Whew!

What a weekend!

My brother came over Saturday night after AJ went to bed. AJ woke me at 7 the next morning, climbing into my bed saying, "Mommy. Mommy? MOMMY! Someone is sleeping on our couch! Is it Uncle?"

"Yes, AJ."

"Oh, good! I'll share his blanket!"

Terry is nesting and cleaned out the garage. It looks GREAT. Kyle, my brother, helped a great deal, too. I can walk from one end to the other now.

Grace is working hard on a jazz duet with her best friend, Alexis, for competitions in 2010. This is in addition to the group company competitions. They are dancing to a cute version of "Zip Adee doo dah" which is quite fast-paced and challenging. It's GREAT for them! We've made arrangements for Alexis and her mom to come to our house after our Monday playdates so the girls can practice and then stay for dinner. Lasagna tonight!

Sunday afternoon, I drove Grace up to Sanford for her 2nd cousin Katie's 6th birthday party at a Paint your own Pottery place. It was so fun. Grace had a blast. I saw my cousins, aunt and uncle, and my cousin Chad and his wife Meridith brought their new baby, Lukas. Grace chose a jewelry box with a unicorn on top to paint. Ironically, my sister Kellyn has an identical box. I'm sure Grace painted differently than Kellyn, but I thought it was cool. I also painted--Garden Stakes! We'll see how they turn out!

And my cousins Chris, Chad and I all have identical video cameras. What are the odds? (And I'm not talking cheap, common-denominator-of-society cameras, either!!) We are family!

A new bed!

So we finally got a decent bed. . and King Size, at that!

The problem with having a high-end, awesome, vacation-feeling bed and combining it with a new body pillow and being pregnant is that I just want to stay in it!!!!!!

I'm so tired! And the bed is so comfy! I've been crawling into bed in the afternoon instead of going to the gym! Yikes!

I feel so lazy. . . and decadent. The problem is that I can't play the pregnancy card forever. Sooner or later, Terry is going to get tired of making pregnant concessions for me and I'm going to have to clean the house and make dinner.

I said "No!"

I've never said "No" to helping someone or somewhere before. I'm a people pleaser at heart. So last night was Grace's American Heritage Girls (AHG) luau. I was asked to help several days ago and agreed to escort a group of girls from one craft to the next. At the conclusion of the evening (8:35pm), I escorted Grace to the restroom and was waiting in the hallway for her. Our leader walked by and asked if I could help break down the party room. Instead of jumping eagerly up, I remained seated and said, "No, I'm sorry, I can't." I felt a little guilty and a little proud of myself.


The fact is that I was exhausted and had been going all day Saturday. I am dealing with this early-pregnancy fatigue and absolutely could not remain. And I figure that I did help with a large portion of the event. I swept the floor in between crafts, helped 12 girls do 3 crafts, and supervised dinner time. The parents who were coming to pick up their girls could certainly stay and put up some chairs, sweep, put food away or mop.

So I came home, worrying about getting Grace to bed because she was so bouncy and sugar-high, and halfway home I glanced in the rearview mirror and she was FAST asleep. So sleepy, in fact, that she didn't wake when we moved her from our van to her bed. She's still sleeping at 9:20 this morning as I type this.

Anyhow, I emailed our leader notifying her of my new condition and explaining that was why I could not help last night.

I suppose I should find a more graceful way to say "no", but I'm proud that I actually said it!!!

exercising

This marks week 2 of my new 5-days-a-week at the gym. I am mixing up the exercises and activities, trying to keep it fresh. My hamstrings began aching Wednesday night. I went to yoga on Thursday, and hurt worse after the class! Today I found some stretches to help.

Usually, a trip to the gym leaves me refreshed and energized. Today, I was tired and even tried to rest for a bit around 10:30am! (Don't tell the husband! He thinks I do that EVERY day!) Anyhow, I'm still exhausted and am attributing it to this new little one. Terry joked that I'm always tired, and this gives me a great excuse to lay down, and I agreed. But seriously, I'm yawning away and soooooo ready to go to bed. It's only 10 til 7pm right now. . . I better try to hold up for a little bit!

Guess what?

I'm pregnant!!!!!!

We are expecting #3 sometime in mid-June. We are over the moon. Grace said she feels like her dreams are coming true! She and AJ are both rooting for a sister, but Grace said that if it's a boy, as long as we name him Eric or Derek it would be okay. She's cracking me up. She also really likes the name Martha for a girl!!!!

I'm very tired. But still going to the gym every day and trying to keep my energy up.

Life is good!

Beach!

This weekend had perfect weather for the beach. We went to the Air Show and watched fighter jets perform incredible stunts. My brother Kyle and I took the kids and we found an almost deserted beach on Saturday. The water was smooth as glass and just as clear. It was almost eerie to stand in the ocean with just my children and no one else in my peripheral view. AJ enjoyed the ocean water for the first time in my recollection, because it was calm. On Sunday, we went to a very crowded beach to enjoy the air show. The water was the perfect temperature and still very nice to splash around in. We brought the beach umbrella this time, adding to our comfort. Grace brought a book and was so cute sitting in her chair, reading at the beach. She's definitely my mini-me!

Then we finished up the weekend with a trip to my mom and dad's to celebrate my mom's and AJ's birthdays. We saved some Dora cupcakes we baked a few days ago for the occasion. And my mom had a chocolate chip cookie for AJ with a candle in it. He was thrilled!