SNOW!

today we decided to get the kids (billy's kids) out of the house for a while, so we went up the mountain and we got to arcadia before we stopped to play in it. It was snowing lightly the whole time. paul and I took our truck and the rest piled in billys car. we were almost to arcadia when we saw this little honda civic stuck on the side of the road so we pulled over and pulled them out. We played for about 20 mins and decided to go home. We went to McDonalds for lunch and when we got home it started to snow!!! it only lasted 2 hours and didn't stick but it sure was fun! Sugar, our dog was chasing it around and biting it. 1 day late but still fun.

My backyard on the 27th

the road on the way home from the mountain

WOOOOOOOO!!!

Christmas

This Christmas sure took forever to get here, but now its gone too fast. Paul's parents flew to Las Vegas and then drove down here with Billy and his family. They got as far as Phoenix on the 23rd and decided to stay the night there. That was around 10 pm. So they drove up to safford the next day and arrived around 2 pm. Mom helped me cook the ham, well she did it all actually, and about 30 mins before it was done I managed to make mashed potatoes (from potatoes), gravy, green beans, heat the rolls and set the table, all while trying to entertain Hayden. Mom and dad went to walmart just 15 mins before it closed and got back just in time for dinner. I must say I'm amazing. Everything turned out fabulous! Dad's luggage got lost and we finally got it on Christmas day. We went and looked at Christmas lights on Christmas eve and the kids fell asleep pretty quick. According to dad and mom it was like 4 am for them so they were troopers. This morning we got up around 8 and I went to make waffles only to realize we didn't have any butter. So I called my grandma and of course she had some so I ran up there (with gifts and 2 bars of german chocolate :) and got the butter and gifts from my mom. When I got home Billy and his family were there (they stayed at the marriot, which is soooo nice) so it was time to open gifts. The kids got a ton of toys! We got Kung Fu Panda and Horton Hears a who. Paul got me a knife set and billy got me a set of dishes and my mom gave me a pretty bracelet! Jason gave me a fabulous picture of himself. Hayden got some matchbox cars and a tonka truck and a book from grandma and grandpa clites and a teddy bear from grandma norris. Paul got sock and a set of Bose ear phones and the beanie I made him. Also his phone that he got last month after sending through the wash in his pocket. Here's a few pictures from our crazy day.

Hayden in his christmas outfit

Paul's haircut... just in time for the parents to see it:)

the beanie I made him :)

so cute

our Christmas photo

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas

I'm so excited for Christmas this year. Paul's parents are coming from Germany this year and Paul's brother Billy and his family are coming from Vegas. I've been making some things at work. I mustn't tell what though because one of them is a Christmas gift for someone on blogspot. I'll post pictures of that later.... Today I've been google-ing christmas crafts and I'm soooo excited to get started on some of them! I found some christmas trees made of semi circles of fabric stacked together :) Also I found a little wreath christmas ornament made of buttons. And table setting name tag things made of a slice (for lack of better word) of tree branch and then a little bit of the tree inserted into a hole in the tree branch to make a baby sized tree and the star has the name of the person sitting there. Also (this is my favorite) I found soup cans that are snowmen! You just paint your soup can white and add the face and a strip of fabric as a scarf, then just fill it with goodies :) I found most of them at Marthastewart.com but some where other places I don't remember.

I found some really good recipes at familyrecipesandmore.com too! I can't wait to try some of those!

I'm also excited because Hayden turns 3 months on Saturday. He stays awake more during the day, and is also more cranky. He laughs a lot and is starting to bat at toys and play with a little stuffed kangaroo we got at San Diego Zoo. He sucks on everything! His pacifier no longer serves a purpose it seams because he screams with it still in his mouth. He can't be alone in a room for more than a few minutes before he decides he's bored and needs someone to talk to or look at. He talks to us a lot and has fun facial expressions to go with it. oh did I mention he has been sleeping through the night? He was 9 weeks old when he first did it (the weekend before thanksgiving) oh it has been nice. He goes to bed anywhere between 8 and 9 and sleeps until 5 before he's hungry so I feed him and back to sleep until 7 and thats when we get up for the day.

