just a quick note:

At my doc appointment on Wednesday we set a day to get induced! Since I've been at 5cm since last week and I'll be a week overdue soon we decided to set a day instead of waiting for me to go naturally. With Ryder I was a week late, dilated to 4cm and having a lot of pain and pressure when I was induced. Both pregnancies the docs have told me I would probably go early since I was dilating and effacing so early. Ha. Sometimes I hate proving the docs wrong. So we set a date and it's coming up soon! I am hoping to go on my own before that because getting induced with Ryder was brutal, but I also don't want to go way overdue when I am already swelling up and having a ton of pressure/pain. Walking around at a 5 is not fun. So I've been cramming in lots of cleaning and Ryder-time! Today we spent a couple hours just enjoying being a family of three since soon there will be one more! It was fun to carve out special time to just enjoy life as it is :) That's all for now...No more posts til after the baby comes!!!! :D :D

Halloween :]

Finally in a better mood! I hope to eventually upload so pics onto this blog but who knows if that will ever happen so if you want some pics just jump on over to Facebook, they will be there soon!
Okay so Halloween. It started off with me crying into my breakfast (I've been doing this far too often lately, I once again blame pregnancy hormones) because I couldn't get Ryder in his Halloween costume which I swore he was going to wear all day because well um it's Halloween and that was the plan! I woke up with a headache that day and Rydes woke up a crab so there were already forces working against us as I tried to hustle Ryder out the door to meet Heather for coffee at 10:30. Yes, I have to really hustle in the morning to get out that "early", don't worry I'm working on it. Needless to say we arrived late and costume-less and a great deal cranky. But it's amazing what good, sympathetic company and a mug of amazing hot chocolate (I'm caffeine-free now, it stinks) can do to improve your mood! Shout out to my amazing cousin and friend Heather here!! She listened to me complain and rant and complain and complain some more, all with a smile on her face and assurances that I wasn't being too much of a downer. Plus she bought my hot chocolate. Who could have a better friend than that?!
After coffee we headed over to where Heather was nannying (how is that not a word?! whatever it is now) so the boys could play. She nannies for a 1 1/2 yr old boy and a 3 yr old boy...so they were the perfect playmates for Ryder! He loved playing with boys around his age that were just as willing to play cars and football and "running running" for hours on end as he was.
After playing there for a couple hours it was time to head home and take a "happy nap". Because when you are crabby you take a happy nap so you can wake up happy. It doesn't always work. This was one of the days where it didn't work. His happy nap was actually a crappy nap and he woke up crabbier than ever. (and no I don't say crappy in front of him, just maybe I call it that in my head lol) Anyway, I decided to stick him in his costume regardless of his obvious resistance. I calmly stuffed him, kicking and screaming, into the lion costume and let him bawl and throw a fit for 45 minutes until he got over it and calmed down. And yes, I did somehow manage to stay calm during all of this. I must have really wanted him in that costume. (For those of you remembering that he was terrified of lion costumes he had gotten over that fear before I put the costume on him or I never would have done it!) Once he had somewhat calmed down we headed over to my mother-in-law's house to get an early start on trick-or-treating. He started bawling when she asked him if he wanted a treat for Halloween. Sigh. After, we picked up John and headed to Houghton for supper and to stop at my Grandma and Papa Raasakka's but with trick-or-treating starting around 4:30 we didn't have as much time as we thought we did so we ended up just eating and hauling back home to get ready for the kids. John took Rydes to Liz and Dave's and his Grandma and Grandpa's while I handed out candy and then the fun part...
I took Rydes trick-or-treating to a couple houses on our street and the whole time he was asking to go home (he was scared of the other kids in costumes and was a little timid walking up to the houses) but when we turned into our yard he told me "More trick-or-treat house mom!" I guess he realized that the more houses he went to the more treats he got! So we walked around to the street behind us where we met up with Lanette and Tara. Rydes and Tara were so cute! They both tromped up to every house and held out their pumpkin buckets for the treats. Ryder even said "Trick-or-treat, put it in my pumpkin bucket. Okay thank you!" a couple times. He was only a little nervous of the other costumes once he decided he liked trick-or-treating and the little trooper even hauled his heavy treat-filled bucket the whole time! He only got freaked out when a kid in a mask and gloves (I think he was Batman) tried to give him candy but that was the only incident. I had so much fun bringing him house to house and seeing his reaction to all the people and candy, especially since he used to be terrified of costumes and started off not wanting to go. Afterward, we headed back home to finish passing out candy and then headed to my aunt Suzy and uncle John's house (Ryder was pumped to learn that John was Steve's dad, not so impressed that Suzy was Steve's mom lol) and then to "Hezzer's house" my aunt MaryAnn and uncle Mark's.
By the time we went to bed our Halloween had turned out happy after all!
ps sorry for the long post. Sometimes I just get in the novel-writing mood.

