Tori and Dean

Leonard was stuck in a town a couple of hours away, and wasn't going to get home until late. He actually walked in the door at 1:30 am, poor guy. Then had to get up at 6:30 and be at work by 7. Anyways, I have a super hard time falling asleep when he's not there. So I was watching Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood. I like Tori and all, but man is she ignorant about pregnancy. And I mean really ignorant. Yestarday, it showed her at her OB appointment, and she was telling the Dr. that she had a hard poo, and she really had to work to get it out. So she asked to poor Dr if by her pushing could that make the baby think it was time to come out. I mean, seriously, how retarted could you get? And on another episode, she asked the Dr. if the baby could poke her way out of the uterus and puncture an organ. What?! Are you joking? Get a friggin clue Tori.

Bumpity Bump Bump

The problem with working for BNSF is that you get bumped from your job. If someone has higher seniority than you, and they got bumped, they can bump you and take your job. This happened to Leonard today. I guess there is a lady who is an employee and works on a traveling gang. Her husband, also an employee, died of a heart attack a month ago or so. So, she's comming home, and bumped Leonard from his job. Although there were 2 other guys that hired on the same day that he did, since he's the youngest, he's the low man on the pole. So, he submitted a bid to get onto a traveling crew that's in the area, and will be for a few months. Hopefully he gets it. In the mean time, he's going to go up to a place called Wolf Prarie. It's probably 2 hours from here, and in the middle of nowhere. I mean it's in the middle of the woods. All that's there are some railroad houses that are right on the tracks, and the office. So, I'm cleaning out the camper for him, and I think he's got to be up there by Wednesday. I guess all of the guys that he works with are pissed, because he is a really good worker. Always works hard, and has an awesome work ethic. They were going to start doing anchors next week. I'm not really sure what they are, I think that they "anchor" down the tracks between the ties. They have 19,000 to put in by hand. I don't know how the lady is going to do it, so good luck to her! They have 2 weeks to get them all put in, and that comes out to be 1500 a day per person. Yuck. I know I wouldn't want to do that.

Bored bored bored.

Leonard is working late tonight. He should have been home 2 hours ago, and I have no idea how late he'll be working. I'm considering packing up Matt and walking across the street to rent a movie. I was watching some show on TLC. I don't remember what it's called, Date my Kids or something. It's about the single mothers trying to find men to date. Anyways, it sort of caught my attention, but not so much. So here I am blogging about nothing!

Ooh, get this. So Jill, my SIL is 27. Guess how old the guy that she's "dating" is? 17. Yep, the kid hasn't even graduated high school. How sad is that? I find it fairly disgusting myself. Just think, if he was 27 and she was 17, it would down right be perverted, wouldn't it? Apparently, his cousin lives just right across the street, and she is also 17. She hangs out with Jill alot. Which I also find weird and slightly disturbing. I think it says alot for Jills mentality and maturity. Meaning there's not a ton of either one there. She has two kids, 5 and 3, and she's going with a teenager. Ugh. My poor FIL and MIL. They raise her and her kids. She's single (obviously), doesn't work, and lives with her parents and off of the system. She doesn't even take care of her kids. Heck, why would she have to, she lives with her mom and dad. (sarcasm) Anyways, it just bugs me that she leaves her kids to go running around with 17 year olds all of the time. I feel like going up to the guy and telling him that he's totally wasting his time doing this, and that if he even did get serious with her, it would be the biggest mistake of his life.

My little brother is also in town for a couple of weeks. It's good to see him. He went into the Air Force, and just got done with Tech School, and he came home before he gets stationed in Utah. I think Ogden/Salt Lake area. He hasn't changed too much, and it was nice getting to know my SIL that I barely know. I like her more and more. We have the same personality, so it's funny. Laid back and go with the flow. We tease him that he married both of his sisters in one girl. SIL shares a name with my older sister, and she has my personality. Funny.

I bought Matt the cutest shoes today. I was bored after dropping off papers at the mortgage company, so I went to Ross. They had the most adorable infant Nike sandals, and OshKosh shoes, I just had to get them. I think I'm going to have to return the Nike's though. They are a pain to get on his feet. The OshKosh's are perfect though.

I realized while in Ross that I no longer buy for myself. Ever. I head straight to the baby department wherever I go and buy things for Matt, whether he needs them or not. Then I leave. I no longer go through clothes racks to see what's cute. Oh to be a mommy. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Well, I'm off to maybe go rent a movie. And play with my adorable little boy.