I learned to crochet this past weekend. We were going to go look at temple lights but paul got sick so we couldn't go... plus we didn't have any extra money. My boss has been making beanie hats for the homeless for the humanitarian for her ward (my grandma is the person in charge and my boss is her visiting teacher). She uses this round thing with pegs on it so its really easy, but I wanted to learn to crochet. My grandma and mom and 2 of my sisters know how so I went onto youtube... you can find anything there... and watched a video and well I learned! Paul wants me to make him a scarf.

grateful

Yesterday I watched this new show called Secret Millionaire. Its about millionaires who go undercover as poor people in a below poverty town and after a week they give some money to the people that they meet and become friends with. And it's like $50,000! It really made me grateful for all the things that I have even though to me they don't seem that nice or great. So I thought I'd write a little thing about what I'm grateful for.

In no particular order

*My amazing husband who is healthy and able to work to support us. He is so wonderful and I take him for granted way too much.

*My sweet Angel Hayden. He's more precious and more fun than I could have imagined I love him to death!

*The Gospel. I would probably have ended up pregnant before marriage without it. It's amazing to know everything I know. Especially to know this isn't the end and I can be still married and have my family with me even past death.

*Jesus Christ. He died for me and for all of us so that we can live again!!

*My bosses Joan and Craig who are so understanding and so compassionate. I am so blessed to be able to bring Hayden to work with me so we can have some extra money

*My mom for allowing us to live in her home, even though I complain a lot about how my dad didn't finish it all the way, it's a roof over our heads and I'm so grateful for that.

*My brother Jason, he is such an amazing example to me. He completely turned his life around and now I love spending time with him.

*Emily, Jason's girlfriend. She is so sweet and I really enjoy getting to know her. I love seeing her and Jason together. The cherish each other and absolutly adore each other.

*My grandma. She is soooo willing to help out without asking questions. I lived with her for 10 months and paul even lived with her too (separate rooms) right before we got married so he wouldn't have to pay another month's rent. She has let so many people (a stranger even) live with her at different times and she just deals with all the stuff that they do and I'm not even willing to open my house to my sister.

*My sister Wendy. She's always been a good example. Even when I would get annoyed of her she was always my best friend growing up. It made it hard for me to move to Alabama without her.

*My dad who has overcome so much in his life and its been fun and neat to get to know him, now that I'm an adult, as a person instead of just my dad.

*My other mom Cindy. She's just so amazing and fun to be around and she doesn't hesitate to help us out when we need it, even though she's all the way in Germany. I love spending time with her so much!

*My other dad Bill. I feel like I don't get enough time with him but I love him so much. He's such an amazing person.

*Paul's brother's Billy and Kevin. They just accepted me right from the start and I feel so loved around them and paul's whole family.

*The fact that we are able to live comfortably and not have to worry about being cold at night or how to get dinner at night.

*My car. It's not super nice or even pretty, but it drives nice and gets great gas milage ($13 last fill up :) and its paid for. I don't care that its ugly, I like it because I paid for it and its mine.

Tagged

7 THINGS I CAN DO...
1. Sign almost an entire song after hearing it a few times.
2. Nurse my baby while eating lunch and watching something on the laptop
3. sew my own maternity shirts
4. Understand Taryn's texts (paul never understands them HAHA)
5. Make amazing waffles
6. Clean up after Paul
7. Cut Paul's hair.

7 THINGS I CAN'T DO...
1. eat an orange unless its got all of the white stuff off of it
2. play the piano
3. eat onions unless they are really cooked
4. look into paul's ears without trying clean it out
5. Run for longer than 2 minutes (wow I'm out of shape)
6. Stop worrying about getting food storage
7. Get up in front of people (like give a talk at church)

7 THINGS THAT ATTRACTED ME TO PAUL...
1. The way he dressed/dresses
2. The fact that he's thin
3. His car and the way he drove it
4. His lips
5. His eyes
6. They way he gave me butterflies
7. His hands and his butt but there's only 7

7 THINGS THAT I SAY MOST OFTEN...
1. like
2. I love you Paule
3. Hayden
4. nice!
5. no!
6. Don't tickle me Paule
7. what are you going to cook me for dinner?

7 PEOPLE I ADMIRE THE MOST...
1. Paul
2. Paul's family (mom dad billy kevin aunt robin and her family and grandma goodman) sorry I had to
3. my grandma and grandpa
4. Both of my brothers
5. my sister Wendy
6. My Bishop
7. My boss Joan

7 FAVORITE FOODS...
1. Tamales
2. Pizza
3. Chicken Quesidillas
4. Chocolate cake
5. chocolate chip cookies or sugar cookies
6. strawberries, grapes, peaches
7. Chips and salsa from La Casita

7 PEOPLE I TAG...
1. Marie
2. Emily
3. Tory
4. Ashley
5. Taryn
6. Kristen
7. Tiffany

Las Vegas

Paul and I and our friends Kaitlyn and Jordan had the opportunity to go to Las Vegas this weekend. When Paul's brother was down here for Hayden's blessing, he told us about an air show at the Nellis Air Force Base that was coming up so we thought it would be cool to go. We left after work Friday night and got to Vegas around 2 am. Paul's brother Billy met us and we followed him to his house for the few hours of sleep before the kids woke up. The next day we went to the air show.

