Good morning!

We're still working away at the fence in the back yard. I put up three 8ft sections all by myself while Juan was at work, and I have to say that having a 3yr old help dig 2ft holes without having him climb into the holes isn't easy!


My graduation was Saturday (pics are in the last thread) and my last teaching exam is May 31st, which I'm studying for now. This week and next week are 4 day work weeks because of the holiday, and then just 3 weeks of school left for the year! I need to find a summer job ASAP to fill in the 2 month gap between paychecks!


Any plans for next weekend? Nothing for us so far, but we'll think of something!

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Amy - Wow, you're quite handy there. WTG. Good luck on the exam.

Carsen took a fall yesterday, hit the corner of his eye and his forehead. It was one of those falls where ya feel it yourself. He's fine but it required lots of kisses.

We went to our very first soccer meeting. Some guy that showed up late quickly signed up to be coach and his wife the "soccer mom." Everyone that WAS there seemed nice. "Coach" was nice too but wow, talk about taking charge. Tucker is excited. We bought him shin guards and he had to try them out in the store. He raced up and down the aisle several times.

It was wonderful staying home on Sunday. I have to make 35 cupcakes this weekend for a baby shower. This should be an easy gig. Swirly pastel icing in purple/pink/green/yellow

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Candes, I know what you mean about feeling the fall yourself....does he have a shiner today or anything? How exciting about the shin guards, I love little kids in sports equipment. I saw a hockey game of 5-6 yr olds and in all the pads and huge helmets it was sooooooo cute to watch. It was more about not falling down and dropping your stick than hockey playing Mmmmmmmmmmmm......cupcakes. My favorite!

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Yes, Carsen has a bruise on his forehead and a swollen red mark on his eye lid, looks like eye shadow.

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As I have told you before, Amy, you are HOT!!! I love your dress. And your angel wings. Nice to see your parents, too!

Aww, Candes. Sorry about Carsen's head wound. I am NOT looking forward to Bryce being up on his feet and having farther to fall. 35 cupcakes is a LOT, easy frosting or not. Bet they will look--and taste!--great. I want some cupcakes today.

I am trying to avoid sugar and white flour because I have managed to get thrush in my milk ducts on one side, the side where I had a bad plugged duct/milk blister a few weeks ago. I assume it is all related. It sucks. I have been taking grapefruit seed extract and also extra probiotics and that seems to be helping.

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Ewwww....thrush! Hope it clears quick for you Melissa! That activia yogurt helped me along with my acidopholous tablets, but Lily had it too and we just kept passing it back and forth!

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Congrats. Amy, on graduating!! You've worked so so hard- through 2 babies. You should be proud of yourself - I'm proud of you!

Candes - I'm throwing a baby shower this coming weekend, too. I've never done that before so it's a learning process. The other girl I'm throwing it with is very very laid back and I'm pretty anal and organized. We are having it outside in the other lady's backyard at 9:30am to just hang out and eat breakfast-y foods. No games are planned or cake - is that okay?

I am in serious planning mode because of the shower this weekend and my pregnant friend & her husband are staying with us and the apartment needs a good cleaning before guests. Then it's my 30th birthday!!! and Will's birthday party in the same weekend the following weekend. And then 2 days later we leave to drive to Missouri to visit my mom's family for my Grandma's 90th birthday.

Melissa - sorry about your thrush. I've been dealing with a seriously sore nipple for a couple of weeks now. It's like he uses his teeth but only on one side. After you described your milk blister I wondered if I had one,too. I feel like we shouldn't have these issues after so long, ya know? Do you have an end date for nursing Bryce? Bella self-weaned at 14.5 months so I'm wondering how much longer William and I have. I'll definitely be sad & so will my husband cause my boobs are going to deflate.

DH needs the computer now. Have a good day girls!

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Happy early birthday Frenchie! That sounds like a busy month to come! I think an outside brunch with presents and girl-time sounds like the perfect shower. I'm sure she'll thank you for not having to measure her stomach with toilet paper for all to see.


