Happy, Happy Birthday...

Happy Birthday to Chris, happy birthday to Chris...and Tanner

Tanner Clark

January 25, 2009

1026am

6 lb 30z , 19 in long

Chris had a special visitor come on his birthday...and he's here to stay for quite a long time. I still had 10 days until my due date, so we weren't quite expecting him, but I think we were mostly ready. Tanner is named after Chris' brother who passed away, and Clark is my dad's middle name, named after Caleb Clark Baldwin, who was is Liberty Jail with Joseph Smith.

Here's "the story": I had not even had too many regular contractions until Sunday morning, when at about 3am I woke up and noticed that my contractions seemed to be occuring pretty regularly, and they were starting to hurt a bit. At 530 or so I got out of bed and decided to pack a bag for the hospital, just in case. So I packed a bag, and then woke Chris up and told him that I thought the baby might want to share a birthday with him. I did NOT want to go the the hospital just to be sent home and told to come back later, so we hung out at the house for a bit until Tate woke up, and then we left to take him to my mom's house, and then head to the hospital. By this time it is almost 900, and the contractions were hurting really bad, but all I had to compare them to was when I was induced with Tate. With the induction it seemed that they hurt worse, and occured much more frequent, with virtually no resting between contractions. So maybe that is what I was anticipating?? So anyway, we check in and then go to triage. The nurse is asking all the questions, and then I have a hard contraction, and my water breaks while I am sitting in the bed. So she says, "well, at least now you know you get to be admitted." And then she says, " I better check you." So she checks me and gets this really suprised look on her face and says, "you're 9cm!" So they take me to L&D pretty fast, and they ask if I want an epidural. I secretly have always wanted to give birth without one, and I figure since I am already 9cm, it probably can't get much worse. They call my OB and he says he doesn't think he can make it in time, so they call the on call guy from the group. So I labor for about 1/2 hour of ridiculous contactions, the whole time I am thinking about my refused epidural. I tell the nurse I feel like I need to push, they page the on call Dr. to come...while I am waiting I push through 3 contractions or so, the Dr. gets there and I push through 1 contraction, and he's born! For the last 7 or 8 contractions I was wondering what kind of huge mistake I had made by not getting the epidural, but when it all was said and done, I was glad. Now I can say that I did it, and next time...we'll see. Maybe it will be a been there, done that...give me the epidural now kind of thing. I escaped with out a tear or a stitch, and as I am typing this I am realizing that I think I lucked out. It happened so fast, I can't believe that he's here, and I can't believe that I forgot how much work babies are at first. It's an adjustment, for sure. Luckily my mom has been able to help out a ton with Tate, since the feeding of the wee babe takes literally 1/3 of my day right now. Chris has been great, too. I think Tanner is already filling out a little bit, but we'll see tomorrow at his Dr. appt. Little babies make you feel such gratitude. I am so grateful that he is here and that he is healthy, and for the chance and the blessing that I have to raise a little family!

At first Tate didn't know what to think of him and he just kind of ignored him for the most part.

Tate now likes to hold him and won't let him go. He's a little rough. Tonight he tried to pick a booger out of Tanner's nose. Poor Tanner.

I am now way outnumbered, but I am ok with that. Doesn't Tate all of the sudden look HUGE?Here's my 3 boys:

Halloween 08

Here's a little blast from the past: Halloween 2007 and Nacho Libre-

Tate was so fun last year, but I think that this year was even better. He totally (well, kind of) understood what was going on and could participate a little bit. Mostly I guess he just liked the candy. This year he was yoda.

We had a little neghborhood party and then we went to my parents neighborhood to trick or treat. A neighbor of theirs always cooks hot dogs and hamburgers and popcorn, and has hom made root beer for all of the trick or treaters. It's pretty awesome, and a fun tradition. Tate rode in style in the Radio Flyer:

There was this weird creature that Tate couldn't stop staring at.

Finally I asked the creature to come and take a picture with Tate, and he kind of freaked out:

Chris immediately picked him up and I captured the saddest face I have ever seen. I think this is my favorite picture of the night.

Later we took these pictures at my mom's house. These are my two youngest brothers with Tate. Guess what they are? Cows? Reindeer? Actually they are vikings. They always have the dorkiest costumes...but the costumes are so ghetto that they are actually kind of cute.





The family:
Chris and I were lame, and didn't dress up. Although if we would have, we would have been Princess Leah and Luke or Han Solo.



Fitting for a Halloween post... a couple of weeks ago I had just got home from grocery shopping and Chris was cleaning the garage. It was dark ouside and all of the sudden I heard Tate start to cry, and I ran over to where he was and this is what I saw:

I was pretty scared until I realized that it was only spaghetti sauce that he had tried to carry and had dropped. The jar was glass, so it really is fortunate that none of the glass got him at all. Chris wanted to take a picture.



