The light elf (Daddy) visited our house this weekend. Our house looks very festive. Megan couldn't stand that he was home, yet outside, so she had to make several visits outside to "check on him." She helped put the clips on the lights (she'd say, "Hey, I'm good at this!) and would've climbed up on the roof if we'd let her.

Not much to blog about. This is pretty much what life looks like around here: Megan attached to the nebulizer and camped out on the couch watching movies. I'm a little worried that she's getting a little too comfortable with this set up...before the credits are rolling on one movie, she's declaring what she wants to watch next. It's hard to keep the Energizer bunny still, sick or not, without a viable distraction. I think we've played the entire Disney movie selection over the course of the past 3 days. Stellar parenting!





She's still has a cough and is running a nasty fever - 103 seems to be her favorite number - but the puking has subsided (thank goodness!). We took her to the doctor on Friday. He said he's pretty sure she already had something (perhaps the flu) and that the flu shot just made it worse. He said to keep on with the Motrin, the nebulizer with an additional prescription, and fluids. Oh, the best part? He said it would probably take 3-7 more days for her to recover. Holy moly. Night time/overnight is pretty bad around here, so Daddy didn't get out to Home Depot at 5 a.m. for our Christmas tree. We're treeless for the time being; decorating the tree was the much anticipated event for Friday, but it's been put on hold for now. When things settle down we'll get the tree up and the ornaments dangling.

We had a very wonderful, fabulous Thanksgiving Day. Of course I only have 3 pictures of the whole day because it's really hard to be lazy/stuff your face with a camera in your hand. First, we bummed around the house and watched part of the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Megan thought that was pretty neat-o. Then we had a very yummy lunch with our friends, the Hawkins. Their entire extended family was gracious enough to welcome us into their family Thanksgiving, having never even met us. I'll have to say, it felt just like being with my family! Megan and Ellie each touched about 1/10th of their meals before heading out to play princess again. We were so stuffed when we left that we didn't even have room for dessert. Like I needed it...



Later in the afternoon we went to Gran and Papa's for Thanksgiving dinner. Uncle Scott spent the evening with us after work, too. Megan wore herself out, started running a fever again, puked, and then climbed up on Uncle Scott for some consoling lovins.



It didn't take long before she was up and running around again with the cousins...even with a 102+ fever. Gran finally got them settled down in front of a movie.



I'm not one to get sappy or sentimental on my blog, but I do have a "thankful list." Having said that, if they were all serious and/or mushy, you would be commenting asking if I was the one in the family running the fever. This is not all-inclusive, or comprehensive, but I'm thankful for:

• My sweet little family, both those born and unborn, who make me laugh and feel loved.
• My extended family - both sides. Although it seems likes sometimes we're on an extended episode of "Brothers and Sisters", it's all worth it.
• My friends, old and new, who make me smile, think, and care. I sincerely appreciate all the support I've had lately.
• My cute little red camera...that gets used at least once a day.
• The Moms Club gals for helping me see another (better) side of being a SAHM and in turn, saving me!
• Pumpkin Pie (no explanation needed)
• Google chat, my nightly entertainment source.
• Halliburton for transferring a fun Aussie family to our town. Perhaps kindred spirits do exist.
• Elastic, for without it I would be nekked right now (so you should be thankful too).
• The Cable news networks, both on TV and online, for without I would know nothing and probably get much more done.
• The Black Friday ads for providing entertainment and inspiring conversation with several people today, some of whom I wouldn't have probably talked to today. I sent and received emails, text messages, and phone calls about good deals.
• TUMS, Children's Motrin, and Children's Tylenol so we can all sleep tonight until Daddy gets up to go to Home Depot at 5 a.m.

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving day and have a wonderful weekend!

Megan is feeling better than she was last night. She hasn't puked all day (thank goodness), no fever, and just has the cough. Hopefully last night was just a fluke.

Thought I'd share two of Megan's new favorite things to do.

