Getting Busy

Warmer weather and more daylight has made for lots of work to be done that has waited all winter! Gabbie and I have been doing yard work while Brice does a million other things, as you will see in the pictures below. Gabbie's bedtime has become 'flexible', as has supper time since we do not want to go indoors until the sun goes down! I am thinking its time to start shutting our computer off, as today is the first day either of us used it since 1 week ago. Good warm days ahead :-)

Gabbie is getting smarter-I think she has discovered the 'stalling' tactic to delay bedtime. Anyway, now when she has to nap or go to bed all of her teddy bears need to be tucked in as well. The last few weeks have seen another jump in her vocabulary; at times I feel like we might actually be having a conversation. She can say her alphabet other than "W" and count to ten with fair consistency. We are very happy that she is saying "thank you" and "you're welcome" without needing prompting.

One of Brice's million things he has been doing. He removed the cement steps from the front of the house. Hooray for me: Gabbie enjoyed dropping things in the space between the house and the steps, now I don't have to deal with that :-) The main point of removing them was to prepare for the addition of a deck to the east side of the house. Brice is pretty excited about a deck; as hard as he works he deserves a place to sit and relax once in awhile. I am just excited to decorate it with lights for Christmas!

Like I said, she's getting smarter. If the mixer is running, there will be a beater to lick off soon...

Even Gabbie knows that basic housekeeping has failed around here lately. She knows I probably don't have the dishes done, so why not just eat out of the pan?

After vacuuming and sweeping to prepare for insulation. This will be a bedroom. Since I took this picture the room has been insulated, drywall in place, and the first layer of mudding/taping is complete.

Everyone had a hand in cleaning up after the insulation was installed.

Time for clean up at the farm Brice rents... this has kept his Dad and him busy the past week or so. I said as long as they were at it they could dig me up a second location for a garden, but I'm not sure that was on the priority list...

Break time :-) Enjoying a lemonade outside at the end of the day.

Somehow Brice managed to leave today at 4 a.m. to haul pigs; not sure how he does it. I have been without Gabbie all day and should probably be using my time more wisely than blogging! She went to my Mom's when I went to work this morning, and since Brice and I actually have plans tonight as well we won't see Gabbie again until the morning. It was strange to go to WalMart without my assistant, then drive home with Josh Groban blaring in the CD player instead of something to entertain the child. Its a strange ache when she isn't here...I always think I'll enjoy it, but then I feel lonely when I am doing housechores without her wanting to "help Mom!"

Its hard to believe we are almost half way to meeting our second child...when I saw on the calendar today that we were 18 weeks along I was surprized. We get our first glimpse of him/her on Wednesday when we have an ultrasound. I'll have to find our ultrasound picture of Gabbie to see if they have similar 'space monkey' photos as we call them :-) On the plus side, I am starting to feel better as far as having more energy again. In exchange for that I am having carpal tunnel symptoms in both hands and a near constant back ache, both of which I expected as they came on about this point with Gabbie and didn't leave until the day I had her. Neither really bother me much until I am trying to lift Gabbie or type at work with numb hands.

Better wrap up and be productive! I hope the windy conditions today are bringing in more warm weather!

March Update

We are happy that the weather is improving and Spring is near! Gabbie and I have enjoyed more outdoor strolls, and this weekend I bought some tomato seeds to grow indoors until we can get them in the garden. We have been able to help Brice more with his chores without taking 20 minutes to bundle up! Winter hibernation is fun up to a point.

Here are some pictures of the last few weeks around here:

For Valentine's Day Gabbie got a new toy for the shower. Somehow its okay when she dumps the water over her head, but not when her mother does it!

Celebrating Grandpa's birthday. I think Gabbie's starting to get the concept that other people have birthdays and get presents instead of just her.

Of course, the ongoing house project. We decided to open the stairway on the west side. It turned out much better than I thought it would. The room you see now will be the office as it was before, only without sharing it with Gabbie. Brice's computer has been packed up for over a month now; catching up on his bookwork when we get this all done will be interesting!

The mess...as much as I appreciate the progress, I'll be glad to be able to come home from work without having sweeping, dusting, and vacuuming to do to keep up. I keep thinking we are doing well enough to be utilizing the space by mid-summer, but when I repeat that estimation to anyone working on it they look at my like I am crazy. I forget its March already and soon they will all be in the field with less time to work on the house.

