Blessings

I am seriously in the best mood.

We just got home from our "family night" with my uncle and got three blessings.
1. In the mail was two free movie tickets from my work for referring Bryan for the Graphics position.
2. Also, in the mail (FINALLY) a check from unemployment. God continues to amaze us with how he keeps providing.
3. AND last but not least, we're going camping this weekend for the first time with Gabe and The Sedey's (a family from our church and parent's to one of the girls in the Jr High group) are graciously letting us borrow their tent trailer.

Weighing in...sort of

I am SO mad at myself (WHERE IS MY BRAIN?)...Bryan and I got up this morning, got ready and headed to Gabe's 4 month appointment. When we got there the conversation went like this:

Receptionist- Dr. Mary doesn't work on Tuesday's
Me- OH? Well, today's the 20th right? That is when they made the appointment for him.
Receptionist- No, today's the 21st.
Me- oh crap I missed his appointment and I'm off a day.

SIGH

Now we have to wait till September 10th because that is when Gabe's Dr. is available again.
I think I must be emotional or something because I cried all the way home. I was so looking forward to seeing how much weight he's gained and all that.

SO, I weighed Gabe on our scale--14.8 pounds.
He was 11.10 pounds at his last appointment so if that is correct he's gained about 3 pounds in a little over a month.

Family Beach Day

I'm going back to work soon and although this summer has been great getting to stay home with my little man, I did want to get some fun day's in before the summer is over and I'm back in my routine at work.
We haven't gone camping at all this summer and Family Camp was this weekend and now that it's here I was thinking to myself that maybe we should have gone and that it probably wouldn't have been too bad in a tent with a 4 month old. I have to say though I changed my mind and am glad we didn't go...Bryan came home early Saturday because it was raining...I can't imagine being crammed in a tent with Calie and Gabe waiting for the rain to stop. eeks I'm not much of a risk taker...I think that's part of the boring side of me. Maybe we'll go Labor Day weekend????
ANYWAY, Friday, Fun Day #1...
We left early Friday morning and headed to Lincoln City. I LOVE this beach...I think because as a kid, we went to this beach a lot. I went camping with my Grandparents and on vacations with my family too. When we got there we got settled on our blanket on the beach and I fed Gabe. It was really windy and Gabe HATED that. I had his hood up and and pretty much had a blanket around his head the whole time. For the most part though he did fine. We relaxed and talked on the beach for about an hour or two and then we packed up and drove to the outlet stores. As the day went on Bryan got redder and redder, pretty much turned into a lobster. OH and BTW the weather said that it was supposed to be 56 and cloudy and it was probably 70 with blue skies! Why are the weathermen always wrong? I'm glad they were wrong though...it was such a nice day! I think maybe we need to invest in some sunscreen for Bryan too. DUH right?! I of course don't look like I got any sun. After we shopped for a while we went to McMenamins Lighthouse Brewpub. We were going to go to Mo's, because Bryan has never been there before in which I say "you've never been to Mo's before?" every time we go to the beach and yet we never go. HA After dinner we went back to the beach as the sun was setting and sat and talked and played with Gabe. It was such a nice fun family day at the beach. I so LOVE the beach...I would love someday to have a beach house that we could go to all the time. I feel so peaceful there and just take in the greatness of God's creation. I think Gabe liked his first trip to the beach too, he was exhausted and slept the whole way home and all through the night.

Street of Dreams

Bryan and I go to the Street of Dreams every year or at least we have gone the last 3-4 years. I love going to these. When I was growing up we would sometimes take an afternoon and just go look at new houses, just for fun. I don't know if it was a sick joke my parents liked to play on us, but us kids thought we were going to move into each one of these houses and would pick our rooms and have the whole place furnished. It was FUN even if we never did buy the house.
These houses are amazing some better than others of course and I know why they call it "Street of Dreams" because in our dreams would we ever get a house like that. HAHA This year wasn't really all that special, but it was still fun. We like to go in the evening because there are less people and cooler on the hot August day's.

This year they had Dream Dog Houses. SO funny!

