I'm a bad blogger

So today is New Years Eve and I have been so busy with spending time with my family I have not blogged as much as I was planning on it. I had an amazing Christmas, Ken and I received a digital camera which we really wanted but had no clue we were getting. The best present so far was getting to see my niece again. Tiara was born on the 18th and I was able to see her born but she was taking out of the room right away and was taken to the nicu. She had swallowed a lot of fluid and they were having a hard time clearing it out. Also they found her white blood cell count was really high which lead them to believe she was fighting some type of infection. They kept her there for a whole week on antibiotics and heavily guarded (only 4 people including her parents were allowed to see her). She was released Christmas day at about 1pm and we were all at my dad's house anxiously awaiting her arrival. I saw her the day she was born and my dad was able to see her once while she was in the nicu so there were so many others in my family that wanted to meet her.

Ken is going to make such an amazing daddy. He was so amazed and felt so loved when she wrapped her little finger around his.

I loved watching him with her.

She is so precious.

My dad and Tiara after she woke up.

She is doing so well now. Tara hasn't had any problems and hasn't needed to take her back in at all. I was hoping to get belly pictures of us together while I was up here but unfortunately Tiara had other plans.

In other news, Ken went back home on Monday it was sad having him end his vacation without me and having to say goodbye. But I'm thankful for the understanding relationship we have and the fact we can spend vacations apart and still feel so in love. It's only a week until I go back home so it's not like we haven't been apart longer. Still I miss him.

Week In Review

This past week has been so busy. I flew into Vancouver, WA tuesday to spend 3 weeks with my family during the holidays. My dad, step-mom Angie, sister Bre, and my sister Amanda with my nephew Adam came and picked me up from the airport. As soon as Bre and Amanda saw me they told Adam to run to me, I don't think he quite recognized me because he kind of swerved and I had to jerk a little to the left to pick him up. Once I picked him up though he knew Aunt Shell was there. His eyes opened up so wide and for the first 5 minutes just kept saying "Shell" over and over again. Then he exclaimed "Shell you came out the bushes". Nobody knows how that started but everytime someone would ask him where I was after we moved he would say I was hiding in the bushes. I put him down after about 7 minutes of hugging and snuggling so I could give everyone else hugs and immediately he wanted me to pick him back up, then he asked "Shell go bye bye with me" when I said yes he had the biggest smile on his face. Then he asked me to hold him and would not let go of my hand. That night I stayed at my sister's and at about 3:30 am he woke up and was yelling for me so he went back to sleep with me. Someone missed me.

Wednesday
My best friend Stacy kidnapped me and took me to the Bonneville Hot Springs Spa & Resort we have a mineral bath and wrap. Mine was herbal free since some herbs can be bad for pregnancy. It was so relaxing. The water in the tub actually covered over my entire body. It was awesome, especially after 9 hours of flying the day before. Definitely good for the pregnant body and soul. Afterwards we went and had lunch. I went back to my dad's because my sister Tara who was due with her first baby (a girl) was coming over to spend time with me. It was awesome seeing her and the growth she had gone through it was also fun to try to hug each other, our belly's made it almost impossible. I stayed with my dad that night.

Thursday

My best friend since Elementary school and her husband drove up from Idaho for the weekend to attend my baby shower. So when they arrived they came to visit me at my dad's until we had to leave to the airport to pick up Ken. Dad, Adam, my sister Ashley, and myself went to pick up Ken from the airport. My plane ticket was bought about 2 months before his since we didn't know when he would get leave. Luckily it was only a 2 day difference. Adam was very excited to see Uncle Ken. (Who he also exclaimed came out of the bushes). My little sister Bre had a choir concert that night which we went to. Then Adam stayed the night with us at my dad's.

