Maria, in the paper again :)

Maria was in the newspaper yet again. This time it was for the youth day trip she went on - which is what we thought the last picture was until we saw it. Once again it was Al who told us about it. Thank god someone around here reads the paper! :) If you click on the picture it will bring up a bigger image and I circled Maria - she is in the second row from the front kind of in the center.

The girls and Duncan are really enjoying the swingset. Duncan is too funny, he'll swing right for a while, but eventually he has to bring his legs up and put the ropes between his toes! Him and his little monkey feet! :) He can do just about everything with his feet.

Hot, humid and just plain hot!!

OK, so it took me from Monday until this morning to finish my last blog entry... The past few days were so incredibly hot, humid and miserable! It's supposed to cool down and just be in the low 80s for the rest of the week, lets hope it really happens this time! My ankles have been swollen by noon...
Well, the kids are having lots of fun playing together :)
Duncan's happy to have so much attention!

With the extremely hot weather, the kids were out in the baby pool and playing with the hose. I went out and got a couple of different sprinklers for the girls yesterday afternoon, one shoots balls up into the air and the other is a launching rocket ship. We'll have to get those going this afternoon! :)

Just had to add this picture beacuse it's completely typical - everyone in the house is always right around me ;) including the dogs. The only one missing is Mike, who was taking the picture of course ;)

The weekend is over already?

:( the weekends go by way too fast! Poor Mike didn't get a chance to relax at all! We met the girls in Sparta on Saturday - which is an all day affair... left at 8am, got home around 4:30pm. He actually got out and finished mowing the lawn, which took him until around 7pm. Sadly, that's with the riding mower! We have too much lawn... landscaping the heck out of the yard is in our plans.... Then I had him working all day Sunday! Him and the girls put together the swingset.

Then I had him cook out brats for dinner. I'm such a slave-driver!

Duncan had lots of fun swinging and making sure his nuk had some swing time too! :) The girls had lots of fun playing in the sandbox.

Bears, Deer and Dogs Oh My! :)

I forgot to mention in my last blog that the ultrasound estimated the baby's current weight at 4lbs 11oz. And it was also just one day off of my due date - by measurements they came up with Aug 10th (Emma's birthday). I guess the baby should be gaining about 1/2 an ounce a day from now until delivery. If I deliver on Aug 11th the baby should weigh approximately 7 lbs and 4 oz. Of course the estimation of weight by measurements can be off slightly. But I'm guessing the baby will be in the upper 6lb range or lower 7lb range. Duncan was 6lbs 8oz, and they say second babies usually weight a little bit more. We shall see :) Of course there are so many things they say... ;) supposedly, you carry girls higher and boys lower - I carried Duncan pretty high (or at least in the upper middle, but it felt like high), I'm carrying this one low. They also say that heartbeats in girls is higher - Duncan's was always in the 150's, this baby has been in the 140's mostly. They also say that you gain more weight in your legs, thighs and buttocks with girls - I would say I gained more in those areas with Duncan... So there you go - not everything "they" say is right :)

I actually saw my first bear of the season yesterday! It was a bear cub - it crossed the highway 2 cars in front of me and went off into the woods. At first I thought it was a big black dog, but when I got closer you could tell it was a bear cub because of the way it walked. It was pretty exciting :) I think I only saw a bear a couple of times last year and both of them were pretty far away. Amazingly, just before I saw the bear I almost hit a deer! At 2pm! It darted across the highway right in front of me! Usually I'm only on the lookout for deer around dusk (and I would be in the morning if I ever left the house in the am!).

Talked to Maria Wednesday evening. She had lots of fun with mom and Tiffany, and is currently having lots of fun with Emma and Carol Anne. I guess they went to eat at Panchero's Wed night! Grrr. :) That's twice Maria's been to Panchero's, I'm so jealous :) I'm just going to have to try to make my own Panchero's burrito at home. Of course it won't be the same, but we'll see how close I can get ;)

That idiot dog Jo-Jo is now eating the house!!! She started digging and eating away at the door trim the other day, and then she started on the siding next to the door!! If it wasn't for the fact that we just spent money on her getting her shots... ugh!! Now I have to watch her really good while she's outside. Can't have her eating the house!! I don't know what the attraction is - it must taste good or something.

