Clare had a baby! Good riddance pull-ups, and I got tagged

Clare (best friend since kindergarten) had a baby girl today! Jamie and I talked to her this morning after Jazzercise, and all was going well. Jezebel Eleanor weighs 6 lb. 14 oz. and has lots of black hair. I am anxiously awaiting pictures.

I have been working on potty training with Kailey for about three or four weeks now. We got really messed up with Amilyn's wedding and Thanksgiving, because those were times when I couldn't help her as much as she needed, so she pretty much went back to the diaper for a little while. Well, I decided that this week we were going to get serious. I concluded that the pull-ups were setting us back, because when she has one of those on, she thinks it's just like a diaper and she can just go in it, and forget the potty. I felt like I was jumping off into the deep end. We have now made it through 24 hrs., no pull-ups or diapers, and we didn't have any accidents (I hesitate to brag, because who knows what tomorrow will bring). I'm not gonna' lie, I was scared to leave the house today with no pull-up. I loaded down Kailey's bag with extra clothes, her sesame street folding travel potty seat, and treats for going in the potty. I had a couple of errands to run today after Jazzercise, so I was pretty nervous. I was suprised at how well things went. I just hope that things continue to go this well.

I was tagged for the Seven Things Meme by Ann.

The rules are:
1. Share seven random facts about yourself, in your blog.

2. Include these rules.

3. Link back to the person who tagged you.

4. Tag seven more people and list their names & blogs.

Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged.

My seven random facts:

1. I love the beach.

2. I'm kind of picky about food, and don't like trying new things: I typically only eat canadian bacon pizza; I ALWAYS eat my hamburgers with only cheese, pickles, and lettuce; I get the same sandwich, fixed the same way everytime at Subway; I always get the same smoothie at smoothie king; I don't drink milk...

3. I do not like snakes, they scare me soooo bad. Once when I was pregnant with Kailey, a baby one got into our apartment, and I almost went into cardiac arrest. I left the apartment with the snake in there to roam and hide wherever he pleased. Luckily, when Joel got in from work, he found him and removed him using an oven mitt.

4. I wish that I was more creative when it comes to picking out gifts. I always draw a blank when I try to pick something out.

5. I am nursery leader in my ward, and it is not nearly as tough as I thought that it would be. Having Jeni in there with me has made it a lot better, too.

6. Watermelon is my very favorite food! I always eat a humongous peice, and I have a certain order in which I eat the sections of the watermelon slice (weird, I know, Jamie does it, too).

7. I like to fly. When I was young, I always thought that flying in a plane would be scary, but I like it. I wouldn't say that I love it, because I don't ever want to do any flips in the air or anything like that, I just appreciate that it gets me where I want to go a lot faster than driving, and the take off is kind of fun.

I think that I'm kind of long winded. Most other people that did this "tagged" thing had one line per item, mine kind of turned into more. When I post things they always end up longer than I thought that they would be. I hope that I'm not boring people with my posts that go on and on.

I don't think that there is anyone left that I know that hasn't been tagged, so I'm not going to tag anyone. Is something bad going to happen, like 7 years bad luck? I hope not.

Lady Stetson A.K.A. Rickey and a crazy dream

Today, I brought Rickey in to be groomed. If you haven't seen her lately, her nails were atrociously long. I brought her to the vet that's right down the road from us, for the first time. Evidently they bathed her in Lady Stetson, and when they brought her out, I almost vomitted. Then I had to ride all of the way home with her. I don't know why in the world I didn't roll the windows down, but Kailey and I suffered through. You could literally smell her 5 ft. away. Thank goodness it has died down a little, you can only smell her about a foot away now. I guess Lady Stetson is better than stink, but I don't think I could handle it again. Can you imagine how the girl smells that bathes the dogs, by the time she gets home? Yikes!

Lady Steston AKA Rickey AKA Dorey (that's her real name nickname)

Some how I managed to go to Wal-Mart twice today. I must be a glutton for punishment, riding home with Lady Stetson, with the windows up, and going to Wal-Mart twice the day before Thanksgiving. The two trips to Wal-Mart actually were not that bad. The first time that we were there, we dropped off Kailey's antibiotic prescription (she was starting to develop bronchitis), they said that it would take an hour and half to two hours to get it filled, that really means 3-4 hours. I think we have the slowest pharmacy in the world. Jamie has gotten into it with some of the employees because of the lies about the wait time. So, I resigned to the fact that I was going to have to come back to the mad house later in the evening, and set out to pick up a couple of things that I had forgotten to get earlier in the week. Some how I managed to get in a short self check-out line and made it out quick. Later, when we went back, there was suprisingly no line at the pharmacy, and we got out of there quickly and easily. We even took a little time to walk by the christmas yard inflatables on the way out, b/c Kailey loves them. There was a Mickey Mouse one that she was especially excited about, and when we went by the Nativity one, she bent down and hugged the Baby Jesus.