Friday

Ken, Dad, Adam and I went to pick up my little brother from Battle ground. He is 10 months old and my dad and his mom have a split custody arrangement to where my dad gets him from Friday morning to Monday morning. I was so excited to see how big he had grown. Last time I saw him was in June. He is getting so big, and is looking more and more like my dad each day. That night my younger sister Danielle celebrated her 19th birthday at my step-moms work. Shortly before we left the house to go to Angie's work for the party my sister Tara's boyfriend called saying her water had broke and they were on the way to the hospital. Because of swine flu only 2 people were allowed to be with her unless you had your shot. She had designated her mom and her boyfriend James. So on we went to the birthday party. When we got back to my dad's I called the hospital and told them I had received my shot but didn't have proof (the base clinic was closed by then). I also talked to the charge nurse and asked her if there was anyway I could sit with Tara until her mom arrived from Medford, OR. About a 5 hour drive. The charge nurse said that was fine so Ken and I headed to the hospital. When I got there I spoke with the charge nurse and she told me Tara was pushing so if I wanted to go in now was the time to do it. I went in and 5 minutes later my niece Tiara was born. It was amazing to witness such a miracle and to have a preview of what I'm going to go through. I know every birth is different but generally speaking every one ends with a baby being born, which is an amazing miracle to witness.

Tiara Nohea Lani Woody

7.11 lbs, 20 inches.

10:18 p.m on 12-18-09

You Got Me

Answer the following 5 questions and then tag 5 people.

1. What were you doing 10 years ago.
I was in 6th grade, Rocky Mountain Middle School. My best friends were Hope and Jackie. I had a huge crush on a boy named T.J. I hung out more with my little brother than big sister, we would play cars and dinosaurs, since Amanda would no longer play barbies with me.

2. What are 5 things on your to do list.

• Finish Laundry and packing since I leave for WA tomorrow.
• Mail out Christmas presents and cards.
• Set an apt for Ken to get the window in the Kia fixed Tuesday.
• Prepare the baby's room
• Pay off as much debt as possible before baby comes.

3. What are snacks you enjoy.

Purple Grapes, Carrot chips. Chewy chips a hoy cookies. Mcdonalds apple dippers (without the caramel)

4. What are the places you have lived.

Ft. Riley, KS. Idaho Falls, ID. Rexburg, ID. Vancouver, WA. Virginia Beach, VA.

5. What are the 5 things you would do if you were a billionaire.

• Pay off ours and my family's debt.
• Buy 2 houses 1 in Idaho and 1 in Washington.
• Buy my dad a huge house in the country with a lot of acres so he would have room for all of his landscaping equipment or for whatever he wanted.
• Build an apartment complex in Washington. To a) bring in a revenue so I can continue making money and working and b) provide my siblings, cousins, friends with a place to stay whenever they needed it for free.
• Set up trust funds for my nephew, niece, son and any future nieces, nephews, or children to help them go to school or get started in their lives. Would also help my siblings go to school as well.

I tag Jackie Nesbit, Hope Nelson, Alese Tveisme, Breanna Blanco, Amanda Woods.

The Window

Yesterday Ken and I celebrated our Christmas. I have to work today he works tomorrow, and Tuesday I leave for Vancouver. So yesterday was the perfect day for us to open our presents from each other and have Christmas breakfast. Friday night we opened one present, went to sleep and in the morning opened the other one's. I have a very sweet husband and absolutely loved all of my gifts this year especially the massager for my feet. They tend to be achy these days. After we opened our presents Ken was going to go get some milk for our big breakfast. It seemed like he had been gone a minute when I heard him coming back up stairs. He was not happy with what he found and I didn't really believe him at first because I didn't think it would happen. We live in a gated apartment complex, and there are cameras when you come in, we thought it was a fairly safe place because of these things. There is even a night watchmen that does a nightly patrol around the complex. All of these things were the reason we moved in.

This is what we found.
This situation is really sad, however after we surveyed the car the only thing missing was our GPS. Which we are thankful about because since we had gone shopping the night before I had stuck my wallet under the passenger seat. It was still there. The change was still there, Ken's CD's were still there. The GPS was the only thing they were after.

We went and spoke to the apartment management after getting some plastic to get the window taped up. There were about 6 cars hit last night. With each car the only thing stolen was the GPS. One car was in direct view of a camera so hopefully the thief was caught on camera and some sort of justice will be brought down.

