Baby Carr the Grand Finale (hopefully)

If all goes well this will be my LAST pregnancy! I was a little farther along than I thought and will be 8 weeks this Saturday. The baby's heartrate was 145 at 7 weeks and 7 weeks and 3 days gestation (Jakes was 155 at 6 weeks 5 days and Mari's was 133 at 6 weeks 5 days). Estimated due date from the ultrasound was February 21st. Jake and Mari both came before their due dates. According to those dates I will enter the second trimester the week I go back to work and enter the third the week of Jake and Mari's birthdays which is just two weeks before the close of the semester. Second trimester is the best time to be in school if I have to when pregnant! I am still sick and so far this pregnancy reminds me more of Jake's than any of the others. Aversions to meat, only want to eat carbs, I have already gained almost five pounds (from all the carbs I am sure). I am trying to adjust to a more healthy system of eating but it is already very different than my pregnancy with Mari, where eating healthy wasn't that difficult (I didn't have many aversions just cravings!). James is busy painting the house, but he promised he would quit in a little bit so we can go on a walk. I haven't walked at all since he was gone last week and I know that is probably part of the problem. You can't go from walking 5 miles 5 nights a week to nothing at all and expect not to change your eating habits and not gain weight!

More pictures from work on the house today

As you can see James has been really busy! When I took the kids outside earlier Jake exclaimed: "Oh Daddy, I love that color it is just like mayonaise!" It does look like mayonaise now that he mentions it. He is so funny!

He has already got the first (of two) coats on the back and one side. He also got half of the front done.

I took this picture from the street so you can see how much work James has done on the grass. You can cleary see where our yard begins and the lot next to us begins!

Our grape tomatoes have gotten huge (they almost look like Roma's instead of grape tomatoes) and they still haven't started turning red. Below are some pictures of some more peppers that have just started turning red!



A regular (slicing/sandwich tomato) the only one we have so far (but we have TONS of the grape tomatoes). Above is Jake's birdhouse that he got from Nana and Papoo for Christmas. We posted pictures of him painting it in January or February.

Above is the Spanish moss in the crepe myrtles and below is the crepe myrtle blossoms.

A close up of the two types of vines we have planted on the back of the fence (the lattice work James put up for this reason). I got both of these from Mama, the top one develops pretty purple flowers and decorative purple bean pods and the bottom one makes dainty pink flowers (it is called cyprus vine).

Here is a hot of most of the patio (the length of it anyway) so you can see what a big improvement it is.

This is the flower bed to the side once again.

Here is another shot of the flowers in the back.

Here is the back going in the other direction (behind the swings and grass part of the yard, where as the other picture is of behind the patio.) You can see our humming birds have drank all their juice (as Jake calls it).

Above is another shot of the vines (the purple bean ones are more visible closer to the ground in this part of the yard). Also it looks like the moon flower is coming back on its own (yay!). The tiki torch is blocking our bird seed feeder, but it needs refilled too!

Here is a shot from one end of the back flower bed to the other. The two trees closest to view are birch trees and then we have assorted zinnias, dhalias, assorted marigolds, daylillies, lantanna, moon flower (not blooming yet), one group of four o'clocks came up, cyprus vine and the purple vine whose name escapes me at the moment. If you click on the link below you can see a post I made in March 2007 (well I actually posted it in April but it is about March) and you can see what the house and yard looked like when we bought it.
http://islanne.blogspot.com/2007/04/march-madness.html

Around our house!

The flowers at the end of the patio.
The "flower" bed to the left of the patio (when you walk out the door). We moved Daisey's house in the corner of the fence underneath the Crepe Myrtle tree (Natchez variety- tree not bush, white not pink).

Flowers at the back again, with an unexpected shot of the compost pile. If you enlarge the picture you can see the vines are starting to climb back up the lattice work.

All of our junk! James pressure washed the house yesterday in anticipation of painting it today and he decided to power wash the patio as well so he moved every thing onto the grass. It doesn't normally look like this! You can see he has finished the brick work around most of the patio. There is just a little bit left as you can see at the bottom right of the picture above.

Our tomatoes and peppers (and one surviving eggplant). That coiled up wire is my clothes line (it hooks to the house when in use).

The front of the house with everything pulled off the porch (and in the yard). You can see where James has started painting. The new color is a light yellow. MUCH better than the peach it has been!

Here is a closeup of the color. Old color (peach?) on the left, new color (silk sail) on the right.

Coat one of two on the pack! Looks good. You can see the difference in color in the one little strip he was working on painting (behind him) when I took this picture.

Another close-up of the difference in color. When he is finished I will post before and after pictures. Two years ago (this past March) we moved in. Since then we have put up a fence completely landscaped the yard (it didn't even have grass), leveled the yard, poured the patio, and a few other little things. We still need to paint the interior, put the other door on the panty/ washroom, replace the ugly countertops and clean it really good before we put it on the market (hopefully before September).

Also, we picked our first ripe pepper today!

