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There's a Christmas book my kids love, called Are You Grumpy, Santa?  At the end of it, Santa roars, "I'm a GRUMPY Santa Claus!"  I feel like him right now--  what the heck?!  Bad mood, BEGONE!

A Vacation Alone

Holy toledo, it looks like I'll be going on a little vacation to Utah-- ALL BY MYSELF! Shocking. The last time I did overnight girl stuff, I believe, was 7 years ago, when my dear friend-sister Sarah had her first baby. Her parents rented a couple of little beach-side suites (cottages maybe?on a pier, if I remember correctly) for some of us family friends to stay the weekend in, and have a baby shower for her. Lynley and I drove together down to San Diego and somehow instead of meeting at the rooms, we got lost, unknowingly drove out to Coronado Island, and found our address there-- right on top of a man-hole! (No really, it was in the street-- there wasn't anything there!) Eventually we made it, though, and had a lot of fun. When I returned home on Sunday, one of Ryan's old friends was at our house, and somehow she'd thought that I had left him and then changed my mind and came home! Haha! For anyone who knows me well, that would never happen in a million years. If I ever disappear, you can be 100% certain that it was foul play!

Anyhow, my friend Kerri is getting married in Utah, and I've been telling my sisters how much I wanted to come out and see where they live..... so I'll kill a bunch of birds with one stone, 'cause I have no idea how many old friends and family I'll get to see! My one-and-only is taking time off from work, and has agreed to brave it with the kids all by himself! Yipppeeeeeeeeeee!

No One Else Can Laugh My Laugh...

Eccentric: A word I wonder if people might associate with me, if they knew even half my thoughts and habits. Egocentric: A word I would REALLY HOPE no one would ever relate to me. Concentric: A word which makes me think of ripples in a pond, which in turn reminds me that everything I do affects someone else, and I'd darn well better be nice to everyone.

I have a slight obsession with white noise. There's a machine specifically used for creating this in every bedroom in our house, and there's even have a brand I prefer (Sleepmate-- it's marketed under the name SoundScreen for offices). I've always thought it helps keep my sleeping children asleep, knowing how loud other members in this family have a tendency to be. One could accuse me of training my children to be light sleepers due to excessive use of the noise machines. I can't really defend my continual use of them... I find white noise soothing.

I love baking to a fault. At the beginning of our marriage, one day Ryan asked me (very delicately, so as not to hurt my overly-defensive self) if maybe we could start having more healthy food than dessert in the house. I may have begun cooking "real food" only to shift attention away from my true love-- sugar.

I am happy to have imparted a love for chubby baby buns to my daughter-- a love I inherited from MY mother. There is a huge part of me that understands the Duggar family and their willingness and desire to have millions of children... but, fortunately for Ryan, there's also a huge part of me which feels it's wrong to have children parent their siblings (and so it looks like we won't be trying to outdo them!). I adore my children.... sometimes like a crazy person.

I love books. I have hundreds of them-- suspense, romance, self-help, horror, fantasy, children's books and juvenile fiction-- yet have never read any of the classics-- with the exception of Oliver Twist and a couple others. This year I will read my first Austen book. I will.

I love tv. I keep up with tons of shows, and find that watching something enjoyable while folding Mt. Laundry is the only way I'll ever actually fold much of anything. Ryan mounts a shelf for me in front of the treadmill, at my eye level, in our home so I can put the laptop or dvd player on it and watch shows while running. Isn't it more interesting to, say, watch all the seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which I only allow myself to view while exercising) than stare at a blank wall?

I love to talk to people-- learn about others' lives, their likes/dislikes, how and why they do what they do, learn about how certain events have shaped them, made them who they are. I like to discover similarities in thought and shared hobbies in new friends. I love reconnecting with old friends and seeing how they remain basically the same, years after last speaking with them. There's an old song I listened to as a child, and part of it says, "No one else can laugh my laugh, 'Cause it only belongs to me..." We are all individuals and I love the fact that no two people are exactly the same. I love how each one of us is important, and how every single life on this planet has value. It's wonderful to feel that, even on our worst days, there is someone up above cherishing our unique souls.

Little Heroes Prom

April 3, 2009
Every year, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society puts on a prom for the pediatric cancer survivors in the area. It is so fun-- the kids LOVE to go! Ryan and I have fun, too, but our night is usually spent chasing little people around, trying to keep them in sight, and (this year) preventing them from leaping off the stage and breaking their legs/arms/heads!Dylan was afraid to go up on stage alone, so he got a shoulder ride from Daddy Dylan, receiving his medal from Dr. GHummer limo rides! Tyler and Kayla thought the limo was so cool....There was also a free photo booth (but I can't remember where I put the pictures from it--whoops!) Kayla helped Riley do the macarenaTyler helped Riley dance, too ("dance ME, TyTy!")Our little guest of honor chowed down on cookies-- I really should have gotten a picture of the chocolate fountain, too, since that's where our kids kept migrating! Colby slept through the whole thing ('cause that's what 2-month olds do!)

