Spring Break or Winter Wonderland?

We planned on spending our spring break relaxing up at my mom's lake cabin...which is what we are doing...but there has been some unexpected weather-related drama. Spring flooding is seemingly inevitable up north. But this year, they are really worried about it, especially in the Fargo area. Yesterday the city of Crookston (20 miles from my home town) evacuated some of it's residential areas due to the rapidly rising river. We ran over to Crookston to get a few things at Walmart, and saw National Guard members and a lot a sandbagging volunteers getting supplies. This scene reminded me of the flood of 1997, which is not one of my best memories.

Then, to top it all off, we woke up this morning to a winter storm! There is about 5-6 inches of snow on the ground! And Maple Lake didn't get anything close to what Grand Forks/East Grand Forks received. All the schools were canceled for today, including UND (which NEVER happens)!

Oh well. I'm not going to complain. We don't have school all week...and NOTHING can ruin that :)

Baby Update #2

I had a Doctor's appointment yesterday due to some pelvic pressure/contractions I was having. I was very happy to find out that although the baby is still very low, I wasn't dilated at all, so everything was OK. The Doctor is still telling me that I may have to go on bed-rest, but so far, so good. The baby is still really active, and had a heart rate of 137. Next week is our Spring Break (Woo-Hoo), so I will be lounging and relaxing at the Lake!! :)

Baby Update

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday (32 weeks). The doctor said that everything looked great. Blood pressure was low, all my tests came back great, and she said the baby seems to be "happy, active, and healthy" (heart rate was 153). Her only concern was the baby's position. When she checked me, she found that the baby is already at "station 0"...which means that the baby is extremely low. She basically said that if the baby were any lower, that I'd be in active labor (Station +5 is considered a floating baby = really high, Station 0 means the baby is even with your "sits bones", and -4 is when the baby is crowning). Since the baby is so low (this soon), she was wondering if she should put me on bed rest (YUCK). After I talked to her about it, she is allowing me to work as long as I "take it easy". She also told me that if I keep feeling a lot of pressure or more contractions, that I will need to be put on bed-rest.

One very positive thing is that my student teacher started this week. So I will be off my feet a little more because of this, and come April, she'll basically be teaching full-time :) So I hoping that will help out! I want to stay at work as long as possible so I don't run out of sick-days for the end of the year!

Wish me luck!

Sunday, Funday

We had a lot of fun today! After church, we headed to the Moose Sheritt arena for open ice. I was a little bummed because I couldn't join in on the festivities, but Carl and the girls had a good time skating. Jocie keeps improving her strokes, and Ella is almost ready to skate on her own! She is still a little apprehensive about it ( . . . Ella is always a little apprehensive about every new activity), but it won't be long until she's gliding on her own :)

After skating, we headed to Maple Grove to meet our dear friends the Holt's at Chucky Cheese. I now FULLY understand why they sell beer at Chucky Cheese (genius). This place was wall to wall craziness . . . but the kids had a blast with each other and Carl and I got to catch up with Christy and Chris, so it was well worth it! We can't wait to see their new beautiful house in Northfield in a few weeks!

Here is a picture of all of our kids together (Noah, Avery, and Eli) . . . they sure make cute kids :)

Too cute for words . . .

Ella has a friend at Ballet class . . . Mette Severson! These two have been friends for quite some time (her mom, Jenine is one of my teaching friends), and now they get to see each other every week for class! Ella was thrilled :) These are some of the pictures from their first class together!

The Lake

Last weekend, we packed up, and headed up to Maple Lake to spend time with my mom (Nanny), Ali and Daysha. We hadn't been able to be at the lake since October, so we were REALLY looking forward it going.

Saturday was filled with fun, fishing, and family. My Aunt Judy from Texas joined us at the lake. She is always a hoot to be around! I was so excited to be able to spend some time with her in such a relaxed atmosphere, where we could just talk and hang out. Carl spent his day out on the ice fishing. Although he didn't have much luck (only caught three bullheads all day long!), he still had a great time just enjoying the northern outdoors. Carl's parents also joined us! They enjoyed sledding and skating (after Grandpa Dwaine shoveled off a HUGE rink for the girls on the lake). The girls always have such a great time with all those grandparents around to spoil them :) We were also lucky enough to have my cousin's Heidi and Heather come and visit from Montana. Because they live so far away and are extremely busy with their graduate programs, we don't get to see them very often. So it was great to be able to hang out and play games all night.

We always have such a great time at the lake. I often refer to it as my "happy place". I was pretty sad to leave on Sunday, but we will be back during our spring break week!!

Top 20

Because I am now over 29 weeks pregnant, I am starting to get into that "uncomfortable" stage. Because of this, I'm also starting to focus on the negative aspects of being pregnant. I started to re-evaluate and decided that I need to be more positive! This might (?) be our last pregnancy, so I'd better enjoy the 2 months I have left. So I came up with the top 20 things that are GOOD about being pregnant (FYI: some of these reasons are very girlie ones . . . boys; be aware)

1. Getting told how "cute" you look
2. Saving money on the drink tab when going out for dinner
3. Never having to worry who is driving after a night out
4. Never having to worry about my zipper being down . . .Maternity pants don't have them
5. Smiled at A LOT by strangers
6. Never have to exercise for longer than 30 minutes
7. Not getting my period for 9 months!
8. Getting to sleep, knowing (and feeling) that the baby is awake
9. Going up a cup size :)
10. Telling yourself that the hamburger and fries are going straight to the baby's butt and not yours (FALSE)
11. More back rubs from the hubby
12. More hugs from the hubby
13. Sleeping through the night . . . well most of the time (potty breaks)
14. Knowing that my last day of school is in April and not June!
15. Not feeling (too) bad when the number on the scale keeps going up
16. Second helpings
17. No shoveling in the winter
18. Having a place to set my plate/beverage
19. Healthy, strong nails
20. I get to feel my little baby moving and kicking at least 10 times an hour! Could be the best feeling in the world!