Ultrasound Pictures

Well, had my Dr's apt yesterday. Everything is looking good. My blood pressure was down to a normal level - phew! :) must have been all the excitement of the day a couple of weeks ago. Amazingly, I gained 4 pounds in the past 2 weeks!! At my last visit I had only gained 1 pound in a month... I sat down and compared my weight gain from my pregnancy with Duncan and with this baby - it was too funny because at my last visit (30 weeks) I was 181.6 lbs - at the same point in my pregnancy with Duncan I was 181.4 lbs! Even though I gained 4 lbs this time I'm down from where I was with Duncan at this point - I was 188.7 with him at 32 weeks. Now that I've divulged way too much about weight... ;)

We had another ultrasound today! I persuaded my Dr to essentially make up a reason to do another one. Only because the baby was moving around so much at the 12 week ultrasound that we didn't get a picture that looked like a baby. Then at the 20 week ultrasound in Duluth, they didn't give us any pictures :( so I really wanted to get a picture for a scrapbook - we have great pictures from all 3 of Duncan's ultrasounds... So anyway, just got back from the ultrasound and guess what?? The baby had her hands and feet in front of her face the whole time... I guess she was playing with her feet and grabbing at her feet. So that just figures! But at least I got a decent profile picture and we got this 3D picture where you can see her legs up in front of her face... she was moving around so much - you can see on the profile that she must've moved :) well, I'm satisfied with these new pictures anyway. I like to have ultrasounds anyway, it's always reassuring, and it's nice to see the baby in there moving around and such. It's really quite awesome! :) It's a shame they don't usually schedule them more often. Some people are lucky to get one ultrasound. At the U of I they don't routinely do ultrasounds. I talked them into it early in my pregnancy with Duncan because I wanted to get an accurate due date since I hadn't been keeping track very well and wasn't completely sure when my last period was. Of course if I would have known that they couldn't tell the sex until 18 weeks I would have waited. But we ended up having one at 28 weeks with him because I was measuring large... then we had one at the very end, around 38 weeks because of the high blood pressure. Anyway, I'm just really glad my Dr was so nice about doing another ultrasound this time :) some better pictures for a scrapbook. But will I ever get around to scrapbooking?? ;) It's very much on my list! I may have to just cheat and do one online. At Wal-Mart you can do customized memory books online and have them delivered to your store! Isn't technology great?? There's some really awesome and easy things that you can do now with digital pictures! Shutterfly.com has some great stuff too. But of course they are a little more expensive than Wal-Mart.

Monday Already!

This weekend went by so fast. We talked to Maria a few times and it sounds like she's having a lot of fun. Of course we miss her - it's been entirely too quiet around here (that's not to say she's loud). We really didn't do much of anything last week or over the weekend because it was so damn hot and humid! I planned on doing a lot last week, but really did next to nothing. I just sat around feeling miserable! This week is supposed to be cooler, so I'm really looking forward to being able to get some things done this week!

Mike's brother came over on Sunday, and said he saw Maria in the newspaper - that was the first we'd heard of it. Luckily, he had a copy out in his car in case we hadn't seen it. Maria is there in the front row, sticking out from the crowd :) She had mentioned the pizza party, and asked to wear a skirt that day, but said nothing about having her picture taken or what the pizza party was for. I'm just really glad that Al had a copy of the paper so we could see it! If you click on the picture you will be able to see a larger version.

"It's a Ewww"

Everything for the past week has been a "it's a Ewww" for Duncan :) cute, but getting annoying. At first it was just him picking stuff off the floor and ground wherever we went. That, and it was also the flowers outside the sandbox... he'd pick whatever up and hand it to me saying "It's a Ewww." But this week he's started saying that about his food! He was eating Broccoli Rice the other day for lunch - he kept picking the smallest pieces of broccoli out and handing them to me saying "it's a Ewww." I kept trying to tell him, "no, it's a yummy!" but he just thought that was funny. Yesterday it was apples, last night it was pieces of chicken! :) Now he's also added to that "geyuck" with a hard g as in gorilla, which is what we thought he was saying at first, because he does say "geya" for gorilla. It's all either "it's a ewww" or "geyuck."

