cinderella?

used to be I wore a size 9 shoe always a size 9 I could walk into any shoe store pick a pair size 9 and buy them without bothering to try them on..I could get shoes as a gift because the buyer could buy me a size 9 and they would fit but then. The only downside to the situation was I could not squeeze my size 9s into my Imelda Marcos like mother's size 8 1/2 shoe collection. C'est la Vie. And then many moons ago pregnancy happened and I was no longer a size 9 shoe, my feet seemed to balloon over night and like so many things anatomically my feet were not quite the same after childbirth. Shoe shopping became excruciating because now depending on the cut of the shoe sometimes I am a 9 1/2 and sometimes a 10 the occasional size 9 will still fit but cute shoes are increasing difficult to find in those larger and half sizes! And forget shopping online I have to try on every pair of shoe I buy and I have a feeling online would involve way to many returns and too much hassle for my tastes. So I am left drooling over petite sized adorable shoes and in search of the holy grail in larger sized shoes..maybe I need to befriend a drag queen and find out where they shop

no no I ate a LOT of BBQ

when I was pregnant that is and if when C was was born they told me his blood type was mesquite I would not have be surprised in the least. That is why I find it all too cute when asked what David could bring C for lunch at school today the final decision was ribs.

baby baby baby

okay I have no stats what so ever but he was born just after midnight last night. I got to hear it thanks to modern technology & MIL who called me just before the blessed event happened. Yes just after midnight poor C did not win the baby pool.
I am looking forward to meeting my grand-nephew later today! Many more pics to follow
got some info born at 12.20 am he is 7.5 lbs & 20 inches long

and still no baby update

thought I was going to be able to tout the latest for bringing on labor-raspberry tea evidently helps bring on the contractions and apparently it did for a little bit, enough for the entourage to set themselves up a the hospital at 9 pm last night but alas they sent the gang back home because niece #1 was not dilating or progressing. She amusingly had convinced herself they would just induce her why I do not know. She started hitting the tea again last night and I suppose a call to the doctor is first on the to-do-list for today. C is hoping she holds out till Thursday that's his pick on the board.

afternoon update: they are back at the hospital did a stress test on niece #1 and an amnio to check on the baby's lung development. Just heard want her to incubate a day or two longer and if she does not go on her own will induce on Thursday. Now a word or two on the baby board that was started-I did not buy in but was offered the 16th last Friday when she was dilated to 5cm and we thought she was going into labor ha ha no thanks. Joking about it yesterday & C piped up he wanted the 16th he had money and that was going to be his day. I tried to talk him out of it, that it would be a bad bet & a waste of money but to no avail and Meemaw offered to put the $10 for him. Anyone care to check and see what date Thursday is?

random Saturday

-looks like the baby is actually going to make his arrival this weekend luckily much closer to his due date. Niece #1 is dilated to 5cm had a few contractions yesterday but her water has not broken yet. Her husband is on his way from Oklahoma today. She was keeping her legs crossed or something to prevent giving birth last night
-it must have worked we did not get any middle of the night text messages or phone calls
-MIL is very happy she can't wait to send everyone on their way and have her house back although personally I think she will miss the chaos
-C is doing better at his school work & managed an A on a social studies project. He also did a little report on tigers for extra credit that turned out really well. Big thanks to his teacher for giving him the opportunity
-I on the other hand should have studied better for my last exam-got a C but lowest exam score does get dropped and she is giving us extra credit so I will take advantage of that.
-the lab practical I rocked-very happy with that grade!
-my brother mentioned his 9 year old(she would be niece #4 chronologically) has a email so I asked C if he would like one and signed him up this morning.
-thinking about letting him start a blog
-David's birthday was kind of quiet he was suppose to go to Florida again but with the recent job change it was not possible
-we are planning a Sunday brunch with the family but baby birthing may throw a wrench into those plans
-my birthday is next and I am thinking something girly like a spa day
-wish I was headed to blogher with missy & cathy! But I am seriously entertaining the idea of the possibility of blogher 2009. maybe.
-my house needs a good fall cleaning
-I still have way to much laundry to do
-C is trying to convince us wesss is a curse word, but as David said is is just the opposite of east. We think he might be going for wuss? but who knows C certainly doesn't

