Goodbye to the Good 'ole Days

I guess last week Isabelle was giving us a good bye to the good ole’ days. She really wanted us to miss her first year. Because we do. Saturday, her first FULL day of being 2 was indeed, terrible. She was so exceedingly UNagreeable that she was “disciplined” upwards of 12 times. This is how the day began. “Isabelle, do you want cereal or eggs for breakfast?” “I want jelly beans.” Mommy replies, “Jelly beans aren’t a choice. Eggs or Cereal?” This goes back and forth a couple of times before, “Jell bells!! I want Jell bells!” Later that day she told us, “I want doggy. I NEED doggy.”

By 10:30pm, three hours AFTER her normal bedtime, she still wasn’t asleep. I am already not sleeping well and pretty much exhausted all of the time, I was reduced to tears at the thought of two of these children. What was I thinking? How can I manage two? (keep in mind, my wonderful husband and father of our children is really doing most of the “managing” at this point) Conrad told me I had better keep my genes in check with this next child, because he doesn’t think he can take two little “mini me’s”

Sunday morning, after two early morning episodes of “discipline” we decided church was out of the question for all of us, and started looking for a way to get out of the house and spend some of Isabelle’s energy. We decided to venture to the zoo. We actually bought season pass’s and the weather was beautiful! We had a wonderful time at the zoo and Isabelle really enjoyed it this time. The first time we took her she was about 11 months old. She really loved the animals and the train and begged to go on the merry go round (ie. See the horseys), but still screamed bloody murder on it…apparently she hasn’t grown out of her fear of things that go in circles. All in all, Sunday helped to redeem the weekend for us, and we had a great time together!

Happy Birthday Baby

Today our baby is 2 years old! This time, exactly two years ago the ptossin was just starting to kick in and I was beginning to get a little uncomfortable. And at 12:57pm, we excitedly welcomed Isabelle into our little family.

Yesterday, she was exceedingly agreeable. I can only hope that this means her “terrible two’s” will be terrific…hmmmm. We had such a great night hanging out and Isabelle was chatty and fun. Not one melt down! As I laid down with her last night when I put her to bed, I couldn’t help but be amazed at how one little person can change your life so much. It’s certainly more work than anything I have ever done in my life, and more worth it than anything I have ever done. My favorite sight in the world is her sparkling brown eyes, and my favorite sound is her saying, “You coming, Mama?” and her giggling when her Daddy tickles her, and my favorite smell, is predictably, Isabelle after her nightly bath. Children are certainly God’s way of blessing us. Happy Birthday Baby!


Isabelle August 8, 2006



Isabelle August 8, 2007


Isabelle August 8, 2008

Does my family like Conrad?

I recently ran across a blog where the author wrote the following couple of paragraphs. I laughed so hard, I almost spewed my non-fat, sugar free, decaf coffee. Just take out “Jon” and replace it with “Conrad.”

My father and stepmother gave both Jon and me cards with a little bit of cash tucked inside for our recent birthdays. They signed my card, "Love you." Jon's card was signed with, "Thanks for being who you are. Also, have we told you lately just how grateful we are you took one for the team? I mean, we know how hard it must be, and the fact that you continue to put up with it shows just how amazing you really are. There was a time when we thought she'd die alone, deserved to die alone, and then you came along and made it so that we didn't have to field those late night phone calls. You truly have a place reserved for you in heaven."

Okay, maybe it was just that first sentence, but I know exactly what my dad is trying to say when he doesn't say it. And when people ask me if my parents like Jon, I'm all, like Jon? Hmm. How do I put this? They think Jesus sent him.

Warming Up

In hopes of getting Isabelle used to the idea of being a big sister, we have been using our little niece Abigail as somewhat of a guinea pig. And, of course, wanting these two to be friends too. I’m sure it didn’t help when my mom would be holding Baby Abby, we would tell Isabelle, “Look, Oma has the NEW baby, you’re the OLD baby.” Then proceed to ask her if she liked Abigail. She would scowl in the general direction of the pink soft little bundle and answer with a definitive, “No.” (If you are a parent to be, perhaps you should add these things to the list of “Not to Do’s” that you have been subconsciously compiling.)

