Here He Is

I think most of you know by now that I had the baby. No one voted for the right date on the survey. Jacob was born the 11th at 8:49 PM. After Emma's short 6 hour labor I thought this time would be about the same or shorter. I was way off. His labor was longer than Christine's. We went into the hospital Tuesday night, and he didn't come until Wednesday night. Thankfully I didn't contract the whole time, but I was pretty bored waiting for things to pick back up. The delivery was the shortest of all the kids - 2 contractions worth of pushing and he was here. He is also the smallest of the kids, by 10 oz.

Christine says he is the cutest brother of all time. I agree. Emma loves to kiss him and his face is frequently wet from her kisses. He is such a good baby! We are truly blessed, again. Wendy, if you are reading this, you and your family were life savers! The girls adore all of you and had such a good time. Christine has named one of her stuffed animals Olivia. Thank you for taking my kids. We would have been lost without you. You're the best!

A Few Updates

There are a few things to catch up on.

My day off was wonderful! I am a new addict to The Office. I had seen a couple of episodes here and there and thought it was funny, but nothing to keep up on. Then, one of Michael's co-workers lent us season one. The first season had only 6 episodes and we were soon begging for season 2. Yea!! 24 new to us episodes. That sated us for a few days, then on to season 3. Horror of horrors, they had lent season 3 to someone else! We started looking online. NBC and hulu only carry current episodes (it's season 5 now); we had to go with pirated versions. It took a bit of looking, but we finally found an Asian site that carried full episodes of the entire season. It was annoying to watch. There were subtitles, text ads running across the top, and the quality of the video itself was pretty poor, not to mention that we had to keep moving the mouse so the screen saver wouldn't start. Michael could only stand to watch 2 episodes the first night. Substandard technology doesn't bother me as much as it does him, and I managed to get ahead of him. I think he only made it through 4 episodes online. I won't tell you how far ahead I became, but I was far enough ahead that I finished season 3 on Friday. I did other things Friday as well, but finishing season 3 was my biggest accomplishment. I really hate admitting that, looking back, there was so much more I could have gotten done. Oh well! By the way we have season 3 now. We watched 2 episodes last night and I think that there were some scenes that didn't make it into our pirated version; I might have to start over. I don't know what we'll do about season 4, his co-worker doesn't have it yet - maybe we'll find another Asian site.

Our weekend was pretty good. Not very eventful unless you count the mountains of laundry that we did. All of the baby's things are clean and put away now so we are as ready as we can be. My parents have recently gotten into dutch oven cooking and we had fun trying out some new recipes.

I'm going to try to put up a survey for a bet Michael has. I am scheduled to be induced on the 20th. He is betting that I don't make it that far. My weekly appointments are on Tuesdays. When my doctor checked me today, he asked if I lived in town and told me to go to the hospital when my contractions were more regular, and not to bother calling him - just get to the hospital. As he puts it I'm "at a good 4." 5 has been my magic number with the other two and that is when things start going fast. Instead of going in next Tuesday, I have to go back Friday to be checked again. His parting words were, "See you Friday if not sooner." The tricky thing for me is that he will be out of town the 17-19, so if I don't go this week, I don't want to go until he gets back - which is my induction date. Ideally, I will go into labor Friday afternoon. Christine doesn't have school on Fridays and my parents will be here in the afternoon, so the kids could stay at home with them. I also am supposed to get my hair cut Thursday evening. Unfortunately, these things can't really be planned. Anyway, I'll try to get a survey up for you to vote on when the baby will get here. Pray for Friday though, I will be.

Now What do I do?

The stars have aligned and I have suddenly found myself with a little more than 24 total hours to myself! My dad works in the temple on Thursdays and comes to see the girls when he is finished. We are planning a trip to Wyoming this weekend to get things out of storage (ie my mom and dad's crawlspace). Most of our baby stuff is there, and we have put it off long enough. My mom has school off today and tomorrow for their spring break. Is anyone seeing the alignment?

My dad offered Christine the chance to ride home with him today. She loves to be at my parents' house; it is everything that ours is not. They have cable and ample room to run. Christine asks nearly every time that we are there if we can live there. Anyway, I told her she had to call Grandma and ask her first. Grandma thought it was a wonderful idea (at least that's what she told Christine). Emma was napping during all of this and it was decided that she would go too. She loves Grandma's house as well. Her favorite game is to run from one end of the house to the other and then do it again.

I got the girls packed up and as things were being put into the car, the dad of the little girl I watch came for pick-up. He said he is taking tomorrow off and won't go in even if work calls - he has to do some on-call work sometimes. So I am child-free until tomorrow evening when we get to Wyoming.

There are plenty of things that I should be doing, but I can't motivate myself to start any of them right now. Maybe tomorrow, although I'm not making any promises. I haven't been truly bored for a long time. Maybe my goal for tomorrow will be to see how bored I can get, probably not though. I promise you this, I will not be up at my normal 6:00 (or earlier if Emma has her way). Sleeping in is my #1 goal.