I felt great this weekend, so Gabbie and I got our cleaning shoes on and went to work. She loves to mop and dust. Not sure what got into us, but we worked all day Saturday. I hadn't cleaned the house that good since before Christmas. We even worked in the basement and did multiple loads of laundry-and the weather was perfect to hang it all outside and get that fresh Spring smell!

Before lunch Saturday I told Gabbie she needed to get dressed. She went and got her 2 piece swimsuit. I figured it didn't matter much; we were inside and she was mopping the floors (more playing in the water) anyway. Later I told her we needed to go outside and help Daddy, so she went and put on a light jacket and shoes.

We wore her out! She fell asleep by 7 p.m. watching the girls basketball championship. Thank goodness; the 2-3 nights before she'd been up nearly every hour crying. We figured it was an ear infection, but she seems better now.

Cleaned the house yesterday, time to do the yard today. We had the front door replaced last fall, but the old one had been sitting in our yard ever since. Here Brice is hauling it away.

Valentines flowers :-) Thought I better take a picture today before they all started to wilt. I was surprized when I got home on Valentine's Day by these. As busy as Brice has been working on the house, plus keeping up with his normal tasks, he managed to get me some flowers and a bird feeder. I haven't seen any birds at the feeder yet...hopefully soon!

Appointment #2

Yesterday I went in for our second "baby appointment" as I call them. Gabbie tagged along since our poor daycare provider has been sick. Bringing her with was pretty entertaining...she hasn't been to the doctor since last summer, but boy did she get really nervous when I got called into the lab, then back to the patient rooms. It wasn't easy to convince her that we weren't there for her to be checked out! She was a good trooper, as we had a long wait.
Everything went well; good heartbeat again. I still have a bit of infection left in my right ear, but he said I could quit the medicine. The only thing was that I didn't measure much bigger than the appointment a month ago, 'small for weeks' he called it. He wasn't concerned, and we both figured it was probably from fighting the respiratory and ear infection and the nausea that came with the medicine, plus the pregnancy nausea. He figures we'll catch up by next month. I am hoping by then the prenancy nausea is gone too :-) Doctor offered the genetic testing to be done anytime now. I turned it down, we hadn't done it with Gabbie, and I told him "if I love Brice then I can love whatever condition this baby comes out in". Doctor found that entertaining and laughed, then Gabbie laughed her big laugh (the new thing she's been doing), and we all had a nice laugh at Brice's expense. Sorry dear.
While we were there doctor said they'd schedule our ultrasound to be on the same day as my next appointment. I told him that I thought we were waiting until half-way through to do the ultrasound. He reminded me that at our next appointment we'd be over 18 weeks, close to half-way. Yikes...at first this one was going slow, now it suddenly seems to be flying by.
This week I'm feeling more myself again. I was really starting to feel down in the dumps the past month after I just felt worthless and sick all of the time. Yesterday I stopped and got a library book, since I've been staying up past 7 p.m. again. Today I plan to go for a jog. I cleaned the house (what's left of it, doesn't take too long!) and I do not feel like I'm dragging through the workday. One of my patients on Monday said to me "you actually look like you have energy today". I may even get my haircut this week for the first time in almost 3 months.
I don't have any new pictures to post, but progress has been made in our home improvement project. The wiring is mostly done and today they will be here to work on the plumbing. I laugh that we will probably get it insulated after winter is done!
Like I mentioned above, Gabbie's new thing right now is the 'big laugh'. She thinks she needs to let out a big laugh when other people are laughing too. I need to get it on video to embarass her with in 10 years! She is getting good at her alphabet and knows all but a few of the letters when we draw them for her. Of course yesterday I realized we were showing them all in uppercase; hopefully she catches on quickly to lower case as well. Now she loves to take a shower to play with her foam letters. Too bad we've listened to 2 years of screaming and fighting to get her to take a shower every other day, now she wants to shower twice a day.
Have a great rest of the week...one more week until March! Spring is near!