I haven't done any new blogs this week because not much has been going on. It's just been miserably hot! Just makes me not want to do anything!! It's been pretty much almost 90 here everyday since Monday. At least it cools down still at night, down to the 50's, but still the days have been really miserable! The dogs don't even want to stay out.

Weekend Trip to Iowa

Well, getting settled back in after our very short weekend trip to the QC area to drop Maria off for her visiting vacation. She gets to spend a week with her grandparents, a few days with Aunt Tiffany and Grandma Marcia, and then a few days with Emma and her mom for some girly fun. She's been really looking forward to it! She was really excited about getting to go fishing with her Grandpa! I'm sure she will have a good time! I miss her already :(

Both the trip down and then back up were really pretty good! Exhausting, but uneventful in a good way. Although we did stop in Boscobel at a garage sale, and got quite a deal on a baby swing and bassinet! And let me just say that has to be the friendliest town in Wisconsin. After the sale we hit a gas station to fill up and the employees there were very chatty and friendly (as was the lady hosting the garage sale). They said I looked quite round - in a good way! :) It was a really nice traveling day. We left around 8:15 and got to Davenport around 3:30-4:00, where Maria's older sisters were anxiously awaiting her arrival. Their grandparents were able to arrange for them to stay the weekend. It was a really nice surprise for Maria.

It was nice to spend some time with the family. Unfortunately, Riley was running a fever :*( so she couldn't come over and play with Duncan, and we didn't get a chance to see how much she's grown! Ally was able to come over though and spend some time with us, that was nice :) And we got Taco Pizza!!! :) Yum! And the Happy Joe Special! :) oh it was so good! I totally miss so many of the restaurants! There aren't too many up here... of course there wasn't enough time to visit all of our favorites, but no place up here makes taco pizza and I'd been craving it for a while. Maria is in for a special treat when she gets to Aunt Tiffany's, as they opened a Panchero's in the QC! We used to go to the one in Iowa City at least every other week! It was our favorite. I think we actually went there once a week when I was pregnant with Duncan :) Of course I didn't find out they'd opened one there until about 10pm... if they would have been open for breakfast I would have gotten a burrito for breakfast! :) But Maria was just talking about Panchero's the night before we left, and I told her that no one was going to drive her to Iowa City to get Panchero's... turns out it's a lot less of a trip! She's so lucky! :)


Well, it was a good trip, even though it was a little short. Duncan learned a new skill on the way. He rediscovered his feet, especially his toes. He was putting his junior mints between his toes, then he decided to read his book by putting the covers between his toes to prop it open! Then of course he put his chicken nuggets between his toes and then ate them out! Too funny! But it kept him occupied!

When we got home and opened the gate, it looked like it had snowed in our yard! The big Poplar tree had been spitting cotton, but it must have really let it all go while we were gone!

Storms!!