blah

Well I'm past my due date and that's pretty much all I can say right now. Dilated to 5 cm and feeling fat, crampy and cranky! I wish I could write a nice upbeat post about how fun halloween was but that isn't going to happen today. So sometime later this week when I'm feeling a little less crabby I'll tell you all about it ;)

feeling lonely

This weekend is Mrqt weekend and it is so hard knowing that so many of my friends that don't live by me anymore are only 2 hours away and I won't even see them! Yesterday was such an emotional roller coaster. I started off having a decent day but around dinner time I was just a wreck. I was feeling so sad and upset and I didn't even know why! And I did not have enough patience with Ryder, who was just being his normal energetic self but I found myself getting so irritated at the littlest things! I yelled at him because he got water all over the floor when he was helping me with dishes (he always gets water on the floor, I mean come on Tahnee he's two!) which made him start crying and that in turn made me start crying! Poor little guy took one look at me crying and ran right over, gave me a big hug and said "I sorry mommy, no cry mommy!" I felt a little better after we cuddled and rocked for a while and then Heather, Liz and Kelly came over and I cheered right up. It was so nice to catch up with them all at once, we haven't all hung out together in a while!  When John and I were getting ready for bed, Mal texted me pics of her, Erica and Ju and right away the waterworks started again! I think I made John a little nervous because I was crying so hard I couldn't even tell him what was wrong. But being the husband of an emotional wreck has him pretty well trained I guess because he picked up that I was feeling lonely right away, even before I could put a finger on it! Life sure can throw curveballs at you and one of the hardest things is when you and your best friends all live at least 7 hours (and more) away! I'm usually okay with it (change is the only constant in life anyway) because we talk, text, facebook and every time we get together we just pick up where we left off. But knowing that they were all only 2 hours away from me and all together made me really really wish I was there too!

For real...

...I will upload pics one day. I haven't even put any on facebook recently! I don't know what my problem is. Oh wait, yes I do. Lazinesssss

6 days...

6 days to go until my due date! Actually I am not that excited about this. Majorly wishing I had already had this baby! What if I'm one of those people who NEVER go into labor?!?!! I better not be. So someone please explain to me why I am at 4.5-5cm dilated and not in labor!? Because no one goes past a 5 without being in labor right?...right? Sigh. At the rate I'm going I'll go in for my appointment a week after my due date and be at a 10 and be like Okay can we just start pushing now? Haha yeah right and skip the joys of labor? As if I'm that lucky ;) Though since I'm already halfway there this should be a quick labor when it actually starts (fingers crossed!) Unless I have to get induced again. Then who knows how long that will take... okay I better stop all this whining and think of something positive to write about!

Um I ruined lunch. Who can make crepes anyway? They probably would've tasted nasty even if I hadn't burned them (wink).  Okay so that wasn't positive but John did come home right in the middle of my minor breakdown over ruining lunch and somehow managed to make me laugh. By the time he left to go back to work my horrible awful no good very bad day had turned into sunshine(figuratively) and smiles <3 Huh. Maybe that's why I married him :]

And now Ryder is demanding that I put a nice cozy blanket on my lap so that he can brum trucks on it and me. Apparently I'm lumpy enough to make some great hills and hidey-holes. Jeez sometimes this motherhood stuff is so hard ;] (btw if you don't know what "brumming" something is, you obviously did not grow up with a bunch of little brothers and give birth to a car-loving little boy lol)

Ryder's 2nd birthday party!

