Our tree is up thanks to Grandpa Steve for cutting it down by hand and delivering it to our door! We are all festive around here with John Denver and the Muppets Christmas CD playing and Jake making chai tea lattes. Can't wait to start the Advent calendar and open a tiny door everyday in a countdown. Nori thinks they are "fairy" doors, just the like the tiny fireplace decor we have is a fairy altar where she can offer up all of the ornaments she swipes off the tree (not the Santa ornaments she sleeps with of course, but the other ones). We are enjoying turkey sandwiches thanks to all the leftovers and the great cooking by Gramsie Holly. Just because we had Thanksgiving here does not mean I cooked, my mom did most of the dirty work and everyone one else pitched in with pies, rolls, and cranberries!
the star and her star
It's exciting that tomorrow I will be in my second trimester and am having a healthy pregnancy. There's a sentence I never thought I would type! We have told just about everyone so it's neat to have so much support and prayers behind us. Even our silly pastor Danny called Jake a "stud" and beat his chest like a wild animal when we walked into church. Just like they would do at Gloria Dei...
relaxing!
Please keep our friend little Madeline in your prayers this week as she undergoes open heart surgery to repair a hole in heart before her family moves to Peru in March!
Pastor Danny and his daughter Madeline in Peru last month
You know what they say, "If at first you don't succeed try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try, try again!". After 4+ years of infertility, guess who is finally knocked up? I know exactly what you are thinking:
"Oh no, your perky sport boobs!" "Gross, TMI!" "I really admire your patience and positive attitude in the face of adversity and disappointment" "How in the HELL???"
I peed on these
I am no math wiz, but I think our odds of actually conceiving with our pathetic history were calculated at less than 1% so you can imagine our SHOCK when the pregnancy test (which expired two years ago) was positive!!! Now, you may have already the heard the news if you are friends with my mother on Facebook, have run into her at Midtown Foods, have recently seen me toting my puke bucket and Ritz crackers around, or are a PT patient of Steve's. Otherwise, SURPRISE!!!
Truth is, we didn't do it alone (well yes, we did IT alone). Prior to starting another adoption next spring, we figured would try some alternative therapies before plunking down the hefty adoption fees (so worth it, but still very expensive). We had heard that some couples with unexplained infertility benefit from acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Because we love egg rolls and because my health insurance covered acupuncture, I made appointments for both Jake & I. Operation Balls of Glory was born! We never actually thought it would work, in fact I was 75% done with our new adoption website. Less than two months of needles and funky ball-shaped herb pills later, it worked!!!
Chinese herbs
I am officially 13 weeks (due end of May) and feel like total crap most of the time, very nauseated and exhausted everyday, but grateful for the experience. We saw the baby on an ultrasound at 7 weeks and heard the heartbeat at 11 weeks... so far, so good! We are grateful for our infertility journey because it brought us Norelle, who we could not live without!! It taught us how much we longed to be parents which helps us appreciate every single day. It is also a reminder that life is not fair and good people face hardships of every kind. All wonderful lessons, you know, like once they are over.
132 lbs and climbing
In true SoS fashion, I would be remiss if I did not mention all of the celebs who are also due around the same time: P!nk, Mariah Carey, Real Housewife of Atlanta Kim Zolciak, Anna Duggar, Rachael Zoe, and local non-celeb pals Jana, Angie Mc, and Sabrina S-T. Keep us all in your prayers!
Remember when I said I would blog all week and then have a big surprise for you on Thursday? The flaw with that plan was that a) I have nothing else to say all week and b) I am very impatient. Soooo, you will get your surprise on Wednesday! Whatever could it be? No one has any idea!! No one at all!! Please feel free to make ridiculous guesses and whoever's guess is furthest from the truth will win a prize in the form of me talking about your best qualities on my blog. The SURPRISE post could appear at anytime after 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday morning and whoever is the first to post a comment wins a prize in the form me talking about your best qualities on my blog. Are you excited? Super duper excited? Me too!