What a crazy day yesterday! I guess there were 5 tornadoes that touched down in Northern/Northwest Wisconsin! It didn't even look like rain when we left the house, we got the dog loaded without much trouble and went to go meet Mike for my Dr's apt. When we got to the conservation office, Mike and one of the guys that works for him were both outside pacing around on their cell phones... Mike came over and said "I think you should cancel all your stuff today because there's a super cell right over Couderay, Radisson and Winter." Right where we just came from! He went and got his portable work radio and put it in the van - we could hear the Couderay fire dept checking in with Sawyer County saying they were keeping an eye out and standing by... it was sooo freaky!! I told Mike that I certainly was not going home, so I might as well stick with the plan for the day. It didn't look like rain or anything where we were... so we went to the Dr's office... they had a weather radio on and the TV was on the weather station. On the radio they said the same thing, that there was a super cell over Couderay, Radisson and Winter... I was glad that Maria had the day off and was with us since she goes to school in Winter. The radar on the weather station showed this red/yellow blotch right in that Southeast corner of Sawyer County, which is right where they said the super cell was... I was all nervous and freaked out in the waiting room - thinking our house might not be there when we get home! When I was in the room waiting for the Dr I could hear the nurses having some kind of commotion, and then when the Dr finally came in she said we were going to have to make it quick because the hospital had called a Code 2 or Code Yellow, which meant there was a tornado on the ground and they were getting people ready in case they had to move them... I was glad she said that instead of saying we had to go take cover somewhere! Mike was out in the van with the kids monitoring the situation with his work radio and cell phone... they had campers out on one of the island campgrounds and one of his workers was considering going out on the lake by himself to warn them. Anyway, when I left I told him that if it started to look bad come in. Amazingly, by the time I was done in the Dr's office we found that the tornado was headed more North and East - and it wasn't coming the direction we were in - they had cancelled the warning, but there was still a watch out. Luckily that super cell had taken a turn for the North and East and left our little area alone. Phew! We never did get any of that storm at the house! It was almost unbelievable. Around 8-8:30pm we could see a huge storm kind of headed in our direction, but when it came close, it went all the way around us. We were so fortunate! Someone was looking out for us.
So, we survived the day without any major difficulties. :)
The Dr's apt went well, everything looks good. I only gained a pound! Total switch from Duncan, I always had gained somewhere between 5-10 lbs at each visit! This time I've only gained about 20lbs so far! I gained 60 with Duncan! My blood pressure was up - but I'm blaming that on the storm. I have another apt in 2 weeks, so hopefully my blood pressure will be back in the normal range. I will probably check it between now and then, just to keep an eye on it. The baby is in the head down position. It was funny, when the Dr put the Doppler on my stomach to check the heart rate, the baby gave it a big push - probably with one of her hands! It was really funny. Last night Mike and I could feel a leg swishing around in there! :) It's so awesome to feel that movement. And she moves a lot more, and quite differently than Duncan did. I think she's going to be a wild one!
Well, the vet appointment went much better than expected. I expected that Jo-Jo would be a spaz and a half, but she, much like Brutal did extremely well. She wasn't as scared or freaked out as Brutal was, but she was amazingly calm. So it all went smoothly after all! Crazy busy day #1 done! Now, onto crazy busy day #2 ;)

Blog Update

Mike finally got his first blog post up! It's at http://demarrupnorth.blogspot.com
Big storm headed this way! I guess it stretches all the way from Iowa - so we are all getting about the same weather. They say there could be tornadoes and wind gusts up to 50-60 mph!! So, trying to get everything ready. Of course we will probably be out driving in it - Dr's apt and Vet apt this afternoon!

The wonderful world of blogging

Just wanted to let everyone know that Ally has finally joined the world of blogging http://onesweetmillerworld.blogspot.com. :) Leave it to me to give her crap about it, look how long it took me! ;) Mike is actually working on one too! Of all people, he has a lot to blog about on a daily basis -- with all that's been going on at his work lately... so once he gets a post going I will send out the link :)

Nothing too new, but feel the urge to write...

Not a whole lot going on this week so far, but by the end of the week things will be crazy! :) Well, I guess a big storm did blow through here Monday evening, right after Mike started mowing the outrageously long grass out back... He was mowing for maybe 20 minutes and then came in. Big storm clouds came out of nowhere all of a sudden. Like 2 minutes later there were big wind gusts and it was really pouring out! The wind blew a good sized branch down from way at the top of our tree! It hit the ground with such force that it punctured a big, deep hole in the ground where it hit. If it would have been 5" to the right it would have taken out the fence, 5" to the left and it would have come through the porch roof!! We were very lucky that it hit where it did - it was actually leaning up against the fence... so that was our beginning of the week excitement.

Brutal did amazing for his vet trip! I thought we were going to be in for lots of trouble... he'd never been on a leash before, and hadn't been anywhere since Mike brought him home in November... Mike had to pick him up to get him in the van. He whined a little on the way, but other than that did well in the car. He was too freaked out by the floor at the vet's office to be much trouble. He was very well behaved :) He got all his shots and we got him an antibiotic for his Lyme's disease.

OK, so did "America's Got Talent" suck last night or what?? It was quite the disappointment. Last summer there were several acts on the first night that were really good. I just didn't see anyone last night that I would bother with wanting to see again. I hope next weeks is better.