Monday was Ryder's 2nd birthday party day (he officially turns two on the 27th) and he had so much fun! I actually got my butt in gear the day of to get everything done in time. I made cut out cookies the night before (Halloween ones, yumm!) but other than that I went from being totally unprepared to party-ready in about 7 hours. Yep, that's how I roll. I stuck with the farm cake idea and Ryder absolutely loved it. He was so proud to have cows and baby goats on his cake that he didn't even eat his piece of cake! Mostly he chowed down on pumpkin cookies and ice cream. Speaking of ice cream, we have the leftovers in our freezer and I'm looking for someone to dump them on. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream is just too tempting for this lactose-intolerant lady :S The party was so much fun with half the family there to celebrate. The other half (Raasakka side) is coming up in November so it will pretty much be like another party then too :] Ryder loves being the center of attention so he slipped right into the role of birthday boy and is still having some trouble going back to normal. Sigh. He has been sleeping HORRIBLY lately. I mean like waking up every hour or every other hour and refusing to go back to sleep. Ugh. He's ended up in our bed almost every night these last couple days, which I know is a bad precedent to set but I figured out I will do pretty much whatever it takes to get some sleep at night so oh well. I'm thinking he better start sleeping better soon because I don't think I'll survive waking up with a newborn and a toddler who sleeps like a newborn every night. Just thinking about it now is giving me a headache...


I'm 38 weeks along now and more than ready for this baby to come! Last doc appt I was dilated to 3cm already so the doc was telling me I'll pry go sometime soon (what do they know, really) and if I start labor at home I should come in right away because I'll probably go quick (again, what do they know). I then felt the need to inform him that last time I was dilated 4 weeks before my due date and that on my due date I was at 4cm  and the doc was positive every week that I would go early...only to eventually get induced a week late because it was very apparent that I was not going in to labor anytime soon. So yeah. I'm hoping I'll go early but I'm thinking I'll probably go late.


Oh and speaking of headaches, I gave up caffeine last week and, even though I'm over the headaches now, I still miss it every day. Today I even opened the coffee container just to smell the grounds...yummm. And since I plan on nursing the baby, I probably won't be having caffeine for a while. But it'll be worth it just to know that I'm doing what I can to try and have a good sleeper this time around!


Also, I finished the baby blanket! I'll have to post pictures soon ( and of Ryder's party) but I fail at posting pictures, it just seems too much like work. So hopefully they will be up one day. If you really want to see it there is a pic on Facebook that I uploaded from my phone. It feels awesome to have completed my very first blanket!! It looks amazing if I do say so myself :) :) Though I have no idea how people manage to hide their weaved-in ends from changing colors...I can pure see all mine and it's so irritating but I don't really know what to do. Oh well, if anyone notices and dares say something about it, they can just fix it themselves ;)

and now the countdown begins...

So yeah I never finished that last post, but things got a little crazy around here!  The weather has been absolutely gorgeous (mid 70s!!) so Ryder and I haven't been home much. Highlights of the last couple days:

• Ryder got a yeast infection. Ouch. Pretty much succeeded in making diaper changes more of a battle than they already are (potty training is not going as planned, mostly because it's not going at all). Poor kid was so miserable and I didn't even think to bring him in until a week into it. I had never seen a yeast infection before so I was just thinking diaper rash until it got all bumpy and wouldn't go away. Good thing is that it's almost healed up! Bad thing is we had lots of diaper-digging and he now loves to announce that he has "owie bum!"
• Ryder fell off his tricycle and got his first case of major road rash. From his chin straight up to his forehead. Ouch. We sure get lots of comments on that one. And he loves to tell the story: "I fell off bike. Crash! I donk head. Owie face. I cry lots! Owie owie owie!" Gotta say that he looks like one tough kiddo right now!
• We got tickets to the Tech hockey games last weekend. Paul and JoAnne have season tickets and were out of town that weekend so we gladly took their place :] John, Ryder and I went on Friday and had a blast! Ryder bawling at first (he fell asleep on the car ride there so he was a little more temperamental  than usual) because it was super loud in there and there were tons of people and he probably had no clue what the heck was going on. Once the hockey players got out on the ice he perked right up though! He loved "watching hockey puck" and the "bimp" aka the blimp that flies around at intermissions. Oh and also those arena seats are not made for a 9 month pregnant lady holding a squirming almost-2-year-old. Ouch.
• Selina and I took the kids to the game on Saturday while our husbands went bear hunting...aren't we brave? lol :) It was a little tricky but lots of fun, Ryder knew the program this time around so he was so excited. He was clapping and cheering "go hockey!" and was literally on the edge of his seat watching the game :] At least until the Husky mascot came by, then he cowered on my lap bawling. And seeing that mascot brought back the whole lion issue (the Finlandia mascot from Mal's volleyball games). We ended up leaving right before the 3rd period because Ryder had just had enough. I'm so glad we went because Ryder still talks all about the "nice doggie" mascot and the "bimp" and that it was very loud watching the hockey game :) I think we have a major sports fan in the making!
• Ryder's birthday party is coming up. I figured out I picked a horrible time to have it! It was originally on Saturday but it's fall services up here this weekend and Fulton has church Saturday night. Then it was Friday but I felt guilty about having a birthday party when there was church in Atlantic Mine so I switched it to Thursday. Only to be reminded that I have to work at Bible class that day. Oops. So now it's on Monday and it better stay that day. I'm thinking a farm-themed cake (thanks to my mom for the idea and for reassuring me that I'm allowed to take shortcuts this birthday since I'm pretty much having a baby any time now). So far everything is in it's planning-not-doing stage. I better get on that seeing as it's less than a week away. Yikes.
• I was 37 weeks along today so the countdown til my due date has begun! Truthfully it started waaaay before this but since I'm technically full-term now I don't feel bad for hoping for this baby's appearance sooner rather than later! 
• I've been pretty busy getting stuff ready for the baby (finally). I have about 4 rows left to do on my baby blanket which I plan to finish as soon as I finish writing this and the swing and bassinets are all set up and sheeted :] Now to dig the car seat out of the closet, pack my bag, clean the house, make a couple dinners to freeze....etc etc. HA. I have a feeling I'll be packing my hospital bag between contractions and wishing I had just gone ahead and cleaned the house already :) 