1) She loves to play "Cowboys" with Daddy.


2) She loves to watch "Dancing With the Stars". Not only does she love to watch, she loves to imitate while they are dancing. That's not her falling...she particularly likes the floor moves and likes to copy those. (Pardon, I was on the phone when I grabbed the camera.)

I'll spare you the picture of this one.

Megan finally got her flu shot today, but then when we got home she complained of an upset stomach. She wasn't running a fever, but she wouldn't eat and was very weepy and cranky. She climbed up on me, snuggled, and fell asleep at 6:30 p.m. She came into the living room at a little after 10 p.m. running a fever, shaking, and weepy. I held her on my lap for a while, and Daddy gave her some Motrin. Then all of a sudden, Megan started screaming that her throat hurt. It freaked us both out that she was screaming about it. I asked her what was going on, and she said her throat was "going bump bump." Like idiots, we told her to open her mouth so we could check it out. As we leaned over and looked in, Megan shot projectile vomit all over both of us! I mean the most puke I have ever seen come out of a toddler body. Daddy wasn't pinned down by Megan, so he shot up while I sat in a flowing river of vomit. We got everything cleaned up and shared lovings. She's back in bed for the time being...hopefully we can figure out what's causing this mess.

Seriously, never a dull moment around here. :)

Megan and I aren't having such a great day - and it's only 1:30 p.m. Not only that, some of our time was buffered by hosting playgroup at our house. It's just been constant, and right now her best option is to stay in her room and take a nap. :) (Don't worry Aunt Lisa, no need to report...I'm just talking smack.)

Among several other things she's done today in our short time together is destroy one of my scrapbooks. Yes, the obsessed scrapbooker has been humbled, brought down to her knees with a sucker gut-punch by a 2 year old. She pulled all of the page protectors off the pages (see pile of mangled plastic below) and even ripped pages from the hinges (see ripped page and picture below)! All of my hard work, money, and creativity (okay, maybe not in that old book, but hey) gone in the minute it took me to run to the kitchen to stir the meat on the stove and answer the door. Yeah, I enjoyed the lecture that my husband gave me about storing my scrapbooks on the bookshelf, in the office, the only seemingly safe place in the house (they've survived this long). I hung up on him...



Throughout playgroup I kept having to pull junk out of her mouth, only to realize that she had managed to remove 4 vinyl flowers from her bedroom wall and chew them like gum. So now those are all gone from her walls. Another chunk of change down the drain. And it doesn't look near as cute.

Oh, and let's not forget how she managed to destroy my nightstand in one fell-swoop this morning when I went to answer the phone. One whole tube of Chapstick, a Sharpie, a previously bound book unbound by her, a partial glass of water, and a box of Kleenex makes for a great mess.

And lastly, what person wouldn't want to receive a proposal, freshly addressed, signed, dated, and printed with a big fat 2 year old (scribbled) letter "H" and a smiley faced spider drawn in the middle of it? Maybe that one would get funded. From the looks of things, I don't keep an eye on her 24/7, but she managed to do this one right in front of my face. Apparently she could reach the other stack of papers on the counter.

I'm done. Before I send myself into early contractions, I'm headed to the couch to veg and wallow...oh and cry!

Megan made up this new form of entertainment to help pass time in the shower. She measures me with a pretend measuring tape. Last night she silently measured and measured and measured. Finally she stated, "Yep. You're way much too large."

Tonight we welcomed in the season with a holiday celebration at a local ranch. It was a catfish fry followed by holiday lights and Santa brought in via helecopter. We went with our favorite Aussie family, plus their very fun Gran, and Uncle Rick, Aunt Karen, Morgan, Maddison, and Benson were there too! The kids ran between the bounce house, rocking horses, mechanical bull (yes, that is Megan up on that bull...but she had a meltdown just before he started moving), mini-golf, and the dance floor. Megan got to tell Santa that she wants Barbies for Christmas, but the whole Santa thing was a fiasco, so we're going to go "remind" Santa again in about a week or two what she said she'd like (that's a whole 'nother story). And yes, that's me - the large load - out there on the dance floor. (I bet I feel it even more tomorrow.) It was such a fun night!

