9/6/08-9/10/08

Saturday 9/6/08 – This morning Lijah and I went to the Kroening Interpretive Center at the North Mississippi Regional Park (just across 94 - it's at about 49th and Lyndale). They were going to have this animals program there, which was cancelled, but they told me that there will be a naturalist at the Interpretive Center all day and that she would show off their turtles, toad, frog, salamander and snake. When we walked in Lijah liked all of the stuffed birds 'flying' from the ceiling and they had a room with all of the animals in their little cages. I asked the woman if she could take some of them out and she did. Then when 10am rolled around (when the program was supposed to start) a bunch of kids showed up thinking that the program was still happening. So they the naturalist did a little impromptu program for everyone that showed up and brought out all of the animals. Lijah definitely liked having one-on-one time with the animals before the other older kids showed up, but he still had a good time. They also had some other things to do there – a touch and feel box, a cutaway car that Lijah was able to 'drive', some puzzles, and some other stuff. About a block away was a park so we drove down there after we were done at the Kroening Interpretive Center. Lijah had a great time, there was a lot to do and many different areas to play in. Then he started growling and trying to scare me, so even though I am having a baby in a week I played along and let him 'chase' me down the slides and up the ramps and all over the park. It was probably more running than I should have been doing, but he was so excited that I was playing along that I couldn't help it. While at the park we saw some squirrels, or 'eeks' as Lijah calls them, and flying grasshoppers, and about a ton of goose poop. I knew he wouldn't want to leave the park so I got him to growl and chase me some more…..right out to the parking lot (sucker!). After we got home I walked over to a garage sale and got a finger painting idea book for 20 cents and then Lijah took a nap. While he was sleeping Jason ran out to get the oil changed in the car at the dealership and I henna'd my hair red with black streaks (but the black turned out more of a dark brown), and then I slept for 30 minutes. Then all three of us ran up to Rainbow to get a few groceries. When we got home Lijah and I made chocolate chip cookies – my first attept at making chocolate chip cookies. They are definitely not the chewy kind of cookies, but they weren't burnt, and a good first attempt.

Sunday 9/7/08 – Went to church and took a nap afterwards. We made chili for dinner and spinach dip for lunches this week – Lijah helped with both. Watched Big Brother, and that's about it for this lazy Sunday. 11 days to go until Clark arrives! It is kind of nice having a countdown…..

Tuesday 9/9/08 – Yesterday and today traffic was horrible getting into downtown. Today at about Hennepin Avenue and Central I had Jason drop me off and hopped on a bus. The bus was packed, but there was one seat open. It was only open because there was a lady with a stroller and carseat who moved her carseat off the seat so I could sit down (bless her heart). The bus even had to not let more people on the bus because the people standing were already packed like sardines. I don't know what I would have done if I was not able to sit. I probably would have gotten off the bus and just sat on the side of the road and cried. I ended up being almost a half hour late to work. At 11am I had an ultrasound appointment and Clark got all of his points. At the very end of the day my inbox disappeared and I was frantically trying to find where all of my work emails went, and then the phone rang. It was Jason wondering where I was. I had forgotten it was my early day – I get off at 4:30 on Tuesdays and it was about 4:40. With being late and the inbox disappearing I totally forgot about leaving at 4:30. So I had to run downstairs and find Jason who had went around the block. He was stopped in the middle of the street so I had to run in between cars to get to him – it was crazy, but I made it. Then we headed to the library and picked up some books and a few new videos for Lijah. Lijah had a great time running up and down the book aisles. We hadn't gone for so long that I forgot how much I love the library! I also got a call from my dad today and he is going in for surgery at Buffalo Hospital on October 13th for a knee replacement. He said that his rheumatoid arthritis has eaten away all of his cartilage and it is bone rubbing against bone and there are bone spurs breaking off in his knee - needless to say it is causing alot of pain. It's a relatively safe surgery - the only real risk is infection or rejection of the implant. I will pray that everything goes smoothly and as planned…..

Wednesday 9/10/08 – Last night I had my bedroom window open since it was nice and cool outside. I love listening to all the crickets chirping as I fall asleep, and now it is cold enough that the birds are not annoyingly loud in the morning. But I woke up at about 3:30am to use the bathroom and as usual I could not fall back asleep. On top of that there was a bug of some sort outside of my window that I have lovingly named an "alarm clock bug". It sounded exactly like an alarm clock going off, only it sounded like it was an alarm clock under a pillow. It had the same annoying scratchy beep at a very consistent pace. I even checked my own alarm clock to make sure it was not stuffed underneath my pillow – but that was not the case. I tried with all my might to ignore it and fall asleep since I was in so much pain and getting up once more seemed unbearable. But when 4:30am rolled around I could not deal with it anymore and finally got up to shut the window. That helped, but now then it just sounded like an alarm clock stuffed under a mattress! At work, my building was holding a tenant appreciation event with free ice cream, cookies, baked goods, and raffles. I went down with a coworker and pigged out. Probably not the best thing for my blood sugar levels…..but it sure was good! I ended up eating some ice cream, a chocolate chip cookie, a rocky road torte, and 2 kisses (yum!). Then about an hour later I had a meeting to go to at work. One of our customers said that they wanted an update on the status of an issue we were trying to fix. As Scot and I walked through the breakroom to the conference room, I was surprised with a baby shower. There was no meeting at all – it was just a front (luckily, since I had no clue on what to do next with the customers issue!). Since I haven't really bonded with most of my new team yet I wasn't expecting that they would think about throwing a shower for me. They got a box of cookies from the Classic Cookie Company (my favorite), my new team gave me a Target girt card for $160 (wow!), my old boss Lisa Stevens gave a card and a $20 Target gift card, Tia King brought diapers and 3 onsies, Kate Engstrom brought a polka dot blanket, a hat and booties, and a bag of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, and grandma brought 2 shirts, pants, and PJ's. Of course I had to eat another cookie – so I really put myself over the edge today. After work my visiting teachers came over for a visit and to share a short spiritual lesson with me (this month it was on our eternal potential). After that Lijah and I watched his new video from the library on Caterpillar machines. He got out his dump truck and little Cat bulldozer and lined them up on the couch. Each time he saw one on the video he would make his toy do what the machine on the video was doing. It was very exciting for him. In the middle of the night he woke up crying and I let him cry it out for a bit. Then he got back up and really was crying so I went in to check on him. The poor guy started hyper-ventilating and had a real hard time calming down. When I was listening to him through the monitor in my bedroom I heard him saying "no", and "ow", and "kitty" – so I can only assume that he was dreaming that the kitty was hurting him or someone was hurting his kitty. He would not lay down in his bed with me and he just would not stop crying. But he did keep pointing across the hall to my room, so I let him come crawl into bed with me and we both slept just fine. Actually, the 2 times he has slept with me it seems that I sleep better – maybe because I have to focus on not waking him up…..