That's all for now! Hopefully I'll have a post coming soon about this baby's much-awaited arrival! ;)

36 weeks!

Today I officially have 4 weeks until my due date! Crazy! This pregnancy has just flown by so far, especially compared to when I was pregnant with Ryder. I guess chasing after a toddler sure makes the days fly by :) It's weird how different each pregnancy has been: with Ryder I was sick for 4 months, with this one about 2 (hallelujah), I am also carrying this baby differently which is a good thing because I was in so much pain the last 3 months of my pregnancy with Ryder that every day and night just dragged by. This time I only have 4 weeks left and I'm still feeling pretty awesome! Huge, but good ;] And yes, I'm sure I will look back on this post in another week or two and think "what the heck? These weeks are dragging!" But for now I'm doing great and enjoying these last weeks of just me and Ryder. Notice I did not say anything about getting ready for the baby. Yeah pretty much haven't done that yet. I did wash all the clothes and blankets and sheets but I have yet to set up the bassinet or drag the car seat out of the attic or pack my hospital bag etc. Talk about procrastination. Or Tahnee Time as my mom would call it :] But don't worry it will all get done eventually and I'm just banking on going late, not early, since I was induced a week after my due date with Ryder. Maybe it'll help the last weeks go by quickly if I'm not waiting for labor to start every day (haha yeah right I'm trying to be optimistic here but we all know by next week I'll go to bed every night hoping labor starts that night lol)
This month is going to be so crazy busy for me! Mal's birthday is today, Grant's is the 9th, Ju's is the 17th, Ryder's is the 27th, then comes Halloween and my due date! And somewhere in there I have to fit in Ryder's birthday party....can't believe he is going to be TWO! I was looking for cake ideas yesterday and I could have sworn  that I had just planned his first birthday! He is getting so big...
But more on all that later because if I don't get Ryder dressed and us both out the door in like 10 minutes I'm going to be late for my doc appt! Toodles :]