Now that Abby is about four months old, Jona let her hold Abby on her lap and this seemed to quell the storm of competition. The whole time Abby was with us, Isabelle stayed close by her stroller or by her side. She would rub her face and say, “Nice Baby.” Or “Soft Baby.” All the while, Abby had this semi-concerned, “Are you all sure about this?” look on her face.

Luckily, in keeping with her mother’s personalities, Abby is easy going (and consequently already sleeps through the night with little effort) and compliant. While Isabelle, in keeping with her mother’s personality, rides through life like a cowboy on a bucking bull. She came from the womb crying, “Listen up folks, it’s my way or the highway!” Good times…

Birthday Week Continues

This weekend we went to my mom and dad’s to have a family birthday party for Isabelle. We definitely took it down a few notches from her first birthday party, which, let’s be honest, was mostly for the grown ups, since she had no idea what was going on! This one was dinner at a pizza place, lot’s of family, cake, and presents. What more could a 2 year old ask for?

The weekend seems somewhat of a blur for me, with only the pictures to remind me of the festivities. Maybe I was on a sugar high (or low??) from the cake, but I was so tired all weekend I could hardly function. And this seems to be a regular occurrence these days, with at least one day a week going by in a sleepy headed blur.

Fountain Fun

Here's a clip from Easton last weekend


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Friday Mortgage Update

Conrad and I have been so excited about our Money Merge account, we have been counting down the days until we make our first big "principle only payment" into our mortgage! Well, today was THE day! So I thought I would share our excitement with you! We paid $6500 toward the principle of our mortgage today, cutting 2 years and 7 months off of our remaining time and saving $19,500 in interest that we no longer have to pay to our mortgage company! Whoo hoo! And we've only been on the program two months!

I have had a lot of friends ask me how the money merge works. Aren't I just taking money from a line of credit and putting it toward my mortgage? No. If that were the case, we would be WAY over budget already. Since we only have a $12000 line of credit, which we took

$9500 out to pay off loans at the beginning
$6500 Principle payment to mortgage
_____
$16000

But we still have almost $3000 left on our line of credit. It's simple finance principles of letting your money work for you instead of the bank. Seriously, if you haven't already, take the time to check the program out!
www.u1stfinancial.net/daniellemichael

Birthday Week(s) Begins

Saturday Conrad and I took Isabelle out to Easton to celebrate her birthday with "just" us. We went to Friends 2B Make and had she got to make her own doll. And we had only one melt down, as we were doing her doll's hair and she decided she definatley DID NOT want ribbons in the dolls hair.

Next we took her out to the fountains where Mommy and Daddy enjoyed some starbucks and Isabelle enjoyed the fountains. It's the first time we have taken her there, but I have looked forward to taking her here for years...probably before we had kids! It's so fun to watch the kids having fun here!

It's the Little Things..

I made muffins on Friday for a work thing and for my family. I got up early and left for work. Isabelle got up later and went into the kitchen with Daddy for her usual waffle and yogurt breakfast. I had told Conrad that there were blueberry muffins, which Isabelle loves. He called me later and told me that he pulled one out and Isabelle said, “Muffin…ohhhhhhh.” And took it to her little table to enjoy for breakfast. But she insisted on eating with her Daddy, “Sit Daddy,” She commanded and he sat at her little table and they enjoyed breakfast together. And she kept asking, “Mommy at work?” Because isn’t that where Mommy always is??

Napping with her favorite Daddy.

Happy Friday Blog Game

I got this from Sohailah's blog. I haven't been getting many comments lately, and am beginning to wonder if people are still reading our blog?! So, to selfishly solicite responses, I would like to play the following game:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Sleepy Girl

After a weekend of staying up late, getting up early, irregular naps, and lots of parties and hanging out, Isabelle couldn’t quite make it through dinner Sunday night.

