Needs are met

I must admit that trying to find a new tenant for the vacant apartment was kind of discouraging, especially for C I would say since the financial burden falls heavier on him. It was however my task to set up showings and show the apartment to people. We had a few people call or email us after seeing it on craigslist and we set up appointments. Sadly I must say, most people today don't have the common courtesy to call if they can't make it. Two times out of three I waited for people to show up, just to realize that I just wasted 45 minutes of time I could have spent with my beautiful family. Some people did show up and we got our hopes up but never received an application back from them. One night as C was setting up all the paint supplies so he could come home after work the next day and start painting he said to me: "If I were to walk in here to look at the apartment I would look at the walls and ask if rent could be reduced for a month or two if we painted ourselves." (He is very handy and can fix most things around here, but he finds painting rather boring so I think it was some wishful thinking on his part.) The next day I had a showing and before I let them into the apartment I warned them about the walls, explaining that our last tenants painted them and their choice of colors were a little all over the place. Before I finished my sentence the guy said: "I was going to mention to you that I am a painter and I would be willing to paint if the security deposit or rent could be reduced." We signed a lease with them the day before yesterday and he started painting yesterday. Raise your hand if you think the Lord was eavesdropping... =)

Philippians 4:19
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7
Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 6:31-33
So don't worry about these things, saying, 'What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?' These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

1 Peter 5:7
Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

Stained

When we bought this house the former owner left her washer and dryer here. The washer works fine and we thought the dryer did too, until we started getting rust spots on our clothes. The inside of the dryer is full of rust, but we wiped it down with a wet cloth and it didn't leave any stains so we thought we were safe. Well, 2 years later we are left with quite a few rust stained items. Luckily it was always items we didn't care about that got stained up until the other day when one of H's cute little outfits, along with two blankets and a towel got ruined. I'm planning on making (hmm, having them made might be more accurate) quilts out of my favorite baby clothes and give them to my girls when they get older, maybe when they have kids themselves. So if you know of a way to get rid of rust stains please let me know. (And these stains are obviously dried in since the clothes got stained in the dryer.) And even though it wasn't in our budget right now we bought a new dryer today. It just had to be done.

Twirly Girl

E loves to dance. Every day she dresses up in her tutu and twirls around. She actually came up to me yesterday and told me that daddy was taking her to ballet school at church. Not really sure where that came from.

Today I was reading the latest entry of this blog and they have a contest where you can win a Prima Princessa DVD. That would be such a great present for my little ballerina. I hope I win. =)

If you have a little dancer at home you should check it out. Just follow my links.

Happy Birthday!

C is away on another business trip. When he went two weeks ago E was doing great. This time she's more of a challenge. Especially today. This was definitely a day of discipline. But it was also a day of fun. Yesterday she asked me for a birthday party and I though she meant a pretend one so I said ok and sat down on the floor ready to play pretend. She was pretty upset when she realized I wasn't going to drive her to the "birthday house" (church fellowship hall). I promised her that if it rained today we would make a birthday cake. And since it rained we made a gooey coconut chocolate cake. And then I remembered that H doesn't appreciate it when I eat chocolate. Oh, well... We also played a birthday memory game, hiding those little birthday cake candle holders that look like flowers under party hats and matching them up just like a memory game. Yeah, I know, it doesn't sound very exciting, but E enjoyed it.

H has been eating a lot for the past two days, waking up crying for food. I don't know if it's a growth spurt or if she needs solid food. She is 5 months old and that's when I started E on solids, but I really wanted to wait another month. We'll see how things go for a few more days. We've been out and about so much these past few days too so her sleeping schedule is a little bit off. That could be it too. We finally had a day at home today and she slept great for her first two naps. The third one she woke up early from and wanted to eat. Not sure if she woke from hunger though or just because someone (not me or E) was being loud.

Tonight, after I put the girls to bed I finally had some time to put together a bunch of things I need to ship to different people around the world. Hopefully we can make it to the post office tomorrow and hopefully they'll accept my boxes. I just used E's old shoe boxes, covered up the top with a piece of white paper from the printer where I wrote the address, but I didn't cover the rest of the box. It should still be ok, right? If they say something maybe I can argue that recycling is good for the environment =)

A very tiny arachnid

I'm still freaking out a little bit. About an hour ago I was about to jump into the shower when I felt something on my leg. I pulled on it a little bit and it felt like a skin tag. I looked down and it was a tick. A tiny, flat little thing with legs flapping around was stuck to my leg. If you know me you know that anything with more than four legs freak me out, and here is this eight legged, decease carrying thing trying to dig his way into me. C pulled it out and it came out in one piece, head and all. We don't think it had made it's way completely through my skin yet since it was so flat and little. But it still freaked me out. We checked both girls too. And C promised to go buy some of that stuff you spray in your back yard to keep them away. Overall I'm thankful that I got the tick, not the girls, that it chose such a visible spot and that it hadn't made it's way through the skin yet. Still freaks me out though, and both C and I feel like things are crawling all over us.

