Just...can't...stop...

SEWING! It is so fun to create all these cute burp cloths and very relaxing to sew. This morning I took the three boys to Krispy Kreme for breakfast and we dined inside and watched them make the donuts, which we've never done together. After, we went over to the library and played, checked some books out, and met up with the Castillo's. We then headed to a fabric store to pick out some cute(r) fabric and ribbons since I've semi-completed ten and still had fourteen more to do. Amy was a big help in picking out some designs. It's like having four eyes instead of two. She also has different tastes than I do, so she sees cute patterns that I may overlook. We make a great team:) We headed to our house with some lunch. Then we went down to another fabric store for more fabric quarters and ribbons. I am really beginning to love this new hobby. Here are the latest creations. I cannot wait to embroider little Preston's name (or initials) on them!
This is the basic look of the cloths opened up.
Love the blue and white polkas with yellow trim

A fave: the brown designs on the blue, with the brown ribbon trim

Pirates ahoy! A treasure map with black and white polkas for trim

Another fave: Ships, labeled by type under them, with dark blue and white polkas

Boy pattern all the way with different wheels, trimmed in dark blue and white polkas

I really want to make some girly ones, so when I am done with Preston's, I may just do that for the fun of it.

Happy birthday to our one and only, Mimi!

My mom's birthday was this past Thursday so we went across the lake today to celebrate with her. It was a lovely day. The boys even played super well together. She had a yum yum chocolate cake

that Aiden and Roman were all over. It had butterflies, a dragon fly, and rocks (chocolate, that is). We laughed for hours and really enjoyed ourselves. I don't get to see them enough; I wish they lived closer.
Aiden eyeing up the cake!

Mimi laughing at her card from the boys

The boys eating "rocks"

Nanny, aka-Mimi's mom or my granny, whom does not willingly take pictures at the young age of eighty-three so I have to steal them:)

Spit happens!

In anticipation of baby Preston, I took the time today to decorate some burp cloths (aka cloth diapers). Aiden and Roman both had very bad reflux when they were born (they take after their father) and I am almost positive little brother Preston will follow in their footsteps. It's gross, it stinks, it's extremely messy, and it happens. Over and over and over again! Years ago, an employee of Jude's made me some adorable homemade burp cloths for Aiden, and I eventually gave them all away after Roman. They were one of my favorite baby items, very useful, and I thought I could create my own. I purchased these cute strips of fabric about a year ago when I was taking on the new hobby of sewing. That hobby never really took off, hence I still had the masculine fabric in my closet. I think I did a decent job, though there are many minor imperfections. Now, I can't wait to monogram them with the new monogramming machine that should be delivered any day now that Amy and I are purchasing together. Let the lettering begin!!


For dinner, we took the boys to Chick-fil-a and let them burn off some energy since I had them inside all day.

To induce, or not to induce

That is the question on my mind as I approach thirty weeks. Let's start here:
Cullen, my first born, was due November 17, 1999. The day came and went and he decided that wasn't HIS day. He waited five more days and at about four in the morning on November 22, he decided to put me in labor. My water didn't break but I could feel the contractions. I woke my then-husband up and we were on our way to the hospital. They broke my water there and I was in labor for twenty plus hours. It was miserable! There were two nurses pushing down on my stomach each time I pushed, trying to push the booger out. I had no idea he was so big, or I would have asked for a c-section. Cullen was 10 pounds, 5 ounces. My body hurt for days and the recovery sucked. There was an epidural and then after many, many hours, another hit to the back of epidural meds. I threw up during delivery and passed out right after. I had sworn I wasn't having anymore kids for at least a year after that. Once the memory faded, I eventually wanted more.
Five years later I was remarried and pregnant again. I shared with my new doctor my past experience and she said we could induce two weeks early. I was due April 1, 2005 and I went in for induction on March 18, 2005. Talk about a piece of cake! Aiden was 8 pounds, 9 ounces. When the doctor was cutting the cord, I was on video saying "That was easy. I could do this again!". And we did. Two years, two months later.
Roman was also taken two weeks early from the womb by induction. Roman was 9 pounds, 2 ounces. Also, a very easy delivery for me. Always lots of drugs involved.
Jude loves inducing. He can plan his work schedule around it and vacation time. I remember being in the doctor's office with Jude, pregnant for Roman, and the doctor said she could induce tomorrow. Before I could say anything, Jude's reply was "I have some things to take care of at work. What other days do you have?". I was so pissed, yet sat there in shock. I think we ended up scheduling it a few days later, but I let Jude have it in the car and called the doctor to change it back to the following day. How dare he?! Was he the one going in to deliver a baby?! I look back now and laugh. Jude has always gone to every baby doctor appointment with me. I think it's cute. That day he could have stayed his ass home!
What bothers me is this is our last baby and I want to feel my water break, or at least my contractions come on naturally again. I want Jude to experience the excitement of it all too, as he hasn't before. Grabbing stuff running out the door, driving fast, the pain I will complain about... I asked my doctor about not inducing this time (only if I pass my due date) and she was encouraging. She said the first child is always hard, and though she is pretty sure I will have another big baby, it shouldn't be as traumatic. I just wonder if, as the time nears, I will change my mind, or if I am even making the right decision. Is the naturally brought on labor experience really all worth it? Should I induce and spare my (fill in the blank) the extra pound or two, and have an almost guaranteed easier delivery, well planned and all? I mean, what if he comes so fast there is NO time for an epidural? I would rather die!! Should I let Preston pick when he is ready to enter the world? Trying to weigh my options here and I'm not sure what the right choice is.