Home Improvement

Well, I think we officially have half of the house 'gutted'. This project has been a year in the works already...we are hoping its mostly done before summer starts! Moving Gabbie into our room has not helped anyone's sleeping habits...she regularily gets up at 4:30 and sleeps in our bed. I like to get up between 5:00-5:30, so she thinks she can too. Brice is having to deal with it more than I since I've been sleeping on the couch for a month dealing with the stomach flu, respiratory crap, and acid/reflux. Here are some pictures:

Gabbie is suddenly interested in 'water' and 'dishes'. This has been very handy for me lately. When I don't feel well and want to rest the 'dishes' keep her entertained for a good half hour.

What Brice is calling our "Japanese hotel". He is becoming a pro at organizing lots of furniture into few rooms :-) It is quite congested, however I have stayed in a Japanese hotel and it is not nearly this roomy. Too bad that was 10 years ago in the days of 'film' cameras, so I have no picture to post!

We had an obstacle course in the kitchen for awhile, but this carpet has since been put away. Gabbie enjoyed walking it like a tightrope walker!

Don't even try to come in the front door...

Brice's "office" :-)

Plenty of seating...

I took this while Brice was gutting the ceiling and south wall in our office; obviously the dust was still flying. He worked hard and within a week the room was gutted and cleaned up, ready for the carpenter and electrician.

I took this mess in stride until a few days ago. I've been fighting a respiratory bug for over 2 weeks, which got much worse this past week. I could get through a day at work, then was so tired I didn't even get up for supper. I got short of breath in WalMart trying to buy our basics, and one night an ear infection became so painful we thought about a trip to the ER. Luckily we found an online home remedy to get us through until the next day! I was given 3 medications and by Friday had minimal to no relief. Went back to the doctor and was told that the ear and sinus infections were 'plenty nasty' and that I could expect at least 10 days to feel better. Today is the first day I've actually felt half way normal. I tackled the 7 mile 'lake walk' with a friend and helped Brice with chores. Its the first time in a week I've sat here at the computer to check e-mails and catch up on the ever important Hollywood news on people.com. I hope it helps me sleep well tonight! Anyway, now that you've heard all my complaining, this past Thursday I lost it with the mess in the house. I was convinced the dust in the house was keeping us from feeling healthy and demanded we clean up as much as we could. I had called in sick to work thinking I'd sleep, but the piled up dishes and dust were appearing in my dreams. So, Brice helped me a few hours and we got everything possible cleaned up, put away, and dusted. Whew...

That's all from here. We request that everyone pray for an early Iowa summer :-)

Family of Four

We had our first doctor visit today, and it went well, so we are ready to 'officially' announce the addition of baby #2 around August 20th! We are a little over 10 weeks along.
I remembered this 'first visit' all too well from being pregnant with Gabbie...they draw what seems like enough blood that I forgot if I was there to donate blood or just for labs. They ask many questions-my favorite one being "so are you feeling well?" Well I suppose, for the shape I'm in. Then it gets a little 'uncomfortable'...but I guess what modesty is left after having had a child already. Finally the fun part...time to look for the heartbeat. It took what seemed like a while to find it, but all of the sudden I heard that swoosh, swoosh, swoosh going way to fast to be my heartbeat! That was pretty exciting-all of the sudden being pregnant again seemed real, and more than just constant nausea and headaches.
I thought we'd be having an ultrasound today, as we did that with Gabbie also. But it turns out we just did that with her to figure out the due date, since she had surprized us :) This time we can figure a due date and doctor said he won't worry about an ultrasound until sometime around 20 weeks. We are planning to leave the gender a surprize again, and doctor said we measured at 10 weeks, so there would be no need for an ultrasound right now anyway.
I didn't take any baby bump pictures with Gabbie. I guess just 1 a couple of days before she was born. This time I am keeping a journal that has spaces to include pictures, so we took one today. I included it at the bottom here. Although I don't have pictures to compare, I do know for fact I did not look like this at 10 weeks pregnant with Gabbie! I was able to wear my regular pants until almost 20 weeks with her. People told me you 'pop out' faster the second time, but that is an understatment. Today at work I was told several times "geez, you are already showing!" That, or I am just enjoying the reason to eat extra just a little too much...
I hate to use the word 'crabby'; but I can't say I've been 'pleasant', but I'm not 'emotional', so crabby would be the best descriptor for how I have been to those who have to tolerate me on a daily basis. Otherwise it feels about the same as last time; nauseated, tired, headaches, acid reflux, carpal tunnel, and up every few hours at night to use the bathroom. I manage to make it through work at the care center without puking, but then I go to see my home health clients and I vomit during my treatments at their houses. I feel best early in the morning, so I've started exercising at 5:30 or 6 a.m. instead of waiting until I get home at night, which is when I feel really crappy and tend to just sit on the couch. I'm glad to be getting through this being sick part in the winter, so hopefully I'm ready to run around outside again come Spring and Summer. I think Gabbie is wondering where her old Mom went.
Okay, so although that was an entire paragraph of me whining about how I feel physically, I do truly feel blessed to be adding child #2 to the family. Gabbie has been such a joy to us; its hard to imagine how watching 2 of them grow will feel! I'm really trying to absorb every moment I can of this pregnancy. Not that I didn't try to do that with Gabbie, but we were definetly in a different phase of our lives then. I worked full time, then typically worked a PRN job in the evenings and on most weekends and it felt like we were running all the time. Gabbie has taught me so much about simplifying my life, including working less, not obsessing over a clean house so much, ignoring the computer and phone, and just taking time to play.
That's the main news from our house today! It has been harder to keep this one a secret since we have known for so long. We were about 7 weeks pregnant with Gabbie before it dawned on me that I wasn't feeling quite right...that made the first trimester go a bit faster!