Now for the crazy dream. If you haven't noticed on the baby countdown over there, we've only got 2 1/2 months left. I guess that that has kind of been on my mind lately, because this morning I had a dream, that it was time to have the baby. I was also talking to Jeni in the nursery on Sunday, about braxton hicks contractions, and real contractions. So in the dream, Joel and I went to the hospital, and the contractions were really mild. I told the nurse that I didn't need the epidural yet, and then all of a sudden, the contractions got really bad. I called the nurse over, and asked for the epidural, but she said that it was too late, that they baby was ready to come out, and there wouldn't be time to set up the epidural. I was so angry, upset, and afraid. Then the dream ended. Between you and me, I'm a real weiney when it comes to pain. I surely did appreciate the epidural when I had Kailey, and fully intend to have one again with this baby. I know that there are women who choose to not have the epidural, but I'm all for it. When I had Kailey, it was a nice, calm, relaxed experience. I'll admit, I am a little curious about how I would handle it, and what it would be like with no epidural, but that curiousity does not supercede my hatrid and fear of pain, so I will be having the epidural, if I can help it.

Pregnancy cravings

Today I was craving lemonade, and a couple of days ago I was craving cheesecake. This evening we went to Aaron and Lisa Saxon's house to watch the LSU game, and have dinner, and lo and behold lemonade and cheesecake! Thanks Lisa, they were great.

I passed!

As I mentioned in the previous post, I had the three hour glucose screening, to test for gestational diabetes (I failed the 1 hr. test). The nurse called this afternoon to let me know that I passed. I was so relieved! Also, the test went so much better this time, than it did when I took it during my last pregnancy. Last time, I thought I was going to throw-up and pass out right there in the waiting room. I felt so sick that I had to call Jamie to come get me, and drive me home. This time, I hardly felt bad at all, and the girl that drew my blood was very good.

I was kind of afraid of the gestational diabetes; Jamie had g.d. during her pregnancy with Allison. Even though she claims that it wasn't that bad, it couldn't have been that great either. I hate diets, and there are definitely some dietary restrictions that go along with g.d.

The only diet that I ever tried, ended after only about twelve hours. Joel and I tried the South Beach diet, before I got pregnant with Kailey. It was a nightmare for me. We started it one morning and were doing fine until about 9 o'clock at night. We were both starving, so we gave in and went to sonic. I have very little self control when it comes to things like that. It may have been good for me to have g.d. because I would've had guidelines to follow and would have been held accountable by the specialist.

3 hour glucose test = torture

So I had a prenatal visit this morning that was preceded with a glucose screening. Everything went fine at the prenatal visit, but the glucose test brought some bad news! Turns out I failed it, and it wasn't even close, so I have to go back this week to take the three hour glucose test. I don't know if you have ever taken this test, but I'm convinced that it was devised by Satan himself. Needless to say, I am not looking forward to this test. Jamie has volunteered to go with for this one; I almost passed out in the waiting room last time (they take a ton of blood, and give you this super potent glucose drink that makes your blood sugar levels go crazy). I just hope that I don't have gestational diabetes (that's what they are testing for), because that would mean multiple finger pricks a day, a strict diet, and possibly prescriptions.

Some good news, I've reached the point where I see the doctor every two weeks now, and I have a sonogram scheduled for next appt. I'm excited to see the baby again. It kind of caught me off guard when the doctor told me to reschedule in two weeks; where has the time gone? And can you believe that Thanksgiving is next week?!?

Congratulations Amilyn and Brandon!

Joel's younger sister, Amilyn, got married this weekend. She and Brandon were sealed in the Baton Rouge temple Saturday afternoon, and they had a reception that evening in Gonzales. All of the Bonnette kids came into town. It was great to see all of them, and all of their kids. Joel is from a family of 7 kids (he is number 5). His oldest brother Jeff lives in CA with his wife, Kamra, and 4 children (3 girls, 1 boy); Bonnette kid #2 is Wendy who just moved back to Louisiana with her husband, Byron, and 5 children (4 boys, 1 girl); Jared and his wife Keri flew in from CO; Jonathan, #4, his wife, Brandy, and their 4 children (2 girls, 2 boys) live in UT; Amilyn is #6; and Mavanie, #7, still lives at home. So counting mom and dad, kids, and grandkids, the grand total is 29, and growing, Eli will be #30.