China Team Reunion

Our good friends and "m's" from China, Dave and Lorna came to visit us last week. We were so excited to see them and spend time with them. And, as a matter of fact, the last time they were here to visit, Kim and I were roommates and both preparing to get married in a few months. So this visit was the first time they got to meet Conrad or Isabelle. we had such a good time talking about the Lord, comparing notes (and laughing) on being in cross cultural marriages (Lorna is Philipina), and just haning out!

Last weekend we also had a China team reunion (I took a group from my church in '03 to do a STM trip)It was at Kim’s house.Kim and I got married within a month of each other. Her son, Andrew, is just over a year old, and now we are both pregnant with our second and due one day apart!! We couldn’t have planned this! Here are some great pictures of Andrew, Isabelle, and Dave at our “reunion.” Isabelle thought Dave and Lorna were great, and every time they left the room, she'd go, "Where'd they go?" Not to mention she would sneak up the stairs to thier room and burst in unannounced whenever she could get away with it!

The Unfortunate Fate of my Flowers

It seems like both summers I have been pregnant, my plants die. Maybe I’m imagining things, but in 2006, while I was pregnant with Isabelle I bought a bunch of annuals and recruited Conrad and my brother-in-law Hubert to help me (i.e. do all of the real work while I supervised from my shaded perch) plant them in our flower beds. Everything last one of them shriveled up and died.

That fateful summer prompted me to decide to do only container gardening. The next summer things went swimmingly. I had beautiful flowers and plants. This summer, believing that my blooming curse had been lifted, I bought several wonderful flats of colorful flowers and planted them in containers.

A few weekends ago, while we were away in Georgia, we had several big storms and it pretty much drowned my plants in pots. They must need better drainage. But I find it odd since I’ve used these planters before?? Between the rain and the kamikaze birds that continue to dive bomb my hanging plants until they plummet daily to a dry concrete death, I’m fresh out of energy to maintain plant life.

Sadly, three weeks after spending big bucks on the dang things, I threw them out. Maybe next year I just have to stick with those pre-planted pots you get at Wal-Mart. Time to dumb it down a little more.

A Visit to the Hospital slash Spa

Our OB recently switched hospitals, which means that we have to deliver at the new hospital. I was sort of bummed about the change…until we took a maternity tour of the new hospital!
This place just opened in January and all I can say is WOW! You walk in to natural light, stone, bamboo, and water walls. No bright florescence or obnoxious paging systems. All of the staff wears personal pagers on their persons.

The maternity floor has a private, secure garden complete with rocking chairs for you to take your new baby out to relax. Each “suite” has a refrigerator, a queen size sleeper sofa, for your family to sleep in while you are there, and a personal PC where you have full internet access and where you order your meals. Of course, they don’t have typical meal service, but provide room service, at your leisure, which you order from you Personal computer. Your husband hungry? No problem, order online and pay with a credit card, and they will deliver right to your room.

I think I may never go home.

Weekend Rants and Raves

I have to take a few minutes to rant and rave. Let’s start out on a positive note, so I’ll rave. I got a new hair guy. All I can say is wow! He gave me my dream hair! He just moved to Columbus from New York City, he is tattooed from head to toe and very very gay. And he is fabulous (albeit overpriced, but when you are pregnant, it’s worth the big bucks to make you feel good about your hair). My hair looks shiny and full of body both straight (which he calls “smooth”) and curly. He is a miracle worker! And if you are in Columbus and need miracle working hair services..I highly recommend David, the owner of Salon Hotel Lily. And no, I have no idea what the name means. I need to ask next time I’m there.

Now on to the ranting. I am 7 months pregnant, I have a toddler, and I work full time. Our only day to sleep in, and when I say sleep in I mean 6:45am, is Saturday morning. Precious time here, people. This Saturday morning I was rudely awakened by a lawn mower right outside my window at 6:07am. The neighbors lawn literally comes within 5 feet of our bedroom window. I was perturbed, to say the least. So what’s a girl to do? I threw on my pink robe and went outside to talk to said lawn mowing guy.