Fathers' Day

I forgot to take a single picture on fathers' day as we were blown away by some news we received that morning. We discovered early that morning that we might be having a baby this February. We were (and still are) in such a shock. My doctor called me back and told me to start taking the baby aspirin again (which we ideally would have started prior to planned conception) and my blood test yesterday put me at somewhere between 4-5 weeks. We have our first real appointment and ultrasound on July 8th. Hopefully it will be an uneventful pregnancy and I won't have anything to report anytime soon. My doctor seems to think as early as we found out the baby aspirin will still be effective. I am posting about the pregnancy here because I am excited and want to share it with those of you who look at this blog, however I would appreciate it no one makes any obvious mentions of it on Facebook as we are still trying to sort out some things (like school/work) and it is too early to make any real announcements yet (especially with our history). I am just trying to take it one day at a time at the moment. I am trying to finish my coursework for my summer school class which will be over by 5 p.m. Saturday. It is harder than I thought it was going to be seeing as I am exhausted and can't drink coffee to help me through it. Only other symptoms I am having are lightheadedness, extreme hunger, exhaustion, bladder pressure (which will go away for me in a few weeks, I know from past experience that it is from the unusual position of my uterus), my hair is falling out, my finger nails are brittle, my brain is fuzzy, I am highly emotional and my skin is breaking out. No morning sickness yet, so I am kind of nervous about that. However I had extreme morning sickness with my last miscarriage and almost none with Jake until I was about 8 weeks along. So who knows. Prayers are much appreciated. James is excited (in case you are wondering) and I go back and forth between denial, excitement and worry.

Fun at the Coffee House!

Saturday we went to the Coffee House to take Papoo his fathers day/grandfathers day cards and to see Nana as well! As you can see much fun was had!

Jake before his haircut.

I took this on our way home from his allergy test appointment (he came out just fine so no idea what the rash is about, but he still gets it from time to time. DR said it could be a mild food allergy). I had promised him a chocolate chip cookie if he could be good for the whole trip and after they stuck him (skin test) he asked if he could have two cookies. We stopped at Kroger and bought cookies (and ran into Christie and Elana). I gave him the cookies when we got to the car and then we went to get gas for the car. By time I had finished pumping gas he had eaten both cookies and fallen asleep. I couldn't resist taking a picture!

Mari! Mari! Mari!

I should have know something was up when she waltzed past me in Jakes wellies! I was just so glad to get to unload the dishwasher without 'help'. She pulled Jakes milk off the table and did a little dance in it (wearing his frog wellies). She was so proud of herself. She had been asking me to go outside, but it had been raining. Oh well. When I got on to her she ran and got a dishtowel and helped me clean it up. Such a sweetie!

IAHS Class of 1999 Ten Year Reunion

Above, Carrie Cromeans Koon and I pose for a shot and below I took a picture of James and Catherine Dement Honan's husband Shane.
Here are some of the group shots. There were a lot of people not there. Hopefully the next one (15 year) will be better attended.

Another group shot. We took a lot of them trying to get everyone to pay attention at the same time.

Catherine Dement Honan and I. Turns out we were both pregnant I just didn't know I was at the time.

Shane, Catherine and I. It was really nice to see them. They have been stationed in Kansas but they are currenlty moving to Virginia.

Alix (our sitter) took this picture of us before we left.

All by herself!

While I was updating my blog, Mari came up to me and asked me to put on her shoes. I told her not right now as we are not going outside at the moment (I don't like wearing shoes in the house). She went over in the corner and put it on all by herself. Granted it is velcro and it is on the wrong foot, but I still can't get Jake to do that! Just another example of how their different personalities affect their actions. She is so independent and driven and he so laid back that he often doesn't understand why I would want/expect him to do something that I could do for him--he seems to think if I do something for him it is a sign that I love him (this he gets from his Daddy).

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

I took this picture of them playing together at church. Below is my large cup of strong brewed coffee with milk in it to help keep me awake as Mari did not sleep much (and when she did it was fitful and in the bed with James and I) so James and I were very tired all day.
Below, you can see Mari made up for her lack of nocturnal rest by falling asleep everytime we put her in the car.

While we were waiting on James to change clothes Jake took the opportunity to read some of my books that I had lying around the car. In the second picture he is actually making up words and pointing at the the real words to show me how well he can 'read'. I was explaining to James how good that is for his age from a familiarity with literacy standpoint and James died out laughing and said well of course he is advanced to be reading books like Animal Liberation and Rivals for Power at his age (the books he was 'reading' were both required reading this past semester in my doctoral seminars). I know James was just teasing me, because I take their education so seriously. However, one of the reasons I do not regret having small children while completeing my education is that I feel it is important for them to see how important education is to me and have realistic ideas about how to go about it. Hopefully by exposing them to these things through me it will help them when they set out on their own academic paths.

Jake's first movie going experience!

Jake went to see his first movie in the theater--Disney/Pixar's UP. He was accompanied by me (Isla), James and my Dad. My mum and Mari played at the mall (where they ran into Mea and Elizabeth from church). It was my first 3D movie experience as well! The movie was great for all ages. Maybe we can take Mari for her first movie later this year as I did see some younger children in their and I think she would be amazed enough by the experience to behave.
Jake wasn't too excited about going to see a movie (no previous frame of reference as now he has already asked me if we can go see another movie. He told me he wants Nana and Mari to come next time too.) So we told him he could eat popcorn and some candy while watching the movie and he seemed really excited about that!

Here he is during the movie. He sat on my dad's lap the whole time mesmorized! He did not touch his sprite or popcorn, he was too busy watching the movie!

Telling Nana about the movie afterwards. The dog (Doug) is from the movie.