The two weeks leading up to Colin's birth was full of anticipation, nerves, and stress. After Thanksgiving totally wore me out (mainly from cleaning my house for two days straight before guests came) and I swelled up like a blow fish, whale, sausage? I was totally beat. I had almost all Christmas shopping done but I had still had a bunch of things to do on my "nesting" to-do list. Here are a few of them plus a few activities hoping to keep the kids distracted (from Christmas.....they were going bonkers since Halloween and the excitement just grew each day).
When we renewed our Pass of all Passes for Seven Peaks we got $20 Arcade tokens with each pass--that's $100 worth of tokens. They expired the end of this year so I didn't want them to go to waste. So when the Stoehr's and Furber's were in town for Tyler's Christmas MOTAB concert we headed to Lehi to play some games. I shared some of the arcade money with the family and we all had enough to be entertained for 2 hours....on a school night, no less! Eeek. I didn't take enough photos but Cecily mostly hung out with me. She got to play mini bowling. It was totally fun and just her size. In the lanes next to her were Trent and Carson with Jana/Troy and Steve playing too. It was fun to watch Cecily do a little jig every time she knocked down some pins. Jocelyn hung out with Emily and Samuel and Steph played this pirate game and at the end I took over Steph's role and Samuel totally beat it! Too bad that game was broken and not offering tokens/tickets because he would have got a boatload of them. Each child got to go home with fun prizes, all of which broke within the week. Oh well, they were free.
Also on my to-do list: Get pedicure and eyebrows waxed so that even though physically I looked like a whale mentally I did not want to. Thanks to my in-laws for being willing to watch Cecily so I could go. They also helped me fold laundry, clean the kitchen and wrap Christmas gifts! Although company is sometimes hard to prepare for when 9 months pregnant, sometimes I decide not to care and not worry what they will think of my housekeeping skills and just not stress about them coming. Then, they help out with what I needed to get done anyway! Thank you Stoehr's and Furber's!
Before the Stoehr's/Furber's came I knew I wanted to mop the floor but did not have the energy or back strength to do so. After Cecily watched Tangled she came upstairs and felt inspired to clean! Yay for Princess movies that motivate! So I taught her how to mop. She did the most of the kitchen/dining floor before she got burned out and she did a pretty good job too! It was such a blessing.
Tyler surprised me with a bouquet of flowers the last night of his concert series. We have learned that the busyness for MOTAB only increases as the year progresses. He had practices two nights a week plus practice from 7:30 until 11:30 am, instead of the usual 7:30-10 am on Sunday's for the last two months. Needless to say, he's been busy and tired and I have too, as I get to hold down the fort and wrestle the kids at church. So he surprised ME with the flowers. It was sweet and thoughtful. Thanks Mom and Dad for picking them up at Costco for him. I was able to attend the Christmas concert (secretly hoping I'd go into labor during it) with my parents and sister Rose. It was a pretty good concert. My favorite part included the actor John Rhys-Davies and his narration of the Christmas Carol background and the Nativity. I was glad his crazy concert season was almost at an end too.
I have had this on my To-Do list for a long time: organize the linen closet. I had organized it when we moved here this summer but it started to get out of control. I wanted to make chalkboard labels for a long time but that required me getting my vinyl cutting machine out and setting it up, etc. So one night I just got bunch of things cut. Including these labels (not the ones that are clipped onto the baskets....I bought those for party labels on Etsy a while back and hadn't used them yet.) and the vinyl for my Menu board (below) that took 18 months to complete, lol. Now I feel we can find things easier and Tyler doesn't have to ask where a specific medication is when he needs one
I made this last year when we lived in the basement apartment. We had little to no cabinet space and I need a place accessible to our spices. So I bought a bunch of metal magnetic spice containers and stick on labels. I can show a photo of this project later, if you request it. It fit about 100 containers because it's an old medicine cabinet I bought on KSL for $3. I painted it, removed the shelves inside and put the spices in it's own cabinet. We mounted it above the stove so we had easy access. I covered the mirror with chalkboard vinyl and had planned to use it as a menu board but didn't really use it much. But when we moved to our new home we had a nice big drawer to put the spices so I wanted to use this board still. It hangs in the dining room now. I finally printed the vinyl for it and now I will try to actually use it as a menu board (when my meals are actually not changing every other night).
