The horse and the midget

I said earlier that we are dog sitting for Amber while she goes to Columbus to visit Joe. We are keeping Husker, which we have done before, but now they have Chevy too, so he is here also. Husker is a beast of a dog, but he is a very very good dog. Chevy is very energetic and spends a vast amount of time barking at himself in the mirror of the curio cabinet. Husker weighs about 110 and Chevy weighs about 6. Oh, and in case anybody's keeping up, the score is Frosty-2, Chevy-0.















The girls put Haley's quilt in the cradle that Papa made for me many years ago and that is where Chevy sleeps.

And the sex of the baby is...

not known.

The ultrasound lady was obviously having a bad day as she flew through the exam hardly saying anything and at the end looked and said "The legs are crossed and I can't tell." She ran the wand back over it's head and down it's body once more and said "Nope" and shut off the machine. She didn't make an effort and she had already rushed through and not told us anything else so we left. I asked about the brain and heart and she just brushed off my questions and she didn't mention spinal bifida or cleft lip or anything. We were in there for less than 15 minutes total. I was in tears by the time we got to the regular doctor's office because I had no idea if the baby was even okay but the doctor came in and said everything looked fine so I guess it's okay.

So that's all we know...that everything looks fine. Scott and I were both a little disappointed that she didn't spend more time showing us the parts of the baby and with the gender part but what can you do? I guess we'll hope for a better one in 10 weeks.

Wednesday

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is our appointment for our ultrasound. It's at 1. Scott is going to meet me there, and I am taking Owen too, because Amber has gone out of town to visit Joe at Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA. We are dog sitting their dogs, so I will put some pictures of them on here soon because they are really cute!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Joe and Amber and Arden, who have successfully changed Joe's military orders. They were supposed to go to Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri, a miserable sort of place where Scott went to basic training also known as Ft. Lost in the Woods. Instead, they are going to beautiful Vicenza, Italy and will get to live there for three years on the government's dime and get to travel around Europe thanks to the hefty amount of cola (cost of living allowance) the government will throw at them to offset the hassle of living in a foreign country. If only I had their hassles!!

Have fun and find Scott a job over there too!!!

And congratulations to Karin, my surrogate friend, who found out today that she is still carrying all three babies and the one teeny one that was lagging behind has taken a turn for the better and is going to make it. And no, no one will fault you for using all that money for a tummy tuck!

I think I am going to throw up

This is the worse thing that happened around here today.

Elmo goes on the potty

They now have a movie out called Elmo's Potty Time. Today after having lunch with Amber and Arden we went to WalMart and bought it. It is 45 minutes long.

I am embarrassed for every person who had anything to do with making this DVD as it contains a number of unfortunate songs and conversations. Owen absolutely loves it. We watched it and he talked non-stop about Elmo going potty and Grover going potty and Baby Bear going potty, etc. One of the songs is The Dirty Diaper Dance and it actually includes the line "if your diaper's dry, you'll look fly."

It has also (after one time) taught Owen an extensive vocabulary. They use words ranging from wee wee to dookie and everything in between. That is the part where they have real children dancing and screaming out words that describe what you may or may not be doing in the bathroom. I would best describe it as frightening.

After one time through Owen was ready to move on to other things, none of which included taking off his diaper and sitting on the potty, because when I asked him he told me "O already done." He has not gone "numero dos" (fyi-another perfectly good phrase we learned) today so I am going to try again in a few minutes, but from the odor I think he must have done it in the last 5 minutes while I was typing this.

Proving my point

Yesterday I picked Ashlyn and Haley up from their first day at school. They were both very excited and talked about what they did and what they learned.

"Haley, are you glad that Haley C is not going to be in your class anymore?"

"Mama, I AM Haley C!"

"Haley, you are Haley S! S! S like Starr! Haley Starr! Haley S!"

"Oh, yeah. Man, why can't I remember that?"

Some new blogs

Ashlyn and Haley have started school and they have created their very own blogs so everyone can see what they are doing in their classes.

You can read about Ashlyn here.

You can read about Haley here.

Their names and pictures in their "about me" section are the same as mine right now, but I am going to change that soon. Blogger has gone to a new format and right now I'm not able to modify some of the tags in the template just yet.

It's a good thing you're pretty

Yesterday at Meet the Teachers we found out that there are two Haleys in Haley's kindergarten class, Haley Clark and Haley Starr. So we were told by her teacher, Mrs. Smith, that our Haley would from now on be known as Haley S.

When we were in the car on the way home I asked Haley if it bothered her that she was going to have to be called Haley S all the time.

"No, not at all. Haley S is a cool name!"

"Oh. Okay, yeah, I think so too."

