He's Here!!

Baby Jackson has finally arrived and we are totally in love with him! We checked into the hospital yesterday at 5am, got an IV w/ pitocin around 6:30am, broke my water at 8:30am, endured labor pains long enough to say I did it and got my epidural around 10am. Of course only 1 side of me got numb so they gave me more medicine and fixed the epidural and before I knew it I could not move me legs, which was completely awesome when it came to pain, but a bit troublesome when the pushing came. Unlike my other 2 who came out with a max of 3 pushes, it took about 30 min of pushing to get him out because he was "sunny side up" - which means he came out with his face upward instead of facing downward which is why I was having so much trouble. But my doctor said if he did not come out with one last push, the forceps were coming and if I remember correctly, Katie said that was pretty uncomfortable for all parties involved, so I just pushed and luckily he came out at 12:28pm. He weighed 7 lbs 12 ounces, which was a nice surprise. Of course he is a week early so he probably would have been over 8 lbs had I not been induced. I am very sore b/c I tore pretty badly so I am all stitched up and the cramping has been almost as painful as the contractions, but I have some pretty cool drugs so it is tolerable.

He is so quiet and calm (knock on wood). He cried for just a minute after he was born, but has had shots, blood drawn, circumsicion done and just does not really cry. Of course when it comes to the diaper changes and the doctor messing with him - he lets them know he is unhappy. He sleeps about 4 hrs at a time, drinks his bottle and goes right back to sleep. I know it is too early to tell, but I would not be disappointed if that trend continued. He looks just like his dad and has the trademark Lassey smirk already. I have pics on the camera, but I brought the wrong USB cord to the hospital so I will have to download this weekend after we get out of the hospital. The civilian hospital experience has been great. I have this huge private corner room that looks more like a hotel suite than a hospital room. The nurses have taken care of every need and then some, the food has actually been pretty good too. They bring a dinner for Donnie as well as me for each meal and even brought us thanksgiving dinner on a white tableclothed table with flowers and sparkling cider. Donnie had 2 ribeye steaks and I had turkey with all the trimmings. Definately cant complain about it. Vanna is spending the night with me in the hospital tonight. The nurses gave her a blanket and pillows and she is chilling on the couch watching Home Alone while i mess on the computer.

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving today. We will be doing Thanksgiving dinner this weekend at the house with some friends, but I don't think anything can top this.

Just thought I would share that a name has been decided on-as of right now that is :-) We have decided to call the baby Jackson Walter. Walter is Donnie's great grandfather and Donnie's dad came up with Jackson a while back which I liked back then, but like it even more now since Jackson is one of my favorite characters on Sons of Anarchy (which in case you have never seen it, is a bad ass show on FX about a motocycle gang, if you like that kind of thing). Anyway at least the little guy has a name now and is not just baby. Hopefully it will fit his personality. And apparently I like to have some kind of rhyme or reason to my kids because all of them will be exactly 6 years, 2 weeks apart, all born on a Wed and depending on how you look at it all named after cities: Tyler, Savannah and Jackson.

Time has certainly flown. I did not realize I haven't updated this since Sept (not that I am very good at updating it). Anyway lots to report. First of all, the baby is doing well and will be here on November 25 if he does not show up before then. So that means only 23 days left to go! Seems like just yesterday I found out we were having a baby and now he is almost here. With that said, these last few weeks are DRAGGING by! I do go to the doctor tomorrow so maybe we will see if there is any hope of an earlier arrival, but I doubt it....Lassey kids tend to hang around as long as possible. If all goes as planned I will get out of the hospital the Friday after Thanksgiving so we are having Thanksgiving that weekend and hopefully will have a full house. We have some friends down at Ft. Rucker for school with no where to go for the holiday so we have invited them to join us with their families. Nothing like a house full of friends, good food and football!

Thursday was Tyler's bday. Hard to believe he is 12 already. We had a football game Thurs. night so we celebrated on Friday instead. Vanna's bday is in 10 days so of course she is asking everyday if it is her bday yet. She will be 6! It is kind of cool because all of the kids will be exactly 6 years and 2 weeks apart and all of them born on a Wednesday - did not plan it that way but its pretty neat how it worked out.

Halloween was great. Donnie is out of town so I took Savannah, who was batgirl, and we went for over an hour and I can't believe how much candy she got. Tyler went with one of his friends and he loaded up a pillowcase full! The neighborhood was packed with trick or treaters, which is something I have not seen in a long time. It reminded me of when I was a kid and everybody was out and about. There was even a house tailgating halloween style. They had a grill, hotdogs, drinks, candy and a surround system set up playing halloween music. They were handing out food to all the trick or treaters for free. It was pretty cool. I do have pics and one day I will get them posted but you know how good I am at that :) -

Since it has been a while since I have posted, I figured I should probably update the blog.

School has been in for about 6 weeks and we are completely busy. Tyler is playing football on post and we have practice everynight and Saturday mornings. Tonight is his first game so we are pretty excited. Hopefully all that practice will pay off in a win tonight. Vanna is still on the waiting list for gymnastics so keeping our fingers crossed that she will get a spot soon. She got the all clear from the cardiologist and we have a follow up this week and then she can play sports on post too. She is anxious for soccer to start in a few months. She runs sprints and even does pull ups with her brother.

