The Results Are In!

We had our ultrasound today, and here's what we found out. . .

As you can see, Eleanor is still enjoying her time as the center of the universe. She really seemed amazed by the ultrasound. I think it was good for her to see an ultrasound when the baby was looking more like a baby than just a blob. It seemed to confirm to her that Mommy really does have a baby in her tummy. Tummy, uterus, same diff, right?

So, we're really excited that the next member of our family is a

Girl!

For the few of you who voted girl on the poll, feel free to pat yourself on the back and refer to yourself as the "prognosticator of prognosticators" for the next few days.

What goes up must come down

As much as Grant and I tried not to, we really were getting our hopes up about that house. Last Thursday, the day we were supposed to look at it one more time and possibly make an offer, our realtor called. It already had an offer. We were too late. Grant and I were both really disappointed. We told our realtor to let us know the moment anything falls through, but that's about all we could do.

This is what it looks like from the outside. Pretty cute, isn't it? Oh well. We had been praying about it, so the Lord must have something else in mind for us right now.

Here was the happiest part of my day that day: After I talked to Grant on the phone and received our bad news, I put Eleanor down for a nap and went to check the mail. There was a package in the mail addressed to me from some music company. I hadn't ordered anything. I couldn't imagine what it might be. When I opened it, I found Three Dog Night's greatest hits CD and nothing else. I immediately knew how it found me.

When I was younger, I would play video games in our basement, Atari, and some Nintendo or Sega. I mostly liked playing Joust on Atari. We had an old stereo system down there that had radio, a record player, and an 8-track player. I didn't like all the commercials that came with radio, and the only record we had that I liked was a single ("Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen). You can only listen to that song so many times before you get sick of it. I wasn't familiar with any of the bands we had on 8-track, except one: Three Dog Night. We had their greatest hits, and I listened to it over and over and over, singing along while playing Atari. If you're not familiar with the band name, just think, "Jeremiah was a bullfrog!" If that doesn't help you, you're on your own.

Years later, I bought the greatest hits CD for my dad, knowing the 8-track had been his. When we were in Utah, I asked him if I could copy the CD because I had heard one of the songs on a TV show, and it got me missing the music. My dad, being true to form, couldn't find it anywhere. I reminded him several times to look for it, and when I left, I told him I still expected him to find it for me. He offered to give me the money to download it on Napster or I-tunes, but I told him it was the principle of him actually having to find something he had misplaced. So, the copy I received in the mail wasn't the long-lost copy I gave my dad years ago, but I knew my dad had sent it. It was the perfect moment, when I was bummed out about the house, to know that he was thinking of me. I guess I'll have to burn him a copy.

We did go look at several houses that evening and took one last forlorn look at the house that slipped through our fingers. We weren't interested in any of the other houses. Our realtor took a look at our house to get an idea of what we might be able to ask for it. We had previously hoped to remodel to make it larger, but she said that if we were to make it bigger, we would never be able to find the comps we needed in our neighborhood to get out of it what we put into it. She also said that we weren't very likely to have a contingent offer on our house selling accepted unless our house was already on the market or already in escrow. Grant and I talked it over that evening, and we decided to put the house on the market. This could get interesting, considering we don't know where we'll live if it sells (if all else fails, my parents have a one-room apartment off of their house we can stay in for a while). Our house isn't actually on the market yet. We're waiting to hear back from our realtor and start taking steps in that direction. Anybody want to live in the seafoam? It has treated us well.

Here's What's Up

I feel like I've been so absent from blogging lately even though I've been slowly catching up on posting Utah pictures. So, here's a little of what we've been up to, and don't hold your breath for any pictures.