7 month belly shot

I was getting dressed the other day and decided to take a belly shot. Aiden walked in the room and I asked him, "Aiden, does this shirt make my belly look big?". Aiden stares for a few seconds, thinks, and replies "No, it doesn't look that big."
Little liar.
He is going to make some woman very happy one day.

A ten year old boy, and his laundry

A few weeks ago Cullen was at his dad's house and I was home doing laundry. I went in his room and his laundry was all over the floor. Total mess! It seems I am always getting on to him about picking up his clothes after himself, for five years at least. So, I closed the door and decided he can pick them up and he can wash them himself. When he came home last week, I informed him of my plan, told him to bring his clothes into the laundry room and then waited for him to take the initiative. When he ran out of shorts yesterday, he was ready. I made him sort colors, turn the washer on, load it, unload it, load the dryer and operate that, listen for the buzzer, take his clothes out, hang them, and fold them. He had three loads. He did it three times. After folding the first load, he turned to me and asked "You have to do this times five? Why do you want more kids?". It was great to see the understanding on his face. I told him as long as he picks up his clothes and just puts them in his hamper, I will continue to wash his clothes. The point is...DON'T BE LAZY!! I am praying he got it. It took me twice as long to teach him everything, compared to just doing it myself.

Good food, great conversations

Tonight, a few girls and I got together for a quick dinner. I was literally texting from the restaurant asking friends to meet us there. What I thought would be four girls getting together ended up being eight, and I enjoyed every second of the adult conversation. I didn't have to get up and fix anyone a plate, pour a drink, wipe a mouth or get juice off the floor...it was great! We talked about hair, makeup, men, jobs, weddings, diets, vacations, liquor, sex, pregnancy, and so much more. There was no talk of Transformers, Buzz Lightyear, cars, legos, boogers, or any other boy talk. It's the simple things in life that bring such happiness:) I love my girlfriends, new and old, down the street or across the states. They matter in my life, are a priority, and bring me so much joy. Here is a pic of the group tonight...

Save a life!

A couple weeks ago I read an article in the local paper about a young, beautiful, stay-at-home mom that has acute myelogenous leukemia, or AML, a fast-growing cancer of the blood and bone marrow. It really hit home to me after reading the article because I used to live next door to her husband, Justin, when I was younger. I don't know her personally, but he comes from a great family and I used to call him my best friend. I can't imagine him losing his wife so tragically, and him having to raise two precious daughters, over something so simple as not finding a match for a donor. There has got to be someone out there that can help this family! I thought to myself, what if this was me or MY husband? I immediately signed up at http://www.marrow.org to receive a testing kit to see if I match ANYONE whom I can help. I was never aware of bone marrow donation until I read about this...

According to Amanda, joining the national registry through the National Marrow Donor Program is a simple swab of your mouth, and if you are a match, they will call you. Donating bone marrow is almost as simple as donating blood.

It's free to sign up online, test, and mail back. You can also make a monetary donation online, if you would like. I signed up Thursday night on my computer, received the kit yesterday,

took four swabs of my mouth this morning, and already mailed it back. Today is Tuesday and makes day five.
I really hope I am a match for someone! I would love to save a life. I pray Amanda finds her match soon and gets her health back, so she can enjoy those two beautiful daughters and watch them grow up. I ask that you log on to http://www.marrow.org and take ten minutes to sign up, you could literally save a life!
*Amanda's family has organized a bone marrow donor drive and fundraiser set for July 24 from noon to 4 p.m. at Christ the King Lutheran Church, 1001 West Esplanade Ave., Kenner. She needs to find someone with a Filipino or Asian background to donate.

If I had a pair, I'd want to know more about cars!