I love weekends!

I LOVE weekends! Saturday was a wonderfully typical Saturday where I ran some errands, did some chores, had some good friend time and then hung out at night with my family. I say typical, but really we're separated a lot, so it wasn't so much a typical Saturday, as an ideal Saturday in my mind. Bryan might disagree as he did homework and yard work. We did get child-free evening together (my dad tagged along), but let me first start at the beginning of the day.

I didn't eat any breakfast because I was meeting Marcia along with her two girls at Red Robin for lunch and then we were going to go to Old Navy to do some shopping. I had talked to her Friday for a while and we don't know what we were thinking us going out with three kiddos two under the age of six months. We said it was going to be our adventure for the week. :) Oddly enough the kiddos did great and we were able to get some fun time in together.
After I left them at Gresham Station I went to a laundry mat by our house and washed our down comforter. I fed and played with Gabe while waiting for it to get done. On my way home Gabe fell asleep in the car and so I took his car seat up to the office while Bryan continued to work on homework and I washed both vehicles and did some laundry. Gabe slept he whole time I was out doing that and woke up just before his next feeding time.

All month the Fairview park is putting on a "Flick in the park" every Saturday evening. We went to the first one and it was so fun sitting in our lawn chairs rapped up in blankets (cause it did get cold) watching a movie. Actually, it reminds me of something you'd see in a movie not actually get to do it. The first flick was The Sound of Music and that movie was a tad long IMO to play, but I have always LOVED that movie. I remember every year it would come on TV and my mom would make me take a nap so that I could stay up on a school night and watch it. Don't know why we just didn't buy the stinkin movie? Anyway, the second movie was Happy Feet. Mom hated that movie and we didn't really have any desire to see it, so just Jacob and Janell went and said that the park was actually packed and that when the penguins would dance all the kids would stand up and dance. HA Instead though we had dinner at my parents and then mom and Julie watched Gabe while Bryan my dad and I went to see Bourne Ultimatum. That was an AWESOME movie! In fact I loved all three!
I think we'll go see the other two "flicks in the park" which should be fun!

Sunday we went to church and then Bryan had more homework so Gabe and I stayed at my parents and hung out there. It was a mellow time. Gabe and I took a nap, mom and dad cleaned out their garage and we all just puttered around and talked. After Bryan was done with his homework he came and got Gabe and took him home and I went to see Pirates 3 at Mt Hood with mom, dad, Jacob and Janell. I guess this was a movie weekend for me. Bryan and Gabe had good father son time though and Gabe was sound asleep when I got home. The movie was pretty good, but the Bourne Ultimatum trilogy was way better IMO.
A couple weeks ago my parents were in a pretty bad accident and it totaled my dads car. A couple in their small group from church is letting them borrow one of their cars which is such a blessing, but it's a pretty old car and when it's cold it keeps dieing. It was quite an adventure going home last night and we had some good laughs!

It was a good weekend.

Just a recap

Thursday night was date night. When Bryan got home from the church office we fed Gabe and packed up to go to dinner. I have been really craving McMenamins lately so we went out to Edgefield and had dinner. It's so beautiful there. We walked through the little garden area and had a wonderful dinner. After dinner we went to Safeway to get a few things and then went home.

Bryan's office at the church is really nice. He's got it set up and organized and he works on Jr high lessons, games, meets with Randy, looks for jobs, does homework etc. Last Friday was our first trip to the new Ikea and he got a few things to put in the office. I LOVE that place BTW! Can't wait to go back!

Yesterday was CRAZY! We got up and got ready fed Gabe and then left for my work to show off Gabe and talk about work. It's SO weird going back there. I haven't been there since March and there are new people, changes in seating arrangements. It was just weird. Everyone loved Gabe. Thought he was the most handsome little guy. Said he looks just like his daddy of course. It was fun to see everyone and even though I am not looking forward to leaving Gabe to work I'm glad that I popped in and didn't just start back at work cold turkey. I need to ease my way back in.