Megan went to the beauty salon for a big girl haircut. Her hair was so stringy and out of control that I just couldn't take it anymore. So off we went, with no nap, to the salon. Kacie was so good with her and so very patient.

Okay, so I had my check-up today. My blood pressure was good, the baby's "heart-beep" (Megan's term) was great, and yes, you guessed it, my weight was up. I gained 5 pounds in 2 weeks. Dr. Z looked at my chart, looked at me, looked back at the chart, and said, "Wow. 5 pounds in 2 weeks. Impressive." She didn't lecture, but we did have a chat about my baking obsession. Her suggestion nesting wise: clean instead of bake/eat. Fine. I heard her loud and clear. My family will probably appreciate that more anyway. Again, my blood sugar is a concern, so I have to go (early) to have my glucose test today or tomorrow. She said she's pretty sure I will fail it, so best to get the whole process started early and get it addressed. She also moved my appointments up closer instead of the once a month deal. Hmmmm....I'm not going to worry or fret - my normal reaction to such things - because I'm already doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Can't do much more (okay, maybe I could lay off the sweets...).

I've slacked on the laundry lately, so Megan didn't have any nightgowns to wear to bed the last 2 nights. After some crafty talking, I managed to persuade her to wear a pair of pant pj's to bed. It was ugly, but she made it to bed. Fast forward to 2:30 a.m. to a cute little face up next to my bed: "I can't sleep in these pants pj's any longer. I need a nightgown." Seriously? Two nights in a row she's requested that I adjust the pj situation in the middle of the night in order to get sleep. The girl is fanatical about her clothes - day or night. Enough of that. There are 4 clean nightgowns in the drawer. That should allow me to slack a few more days on the laundry.

Pretty sure tomorrow will be Snickers Surprise cookies. Unless I find something different between now and then.

We've been fighting this battle with Megan about using the word "can't". She uses it to try to get out of doing things...she can't walk because she's tired; she can't clean up her playroom because she's busy; she can't get the Barbie clothes on, etc. We've tried to substitute terminology and explained how we don't use "can't." We've suggested, "I've tried...", "It's hard...", "I need help", etc. It's a hard one, but um, today she got it.

She walked into my bathroom while I was doing my hair, flung a Barbie and dress at me, and in one breath yelled, "I've tried and tried and tried but it is too hard to get dis Barbie dress on so I completely need help!!!!!!"

So, I'm obsessed with baking right now. I cannot bake enough. And when I'm not baking, I'm thinking about what I could be baking. Weird. I baked pumpkin pies yesterday (and as an update: Megan and I polished it off for breakfast early this morning...or I would've shared) and today I ventured into my version no-man's land: bread!

I've lived in the shadows of my mom's famous bread, of which I manage to screw up every time I try to make it, so have just avoided baking bread altogether. There are some "super-moms" who make their own bread all the time, and quite frankly, that's very intimidating to me. But I didn't want anything sweet today...just wanted to bake.

I searched and searched for an easy "first timer" bread recipe. I found one on Allrecipes that had 1,300+ reviews and 5 stars. The common statement among the reviews was that the recipe was "idiot proof".

You guessed it: I'm an idiot (Hey, all three of my brothers: get your finger off the comment button). I managed to screw up the 2 loaves of bread. I followed the recipe except I subbed one a cup of whole wheat flour (a reviewer suggested) for the regular flour, so who knows what went wrong. Anyway, the bread tastes like crap-ola. My nice husband said that it is good bread WITH something else on it...to which I agree. If it has butter or spread on it, it's fine. If not, yucko.