Jude came home last week with an issue. He usually does have issues. (I say that lovingly.) His SUV was making a funny sound, like there may have been a bad squeaky belt, and he asked that I take it over to the local mechanic shop the following day. We both have our own mechanics we like to use. Mine is in the neighborhood and his is the next town over. Now, I am used to a little bit of car luxury these days and riding in his SUV is one of my least favorite things to do. The air gets cool (not cold) and he makes a mess in it, which I'm not there to clean. There is no DVD player, no XM radio, no cleanliness, yadda yadda yadda. So, I drive it over to the shop the following day, Tuesday, and it's CLOSED. Closed till the following Monday. Guess who has to drive the Big Dick around for the week? Yes, me...while he gets to drive my baby, Big Betty. Why? Oh, what if something should happen on the interstate? That's the reason I'm given. I really stayed in the house a lot with all three children, as to not use his truck. That's a little piece of hell, right there.
Monday (today) comes and I drive over to the mechanic. Now, they know me there by now because I always bring Jude's truck in with issues. Not mine. Issues Jude sends me with. There is a guy there, we will call him G, and G always ends up waiting on me. He looks like he is straight out of an 80's video, with the long hair, tan, grease look. Think, Billy Joel, Uptown Girl video. I get there and of course the belt is not squeaking. (It hadn't been all week when I drove it.) I tell G that there is a belt that is making noise, not right now, but it was last week, and I needed to see about getting it changed. He tells me pop the hood, he looks, says the belt is fine, closes the hood, and goes to send me on my way. Now, I have to ask the million questions Jude is going to ask me...
"Why is it squeaking?"
"Can I oil it?"
"Which belt is it? Like, what does the belt do exactly?"
"Etc. Etc."
Now, I am beginning to think ol' G thinks I have a thing for him, because Jude sends me there more than I need to go. How idiotic did I look today?
Last time I went, I asked G to put some freon in the SUV because the air doesn't get very cold, and he checked it and said the freon was full. How is that?
Well, the time before that, I asked G to put freon in it with a repair kit Jude purchased from Auto Zone because it was blowing hot air, and G did it for free. Yes, Jude made me bring my own freon to a repair shop that sells freon. I think G just felt sorry for me...look at this poor lady with three kids in a '99 Suburban bringing freon here. lol
I hope I do not need to see G for a very long time!
As I was stuck with the Big Dick today (Jude's SUV), the boys played their Wii game and painted some beautiful photos while we were avoiding the heat inside.
Tomorrow, I get my freedom back!

Our despicable weekend

Friday I went to the OBGYN for a shot, and got the results of my blood work from Wednesday's testing. I have to start taking these iron pills as I am anemic, though very low range. Saturday I took one of those funky pills and felt disgusting all day. They gave me terrible indigestion, so I pretty much slept off and on all day while the children entertained themselves. I haven't taken another one since!
Sunday I even slept through church. Jude took the boys to mass and I stayed in bed. Later, we took them to to movies to see "Despicable Me".

It was really cute. Sunday evening I went to the Parish to see Stacey; she was having a home-business party.

It was great to see her and her family, as Stacey and I have been friends since we were about eight. I have moved many, many times in my life, and have never lost contact with her. She'd call my momma and find me:) and she's always been pretty easy to find, herself. I'd call her momma. She is a true friend and a wonderful one to have.
(*As you can see, pregnancy is now catching up with me. My face is starting to swell. Wonderful! Only ten weeks left.)

Also, we picked a name over the weekend for Baby IIII. The winner is...
Preston Rene
Preston=ends in a N, like all the other boys; definition: priests town
Rene=after my dear friend Brandi Renee, whom passed away when Roman was three months old in August 2007

Here's some crack...go play!

Desperate times call for desperate measures! I am running out of ideas for the children to keep them entertained this summer. Just yesterday we went to a local bounce house

and it was $26 for all three boys to jump for not quite two hours. That is crazy to do more than twice a month on my stay-at-home-mom budget. I feel like I am just giving money away, with nothing to show for it.
As you may know, Aiden has a love and addiction for video games (a.k.a. crack), but more for computer games these days. We have limited his play time to just the weekends starting on Fridays, then it went to just Saturday and Sunday; and just recently we've taken the computer away all together. Lego.com is dangerously fascinating to him! Last night I decided to purchase Toy Story 3 for them. It was $50, equal to four hours/two days of bounce play. I think I may give them one hour each day to play with a timer, which gives them something to do indoors while it is sweltering hot outside, or raining. I am going to be honest and say that it is very hard to keep my three children entertained at all hours of the day, ALL summer. I value our quality time together, I do. I also feel a total disconnect from the outside world as I have children under my feet and in my hair non-stop all day, every day. But today, I feel like an enabler to Aiden. I feel guilt. Defeated. At the same time, I feel peace and quiet at this very moment while they are all playing the Wii so well together. Okay, Roman just watches, but he doesn't know what he is missing...yet.
It was so cute earlier, I made finding the Wii game into a scavenger hunt. I placed notes throughout the house and told Cullen he could only read them and hint to where to go and to let Aiden find the next note. Well, by the third note, Roman was onto what was going on and he grabbed the note. Aiden got a little upset, but was ready to find the next one. As Cullen read it, the word "tub" was actually written in it, and Roman took off before Aiden could and grabbed the second to last note. Aiden was so upset. At that second, I wasn't sure how a fun game turned into sibling rivalry. I kept Roman back as the last note was read and the prize was found. There were three very happy little boys then!