After we left my work we met some people at Rob's (guy from our Young Marrieds class at church) sisters apartment to help her move. She was moving from a small apartment to an even smaller one and she has a butt load of stuff. The old apartment at least had a garage that she could store stuff in. That took forever. It was fun meeting new people though and Lori (Rob's sister) was very grateful I think. I had a much needed haircut and color at 2:30 that I was 10 minutes late too. Bryan wanted to make a 2nd trip while Gabe and I stayed at the new apartment and helped put things away. I started panicking at 1:45 though and he wasn't back. We were all the way out in Lake Oswego too and had to drive to Clackamas where my salon is. Luckily I was able to call Marcella and tell her that I was running a little late and there wasn't too much traffic thank God! Bryan took Gabe home after dropping me off and I just relaxed and had a great time catching up with Marcella while she did my hair. I just love her!
Bryan and I didn't do much the rest of the evening...we got pizza for dinner and then Gabe, Calie and I went on a walk while Bryan took a nap.

Gabe has been sleeping so well lately! (9 hours the last two nights) and this morning he was just talking and sucking on his hand for a while so I went and got him and we all snuggled in bed until he screamed basically telling us he was hungry. Gabe is so funny lately too...he's talking and cooing more and he's started giggling. He is such a joy and I love him so much...I feel so blessed that God chose me to be his mom!

Looking forward to enjoying the rest of the weekend!

Random Pictures

A few weeks ago we adjusted Gabe's straps in his car seat and the straps keep leaving marks on his neck so my sister gave me these to try out. Didn't work as you can see.


Poor guy was all squished and didn't like it one bit.


First bath at Grandma's



Smiling at cousin Jaden

Promise of a PRODUCTIVE day...

I popped out of bed this morning at 8:56am... I totally felt like I could sleep 10 more hours. I had heard Bryan and Gabe talking and playing and thought I'd better get up. Gabe didn't sleep very well last night. We couldn't get him to sleep until midnight last night and he was back up at 4ish.

We moved Gabe to his room last Wednesday night. :-( That was hard, but all three of us have been sleeping better.
Last weekend was heaven.
-Sat night 8 hours
-Sun night 7 hours
-Mon night 9 hours
I think he likes his room and crib huh?! heehee

Bryan was really sick last weekend! UGH Praying Gabe and I don't get it. I sort of feel sicky and Gabe sounds stuffed up sometimes but doesn't seem sick!?
Bryan washed and sanitized his hands and wore a mask every time he was around Gabe. HA

I think it's going to be one of those very productive days...
I'll keep you posted about all the very productive things I do today. It'll be interesting to see where the day goes from here.
9:00am
-Stripped bed and started cleaning the whole upstairs
-Dusted
-Vacuumed
-Made bed
-put away Gabe's laundry
-Bryan is hanging out with Gabe so I can clean

11:30am
-Started on the kitchen
-Cleaned bottles and such
-Cleaned counters
-Cleaned out microwave
-Cleaned up dishes
-loaded the dishwasher
-Swept kitchen Floor
-Started laundry

12:00pm
-Made lunches (and blogged)

12:30pm
-Ate Lunch
-Mopped kitchen floor
-Cleaned dinning room table

1:15pm
-Put Gabe in swing
-another load of laundry
-Bryan fixed pipe underneath the sink
-Bryan clean basement

1:30pm
-Dust living room

2:00pm
-Fed Gabe
-Snuggled and played with Gabe
-Bryan dusted and vacuumed basement
-Bryan vacuumed living room

3:00pm
-Gabe on baby Einstein play mat (almost rolling over)
-Cleaned bathrooms
-Bryan washed car inside and out (Gabe, Calie and I hung outside while Bryan washed the car...it's such a beautiful day out!)