“Hey!” no response. “Hey!” Stopped lawnmower and looked at me with a blank stare. “Do you think you could wait a couple of hours to do that?” said incredulously. “Nope. I got 22 lawns to mow today. Talk to the homeowners.” Start mower back up and go on his merry way.

What to do? The house has been empty for a couple of months as the homeowners have been trying to sell it. I did what any self respecting blogger would do, I got my camera and went out into the early morning, uncomplimentary light, and started snapping pictures of the perpetrator. Later, I called the realtor, who’s name was on the sign in front to ask her to relay a message to the homeowners for us.

To add insult to injury, he followed his mowing, with trimming and edging, STILL five feet from our bedroom window.

Hello Atta!

Most Saturday mornings we are online with Conrad's family catching up on a video conversation. It gives us a chance to see everyone and everyone to see us (by us I mean Isabelle!) What we discovered a few days ago is that Isabelle is starting to recognize everyone. We were showing her pictures and we asked her "Who is that?" And she said, "Atta" (her grandma),"Alistair" and "Alana." She's starting to remember names!

Mustang Sally

This is my daughter in Aunt Brenda's corvette. The girl LOVES this car. She cries and throws a royal fit when you take her out. Aunt Brenda was just moving the car from one parking spot to another with Isabelle on her lap, and Isabelle tried desperately to shoo her hands away from the steering wheel with a commanding, "I drive!" I hope this isn't shadowing of things to come...

Her True Colors

Conrad dropped Isabelle off at Daycare this morning. Isabelle was pouting about something and her teacher was laughing at her obvious ploy for attention. She then commented, "You know she's wonderful, as long as she gets her way." Hmmm...our words exactly.

The Michaels went down to Georgia

While Isabelle was visiting Oma and Opa (i.e. running them around like a puppy on a leash!..On second thought I'm not sure who was running who around) Conrad and I drove to Atlanta for a United First Financial Conference (the mortgage thing I wrote about last week).

It was a good conference. It was really good to connect with Chris, our friend from Colorado, and to gather some much needed wisdom and advice from him. As well as get a feel for the company. We were reassured to see how focused the company was on getting families out of debt. AND we were excited to see that UFF just won the 2008 Ernst and Young Entreprenuer of the Year Award in Financial Services. This is huge and means, even if you've never heard about this program...you will, it's only a matter of time before this becomes standard practice for the financial industry. And we feel pretty excited to be involved at this juncture!

We also got to have dinner with some friends while we were in Atlanta. It was soo good to connect with old Teen Mania friends, to introduce my husband to them, and to let him in on a little of my TM past. Not to mention, as I looked around the table, I was amazed to see how many movers and shakers were there. Brenda is a chaplain at Georgetown U, Chris is at Focus on the Family, Reggie is basically the CFO at Teen Mania, and Brad and Friends work at Orange (252 basics, if you are involved in Children's ministry or Northpoint Church) Definatley a group I am proud to call friends!

Going to Oma & Opas

I'm ready for them...but are they ready for me?

It'll be paid off in six years!

I recently ran into an old friend on Facebook. Some of you know Chris A, from our Teen Mania days. Chris and Kimmy now live in Colorado and Chris works for Focus on the Family. But, he also has another business, he helps families pay off their homes faster. When I found out about this, I immediately went into research mode.

After much questioning and googling, Conrad and I made an appointment with Chris and had him run an analaysis on our home. We were blown away to find that we could take our remaining 24 year mortgage down to 5.7 years! And, we did it without changing our monthly mortgage payments, our monthly budget, or refinancing. Needless to say, we jumped in and are so excited about what this has meant for our family! Imagine…we will own our home before Isabelle is even almost done with elementary school! Even if we decide to move, the amount of equity we will have in our home to cash out is drastic!