I'm still waiting for Lily to completely self-wean. She still asks to nurse before bed every night and before her nap on the weekends when I'm home with her. I'll miss it when she's done, so I'm not in a hurry. I used to think that bf'ing past a year was kind of gross for some reason, like if I didn't stop pumping for Jack at exactly 12 months he'd grow up weird...............I feel really stupid admitting that now.


We had a tobacco-prevention guest speaker today who lost his wife to lung cancer at age 46. You may have seen his commercials, they've even been on during the super bowl. His name is Rick Stoddard and his wife's name was Marie. It was so heart-wrenching when he described shaving her head after chemo and how sick she got after radiation that I actually had to physically leave the auditorium and have another teacher watch my kids. Too close to home for me.

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Frenchie - I was the type of person who didn't like the games and since it's a brunch why not serve some muffins, like lemon poppyseed w/ a glaze? I think it's perfectly fine to not have a cake but I wouldn't go. HA HA HA j/k. It sounds like a nice shower, relaxing.

Amy - that had to have been hard.
Melissa - Yeah, it just doesn't seem right to be dealing with thrush after bf for so long. Hope it clears up fast.

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Hey, Sara! Glad you checked in. And Happy early Birthday!!! Sounds like you will be very busy in the next couple weeks. My bfing goal is 18 months. Hayden self-weaned at about 17.5 months. It really sucks to be having issues this late in the game when I haven't really done anything differently. I am definitely in less pain since I started taking grapefruit seed extract but the pain is still there. This is the same side I got horrible thrush with Hayden, also. With her I finally stopped nursing on the one side but I don't want to have to go to that extreme this time. Bryce shows no symptoms, which is good, but doesn't mean he couldn't have it too.

Amy about the speaker hitting close to home.

Hayden has been playing her guitar all afternoon and I am no expert but I think it needs to be tuned. It sounds like a moose is in labor. We need to hit the grocery store soon. I have a big stack of coupons. Suppose I need to get dressed. Our plans today were cancelled and while I am sorry we didn't get to meet up with Angela (again! stupid weather!!) it was really nice to just stay home, relax, and get a little housework done. I feel overbooked lately.

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Melissa, I was looking forward to meeting up with you too, but it has been nice to have a lazy day at home. I have been cleaning, doing laundry and working on my meal/grocery shopping plan. I also have a pile of coupons to use.

Candes and Sara, good luck with the baby showers. I would love to see pictures afterward.

Amy, sorry it was so hard to listen to the speaker.

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Angela

Mommy to Keegan Jude & Truitt James

Bryce has 1 molar poking through and I am wondering how long before they are all out. And if he will stop waking up at night when they are out! In other exciting news, Bryce ate pieces of avocado without choking and whole zweiback toast. Two weeks ago he could eat puffs but not cheerios. Then he started being able to eat cheerios. And now some soft foods! We still put apples and such in the feeder, think it will be a while before he can handle stuff like that.

What is everyone else doing today??

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Hey girls! I'm playing with my new computer!!! It's my first laptop. Now if I can just figure out how to set up our wireless router, I'll be all set. I have a ton of pix and things to tell you all, but the kids should be waking up soon and I really should have dinner figured out.

All right, off to do some real work! Nah...off to see what else this puppy can do!

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Andy

I have a weird question... Did any of you suddenly have a sensitivity to the sun after you gave birth? I've always been on the pastey white side, but I've got great freckles! I have been outside the last few days for about 10 minutes each day to pick up Nat and Katie at school. I have fried each day! I'm in so much pain. I haven't burned like this since I was a child. I even put some sunscreen on today. The burn on top of burn on top of burn is making me feel a little sick.

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Carrie, one of my friends was just telling me she gets sunspots on her face ever since having kids. So you are not alone! I have red hair and freckles to begin with so I wear hats and sunscreen most of the time.

Andy, what kind of laptop did you get? I am on my 3rd one (a Dell this time).

My house is almost clean! I have been working at it and working at it. Just a little laundry to put away. The kitchen table has become dh's desk for his college classes so I think I've given up on that being clean until summer!