Anniversary

Three years ago today, I married my best friend. It was a beautiful sunny day, and threatening to rain. Funny because the reason why we picked the middle of July to get married is because it rarely rains in July. I held my soon-to-be husbands shaking hands, and tried to keep him steady since he was about to pass out I think. Hell, I was nervous too! We said our vows, and by the time "You may kiss the bride" rolled around, it was sprinkling. I love the rain, so it was perfect for me. We kissed, and our friends and family cheered for us. We walked down the aisle and received many congratulations, hugs and kisses from our loved ones.

I remember the drive to our house after the wedding. We needed to pick up our puppy Jack and bring him to the reception with us. Leonard and I didn't even say a word to each other. We were in shock that we were actually married!

The reception was great, it sprinkled a bit. At least it was a comfortable temperature.

We've been through some rough and happy times. The first 6 months of our marriage were rough. We fought alot. Way more than we had ever fought before. We were so stressed about money. Now, we have a great relationship.

Leonard is anything and everything I could have ever asked for. I love him so much, and would do anything for him. He's a great daddy, the bestest friend, my heart, my soul, my everything. I love you, babe.

South Beach Diet

I'm starting the South Beach Diet today, so good luck to me! Before Matt, I slowly had put on weight since high school. I think when I graduated, I was 120. Maybe 115, so super skinny, but healthy. I participated in Cross Country and Track, which take place in the fall and the spring, so I was active for most of the year. We were encouraged to keep training for XC in the summer so we'd be ready for the fall season. I ate good and bad, depending on my mood. After high school, I needed a break from working out and running all the time. I enjoyed my break, but my weight suffered. By the time I had been out of school for a year, I put on 15-20 lbs. Last year, I stepped on the scale and when 159 showed up on the scale, I about started to cry. I never felt so low in my life. I decided to do something about it. I watched what I ate, and I took the dogs for a walk/run every day. And if I didn't do that, I'd get on the recumbent bike at work for an hour. I dropped 15 lbs in a matter of a few weeks. I felt good, and I was back at 145 or so. We moved to Bozeman, and I was depressed. I'm an emotional eater, and that's how I dealt with my depression and loneliness. I went back up to 150. 5 lbs wasn't too bad though, I figured that I'd take care of it and get back onto my program. Then I got pregnant. I think I lost 10 lbs from being sick all of the time. I didn't have an appointment until I was 12 or 13 weeks, and I didn't know how much I had weighed at the start. Technically I only lost one pound though. At the end, I had gained the recommended 25 lbs. I lost all of the weight and maybe plus some. I have no idea though since we don't own a scale. But I could fit back into my prepregnancy clothes right away. But, not anymore. From being cooped up this winter in the teeny house, I have put on weight so that I have to be up to 165 I bet. No idea though. So, I decided that I will diet. I decided on the SBD, because it was a healthy diet, and it works. So wish me luck, the first two weeks are going to be a bitch. I have no willpower at all, so it will be tough.

9 months

Mr Matthew had his 9 month appt yesterday. He wasn't quite sure what to think of the nurses and Dr. Carlson since he's got some stranger anxiety going on. He didn't cry when they talked to him, so that's a plus! He's such a little peanut. He only weighed 16lbs 2 oz and was 27.5 inches long. Weird since I just measured him at 28". Anyways, his head was 44.7 cm long which converts to 17.6 inches. He was in the less than 3rd percent for weight, his height at 28" was in the 32nd percent, and his head was in the 27th percent. He's growing at a good curve, so we don't need to worry about his weight. Dr. Carlson wants me to keep concentrating his formula, and if he gets too chubby, to just stop that. I don't think we have any worries in the chubby department though. Poor little guy got three shots yesterday. He usually only gets the DtAP (is that how you do it?), and this time, we went ahead and did the DtAP, the Polio, Pneumococcal, Hep B, and Hib. I think that they DtAP, Hep B, and Polio were all in one, and the other two were separate. I wasn't going to worry about the Pneumococcal since he's not in day care and isn't really exposed to other kids a whole lot, but his cousin Trent is in daycare, and they spend a lot of time together, so better safe than sorry I guess. Matt is a sore and whiny little boy today. I only just got a chance to brush my teeth and it's almost 1 pm. He cries if I even think of putting him down. He won't eat any food, and barely a bottle. Little turd. Hopefully he'll be better tomorrow.

Dr. Carlson was slightly worried...I guess that's what you would say, that he wasn't babbling yet. I think it might have a lot to do with his cleft palate. Even though it's corrected now, they say that lots of kids with clefts might have to do speech therapy. I think it might just be that when they are infants, they aren't able to make the same noises and sounds as other kids, so they get behind.