They had a professional photographer taking family pictures (for free!) there-- I was reluctant to wake up Colby earlier while he was sleeping so nicely, so I collected everyone just before the photographer shut down for the night (10PM), we rushed in after a night of dancing/chasing, plopped down......and this is what we got! :)

A Ten-Year -Old Boy's Idea of a Baby Video.....

March 27th 2009
Colby at 8 weeks old, video taken by Tyler....

I Am A Crappy Blogger!

I have decided that I am terrible at "blogging" (among other things, such as: all sports, folding laundry regularly, not eating sugar, etc.) and I will now update everyone on Colby's birth almost 6 months ago!
I was scheduled for an induction on Friday, January 30th, (4 days early) after having to practically beg the doctor to let me have this baby (I'd gone in on Tuesday morning earlier that week with contractions a couple minutes apart, then they all stopped-- lovely! The doctor sent me home, ignoring the fact that I am GBS positive and need antibiotics for 6 or 8 hours prior to delivery and my last labor was only 1 hour 26 minutes long! Grrr....I shouldn't get started). However, I went into labor on my own and showed up a few hours earlier than they'd planned. Things weren't as bad as they could have been, but weren't ideal either!
The doctor only decided to let me have an epidural when I thought I was going to die from pain, the anesthesiologist had to stick me 3 times because she kept hitting blood vessels, then only half of me was numb, so she had to go in and wiggle the needle some more....that didn't work, so they just did something else through my iv (which was HEAVEN) an hour later. When I was ready to push they broke my water and Colby's heart rate dropped, and they wouldn't let me get him out. Then my contractions stopped, and I had to NOT PUSH for almost 2 hours. I think they may have given me pitocin to get things going again (not too sure at this point) and at long last, after 3 pushes our little boy was OUT!
Colby Matthew Schneider was born at 6:51 am, weighing 8 lb.s 1 oz., and he was 20 1/2 inches long, and I felt fine. A couple hours after he was born, his oxygen levels kept dropping and they ended up sending him in for x-rays. The chest x-ray was cloudy and it was unclear whether the problem was congenital pneumonia or amniotic fluid in his lungs, so Colby was admitted to the NICU and was treated preventatively for pneumonia.
My home teacher (who was a nurse anesthetist at the hospital) and another man from our ward (who is an orthopedic surgeon) came and gave Colby a blessing, which was a comfort. I was discharged the second day, but the staff let me keep my room to sleep in while our baby was still in the hospital. Colby was declared healthy after 3 days (it was NOT pneumonia), and we were able to bring him home on Monday. I wonder if it would've been better for him if they'd have just listened to me and let me get him out when his heart rate started dropping-- Ryan and I think that he was hanging out too long in my belly. They CLAIM that he was in the NICU because he was a "precipitous delivery", however, I was able to deliver ALL of my children quickly and none of the others had fluid in THEIR lungs.....
All's well that ends well, though! Colby is so adorable-- every one of us is in love with him, and of course we can't imagine what life would be like without him! He is a good-natured and a giggly little squishy guy-- we are blessed to have such great kids!

Ahhhh, Life

We've had some events in the past couple of months that I haven't kept up with on here-- I turned THIRTY (yes, I am admitting it only this once-- on my birthday Kayla wished me a "happy 27th birthday"-- sweet girl!) in December, then of course we had a fun Christmas, followed by Ryan's and my 10th anniversary on Jan. 9! Married for 10 years, kinda makes us seem OLD! Ryan surprised me with an overnight stay at a bed and breakfast downtown (first time we were ALONE overnight in over 5 years!) at a place I had wanted to go to-- he's such a good husband! (oh, by the way, breakfast was fabulous there-- I'm 9 months pregnant, gotta mention the delicious FOOD!)
My friends (who are also my visiting teachers) threw me my first baby shower on the 17th, what sweethearts Kelli and Abbey are-- it was so much fun!

Riley's 2nd birthday was on Jan 21st! He's such a cute and cuddly little guy and he is such a joy to care for!

Now that all of our "big events" have passed, we are ready for the next one-- THIS NEW BABY! He can come any time he wants to now (I've always gone overdue, but for heaven's sake, my cankles are NOT attractive-- I say it's time NOW!).....