WELL IT JUST SUX!!

that my captions didn't line up w/ my pics, but yall are smart enough to figure it out.

pics from my bday...april 5th, 2008







I FIND THEIR MATCHING EXPRESSIONS...PRICELESS.


BAM-BAM GETTING A FRESH CUT



AHH, TO BE YOUNG AGAIN...


THE MAIN REASON WHY I HAVEN'T VISITED SEARS YET...I'M NOT GONNA SPEND ALL DAY THERE TRYING TO GET A SMILE...


MY GIRLS ARE GROWING UP!


OK, THE REASON I SHOULD GO TO SEARS!


YEH, YOU TRYING TAKING HER POPCORN PUFFS FROM HER, I'M NOT!


ME IN ALL MY 22W GLORY! HUGE FOR ONLY A 4LB GAIN!




UM, WHERE ARE MY TOES?!

the latest.....

skeeter has a business trip coming up next month. he'll be gone for 3 days to detroit, cincinnati, one of the two i don't remember now, for training on the welding machines. it was originally scheduled so he'd be gone and miss puddn's 4th grade fishing trip and he told them he coudn't do it. they actually rescheduled it. awesome.

twiggi was recommended by her music teacher to audition for the kirkwood children's chorale. pretty awesome there too! she's excited and nervous. she auditions on may 14th. whether or not she's invited in, kudos to her for even being recommended!

puddn has her dance this friday, the 70s dance....fun. it's conflicting w/ a slumber party that twiggi has been invited to. i'm letting them work it out. we'll see what they come up with.

bam-bam has a field trip to the zoo coming up and i just hope i'm in good enough condition to go enjoy it with him.

tatertot is learning to call skeeter's parents "gigi" and "pop-paw" and they're loving it!

me and johnny bravo are hanging in there. apparently, i don't sleep well, hence me being up since 3am. actually before then but i gave up and got up at 3am. i'm 22 weeks and a day now...2 more weeks until i enter the "safe" zone. baby is VERY active, esp between 9-10p every nite. so not looking forward to this kid being up al nite. i go see my plastic surgeon on tuesday to get marked so i can report back to the ob exactly where my mesh is located in case of emergency c-section, etc.

nothing else exciting i can think of. my days run into my nites. skeeter combed twiggi's hair on saturday. it was cute and at least he volunteered. didn't turn out too too bad either.

gas is 3.59/gal. there is nothing more to be said after that!

EARTHQUAKE!!!!

in 32 yrs this is my first memorable experience w/ an earthquake. my mom tells me there was one when i was a tot and skeeter says his parents have told him of one in the 70s before he was born, so they may be speaking of one and the same.

all i know is, i don't have to ever experience another one in my lifetime! about an hour before it happened tatertot started whimpering in her sleep and then stood straight up and started screaming, eyes still closed....she immediately fell back to sleep when skeeter picked her up.

then an hour later skeeter and i were shaken awake, sat straight up, eyes wide. i looked out the window it was eerily quiet w/ the exception of the semi going by at the time. i was thinking there is no way that is making the building shake like this. we scrambled for the kids..tatertot asleep next to our bed, didn't budge. bam-bam...didn't budge. the older girls, didn't budge. it was over as soon as it began. the phone started ringing. it took the news over 10mins to give report.

final say at this point is a 5.2 mag quake centered about 150miles east of here. wow. the quake they keep predicting on the new madrid fault is now more real to us and i seriously can take a raincheck!

clostridium tetani.....

ya know, if it wasn't deadly and i wasn't pregnant i would've taken my chances and said forget the tetanus booster! that was a HORRIBLE experience!!

i sliced my finger pretty badly on a rusty table leg trying to get all HGTV in my kitchen on thursday. i just didn't feel like going to the ER. so i called my primary physician and asked for a tetanus booster since my last one was like 12yrs ago. she told me come in the next morning at 11am, and THEN i thought to ask if it was ok for me to get it and be pregnant. NO. great. so i called my OB and left a message and they called back and said i could have tetanus but not the tetanus/pertusssis combo.

so i set about calling every urgent care center it the city to see if anyone had just the tetanus and everyone had the combo. are you kidding me?! i have to go sit in the ER to get my finger glued, which i could do myself, and get a shot?!

so i called labor/delivery at BJS and spoke w/ an OB and she told me i could wait until the following day for the shot. good. right?

so the next morning i get up and start making phone calls to every clinic, city health dept, occupational health center, etc and found it at two places. one, the county health department, well, i'm not a county resident. blah! and walgreens!! yep, walgreens, in their walk-in clinics.

