9/11/08-9/14/08

Thursday 9/11/08 – After my doctors appointment today I stopped by the other campus at work and had lunch with Sara Vierling, one of my old teammates. I also picked up a big bag of baby clothes from my old boss Lisa Stevens. Trent and Kellie also got a cute pair of overalls for Clark and Cherie brought in a corn heating pad for my back. After work I had planned to go to Family Storytime with Lijah, Rossi, Astrid, and 2 little girls Rossi was babysitting. But one of the girls got dropped off without shoes so Lijah and I went over to Rossi's house to play instead. Garry had just made fresh chocolate chip cookies, which were delicious! Lijah didn't eat his so I got to eat it for him! The kids played with play-doh on the dining room table, Lijah screamed at the dog, and all the kids hopped onto the office chair and Garry spun them around in circles. Lijah had a lot of fun, and it was nice for me to see Rossi again.

Friday 9/12/08 – Tuesday was my 6-year anniversary working at Capella University and I had received a Happy Anniversary balloon. I decided to bring it home for Lijah over the weekend. While I was sitting on the side of the road waiting for Jason to pick me up, the balloon somehow came untied from the string and floated up into the air – it was a pretty sad sight. So all I had to bring home was a purple ribbon – but what's funny is that Lijah had a good time playing with the ribbon. Jason went out and bought a Archos 605 multimedia player as a backup for his DJ gigs. We really can't afford it right now, but he took on an extra wedding reception to cover the cost of it so we will be able to pay back that money in just a few weeks. But this also means that he has 2 receptions in one weekend – but he was up for it so we could get it.

Saturday 9/13/08 – In the morning Lijah and I went for a walk around the neighborhood – it was the Waite Park neighborhood garage sale. There were four within a few blocks of us so we just went (without the wagon). Lijah did a good job holding my hand and staying close. I was a bit scared since I am so pregnant and I would not really be able to chase after him very well, but was happy that he was a good boy. Lijah got a pack of bouncy balls and some flashcards, and a SpongeBob pencil topper from a free box. Then we had a snack and headed to the library to pick up the books for the hospital stay that I put on hold. I will be reading The 5 People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom and The Joyful Christian by C.S.Lewis. We also picked up some videos and books for Lijah. During Lijah's nap I went to Target to pick up some last minute things for the hospital and the house, and of course groceries. By the time I was done shopping I was in a lot of pain from walking so much and I just wanted to get out of there. The cashier rang me up and the total was almost $200 (yikes!) and then I gave her my coupons. On the very last coupon the computer malfunctioned and shut down. She called the manager over and she said "You rang a coupon didn't you? This started happening earlier this week". The poor cashier was a "New Team Member", or so her badge said, and no one bothered to tell her that this caused the machines to shut down (poor girl). So she had to un-bag everything and re-ring it all up. She was able to get the manager to give me a $3 courtesy coupon, but that was all she could swindle for me. However, when she rang me up the second time the total was only $160. I'm not sure if she missed some items on accident, or on purpose, but I sure was happy to have saved that much money for my misfortune. I would gladly go through this ordeal for that kind of savings again! After Lijah's nap we went over to Cherie's house – today is her birthday (49th). Cherie, Dan, Abbie, Angie, Dylan, Alyssa, Zachary, Jason, Me, and Lijah were there. We had cake and ice cream and the kids played. While I was cutting the cake Lijah actually started drooling while waiting for his turn and kept saying cake too, cake too, cake too.

Sunday 9/14/08 – This morning I slept in until 8:15am. When I woke up I was scared something was wrong with Lijah because he's usually up around 7am. But then I turned up the monitor and heard him in his room talking to himself. When I went in there he was sitting on his bed, in the dark, reading a book about construction trucks. He was wide awake and just waiting patiently for me to come and get him. There was a Stake Conference at church but we did not go. But I did have a meeting after the conference so I headed up to the church building for that. I am on the Enrichment Committee and we have a quarterly activity coming up in October about creating righteous traditions in the home. We decided to have a few sisters speak on the importance and ideas for having scripture study and family meals together. We also decided to have soups and salad for dinner and a give-away table. It should be fun. In November I will also be the chair for the Ward Craft Day – I'm excited for that! After Lijah's nap we cleaned my bedroom up and went though all of my clothes to fill up a donation box. I had a ton of clothes and shoes to get rid of….. Then Lijah and I made some snacks (Peanut Butter Candies) – they had cream cheese, peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs, powdered sugar, and chocolate on top. While they were setting in the freezer we went of for Lijah's bath – then came back down and pigged out on our snacks. In the middle of the night I woke up and all I could think about were those snacks, so I went downstairs and polished them off.