3:45pm
-Showered, got dressed, did hair & makeup
-More laundry--yipee!
-Took a little reading break. *Sigh*

4:30pm
-Hung out with my Snugglebug

5:00pm
-Fed and snuggled with Gabe
-Bryan showered, washed Calie and got dressed

6:00pm
-More laundry
-Started dinner (Honey Mustard Chicken, potatoes and cooked carrots mmmmm)
-Made dessert

7:30pm
-Gave Gabe a bath and put his pj's on

8:00pm
-Bryan started to feed Gabe
-I ate dinner then finished the feeding so Bryan could eat

8:30pm
-Bryan left to hang out with Dan
-I rocked Gabe and just enjoyed my little guy

10:15pm
-Gabe asleep in his bed
-Cleaned up dinner dishes
-Started the dishwasher

So that was my very productive day. I'm not going to fold and put away the laundry...I can do that tomorrow. I am DONE SPENT! We were going to maybe hit Ikea tonight, but we were already tired from the days events and so we decided to wait and go another day. Plus, I am just not sure if Gabe has Bryan's cold or not? I have the humidifier going just in case. I sure hope he doesn't. What am I doing tomorrow? Not sure if we'll (me and Gabe) go to church tomorrow, but if we do probably not a whole lot of anything else.

WHOOO-HOOOOO

My very own local IKEA opens today!
It makes me SO HAPPY just thinking about it.
MUST.... GO..... SHOPPING!!!

Someday...

Studio Portraits

Love that you can look at these online. I pick up the order next Tuesday. It took freakin forever, but Gabe did well.

Gabe (3 Months)




Darogers

Home Improvement

My parents are getting their house painted and it just got me thinking about ALL the home improvement stuff that needs to happen on our house. This is just notes to myself and things I want to remember, so I can look back on it...

OUTSIDE
-replace deck (it's nasty)
-new roof
-new paint job for outside
-new shed (ours leaks)
-new paneling around hot tub
-get hot tub up and running again (hoping for NO waterline)

ENTRYWAY
-new front door
-new screen door
-replace molding in entryway
-replace entry floor

KITCHEN
-replace floor
-new dishwasher

OVERALL HOUSE
-new carpet
-new windows (the seals are broken)
-AC??

MASTER BATH
-new shower
-new floor
-paint

OFFICE
-patch up hole in wall

HALL
-paint ceiling

BASEMENT
-new door (Calie came ripping through the house, ran downstairs and BAM hole in door)
-needs molding around that door
-new door to garage (has a cat door on it and we don't have any cats)

Garage
-start over (it isn't very realistic how they have things arranged...it could be better)
-something with the water heater?? We don't need a new one, but something needs to be fixed?

Don't we need money for all this. HA

Work

I've been emailing back and fourth with one of the HR gal's at MG2 and she asked me if my return date was still in September and I told her yeah, that I was thinking of having it be September 5th.
As I think about it more...I'm just jumping back in FT and go go going. I wonder if it would be better to go back PT for a week or two at first to ease my way back in and adjust to not seeing Gabe. How do you just adjust to not seeing your child all day? I know that women do it all the time and I know and have friends who have done it, but it's really starting to get to me. I have a little over a month left and the closer I get the more my stomach starts to drop and my eye's begin to well up. I have to go back to work, but I don't want too. I don't want someone else taking care of my baby. I want to take care of him DANG IT. sniff
I had lunch with T yesterday and we talked a little about this. How she dealt with it and how she to started feeling depressed a month before having to go back to work. She told me to not let it ruin that month dwelling on it. Make it the best and spend it being happy with Gabe.
This is harder than I thought it would be. :-(

Speaking of work...Bryan has an interview at Jantzen. Pray Pray Pray

New Phones

Bryan and I upgraded our cell phones for FREE! They came today and I am SO excited! I LOVE getting new phones and FREE is a very good price when you don't have any income coming in. ;o)

Can't Sleep

Do you ever have nights when your brain just won't shut off and let you go to sleep? I am having one of those nights.

The last two days it has been in the 100's, SO HOT! We don't have the luxury of having AC in our house and I'm off work right now so I'm not in a nice AC building (definitely not complaining about that though). Our house has been 83 84 and 85 and I've been living in a pool of sweat. EW Our basement stays pretty cool, but have I spent any time down there...nope?!

