I had my 7:30 am meeting at the school today to discuss my son's progress. I was bracing myself for some bad news because I'd felt like lately he'd been slacking off but all I got was good reports. He's doing great on meeting his IEP goals and his reading has come a very long way! I'm so happy and proud of him. He'll still get help with reading next year and will still meet with the special education teacher to get some assistance in the areas where he stuggles but his writing has come so far that he'll get minimal assistance with that next year and will slowly be phased out of the writing assistance totally. Yay! I think the best news I got was that Kyle is now reading aloud in class where as before he would say pass and was embaressed to read aloud to his class. That says a lot about his self-confidence and how far he's come.

Other than that I don't have much to update you on. The house is a total pit and I lack the energy or motivation to clean it. This rainy, cloudy weather doesn't help. Makes me want to sleep all day or lay on the couch and watch movies. Not exactly productive. So...I'm going to have to force myself to get up off my butt and get something done. If I get moving on it now I can reward myself with a movie and a little lazy time before I pick the kids up from school. That gives me 2 hours to get things somewhat in order around here. Think I can do it? Hmm...probably not but I'm going to try! lol Have a great day everyone!

ultrasound

Well, today was our ultrasound and my fear came true. This little stinker was NOT about to cooperate for us. It intentionally turned away from the viewer several times and laid with it's back to us the majority of the time. At one point it's little body was folded in half with it's feet up over it's head. It was in the breach position to begin with so it sat butt down. That really didn't give us the view we needed. At one point she was trying really hard to see the sex of the baby and got a very quick glimpse. She, as well as Jason and myself, are all pretty sure we saw a little boy baby but without a freeze frame of it to be certain it's hard to know 100%. So...I guess I have to be patient and wait and as you all know patience is NOT my specialty. I've had a gut feeling that this is a boy pretty much since day one so I'm thinking I'll decorate the baby's room fairly neutral and lean toward the boy side. Then if I have to girlie it up later I can. Here are the pics from the ultrasound. Click on the pics to see them bigger. :)

Baby Belly

Thought I'd update you on the bathroom progress first. It's really coming along now. Last night Gus & Jason worked hard getting the drywall hung. The ceiling is done as well as 3 out of 4 walls. The tub & shower are installed but Jason still needs to do something to make the faucet work. Right now just the shower head works and honestly that's all I care about for now. lol No, that's not the color of the bathroom. It's just the color of the green board. :) Oh...the strip you see on the tub is duct tape. My brilliant husband thought he'd put that there to "protect" the tub from him standing on it but I warned him that it could damage the material that the surround is made from. Of course he didn't listen and he spent last night trying to remove the adhesive backing from the duct tape that stuck to the tub. Now it's getting all scratched up already. :(

The guys are also leaving "treasures" in the walls for another homeowner to find someday. Thsi is just a small sampling of the cans in the wall. They also put a note in the wall saying something about hope your project doesn't take as many beers to do as this one did. lol

I also took some pics of the baby belly last night. Not nearly as pretty as it was with my first or even my 2nd pregnancy but oh well. This is me at 19 weeks and 3 days. I'm HUGE this time around! But hey, at least I'll have reached the halfway mark on Friday. And tomorrow is the ultrasound. Can't wait!!!!!

Well, I have tons to do to get ready for the yard sale so I better get my butt in gear. I'm totally dragging today though because I stayed up too late last night. We'll see how productive I am today. Have a great day everyone!

Congrats Kyle!!!!

What an awesome day. :) Not only was I FINALLY able to take a shower in the bathroom but it was also Pinewood Derby day and Kyle got 2nd place!!!! Not sure who was more proud and excited. Kyle or Jason? LOL Jenevieve entered a car too and it did great in her heat but she didn't place high enough for a medal. She was bummed that Kyle got one and she didn't but I reminded her that there's always next year.

Here's Kyle's car. I gave him & Jason a hard time for making it so plain looking but that's what Kyle wanted. Well, I guess plain and simple works! lol


This is Kyle & the 1st & 3rd place scouts.


Kyle with his car & medal. :)


Jason, Gus & Mike worked on the bathroom last night while I was scrapbooking and got enough sheet rock hung that he could put up the shower rod this morning and whoohoo...we took showers today! Such a simple thing but it sure made me happy. I was getting pretty sick of baths only. He still has more drywall to hang and needs to finish the floor, outlets and put in the sink. But I can see a light at the end of the tunnel and it's an AWESOME feeling. Can't wait to paint and see the room come together. And then after that I'm shifting gears to the baby's room. REALLY can't wait for that.