As I started thinking about it and praying about it, I got more and more excited about what this would mean for my friends and family and for the Body of Christ, in general. Imagine what we could really do if we weren’t bound by so much debt! The more we found out about the program, the more we started telling everyone we know about it. At this point, I decided I need to become an agent with the company. It’s certainly been a long time since I was THIS excited about anything that I called “work.”

If you want to find out more about the program, you can check out my website(www.u1stfinancial.net/daniellemichael) at and just click on “Money Merge Account Overview” in the middle of the page to view an 18 minute video that shows how the program works. Contact me if you want to find out if you qualify.

Rice

Yesterday I took the class on how to manage my gestational diabetes. My husband, who has been mocking me endlessly about how I can no longer, ever, in my whole existance, have dessert got a rude awakening. The dietician directed us that it was all about carb control. I can have the sweet, as long as I take into account the carb content and it's within my carb limits. This explains why Asians have such a high rate of diabetes...especially considering the average Asian rarely eats anything remotely sweet. One word: Rice.

If you've ever eaten in any Asian country or sat down to an Indian meal at my house, you know that 90% of any Indian Meal is rice. The dietician told us that a serving of rice is 1/4 cup! Yikes! That is not much rice! So Honey, I'll give up ALL dessert if you give up ALL rice, deal?

Speaking of sweet, here is our little Diva and her watering can last weekend.

The Ups and Downs

Well, we had a great weekend celebrating Father's Day with Conrad. Isabelle and I made him homemade cinnamon rolls and eggs and let him sleep in a bit. When we got into the bedroom for "breakfast in bed" he was already up and brushing his teeth. Isabelle went into the bathroom, took him by the hand, with a commanding, "Come, Dadda." and led him back to bed, where he (and mostly she) enjoyed his breakfast treats.

By Monday, mid morning at work, I had thrown up all over myself and rushed out of the office, thinking it was my normal morning sickness routine, I would run home and change and come back to work. By the time I got home I was shaking and had chills and STILL throwing up violently. So I went to bed.

Come to find out, Conrad has pretty much the same symptoms. We were both down for the count for two days with what we assume was either food poisoning or the stomach flu. While, Isabelle was amazingly calm in the face of our sickness. Usually, me being sick means she can get mighty needy.

Anyway, Monday afternoon, I also got a call from my doctor's nurse saying that my blood glucose test came back so high that there was no need for a second test, I was automatically put in the gestational diabetese category. Of course, this freaked me out, especially being as irrational as one can be while sick!

So tommorrow I have a class on how to eat and how to test my blood sugar levels. I have just been feeling SOO much better with this pregnancy than with the last, I couldn't believe this complication. On the other hand, this does explain the never ending fatigue.

We know God is still in control. But I am still a bit worried about the baby, and that's saying a lot, as I'm really not much of a worrier. So keep us..and our little one in your prayers if you think of it.

Sad Man, Coming Soon!

Lately, Isabelle's independance has been peaking. If she doesn't get something she wants, she'll scream, do the back arch, and then put her little finger in your face and say, "No!" My first reaction is to laugh...especially when she's doing it to her Daddy, and I'm just an innocent by stander.

But we both push the laugher down and proceed with responsible course of correction. I'm thinking of inviting the Miller's new family friend, Sad Man, to our house soon.

The Best Monday Ever

Monday at 5am I got a call saying that the air conditioner went out at our building and we were not "required to report to work today." unless you were scheduled to work at a different location. Fortunatley, I was scheduled at the said building and didn't have to go to work! And still got paid..whoo hoo!

Thank God for old buildings! (We won't go into the fact that I get severe headaches every day I'm in the office building or WHY that may be!)

So Isabelle and I spent the day running errands, napping...wonderful napping, and finished our day off with a couple of hours at the pool...so fun!

I also wanted to show a few pictures from Isabelle's trip to Cedar Point with my mom and dad a few weeks ago. She had a blast! But probably not as much fun as her grandparents had!



And then I have to throw in one of our little country girl, driving a tractor with Opa...

Summer. Finally!

