Tagged...Again!

Tagged again...by Dani (I think) or Mindy (for sure)...I really have enjoyed being tagged...I'm going to make up a tag of my own one of these days!
1.WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Yes, my dad. Jennifer Kim, Kim is my dad's name. I've always thought it was really cool to be named after my dad.
2.WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Tonight, after reading an email about a 24 week preemie that was supposed to die, and didn't....and did well....and remembered the "smell" of being held by Heavenly Father...I really should forward that to Mindy....
3.DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? It doesn't bother me. It's not the prettiest, but it's mine.
4.WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? I have to go with peppered roast beef....
5.DO YOU HAVE KIDS? 3, Kyle is 9, Alec is 5, and Talia is almost 1 (cry).
6.IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Yes.
7.DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? Yes (my parents would say too much!)
8.DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes
9.WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Yes. I'd like to skydive too, but my mother has informed me that now that I have children, that is an unacceptable risk. She's right of course, but I would love the rush.
10.WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? I don't really like cereal. I eat Cheerios with splenda because it's a healthy, filling breakfast.
11.DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? No...and whenever possible, I buy shoes that don't have laces.
12.DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? Relatively. I do have some pretty impressive "Mommy arms" right now, from carting my beautiful daughter around!
13.WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Cookie Dough. Ben and Jerry's, Baskin Robbins, or Farr's (at their location).
14.WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Their faces...eyes and smile especially.
15.RED OR PINK? It depends...they're really just different shades of the same color, so it depends on the mood.
16.WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? I'm too much of a type-A perfectionist at times.
17.WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My great-grandma Ruth...she died when I was 9, but I have often wanted to talk things over with her.
18.WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Pants...sage green scrub pants. Shoes...multi-color blue payless variety crocs...the ones that look kind of like mary jane's.
19.WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? A South Beach Diet snack bar...Chocolate flavor...and a few Robin's Eggs candies that some nice parents brought into the unit for the staff...
20.WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? The beeping of the monitors here at work...with the babies we have right now, the monitors never stop...
21.IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Purple.
22.FAVORITE SMELLS? Chocolate. Baby Magic baby bath (especially on one of my babies), Sunday dinner (roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls...) Turkey Roasting....
23.WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Breanne B....the best babysitter....
24.FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? NFL football...especially the Colts...
25.HAIR COLOR? Well....original - a pretty brown.... Real - completely gray....Current - deep red-brown with copper highlights.
26.EYE COLOR? Blue
27.DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Yes, but only until next year...I'm hoping to get Lasix.
28.FAVORITE FOOD? Mashed potatoes and gravy.
29.SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? It depends on the mood. I like both.
30.LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Fool's Gold.
31.WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Sage green scrub top, to match the pants.
32.SUMMER OR WINTER? Usually winter (I don't tolerate heat very well), but right now, I'm so sick of winter, I can hardly wait for spring!
33.HUGS OR KISSES? Both!!! You really can't have one without the other. Unless we're talking about the Hershey's variety...then it's definitely Hershey's Kisses.
34.FAVORITE DESSERT? Mom's brownies, Mindy's Whoopie Pies....or chocolate chip cookie dough...
35.WHAT BOOK(S) ARE YOU READING NOW? What books am I not reading now? I'm reading Harry Potter #7 (again, I've lost count of how many times I've read it)...I just finished Black Rose (again), The Time Traveler's Wife,
36.WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? Well, I usually have my laptop, no mouse pad necessary, but the home computer has one with a blue water type design so our mouse can "see" when it's being moved...
37.WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT? The news...then I played the Playstation 3
38.FAVORITE SOUND? All three of my kids playing nicely together. Cole getting up with the baby so I can sleep longer. The boys making Talia laugh.
39.ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Rolling Stones.
40.WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Florida or Pennsylvania
41.DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? I can be very diplomatic, and I can listen to both sides without taking either side...and I refuse to back-bite....
42.WHERE WERE YOU BORN?Mckay Dee Hospital, Ogden Utah

Jammie Day!

So, as you can see, I got quite a bit done today during Talia's nap.....I truly did decide to have a Jammie Day....I'm still in my jammies now.
I really felt like I was in the scrapbooking "zone"...I rarely get this many pages done at home.
All in all, today has been an easier day for me emotionally. Doing these pictures didn't make me sad at all, which is an improvement of my mood of the last couple of weeks. I'm tired of being sad every time my daughter does something new, something that's supposed to be exciting to me, so today was good. My daughter is trying to "cruise"...she can pull up on anything now with little effort...I won't even feel her tugging on my pants, and there she is, standing beside me hanging on. And she can balance without holding on for a few seconds as well. It's really cute.

