4 Days...

Maybe?

While I am due on Tuesday, I think the statics is something like 5% of all babies are born on their due date, so we'll see.

I did go to the doctor today and there isn't anything to report. except that my blood pressure is a bit high. This happened with Forrest, thus the 2 inductions. For those of you who don't remember, they tried an induction and it didn't work, so they sent me home!

So, we sit and wait. The calendar is cleared and we are ready.

Good Morning

These were my greetings this morning. One wonderful...one, well, it's fun for a while, but about February it gets real old.

A Bad Habit Forming

So, this is becoming routine. Me being up when everyone in my house is sleeping. I am not a big fan. It's not that I want to be awake. Oh no. I desperately want to sleep, since I know that my days of semi uninterrupted night time sleeping are numbered. But I can't seem to drift into Never-never land.

Tonight it's been more infuriating than usual. See, I did fall asleep, about 10 o'clock, in fact. And then something woke me up. And here I sit at 11:46, the house still, only the ticking clock to keep me company. Even the downstairs neighbor is asleep. She usually stays up about 2 hours after us.

And the other annoying part of this all...I never can seem to bring myself to do something productive when I can't sleep. Sure, I have 3 baskets of clean laundry that need to be folded, but why would I do that?

I did stumble across a great idea the other night. One of my best friends recently moved to Arizona and since they are 3 hours behind us Michigan folks, I could actually call her and not be waking her up. But last night when I called here at 11 pm our time, she thought I was having the baby, because I am also tired of starting every conversation off with "No, I am not on my way to the hospital." So, I don't think I will bother her again tonight with my insomnia.

Ok...I think I am going to try this whole sleeping thing again. We'll see.

Pizza Potluck and Pumpkin Carving

Tonight was our pizza potluck. This is a truly unique Barakel staff thing...I think. Ok, I am sure that somewhere, a group of people decided that a potluck of all pizzas would be a great idea. However we have never encountered such a thing until joining the resident staff here.

Anyway...

Everyone brings pizza and Noah always laughs because I have to come up with something different. This time I brought seafood pizza. Let's just say it took way to long to make today...I made the crust and the Alfredo sauce all this afternoon. But it was so very yummy.

After dinner, we all crammed into the East Side kitchen to do some serious pumpkin carving.

The men figuring out exactly how this was all going to work

Forrest's first time digging out a pumpkin

Not too sure we like it!



We decided to try a moose because of Forrest's
love of big animals with antlers



The finished product



Most of the other staff kids with their pumpkins

Carbona

I have had enough people ask about the Carbona that I thought I would devote a post just to this wonder liquid.

You can find it in the laundry aisle at your local grocery store. They make several varieties, all geared for a different set of stains. There is a formula for everything from gum and glue to rust, to the one I used, ink and crayon.

Just follow the directions and it should do the trick. I just used it on several important shirts that had really stubborn spots.

And because a visual is always helpful,

P.S.

The Carbona worked! Great stuff!

The last of the ink laundry is in the dryer!

What a mess!

Somewhere in the chaos of the flu coming to our house, we managed to wash and dry two FULL loads of laundry with ball point pens!

Now these loads of laundry weren't just rags and underwear...oh no...that would have been too easy. Nope, these loads had important things in there, like my very favorite linen maternity pants, the blanket my mom made for us that is blue on one side and pink on the other for our babies, borrowed maternity clothes, as well as half of Forrest's pajamas and the brand new (seriously, never been used) liners for our cloth diapers.

It has taken me until today to even have the guts and brain power to deal with all of this. I did a Google search, talked with a few veterans and decided to start with boiling water. That didn't work out too well. I then tried Oxiclean, very concentrated...and it showed some promise. I let a few things soak in the sink and low and behold! The ink was coming out! I let is soak a bit longer and then ran it through the washer and almost all the ink is gone! Praise the Lord!



So, that was my afternoon, changing out the clothes and water from the sinks, and doing more laundry...but it is worth it! Almost all the ink is gone and I have a small reserve of something called Carbona which my mom says will get anything out, for those last stubborn spots.

All of this only took me 3 weeks to figure out.

All Aboard!

In an effort to keep my mind off being so pregnant, Noah suggested we ride the Michigan AuSable Valley Railroad, which is in, would you believe, Fairview.



It was a 20 minute ride on a 1/4 scale passenger train, which was just long enough. They have it open all summer and then for the first two weekends in October for a Color Tour train. It was a fun little trip this afternoon.


Although we are coming to the end of these fun little trips around us...maybe we need to space them out more...

Call of the Wild Museum

Being that it was Monday and it had been a while since we have been out of camp as family, we decided to go do something. Not wanting to travel too far, we landed on Gaylord and the searching began.

I goggled "family activities in Gaylord" and discovered a wapping 2 things to do. One was The Bavarian Falls Park and the other was the Call of the Wild Museum. Both owned by the same people.

Not totally sure that this would be worth the drive or the $14 to get in, we headed out anyway, thinking at least we could look for new shoes and get some dinner at somewhere other than McDonald's.

Let me just say that for our family, with our particular 18 month old, who happens to know the difference between an elk, a moose, and a deer, the Call of the Wild Museum was worth all of the above! Forrest talked for 45 minutes non stop about the deer, elk, moose, beaver, ducks, birds and osos (bear).





After we finished the museum, the lady in the gift shop told us there was an elk farm just down the road that you could visit for free. We thought that might be worth checking out. It was neat, but the elk were more intrested in sitting in the shade than investigating the visitors (read: us). Forrest did have fun digging in the dirt and sitting on a stump though. We will probably make a trip back there another time.



We did end up shoe shopping and going out for dinner as well. Noah found some shoes very much on clearance and we had a great dinner at a pizza buffet.

It was a good Monday.

Over the River and Through the Woods

To Buela's House We Go...

Forrest is going to Buela's for the first time overnight by himself this weekend. Noah has to stay at camp for the retreat and I am going to a conference with my sister- in -law in Grand Rapids.

We packed up the suitcases tonight and Forrest was ready to head out right then.


He wasn't too happy when we told him we needed to wait until morning.