I finally took Duncan out to the sandbox to play yesterday! He actually stayed in it for 30-45min! Of course he was only marginally interested in the sand. He had the most fun throwing all the toys out and then trying to get them back in without getting out of the box. He threw some sand, and sat down and put some in the pail. Then he started picking grass and wildflowers that were growing next to the sandbox and handing them to me saying "eew" :)

Summer Cut and Wolf Sighting!

It was an exciting weekend! Maria got to go on an all day trip. They had an area youth day, where the kids got to go fishing, do archery and shoot guns... sounds like something from up north eh? She had a blast. Didn't catch any fish, but caught plenty of ticks!

I got to go on an all-day excursion myself. I went out garage saling with 2 of my sister-in-laws and one of their daughters. Found some great stuff. Got tons of baby clothes! Some really nice stuff for really cheap prices! I probably spent about $20.00 and got two full bags of clothes!

Well, turns out Duncan did not have the Chicken Pox - it was prickly heat along with some hives. It could have been an allergic reaction to the ibuprofen - that was the only thing new he was exposed to. So we gave him some benedryl and it cleared up. We also decided that it was time for a summer hair-cut for him. He is such a sweat head! :) His hair was just getting so long again! And it's really thick. We thought about giving him a buzz-cut, but then just decided to cut it really short.

Since his hair-cut he has been taking his naps much better. Mike said he was probably too hot to get comfy, and I believe it. And I swear since his hair cut, he's also undergone a personality change. He seems a little freer :) he's twice as chatty and has started this hilarious fake laugh! He shrugs his shoulders and scrunches his head down and squints his eyes and either does this hissing kind of laugh or a hearty fakey one. It's a riot!





























I saw my first wolf on Sunday! We were on our way home from the store and way up on the highway we saw something running down the middle of the lane. It almost looked like a mirage, but when we got closer we could see that it was something running, couldn't tell whether it was a deer or a dog. Then when we came up on it, it was a wolf! It was beautiful! It was still quite young, and about the size of a very large adult dog. The fur was so neat! It was a mottled mix of colors - brown, gray, black, maybe some white in there - and it's tail was colored like a raccoon! It was a mottled gray with a black stripe down the middle of it! It was too cool. Mike asked if I had the camera, which I didn't, and we'd forgotten his cell phone, which is one that can take pics. Or at least didn't think there was a camera in the car! Of course as soon as we got home and I reached down to the floor to get my purse, my foot was touching Mike's camera!! Ugh!!! I was so mad!! I am going to just start taking my camera everywhere! There's too much to see around here.

Friday... Already??

This week went by so fast... Especially with all that was going on. And the next couple of weeks are going to be worse! :) Got Vet appointments on 2 different days and a Dr.'s Apt. next week and it's Maria's last week of school! Time just flew by this year!


Duncan's fever is finally gone, but now he's got a rashy body - called the Dr and she said it sounded like Chicken Pox! :( Well, since he didn't get vaccinated for it, they wanted him to get it by the time he went to school anyway. We'll just have an itchy week or so.


Ugh! I just went to check on those idiot dogs outside - Sally was laying there on the cement pad in front of the deck step, all peaceful - with a nice fresh coat of dirt almost completely covering her from the hole that Jo-Jo was digging!!! Now that would have been a good picture moment, but as soon as Sally saw me she stood up and shook the dirt off. OOH those dogs! My usual fix for dog digging is to put a fresh piece of poo in the hole - that seems to work the best, who wants to touch their own poo? or anyone else's for that matter... but of course the hole is right where someone would walk. She was digging there when we had her chained up outside, but for the past week of yard freedom she hasn't been bored enough to dig - until I bragged to someone about her not digging anymore... then less than a day later she started the darn digging again!!
This is quickly becoming the dog blog :)

Mike actually brought me home some stuff from his trip!! It was so exciting :) Some awesome yard stuff!! A really pretty dragonfly yard dangly :) and two bird feeders and a big room for 2 shepherd's hook to hang them on! :) The yard just keeps getting better and better :)