the post-pone (the squeamish better skip to about halfway down)

hehe. I love a bad joke. "post" pone.... nevermind

Anyway, my life has officially overwhelmed me, so I will be back to posting.... later. How's that for vagueness. I haven't gotten more than 4 or 5 hours of sleep for several weeks now, and few of you may know but nursing did not work out, again... I'm finally ready to openly say it without crying. So pumping while your toddler tries to love your newborn to death (he doesn't understand that when we find a baby cute, we give them a soft squeeze, we don't grin widely and pound on them. Or ride on them. Anyway) is challenging and heartbreaking... she screams when I put her down, and all I can think is I'm doing this because I love you and because I know it's important for you to have this... you should be smiling at me!
And then, MRSA entered our house. We thought we got rid of it; it was just on Adam. But now it's back on him with a vengeance and little Nicole has it as well. Steve gave them each a blessing today, and we have spent more money on drugs and copays this past week than we do on gas in a month. Whatever it takes, though.
And, since MAJOR sanitizing (aka time) comes along with this diagnosis, I will be blogging rather infrequently until this is through.
One story, though, to tide you 'til next time: I put Nicole down to play the other day, and Adam ran and got his laptop (which she loves) and shared it with her. I told him how sweet that was, and gave him a sticker to reward him. So then, he gave her his sticker. He is the sweetest little boy. And nothing makes her face light up like seeing him. They are too cute. And stressed out though I may be, I am seriously in love with this family of mine. (Especially Steve, though I don't usually post stories about him!)

Love to all,

Margaret, etc.

New Car

Before our trip, we dropped off our green car to estimate some repairs. They totaled far more than the car is worth, so we went car shopping! We wound up getting this one from a dealership, and so we had to play the whole talk-them-down game. We did pretty good, but we could have done a little better I think...
Anyway, it's a lovely 2002 Santa Fe. It fits us well, and we're excited to have a car with power locks (among other things)!

Sleep, anyone?

Some of you may have heard bits and pieces of the whole Steve sleep thing, so here's the scoop:

Steve's boss had noticed him dozing off during meetings. He made some polite suggestions about how Steve could remedy the situation, one of which was to be checked by a doctor.
Steve went to the doctor, who referred him to a specialist.
The specialist told him the only way to diagnose sleep apnea is to do the sleep study. So Steve spent the night in their clinic (which he said was actually really nice, as it used to be a fancy hotel!) with a million wires hooked up to his head and chest. Halfway through the night, they let him try on different air masks, which was a sure sign he had sleep apnea.
Four weeks later, he got his official diagnosis: severe sleep apnea. He also got his results, and they were pretty scary. He awoke up to 126 times per hour, and his blood oxygen level hovered in the 80's!
Steve got his CPAP machine, and has been sleeping peacefully, silently, and barely moving at all. He's already feeling more alert at work. Yea!

Steve's Brag Box

The process of buying a laptop reminded us of a favorite kid's book...

If you give a Stevie a laptop, he's going to want it to have a Core 2 Duo 2GHZ processor.
When he gets a Core 2 Duo, he'll definitely want 4 gig of RAM to keep up.
And if it has that kind of zip, he's going to want a 17" Brightview 1680x1050 screen to go with it.
And a 512 MB graphics card. Those two just go together.
Once it's got such a beautiful start, he'll want a 320 GB hard drive to complete the picture.
But then he'll start eying the wireless N Bluetooth, so you'll give in.
But what's that kind of wireless speed without live feed to send over it? So naturally he needs a built-in webcam.
And once he's thinking about a webcam, that leads right in to TV. How about an HDTV integrated tuner?
But Stevies don't watch a lot of TV, so he'd better add a Blu-ray DVD player with a double layer Lightscribe burner. Just to cover the bases.
And once you give a Stevie a laptop that impressive, he's going to want a new printer, too. And there just happens to be a $20-after-rebate all-in-one right there at checkout.
Then, once you give a Stevie a printer, you KNOW he's going to want a new laptop to go with it! (So you tell him he just got one!)

the whole sad story

Those of you who have been with me through the ups and downs of my laptop-- the water spilling, the case and hinge breaking, the horrible viruses that took it down time after time, the Great Takeover while Steve was in school and his broke, the battery that only lasted 5 minutes, etc.-- will be sad to know that it finally passed away permanently this week. We moved it gently from our old apartment two doors down to our new one, and when it arrived, the hard drive was dead. It also would not accept a different hard drive. Steve announced the time of death to be around 10:30pm on December 30. What a blessing it had been getting viruses, as all of my stuff was backed up on CD!

Thus began the great laptop search.