We have been in perpetual winter in ohio for what seems like YEARS! Well...we finally hit summer...at a dead run...today is supposed to be 95 degrees here in Ohio! I can't complain, I have honestly felt like the White Witch left Narnia and came to Ohio.

And we made our maiden voyage to the pool last week.

Happy Anniversary

Wednesday marked three years of marriage for Conrad and I! I still can’t believe it’s been three whole years! And I still can’t believe it’s been ONLY three years! These years have, beyond a shadow of a doubt, been the best of my life! Not only did I get to spend them with the Love of my life, but we got one and a half little “arrows” in our quiver. Who could ask for more?

Conrad is the best husband in the world. I know you think you have the best, but I do! God seems to have made us for each other, even though we were born and raised oceans apart. How wild it is that God brought us together from different counties, continents, and languages…amazing! And I love having a bi-cultural family!

We celebrated with take out Chipotle and a dozen red roses my thoughtful husband brought home to me! Every day, especially when I’m at work or traveling for work, I always think of Conrad and think how lucky am I?? I love you babe!

Rock On

Thanks Vicky for posting this on your facebook. All our old Teen Mania Internship friends have been posting scary old pictures lately. That's my bedroom, and Gwen was one of my(six)roomates and good friend. You gotta love the hair, don't you??

American Prom, in Review

Recently while traveling I was listening to This American Life from NPR. They were mulling over the American tradition of Prom. Besides being fascinated by the subject, having lived through the Public High School experience, (By the way, I didn’t go to prom. My logic? Well, I was saving for a missions trip and just couldn’t fathom spending the money involved!) I was also appalled, and a little scared. And I started to realize I was also developing a nervous twitch in my eye, as I thought about my sweet little daughter ever experienced this ridiculous right of passage.

The twitch began as the narrator was talking about covering a local prom in Chicago. Apparently at this prom, all of the “serious” couples go out on the dance floor with a chair. The girl sits in the chair, moves her dress up to expose a garter…yes..a garter! And the boy has to remove the garter with his teeth. Okay…I’ve seen this at weddings (still tacky and just a little too much information for me)…but we are talking about HIGH SCHOOL PROM. The ultra-liberal-NPR reporter was also a bit taken back by this and approached teachers to ask their response to such a display. He was told (by the teachers) to basically get his head out of the sand, this had been going on for years!

I know girls really look forward to having this pseudo-wedding day in highschools all across the country, and boys look forward to the pseudo-wedding night in highschools all across the country. I guess not much has changed in that aspect in the past few decades. But, as a Believer, I have to tell ya, I got issues with this. And this event takes on a whole new light when you become a parent…and my children (in womb included) aren’t even near this experience yet.

At this point, maybe we’ll take Conrad’s preferred plan and just send them to India.

What's In A Name?

We are bouncing around some names for Baby Michael #2. Our (i.e. MY) number one choice on the list for a boy is Hudson Taylor. Of course, named after the famous 19th century missionary and founder of China Inland Missions. I think keeping up the tradition of naming our children after missionaries is something I’d like to keep. But Conrad thinks this name is crazy. All he can think about is the Hudson River. And wonders if we are really going to name our child after a river. At least he doesn’t think of Rock Hudson, right


For boys, we also like Phinn(as in Phinneas, but I’m not sure we can do that to a poor child), Solomon, and Boaz. But again, not sure if we can do that to a child. But all shorten-able to easier to manage names like Sol or Bo. Still manly, but less mockable in a middle school setting. Can you see where I’m going with this?

For a girl, we are tossing around Grace or Elle. We like Elisabeth, but Isabelle is the Spanish form of Elisabeth, so we don’t really want to do that. I may have to peruse my Guardians of the Great Commission book to check out more names. Can you think of any girl names? I do need to preface that statement with good names. I guess that is subjective. Although I like Lottie Moon…not sure how I feel about Lottie. Maybe Charlotte?

A Sink Bath

Last weekend we went to my mom and dads for the dedication of their new church building. It was great to connect with friends and family from all over and see my parents’ new building, which looks really good, thanks to their interior decorator!