amazing day :D

I know my last post was all about how much I love fall but really I LOVE IT! Today started off kind of slow with me sleeping in and then us scrambling out the door for church. But for once Ryder made it through! Usually I have to take him out within 15 minutes of church starting, sometimes right after the prayer, but today he sat so nicely through the entire thing! And that hasn't happened since I don't even know. Next we ran and got pizza and ate it at our property in Cedar Bay. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, about 67 degrees and sunny with just a little breeze. BEAUTIFUL! We hung out there for a while picking apples and exploring. Then we found a chestnut tree! Well I didn't know it was a chestnut tree because first of all they look like green spiny balls and you have to crack them open to find the nut and second of all who knew chestnuts grew on trees? Not I, apparently. After that we headed up to Copper Harbor with Liz and Heather. I barely survived the long winding hilly road up there (I get soooo car sick when I'm pregnant) but once we got there I was fine. Of course we had to get some Jilbert's ice cream and then we headed to Hunter's Point. I'd never been there before but it was pretty cool. Ryder especially loved it because the beach is all small smooth rocks (not even a hint of sand so it was super clean!) and there is nothing in the world Ryder loves more than throwing rocks. So we hung out there for a while, throwing rocks in the lake and exploring the area. Next we headed to the playground at Fort Wilkins where Ryder had a blast chasing "chippies" and going down the slides. After John, Ryder and I headed up Brockway to take in the beautiful fall colors (after stopping at one of the stores in Copper Harbor to get 15 cent candy sticks of course). It's amazing how many of the trees have completely changed color!  I was a little worried with Ryder up there since there is basically no way to keep him from falling down the mountain except to keep a hand on him at all times so we didn't stay long :) I don't know how my parents always brought us kids up there without having multiple heart attacks! We ate some leftover pizza for supper and then stopped at Somleo's pumpkin farm with Paul and JoAnne. Ryder had a lot of fun picking out pumpkins and we couldn't leave without him having a "baby" pumpkin along with his regular one (sigh). It was cute though :] We also watched them launch a pumpkin from their catapult... pretty cool! That thing went sooo high pretty much exploded when it hit the ground. I was all pumped off it but Ryder didn't even watch the pumpkin fly through the air, he was too interested in the catapult thing. :] All in all, it was an amazing day. Now to put Ryder to bed and curl up with apple cider and a good book...ahhh :) :)

let me just say this again: I LOVE FALL!

Granted these last couple days have been cold and rainy, but that has given me plenty of time to do some serious net surfing. So far I've bookmarked a million or so pages all about fall :) Homemade costume ideas, recipes, activities, crafts, treats and more. Ryder already has a costume for this year thanks to hand-me-downs from my mom (THANKS MOM!) and it's an adorable lion costume! He looks absolutely adorable in it but we might have a problem. We went to Mallory's volleyball games and Ryder was completely terrified of the Lion mascot...hopefully he can get over his fear sometime before Halloween because when I brought out the costume he was not impressed. "No lion mommy! No rawr!" Huh. So I've been getting some nice "last minute" costume ideas in case we can't pull off the lion this year. Another thing this cool weather has brought on is a craving for soup. I LOVE soup! So far we've had Southwest Cheese, Italian tomato, Harvest Soup, Asian Pork and Noodle soup etc. The Southwest Cheese soup was awesome for chilly rainy days because it had a little bit of a kick to it (you use a can of diced tomatoes with green chilies) and the Harvest soup really satisfied my "fall food" urges because you use apples and butternut squash to make it. YUM! I threw in the Asian Pork and Noodle soup because I think John has been getting a little sick of all my "vegetarian" meals. I just have not been in the mood for meat lately, it hasn't really sat well with me my whole pregnancy and with only 5 weeks left til my due date I feel way too full of baby to want the more heartier meals. To be honest I picked the pork out of my soup and it was just delicious without it :) I've also been cooking a lot with apples lately. The Harvest soup has some in there and I've also made Turkey Apple meatballs, Apple Raisin pasta salad, and Apple Chicken quesidillas. Yum yum yum! Ryder and I love apples and eat at least one a day (usually 2 or 3 haha) anyway but hey they're good for you and taste the best in the fall anyway! Right now I'm planning out Halloween decorations and thinking up pumpkin carving ideas while drinking apple cider and eating candy corn. Can you tell I love fall? :] Ryder is (thankfully) napping right now but when he wakes up I think we are going to bundle up and go on a leaf collecting walk, our newest favorite game :) I know I have to enjoy these days while they last because winter will be here before I know it, especially in the U.P. and I'm just not quite ready for that yet :]

a little panic attack

So right now I am having a little panic attack over unprinted pictures. This happens about once a month. Today I realized that Ryder will be turning 2 in a month andIhaveyettoprintanypicturesofhimsincehewasborn. whew. Even just typing that makes me panic-y. Why do I not just print them??? I guess there are just so many that it always just seems too daunting (for all my not-printing I do take a ton of pictures). So this is me just putting it out there that sometime before Christmas...okay revise...sometime before new years...I am printing pictures. It doesn't even have to be all of them. Just some. I'm going to do it.