And I'm OK with it. Now, if only she'd stop sitting up in her sleep, then waking up crying because she can't figure out how she got there....

I also played the video game today...and passed it on the normal mode (I've passed it once before, but on the easy mode). It's really strange that I've enjoyed it so much, because I normally prefer to watch Cole play games like this, but I'm glad I've learned how to handle the controller at the very least. There will be sometime, I'm sure, that the boys will rope me into playing, and I need to be able to hold my own :).

Thanks to Mackenzie!!!

A million thanks to my friend Mackenzie for her help in teaching me how to play with my template!!! Plus, she gave me a few fun sites that have downloads for my blog. I will definitely be playing with it a lot in the next few days, weeks, and months!
I did encounter a few problems in the transition...all my page elements were deleted, and I had to reload them. It really wasn't a big deal...and since I've never been completely happy with the slideshow I had, it gives me the opportunity and the excuse to make a newer, better one. Besides, my dad's disappointed he's not in any of the pictures, and I hate to disappoint my dad, so I'll be making sure that he's included this time.

It's been pretty slow here at work the last couple of hours. The first of our shift went by very quickly, but it's been good since then. 3 more hours, then I'm off for 2 days. Monday, I'm staying in my jammies all day, and scrapbooking. Maybe, anyway...I've gotten really into this game on the Playstation 3...me, who hasn't played video games since before Kyle was born(and I didnt' all that much then). Cole is thrilled....he likes that the whole family wants to play the system, especially since Santa paid quite a bit for the one that plays all the older Playstation stuff as well.

Be on the lookout for new page elements...and if you stop by, leave a comment so I know you're around. At least until I get a sitemeter set up.

Purse "Tag"

First of all, The Purse "Tag"...
I had no idea how much crap I have in my purse. I just got a bigger purse a couple of weeks ago, and the amount of crap I have is proportional to the size of my bag. This new bag has lots of neat pockets to stash stuff in. So I have

1. Wallet, Palm Pilot, and Cell phone...to keep me organized and connected and financially stable...
2. Several Pens, 2 from the Similac Rep (the purple Alimentum pen, the black "Lava" Pen), and one from our NICU research team....
3. 2 extra memory cards and the spare battery for my camera...and my camera is always in there too...but obviously I needed it to take the picture!!!
4. A small mirror...just in case (I do have a bit of vanity...)
5. Gum...I don't exactly know how this started, I'm not really a gum person...It gives me a headache if I chew it for too long...
6. Ibuprofen and Allerclear in a ziploc bag...for headaches and allergy attacks. I'm highly allergic to cats and dogs, and sometimes an unfamiliar animal will spur an attack....
7. Lactaid...for my husband, in case he needs it when we eat out.
8. Scissors (?)
9. My ipod....always gotta have Tunes available....plus my cool Skull Candy earbuds, that don't hurt a bit...in fact, I can hardly tell when I have them in.
10. A prescription for Talia for flouride, written at her 9 month appointment in January (I kind of forgot it was in there....the lots of neat pockets hide a great deal of stuff.....
11. Gift cards for Barnes and Noble and Texas Roadhouse....
12. Identifcation cards for the 2 boys. They have their fingerprints on them. The rest of the info and pictures are out of date, because the school hasn't offered that service for 2 years now, but I did have to use Kyle's once, so I keep them with me.
13. Coupons...I'm a huge coupon shopper, I can usually save about $20 using coupons....
14. The "Prayer, Scripture, Talk" slips that I've been meaning to deliver this week....at least it reminded me to call the parents so we would have everything covered in primary tomorrow.
15. 4 different kinds of lip gloss, and a "Makeup Eraser Pen" from Sephora that is amazing...stray smudges just go away without ruining the rest of your makeup...
16. Aquaphor for my hands and/or lips, and a bottle of a 2 different dietary supplements I like to take...
17. There were a few tampons in my purse as well, but quite honestly...my dad reads this blog. I really didn't need him to see that .....

So that's what's in my purse. And I do feel prepared for almost anything...of course, I usually have a diaper bag in tow as well....Maybe in a week or so we should do a diaper bag Tag....plus, I have a work bag that has some of the same stuff, plus a whole lot of other crap in it!!!!

My own adorable girl....Her shirt says "I am absolutely Adorable", but the stitching was too fine to pick up on camera...especially since she moves like lightning these days. Today she got into her diaper bag, which normally isn't a problem, but it had chocolate coins from the "Blue and Gold banquet" last night in it....she had chocolate everywhere...her face, her hair, her jammies, the floor (the laminate, not the carpet thank goodness), and all over the diaper bag and its contents....like mother like daughter, I'm proud to be raising a chocoholic. She really is the best little girl...even if her mommy's having a really rough time with her growing up. I've been very depressed this week, realizing that her "baby" time is almost gone...she's starting to try to take steps when she pulls up on something, and it's only a matter of time before she starts walking, and becomes a toddler. I never realized it would be quite this hard on me, the end of my baby days.