On another note, here is the most recent adorable picture of my little ham.

Hmmmm

I went and saw my mortgage lady on Monday. She just updated our information and took Leonards new pay stubs since he has changed jobs since the last time we were going down this road. The only problem she says is our debt to income ratio, which doesn't surprise me. It's not that we have a lot of debt, it's just that it's spread out over a few accounts and it seems bad. I told her to call my sister in law Shawna, and that we are planning on paying some stuff off in the loan. She said ok and no biggie. We just have to do our line by line just so that there will be enough money in there to pay stuff off. We only want to pay off our credit cards, our truck and Leonards dirt bike and we'll be good to go. My car is all paid off so we don't have to worry about that, and we've only got a couple of doctor bills and those only have a few months left and those will be paid off also.

We, or should I say, "I" have decided to tentavely put ttc on hold for now. I was thinking about it last night, and if we do get approved for the loan and start building the house, there is no possible way that I can be pregnant and be able to help out. That, and a construction loan is 6 months, so say I got pregnant right now, it could still be a couple of months before we are even able to pour foundation, so therefore I could easily have another baby in this hell hole that we're living in. No way could my sanity be spared if that was the case. I can't even imagine trying to have two babies in this house at the same time. No thank you. Of course we might have to find somewhere to rent. My inlaws are trying to sell their house, and move into the big house that there is no possible way that they can afford. (Who can afford a $2800 a month house payment when you're laid off for half of the year and only make $20 an hour?) Whatever I guess. Anyways, if that's the case then we'll have to find a place to rent in the meantime. And if we don't get approved and we are renting, then we'll just go ahead and have another baby.

Smacker

Matt has learned a new trick. Leonard claims credit for teaching Matt how to do this. The best way to describe it is that he is doing on inverted kiss, and making the smacking noise with his lips. It's so sweet and cute. I don't think he could do it before because of the tether on his tongue. But now that that's gone, he has no problems! I've noticed a few changes now that his cleft palate is completely repaired.

• Like I said in a previous post, he has snot come out of his nose now whenever he cries. It's crazy now that he has boogers and he never used to.
• He has no problems chugging a 6-8 oz bottle at a time. Before he could only drink 4 oz at a time. I don't think we'll need to be concentrating his formula anymore. We did that to help him gain and maintain weight. If we wouldn't have, I could very well have a 10 lb 9 month old on my hands right now.
• He plays with his tongue in his mouth. He loves to roll his food around in his mouth, and most times forgets to swallow it he's having so much fun playing with it.
• He keeps his mouth closed more often. His little mouth used to always hang wide open so he could have an easier time breathing. Now he has no problems.

The only bad thing about his repair is that whenever he cries really hard, he quits breathing. It's because he puts his tongue into the back of his mouth and it closes off his airway. Before he could do that and have no problems because there was a gaping hole for plenty of air to come in and out of. I have on one occasion had to physically put my finger into his mouth and move his tongue out of the way.

These two pictures were taken the other day. I especially love the bottom one. He's such a ham.

Yummy baby friendly Pumpkin Muffins

A gal that goes by the name of Mink that posts over in my October 07 Mommies group over on Fertility Friend, shared this delicious recipe with us. I've been meaning to share it, but I just haven't remembered to.

15 oz Pumpkin Puree
1/2 C Brown Sugar or Applesauce
3T Olive Oil
2 Eggs or yolks (for babies under 1 that aren't supposed to have the whites, use the yolks only)
1 C grated carrots
1 C Gluten free flour or whole wheat flour
1/2 C Oatmeal
1/2 t Salt
1 t Cinnamon or pumpkin spice
1 t Baking soda
1 t Baking powder

Preheat oven to 375.
Mix all ingredients together, and dole out into muffin tin. Bake for 15-18 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.



I actually had to bake them for 19 minutes, or the middle was slightly raw still. These are really good, and bland. They make a good breakfast muffin, and the babies LOVE them. Thanks Mink!

First of all, I'd like to say Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! Congrats on celebrating 25 years of marriage.

Other news, we put an offer on a 3/4 acre lot yesterday! Well, kind of I guess. Leonard's sister Shawna is the realtor and the owner of the land; so of course she's going to accept our offer since she's the one that offered it to us. We went into her office and signed and initialed some papers, and now I have to call the mortgage company and talk to a certain lady. Hopefully we'll be building in no time and I'll get out of the shit house in 6 months or so. Who knows, maybe I'll go crazy and move in with my parents by then. I can't even imagine being in this place with a walking kid. There is no way that we could child proof this house. It is in no way safe for a new walker. Ugh. The stress levels are rising.