A while ago, Grant and I looked at a house that's for sale just about 2 blocks away. We liked it. The more we thought about it, the more we liked it. Darn! We weren't even officially in the market for a house. I even told Grant that if we had been in the market, I would have wanted to make an offer right away. But, we've been casually browsing. We live in a 2 bedroom house, and I used to always tell Grant we would have to find a bigger place when child #2 came along. Since then, I've tried to look at things more realistically and reckon myself to staying here and making it work. And then we had to go and look at that house. But, we were going to have to deal with the decision of remodeling, refinancing, or finding a bigger place sooner or later. So, we're going tomorrow to look at the place again, and if we still feel good about it, we'll make an offer. It's not quite in our price range, so we have to hope they'll come down. After we look at that house, our realtor is going to walk through our house to give us an idea of how much she thinks we can get for it. Now you know what I've been doing all week: cleaning. We have so much clutter and I'm not the best organizer, so there's a bunch of junk that's been sitting around, waiting for me to figure out some place to put it. It doesn't help much that Grant and I are both pack rats.

I've made a dent in some of our worst messes (meanwhile, Eleanor has trashed any rooms in which I am not currently working). I guess however it looks tomorrow will just have to be good enough. It's going to be hard to convince people that this place can be a roomy, welcoming environment to live in if we have so much clutter everywhere. Anyways, wish me luck.

Of course, this is the week that Grant is working late 3 nights out of the week, so he has helped me whenever he's been able to, but it's pretty hectic. Add to that the fact that he was going to mow lawns last night to make the place look more presentable (with our lawn mower that I think is only 2 years old), and of course, he tried and tried, but couldn't get the lawn mower to start. Oh goodie! We might have to replace it already! (If you can't smell the sarcasm there's something wrong. . .)

I'm obviously way behind on blogging. I actually have Easter egg hunt pictures I want to post, but I keep telling myself I'll get through all the Utah pictures soon. There are several things slowing me down. One of them is our old internet router that crashes like crazy. It never had much problem with blogger before (except maybe some of my friends' blogs that have all kinds of stuff on their sidebar that overloads it-- Shalyse, your blog is guilty, guilty, guilty, on that one), but now, I can't even upload pictures without the router crashing. So, if I want to load pictures onto a post, I have to sit on the floor next to the cords and hook my lappy directly up to the modem (ouch! my back and pregnant, spreading hips!). Grant has had his eye on this super-duper mega mondo router that would supposedly solve all our problems, but he was waiting for it to be released. Then, it was released, but really, really expensive. Now, we're looking at a house and not buying anything because we might be buying a house, so we're stuck with our dumpy, old, semi-functioning router. And, don't ask me what kind of router it is that Grant wants because I really believe that super-duper mega mondo router is the technical term for it.

The other thing slowing me down is the fact that Eleanor, who at some times even preferred her daddy putting her to bed, but at least would let us switch off from night to night, has recently decided it's all about Mommy. She throws major fits when we try to make her let Daddy put her to bed, and I don't like doing that to him. While she's going to bed is one of the few great times to have to myself, but now, I can't even do that every other night unless I want to torture Grant and listen to the fit. This bodes well for having a second child, doesn't it?

The other thing stopping me from blogging as much is that I've really gotten into reading again. Right now, I'm reading Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. My sister loaned me a book while I was in Utah, and though I was never interested in it, I promised her I would give it a shot (more about the book when I actually start it). She has been pressing me to start it so we can girl talk about it every day like she does with my sister-in-law, Lia, who got her into it. Since I can't bring myself to start another book when I'm in the middle of one, I've been trying to get through Mansfield Park so I can finally appease my sister. That takes up the majority of naptime, another opportune time that I might be blogging. And, if I'm not reading, I'm probably napping. I just feel like hibernating lately. If I don't stay in bed most of the morning (find something to entertain Eleanor, listen to make sure she is content and safe, fall back asleep, repeat), I tend to want to nap when Eleanor does. I LOVE sleep!

Oh, and one of the reasons Grant works evenings lately is because he's teaching a class this term. He's teaching an ABE math class (enter his mother's laughter here) on Wednesday nights. Luckily, the class goes from 5-8 instead of from 6-9 like most evening classes, and it's only the one night. This gets him teaching experience, which is looked for in almost all college administrative positions, and it helps us with money, which can never hurt with a baby on the way and a house in our hopes.

I'm trying to think if there's anything else swimming around in my head that I've been wanting to share. . .

