I was glad to see snow when I woke up this morning.  I knew snow was in the forcast but it has been so warm I didn't think any would stick.  It had been so gloomy over the last couple of weeks that the snow is nice to see again. Here in the Detroit area, the weather has been highly unusual.  Temps in the 40s and 50s in January!  Bare trees and green grass along with rain made it feel more like Spring but without the flowers and birds.  It wasn't a good thing other tha...

Lately I have had a lot of difficulty getting in touch with the part of my brain that holds my vocabulary.  It is making me very frustrated!  I am able to form thoughts in my head but am having difficulty communicating them. I remember having this problem with my other pregnancies and referred to it as "placenta brain".  I think all my blood is going to the baby and my brain is suffering.  I have heard it is pretty normal and I know it gets worse after the baby comes. ...

Anyone who has been pregnant more than once knows that every pregnancy is different just as every baby is different.  My first one I gained a lot of weight, had preeclampsia and had a doozy of a delivery.  My next two pregnancies started with feeling ill and ended with miscarriages.  The next one I felt great for the most part and had a very good birth experience. Since things went so well last time, here I am again   This time and I am feeling well again but have a ...

I have talked to a lot of friends about their mothers.  Relationships range from being totally estranged to being like best friends.  I find it fascinating how parental relationships affect how people mature and evolve. I am extremely fortunate in the parent department.  Don't get me wrong, my parents certainly have flaws but doling out unconditional love and acceptance has not been one of them.  My parents always made me feel loved and valued.  I never had to worry a...

Now that we are expecting child #3 I have been thinking a lot about how we will convert Alex's room into Alex & Ryan's room.  The boys are very excited about getting bunkbeds and decorating the room together.  I am only concerned about storage space. The room has a small walk-in closet that, for some unknown reason, has the door opening into the closet.  I know we are either going to have to change the door so it opens outward or take it off and replace it with a curtain.&n...

I recently surprised a few JUers with revealing my true identity.  I will probably surprise even more with this news, Brad and I are expecting a baby this Summer.  We are excited, and scared, but mostly excited. I am just in the beginning of my 3rd month so I am in what most deem the "Too soon to tell people" part of pregnancy.  I have decided that is not a system that works for me.  I had two miscarriages between our two boys.  The first one everyone knew about and i...

The time has come where I feel the need to be totally open about who I really am.  It has never really been a true secret but I never used real names before and was cautious about what I blogged about. The reason I started blogging with an assumed name is because I wanted to see how I did on my own merits.  I didn't want any unearned fans or enemies due to who I am associated with.  Also, it has been kind of fun being Jill. Most of you here have seen pictures of me and my fa...

I noticed today that the time stamp on messages is seriously messed up on Outlook.  How does that happen?  What, if anything, can I do about it?  It is just really weird to send a message at 7PM and get a response right back that says it was received at 5:30AM!

I took my boys along with neighbor friends to see Chicken Little today.  I found it very entertaining and funny.  Lots of humor that was at different levels. Entertainment Weekly had the movie at the top of their Worst of 2005 list.  Why?!  It did have a lot of familiar Disney stuff in it.  Dead mother, a given for Disney.  Father who didn't believe in his son, a la Finding Nemo.  But it had very new, exciting, timely stuff too. So I am going to say ~pfff...

I just watched a clip of O'Reilly vs Letterman on the Letterman show.  I saw the title of the clip and was all set to laugh at O'Reilly.  Instead, I found myself angry and dissappointed in Letterman. O'Reilly was surprisingly composed given the situation he was in.  Letterman referred to the Bush administration as O'Reilly's friends and O'Reilly pointed out that Letterman has an easier time getting them on his show than Bill does getting them on the Factor (which I have witness...

It is so beautiful out right now.  It literally looks like we are inside a snow globe that just got a good shake.  Big snowflakes are fluttering in every direction. Nothing is sticking though.  There is still green grass as far as the eye can see.  So weird!  Michigan is usually battling big snow banks this time of year (not that I'm complaining). I remember saying that I wish we would just have snow for Christmas and then have it gone by New Years.  Guess I w...

My kids have this week off but my poor hubby went right back to the office Monday.  The kids are having a great time.  My 9yr old went to play lazer tag with a friend.  My 5yr old has a friend over playing Legos.  My fun for the day is laundry.  Where does it all come from?!  It just doesn't seem like 4 people could go through so many clothes and towels in one week!  Oh well, I have a large capacity washer and dryer so I can't complain.  I'd rather pla...

I had just washed my pretty table cloth and put placemats out for everyone to hopefully contain their breakfasts on.  My sons were having chocolate chip toaster waffles.  Everything seemed to be going well. A couple of minutes into breakfast I heard some rustling and a flash of a hand in my peripheral vision.  My 5yr old then innocently asks "Is chocolate washable?"  I then ask "Did you just get chocolate on the table cloth?"  He said "I thought I licked it off but I ...

We entertained last night and our last guests left at about 3AM so we had a nice big mess to wake up to.  Our whole family slept in until about 12:30.  I fed everyone then got to work on the mess. I didn't end up getting dressed until about 2:00.  I got a "Happy New Year" call from my mom and gave one to my sister.  Next thing I knew it was dinner time.  We had sandwichs since noone really felt like having a "real" meal. So 1/1/06 has basically been spent cleaning ...

I don't know about other JUer's children but I think my children really don't take notice of the color of skin.  As an example, my 9yr old was talking about the different holidays and mentioned that one classmate celebrates kwanza and another celebrates Ramadan.  I knew the girl who celebrates Ramadan but had to ask who celebrates kwanza.  I expected he would either name a name or have a physical description.  Instead he responded "the kid who's allergic to peanuts". Our a...