So, she fell asleep in her high chair a couple of days ago....she's resisting her morning nap, but obviously she still needs it in some form or other....I now have pictures of all three of my kids who've fallen asleep while eating....

And on a happy note, I've finally figured out how to insert more than one picture in my blog at different places...now if I can just figure out how to mess around with the template....

I have the sweetest baby....

It was a very good day at our house. And that's saying something, because I worked last night, and didn't have an all day babysitter for my Talia. My sweet girl....she slept in until she heard my alarm, and then we got up to get Kyle off to school....She played on the floor, and let me lay on the couch...Alec was also a big help, and played with her...then she went down for a nap at 9:30. I had decided last night to let her sleep as long as she wanted to in the morning, and if I didn't get an afternoon nap before work, I would just deal with it. She slept until 11:00, which means so did I!!! Now I was up to 5 hours of sleep....and feeling really pretty good. We had lunch, got Alec off to school, and got ourselves ready for the day...then she went down for another nap at 1pm!!! So, I got a 45 minute power nap before I had to get up and ready for work...So, I'm feeling pretty good here at work. I've learned a good lesson...if I follow her natural nap cues, things go so much better...she's always been a pretty good sleeper, and I've been very blessed.

Cole's really excited, because there's not any food we've really given Talia that she doesn't like...unlike the boys, who are both still really picky. He's really hoping she'll be an adventurous eater, like him, but all I want is for meal time not to be a battle, like it is with Alec....Talia loves Animal Cookies...the kind with the Pink and White frosting and sprinkles...Cole calls them Quiet Cookies, because while she's eating them she's completely focused....

The best plans....

Always seem to go awry at my house. So, I had planned to get a lot of errands done on Wednesday afternoon. We desperately needed groceries, I wanted to get to the hospital to see Mindy, who chose to have her baby 1 1/2 hours after I left work.....but I hadn't counted on what happened on Tuesday. I worked 2 in a row, Monday and Tuesday, and I couldn't get Talia into daycare on Tuesday. So, I figured on getting 3 hours of sleep in the morning, and hopefully a 1 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon before work. No such luck....I got home from work a little late, so I only got 2 1/2 hours in the morning before Talia woke. Then, she was whiny (I figured out on Wednesday she's cutting 3 molars), and then she refused to take an afternoon nap....so I went to work on about 3 hours of sleep. At first I was doing OK, fueled on a lot of caffeine (Diet pepsi, Sugar-free Redbull, and Diet Dr Pepper), but by about 9:30 pm, I hit a huge wall. I was exhausted. Then, we had to go down the ER and admit an RSV kid...who kept stopping breathing, so I had to put in a breathing tube and put her on a ventilator...and every time I had to gown, glove and mask I would get extremely nauseous....It's been a long time since I've been so wiped out. So by Wednesday afternoon, Talia's still cranky, and I'm cranky and tired. So nothing got done until later. I braved the roads to get a few groceries (I was out of bread, and if we don't have bread, Alec will starve since all he eats is bread and peanut butter), but I was just too exhausted to get up to the hospital, or do anything else that needed doing.

By Thursday morning, I was rested again. I had the kid's Valentines from Cole and I on the table at breakfast, and they were happy. They gave me candy, and were excited about that. I had plans to make a special Valentines dinner....there's this roast at Costco that Cole loves, and I wanted to go pick one up. The boys are also in desperate need of haircuts, so I was hoping we could do that as well...
We got to Costco, and they didn't have the roast. We got to Walmart for haircuts, and it's a long wait. Now I had nothing for dinner, it's getting late, and I'm feeling bad...I really wanted to make a nice dinner for Cole. We ended up cooking dinner together, and I had made him a special dessert, so it ended up ok. Cole gave me a single red rose, and a very nice card.

So, hopefully, I can make a nice dinner over the weekend, and the end of our night turned out just fine. It was nice just to hang out with the kids and relax together.

Playing Catch Up...

So it's been forever since I've been able to post. Between work and then all the stuff to do on the weekend, it's been the last thing on my mind. Talia was sick over the weekend...running a high fever, and had diarrhea. The skin on her poor little bum is so sensitive anyway, and the first couple of days she screamed every time we had to wipe her...thank goodness for Desitin, and lots of it. We finally got ahead of the diaper rash, and the fever started. She was mostly ok once she had Tylenol or Motrin in her system, but it made for some very rough nights of her tossing and turning and whining...so of course I didn't sleep well either. Last night, when she woke in the night I could tell it was only a low grade fever, so I decided ride it out, hoping it would break by morning. It did, and she was mostly back to herself today, although a little more tired than usual.