Us and Billy's family waiting for the Thunderbirds to come out for their show.

By that time, the ground was pretty comfortable.

There were skydivers that had some colored stuff shooting out of their boots, it was pretty cool.

Paul looking into where the fire comes out of the plane.

Us in the cargo hold of the B 52

The next day we went to the busiest Denny's in the world... it was on the strip of course. Then we decided to walk to the M&M store (it wasn't very close we discovered).

This was the Harley Davidson Restraunt on the strip

This was a motorcycle that Jordan just loved... it was completely covered in leather.

Paul, me and Billy waiting for the water show at the Bellagio hotel to start.

A love story

Halloween

We didn't do much for halloween this year. We just had a few friends over and watched The Office ( I was a little disappointed in that episode). Hayden had 2 outfits. We bought him one and then the next week Kaitlyn and Jordan bought him one too. I couldn't tell them we had already bought him one, so he wore one the day before while we did popcorn balls at my grandmas house and then wore the other on Halloween day.

This is the ghost outfit we bought for him

This is the outfit Kat and Jordan bought. The ribs glow in the dark. I thought that it is soooo cute!!

Popcorn Balls

I really wish I would have taken pictures but here's the story anyway...

Its a tradition in my family to make popcorn balls for all the trick-or-treaters every halloween. We all meet at my grandmas house a day or so before halloween and make popcorn balls. One person, usually my grandma, stirs some ingredients together and puts them in a saucepan and starts it boiling, when it reaches 300º F on a candy thermometer, it comes off the heat and a few more ingredients are added to the mix along with food coloring, the hot hot hot candy is then poured over a bowl full of popcorn, usually by my aunt Mallene. Its mixed all around and then after putting butter on your hands and biting your lip, 2 people, in this case, Mallene and myself, start forming the popcorn into snowball sized balls. This is the job no one likes to have, but someone's gotta do it :) . After the balls are cooled of they are put into bags, usually by the younger grandkids or the older great grand kids, and then some candy is added into the bag. Those bags are put into a larger paper sack and are now ready for the trick or treaters. My grandma popped 7 grocery store sized paper sacks worth of popcorn which made about 16 batches, which make about 20 balls each which makes about 350 popcorn balls. How's that for a halloween goodie!

While all of this is going on someone has to wash out the pots in between batches, someone has to refill the popcorn bowls for the next batch and someone has to spray all the stuff with Pam cooking spray. And then sometimes, the 2 batches that are cooking get finished at the same time and that really makes it interesting. All together we had 8 people working on these!

Danni - stir the ingredients and hand them to Sandy

Sandy - Cook the ingredients to 300º

Grandma - Add the rest of the ingredients after its cooked, wash the pots after its poured on the popcorn

Mallene - stir in color, pour over popcorn, stir it up, form the balls

Stephanie - help form balls, refill popcorn into bowls, spray bowls and spoons with Pam (check on Hayden)

Eric - Help form balls when it gets crazy!! (we actually had 3 pots cooking at one time part of the afternoon)

Jodi - put balls in bags

Paul - Put candy in bags and zip shut

Its such a fun tradition, and every year my grandma says it will be the last but so many people ask "when are we making popcorn balls" and so many people are willing to help that it just can't stop. Now all the cousins spouses or boyfriends are coming to help and asking when its time to do it. I love it!!!

What have you done?

I stole this from Katie's blog

Rules are: Anything you have done has to be in bold. How much have you done?

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

Fast for Voters

Everyone needs to have a special fast on November 2nd. Fast for voters, that they will be able to know who they should vote for.

Back to work, House guests, and exercise in the future??