It was fun and exhausting helping out with and attending Amilyn's wedding and reception. Kailey is still recovering from the full weekend. She had so much fun playing with her cousins. She actually had two naps today, I can't remember the last time that she had two naps. She had a nap this morning, and fell asleep on the couch at 4:30 this afternoon. I had to have a nap today, too. I'm not complaining though, I'll take some exhaustion to be able to spend time with family.

I'm sad that we didn't take many pictures. I would've liked to have taken one when the photographer had the whole family together at the temple, but I forgot :( I'll see if I can get a copy made of Amilyn's.

Kailey was really excited about her pretty dress that she got to wear to her Aunt Amilyn's wedding.

Kailey with Aunt Phyllis (Joel's mom's sister)

On a different note, I haven't totally abandoned my goal to post once a day for NaBloPoMo. It just wasn't happening this weekend with all of the festivities. I did think of some things that I would add during the weekend:


A couple of funny things:
Toward the end of setting up for Amilyn's reception, Kailey asked for pink kitty (her little pink blankie that has a kitty head on it), so I passed it to her, and she started rubbing the little pink satin bow as usual. Well I guess she rubbed on the little pink bow a little too had, because the little pink bow came off. She looked up at me with a look of devestation, and said, "pink, b0w-bow," (pink is what she calls the blankie, and bow-bow, as in hurt). She just kept saying it, and eventually started to cry a little. I had to put the bow in my pocket, and distract her with a snack. Once distracted she was fine, and I snuck the blankie out of her bed that night, and fixed it (so I thought, it had some more problems the next morning, but it's fine now). Since then, every time she has her blankie, she says, "pink, bow-bow," and I remind her that I fixed her, and she is ok.

Kailey is a really noisy sleeper. Saturday morning she woke up at 5:30. So I put her in the bed with us, in hopes that she would sleep longer. She did go back to sleep, but I was hardly able to sleep, she makes these cute little sighing noises while she sleeps, but they are not so cute when you want to be sleeping. Since the first time I held her sleeping, in the hospital, she has made these noises. She was a noisy eater, too when she was breastfeeding. She came into the world screaming, and making noises when she ate and slept, and she hasn't gotten an quiter.

Now for the fact about me, that you might not know:
When I was younger, my mom and dad called me "Celeste Mess." (Celeste is my middle name, actually it is Cleste, according to my birth certificate, thanks a lot vital records folks!) I guess I was a messy kid. I know, you couldn't tell it now, kidding of course. I still live up to my nickname. Housework is not my favorite thing to do, that's for sure.

The heat is on

So far, I have hardly felt pregnant other than the extra weight, and a little nausea at the beginning, but yesterday, the baby turned on the heater. Thank goodness this didn't start a couple of weeks ago when it was still blazing hot outside. I am typically a cold natured person, so this is totally abnormal for me. I am just grateful that both of my pregnancies have ended in winter months. I could not imagine having these hot episodes in the middle of the summer; I think I would pass out.

I'm sad, I missed a day blogging, but I was so tired last night that I didn't make it to the computer. I had something that I was going to write about, too. Of course now I have completely forgotten what it was. I definitely get a little scattered brained during pregnancy (ok, so I'm a little scatter brained all of the time, and a lot scatter brained during pregnancy).

To stick with one of my themes, here's something that you might not know about me. I was on the yearbook staff in high school and won the journalism pin. I never had any desire to go into journalism, though. Since I was young, I wanted to be a teacher. I really loved my job, and leaving it to stay home with Kailey was one of the hardest things that I have ever done. I have never for a second regretted quitting, but I would like to go back one day, in the very distant future. At least, not until the babies are all in school, and probably not until they are all older.

Pennies in the TV

Today Jamie, Kailey, Allison, and I took a road trip to Ferriday. We needed to get in a visit while daddy was home from work. The girls were super excited to go and visit mimi and pawpaw (my mom and dad), and as an added bonus, mamaw and papaw (my moms parents) were there too. We all had a good time and were sad that the trip had to be so short.