"Hey mama, how do you think they came up with the S?"

**note: today was the first day and we found out that haley clark isn't going to be going to glenmore so haley is now the only one.

Bump pictures

Here are some pictures of the bump, taken by Ashlyn. In the second picture I look a little mad, but it is because there was a huge fight going on while it was being taken. And the shelf and picture in the background are crooked because our stupid cat Frosty won't quit trying to knock it off the wall.

The Runners

This weekend my father and brother ran in a mini-marathon in Rome, GA. They ran for 3.1 miles for no reason other than they wanted to do it. I have a weird family.

My latest

One of my recent purchases on ebay was the Precious Moments Noah's Ark set. It came in the mail today and has taken up residence on the bottom shelf of my curio cabinet right beside my Precious Moments Sammy's Circus set. You can see the ark, Noah and his wife, giraffes, sheep, bunnies, pigs and elephants. They also have llamas, which I have purchased but which have not arrived yet, and lions, goats and zebras (that I don't have).














So if you think this curio is practically busting at it's seams, I'm not even going to show you a picture of my salt & pepper shaker curio!

Tennessee cousins

Here are Ashlyn, Haley and Owen's Tennessee cousins.
(L-R) Macie Aleece (born 7 August), Sidney and Leeanne

On the pooter

Owen loves to sit with Ashlyn and play games on the "pooter".

And shame on all of you who saw the title of this post and thought you were going to see some really cool pictures of people sitting on the toilet!

Afternoon fun

This may look very dangerous, but, as evidenced here, here, and here, we are trained professionals.

So this is interesting

It turns out that my friend, the nameless surrogate, is not having twins after all.

She's having triplets.

Oh, and hey Ka-uh, nameless surrogate, sorry I laughed.

We're so excited!

Today, on the 433rd day of his life, Owen PEE-PEED ON THE POTTY!!

It turns out pouring warm water on his thingy really does work...

Ready for school

Haley, are you ready to start school?

Yes!

Okay, let's practice. What's 6 - 3?

4.

Nope.

5?

Nope.

OOH OOH I KNOW I KNOW--17!!

My cousin Adam

Everyone has a crazy person in their family that they sometimes pretend they don't know. Adam is that person in my family. Ha Ha! So here's a couple of pictures of Adam doing what he does best. You may ask "What does he do?" Well, no one really knows for sure, but it has something to do with Home Depot I think.

#3 ob trip

Today I went again to see Dr. Dickens and find out how the bump is coming along. I have nothing to say about the weight gain issue because I weighed myself with my back to the scale and I have no idea what it was. It can't be too bad because Dr. Dickens commented that is was "about perfect" and I quickly told him I didn't want to know the number, but thanks anyway.

We heard the heartbeat and discussed any worries/concerns we may have. Scott didn't have any, but I had one about the fact that the baby was going to come at the height of flu season and I'd have two kids in school bringing home all sorts of germs and immediately Scott cut me off laughing. He then reminded me about having two kids, one in December and one if February, in Fairbanks, Alaska and not asking this question. And I'm glad he spoke up because I'd completely forgotten about giving birth in the past...

So Dr. Dickens and Scott had a good chuckle while I protested that it was a legitimate concern because in Alaska we didn't go anywhere (too too much snow) and Dr. Dickens said as long as the baby wasn't premature we didn't really have cause to worry. Oh, and if the kids have coughs or colds we shouldn't let them breathe all over the baby. Well, it's a good thing he told me THAT because I had NO idea I needed to keep snot-nosed kids away from a newborn baby.

I have felt the bump move twice, both at the same time, about 10 seconds apart. I was laying on the bed and felt a lump rise up and I poked it and it went away, then came right back. Again, after a solid poke from me it disappeared and I haven't heard from it since. But it's still in there somewhere, doing it's best to give me the worst freaking heartburn known to mankind. Oh, and I also found out today it's about to have a growth spurt. How lovely.

We go back on the 30th for the ultrasound. Actually, I made the appointment for 3:30 that day but I'm going to have to change it because I completely forgot the girls would be in school then so I think it will be on the 30th, but I'm not 100% sure.

And speaking of pregnancy I'd like to take this opportunity to say congratulations to my friend, who wants to remain nameless but is doing the unmatchable by being a surrogate to a less fortunate couple. On the second time around she has successfully been impregnated with two counts of someone else's sperm and egg combo and is having twins...so YAY! for you (and them).
And I'm sorry I laughed about the twin part...

If the shoe fits...

then you should definitely wear it. Nothing says DUDE! more than some sparkly red Dorothy shoes. And speaking of DUDE!...Dude, get a bowl or something.