I can't believe I have not printed pictures in TWO YEARS! Anyone have any recommendations for online printing sites?

my little chocohaulic

So today after supper (I tried a new recipe for meatballs, it didn't really turn out. sigh.) I was cleaning up the kitchen when I realized Ryder was being quieter than usual. This is never a good sign. Usually he is either chattering away to me or trying to get me to play with him or enthusiastically throwing his cars around the house. Anyway I got a little suspicious so I walked into the living room and guess what I found? Ryder eating a piece of MY chocolate that I bought especially for ME to satisfy MY chocolate cravings. Then I noticed that he had five wrappers on the ground next to him. That means he ate SIX pieces of my chocolate. Needless to say I was not too happy. I mean if I eat chocolate when he's around, I share. But mostly I eat it when he's sleeping or I try and sneak it while he's playing because he loves chocolate way too much and would steadily eat through my whole supply (even my emergency stash) if he could. I couldn't even be mad at him though because right when I walked in he gave me a huge chocolatey grin and said "YUMM! Mommy I eat yummy kit!" Kit is what he says when he tries to say chocolate. So of course I just gave him a smile "Ohhh aren't you lucky you got to eat chocolate!" and I hid the rest. Until now that is because I just finished off the bag :)

For the first time in waaaay too long Ryder slept until 8:30! Whoo hoo! That in itself is an awesome start to the day but he also woke up giggling too! I don't know why, but when I went to get him he was just sitting in his crib holding a bunch of stuffed animals --he sleeps with about a million-- and just giggling away :) Not going to lie, I'm not the happiest person in the mornings but that sure put a smile on my face! Then we spent the next hour snuggling on the couch reading books. His new favorite is 100 First Animals that he got from Heather when he was in the hospital. It has a bunch of big, bright pictures in it and it's amazing how many animal names he knows! Like camel and kookaburra and otter. So cute! It's so nice to have a day finally start off on the right foot that, no matter what happens, I know today will be a good one :)

I guess I do really ask a lot of questions...

...because on our way home from Houghton today I was talking to John and he said "Wow, you ask a lot of questions. I mostly just make up answers because how am I supposed to know all of this random stuff that you ask me about?"
huh.
I think I was asking him what a Dryhouse was (we passed the Dryhouse Ruin sign going up Quincy) and he didn't know. I had kind of assumed he would because hello he's lived up here his whole life and passed that sign a million times and I figured he would have asked someone. Or else maybe he would have learned tons about mining (I'm assuming that a dry house has something to do with mining) since it was such a huge part of the yoop. I told him this but I guess he didn't take the Local History class in high school. This was his excuse anyway. About the time he told me I asked a lot of questions was a couple minutes of chatting later when we were driving through Calumet. I asked him why the houses had two house numbers, a 3 digit one and a 5 digit one. He knew the answer to this one, when they got the 911 line/dispatch thing up here the house numbers were too confusing (I agree on that one) so they reassigned each house a 5 digit number but I guess some people were too lazy to take down the other sign. As I was thinking he was all smart because he knew this he told me the "I mostly just make up answers because how am I supposed to know all of this random stuff that you ask me about?" part of the above statement. Huh. So now I don't know if that's the real answer or not but I guess it doesn't matter to me, I just wanted to know what he though the reason was.