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I got a Macbook. I'm an apple convert as of 6 years ago. After having 3 pc's in a row that magnificiently crashed and burned, I decided to try a Mac. I am happy to say that I have had very few issues with the Mac. Most of our issues have been Rebecca related. I don't know when technology completely passed me up, but it has though. I am trying to figure out how ot get all of my info from the old computer to the new one and am failing miserably. Naturally Mac has this super easy system, but my old one is a little too old and I am just too dumb to figure out the old, tried and true systems. *sigh*

We had a super busy weekend last weekend! We had our garage sale (very successful! ), I took Rebecca in for her first haircut ever and we had her party. It was all so much fun! I am looking forward though to a calmer life for a little while. I am still in purging mode--I have cd's to contend with and a linen closet that looks like it exploded, and I have to clean out my classroom which at this point will include the stuff I brought home just in case I ever tuaght x grade again, but still...there's alittle bit of downtime a comin'!

Carrie, there is so much different with me since having kids, it's ridiculous. I don't know whether I should blame it on pregnancy or just getting old, but it's all there nevertheless.

Sara, have fun at the shower and ! I think a morning shower sounds lovely. Ty is getting close to finishing nursing and *sigh*. It does tug at the heartstrings, doesn't it? he's only enthusiastic about his morning nursing anymore. I usually offer once during the day and right before bed, which sometimes he takes and sometimes he doesn't. I know I'll miss it, but my boobs won't care. They've been defated since about 5 months in.

Candes, Ty took that exact fall a month ago or so. Right on a corner, not even an inch away from his eyeball. He had a complete shiner for 3 weeks. Yikes! After that, I put that rubber stuff down all over his train table. It looks terrible now, but oh god, I almost fainted when I saw him fall. Glad Carsen is OK.

Seriously Jaime, just one little pic of Cole. That's all we ask. Did you ever get the WAHM thing figured out?

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Andy

Yikes! Sorry about all of the typos. Still adjusting to the smaller keyboard...

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Andy

Hi Girls

Life is busy as usual.We have out kindergarten interview tomorrow and i am so nervous i hope Marcus goes ok. I have heard some horror stoties even one kid biting the interviewer. Could you say a prayer that all will go ok.
I finally finished that essay i am so relieved. Still organising everything for the christening and Marcus' birthday. DH has been home lately since he hurt his foot at work so thats another ordeal.

Amy- Those pics were awesome. Congrats on graduating.I am so sorry you had to listen to that, big hugs.
Candes- Poor Carsem hope it heals soon.
Melissa-Hope the thrush clears soon.
Frenchie- Happy birthdau to Will am you. Wow that year has flown by.
Andy- YAY on the new laptop. I'm goign to get a new one in July since this one is falling apart.
Jaime- Yes please can we see a pic..

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Lily fell hard last night while my Aunt was visiting. She was jumping on the couch cushions when she fell to the side and smashed her cheek into the windowsill. That's what we get for having an older home with exposed woodwork everywhere....the sills must be 6 inches thick and they stick out about 4 inches off the wall....not sure how I can cover them but she has a huge puffy bruise all over her right cheekbone area.


She took it like a girl, too. After the intial cry from pain wore off she would cry every few minutes for the next hour as she remembered what happened to her. I admit I helped her along by cuddling her that whole time and calling her my poor baby.



If I could get organized I'd love to have a yard sale....I've got so much crap!!!!!

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Rosalie - You've been really busy w/ your studies and the homefront. Sorry Dh hurt his foot. Was it serious?

Ladies I have been struggling with poor self image lately. I'm really discouraged that I now have to buy size LARGE and that most of my clothes are tight. SUCKS big time. Of course, having baby #2 and my declining metabolism due to getting older all comes at the same time so that's no help. AND it's really no help I'm addicted to carbs and sweets. I'm doomed if I don't get off my bum.

I try to exercise at night and I've resorted to hiding in the bathroom to do what little I can. It's crazy doing sets of jumping jacks w/o jingling. Someone's BOUND to wonder, ya know.

So, DH and I are going to do WW's. I'm serious about being addicted to carbs. I scaled way back for ONE day and boy did I have a wicked craving! It almost drove me to the nearest pack of zingers. It was like I was PMS'ing.

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