Lots Happening...

I have lots of catching up to do! We have been busy, but that seems to be our "norm" now, so we just try to keep up. We went to the Pumpkin Patch on Friday evening with a group of our friends. We all had a great time and I was proud of myself for making it through the corn maze... (I am dilated 2 centimeters and having a lot of contractions) but I will go into more detail about that in a bit... The Pumpkin Patch was a blast and when we were done there, we headed to the Izer's house for a carving party! The kids did great on carving their pumpkins- somehow, I didn't take pictures of them, but they were cool!

I have finally gotten most of the baby's room done. I have a bit more painting to do, but this picture gives you an idea of what the theme/colors are. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I painted the octopus free hand, so it could have turned out a disaster.....

...like Pat with any paint! He made quite the mess. I am sooo glad that I had plastic over all the carpet that evening!

Last week, Mac and his buddy Kaymen, got to go to a Trailblazer pre-season game. All the big names were there and the boys were SUPER EXCITED to be there!

We also had Reagan's 3rd b-day party! Her party was at a gymnastics club and all the kids had a blast! They jumped, flipped and tumbled until they were exhausted- Lilly loved her princess party favors too!

I am feeling better today than I have been the last 2 weeks or so. I was sent to the birthing center about 2 weeks ago because I thought that my water had broke....I was worried because it was really too early, so I was hoping that I was wrong. I had been having some pretty intense contractions, leaking a little bit and just very uncomfortable. They tested the fluid I was leaking and said they were pretty sure it was not amniotic fluid and that my water had not broke- so I was relieved. The contractions didn't stop and I was back into the doc in a few days. She checked me and I was at 2 centimeters and still leaking, so she tested the fluid again and the test was positive for amniotic fluid. She monitored the baby closely and it is doing awesome, showing no stress at all. I took it easy, layed around a lot, drank tons of fluids and started feeling better within a week. The baby is at 5lbs. and is actually a little big or ahead of schedule for weight/length, so if it comes a little early, all will be fine. I am not sleeping much, so my doc suggested I take 1/2 a Unisom to get some needed rest. I did and it gave me a horrible migraine that lasted about 3 days!! I think I'll take being sleep deprived over a migraine, so no more Unisom for me-
all in all, I am doing good and getting excited to meet our new addition. I did find out at the Birthing Center that I am only allowed to have 2 people with me when the baby comes. Pat counts as one and the other will be Pat's mom. I also found out that Mac and Lilly will not be allowed to come there at all! They have to wait for us to come home to meet the baby. The hospital put these guidelines into effect a few weeks ago due to the H1N1 flu, and they are being very strict about it. I understand the reasoning behind it, but am bummed that Mac and Lilly can't come to the hospital to be a part of their baby brother/sisters arrival. I still have some things to get done before he/she arrives, but I am sure we will get it all done! Pat and I also do not have any names picked out. My plan was to have our family and friends write names down when they came to the hospital to see baby, but that can't happen now- I am thinking of posting some and having you all vote for the one you like. We'll see if I get around to it...

We have some "not so fun" stuff going on during all this and it has been causing me to stress a bit. The biggest is our Master Bath has been completely tore up/gutted! It is a mess to say in the least, there is no longer a shower, my BIG soaker tub or even much of a floor left in there. I had contacted our builder way back in July about some cracks that had appeared in our tile. We never got a response from him or his contractor and the cracks kept getting worse- to the point that we were no longer taking showers in it. I called and e-mailed constantly and did not get a reply until around Sept 23rd!! I was so furious that it took them that long to get in touch with me. They didn't send anyone out to look at it until the 2nd week of October. Well, to make this long story short- we had major water damage- major. Everything has to be re-done. It's a nightmare and our builder is not good with communication, etc. It has been a fight every day and is not over. The job has gotten so big/costly that he had to contact his insurance company and we are still waiting to hear from him...ugh!! In the meantime, everything has been taped off with plastic and my BIG soaker tub is sitting in our garage- that tub was my saving grace in the middle of the night- I was taking lots of baths to make it through my contractions, sore back and throbbing legs! I am EXTREMELY ticked at them- they could have come in July and it probably would not have been such a mess. We have no idea how long it is going to take for it all to be repaired/completed- I guess one good thing is that the builder is responsible for all the repairs because it all happened before our one year warranty was up.
Our other stress (kind of) is we listed my car on Craigslist anticipating that it would take 3-4 weeks to sell and it sold in one day! Yes, we should be thankful for it selling so quickly...but I wasn't ready for it to sell so fast! I LOVED my car, but it was too small for hauling 3 kids around- I think we will be getting a suburban, but with all that has been going on, we have not had time to even go test drive anything, plus I HATE car shopping....it's right up there with grocery shopping on my list. It's not a lot of fun- but we will get on it soon.
So, we have had lots happening. I have also been slammed with school stuff. I have been trying to stay out of there because a lot of kids are sick with flu-like symptoms and I want NO PART OF IT.
I had a baby shower yesterday and it was a lot of fun. I got tons of great things that I needed. I have another one next weekend. I am looking forward to it. Baby showers are just too cool- I am so lucky to have such awesome friends and family in my life. So blessed, that I get 2 baby showers! It Rocks- I will post pictures of them later.
One last note- my Dad is responding EXTREMELY well to his therapy/treatments for his Hep C. He feels pretty darn lousy most of the time, but he is glad that it is working on killing the virus. He mostly feels like he has the flu. I know he gets some pretty bad headaches too, but these are mild side effects, so he is grateful that he doesn't have any of the really bad one's. He is about 7 or 8 weeks into his 24 weeks of treatments. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.
My niece, Catie Lynn, is also doing AWESOME. All her tests have come back looking very good and she is done with chemo for now. Thank you all for praying for her and our family. I will keep you updated on her as they find out more.
Well, that's it for now. I know I have forgotten some things- but I am tired. We are all doing good and the kids are looking forward to Halloween! Take care and love ya all-