hoping for a walking cast or an aircast so when the pain has lessened he'll be able to put some weight on it.

Getting old???

If you look very closely at this picture, you'll see that it's actually a picture of Dan and me.....Well, it might as well be. Let me explain.

This past week, pregnancy has really started to affect my hips. My right hip in particular. Earlier in the week, I could barely walk because the pain was so bad. It's gotten better over the last few days, but I'm still in constant pain when I put any weight on my right leg. So, I have been hobbling around the house and I definetly have a waddle to my walk.

Why would Dan need a scooter? Well, this weekend he had a special event for the martial arts class he is taking. It's called Warrior Weekend. They camped out from 6pm Friday till noon on Saturday. During the campout they also did drills and learned new moves. Dan gave me a call on his way home this afternoon and told me he had an injury, but that it wasn't serious. When he gets home I notice he's limping up the sidewalk and that his foot is wrapped. During a move where he was getting flipped, he landed wrong on his foot and it might be broken. Luckily, there is a doctor that's also taking the class and he took Dan to the hospital and got an xray, but we won't get the results till tomorrow. So we are hoping that it's just a bad sprain, but this evening, he can't put any weight on his foot at all and it's pretty swollen.

So, Dan and I make quite the pair these days. I usually rely on him to help me get around, and now I'm having to help him.

To see us walk around the house, you'd think we were 80 years old!

Tastes like Fall

For those of you that are unfortunate enough to NOT live in the Decatur area, here's what you are missing.

Caramel apples from Dell's Popcorn Shop. They are the absolute best caramel apples you'll ever taste in your life. Every Fall they sell these delicious treats and I can't let this season pass without having one, or two, or...four. That's how many I bought today. Dell's is a quaint little shop in Downtown Decatur that has been around for years. Dell's sells candies, popcorn and caramel apples. They keep a running total of the number of apples they sell each day and when I was in at 4:00 this afternoon the count was a little over 2000. It's just a shame that these treats can't be bought year around. Maybe that's a good thing for my waistline!

Oh, and I would have taken a picture of their caramel corn, which, by the way is also the best you'll ever find, but I ate the whole bag.... oops!

Moving Up

Just thought I'd post a few pictures of a sight you don't get to see too often.

If you look closely you'll see that this house has been lifted off its foundation and is getting ready to be moved.

This is where my brother Kraig and his family lives. They are going to build a new house, but instead of just bulldozing in this one, they are moving it to the back of the property. They'll hook everything back up and continue to live in this house while the new one is being built. Then the "plan" is that sometime down the road, they'll turn this old house into a second garage/storage space. They'll tear out the old basement and foundation and pour a new one in this same area. The new house will give them much needed space for their family of 4.

Sadly, I didn't get pictures of them actually moving the house to its new location. The guys working told us two times that they wouldn't move it till tomorrow. So I went home and about 30 minutes after I get home, mom calls me to tell me that they are going to move it today. So I missed it!

Home Sweet Home

Dan and I have been out of town for 3 out of the last 4 weekends. I'm all about roadtrips and traveling, but this was a bit excessive for me. I am so glad to be home and not have any upcoming trips to pack for. It's not so much the being gone that bothers me, I just hate having to pack everything up, live out of a suitcase for a few days, then get home and have to put everything away. Not to mention, that I never sleep as well when I'm not in my own bed.

So where did we go? Well, this weekend we "killed 3 birds with one stone" so to speak. First, we went to Indiana. Dan's brother and family live in Columbus, which is about 45 minutes south of Indianapolis. Jeff and April are hosting Christmas this year, but since we're going to be a little busy the first part of December, we will not be going. So, we had promised Jeff and April that we'd come over some weekend to stay and see the new house they built. That's bird #1. Another reason we picked this weekend is that Dan wanted to attend the annual Sign Show that's held in Indianapolis. He enjoys going because he gets to see all the lastest in sign equipment and get lots of new ideas for products to sell. The show was on Friday, so went to Indiana the night before so Dan would only have to drive 45 minutes to the show. There's bird #2.
Dan had also been talking about going to Cinncinati to visit the Creation Museum. It only made sense to do that this weekend as well, since we were only going to be 90 minutes from Ohio. So on Saturday we drove to Ohio, visited the museum and then drove home. There's bird #3.

The Creation Museum was very interesting and if you're ever close to it, it's worth the trip. This is a state of the art muesum that proves that God created the Earth and how so much of the "science" surrounding evolution is false. I think we'll definitely go back when our kids are older and able to understand what they're seeing.

Anyway, I am so glad to be home. My next overnight trip will be at the hospital.

Baby Fat

I have had a few requests from friends to post a picture of myself so you all can see how big I've gotten. I haven't really taken many pictures throughout this pregnancy because for a long time my stomach didn't look pregnant, just fat. And I guess I'm too vain to let everyone see my "fat" belly. Now that it's starting to round out a little more, I don't mind the pictures. So here is one from the other day. I'll try to take more later one and post them for your amusement.