First off let me start off by saying that Bryan still hasn't found a job. Severance has run out and it's starting to get frustrating. I find myself looking back at my Storm post. I wrote "I have this peace and it can only come from God." I feel that peace slowly slipping away. God is still in control. He gives and He takes away. He is who He is no matter where I am. I just need to continue to lay this at His feet. I love this quote:

"If there ever were a test of our faith - if there ever were a test of the motives of our worship - it is when a storm rolls into our lives. Sometimes God calms our storms. Sometimes He chooses to ride them with us." quote by Casting Crowns

Bryan had a meeting with Randy to basically tell him that he was done with the JR High ministry. We had been praying about it and talking it through and when he came home after the meeting he told me that he wasn't done and that he now had an office at the church that he was going to go T-Th to work on lessons, look for jobs, things needing to get done etc. I think he has managed to get a lot done so far besides design work because he needs a MAC for that or rather he'd prefer a MAC.
Anyway, he went to his air conditioned office yesterday and left me and Gabe to roast in our house. ;o) We actually went over to my parents house and hung out with Julie and cousin Jaden. Julie bought a $10 pool and we were going to put the boys in. Gabe didn't end up going in because he was napping in Jaden's crib. Jaden had a blast though.




Today Gabe and I stayed home and we ate, played, slept, did laundry, cleaned and went to have dinner with Kate, Eloise and Lily.

FUN TIMES!

It says it's supposed to be 89 today so a tad cooler.
Most go to bed now!

Baby Steps

This is one of Gabe's favorite things to do!
Friday, July 6, 2007

3 months

Gabe had his 3 month appointment today and it went really well. Gabe now weighs a whopping 11lbs. 10oz. He is in the 15th percentile for his weight. He got his 2 month vaccinations also and that was very traumatic for both Gabe and mommy. She inserted the first one and Gabe didn't even have a chance to react before the 2nd and third one went in, in which he screamed and then held his breath. I blew on his face to try and get him to take a breath and he cried and cried. It was such a heart-breaking cry. :o( I can live without doing that again, even though I will have to.
I was talking to Marcia yesterday about the milestones. They say when they are preemies to base it on their adjusted age. Gabe is 3 months today but is just over a month adjusted. Here is the difference between the milestones:

1 month

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)

• Lifts head when lying on tummy (Gabe can do this, but I don't think he's mastered it yet. More tummy time needed I think?)
• Responds to sound (check)
• Stares at faces (check)

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)

• Follows objects briefly with eyes (I think he can doing this ok)
• Vocalizes: oohs and aahs (Just now starting to do this more...SO cute)
• Can see black-and-white patterns

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)

• Smiles, laughs (definitley smiles a lot, but hasn't started laughing yet)
• Holds head at 45-degree angle (not yet)

3 month
(Gabe isn't doing really any of these yet)

• Recognizes your face and scent
• Holds head steady
• Visually tracks moving objects
• Squeals, gurgles, coos
• Blows bubbles
• Recognizes your voice
• Does mini-pushup
• Rolls over, from tummy to back
• Turns toward loud sounds
• Can bring hands together, bats at toys

I was reading someone's blog a while back and they said regarding their little girl and milestones...

"I'm not sure what to expect from her, she's setting a pace, and nobody is going to make her get there a moment sooner or later.
So milestones, they come all at different times, I'm not poor at parenting if my child doesn't fit the status quo that a weekly email sends me. And when I think about it, I don't want a child that fits the status quo, I want her to embrace her unique self, whatever that is, from talking to her imaginary friends to choosing clothes for a party even if they are all stripes. Or maybe needing her soft blanket to blowing bubbles as she talks into a cup."

This is SO true. I want Gabe to embrace his unique self, whatever that is!

Only Gabe can take down daddy with his mighty strength

Welcome to the world, Mia!

Mia Promise was born at 8:25am (today 6/26/07), 7lbs 7oz,
and she is 21.5in long.
Congrats Travis, Marcia and Keira!