We have insurance but our deductible is $500 so we will just basically be paying for the window ourselves which stinks but at the same time we are in a position where we can afford it, if this had happened in the past we would not have been able to take care of it. It does cut into our vacation money but we are all done with our Christmas shopping so we will just have to cancel some of our plans we wanted to do. I'm so thankful it was the drivers side window, not the windshield (would have cost a lot more.) I'm thankful the GPS was all that was stolen, I'm thankful we can afford to get it taken care of. It makes me sad that this happened, I wish things were better for other people to make them not have to resort to things like this. But I am thankful for the many things we have, our health, our baby's health and the so many positives to this situation.

Noise update

After unsuccessfully being able to identify our noisy neighbor, we took it to the apartment complex management. At first they told me that in order to submit a noise complaint we would need to pinpoint where it was coming from, at which point I replied with all the ways I have tried. Then I suggested putting a notice on the doors of the people in my building (including myself so it wasn't obvious where the complaint was coming from). They said they would see what they could do. Well, the next day we received a notice on our door and saw notices posted on the other apartment doors as well. It basically said that they had received a complaint about music playing and that noise complaints as explained in the lease can result in eviction. It also pointed out where you could find the information in your resident handbook and suggestions on how to keep the noise down. I am more than ecstatic to say since the notices we have not heard base playing. I'm hoping it's because the person responsible decided to stop and just isn't out of town or something lol.

At first when we moved into our apartment complex I was a little worried, we haven't had very good luck with apartment management and it made me weary of renting again. But I'm happy to say I so far love our management and I'm really happy with what they have done for us so far. Not only about the noise complaint but when we moved into our 2 bedroom they came and helped me pull the fridge out to plug it in ( I know an easy fix but I'm pregnant, it was heavy and Ken was working) Then when our hot water wasn't working they came and looked at it, said it would be fixed in 20 minutes. Ken and I went out that night so we didn't realize it wasn't fixed until the next day which was Thanksgiving. I hated calling the maintenance people on Thanksgiving but we really needed hot water. They came out without a single complaint, tried to fix it and when it didn't work he spent the next hour getting us a new hot water heater. Then (I know all these problems make our apartment seem like we moved into what my dad referred to as the lemon unit, but its an older complex) when we tried the stove in our new apartment the outside surface was very hot, almost untouchable, it ran 30 degrees higher then what you set it at and one of the burners didn't work. A few days later we had a brand new stove delivered right out of the box. I love it, the other one was very old, this one brand new, digital everything, an actual window in the door, light, it self cleans, the works!!! If the noise stays ceased like it has the past few days, and they continue doing a really good job at managing I would be more than happy to stay here for quite a while.

Not So "White" Noise

Since we moved into our new 2 bedroom apartment to prepare for little man's arrival, we have almost constantly heard music playing, well not necessarily the music. We can't hear the words or the tone all we can hear is the bass and it sounds like the same song, over and over and over . We can only hear it when we are in our apartment, once we step out and close the door it's gone. The other day we went and knocked on the apt door across from us since he seemed like the only one listening to music at the time. He turned his music down and it seemed to stop so we thought "ok problem solved" Well it's back and he is not even listening to music tonight. I first put my ear up to the door before knocking to talk to him, no music. Once he answered no music. So obviously it's not him causing this problem day after day, night after night. The way our apartment is layed out is consisted of one building two entrances, eight units to each entry. Four upstairs, Four downstairs. So tonight I ventured out (once again, since I did this about a week ago as well) Listened to everyones door in our entrance. No one was listening to music but I knocked anyway. 3 out of 4 neighbors downstairs are elderly, only one was a young couple who had guests over, including kids and did not even have their T.V on at the time. They talked to me for about 10 minutes and I was reassured I am not the only one being driven crazy by this beat. She has heard it during the day. My neighbors upstairs are not the culprits either. I have not yet ventured over to the other entry in our building to listen to the other 8 neighbors in our building, but plan on doing so tomorrow. Am I crazy? Is it hormones that is making it impossible for me to get over this noise? Or am I just preparing to join the mommy club? If this noise is going to be waking up my newborn I will have to shoot someone (not really but Ken does have a paintball gun and/or airsoft gun that I know how to use). I want it to stop. Unfortunately I can't get it to until I find our where it is coming from. Wish me luck as I spend my day off tomorrow trying to find the not so "white noise" culprit.