Daycare was closed today due to illness so Nori & I had a bonus day at home to get craftastic. Can you guess what we are making?
My friend is having a baby girl this week so I am loaning her all of Nori's infant clothes and as I folded each outfit I had flashback to memories and photos of my girl wearing those clothes. It was crazy how onsies can bring back such vivid memories!
I think I'll start my list of what I am thankful for and keep adding to it daily:
goldfish crackers high school musical and senior vocal recitals safe driving family & friends yellow labs books Bounce dryer sheets fuzzy socks Kashi Triple Berry Crisp good jobs coffee filters and markers sales at Whole Foods organized rooms and closets jokes Memory, the game Tinkerbell movies
I knew he had a ring and I even suggested he propose at her senior recital but he said "no way". Big sister is right again! After the intermission he never came back to his seat so I knew something was up, but when the stage door opened at the end of the recital, I really knew it! Casey proposed to Jaimie tonight in front of her entire family, random UW students, Professor Park, and my mom & I. It was really awesome, I just still can't believe she said no. It's Facebook official, they are getting hitched! Gratitude, Casey found a wife!
What a weekend! It started with chocolate cake and warm cookies at Anderson's for life group where we got to hear our friend Micah's cool life story. On Friday Nori got her flu shot/mist then we had bagels with Liam & Angie and took a nap before burgers at the Blue Door Pub with Jake's cousins, Zach & Tacy and Cole & Traci. On Saturday we squeezed in a Target run before Gramsie arrived, Jake cleaned the entire house all himself, we had Davanni's with babysitter/SIL du jour Ellen before heading off the see cousin Abby as the lead in West Side Story (she was charming and witty and gaaaaay). Today we furniture shopped for a bed & dresser for Nori's room and tonight is Casey's gf Jaimie's senior vocal recital in River Falls. Is that enough?
I got my turkey! We are hosting this year and my mom, who is taking the lead cooking role and never goes overboard, insisted we get a 25lb turkey so there are a weeks worth of leftovers for every single dinner guest. In honor of Thanksgiving, I will be posting a new blog everyday this week with the theme of gratitude, live blogging from the kitchen all day Thursday, and ending the day with a big surprise. Remember last time when I blogged all week? And how I said there would be a surprise, but then I forget to come up with one? This time I will try not to forget, okay? Are you excited?
If this post bored you to drink, try reading my favorite blog right now Enjoying The Small Things by Kelle Hampton for inspiration...
Mark my words, Nori is going to be on Hoarders someday! (BTB, someone from my hometown that I knew was actually on Hoarders and much to my relief it was not my mother, despite her best efforts). My daughter constantly picks up little trinkets, tiny stuffed animals, stickers, beads, pieces of toys (the smaller the better), and carries them around with her, preferably toting in a tiny basket or her ingenious idea, a baby sock! If you try to get her to move into another room, she first must collect ALL of her little things to bring along with her or a meltdown will ensue. At bedtime, we talk her down to just 4 tiny items from her preferred 20. Is this because I held her too much as a baby?
tiny toys for tiny hands
To make matters better, she is getting sick. She was was up from 2:00 a.m.- 4:30 a.m. two nights ago playing in her room, crying, screaming, and finally taking off her nighttime diaper and sitting cross-legged in a pool of her own liquid. "Sorry Daddy, I tinked my bed", she said when Jake found her and bathed in the middle of night while I changed her linens. Oh child. In the morning I asked her how Daddy felt last night and she replied "not happy". Good thing she is so adorable.
I have not been feeling so well myself so not much is getting done, but we have full weekend ahead so i better snap out of it! I am really excited for the holidays this years so I can't wait to do some Christmas shopping and decorating! What are you excited about?