The belly...I give up on even trying to find a baggy shirt or sweater right now

Gabbie's new favorite thing...a fish. Brice caught it while ice fishing and put it in the tank. She loves it, but I don't think 'fishy' loves her playing in the water and hitting his tank.

Hibernation

Here are the Hundling house we are certainly in our "winter funk" as I call it. Seems like after Christmas we have a tendency to spend a few weeks on our lazy bottoms and be bored. We finally tried to snap out of it this week. Brice took Gabbie and I ice fishing a couple of times. He caught one small enough to put in our fish tank, which Gabbie has found to be quite entertaining! I decided my short bouts on the treadmill were getting tough to count as 'work-outs' so I joined the gym in town and started the morning routine again. I took on a couple extra home health clients, figuring I can make more money sitting in someone elses house than in my own. And this morning I brought home donuts after my workout to eat prior to taking Gabbie to the library and then to see her great-grandparents. Tomorrow we plan to go sledding. Take that, winter blues!

Gabbie is just soo busy...she can't even put the phone down long enough to finish her meal! Actually this was so funny. We sat down to eat, and randomly Gabbie would pick up the phone (during a bite) and say "hello?" Brice and I don't talk on the phone at the dinner table, but I guess we aren't as important as Gabbie!

Thank goodness, someone to help me dust! She loves doing this; our TV and tables have never been so dust free!

Christmas 2010...Happy New Year 2011!

We hope everyone had wonderful Christmas and New Years Days! Christmas was nice this year-we had power, a healthy child, and church wasn't cancelled (comparisons to 2009). The main thing is that I got the game "Wheel of Fortune" to play on the Wii and so far I have won trips to Italy and Alaska! Just kidding ;-) The main thing is we continue to be blessed with each other and good health, and had good food and a warm place to celebrate the holidays.

Before our company arrived for Christmas Eve-a great picture of these 2 goofballs!

Apparantly she wasn't as happy to have a picture with me?!

Hooray for Christmas morning!!

Gabbie got a new T-shirt for Christmas! I think most of the population who reads our blog knows about this (as well as the home health client whose home I got sick at a few days ago...) In August we are adding another. Almost 8 weeks down; according to the doctor the fact that I feel sea sick all day, many headaches, and want to go to bed at 6 p.m. are all good signs things are going well. We'll have more details in a couple weeks after our first ultrasound :-)

Yup, we butchered chickens the day after Christmas. Obviously they are huge; they are literally taking up 1/4 of the space in the deep freeze. Still trying to figure out if my roasting pan will even be big enough to cook them. I figured their average weight at 13 pounds.

Great-grandpa Rollie was 'pretending' to yell at Gabbie, so she was 'pretending' to cry. It was entertaining, but I think next time I will let them sit by each other instead of me inbetween :-)

I said to Gabbie: "Pose for one last picture of 2010". This is what she did. None of us saw midnight that night-she went to bed at 8:30 and I'm sure I was asleep by 9:00!