I got my cast shortened a week or so ago....and it is sooo nice. Thet actually just cut the old cast off above my elbow and then rewrapped it. The new cast glows in the dark! The only problem is it just looks white, and it is DISGUSTING looking. Tate has got dirt all over it, I've spilled food coloring on it, etc. etc. etc. 1 more week and then it comes off! Maybe I should have a celebration when that day finally gets here. I am so excited to actually have a shower without a plastic bag over my entire arm. I haven't been able to smell any horrible stench coming from my arm yet, so that's good. Also I have avoided for the most part any itching that I just can't get too. My arm hasn't really itched that much. (Knock on wood) And I hear that the itching is usually a big deal. Happy November!

A series of unfortunate events

I'd like to start by showing these beautiful jars of peaches and pears that my mom helped me can last week. I feel so provident and domestic (two things I never really wanted to say about myself) Now I am actally entirely ok with saying that I feel this way. It feels good.





Now, on to the series of unfortunate events led led to this:


Last Thursday I was at a park near my house with Chris, my brother Jason, and his girlfriend Michelle. We were long boarding, having a great old time, and then Chris says "let's go down the hill one more time" So I think I was going too fast, and my board went out from under me and without thinking I put my hands down when I fell. As soon as I stood back up I was afraid it was broken because it immediately had a bump near my wrist and just looked a little funky. Just for clarification, this is a long board. It's like a skateboard, but longer. THey are mostly just for cruising around on.

A couple of people have asked what happened to my arm and they think that I say "lawnmower" They think that I fell off of a rding lawnmower.
I probably should not have been on one of these in the first place because I am pregnant, but at the time I didn't even consider that I was posing a risk to myself or my unborn child. Whatever. I guess it will be a good story to tell him.


It really did turn into a whole series of events...here's the watered down version: I knew that I needed x rays, so that night Jason and Michelle took Tate to my mom's, and Chris and I decided to go to the urgent care and only pay a $75 dollar copay, instead of the $150 ER copay. I wait in the waiting room of the urgent care for an hour, there is only me and 2 other patients in the waiting room, yet in 1 hour they call NO ONE back. So eventually I am called back and the Dr. says "I am not going to do xrays because you are pregnant. Follow up with an orthopedic dr. tomorrow" I know I am going to have to get an xray at some point, but whatever, there's 75 bucks for nothing.
In order to see a specialist I have to have a referral from my primary care doc. Well I don't have a doc in Gilbert yet, so the next morning I finally get in to see someone and then she gives me a referral to get x rays, and she says she will give me a call back when she has an appt with ortho. So I get my xrays. I can clearly see that it's broken, but I don't know too much about breaks to know much more than that. I still need to see ortho because no one has really looked at my arm or the xrays. So Chris calls my dr to see if the appt. with the specialist is arranged, and the office tells him my insurance is reviewing the situation. Chris calls the insurance and it's not under review, it's approved already, and so they give us some names and numbers of orthopedic docs that are providers on my insurance and we start calling all of them to see if anyone will see me on a Friday afternoon. Finally one office says, "I would just go to the ER and have them look at your xrays and splint your arm until you can see an ortho next week." I am so frustrated and in tears at this point, but we go to the ER and I get it splinted, ($150) and the Dr. looks at the xrays.


Why we are there, one of the ortho offices calls back and says that I have an appt with them on Tues. My arm had to be "manipulated" when I went in on Tues, because it wasn't in the correct position. That was interesting. They did a procedure I had never even heard of before called a "bier block" Basically they put a tourniquet on my upper arm for about 45min and inject lidocaine into the same arm. The torniquet keeps the lidocaine from acting systemically, so it mostly just stays in that arm because there is no blood flow in or out of the limb. It was weird. I couldn't control my arm at all, and I couldn't feel a thing. My arm looked funky, too. Like it was dead. So I got my black and orange Halloween cast on Tuesday. It worked out in the long run. I'll go back next Tuesday to make sure that the bone (radius) is holding the correct position...if not, I get surgery and a metal plate! Yay!



That was a long story, and not as watered-down as I first intended! Above everything else, this has given me a renewed appreciation for my mom, who lost her left hand just below the elbow in a car accident 12 years ago. She's amazing. I'm sure I'll have more to say about her before this is all over. So all things considered, I don't have it that bad. I have been blessed.

How I painted my cabinets

I had a couple of people ask me how I did my cabinets, so I thought I'd do a little "tutorial" rather than just tell them becuase I had a friend that tried to explain to me the painting technic the first time I tried it, and she finally had to come over and actually show me how to do it because they looked so bad. So you definitely need pictures. Also, I needed some motivation to finish my cabinets upstairs, and this provided me with the extra motivation that I needed to get those cabinets done!
*Disclaimer* I don't know if this is the "right" way to paint cabinets, but so far I have had no problems!


Supplies needed: Course sandpaper, rag, base color paint, brown color of paint, glaze, paintbrush, tape.
I used 150 grit (fine) sandpaper, but I would have used 80 (course) if I had had it. I used the 80 grit in my kitchen and I think it did a better job for these purposes.