a busy day= very sore feet

One of the side effects of pregnancy I could do without: sore feet! My feet get sore really fast even when I'm not pregnant but when I am I feel like I hobble everywhere! Just walking around the house is enough to have me limping. Everyone always tells me to just wear tennis shoes all the time, but guess what? I HATE tennies! I <3 footwear like converse and flip flops and this awesome thing called bare feet. Maybe its a claustrophobic thing? Because the only time I can wear tennis shoes is when I'm running, or else my feet dying for some wiggle room about 2 minutes in. Then I was introduced to this wonderful invention: those one Keen shoes that everyone has (whatever they are called, idk) They are like a shoes/sandal and totally trick my feet into thinking they are not in shoes! I've always said they were way to gorp-ish for me but during this pregnancy my feet were just begging for some relief and I had heard a lot of good things about those shoes so I bought some. Okay I sound like I just went out and bought Keens but really I went to Shopko --which is the only place near here that sells Tahnee appropriate shoes because they have a mini Payless inside-- and tried on a pair of off-brand shoes (I NEVER can bring myself to buy name brands, unless they are on like triple clearance) and walked around in them for like 2 hours. And I had to call my mom and John in order to have them convince me I should buy them. I don't know why I do this, I just do. Anyway, I finally just decided to get them because I think the sales lady and Heather were getting impatient with me, and I know Ryder was since he vocalized his boredom very loudly. And I figured I could just wear them around the house for a couple more hours to see if I really did like them. And yes, I do this hemming and hawing thing with almost everything I buy. John hates it. Well, I don't really remember where I was going with this but I bought the shoes and I love them and I wear them all the time. I seriously don't know what I'm going to do when it snows. Maybe I will have my baby before then (ha yeah right). Oh this is where I was going with this rambling story: Those shoes, awesome though they may be, did not save my feet today. They KILL.
First off Ryder woke up at 3:30am last night from bad dreams so I rocked and paced and rocked and paced and rocked...you get the idea. He is horrible with nightmares since he doesn't understand yet what a dream is. Last night it was something about cows, which he usually loves but not last night. Anyway, I was up for about an hour with him so I was absolutely exhausted when he woke up this morning at 7:30. You would think I would be used to this since I pretty much have an almost 2 year old who doesn't sleep through the night. He has nightmares or wakes up from dreams so often that it's actually rare for him to sleep through the night. But I'm not used to it.
Next we had to scoot out the door by 9:30 to make it to Mallory's volleyball game at 10. She plays for Finlandia and she is awesome. You would think that 2 hours would be plenty of time to get myself and one toddler out the door but I don't think I am awake enough to think straight until at least 9. So we slowly ate breakfast, slowly cleaned up, slowly got dressed and then hurried up quick and flew out the door at 9:45. So we were a little late to the game but we still made it :) After we played outside at Mal's apartment until she had to go back to get ready for her next game -- it was a tournament. And it was SO BEAUTIFUL outside! Cool enough that sitting in the shade was chilly, but the sun was so bright and warm that it was comfortable in the sun. I am loving these fall days right now. So we spent about an hour throwing rocks and sword-fighting with sticks and chasing leaves and rolling down hills. I did not roll down the hill but Mal and Ryder did and I really don't know who had more fun ;)
Next we picked up Marisa and headed to McDonald's for lunch. This was my bribe to get Ryder to cooperate with me at the volleyball game :) But first he kept saying "No doctors! No doctors!" until I figured out that somehow to him McDonald's sounds like Doctors. So now it's called the french fry place to avoid any undue confusion. If this keeps up I will no longer be able to say that I speak the English language and will have to confess to sliding entirely into Ryder-speak. After, we ran to WalMart to grab peanut butter. We ran out halfway through this morning's toast and it was almost a disaster. Because obviously the only thing an almost-two-year-old can eat for breakfast is toast with PB. What I ended up doing was just cutting off the part of the toast that had no pb on it and giving Ryder the other part. Somehow that made it all better.

Fall is here!

Fall is officially in the air! It's a chilly 45 degrees out today and absolutely beautiful! Even some of the leaves are starting to change! And though I looooove the fall season I know it means winter is coming (yikes!) and I'm not quite ready to face that fact yet. The nights have been pretty cold lately which I am actually enjoying...I'm usually always freezing (even in the summer) but being 7 and 1/2 months pregnant sure leaves we sweltering at night! I'm half way done knitting my baby blanket now, I just finished the middle stripe today. Now the hard part: staying motivated long enough to finish it! I am absolutely loving this pattern so hopefully that helps some ;) Heather stopped by today with two of her nanny kids, both boys. One is a year older and one less than a year younger than Ryder. It was fun to watch them play even though it took almost the whole visit for them to warm up to each other! It's funny how Ryder is so much more willing to play with adults than with kids his age. He asked Heather to play way before he would even look at the boys! It was nice to actually sit and visit with Heather instead of playing with an almost 2 year old all day, most of our conversations revolve around bodily functions (we are starting to potty train), cars crashes and races, fishing or baseball. Sigh. I must be the mother of a boy :) Speaking of potty training, our endeavor that started out so promising has now come to a complete halt. I originally broke out the potty chair because Ryder had started telling me when he needed his diaper changed. Right in the beginning he sat on it all the time but never went and now he won't even sit on it! The only time he ever sits on it is when he is trying to trick me into giving him a bath (he loves baths and our rule is that he has to sit on the potty before he gets in the tub). But boy do we talk about it! "Yes Grandma goes pee on the potty. Yep, Uncle Ty does too. Yes mom goes poop on the potty and so does Jacey and Auntie Lanette. Yes, Ryder, I imagine the neighbor wears undies like a big boy." This is why convos with adults are so needed! Talking about the potty all day tends to make one a little crazy. So all this talking but we are going nowhere.... oh well I guess we'll just keep plugging along. Sorry for the boring post today, I am way to tired to write about anything I need to think about. Ryder has been waking up at least 2-3 times a night lately with nightmares so I'm pretty beat. That's all for today! :]