WORK

Well I'm finally back to work. I worked all the way up to delivery. After being a week late I was induced so I knew exactly the day I would start my maternity leave, unless I went into labor on my own. My boss and I never really set an exact length of time that I would be gone and I felt bad for being out of work for so long so I decided to return to work on the 20th. That would mean I had exactly a month off. Joan (my boss) basically told me anywhere from a month to 6 weeks depending on how I was feeling. I was feeling quite bored at home so I made it a month. When I called her to tell her I would be coming back on the 20th she told me to plan on coming for just a couple hours in the mornings for a week or so until I get used to being down there. Man am I grateful for that. I don't think I could do 9-5 right away. I am really happy that its Friday. Even though I've only been going for 1/2 days, its nice to know I don't have to get up and get ready in the morning. Joan makes a quilt for all her grandkids when they get married and one of them is getting married in 2 weeks so she's had a quilt down at the store that she works on all day. She's had me help her and I've gotten pretty good. It almost makes me want to do one myself. Maybe if I had the quilt stands and tacks.... Which I'm sure aren't too hard to find...


HOUSE GUESTS

Since Hayden is getting blessed on Sunday, Paul's older brother Billy is coming down, along with his wife and 4 kids. They will be staying at our house so Paul and I will be cleaning tomorrow. I like having people over and being a hostess. I hope that I have enough energy to cook breakfast for them Sunday morning. I make some dang good waffles (its my mom's recipe) and then Paul's mom's syrup recipe is amazing with it too! (let me know if you want either one) Paul's going to cook his mom's spaghetti for dinner Saturday night. YAY. I can't wait until Hayden gets a little older so he can actually play with his cousins. It'll be fun to see them, the last time I did, Danali was a newborn so I bet she's so big now.

GETTING MY BODY BACK

Everyone says how good I look after having a baby, but I really just can't wait until my doctor gives the ok to start excersizing. I want my flabby tummy gone!! I'm sure everyone is thinking, yeah what flab, but compared to what it used to be, wow I'm flabby. I'm thinking about taking a kickboxing class next semester. Maybe I can get a few friends to sign up with me and we can all get in shape together. Paul already said he can watch Hayden for the 2 hours a week if I pump so he's got a way to feed him. :) Happy is me.

Hayden's Blessing

Hayden is getting blessed this coming Sunday at 10:30 am (that's when Sacrament meeting starts) at the Thatcher Stake Center. I sure hope everyone can come. If you have questions you can call me... 928.651.5540

President

I watched a little of the presidential debate with Paul the other night. I really didn't like how when McCain was asked a question he would basically say everything that Obama does wrong pertaining to that question and doesn't answer it about himself. I was just really annoyed that he was bashing Obama so much instead of trying to win votes for himself. I liked how Obama only would say something about McCain if it had the words "and that's where senator McCain and I have different opinions" and that would be all about him. I really like Sarah Palin, which makes me want to vote for McCain but I really don't like McCain. Then again I really don't like Obama either. Why can't Sarah Palin run for President?? I bet she would win. Let us just hope that if McCain does win, he somehow dies or something, I know thats bad but really. Well all in all I still don't know who to vote for.

weekend fun

I'm really excited for this weekend. There's several things going on. Tomorrow night is Michele's baby shower and right after is a friend of mine's wedding reception. Also its the fair this weekend, and even though I won't be going on any rides, I'm still excited to go. But I think the thing I'm the most excited for is the fact that Brian and Marie are coming down. They get to meet Hayden!! All of my other friends have already seen him and it seems they are the last ones. Well besides Paul's family and most of my siblings. My mom has been here for the past week and is leaving this Saturday :( but it has been a lot of fun having her here. Paul used to not like her for a few good reasons but now he likes her for a few other good reasons. So it was nice to be able to spend time with my mom, grandparents, and paul all together. They would just take turns passing Hayden around (it sure was nice to have someone actually want to hold him). Paul rarely holds him and when he does its because I'm doing something like cooking dinner or taking a shower, then he gives him right back to me as soon as possible. Paul says that Hayden likes my "magic pillows" as Tiffany calls them. Newborns are a lot of work, that's for sure. Well I talked to my boss yesterday and she needs me for sure back to work on the 7th of November because they have a family wedding. I told her I was planning on being back on the 20th of October and she said oh ok and then she said that I should only work 1/2 a day for the first 2 weeks to ease back into things. Wow I am so lucky that I found that job, they are sooooo good to me!! Well I guess that's about all the update I have.

Hayden Update

Mostly I just wanted to post a picture... But anyway.... he had his week check up on Friday and we got him circumsized (sp?) I could hear him screaming from my check up room. He was ok though. He had gained 3 oz from his birth weight. He's eating really well and sleeping really well. He's only up at night to eat so that's good. He's just all around a good baby. :)

Hayden Hunter Clites

Hayden Hunter Clites was born Saturday September 20 at 1:14 am. He was 7 lbs 12 oz and 20 1/2 inches long.