i called my ins to make sure it was covered and walgreen's was covered and told to go right ahead. so i get there after the ultrasound and i'm signing in and it gets to my ins info and stops me and tells me to call their patient assistance line so they could verify my eligibility. i do, and yes, i'm eligible for service but NOT the vaccine. the state of MO would rather have me go to the ER and pay well over 500.00 to get the vaccine instead of paying walgreen's just over 100.00. so we ended up paying cash, 45.00, for the shot.

but it's done now. and it's a good thing. cuz i eat too much here lately to get lockjaw!!

had our "big" ultrasound...

on friday we went for a tour of the maternity facilities at barnes-jewish and i'm just not impressed. i had puddn there almost 11yrs ago but i just am not feeling it now. plus i don't like the fact it's the only delivering hospital in the city, so it can busy enough where we might have to share a room. um, NO. don't think so. i'd rather travel a lil further out and have my own room. besides, they still do the limited choices on meals unlike the other option which is a la carte and like room service.

anyhow, on to the goody news...baby is looking wonderful. measured at about 12 ounces. i looked at tatertot's "big" ultrasound, i was 2 weeks further and she was 1lb 2oz so about the same. kiddo was just a-movin' and a-shakin'. the u/s tech had to keep pausing to try and let him/her settle down. i have a routine OB appt later today.

i'm definitely feeling the kicks now. skeeter was trying to feel and got impatient and put his ear to my belly and johnny(ie) decided to kick him in the ear. pretty funny.

we've decided no matter the gender of the baby, since s/he is the last the baby will carry his name. of course, if it's a girl, he'll have to select a diff middle name since tatertot already has the spin-off of his middle name.

well, that's about it from baby world.

when parental encouragement is just "too" successful!

so yall know josh has his delays and they apply to daily living skills. we've really been working on wiping clean after a BM and blowing his nose when he sneezes instead of just standing there w/ snot hanging down to his stomach or hitting the floor and waiting for someone to clean him/it up.

so yesterday morning i hear him sneeze a big one...we already knew snot was everywhere...so i go to check on him....he's sitting on the toilet........trying to blow his nose w/ THE SAME TISSUE THAT HE'D JUST TRIED TO CLEAN HIS LIL BUTT W/ BECAUSE HE'D JUST HAD A BM.

and he had no clue, he thought he was doing a "great job!'

when "winning" is just inconvenient....

so my mom put my name in a contest to win tickets to see the harlem globetrotters at the new arena on SLU's campus. i got the phone call on monday. i confirmed on tuesday. i went to pick up the tickets yesterday. get home and see that they're not actually tickets...they're passes that have to be redeemed for the tickets NO LATER THAN 72 HRS PRIOR TO THE EVENT. well the event is tomorrow! by the time i saw it the box office was already closed. so what am i to do now? waiting for a phone call from the marketing guy at channel 11 to hear back from the pr people at the arena to deterine what we're to do.

is it bad that i hope they fall thru? i don't feel like going!

well, true to form....

my posts fall off! lol let's see

i've celebrated another birthday so i'm now 26 for the 6th year in a row (you do the math). the day itself was kinda crappy but amazingly i got some encouraging insight from my brother of all people and it really helped to ease my anguish.

the kids are all fine. the older ones are MAP testing these two weeks. i'm kinda ticked at the amount of pressure they put on these kids about these tests and have them freaking out. i had to tell them, these tests would not prevent them from passing on to the next grade. that they're more for statistical purposes to evaluate the educators and the schools. man, you could SEE the tension leave their lil bodies.

bam-bam's appetite is now that of a linebacker! if he's 7 and doing this what the heck do i have to look forward to when he's 17?!

tatertot is a rebel. we made a quick stop at the grocery store the other evening and she was toddling around in there, the tiniest thing, giving people the meanest looks!

i will be 20w on sunday! although i'm in daily pain because of the scar tissue i'm soo happy! in comparison to tatertot's this pregnancy has been a breeze. only two trips to the hospital so far. one for dehydration and one to determine the scar tissue was going to end up being a major thorn in my side for the duration. i PLAN to go natural, but after months and months of constant excrutiating pain, i'm not ruling out pain meds. we have our "big" ultrasound on friday. i don't care about the gender as long as s/he has 10 fingers and toes and they're on his/her hands and feet!

i've officially withdrawn from all my classes, well, as of me making it to campus today. got to procrastinate! tomorrow is the last day to drop. i'll be there before then. lol this week thus far though as been one of the most stress free since skeeter sat me down and told me to stop. i was worried about paying for it when i go back, but he told me let that be his burden. so now i get to focus on baking a healthy baby, cleaning my house and focusing on my kiddos.

i've actually almost caught up on all the laundry this week. now if i can just fold it and put it away...i'll be in business! lol

well, it's about time to see the kiddos off, then i can come back and post pics pics pics cuz i have plenty!

update coming.....

seeeeee! i'm soooo bad with journaling....but update and pics coming later today!