Another lazy weekend is almost over, it may be the last lazy weekend for awhile so we enjoyed it. Nori & I visited Papa Bill on Friday for lunch, he made us jelly sandwiches on real white bread. Oh, sometime I miss you, Wonder bread! Our bread is seedy and sprouted and not that soft. But healthy! As you already saw, Saturday's snow provided hours of snow eating fun. Some kids build snowmen, others eat snow while they watch their parents build snowman. BTB, Frosty was not long for this world. Nori did enjoy the hot cocoa afterwards, noting that the tiny tea cup I put her's in was, "just perfect my little hands". I stubbed my pinky toe and bent the toenail back and now I am afraid I will have to be like my aunt Jill and wear a Lee Press On toenail. A coffee date and dinner party got postponed due the the weather, however the extra jammie time, naps, and general lethargy were great. In case you think I do anything other than eat and sleep, you are wrong. Let's hope I never run for office or do anything else important where I have to pretend to be more motivated or engaged than I really am b/c you have the proof right here, that just isn't so...
Do you know what it is? Imagine my surprise after all these months!
I just realized that if my childhood dream of becoming a world-famous blogger so I can quit my job and live in luxury is to come true, several things are going to need to change. First, I am going to need to be more interesting, much more interesting. Post about old jeans are history. I may need a good medical drama to make that happen. Second, I will need to get readers other than my family and three friends. In fact, I will need to draw readers from around the world with my passion for telling a story, ones that will also buy stuff from the advertisers I will need to attract. Third, there will be no anonymity for my family, we may be thrust on to the cover US Weekly with Kim and Kendra or accused of our own peen scandal. Finally, someday I will regret it all, longing for the days of being able say anything and misspell everything because like, who really cares?
Ask and I shall receive. Our winter trip to the Bahamas is mostly booked. Major thanks to my surrogate dad (I believe he hates that I call him that) Andy Ho for booking a sweet hotel with his points for a great discount. Jake is working on airfare and we have enough miles for a free ticket, finally. We are going to stay on Cable Beach on Paradise Island for a week of sun, books, naps, food, and togetherness.
Remind me never to let anyone sleep with a glow stick, no matter how much they protest "it's my best friend" or "it will help me sleep all night". That neon crap does not wash out.
How was your extra hour? Mine was great, it gave us time to sleep it, make a big breakfast and go to Target, all before church. Church, BTB, was extra great today, our pastor Luke (who is younger than me!) started off with a Mr. Roger's intro complete with shoe and cardigan sweater changing for the newseries: These Are The People In Our Neighborhood. He also played this cute video:
We had our Bloom life group friends over Thursday night for brownies and conversation, but otherwise it was a very laid back weekend. Aunt Ellen came over to do laundry while I went grocery shopping and last night we walked up to Grand Pad Thai where Nori declared everything we ordered "too spicy", just eating an entire bowl of white rice. We attempted to stream a fun Netflix movie but we ended up with Clifford the Big Red Dog and his gal pal Emily Elizabeth to complete family night. Jake's leaves for Charlotte NC tomorrow so we have been enjoying lots of family time.
We are hosting Thanksgiving this year so I finally ordered a tablecloth to fit my table with the leaves in it and bought new glassware so we don't have to mix stolen beer pints with plastic Twins cups. I bet everyone is excited for an organic vegan gluten-free feast!
Jake & I are hoping to get away alone this winter (sorry T.McB) so we are considering someplace new, maybe the Bahamas. Ever been? Nothing beats the cost of Mexico but this may be the year to mix it up! Suggestions welcome!
And this just proves that you don't have to have anything profound to say to write a blog.
Long time no chat. I just realized that this will be Norelle's 3rd Christmas and she still does not have a Christmas stocking at home! I am going to order one tonight, I will let her pick it out online. Might as well since her favorite phrase right now is "I love that (fill in the blank). I wish I could buy it!". That's my little consumer...
Hoarder's: Christmas edition
the star and her star
relaxing!
Pastor Danny and his daughter Madeline in Peru last month