So, Cole and I ended up going to dinner and a movie on Saturday Night, an early Valentines date. We just gave Talia her meds before we left, and told our amazing babysitter to call us for any reason if she felt like we needed to be home. Of course, all three kids were great for her, Talia was her normal happy self, and she loves our babysitter.
We went to Outback, and I was surprised they already had a 30 min wait at 5:20...ususally on a Saturday night we can get right in at that time. So, we were running later than we would have liked for the movie, and the only 2 seats left together were in the FRONT ROW....I decided to try it despite knowing it would probably give me a headache and make me nauseous. We saw "Fool's Gold", which I thought was cute and fun, (and I would really like to see it from a normal distance), and Cole tolerated because he loves me. I did get a little nauseous and had to get up at one point in the movie, but mostly it was ok. Except....I didn't realize how distorted it looks from the front row....Matthew McConaughey's normal extreme hotness was not quite so good from that angle. Anyway, it was a fun movie, and put me in a romantic mood.

So, I'm hoping to have time to scrapbook sometime this week....I have to grocery shop on Wednesday, and Thursday I want to do a special dinner for the family for Valentines....plus the boys really, really, really need haircuts sometime this week.

Today I am thankful for...

1. Talia feeling better.
2. Brenda, who's great to help me out with babysitting whenever she can.
3. A husband who sat through a movie he really didn't want to see, just because I really, really wanted to see it.
4. My new cellphone, which is really, really cool....I love grown up toys!!!
5. My Mother-in-law and Father-in-law, who are amazing and love us and our children very much.

So, I did get some scrapbooking done on Monday. Not as much as I would have liked, but I did at least get this 2 page layout done. Ever since Talia gave up her morning nap, she's not been a great afternoon napper either. But we're working on getting her back into a good napping pattern again.

It's been crazy the last couple of days...work was crazy on Tuesday, and yesterday I was exhausted...and didn't really get a nap, so I went on 2 hours 45 minutes of sleep all day yesterday. And I have to go back to work tonight....

Today I am thankful for:

1. Health in our family.
2. The career path that I follow.
3. A wonderful husband.
4. Chocolate packaged in perfect portion sizes.
5. The number the scale read this morning!!!

Superbowl Madness....

So, yesterday was the "Biggest Game of the Year". We're big football fans, but Cole's team (the Raiders) have been terrible for a couple of years now, and my team (last year's Superbowl Champs, the Colts), were taken out this year in the playoffs. So, what to do...of course I was rooting for the Giants, the team of my favorite QB Peyton Manning's younger brother. What a great game!!! I am an anti-Patriots fan, because quite honestly, I think their coach is a man with few morals, no sportsmanship, and he thinks he can get away with anything. So I was thrilled to see the Giants pull out an incredible 4th quarter victory. We went over to my brother and sister in law's house for a Superbowl party. We've gone for the last few years, and we always have a great time. I know most women are not football fans, but I love it....I kind of started to like it in high school, at the high school football games...and when Cole and I got married, we watched football on Sundays, and he taught me about the games. About 5 or 6 years ago, I picked a team to follow (the Colts, based on the fact that I think Peyton Manning is really cute and a stand-up guy), and the rest is history.




So, for the first time, I didn't get a 2 page layout done last week. I only had 1 real day off during the week last week, and it was a recovery day, so I don't feel too badly about it. And I spent Saturday afternoon cleaning like a maniac, catching up on my housework, so that today, when Talia takes her afternoon nap, I can scrapbook with no guilt. So hopefully I can get 2 2-page layouts done this afternoon, to make up for it.





My baby is now an extremely efficient crawler. I didn't take back the original baby gate I bought (it was too short for the top of my stairs, so I had to find a different one online), and I've been glad...it helps me block off different areas of the house if I'm doing something and need her to stay more contained. She's so funny...she'll pull up on her activity table, and then doesn't know how to get back down...so she cries. If I help her down, she just pulls back up and I know she feels stuck...she's afraid to let go and play, because she's afraid to fall...I know she'll figure it out, but it's so interesting how babies have to work through these things.





Off to finish the morning dishes, so that I can play all afternoon.

P.S...

I really, really need new scrubs. I don't have any problem buying real clothes, but I have a hard time spending money on work clothes. And it's the tired time of night, and I'm really posting partly to stay awake. I'm watching the storm out the window...and it keeps getting worse. I'm tired of winter.