The day before Induction day our power went out. I tried to stay calm and took advantage of being forced to slow down a bit and rest. I was going to clean the bathrooms that day but without any light it's kind of hard. So I organized the linen closet instead (which is kind of a slow activity--it's kind of fun and I was able to sit on the ground and sort through lotions, eye stuff, teeth stuff, etc into piles). I wasn't planning on getting it done before Colin came. It was on my list but not a priority for a baby to come so I wrote it off as getting done next year. But the power went out at 8am. It didn't come back on until 10:30 that night. So for 12.5 hours we had to find other things to do. The labels were already made so I just had to organize and put back together. Then Cecily and I mated socks while resting on my bed. Here she is as the "sock sniffer". She was playing a dog game and it was her idea....they were all clean already so the sniffing was not necessary but made it more fun.
Because we had no power once the sun went down at 5:30 pm it dropped to 63 degrees inside and was dark, of course. Tyler came home right before it grew dark and prepared. I was so glad to see him home a bit early. We had a few flashlights and candles but not enough to keep warm. Luckily, we had firewood from cutting down a stupid sumac tree from our front yard. So Tyler and Samuel, after shoveling the driveway and sidewalk for the third time that day (oh yeah, there was an ice storm that morning and it snowed all the night before and part of the day--so I was NOT going to brave the unpaved roads to warm up shopping at Target or elsewhere) they went out to the backyard and gathered wood. Tyler started a fire and we all huddled around it. It was actually the perfectly calm night before I was to be induced that I needed. I then made dinner (because I had thawed out chicken that morning thinking we'd have power soon). Tyler reminded me that although the gas stove runs on gas it needed electricity to spark it. BUT we could also use a match, duh. So I made a simple dinner wearing a head lamp and we ate at the table under candlelight and my vase of red roses. It was like we were at a romantic restaurant. haha. I have no idea how people did this every night back in the days before electricity. After we were done eating I could feel crumbs on the table but couldn't see well enough, even after wiping it off. The next morning revealed what a crappy cleaning job I did in the dark, lol. We also enjoyed hot cocoa for dessert. We had no distractions of electronics (my phone was now dead). The kids had fun cozying up by the fire and then doing light shows in the living room and there was little fighting. It was Tyler's dream come true to sit by a fire like this, he said, because he had never experienced a power outage for this long. We got the sleeping bags out of the garage and they made little beds right by the fire because it would have been too cold downstairs in their bedrooms. They were asleep by 8 (with the exception of Cecily who took a nap with me earlier that day). It was perfect. Rose came over to sleep since I was scheduled to go to the hospital the next morning at 7:30 and we feared the roads would be worse then for her to drive over. As soon as we hit our pillows at 10:30 pm the power was restored! Rose wasn't going to freeze sleeping downstairs and I could check my phone again.
This was at my last appointment before Colin was born. The girls got sick so they had to wear masks. Jocelyn had to stay home from school for 3 days. All she had was a fever, cough and runny nose. I took her to the Dr. to be checked for strep because that is the last thing I wanted floating around my house. Imagine going through contractions with a sore throat! Luckily, it wasn't strep and I did not get their sickness.
The Tuesday before Colin was born MOTAB hosted their annual dinner for the choir members and a guest. We ate at the Grand America Hotel (thank you to Rose for watching the kids again). This (other than the kids music program the next day) was the last thing I really cared about attending. I secretly hoped my water would break or something dramatic like that but it didn't. I wore flip flops on this cold evening because no other shoes fit. We realized we were under dressed for this event as some people were wearing some nice outfits. Anyway, it was a pretty fun night. I twas nice to meet some other choir members too.
So, that was the week or two leading up to Colin's birth!
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