3 more things from my list...

In about a month my mom and A will be here. I'm so excited!

E has been doing really well with H, but after she was born she started to have more accidents. So we started to use a potty chart again and she is now doing really well.

I went to the Children's Place with no intention of buying anything. I just had some time to spend. But I ended up buying matching Easter outfits for the girls. My plan was to buy a dress for E and let H use one of E's old dresses, but when I saw these dresses I just had to buy them. They are the same colors as the Swedish flag. How could I resist?

checking off the blog list

I must say it's been really hard lately finding enough time to sit down by the computer long enough to actually write a blog. The topics keep popping up in my head so I started to make a list of things I wanted to share. I have a few minutes to spare right now so lets see how many things we can check off the list. (Haha, E just came over and told me it was her turn to go on the computer, we might not get very far.)

Voicemail
That's the first word on my list. The other day I realized I had a voicemail I hadn't listened to. It was a girl trying to get hold of her aunt L. She obviously had the wrong number, but didn't know it. She said "Hi, aunt L. I'm just calling to let you know I'm pregnant, but please don't tell my mom". And then her voice broke and she started crying as she was speaking, not knowing if she was going to keep the baby or not and saying she was in a lot of pain. Poor girl. She didn't even get hold of her aunt so I wanted to let her know that she called the wrong number and also make sure she was ok. Maybe she needed a doctor, b/c at one point it sounded like she was screaming in pain. So I checked my missed call list and the number was restricted. I hope she's ok and that she gets some help.

Dr office, my turn
H had her 2 months check up. E kept saying it was her turn to be checked. This coming from the girl who used to scream when the doctor got to close to her. So as I was changing H's diaper he gave her a quick check up. He said it was like Christmas in July. E sure has changed these last few months. Not so shy anymore (except with Mr C and Mr A, haha).

I guess we got two things checked off the list. H woke up and is crying in her her crib and E climed up on a radiator and wants help getting down. I'll be back (sometime).

Today

Today was cleaning day here, even though it's Tuesday. But C had the day off yesterday so it's almost like it's Monday. I can't clean when he's home.

My M-I-L went home today. She was here for 2 weeks. 5 more days than what she planned for. Her original plane home was canceled due to snow. We had a good time together. E loved playing games with her. I loved handing over H to her when she needed to be burped. =)
I wish our families weren't spread out all over the place. =(

I started working out today. I did two 10 minute work outs from exercise on demand. "Thighs and buns" and "abs and back". My legs felt like jello for half an hour afterward. E tried to do some of it with me. She looked so cute!

When C came home he took E out in the snow for a while. She is back inside now and he is snow blowing the driveway and parking lot.

E got to play on the computer today while I vacuumed. At first she vacuumed with her little toy vacuum, but then she got bored of it and I didn't want her to bring out toys while I was cleaning. She played a lot of Dora games. She's getting pretty good with the mouse.

Sweden got another gold medal today in men's biathlon. =)

February 14th, 2010

I'm waiting for my cup of decaf chai to steep. I really enjoy a good cup of chai tea, yum!

I finally figured out what classroom E should be in during church. =) She was shy, but had a pretty good first time in the class. Her teachers are so sweet! This class is a lot more structured than the nursery she used to be in. She loved that nursery, but she got really wound up in there. I think she misses her friends and I can't wait for them to turn three so they all can be together again. When I picked her up after service she immediately showed me her craft and told me what they had done. She's so sweet! Then it was time for Sunday school. They made another craft there. And the teachers gave them all little Valentine's cards. She loved it!

C and I got to go out to eat tonight. We brought H with us (she slept the entire time) while Nanny stayed home with E. Thank you so much mom! It was so nice to be able to talk with my husband without being interrupted by a three year old. We went to a cute little place that serves every meal in crepes. The food wasn't great, but ok. That didn't matter though. The company was great! I really enjoyed the experience of a non-chain restaurant. This one reminded me a bit of a casual, European style café . We need more nights like this, C and I. J, if you read this, we need to start this babysitting exchange we've been talking about.

Ok, tea is done and hubby is showered. Time for some more "we time".

What's your opinion on these three things?