Some of you, who didn’t grow up in a pastor’s family, may not have experienced the drama of building a new church. Church’s (that shall remain unnamed) have split over choosing carpet colors! Not to mention, it’s always good to avoid hurting feelings when Sister Good-Intention-And-Bad-Taste goes to the local Wal-Mart and purchases her favorite statue of Jesus pouring water into wine for the church sanctuary. I know you think I made that up. I didn’t. You can always just reject the good intention and blame it on the decorator. Who should NOT be a regular attendee of your house of worship.

Unfortunately, the night was so busy, I didn’t get any pictures. I’ll try to remedy that later. I will say it was a lovely weekend since my friend Heidi and I went for a massage on Saturday (always a happy occurrence!) and I made dinner for all of my family and extended family on Sunday for mother’s day.

I’ll leave you with some pictures of Isabelle taking a bath in Grandma’s sink. Lately, she HATES baths. Which is odd, since she used to really enjoy them. I think it’s some kind of subconscious fear of the potty. But she loves when Granny gives her a bath, and in the sink…no less!

The Big Tease

As every pregnant woman knows, you begin counting down the days till your due date as soon as you have a due date! Every day is one day closer to the blessed event. Some of us count down because we can’t wait to see our little bundle of joy, some of us count down because it’s one day closer to feeling normal again! Okay, I am counting down for both reasons, obviously! But, honestly, some days I really resent all of you happy glowing pregnant women, tho! I’m surly, nauseated, and waddling….eesh.

A couple of weeks ago I had my first ultrasound and besides Michael Baby #2 being healthy and active, the tech also told me that I am due 5 days earlier than my original estimated due date. Well, let me tell you, I was jumping up and down for joy! Five whole days earlier! So I changed all the dates on my calendar and my tickers and took pride in the fact! Unfortunately, my doctor nixed this when I saw her several weeks after this. It’s like a big let down. Oh well..still happy about the healthy baby!

By the way, we aren’t going to find out the gender of this one. We figure the second child doesn’t get nearly the hype that the first one gets, so maybe this one will add to the hype. I guess the next question will be, will this one have a baby book/scrapbook?

This and That

We are officially in the spring cleaning mode. Sunday night we were at Wal-Mart and Conrad decided he wanted to paint our guest bathroom. So we picked up a gallon of paint and off he went! Actually, he pretty much finished his project before he went to bed that night! So we are officially down to only two completely white rooms left in our house to paint.

On our “To Do” for summer, included projects we need to “save” for before we complete them is fencing the back yard. This, we decided was important, after repeatedly having to chase Isabelle and catching her right before she went into the neighbors back screen door!! Also, we would like to install hardwoods in our kitchen area, and tile in our kitchen and bathroom backsplash. I keep telling my husband that he is an engineer, there has got to be very little that he can’t figure out to do himself…am I right? I should say this list is called the “Well-it-looks-like-we-are-going-to-be-here-a-while” List. Or the “Conrad To Do List, While Pregnant Wife sits on Couch.”

Isabelle is simply LOVING being outside. She runs up and down the driveway pushing her stroller. She also jumps on and off our swing. She calls it “winging.” When she sees the swing in the morning, out the window, she starts to cry, “Wiiiinnnnng.” She’s hilarious.

Good Parenting: Lesson 1

Yesterday when I dropped Isabelle off at daycare, I stopped at the one way window to watch her for a minute on the way out. I saw one little girl, Emma, who is several months younger but about ten pounds bigger than Isabelle, take off after her. Isabelle screeched and started to run as fast as she could around the room. Emma, with a big smile on her face , chased her until she caught the traumatized Isabelle and gave her a big squeeze. I couldn’t help but laugh at the scene. Isabelle then sat in a seat and Emma smooshed herself in the same seat next to her, both looking at the one way window. I think Isabelle then noticed that her mother was watching her through the window and laughing. She got a little upset at this point, but I quickly left so I wouldn’t have to see that part.