That experience was enough for me. I've been in a little funk lately, kinda weepy and cranky, so I thought baking would help. Like I needed something else like crappy bread to drag me down. Despite the weigh-in at the doctor's office on Wednesday, I'm back to baking sweets tonight and tomorrow - at least that's something that is hard to screw up. Perhaps someone will take the sweets off my hands and eat them just so I can bake them...yeah after I posted about my crappy bread baking you'll be sure to volunteer, huh?

Well, as much as I love to "nest" around my house, I also LOVE to bake lately. This is the second Saturday in a row that I've spent filling my house with lovely smells and filling my belly with lovely baked goods. I had a wonderful little helper in the kitchen today (yes, she owns clothes...).

77%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?
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And what do you think I plan to do about this addiction? Not a stinkin' thing!!! Keep on blogging, that's what. Don't want my number to get below 50%.

Thanks, Laura....I borrowed this from your cute blog!

Our meeting today did not go as well as I had hoped. It reminded me of my former life...standing up in front of 35 10th graders, trying to get them to comprehend and process poetry. No go. Or like me trying to explain to Megan why she can't wear a sundress when it's 50 degrees. No go. Defending our cause to a person who'd already made up his mind. No go.

No need to bore you with the details, but when I left the meeting I felt deflated and discouraged.

And I was mad. I tend to get very passionate and defensive of my work. (Which is why I should just probably stick to the whole mom thing, exclusively. Hard to do. I digress....)

I stewed over the meeting for a while, and vented, but then my old "self" came back from out of no where. Instead of just getting madder and madder, I decided to process (okay, analyze) it a little more. The long wait at the airport, while the storm passed, helped provide some much needed "reflection" time. I decided to be extremely grateful for today's eye-opening experience and to look for what I could learn from the whole situation - beginning to end.

That's when my TRUE former personality kicked in. Oh yeah, I got madder about it, but not in the way you'd think. Two sayings/cliches came to mind: "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" (but I changed can't to CAN), and "Bring it on, Porkchop!" Without knowing his influence, the meeting today with the gentleman has further inspired, motivated, and lit a fire within me. This old dog is bringing it on.

During my quick flight home (hey, did you know you can fly from Houston to DFW in 38 minutes when your pilot is ready to get home for the night?) I made a list of improvements that I could make in my writing and arguments, as well as assessed the list of future opportunities. Today's meeting might not've provided the outcome I had in mind for right now, but there were definitely positives that will be very beneficial later. And I'm all fired up and motivated!

But I've been up since 4:30 a.m., so I'll be more motivated after some sleep.

I have a very important trip/meeting tomorrow in Houston, so I'm fretting about my appearance. There's not much I can do about my figure and clothes, so I decided to concentrate on my face. We went to Ulta today to pick up some "quick fix" makeup and tips. Josh was very nice to me and not at all outwardly critical of my lack of knowledge. He stuck to the basics and gave me a nice, natural inexpensive mineral look. Meanwhile, Megan helped herself to a few tester eyeshadows. Then Josh gave her a whole set for her to use to decorate her face. He worked on me while Megan worked on herself. Yikes. Here's the after...(pardon the curly hair today...it's windy and rainy). Oh, and Megan took this shot of me. I had to use a photo program to straighten and crop it, but she did a pretty dang good job.

Yep, she's still running a fever off and on. She'll run one; stop; run one; take Motrin; stop; run one, etc. And still no symptoms. It's sure hard to figure out how to handle the situation. She was fine this morning, so we decided to go to tour the hospital where Connor will be born. They only host hospital tours on Sunday afternoons and since the Cowboys did not have a game this week it was the perfect time to go. Megan was very well behaved and very interested in the tour. We walked into the delivery room, and Megan said, "Hey, that bed is where Mommy will lay down." We showed her where Connor will sleep, where I will stay afterwards, and the nursery. It was fun to watch her soak it all in...I could tell her brain was processing the entire time we were walking around. By the end of the tour, she was running a dang fever again. Thank goodness we weren't around any babies or moms!