I have three things I've been googling a lot lately, reading reviews and trying to figure out what to get. The first thing is a high chair. We never got one for Ella. I fed her in her swing or bouncy seat until she could sit in her booster seat. This time I want a high chair, but I have no idea which one to get. I want one that is easy to clean, doesn't cost a fortune, easy to strap and easy to remove tray. Any ideas?
The next thing is a sit and stand stroller. I was hoping I wouldn't need one, but E freaks out when we put H in "her" stroller, plus I like going for walks when it's warmer out. Not sure E would walk as far and fast as I would... Still not convinced that I need one, but also not convinced that I could do without one. I found these two that I like that are compatible with our car seat. The first one is the Joovy Caboose Ultralight. The second one is the Mia Moda Compagno. (It only got 1 star on this site, but it only got rated by one person and I've seen good reviews on other sites.) The problem is I would like to try them, but they are online only items. If you have any experience with either of them let me know what you think.
The third thing is a new car seat for E. She has 3-4 more pounds left in the roundabout before she's too heavy for it. I think I like these two the best, but then again it's from reading only so I value any experience anyone has. The first one is the Sunshine Kids Monterey and the second one is Britax Monarch. I also like the Graco TurboBooster SafeSeat, especially the price, but not as much as the other two. Hopefully E won't gain too much weight too soon. I want her to be closer to 4 years old, b/c right now I feel a little uncomfortable letting her use a regular seat belt. I know that some high backs come with a 5 point harness, but they are wicked expensive and the ratings aren't as good usually.

I would really like your input on these things. Puh-leeeeease!=)

ending oh nine, beginning twenty ten

New Years Eve...
We went to a party at our friends' house (well, her mom's) and stayed there for a couple of hours. We had a great time and so did E. She didn't want to leave. But we went home and put her to bed and watched a movie and then we fell asleep on the couch and woke up at 6 minutes after midnight. Yep, we missed the ball dropping. We did however see some clips of the shift from 2009 to 2010 from different parts of the world. All I can say is fireworks, fireworks fireworks... and then we get to America... light bulbs - lol! Even though I was never big on spending a ton of money on fireworks when I was living back home I still miss the tradition of walking outside in the cold to watch them. Not really the same thing sitting in your couch watching a ball of light bulbs move a few inches.

New Years Day...
We went sledding with some of our friends. Well, the guys took the kids sledding and us wives stayed home with the youngest ones. Sledding is fun, but this year I preferred staying away from the hill.
Today was probably the last time we saw some of our friends before they move far away. We will miss them!
I'm still very much pregnant which means that C didn't get his tax return. Sorry, babe!
Right now E is asleep (only took one timeout tonight to get her to stay in bed. Improvement.) C is putting a wardrobe together for baby H and I'm on here. For about two more seconds. All done!

9

• So my last post was a little... hmmm... harsh... Sorry about that. I guess it's just the motherly rage that sets in when someone's not being nice to your baby.
• Hubby is watching District 9 right now. I started watching it with him, but it sucks! So here I am.
• Both E's birthday and Christmas were wonderful days. I just truly enjoyed watching E experience it all. I feel like I should be writing so much about it, but I don't really know what to write, it's more of just this really nice feeling about how well things went and how much I love my little family that's still bubbling inside of me. No words for that I guess.
• I started packing my bag for the hospital today. I never got to do that the last time. I realized that I can't pack it all b/c I still need some of the stuff. Hopefully I'll have time to just throw it in there when the time comes. Otherwise C can bring it later.
• My belly feels like it's about to explode! It's so tight.
• Oh, my word did I make a lot of Christmas candy this year. I am definitely sending a bunch of it to C's work Monday. We have to get it out of the house!
• I can't wait to start taking down the Christmas decorations. Normally I want to wait until 20 days after Christmas (Jan. 13th). It's a Swedish tradition to "dance out" Christmas that day. But this year, even though it looks so beautiful, I just want to get everything ready for the baby.
• E has been doing a little better at bedtime with her big girl bed. She still gets up once or twice, but then she falls asleep. It doesn't take an hour anymore. But maybe that's b/c she no longer gets real naps. I let her sleep if she falls asleep in the car, but for the past few days I haven't tried to put her down for naptime. Now I just got to figure out what to do with her in the middle of the day, b/c we both still need that time of peace and quiet even if she doesn't sleep.
• It's getting late so I'm going to get something to drink, get ready for bed and snuggle a little with my hubby on the couch, even if it means watching the end of a very weird movie.

miscellaneous dots again

• The big girl bed thing is definitely a battle every day. E keeps climbing out. It takes about an hour for her to settle in and go to sleep, both at naptime and at bedtime. Some nights she sleeps in her bed all night without waking up, some nights we wake up from her trying to squeeze in between us.
  