Some of you may know that Steve was getting a new laptop for his birthday. We were going to get him the HP Pavilion 17" that Costco sells. But he found an amazing deal and got an even better, completely customized one online. We'll post his brag box soon for our favorite family of techie nerds, but will just say I am excited for the Blu-ray, Bluetooth, HDTV tuner, and printer that came with it. The laptop will be born on January 12th and will ship soon after. If anyone calls Steve, I'm sure you'll hear all about his early birthday present. :)

Also, on a random note, I was looking for thumb drives so my stuff can be portable, and they have 32 gig drives! Not only that, certain technologies are coming out this April that will lead to 1 terabyte drives soon. I am actually quite excited to see where all that will lead us.

ANYWAY, the bottom line of this blog is... I'm keeping notes of everything to show you and tell you, Christmas and New Year's and moving and what the kids are up to (someone is smiling and rolling partially already!) BUT I will probably not be posting until the end of this month. So feel free to take a break from checking us out but PLEASE come back the first of February! And don't be too sad... I'm so blogging addicted, you know I'll try to find a way to get posts in before then!

Love to all!

I know I know

It's been a while..and there are a lot of reasons why but most of them have to do with having a newborn, so I don't need to explain.
ANYWAY, here's a rundown of what we've been up to:

• Thanksgiving was fun, my brother and his wife came up and so did my grandmother. We made some of our traditional foods and mostly just hung out.
• Adam learned how to climb out of and flip back into his crib (hilarious video coming soon!), so he got his own toddler bed. It really wasn't funny... we awoke to a crash and found him in the kitchen surrounded by a glass that he'd broken. So he has a new bed. And a doorknob cover on the inside of his room. (And on all the other doors in the house, consequently.)
• My girlfriends in my ward threw me a wonderful baby shower, where they did "shower" us with adorable little girl clothes and accessories.
• We did our first professional photography session as a family. (Sorry, we can't technically legally post those pics.)
  
• Nicole turned 1 month old, and is doing well. Yea! I'm so happy nursing is working out this time!
• I got a much shorter haircut, and I'm actually loving it! (pictures to come)
  
• We've been doing our annual Roswell run. ( I don't know why, but around this time, which used to be finals week, every year we start to want to watch it again. And even though we've watched all 3 seasons several times, we still wind up doing marathon stay-up-way-too-late evenings near the end of seasons 2 and 3. When will we ever learn?)
  
• And oh, yeah... we're moving. The day after Christmas.

WHAT?! you may be thinking. It's not really that bad... we're moving around the corner in our building, to a 3 bedroom place. Hooray for the new space, but I hate moving.

And YEA, Christmas is almost here! I'm so excited for Santa to visit Adam and Nicole ;)

So that's our past month in a nutshell. My computer got the worst virus it's ever had, so Steve had to take it all the way down again (one of many reasons why I haven't blogged). And now, I'll be using moving as an excuse.. hehe, I'm just kidding. I like it when people read my blog, and I'm sure you don't when I stop writing for a while. We'll post more pictures soon, as soon as I have a program that will properly shrink them so they don't eat my blogging space.

Well, we love you all, and have a wonderful week before Christmas!

Well now we know...

We finally got that third ultrasound, and found out that we're having a girl! I for one, am surprised, because despite the pregnancy being different, etc. I always really felt like we would start with 2 boys. But, no matter, we are of course thrilled and will be going shopping soon as all we have are Adam's baby clothes! :)
And, on an Adam note, he never ceases to amaze us with his physical feats. He spent an hour today sliding off the couch in creative ways: head first, upside down, feet first on his back, etc. to see which way was the most fun and what he needed to do to catch himself. And, he JUMPED! All by himself, in the middle of the floor. He prefers to hold on to something so he can do lots of fast jumps, and he really prefers a mattress so he can get some air. But if you can convince him to let go, he will jump by himself. It was pretty darn cool.

cookies, etc.