While we were there, mama shared a really funny story with us. Turns out, not long ago, on an offshore job, daddy had to share a room with another guy. This guy liked to go to sleep with the tv on (daddy doesn't like to have the tv on at night, he prefers reading), so this did not bode well. What made it especially bad, the roommate wouldn't turn off the tv. He would just fall asleep with it on, and it would wake daddy up in the middle of the night. So daddy asked him a few times to be sure and turn it off when he was finished watching, but this did not help. So daddy, remembering how two very young girls had destroyed one of his tvs, over twenty years ago, got some pennies, and dropped them into the slots on the top back of the tv. Sure enough, broken. So when the guy tried to turn it on, he asked daddy if he knew what happened, daddy just said, nope. Jamie and I agreed that if you were going to destroy a tv without evidence, it sounded like a good plan to us.

While we were at mama and daddy's, we went out on the peir, despite the cold wind (the girls really wanted to play outside), and the girls had a good time helping their pawpaw sweep and getting into stuff.

Kailey found an old broken styrofoam ice chest, and was pulling it around laughing.

Today Kailey put a pull-up on her head and yelled "hat." This was probably the funniest thing that happened.

I have also decided that I should come up with a back up for NaBloPoMo (notably funny things don't happen every day) . I'm gonna put some things that you might not know about me, too.

So, without further ado, here are somethings that you might not know about me:
- I LOVE drawing and art. I would've gotten my art teaching certification if it wouldn't have added a year to my degree. I took a couple of art classes at LSU. My favorite was with Dr. Malveto. He moved out to Denham recently and I have run into him at Wal-Mart, and spoken to him. He was a funny guy and an awesome teacher. I absolutely loved his class. I look forward to taking more art classes in the future.
- I had a touch of postpartum depression after having Kailey, and when I hit my lowest point, I turned on the tv, and Napoleon Dynamite was just coming on one of the cable channels. That movie pulled me through, and it will forever hold a special place in my heart :)

NaBloPoMo

Today, I was checking out some friends' blogs, and learned that November is National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) (I stole the link from Jessie's site) and that during this month you are supposed to post something to your blog every day. Well, I'm definitely not going to reach that goal, as it is already the 4th of the month and today is the first day that I've added in Nov.

I like the challenge that Jessie gave to her readers to be more creative and include more things than just family stuff and cute pictures. So in honor of her request and NaBloPoMo, I'm gonna try to post something every day that made me laugh.

These are some things that made me laugh today:
1. On the way to church this morning, I was listening to A Prairie Home Companion (I hesitantly admit this) and there was a segment with two guys that were cowboys in Iowa, and they had accidentally stolen some cattle (it was a comedy piece, and the two main characters are idiots). They were bothered with guilt and decided that they should turn themselves into the police. As they discussed it, one said to the other that this would mean prison time, the other responded, "it can't be that bad" and the first one replied, "it's like being stuck in the worst junior high ever, for fifty years." Having taught middle school in what was possibly one of the worst ever, I got a really good laugh. I guess I know what it is like to spend 9 months in prison.
















This was my first classroom (check out the ceiling; the school was torn down at the end of the school year b/c it was in such bad shape).


2. Today during nursery (I'm nursery leader in my ward), Alina told me that she needed to go to the bathroom, and Kailey had to go too. Kailey doesn't let Alina go any where with out her, and they hold hands the whole way. I've been working with Kailey more than usual this week with potty training, so when we got there she said that she needed to use the potty too. Well Alina went first, and then it was Kailey's turn. When she got on the potty, she let out just a little bit and started to giggle, Alina started to giggle too, and then when they stopped giggling, she would let out a little more, and they would both giggle again. It was so funny, I was laughing so hard I was crying. I didn't think Kailey would ever finish, because she just kept letting out a little at a time and laughing.

3. There is a video on Stacy's blog that made me laugh, too. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out, it is hilarious (you have to click on the words that say, "I CAN'T DO IT."

Halloween 2007

On Halloween night Jamie and Joe came over with Allison, and Courtney and Jared brought Sadie for some trick or treating. We ate dinner and the girls hit the streets. The guys stayed back to pass out candy. We just went around the block, but I think that the girls had a good time. Kailey actually said thank you one time without me reminding. After we returned home, Allison had an allergic reaction to something (hopefully we will find out this week what caused it, she sees the allergist later this week). You can read all about it by clicking here. We were all pretty worried about the poor girl. Jamie and Joe gave us a couple of calls to keep us updated.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the night: