August 29, 2008

Yesterday was a LONG day for all of us. I had to work from 8:00 am until 9:00 pm because we had a meeting last night from 6-9:00. Work is so busy right now with the start of school next week. Jerry has been working in Kalamazoo this week, four 10 hour days. He's been waking up around 4:00, leaving before 5:00, to work 6-4:30, and he's been getting home around 5:30 or 6:00 every night. It's just been a little crazy around the Seevers' house this week.

At about 5:10 last night Jenn, our nanny, called me to tell me that Ally had an accident. She was running (go figure), slipped on the rug by our back door, and fell (go figure). She ended up hitting her head on the corner of the wall and it split open and was bleeding quite a bit. I asked her what it looked like and she said she couldn't really tell because Ally wouldn't let her look at it. I asked her to put Ally on the phone. I was asking Ally a few questions and then I told her to let Jenn look at her head. She let her at that point and Jenn said it looked like it stopped bleeding and Ally had stopped crying, so I said "she's fine".

Then right when my meeting was about to start (6:00) Jerry called me and said that he thinks Ally needs stitches. So I told him I would come home. He said "no, that's ok, your mom can come over and stay with the girls". So she did, and Jerry took Ally on her first trip to the Med-Center. Sure enough, she got 3 stitches. The doctor looked at her knees and noticed that they were all scraped up too and said something like "she must be an active little girl". All I can say is "Thank God he didn't call CPS on us!"

Ally was such a brave little girl! Daddy brided her with ice cream. He told her that if she was brave, didn't cry, and went to the doctor that she could have ice cream when she got home. So off they went, she didn't cry, she flinched a couple times (when the first shot went in, and second when the needle went in to stitch her up). But she didn't cry, she sat still, and was SUPER brave! So grandma gave her ice cream when she got home. This morning she told Jenn that she went to the doctor last night and she was all smiles!

August 24, 2008

Today was a fun day for the girls. We went to the farm...well, a couple of them. We saw cows, a bunny, fish, frogs, and pigs. We actually went to Jerry's dad's (he has the fish, frogs, and pigs) and his friend down the street has cows and a bunny. The girls loved them and OG now knows what a cow says "MOO, MOO, MOO, MOO, MOO" (you get the idea).

All the weeds that Jerry and his dad cut down in our backyard yesterday, Jerry decided to load them up on our trailer and take them up to feed the cows.

Jerry and his dad had to unload the weeds off the trailer. Ally watched the cows. Lauren, OG, and I stayed in the truck until they were done.

Lauren & OG got a kicked out of the cows. They were in awe of them and kept watching and talking to them in cow language (MOO).

Here's the bunny. OG kept calling him Bubby (that's our cat). I think she was a little confused...

Ally and grandpa with the cows. Ally was a little leery of the cows and going near them. She wasn't too sure of what they were going to do to her. She just kept her distance.

Grandpa, OG, Lauren, and Ally were feeding the fish ham. I didn't know fish liked ham, but they do. Jerry was out in the yard catching frogs, crickets, and grasshoppers and throwing them in the water to feed the fish too. I felt bad for those little guys.

Here are grandpa's pigs...the girls weren't too fond of them either, but I don't blame them. Pigs are pretty dirty and smelly animals. Don't worry, the girls all had a bath tonight!

After a long day at the farms, the girls had to cool off with some lemonade. Ally was a being a nice big sister and sharing hers.

August 22 & 23, 2008

(READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! This could get a little graphic. I apologize in advance.)

Yesterday I went to the dr and had a medical procedure done for permanent birth control. It's call Essure and it's a pretty new procedure in the US. Basically, it's an insertion of a small coil into the front part of the fallopian tubes and after about 3-6 months tissue grows around them and closes off the fallopian tubes so nothing can pass through to the uterus.

The procedure went as well as could be expected. For those of you that were with me throughout my pregnancy updates, you know nothing with my anatomy is normal. That's basically how this went as well. It's supposed to be a pretty easy , pretty painless procedure, but of course for me it was just as I should have predicted, a little less than easy and painless. The procedure went like this: first the nurse gave me a shot in my butt, basically it was like a shot of Motrin for the after effects. Jerry told me it was about a 2 inch long needle. The nurse told me that it would be a little uncomfortable for a few minutes, but then it would be fine. (My butt hurt for about 12 hours!) After the shot, I had to sit for 20 minutes and then another nurse brought me back to a surgical room. The dr then proceeded to put a bunch of scrubs on himself and on me. He said "I'm just putting this on so I don't get that wet." I looked at him like "what have I gotten myself into!?!?" Once he was ready, he set up the scope that he went in with. We could watch it on a monitor, my mom would've LOVED to see this! Luckily Jerry was with me because once the dr started to give me the local anesthetic (shots in the cervical area), I started getting light-headed. I almost passed out, but one of the nurses got me a cold cloth to put on my forehead and I just took deep breaths. The light-headedness passed after a few minutes, but by then I had already started crying and couldn't really stop. Once I felt better, the dr proceeded to clean out my cervix and then he started the Essure procedure. He put the scope in, showed us my cervix and the opening to my fallopian tubes. The reason for the dr's comment about getting wet was because they 'spray' water in to open up the uterus and the fallopian tube in order to 'stretch it out' so it's easier to put the coil in place. They must have went through quite an amount of water because it got all over the floor... Anyway, he tried to put the right coil in first...this is when the problems arose, at least for me. He kept saying I will have a little cramping, let me tell you, it was more than a little cramping. It was pretty painful and I have a pretty high tolerance of pain. So of course I closed my eyes, clenched my fists, and cried. At that point he took the scope out and said he'd have to try it again, unless it was too painful, then he could take me into an operating room. I said "no, I'm ok". I really meant to say "just put it in and get me out of here!" Finally on the second try he got it in where he wanted it, but not without more pain! He then told us that my tube was a little crooked and that's why he had a hard time (go figure, something not normal in my body). The left side was actually a piece of cake compared to the right side. The coil on the left went right in and I was done in a flash. The recovery was pretty good too. I laid on the table for about 15 minutes and then I decided to get up, get dressed, and get out of there. The only pain after the procedure that I had was from that stupid shot in my butt and a little cramping. Of course that's another thing that is a little strange with my body. The cramping I get with periods and with this procedure was only on my right side. I never get cramps on my left side. It's weird, I feel it on my right, in my back, and down my right leg. So until about 1:00 in the morning I had cramping on my right side. When I woke up this morning I felt all normal again. It was like nothing happened yesterday. So in three months I go back to see my dr and get an HSG to see if my tubes are closed or not. If they are, NO MORE BIRTH CONTROL PILLS FOR ME! NO MORE MIGRAINES FOR ME! YIPPY!

Today was a pretty good day. The girls spent the night at my mom's last night, so Jerry and I got to sleep in. This afternoon we went to get the girls and got to take a ride in my parents new motor home. It was pretty exciting, to say the least. Amy and Paul were there too, so the whole family went for a ride! The girls loved it and Amy and I decided that we could all travel to Florida this winter in the motor home. (We'll see if that happens, we might want to wait until the girls are a little older for that.)

Once we got home, Jerry's dad and his girlfriend, and grandma came over to see the girls and bring us a big tractor to knock some of our weeds down in the backyard. It was a nice visit and grandma always loves to see the girls.

August 18, 2008

Today was a busy, but fun day for us. This morning I brought the girls over to my friend Kari's for a playdate. Kari has two kids, Maddy who just turned 3 and Ben who is 8 months. And of course Aunt Anne was there with Jude and Ava. Jude is 3 and 1/2 and Ava is 18 months. All 7 of the kids are very close in age and are very good friends as well....although they kind of fight like brothers and sisters, it's interesting that they all love each other, but it's kind of a love/hate relationship most of the time, especially with the Ally, Jude, and Maddy (the little ones don't know too much yet, but I'm sure they'll be the same as their older siblings). Ally had a little break-down at one point, but I'll just blame the weekend for that one. (She didn't get much sleep and was SUPER tired today.)

Here are all the kids in one shot....it's amazing, that NEVER happens!

After the girls took a nap my Aunt Julie and cousin Amy came over for a nice long visit. Amy just came home from Australia and California. She's been gone since February....it sure is nice having her back home! My cousin Drew came over for dinner as well, the only one we were missing was cousin Kate. There's always next time. While Amy was in California, she got engaged and they set a wedding date for next August. Her fiance' Aaron is in the military and is stationed in California, so after the wedding Amy will be moving out there. But for now we get her here in good old MI so she can finish out her last semester at Spring Arbor University and then plan a nice big wedding. Oh and the best part about the wedding is that Lauren and Olivia are going to be her flower girls! WOW, she's brave!

Amy and Drew with Lauren...OG was a little afraid of Drew, cause he's so scary with his big smile!

Lauren and Drew feeling the vibration of the piano on their cheeks! What natural musicians.

Family and friends, a day couldn't get much better than that!

FINALLY!!!

I did it. I finally figured out how to put pictures on our blog! It wasn't too difficult, I'm just a little slow, that's all! So from here on out I vow to keep you up-to-date with postings AND pictures.

I hope you enjoy those that I already posted on there.

Many thanks to Lindsey for ALL your help and patience with me...I look forward to learning more on Thursday!

Fort Wayne Weekend

August 16, 2008

Today was a great day for everyone. Last night Ally spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa Bommelje and then they all went to Flint to see Thomas the Train. Along with riding the train they saw Bob the Builder, ate a snow cone, got tatoos, and took a quick 'bath' at the well pump. It was a long day, but good thing Ally got about a 25 minute nap on the 40 minute train ride.

It was a little strange only having 2 kids for the night and for the day today. It was SOOOO much easier. For all of you out that there only have 1 or 2 kids, be thankful...you've got it easy! For those of you with 3 or more...well, you're ALL just crazy!

Today Jerry and I cleaned (without an interruption) because the Lauren and Olivia were taking their morning nap. Then we had lunch (without fighting). Then we went to the bookstore. Lauren and Olivia met some kids while looking at some books. The kids mom said that her husband is an identical twin and that she thought that Lauren and Olivia looked identical too. More and more we're thinking that they might be identical, but of course there's still no way of knowing without a DNA test. Someday we'll do one...anyway, after we went to the bookstore, we went to my Uncle Don's 76th birthday party. Uncle Don is my mom's sister's husband (for those of you that don't know). My uncle is a very special man and has almost been like a grandpa to me. A few weeks ago he was diagnosed with cancer in his lymph nodes. He is undergoing chemotherapy and just last week he got good news that the cancer hasn't spread, it's just in his neck. So with lots of prayers he'll beat it! What a fun day we all had!

Here is Uncle Don with Liza and Sawyer (his grandkids). They are helping their grandpa blow out his candles.

Liza brought out popiscles for the kids. Lauren and Olivia thought that was the greatest gift ever. Here they all are eating their popsicles. Yummy!!!

Another delicious popsicle picture....not too messy for little girls! But that's because mommy and daddy caught the falls and they're the ones that got all sticky.

August 8,9, & 10, 2008

I know I said I would be better at updating you on fun and exciting events in our life, and I know I'm not very good at it, but I hope you will keep checking in on our blog once and while.

It's been a little while, but here's a new update for you....

Friday night we brought the girls to the Kent County Youth Fair in Lowell. It had lots of animals to see and pet, lots of fun rides for the kids to go on (although Ally was the only one that rode anything). We went with our neighbors and their two boys. At one point Ally and Xander (our neighbor boy who is 5) were holding hands walking at the fair. It was really cute! Anyway, the girls, and the neighbor boys, LOVED the fair! Next year we'll go again, but we'll go when we have more time to stay and look at everything.

Saturday Jerry took Ally to up to Grandpa Seevers to see his pigs. He had 3 pigs, but only has 2 now (1 ran away). Ally had a lot of fun looking at the pig, because she "couldn't pet them because they're mean". They also looked in Grandpa's garden, but he didn't have any veggies to pick. They saw some fish in the pond and frogs in the pond. Grandpa was also having a garage sale so Ally came home with lots of "treasures" (in her opinion).

While Jerry and Ally went to Grandpa, Lauren and Olivia and I went to the mall and to the park. We had a fun girls shopping day!

Sunday I wasn't feeling too well, so when the girls took their nap, so did I. We all slept for about 2 and a half hours. After sleeping I felt a little bit better, so we all went to see Great Grandma Jo (Jerry's Grandma). She had just gotten out of the hospital and 3 of Jerry's aunts were in town from out of state. So we got to see all of them as well. Over all it was a very nice visit but we couldn't stay too long because the girls had to go to bed.

Here we all are with Great Grandma Jo. She's so sweet...Lauren on the other hand didn't really want her picture taken. And OG, she didn't really want to sit with Grandma. And we all know Ally NEVER wants her picture taken. So it's really amazing that we all got a picture together.

Overall what a great weekend.

July 26, 2008

This weekend we went to Fort Wayne, IN to see my Aunt Betsy. She lives about 2 miles from the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, so of course we had bring the girls there to see all the fun animals. Unfortunately the African part wasn't open yet so we didn't get to see any lions or giraffes, and a lot of the animals were sleeping which was disappointing too, but there were quite a few cool things, like the sea lions! We got to see them do tricks and swim and eat lots of fish. It was fun and the girls loved it!

After the zoo we went back to Aunt Betsy's house so Lauren & Olivia could take a nap. While they were sleeping it was a good time for Ally and Aunt Betsy to do some crafts. They put stickers on white 'treasure boxes' for all three girls. And Aunt Betsy knitted a washcloth for each of the girls to put in their box to take home. Ally was spoiled, because she got to take home some seashells that Aunt Betsy gave her too. LUCKY DUCK!

Over all we had a really nice visit with Aunt Betsy and her dogs Bella and Shasha. Lauren and Olivia weren't too sure of them at first, but after they had a full night of sleep they loved them in the morning. Lauren even got a kick out of kissing Bella on the nose...over and over and over! Good thing the dogs were so laid back, otherwise they may not have like all the groping they received.

Thanks for letting us visit you Aunt Betsy! We had a great time!