Mani-Pedis

This week is spring break here. That doesn't mean a lot for our family. Christine doesn't have school, but I still have the regular kids coming here, and we're not going anywhere during the week. I still wanted to make it special for Christine though. She would live at school if we would let her. I thought that during the times that she would regularly be at school, we would do something fun so that staying at home wasn't so boring.

The girls love to have their fingers and toes painted, and I thought Christine would like to have a mani-pedi as her fun thing for this morning. They got to pick out the color they wanted for their toes and we all did the same color on our fingers. As much as they like to have nail polish on, I think we all forget what it's like to get it on (which is probably why I don't do it very often). Emma has the hardest time. Asking her to not wiggle is akin to telling her not to breathe. Christine sits pretty well, but she likes to check her nails to see if they're dry. This requires her touching a finger to a nail, which is usually still wet, then she wants me to fix the smudge.

Normally painting my own nails is nothing to post about, except that I am 18 days away from delivering a baby. The last time I needed my toes done, I asked Michael to do it. Being the wonderful husband that he is, he painted them (after a few days of pestering). It was time again though. I have been hinting that he needs to redo them for me, but since everything was out this morning, I thought I'd do it myself. I'm not sure about the end result, after all the distance between my eyes and toes is about two feet for about 30 seconds. I do know that I won't attempt the feat again. I nearly passed out from the postition that I'd gotten into, and I ended up with a massive cramp in my hip. I'm not sure I'd call it a charlie horse, but it wasn't pleasant. When I finished, I was sore, but pleased with the job. Then I realized I still had to work my way off the floor. Under normal circumstances, I would have just stayed until everything was dried, but I couldn't sit on the floor any longer. Usually, I work into a kneeling position and can hoist myself up from there. This would have ruined my freshly painted toes as well as smearing nail polish on my very light colored carpet. Thankfully no one over 5 was there to watch, but I crabwalked/scooted over to an entry way where I could use the walls to help me up. Again, I will not paint my own toes again before the baby comes. Michael, be forewarned.

New calling

I almost forgot to post what my new calling is. When I found out that I was being released from Primary I told Michael that I hoped I would be asked to do something soon. I was worried that they would wait until after the baby was born. I told him I didn't really care what it was so long as it wasn't scouting or ward music director. I know better than to say things like that, it always bites me later. A couple of hours after being released I was asked to be the ward music director. I don't have to lead the music during Sacrament Meeting but I do pick the songs. This is the part that I'm looking forward to. The part I'm not looking forward to is conducting the ward choir. I am not my mother; this is not my forte. Of course I said yes, but screamed in my head, "NOOOOOO" (imagine the echoing scream you hear in horror movies). I feel very inadequate; we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck. At least it isn't scouting!

For St. Susan

I was given a baby shower on Saturday. It was so nice! Normally there is a group of us that do showers together, but the lady who did mine would not accept any help. She did a luncheon and made everything from scratch. She served taco soup and made her own chips (I need that recipe; best I've ever had), she made two different kinds of pastries, homemade rolls with ham, a fruit tray and a veggie tray - neither one from Costco - and a blackberry, chocolate cheesecake for a prize. I ended up with the cheesecake too and it was better than any I've ever had. I'm sure I've left something off. Her husband was there and took pictures of all the guests so she could make these little cards with their faces on them and advice they had given me. Then she sent me home with most of the leftover food. She even brought the rolls to church today because they didn't make it in the food box she sent me home with! She also bought a shower gift besides. She is truly a saint. She is one of the sweetest ladies I have ever met. She is always doing things for other people and never asks for anything in return. Her husband works with Michael and he is the perfect match to her. The whole point of this post is that I would like to do something for her. A thank you card isn't going to cut it. I need some ideas, please. She has three kids at home 10-17 and one in college. She used to be a massage therapist but had to quit because it was too hard on her body. I honestly don't know a lot about her because she never draws attention to herself - always behind the scenes. I would like to do something spectacular for her. Any ideas?

Picadillo

Here's what we had for dinner tonight. I took pictures, but I wouldn't judge the taste on how it looks, or even the ingredient list. This is a different recipe but so tasty.

Picadillo

1 lb ground beef
1 sm onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1/4 c golden raisins
1 tbs chili powder
1 tbs cider vinegar
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt
1/4 c slivered almonds (optional)

1. Cook ground beef, onion, and garlic in large nonstick skillet over medium heat until beef is no longer pink; drain. Place mixture into slow cooker.

2. Add tomatoes, raisins, chili powder, vinegar, cumin, oregano, cinnamon, and pepper flakes to slow cooker. Cover; cook on low 6-7 hours. Stir in salt. Garnish with almonds, if desired.

4 servings

*Notes*
The recipe doesn't give ideas on how to serve this; we like it in corn tortillas with cheese and sour cream. If you make this and have other ideas, let me know. I'm sure it would be good over rice too. I have occasionally added the salt by accident before letting it cook. I haven't noticed a difference either way. I haven't ever used the almonds. I think the raisins are nearly the best part. They plump up during cooking and add just a little sweet to cut the spice, not that it's terribly spicy though. I have used regular raisins instead of golden and they were fine. I prefer the golden raisins though.