• It's Monday today, the only day of the week when I actually feel like cleaning. So except for the counter top in the kitchen my house is sparkling clean.
• E and I made some gingerbread cookies today. Yum! And a lot of fun!
• My lower back is killing me from scrubbing the tub.
• I found some Christmas cards in my purse today that I thought I had put in the mail. Oops! They might show up a little late.
• It's my brother's birthday today. Happy birthday!
  
• Tomorrows plans include grocery shopping and making Swedish meatballs.
  
• Wednesday we'll make some Christmas candy.
• Thursday is E's birthday.
• Friday is CHRISTmas!
  

four

• I'm on a roll. Third day in a row that I'm blogging. E is sleeping in her crib for the last time. Tonight we're putting the big girl bed together. It's very exciting, but also a bit nerve wrecking. I wonder what it will be like putting her down for the night and for naptime. If you have any tricks up your sleeve please share. I have a feeling that we'll be hearing a lot of little feet on the floor past night time /naptime from now on.
• C just got home. He got out early b/c he had a dr's appointment today with his allergist. He had to stop to pick up a prescription too so he bought me a york. Yum!
• I sent out the gifts for Sweden today. They will most likely not make it there before Christmas. I am so bad at getting things in the mail on time. Seriously, I can't remember the last time I sent something on time. I am the same way when it comes to RSVPing for something. Today I RSVP'd for a party that is tomorrow. I was supposed to get back to them by the 13th I think. *sigh*
• Well, my York is in my tummy and I have a couple of phone calls to make so I should probably sign off. Not that that means I will make the phone calls. I'm thinking that since C is home that makes for a pretty good excuse to put it off until tomorrow. Oh, my twisted mind... Can someone say Procrastinator!

Progress

Yesterday C finished the patching/painting in E's room and the nursery. He also bought a bed rail for E. Tonight he will be picking up her mattress, but depending on how late he gets home I don't know if we'll get the bed assembled tonight or tomorrow. I washed all of E's bedding yesterday so that's all done.

Like I mentioned yesterday... I am more pregnant today than I have ever been! And I'm in pain! No contractions or anything. It reminds me more of the cramp you get in your side when you're running. (Well, I get it anyways since I rarely run.) So that + backpain made for a funny story earlier today. I was sitting on the floor, doing a puzzle with E. When we were done I tried to explain to her that I had to get up b/c my side and back were hurting. She walks over to me, kisses my side and back, looks at me and says: "Kiss and make it better. Now you can stay down." So, still in pain, I stayed on the floor. I didn't have the heart to tell her that kisses aren't really enough.

35!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm 35 weeks pregnant today. That's exactly how far along I was when I had E. Which means tomorrow I'll be more pregnant than I'd ever been before. We are working hard to get the nursery done. Well, right now C is working hard to get it done. I can't do my part until he is done with his. Here are the things we need to get done...

• Finish fixing the ceiling in E's room so that we can put her big girl bed in. We had to remove a pipe (that did nothing) because it was placed in the only corner where a bed would fit. That left us with a hole in the ceiling and the floor.
  
• Finish patching up the holes in the nursery. C put in a ceiling fan and ran into some problems.
• Move the futon out of the nursery and finding a spot for it.
  
• Move the crib and changing table from E's room to the nursery.
• Assemble E's big girl bed, buy a safety railing and put that on, wash her bedding (in progress right now, I guess I'm doing something too).
• Wash the crib bedding.
  
• Buy and assemble a wardrobe for H.
• Go through and wash E's baby clothes and put them away.

I think that is pretty much it as far as getting the girls rooms done. We also have to find all of the baby gear, clean that off and set it up and pack my hospital bag and E's bag for wherever she'll be going. What do you put in those bags?
You'd think we'd be done with this already considering E was early so we'd want to be prepared. We do want to be prepared, but being landlords you can't always take care of your own stuff first (it often has to be put aside) plus there are birthdays and Christmas to plan for too. After all it is a pretty busy season. But I'm not stressing out about it. God is in control. He was last time and made us realize all you need for a baby in the beginning are diapers, some clothes and a pack n play. And we got that covered! =)