gah

ooohhh these last couple days...First off Ryder gets a cold so we were up all night for 2 nights (he never does well with colds) then that turned into a full- fledged gasping-for-air type of situation where we end up in the ER for 4 hours and completely traumatized the poor kid with the worst blood-drawing experience ever and strapping him in that horrible looking contraption for a chest x-ray (which I totally get is necessary but that didn't make it any easier to watch) along with everything else that goes with an ER visit, and THEN we end up getting admitted to the hospital for the night where we got about 1/2hr of sleep (think breathing treatments every couple hours along with vital checks and meds in between and a kid who screams every time a nurse walks in) and ended up staying there til 6:30pm the next day (now think of a crabby toddler trapped in a hospital room all day with a very tired mom...complete chaos)...finally we get home and get him to sleep only to have to wake him up every couple hours for more breathing treatments...and did I mention I'm 7 months pregnant and exhausted? sigh

visitors!!

The only way I even have time to write this post is because Jacey is here! Her, Grant and Sarah are up for the weekend :) I LOVE family visitors! And hopefully I will be getting them more often seeing as Grant moved and is now only 2 hours away (hint hint). It's so fun seeing R play with his auntie...he loves having someone else to play with besides boring old mom ;)
I started knitting my first baby blanket!! It's a really fun pattern even though it's a bit time-consuming (but lets be honest, knitting is just time-consuming in general haha). I've never worked on a project that changes colors this often and I kind of like it, I can really see the blanket coming together! So far I have 3 of 17 stripes done and I just got the yarn a couple days ago. I've pretty much been knitting whenever I can! Which is only when Ryder is sleeping so it's not all that much actually :) As for my tunic that I started knitting last winter, it died. Or actually I killed it. I had about six inches done on the back piece when I realized that I had screwed up the pattern so everything was opposite about 2 inches back. GRRRR! So I started to carefully undo it, stitch by stitch, and then I dropped like a million stitches in a row and got so crabby I ripped it all out. Ugh. I HATE when I do that! I get so frustrated that I figure it'll be easier to just start over. But here's a lesson I need to learn. IT'S NEVER EASIER! It took me WEEKS to knit that much (it's a pretty complicated cable pattern) and all of two seconds to rip it out. And now am I really going to start all over again? I hope so, because the tunic is actually pretty cute and I was hoping to have it for this winter. Which is no longer going to happen since I killed it. Gah.
My other project that I'm working on (okay, that I'm going to start working on...soon...) is making burp cloths! I bought pack of cheap plain cloth diapers at WalMart and some cute flannel fabric last week so hopefully I can start on those sometime soon! I will probably start out just super simple, sewing the flannel on one side of the cloth diaper, and hopefully can progress to make some more creative ones. But we'll see. I'm a pretty inexperience sewer (I've made 2 super-simple quilts and that's it) so I want to just try new stuff with this project. I mean who can screw up burpies? (Not me, I hope).
That's all for now, Jacey and Ryder sound like they are having fun coloring pictures in the kitchen and I think I'll go join them :D

let's just pretend it hasn't been eons since I last wrote...

...everyone with me? Okay good :) I have seriously been neglecting both my blogs what with summer..and ..stuff. Haha okay no more mentioning this gigantic break, I have no excuses!
So now: I have about 2 more months until I'm due to have my second kid!! I (finally) had a big organizing kick yesterday and started on all the boring stuff I have to do before I can do any of the fun organizing stuff (ie: baby stuff!!!). Unfortunately organizing means my house is a complete wreck until I finish it all. Because who wants to clean AND organize? Not me. I'm hoping to have most of the stuff for the baby ready sometime soon so I can enjoy these last 2 months with Ryder...life is going to be so different when it's not just me and him at home! He is so beyond spoiled because he gets all my attention at home (plus he's just cute and I would way rather play with him than, say, do the dishes or something) and I know that's going to change when his little sib comes along! Sigh. That's something I'd rather not think about right now... hopefully he adjusts well (and quickly)!
Just a short post today, I just got home from coffee with Mal and Selina and Ryder has been waking up at 7 (which is not legit since he goes to bed at like 10) sooo I will be like the walking dead all morning tomorrow. Oh well, it's always worth it for a night with the girls!!