Meanwhile, Megan is keeping the Bumbo seat warm for Connor while she watches shows with Daddy.

They have a sibling class in January. Here's the class description:

"This class helps children know what to expect from their new baby brother and sister through films, changing diapers of lifesize infant dolls, and visiting the nursery at the hospital. It also provides positive parenting alternatives for challenging yet very normal sibling behavior."

Think it would be worth it to take her to this class? I have a few weeks until we have to sign up, but I just don't know if it would be a waste (like our childbirth classes with Megan) or worth it. Feel free to opine...of course I'm analyzing (okay, overanalyzing), so I need input.

So, we went to go visit my friend Kelli and her boys today - including new baby Corgan. He's two weeks old, and we got to see him for the first time. Megan was be-boppin' around the house this morning, excited to see the boys, and was very cheerful. She got to hold baby Corgan, and was so darn sweet with him...like maybe she was practicing.



After we were there for a while, she started acting kind of clingy and weepy. She kept saying she wanted me to hold her and that she was sleepy; "All I want to do is sleep in my bed," she said. I held her in the chair, leaned my head on hers, and uh she was hot. Um, so here we are at a newborn's house, seemingly fine, and poof! fever??? I was so freakin' embarrassed. Although I was planning to go get lunch for all of us, I thought the best idea was to make a quick exit in humiliation. I'd made an appointment for Megan to get a flu shot in the afternoon, since she'd missed out on one during the coughing days, but fever knocks those chances out. So we called Daddy at work and stopped by for him to talk to us during his lunch. We decided to grab a burger, and while we did Megan got worse. She just moaned, whined, and cried the entire time. She was miserable. She would not eat or do anything.



We quickly headed home to tackle the situation. She bounced back to normal after a shot of Motrin and a nap. However, it is looking as though perhaps it is wearing off...

I'm SO sorry, Kelli!!!

We have a family friend in the hospital in Little Rock, and we can't go visit her. :( Megan decided to tell her a "bed-night" story and send it via Youtube. She loved it and said it made her feel much better. Hope you enjoy, too. (My favorite part is Megan peeking at the next page to see what's next.)

I got tagged by my cool neighbor Marla, so I get to share 8 interesting tidbits about myself. And more importantly, you get to read them. HA! 8? I'm not really that interesting, but I'll give it a shot.

1) I am a news junkie. It is my undeclared goal in life to know as much about current events as possible. My brain/body automatically responds to the sound of the "Fox News Alert".

2) I read a lot of political fiction, which has lead the compilation of a small file in my brain of conspiracy theories. I don't share that file with people very often because I tend to get funny looks. Come on people, they're just ideas...

3) I analyze everything to death. Everything but which piece of Halloween candy to eat next must be mulled over, worried about, listed with pros and cons, and overanalyzed until approximately one minute before the decision must be made.

4) I collect children's books and have since um, high school? My favorite? Alexander and the No-Good, Very Bad Day.

5) I am NOT an outdoorsy person. Outside is purely a means to get from one point to another.

6) I can't wait for Megan to go to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but then when she's there, I can't wait to go get her.

7) I tend to 'collect' cookbooks and recipes, but tend not to use them. I want to, but perhaps I just forget about them or something? Who knows.

8) When I grow up, I want to be a meteorologist.

Tagging whomever WANTS to play AND the following 8 (the pressure is on):
Becca
Vanessa
Kristen
Aunt Kari (so she'll post something and move up from the bottom of my list)
Jenny
Lee
Kelly
Taryn

Pardon, this is just a version of my "blog soup". It's a little bit of everything.

I spent my day in front of the news, as expected, while (don't worry Aunt Karen) I worked. Towards the end of Megan's school day, I got a wild hair and started nesting. A little twig here and a piece of string there...the bathroom linen closet and guest room closet were cleaned out, followed by a wipe down of all of the light switch face plates throughout the house. I also made a list of at least 25 other things that need to be cleaned out/organized over the next few weeks. Next on the list is my disaster of a laundry room.