updated Wednesday

baby news-is there is no news neice #1 went from contractions every 1/2 hour to nothing and now she is only allowing us to ask once a day if she is having contractions-she is very cranky
kiddo news-meeting went ok but to be quite honest some of the behavioral stuff I just could care less about he is an 8 year boy and while not "good" it's age appropriate behavior and things that can be handled at school
raise your hand during class instead of blurting things out
kicking ball in a tree-don't do that again
taking someones magazine-don't do that again or damn it child don't get caught, not a sneaky bone in the boy's body but again that is more her problem in my opinion.
As far as the school work is he is doing the bare minimum(or less)not something we haven't heard before but it seems that there is more leeway to dick off in 3rd grade. He is barreling through worksheets(again when he does them) so he can sit in the reading area with his friends and read books. So as far as I am concerned he can't do that any longer I sent him a workbook to work on today if he has "free" time. We are putting more checks and balances into place for him that will involve all of us. Creative writing seems to be a bit at issue as well so we are going to do some work with that as well-luckily David is the writer in the family, but if he has trouble with math or science I'm his girl! We shall see I am quite sure this will not be the end of it all but we are taking it one day at a time

baby update

so my last update a few weeks ago was incorrect I misread the text message niece was at point that is .6 cm so not so close to birth, whatta expect the phone screen is small! Jump ahead to now and about 33-34 weeks she went off bed rest last Friday, finished up with steroids over the weekend then stopped the anti-contraction medication on Thursday. She has been having some contractions and is dilated to 2cm so it does indeed look like we will have a new baby in the family this weekend!
Of course we are hoping that active labor does not start during the UT game or she might wind up delivering the baby on Alcoa highway....
UPDATE 12:30-contractions are every 20 minutes or so!

baby watch 2008

no no not me we have covered the whole we are just having the one child thing haven't we?
Niece #1 is the one being watched-this is her first and as luck would have it she is here in K-town for the summer while her hubs is at drill Sergeant school in the Carolinas.
And I say luck in spite of the fact that it was the fender bender that put on early baby watch-she is only around 30 weeks and is actually due the end of October. Since the wreck she has been dilating and intermittently contracting, spent a week in the hospital and is now at home on bed rest but the doctor's visit yesterday had her dilated to 6 cm with the baby's guesstimated weight at just under 4 lbs.. So we are expecting baby anytime now-her hubs doesn't get back to town till next week and her baby shower is on the 30th although it could very well be more of a baby's already here kind of party!

back home

officially that is-stopped at Sam & Andy's and I had a vol burger for lunch this afternoon. Made me feel really home.
C and I in fact arrived back in K-town last night only about 1 hour late which considering at one point the pilot turned an engine off, parked the plane, told us we could turn on cell phones, games etc because we were 38th in line to take off an hour not so hard to take.
We stopped at MIL's on the way home to check on family as our niece who is 6 months pregnant had been a car accident this week. Just a fender bender but she started labour, dilated etc hmmm now why does that seem so very familiar??? She only got stuck at hospital one night but is at home resting taking some medication that makes both her & the baby jumpy, normal supposedly but she does not feel very rested. A goes back to the doctor Monday and hopefully things will progress normally over the next few months.
I had planned on working this afternoon but quite frankly I am tired that is not going to happen oh well now I can dread Monday morning just a little more. The boy & I did take advantage of the tax-free weekend and did some clothes shopping and picked up some school supplies. Considering we were out mid-afternoon I was pleasantly surprised that Turkey Creek was not any crazier than it was.
The boy is clamoring for dinner except I have not been to the grocery store yet so I am not exactly sure what I can whip up might just be a call for pizza...