Seven

• We had a birthday party for E two days ago. She was so excited and she had so much fun. I didn't want to do a Christmas themed birthday. I figured just b/c she is a Christmas kid doesn't mean she can't have a backyard party. So we decorated the church café with flowers, butterflies and other bugs and brought in backyard equipment (houses, slides and a climber) for the kids to play on. We also had a craft corner and dad did some face painting.
  As we were leaving it had started to snow and E ran around trying to catch snow flakes on her tongue. A perfect ending! Well, E crashing in her crib when we got home was pretty perfect too. =)
• All the preparing and the party itself made me really sore. I didn't get to take as many breaks during the day as my body requires right now and so I was in a lot of pain all Saturday night. But it was all worth is, seeing E have so much fun. And the pain is mostly gone by now.
• Yesterday we got to see baby BAM. Congrats to the M's! E got to hold him. Well, I helped her hold him while she was sitting down. When we got home she kept bringing me baby dolls to hold, but she had to help me hold them. I think she will be quite possessive of baby H when she arrives.
• Today is cleaning day and the vacuuming, sweeping and mopping is done. I will dust later. Yes, I know, dusting should be done before vacuuming and mopping, but I didn't feel like it. Cleaning is a lot more fun when you don't have rules to follow.
  
• C went away on a business trip yesterday. I don't like it when he's away. First of all I miss him. And so does E. It also means less breaks for me. And harder to leave the couch to go to bed. And harder to fall asleep. But we're blessed that he has a job and this means some overtime, which is great right before Christmas.
  
• I'm 34 weeks pregnant right now. I had E at 35 weeks. Hopefully baby H will let us celebrate Christmas before she shows up. I would really like to make it to January and then she can come whenever she wants to. C is hoping for end of December. Tax return, ya know!
• It's time for lunch. There is plenty of leftover pizza from the party so that's what we'll have today.
  

TMI

I don't know if this falls under the category for too much information, but at least you've been warned... =)
I am going to blame this one on pregnancy brain. When I got out of the shower I realized that I had shaved one leg, but not the other. C laughed pretty hard at that one! I did however scrub the shelves in the shower while I was in there since it's easier to reach them while I'm actually in the tub now that this belly is getting so big.

What do you write for a title when your post is just a bunch of random info?

So I was going to write a new post but then E came up to me with a book and I got distracted. Can't really remember what I wanted to write. We read The Alphabet Book. She's doing so good. I think there was one or maybe two letters she didn't know the sound of. She even knows when they have more than one sound.

Potty training is also going well. She rarely has an accident anymore. She's in underwear all day long except for naps/bedtime and when we go out. Half the time the diaper is dry after naptime or when we come back inside so I should probably start skipping the diaper at those times too.

I really hope we found new tenants yesterday. They seemed nice and very interested and we could really use the rent money.

I am 28 weeks pregnant now and have my next doctor's appointment Thursday. The biweekly appointments start after that and they told me that around week 30/32 they will start the weekly ones since E was a preemie. I am hoping to make it past all of the holidays this time. E was 5 weeks early and if that happens again this baby will be here mid December.

I don't know where I stand when it comes to the flu vaccines. I know it's really hard to get hold of the swine flu vaccine here so I don't have to make up my mind about that one just yet. But what about the regular flu vaccine... they said that the people who got it last year are more likely to get the swine flu than the people who didn't get it. What?! And all of a sudden you start hearing about all these people around you who are starting to feel sick or knows someone with the flu (one or the other). It makes me want to hibernate!

Last night I made Pasta Fagioli but I read the recipe wrong and added twice the amount of pasta, lol. It was more of a stoup than a soup. Still ok though. Tonight I think I'm making a harvest chili. It's vegetarian and it's served on oven roasted butternut squash. I hope it's as delicious as it sounds. I'll let you know.

We are slowly getting the kitchen cabinet doors painted and put up and everytime E sees a new door she goes: "Look, doors! It's beautiful!" I must agree. C is doing a wonderful job and I am really enjoying my new, brighter kitchen.

another little update

I am tired today! Last night, as C and I were watching TV, the doorbell rang. It must have been 10:30pm at least. It was one of our tenants. She was heading to work, but could not get out of the driveway b/c someone had parked on the street right in front of it. We had to call the cops who had to call the tow truck. And even though the car alarm went off no one came to claim their car. I bet they were confused this morning when they came to get their car! After being out in the cold air we weren't that sleepy anymore, and there was a trowdown on the food network that made us hungry so we grabbed something to eat. And then we watched some more TV and fell asleep on the couch.

Today E and I went on the nature walk I talked about last time I was on here. J and her boys came too. It was such a beautiful day! E was very fascinated with the leaves that were falling off the trees. While we were away C and his dad started putting the shed together. It's almost done now.

Dinner tonight will probably be tuna noodle casserole, since I forgot to defrost any meat today.