Adam discovered recently that he really likes cookies. So much so, that when he discovered the cookie jar on the table, he spent 15 minutes trying to open it. It was really funny until the end, when he got so sad... he kept holding it out for me to open. He got half a cookie to reward his efforts, and then I hid the jar. It's hard to make him eat lunch when he's reaching out for the cookies on the counter.
He also discovered that he likes crayons. He likes to color with them, stomp on them, and especially to put them back in the box. I like to stick them between his toes, which he then wiggles adorably. Yesterday I got him some of those triangular fat crayons, and so at least they don't roll around while he's playing. They're too big to stick in his toes, though...
We also got a carseat for New Baby, and I finally, FINALLY have a doctor and we are actually happy about it!!! After finding the last doctor who would take me, I went in and they don't do VBACs. So, I gave up on delivering at Evergreen and decided to look for doctors at Stevens. I found a practice, they took me and will see me next week, and it is composed of two female doctors and a CNM! Not only that, the office is literally five minutes away. I am in heaven. Their website looks like they actually deliver at Providence, but I really don't care. :) I'm so happy to get to quit looking!
And I've been getting excited about Halloween... Adam is going to be a bee, and I've figured out what patterns will work for what pieces. Every time I bring it up, Steve groans, "Ugh, Margaret, no more costumes!!!" I told him that if he keeps it up he will be a big, pink flower for his costume. Unfortunately for him, the more I think of him as a big, pink flower and Adam as a bee and me as maybe a caterpillar (the kind about to burst out of its cocoon, haha, with my pregnant tummy)... I like it. Too bad he pushed me to such extremes... :D Our ward does a trunk-or-treat so I'm already thinking about asking to borrow my mom's van so there's more trunk and what we could do with it... yea! I LOVE fall!!! So many holidays!

Steve's First Day

So I'm sure you're all wondering how Steve is doing at Amazon. Well, so far he's nervous, of course, but likes it. He has a really great team and shares an office with a nice guy. However, we seem to have a little bad luck around here...
On his first day, they had an orientation for all the new guys. They talked about benefits, etc. and finally gave a little talk about making good first impressions, as the newbies were about to meet their bosses and teams. The guy next to Steve was drinking a large glass of water...
... so naturally, when the bosses walked in, the guy accidentally spilled it all over Steve... in a very bad place. Steve claimed it was so perfect, he would not have believed the truth unless it had actually happened to him. He was completely embarrassed, but had to just hide it the best he could. Poor Steve! Things always happen to him!
But he's a great sport and now we get to laugh about one of the worst first days ever!

Survival

Well, we made it. We're here at Snowbird, finally getting some time to relax. The trip was long and grueling, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been...
We did have to drive 6-9 hours a day, but Adam did really well.
We did get the car trailer stuck at a gas station, resulting in a costly tow to the hotel parking lot 200 feet away, but it was on our last day when we were already in the city where my mom lives.
We don't have an AC, but it's been really cold at night (LOVE Washington weather!)
We were late for the plane, but we made it.

We like our new apartment, and we have really nice neighbors. Hopefully we'll get us and my mom settled in the week or so after we're back so we can be finished with moving for a while... at least, until we find our house!

And that's all for now... we flew Southwest for the first time and discovered that we really like them. If they fly in your area, you might want to try them.

Apartments Found

YEA!!! The Great Apartment Hunt is finally over! The applications for both apartments were approved and we are in!
I am so excited, and so glad that now I can worry about other things, like the actual process of moving and finding new doctors up there. We'll be moving at the end of next month. I can't believe it's coming up so quickly-- we're going to miss all of you here in Utah.
Anyway, hooray!

New Ticker

Yeah, I know it's early, but we're SO EXCITED!!!! (Look up)

Depressed

Farewell, Governor Romney. You were the ray of hope in this bleak campaign.

(This is a pretty good article about the whole thing, if you're interested. I liked the whack-a-mole comparison!)

Mitt is out. I stood in line for almost 2 hours to vote, followed the debates and talked politics with everyone I know for this??? I don't know who on earth I'm going to vote for now, but let me tell you, I'm depressed. Things are not looking good for this country of ours. (And I'm not saying he was perfect, but c'mon... first we lost Thompson, the stand-by-the-Constitution guy, and now Romney, our one candidate with morals.) We're about to have the biggest fights on the family, goodwill to mankind, and honesty in our dealings if I know anything about who's left in the race. Get prepared, all. We need to be ready.

Consequently, anyone know any good third-party candidates?

Our Prophet Dear

Our beloved prophet and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gordon B. Hinckley, passed away earlier this evening. He has been our leader for the past 12 years, and we are sad to see him go. Wikipedia has some wonderful information about his life and teachings, and there are many local news stations that have done stories as well.
I just want to take this opportunity to bear my testimony to you that I know this church is true. I know it with all my heart. I know that prophets are called of God, each having specific work to do and special revelations given that help them lead the generations. I know that Heavenly Father will decide who the next president is, and I already sustain him fervently. I am so grateful for the stability of knowing who I am, where I am going, and what to do here so I can get to where I want to be. I know that families can be together forever, and this makes me want to work harder to make sure I can be with Steve and Adam and all of our families for eternity. I know that the gospel will bring you true joy and peace. And I know that Heavenly Father wants all of His children to come to know Him and His gospel.
I hope all of you who read my blog who are not LDS will take just a moment to visit mormon.org and see what we are about.

Much love,

Margaret