I picked Megan up from school, and yet again received "the look" followed by a laugh from Miss Tiffany. Megan had a fabulous day at school today. She was sweet, polite, and helpful. Whew. However, apparently she got her head stuck in the fence while either trying to escape or look at the frogs while they were outside in the play area today. I asked Megan about it and she said she just wanted to chase the frogs. Yet another lecture. I'm getting pretty good at these things (I think). Meg fell asleep on the way home since she didn't nap at school.

While she was asleep, I tried to finish Dracula for book club on Thursday night. Now I can relate to my former students (please don't tell them) trying to finish the book the night before the test. I've been reading this *#&@^! book for 3 weeks, and I just can't seem to get through it! It is quite possible that I might have to resort to Cliffs Notes for the last 60 pages because the polls are closing and my eyes are glued to the TV. Hope no one comes to revoke my teaching certificate over that...

Oh, and the list of ingredients I've managed to sneak down Megan's throat through a smoothie over the past 48 hours grows! She has ingested: carrots, celery, flax seed, butternut squash, and zucchini. She even asked for her smoothie before asking for a cartoon this morning. Whoa nelly.

Back to the news...Megan just asked, "Who is for America?" Bestill my heart...I get to explain the election process to my 2 year old. Beats the heck out of coming up with answers to her, "Why?" questions.

Hey, quit reading my blog and...

GO VOTE!!!!

Go now so you don't have to wait in line forever. And then after you vote, make use of that snazzy "I voted" sticker. Here is a list (as provided by our local TV station) of freebies:

• Free Krispy Kreme donut
• Free ice cream at Ben and Jerry's
• Free Starbucks
• Free tattoo removal (Dallas area only)

I already voted, so I'll be here glued to cable news channels. Like my sister-in-law said last night, this is like an early Christmas for me...uninterrupted news coverage. Whoo hoo!

Megan and I were playing with her Aunt Lisa quiet book. Inside is an ark, a Noah, and animals. Megan was the animals; I was Noah. This exchange went on for quiet some time.

Megan: We hafta get into the boat...it's raining!
Mommy: Animals, can I come in too? I don't want to float away.
Megan: (as the donkey) No, you can just stand here at the top of the boat and hold your umbrella.

I've already professed my undying love for Costco, on more than one occassion, but I feel I must do it yet again. I LOVE COSTCO. And this weekend just solidified our already solid relationship (me and Costco, that is).

First off, they have started carrying more and more foods that we can eat (missing the ingredients I've cut out of our daily consumption). Of course the samples always taste so great, but then the labels always ruin it for me. This weekend, I was able to read the labels AND then put it in the basket. For example, have you tried the new kettle cooked turkey breast? Yum-o! And the new multi-grain bread? Mmmmm....And as if they could read my mind, they brought back the organic pancake batter in the spray can.

But the real kicker was the VitaMix blender demonstration. They guy made a smoothie with both fruits and veggies - strawberries, banana, orange, carrots, cabbage, and squash. Megan drank the whole thing and asked for more. Uh-huh. The girl doesn't eat a single veggie, but she drank the whole veggie smoothie. That set my wheels in motion, but I'm not an impulse buyer (okay, sometimes), so I came home and did some research. It was a close call between 2 different brands, but ultimately it came down to the fact that I am not patient enough to wait for one to be shipped, and Costco had one right there on the shelf. So, after lots of reading and asking questions, Megan had her first fruit/veggie (surprise) smoothie this morning for breakfast via my new VitaMix blender - and she asked for more. I'm hoping to cut down on my Jamba Juice budget, get some veggies down my kiddo, make some baby food for my other kiddo, and burn that motor up making delicious, healthy foods for the whole family. Oh, and make a dent in my 10 pound bag of carrots...we may look a little orange over the next few days. I'm usually not a sucker for an appliance, but whew, this one got me.

22 weeks pregnant with Megan