Weekend Craziness

Friday, Bryan and I got up and started cleaning the house for our weekend guests (Betty and Gary, Bryan's parents from Idaho). Every summer we try to make a point to take a weekend to visit them. Whether that be over on their farm or here at our house. Last year it was their turn to come here, but the summer flew by and the annual visit didn't work out. So, they decided to come here this year since we had Gabe. Bryan also mowed the lawn and washed both vehicles inside and out. They arrived here around 1ish and came straight to our house before checking into their hotel, but the funny thing was that we didn't hear them until Bryan saw them driving away. They had rang the doorbell which doesn't work because we shut it off. It would randomly ring in the middle of the night or when someone down the street had a doorbell with the same signal and they apparently had guests ringing their doorbell. Bryan called them and they went to go see if they could check in and they came back after that.
1st meeting with grandpa and grandma Wangsgard and grandma was all smiles. We sat around talking and then decided we all were hungry so we went to dinner. I had high hopes for The Cheesecake Factory or Claim Jumpers, but we ended up at Roadhouse Grill. After a very yummy dinner we came back to our house and talked some more.

Saturday morning they came over around 8 and Gary and Bryan went to Safeway to pick up all the fixin's for breakfast. Bryan made sausage egg mcmuffins and french toast. I cleaned up the kitchen and we left for Target in Clackamas. Betty needed a few things and I had forgotten to get more thank you cards on Tuesday when we went so I picked up those. We left there and went to Babies R Us and I took back some duplicates that I had gotten at my shower and Betty wanted to get some things for Gabe. We got a changing pad cover because I only had one, some more q-tips and a sun hat (that's still a little too big, but he looks dang cute in it :o)) I want to get a bouncer seat I think, but I wasn't sure which one to get so they gave us some cash for that or maybe something else we maybe need??? After we left there I suggested that we go to Multnomah Falls or the Farmer's Market in downtown Gresham. We decided on the Farmer's Market. When we parked there was a lady who had locked her key's in her car so Bryan, Gary and Betty helped her with that and I needed to get hot water to warm Gabe's bottle up so he could eat. Speaking of Gabe's feeding time...sometimes it takes him an hour to eat 3 ounces. I'm a slow eater so he must get that from me. hehe After I was done feeding Gabe I went to find the others. They had gotten the lady's car unlocked and were ready to go. I was a little bummed because I wanted to walk around and look at all the booths. I had never been before...I think we'll have to go back in the next couple weeks or so. We got a quick bite to eat and Betty and Gary went back to their hotel for a nap before going over to my parents for a BBQ. It was a lot of fun. I always enjoy hanging out with the Wangsgards and wished we lived closer so that we could see each other more than once a year.

At least once a year my grandparents take a turn for the worst and then somehow get better. which I'm glad...I'm not ready for God to take them home yet. I don't want to look back after they pass though and regret not seeing them as often as I should/could. My dad had gotten 2 tickets to the Mariner Game on Sunday behind home plate. My mom isn't that into sports so it's my dads tradition to take one or all of his daughters with him. We love it! Father Daughter time. Julie was going with him this time and my mom went to stay at Grandma's with Jaden. Grandma and grandpa hadn't seen Jaden yet or Gabe for that matter. I thought about it all Saturday night and decided to go up with them. I miss my family and it had been WAY too long since the last time I'd seen them. We had to leave by 8 so that Julie and dad could make it to the game. Gabe and I said our sad goodbye's to Betty and Gary and we left for our random day trip to WA. Gabe slept the whole way up there and was a very good boy. It was fun visiting with grandma and grandpa. My cousin Jessica came over with her little girl Kirsten and then later on Julie, dad and uncle David got back from the game, Aunt Lolly, Jessica's husband and their three year old son Caleb came over and we all had take out from Olive Garden.
It was so much fun and Jaden even got to play great grandma's piano without washing his hands. We used to get in SO much trouble if we played and hadn't washed our hands first.
We got home late and the boy's were pooped. Gabe slept the whole way home and Jaden did a good job too.

What a fun but crazy weekend!

Hello my name is

This would be great for Women's Retreat. ;o)
I hate wearing name tags!