We called the hospital at 6:30 friday morning to set up a time to go get induced and they were full so they said to call back at 10 but they ended up calling me at 9, so we went in at 9:30 and they got me all situated. About 2 hours later the doctor camed in and I was only dialated to 2 cm so she inserted this tablet that supposed to start the contractions and then she left me just to wait. Good thing we took the laptop so Paul wasn't too bored. Around 2 pm they had me go walking around hoping that Hayden's head would help dialate me. They checked me again afterwards and I was dialated to 3. So around 4 pm I started to feel the contractions (finally!) and at 5 they were getting a little stronger so I took a bath and at 6 they checked me again and I was at 4 cm so they decided to break my water (that was weird). Around 8 I was feeling them really strong and asked for IV medicine phetenol (sp??) and that helped for a few hours then I asked for an epidural around 10 pm and I was at 5 cm so they said ok. He came in and gave me the epidural and it totally wiped me out from the chest down. I felt paralized! I couldn't move my legs or feel them so it was weird when they would check me or do anything down there, I couldn't watch them moving my legs. The Epidural is supposed to numb you but still leave you with the ability to move your legs. I got the equivalent of meds for if I were to be having a C section. (I'll explain this whole thing later). So after an hour he came back and checked on me and I was still pretty numb and so he came back in another hour (midnight) and I could feel my tummy which was good for when I needed to push but now I could feel the contractions, and mostly in my back, ugh. They weren't too bad though. So I felt some pressure in my pelvis and told Hector (the epidural guy) to get a nurse to come check me. So he did and she said I was complete so they called the doctor and then had me do some practice pushes, but decided that if we did too many he might just come out because he was so low in there. So when Dr. Romero came in she checked me and I was complete indeed so she got her gown on and gloves and everything and they removed the end of the bed and got my legs in the stirrups and I started pushing... somewhere in there I puked and then at 1:14 my beautiful baby was here!! She set him on my tummy and Paul got to cut the cord. The whole time in between contractions they were saying they could see him and man did he have a lot of hair! That was exciting! After getting him a little cleaned up they gave him to me and he was just so perfect! He looks just like his daddy! After a while when I could feel my legs again enough to walk, they got me a shower and got Hayden a bath. They cleaned up the room and then Paul and I got to spend time with our baby. We didn't go to a postpartum room because they were all full so we spent the first night in the delivery room. We got to bed around 3 and they brought him in at 5 to eat and I tried to feed him until 8 am but he would just go to sleep. So cute though. He sure likes his sleep that's for sure. So after many naps and a few visitors we got moved over to Post partum and then the headache came. Hector warned me that I might get a headache from the epidural so I knew it was coming but I didn't think it would hurt that bad! After not being able to eat dinner because of the pain and after 2 vicaden (sp??) later I finally got to sleep. They brought Hayden in every few hours to eat and he ate really well, which was good because he hadn't the day before. Sunday morning my dad came to visit and my headache came back. More vicaden please. Then they gave me a blood patch (take blood from my arm and inject it into my back to stop the headache) and since I didn't have a headache at that moment because of the medicine, I didn't know if it worked or not, well after getting discharged at 11 and going home, the headache returned around 1 so I drank some Dr. Pepper in hopes the caffine would help, but it didn't. After a shower and trying to relax I got to sleep around 11 pm only to be worried or up with Hayden most of the night. I woke up and got a headache again and decided to go get my Ibuprofin perscription filled so Paul and I made it to Walmart around 12 (I had taken one of Paul's percasets from when he went to the ER last) and of course my headache was back so I was miserable all through walmart, I even had a lady make sure I was ok because she is a nurse. After paul's class was over at 3 we went to the ER (Hector said to go in if the blood patch didn't work). Around 5 he finally came in after giving someone an epidural and he noticed that I have slight scoliosis and said that he thought that's what screwed up the epidural in the first place. So he had me adjust my position and he did the blood patch again. This time it worked! my headache was gone instantly! WOW that felt nice! Thank goodness for good friends. Jordan and Kaitlyn watched Hayden while I was in the ER, I didn't want to take any chances of him getting RSV or something from being in there. So now I can function normally and enjoy being a mom!! What an experience! So now my back is all scabbed up from being poked so many times and my arms are all bruised from IV's or them drawing blood. What a weekend. All of it was very worth it, and it wasn't as miserable as I thought it would be. I have the cutest baby on the block and the most amazing husband too!!