Can't think of anything else, but I'll leave you with this. I've been wanting to write this down because it's one of my favorite Eleanorisms. Instead of saying "broke" or "broken," she says, "bork" or "borken." I love it!

And now, back to Mansfield Park. I'm trying, Beth, I'm trying. I'm a slow reader, and it's not a quick read.

I have something better to do, but am I doing it?

23% Geek

15

$5025.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth.

I SCORED A 90%

Utah Trip: Days 5&6

Saturday night, my nephews, Zac and Mason, stayed the night at my dad's while James, Lia, and the other two boys stayed in a hotel. Zac and Mason just couldn't stand to not stay the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house. So, Austin, Kenzie, Zac, and Mason all slept on the living room floor, just above where Eleanor and we were sleeping. At first, I was worried it would be impossible to get Eleanor to bed with the added excitement of two more boys to play with (and the fact that those two boys are total night owls), but since she had barely napped and there was plenty of excitement at the birthday party to wear her out, it wasn't so bad. Sheila had told the kids that they could stay up as late as they wanted to, but if someone had to ask them to be quiet one time, they had to go straight to bed. I made several trips to the bathroom during the beginning hours of the night (naturally, in my delicate state), and it was so funny to see all their worried eyes on me as soon as I reached the top of the stairs. One of them always asked if they were being too loud. They were so afraid I was coming up to scold them, and they would have to go to bed. They actually were really quiet. I don't think I heard their voices at all when I was downstairs. The only thing that even reminded me they were there was the occasional thud on the floor as they moved around.

The next morning, Sunday, we woke up to snow on the ground. So, naturally, the kids (and Grant) suited up in warm clothes and went out for a snowball fight. Isn't that what everyone does Sunday morning before church? Eleanor and I observed and took pictures from the safety of the window.

Mason and Zac.
Grant in Austin's coveralls.

Austin. And Kenzie said she wasn't going out at first, knowing the boys would show no mercy, but she couldn't resist.

And here are a few of the videos I got. . .

Listen at the first of this video. Kenzie comes out and Austin claims her on their team, saying they need help getting Grant. Kenzie says, "I thought it was all against all." And as soon as people are ready to go along with that, she cries, "I'm on Grant's team!" She cracks me up! Her legs are so skinny sticking out under that big, puffy coat, and I love her kamikaze charge.

And I can't quite remember what Zac did to deserve this. . .

. . . but I think this had something to do with it.

Eleanor gets Austin.

They all wanted Mason to come to the window because he was the first to go inside. He didn't go in crying or anything, he just was done being cold. When he went to the window, all the others did the chicken dance for him since he was the first to go inside.

Eleanor got her daddy, too. I really regretted not bringing the snowsuit a friend had loaned me for the trip, but when it all came down to it, we just didn't have room to pack something so bulky for the airplane ride. Besides, she was still getting over her cold anyway. One thing we did do during the first few days was go get her a pair of galoshes or "mucky mucks" as we called them for her to wear while tromping around in the mud. She loved them and wanted to wear them everywhere. I'll have to get a picture of her in them sometime.

After the snowball fight, we played a few games until it was time to get ready for church. A day or two earlier, we learned how to play a game called "Slamwich" that apparently, they had bought a long time ago, but Dad had tried to go over the directions and decided they were too complicated. So, they had never learned how to play it until I came and read the directions and taught them. Of course, I had to tease my dad for not being as smart as I was.

Eleanor trying to be just like Austin.

Mason all cleaned up.

We went to church at my dad's ward, and Aunt Kathleen sang a beautiful song in sacrament meeting. After church, we ate and packed up to ride back to Salt Lake with Aunt Kathleen.

Grant flew out of Utah early Monday morning to get back to work. Eleanor and I stayed the rest of the trip at Aunt Kathleen's house, and she took such good care of us. I took Monday as a day to just take things slow and try to recover from that nasty cold that was still bothering me. We didn't go anywhere or do anything. I was so sick of being sick! Let's just say that my pregnant bladder + a really bad cough = well, that's too much information, but it was unpleasant.