First up though is the yard sale this next weekend. Still have plenty to do to get ready for that. That's tomorrow's to-do list item. Fun stuff. Wednesday is the ultrasound and I can't wait for that day to come. Mon. & Tues. are going to drag on! Kyle's birthday is coming up too so we're making plans for that. We'll be camping at Maquoketa Caves again this year. Hopefully the rain stays away this time. Last year was a muddy mess. Gotta love May in Iowa. Kyle really enjoyed camping for his birthday though and requested to do it again this year. Couldn't exactly tell him no. May is booking up pretty fast already and it hasn't even arrived yet!

Well, guess that's about all that's new around here. Just wanted to share the exciting day Kyle had. :) Have a great week everyone!

baby update

Yesterday was my check up and everything went well. Jenevieve had stayed home from school due to a bad cough so she tagged along. It was fun for her to hear the baby's heartbeat and see all the development pictures on the wall of the dr.'s office. I was SHOCKED to learn that I've only gained .6 of a pound so far this pregnancy. The belly just gets bigger and bigger so I'm not sure how that's possible. But hey, I'm not complaining! lol I'm sure that's going to change now that morning sickness is a thing of the past and my appetite has increased. Hopefully I'll keep my weight under control though.

I also had my blood work done yesterday. They did the gestational diabetes test and I'm going to be stressed until I get the results. I'm SO scared of having that. I know I have several factors that put me at risk so it's hard not to worry. I was glad to have Jenevieve along since you have to wait an hour after drinking the orange stuff for them to draw the blood. She kept me company. We read a couple books and she even read to me for awhile. I LOVE listening to her read. So fun.

Best news of all though is that the ultrasound is finally scheduled. She was going to schedule it in 2-3 weeks but I asked if I could possibly have it done before the 25th so that I can shop the city wide yardsales and hopefully know if I'm buying boy or girl stuff. She was cool and went to see what she could do. She came back and had it scheduled for April 22nd!!!! Whohoo, can't wait! Now I'm just praying that this little one shows us the goods so we can find out what we're having. And of course I'm hoping that everything is ok and we don't have any bad surprises on the ultrasound. Boy or girl doesn't really matter. I honestly just want a healthy baby.

As for the bathroom project well, let's just say it's slow going. Jason has SO much plumping that had to be done. We moved the sink, the toilet and replaced the shower stall with a tub/shower which drains on the opposite side of the room. So he's had to plumb all three things. He's almost done with all that but now the big thorn in his side is the fact that the floor isn't level. So now he had to level it out somehow without making it too obvious. Ought to be interesting. I'm sure he'll get it done though. I really want him to drywall the old doorway opening so that I can start painting the baby's room but he told me that'll have to wait until after mushroom season. lol He figures it'll be time to start looking for them by the time he gets the bathroom finished and then the baby's room will just have to wait. Hasn't he learned by now that I'm not that patient??? LOL

Well, I think that's about all that's new around here. The kids had a great Easter. Jason was sick on Saturday and Jenevieve started getting a cold on Sunday. As I mentioned, she stayed home yesterday. Then Kyle got sent home from school today for throwing up in class but was fine after he got here. He hasn't gotten sick since. But I can tell he doesn't feel 100%. Probably has whatever Jason had. :(

I'm going scrapping both Friday night and all day Saturday so I'm excited about that. I get some "away" time. Challenge is getting all the yard sale stuff priced and ready to go so I can prove to Jason that I can be gone this weekend and still get it all done. Ya know I love a challenge. lol

Have a great night everyone!

I wanted to share a recording of the baby's heartbeat. This was taken today at 17 weeks and 4 days. Hopefully it works. I've never uploaded something like this before. lol I don't have words for how much I LOVE the fetal doppler. So nice to be able to put my mind at ease anytime I want to. :) Got it cheap too which is even better! Oh, the little bleeps and thumps you hear are the baby kicking. It kicks like mad when I use the doppler. And usually tries to swim away from it too. Here's the link to listen to it (just skip the ads)
http://www.zshare.net/video/5831507460538254/

I don't go back to the doctor until April 13th and I'm hoping they'll schedule my ultrasound soon after that. The DeWitt citywide yardsales are April 25th and I'd love to find out what we're having before then so that I know what to shop for as well as what to sell of our stuff. But we'll see. They like to wait until 20 weeks or later now for the ultrasound and I'll be 20 weeks exactly on April 24th so I'm going to press for that date! lol I'm just anxious to paint the baby's room and start getting that ready. I also want to shop for baby stuff!!!! :)