so how many do you have?

kids that is I am convinced 3 is the new 2 and in the area I live 4 and even 5 very trendy, very trendy indeed sort of like a new bag or shoe...but I digress.
I always thought we would have 2 kids ourselves, turns out I was wrong. Somewhere along the way D changed his mind and by the time he reversed it I was conflicted about the idea of having another at this late date. Yes I know many women have children into their 40s and every thing is just fine and dandy-personally I have concerns both physical and mental and well quite frankly financial. When we had C we just sort of leaped into it fortunately at the time my MIL was available to watch C and be his daycare, D was also happily downsized from his job when C was 1 and with severance & unemployment was able to spend almost a year at home playing Mr Mom. When the boy was 2 we had a fantastic not so expensive daycare for him plus we were residing in my FIL's house for minimal rent. We managed-in truth babies are not sooo expensive they really start to cost as they get older and as far as I can tell it seems to be getting worse each year. We would need a bigger house with a second plus there is the extracurricular activities not sure where we would find the time and money for another kiddo or even to continue with things for C.
We got lucky with C he is a great kid, pain in the a** sometimes but a really good, smart funny kid, a fairly easy happy baby at the time, healthy with normal childhood ailments. I think as you get older it is more of a crap shoot with risks that scare me. Not to mention I am no spring chick and we could not afford any sort of prolonged bed rest or anything. Except for 1 week in the hospital I worked pretty much right up to the day I gave birth.
Back to the spring chick thing the thought of throwing up every morning dragging myself to work trying to nap as much as possible would be more difficult for me now. I don't even want to think about sleepless nights, endless diapers, infant illness when all you can do is hold them & they still don't understand why they feel horrible, potty training ugh!
On the flip side that warm little cuddly body snuggled up against you, the smell of a baby-the good kind not the baby puke smell, bright eyes looking up at you with a sly smile, arms grabbing to get picked up. I get jealous when I see someone with a baby!
Then again when my nieces were hear a car and trips with 3 kids-I would need prozac-seriously.
Watching another mother at the ball field the other night trying to wrangle 3 under the age of 4 while her oldest was on the field let me say I was glad I was able to get in a phone to my mom & read some of my book.
So there it is am conflicted at best on this issue but resolved that the one is probably it for us. Good thing he is such a wonderful one!

bad flashback

nasty wreck in front of the store as I drove in this morning reminded me of my own wreck in the same spot almost 8 years ago. 7 months pregnant and what do I do why total my car what a great idea! I thought an ambulance ride to the hospital might be a good idea at the time but I tell you unless I am bleeding out of my eyeballs I won't do that again. Totally freaked me out, I told them I could not be flat on my back-when you are preggers you need to at least have feet elevated otherwise it cuts off circulation or something-so they put me flat on my back. I was trying to take some deep breaths to calm myself down so they shoved oxygen up my nose even though I told them I did not need it. Wanted to go to hospital out west well they could not do that which turned out fine I was at Fort Sanders Regional and wall taken care of for which I am eternally grateful.
I was having contractions so I spent the first night in labor & delivery. That sealed the deal on the whole epidural debate some poor woman was screaming her lungs out at 3 in the morning-she had waited too long & could not get the epidural. Then comes C favorite part of the story-he was pissed at mommy kicked moved and carried on ALL night. I was on a fetal monitor but he kept moving off of it my nurse would come in wake me & shift everything after several visits in she finally let me go an hour at a time so I could get a little sleep.
My SIL told me she was ready to hit the road and help if we had C prematurely. Now she has some serious experience as her daughter was born at 24 weeks. My niece was not even 2 lbs at birth but the ultrasound indicated C would have still been 6 lbs even as a preemie a monster child! largest premmie they would have ever seen is my guess but luckily contractions were stopped and I went home after a really long & boring week in the hospital.