I used Behr paint which you can get at home depot. I think all my paint was eggshell finish. I'm sure any sheen would work, just depending on if you want more glossy or less glossy cabinets.

My base coat is called "Bavarian Cream" (1 quart)
My Brown accent color is called "Melted Chocolate" (1 quart was plenty)
I usually base some of my color choice decision on the name of the paint itself. Aren't Bavarian Cream and Melted Chocolate nice names? Maybe it's just the pregnant girl talking.

Anyway, you will want to buy the faux glaze, too. You mix it with the brown and then it prolongs the drying time of the paint so that you have more time to work with it. You mix 4 parts glaze to 1 part paint, but it will tell you exactly how to mix it on the back of the can. 1 quart was plenty for me, I still have tons left over.

Something I should have used but didn't is this: Kilz primer/sealant. Also available at Home depot, I should have painted all of my cabinets with this first. (After sanding, but before my base coat.) My paint chipped off in a couple of places and I think that this would have prevented it. I just get too impatient to paint a whole extra coat of this, and then wait for it to dry. It would have been better, though.



Ok, let's begin! First sand all surfaces that are going to be painted. Pay extra attention to any places where the paint is peeling. The point is to just rough up the surface so that the paint will adhere better.

Next, with a damp cloth wipe all surfaces of the cabinet, removing the dust you just made by sanding.


The next step will be to paint, so tape off all areas surrounding the cabinets that you do not want to get paint on. After taping, this is where I would do a coat of that primer.


I'm sure you all have painted before, but just in case you have not, you only want to dip the tip of the brush into the paint. If not, it gets way messy.

Ok, so paint the entire suface of the cabinets with the base color. I did two coats on mine. Wait until the base coat is good and dry, and then...

This is my favorite part. Paint the brown(which is actually glaze + brown paint) just in the edges, or wherever you want the majority of your color to be. It doesn't have to be perfect by any means, just slosh some brown paint on there.

This is the tricky part, but don't worry, it's not that tricky. So all you have to do is wipe the majority of the brown paint off. Get your rag a little damp, and beginning in a circular motion, begin to wipe off all the paint that you just put on. If it looks bad, just keep wiping. The paint will stay wet enough to work with for several minutes. Sometimes I had to get my rag a bit more wet, and then it would wipe better. Wipe the middle of the cabinet a bit too, so it gets a little color as well.

Here is the cabinet mostly done. I ended up wiping off even more of the brown a little bit later.

On the side of the cabinet I used the same technic. I've also done this on a wall, and I liked how it turned out there too. Again, just slosh some brown paint on there. If it were any bigger of an area, like on a large wall, I would have divided it into sections, and just work maybe a 3x3 area at a time, and then blend the areas together as I went.

Begin wiping. Again, you will be wiping most of the paint off. This is what it started to look like after just a few wipes with the rag. Just keep wiping. I think it looks best if you leave it a little darker in the corners and on the edges.
After a lot of wiping:
Ta-duh! The finished product. Thanks to Alecia. ( The girl who told me how)

I am totally an amateur, but I had fun with it, and generally liked how they turned out.
Hopefully this looong post was understandable. Let me know if you have any questions!

And, of course, little Tate. He unfortunately woke up from his nap before I was finished. He is such a great help with this sort of thing. Yep, that white stuff near his mouth is paint.

TWO LITTLE BOYS!

It looks like I am going to be way outnumbered! Tate is happy to announce that he will soon have a BROTHER! Chris and I really did think it was a girl, but now that we know it's a boy it will take some getting used to the idea! I honestly was a little dissapointed at first because I had been getting really excited about buying cute girly clothes and making all that frilly stuff. But now that I think about, it I remember when I was younger I always pictured myself the mother of two or three little boys. The baby looks healthy so far, so hopefully things keep going smoothly. I am kind of a silent worrier about that.
I gained a whopping 7 pounds this month. holy HEIFER! My pre pregnancy weight with this baby was less than I was with Tate, so I still have 30 lbs to go before I get to where I ended when Tate was born. I don't think I'll get as big with this pregnancy. At least I hope I don't gain 30 more pounds! However, if I gain 7 lbs for the next 4 months, then I'm right on track-geez! I'm starting to finally get a little belly. People always told me I would show sooner with my 2nd pregnancy, but so far- not really. I still hide it pretty well. I just look thicker in my waist, if you know what I mean. I think my belly will really "blossom" this week or next, though. Maybe I'll talk Chris into taking a picture.
Things I am excited for: They will be 18 mos apart, so they will be 1 year apart in school.
I am excited for them to be wild and run around the house and wrestle together. I'm excited for them to be really naughty and get into trouble and messes together when they are both toddlers. I'm excited for them to play on the same team for t-ball or basketball or whatever they want to do. I know they will get into fights, but I hope that we can raise them to be the best little buddies!