Here are a few pics from this week...
The day Roman ate his entire peanut butter sandwich at lunch goes down in the books!

Aiden, with his favorite Shrek glass that was recalled the day after we bought it. It's still here.

Sprinkler/slide fun

A baby pool for my baby

Playing games with Cullen

Re-parenting

*This blog isn't written by me only to remember the good times. It is a daily record of our life...the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The chaos and tantrums have been taken down a few notches in the past few days and it is sweeeeeet! The past two days Jude's been home and we have been trying out some new parenting strategies. A few weeks back I was watching Dr. Phil (don't laugh!) and they had a show on about parent/child relationships. It was basically about controlling your children without yelling or spanking. Now, I honestly yell. Hello?! I have three boys, ages three, five, and ten. It seems there is always chaos in our home. Let me state for the record, my yells, according to my friends, are not mean or intimidating, but I yell, raise my voice, none the less. Jude does too. It is something we are not proud of, but the kids drive us nuts at times. Fights, demands, whining, not obeying, not eating, not going to bed, etc. are many of the reasons, and that's X 3. The thing I have to remind myself of is, they are not deaf. Just because I say it louder doesn't mean it sinks in more. I have also spanked a few times, not beaten, when all else has failed and it is something I hate doing but it is always in the middle of that very heated moment. Anyway, back to what I was saying, I ordered this book titled "The Big Book of Parenting Solutions" by Michele Borba, and it came in the mail recently. I purchased "Family First" by Dr. Phil, too.

I also caught another show on Dr. Phil the other day about controlling the chaos with young children. I made Jude watch the DVR episodes with me. Aiden has fits, tantrums, and during the summer, there are way more than during the school year. I will let him debate me till the sun goes down. I will argue like I'm five, give in at times because I feel it's not worth the battle, and ignore him the other half of the time while he does these ear piercing screams that truly hurt my ears. Nothing is consistent, I admit that. (There are happy times, too!!) So we are BOTH working on consistency, not yelling, positive reinforcement, redirecting, and enforcing the same rules, even if it makes us sound like a broken record. What ever happened to the phrase "I'm not a record, I don't repeat myself"? So last night I bought a timer and when Aiden tries to throw a tantrum, doesn't obey, or is outright ugly, he ends up in the hallway corner with "Mr. Timer" on for a minute.

That minute can be added on to. The key to this technique working is being consistent. I have praised them so many times in the past few days, it's sick.
"Good job for eating all your food."
"You make mommy so happy by staying in your bed."
"What a wonderful job you are doing."
"You two are playing so nice together, it just warms mommy's heart."
"I love the way you are helping me. Thank you."
And so on, and so on...
When things have just seemed to be so out of our control, I am hoping this is an answer to my many prayers. Sometimes, we lose control of our house. Sad, but true. We get tired, or overworked, lazy, whatever, and it happens. I am, scratch that, we are trying to take back control of our house this summer. I am very fortunate that Jude and I are on this path together. He is trying just as hard as I am. When I feel I am losing it, he steps in and corrects them, and vice versa. That is really nice, as I am usually the enforcer around here. Daddy is the nice guy that comes home from work and plays with them, bathes them, and puts them to bed with sweet stories. I am the lunatic that corrects them, punishes them, and makes them behave. Oh, I also feed them, clothe them, taxi them around town, entertain them, and so forth, but no one ever acknowledges the nice things I do. lol Oh, the life of a mom!
Now, can Dr. Phil really change lives?? hahaha

Happy 4th of July!

It's not that I take our country for granted, but sometimes it is nice to get a little reminder every once in a while on why our country is so great. This past week showed me what a wonderful justice system we have and the term freedom has a new meaning to me this fourth.
Jude and I started our day taking the two little boys to church and then came home to watch that movie we rented yesterday. Okay, I watched about fifteen minutes of it, fell asleep, and woke up at the end. I am just so tired these days. I entered my third trimester recently and I hope that has nothing to do with it. I think I need to get back on a routine and back in the gym. Then, it was nap time, which I slept some more. The boys played in the pool after, and had some water fun.


Andrea's

When evening came, we decided to catch some more fireworks on the river and drove downtown. I am so glad we did. The fireworks were awesome and the boys really enjoyed it. I took tons of photos of them being silly. I am also wearing no makeup tonight because that would have required energy on my part to put it on; but I am now regretting that decision after looking at these photos.
















Cullen is still at his dad's house. He got a phone call today to try out for the All-Star Baseball team tomorrow evening by his dads, so it may be another day or two before my little man comes home.
:(