Getting Induced

Friday is the big day. I've been hoping that Hayden would get here sooner but after my check up today it doesn't look that way. She checked me again and I'm only at 1 and a half. I thought for sure I would be at 3 at least but not so lucky. So I have to call at 6:30 am on Friday to schedule to get induced. Thursday we are going to be cleaning the whole house in prep for our new baby to come home. No one likes a dirty house anyway. I've heard of people that get induced only taking a few hours before the baby is actually born. My friend Kristen took 26 hours, so I don't really know what to expect. But I guess anything is better than a C section. So Marie, I guess if you come down this weekend you won't be disappointed because Hayden will be here. ;)

oh by the way... check out Regina Spektor, she's a little different with her music but I like her a lot. I recommend the song Fidelity.

Due Tomorrow

Too bad I won't be delivering any time near tomorrow! Or that's the way it's looking right now. Last week at my check up my cervix was soft. Now its only dialated to 1. grr... At this rate he could be in there for 2 or more weeks. Well Dr. Gurrerro scheduled for me to get induced next Friday. I'm really hoping that he comes before that because getting induced makes for a harder labor... or so I hear. I'm going in this coming Tuesday to get checked again to see if there's any progress at all (oh please let there be progress!) and we will see from there I guess.

the many complaints of me

I'm so tired of my boss. My job is soooo boring. All I am really here for is to answer the phone, dust, vacuum, sweep the sidewalk and any other odd things they ask me to do. So we get maybe 10 phone calls a day. That's on a busy day. It takes about 10 minutes once a week to sweep the sidewalk. 10 minutes once a week to dust, and 10 minutes once a week to vacuum. The other odd jobs are stuff like sewing something which might take 2 hours if I'm lucky. So that's what like 2 and a half hours a week out of 35 hours a week that I'm actually doing something. The other 32 and a half hours of the week I'm sitting at the computer checking myspace, facebook, yahoo, mac, hotmail and any other site I can think of, about 5 times each. In between that I'm playing solitare, spider solitare, or freecell. When both of my bosses (joan, and her son craig) are gone, I watch stupid little videos like japanese game shows on you tube. Or write stupid blogs like this one. Point: My job is extremely boring. So my boss joan is here most of the time with me and she doesn't know how to shut up. She will say anything that pops into her head. Don't get me wrong, some of it is actually interesting, but most of it is either a complaint about her husband, something to do with his diabetes, something about a family member of hers, what she had to eat for breakfast, what she plans on eating for dinner, or a complaint about craig and how unorganized he is. The reason the store is so unorganized and cluttered isn't because of him, its because she doesn't know how to throw anything away. So everything stacks up in any corner available (and some corners that aren't) and then she gets sick of looking at it, goes through like 1/8 of it, only moving it somewhere else in the store, then a week later, more stuff is cluttered in that spot, creating a never ending cycle of clutter moving. She's also complaining (once a day at least) about how she needs to tell her doctor to change her medication because the one she's on messes with her short term memory and its making her crazy. I can tell that it messes with her memory, because she can't ever remember to tell her doctor to change it, nor can she remember that she already told me about it, 5 times this week. I just cannot wait any longer to go into labor. I'm not due for 2 days, but I don't know how much more of her I can take. I look forward to lunch and fridays, when I can get away for a while! At least after I have my baby she's going to let me bring him to work with me. At least then I 1, won't be as bored and 2, get to sit around watching my baby and get paid for it. SWEET! So I guess besides my boss driving me crazy and it being really boring here, I have a sweet set up. I couldn't ask for anything more really.

Hayden

Well Friday is coming up pretty soon. I was hoping to have little Hayden in my arms by now, but since I'm not due until Friday, I guess I can't complain too much. I'm not miserable at all, just getting tired of waiting. I want an excuse to get out of work and I can't think of a better one than going into labor. I will miss using my big tummy as a table, but I am super excited to be able to button my pants again and be able to reach my shoes to put them on. I'm the most excited to meet him though. I can't wait to see who he looks like more and what features he got from which parent. And to just cuddle him and sing to him and read to him and love him. I'm super excited to see how Paul is with him. I know he'll be a great dad. He's so fun to watch with Brian and Marie's baby Ayden, so it'll be fun to see him with his own baby. I had a doctor's appointment last Thursday and she said my cervix is soft but not dialated yet. I thought I would have had him by now but I might just still be pregnant at my doctor's appointment tomorrow morning. We'll see I guess.