Pregnancy is going good....11 more weeks to go. Hard to believe that in less than 3 months the little guy will be here. Still working on a name which will be a work in progress til probably the last minute. We had a 4D ultrasound last week but the little guy kept putting his hands and feet I might add in front of his face. He was also laying right up against my stomach so he kind of looked like a wax figure that was melting.....so they are going to try again at my next appointment. From what I could see he looks like his brother and sister. We were able to see him stick out his tongue and open his eyes. A friend of mine just had a baby boy 4 weeks ago and we spent some time with her this weekend which was good practice for Savannah, who wants to touch the baby all the time. She did say he cried too much (he really hardly cried at all by the way) so she is probably in for a big shock.

I passed my law school finals and will be starting my 2nd year in January. I am pretty excited because some of the classes I have taken as an undergrad so I will at least have some clue about whats going on I hope. However 12 books for 4 classes at $865.00 does not make me happy. Just started a doctorate foundation course which will run thru November and then I will start my research in March after the baby is here. Needless to say busy is the word.

Work is going great....love the job, love the boss and am actually doing something in my field so all is good.

The next few months will be crazy...we have Tyler's bday in October, Vanna's 2 weeks later in November, the new Twilight movie on November 20 (which is a big deal in our house), Thanksgiving, new baby arrival, my birthday (and Tyler and dad are going to the Miami Dolphin/TN Titan game on my bday - how fair is that?) and then xmas in Florida. I am out of breath just thinking about it. But this is my favorite time of year so I don't mind.

Guess I better go get some work done....

Well I did not realize that I have not updated this in almost a month.....lots going on here. I finally got a job here at a law firm in town. The hours are great, boss is great and it is loads of fun. He specializes in bankruptcy, immigration (both federal law so it will be the same no matter where we go), probate/estate and state appointed criminal defense. So I have a wide array of things to learn. I really like it and actually look forward to going to work everyday - such a change from my last job.

The kids are doing good....starting school on Wed 8/12. Vanna will be in kindergarden...her teacher's name is Mrs. Roach (hopefully vanna does not ask her why she is named after a bug). Tyler should be starting football this coming week. That should be interesting for him since he has never played tackle fball before, only flag. Vanna is on a waiting list for a gymnastics coach here in town. She cant go on post anymore because at her physical last week the dr. detected a heart murmur so she has to go see a pediatric cardiologist to make sure it is nothing serious. Until that is done, which takes forever to get a referral, she can't play sports on post. Not like it matters anyway because all the classes for her age group are at the times she is in school because off post school hrs are different.

Baby boy is doing good...kicking all the time. I go to the doctor next week for my lovely glucose testing and then in September we get a 4D ultrasound...I am really excited about that. This weekend the old man and I are going to go baby shopping and probably do a layaway so I don't have to blow my first check already :) I think we are gonna do some birthday shopping too for the kids. I am a big fan of layaway. I used to be the type of person who had all the xmas/bday shopping done by September thanks to Walmart layaway and by thanksgiving everything was wrappped and ready to go. Well since Walmart has done away with layaway I have fallen behind schedule every year. So the post exchange does layaway and so does KMart so I guess I will try again this year since so much is going on around the holidays. I am not a big fan of KMart cuz I think they are overpriced but we will see what we can find.

Well I am rambling because I am listening to a lecture for the 3rd time because the internet keeps going down due to the thunderstorms we are having right now. Finals are next Friday and then I am done with my first year.....hard to believe. The next year does not start until January and I am supposed to start on my PH.D in Sept so I guess I should get on that and make sure everything is good to go. I'll keep ya updated!

It's a Boy!!!

We found out today that we are having a boy. We are really excited. I did not really care but if I had my choice it would have been a boy. Even Vanna is excited. The technician was laughing as she took all the baby's measurements. When she showed us that it was a boy he was sticking straight out and she said the reason she was laughing was because he was not at all shy, every time she moved the wand over that area he was showing his stuff. I told her unfortunately that trait seems to run in the family. Anyway there is no mistaking this one - all boy and out for the world to see. His weight is around 15 oz which is normal for 20 weeks but she said his measurements are about 1 1/2-2 weeks larger which could indicate that I am farther along than I thought. Because it is still within the 2 week window they are not going to change my due date but that the baby could arrive anywhere between Nov 22 and Dec 2 so we will have to wait and see. I really don't want to have a huge baby.... tyler and vanna were just over 7lbs so I am not trying to pop out a 10 pounder this time, hopefully my due date is just off.

We went to see the new Harry Potter movie after the appointment. It was really good but now I am saddened because the next movie does not come out until November 2010 and summer 2011. That is far too long to wait without a book to compensate for it. I guess I will have to dig out my books and reread them.

3 weeks and counting until we know what we are having! Can't wait. We have not started buying anything yet so I am anxious to get going. Tyler still wants a boy (or turtle as the dr. calls it) and Vanna is still wanting a sister (cheeseburger). I really don't care - just ready to know. I am feeling good and finally passed the puking months (hopefully). Donnie and I started going to the gym at lunch this week so I am going to try to keep that up for the remainder of the pregnancy. I am not showing too much yet although my clothes are getting tighter. I am hoping to start looking pregnant soon instead of just looking like a cow in these inbetween stages. But like they say 9 months up and 9 months down. No decisions on names yet. We tend to argue on that subject so it is typically best left until the final months. Although we are leaning towards one girls name that we both like but we will see.

Mom is doing really well since her surgery and is up and about and even venturing off to the store now and then. I don't think she will be back to work until next month some time. I am glad I was able to go home and help out. I guess that was the reason I did not find a job prior to leaving....things happen for a reason. But I am back on the job hunt - have an interview tomorrow at the courthouse so we will see. Anyway I will keep ya'll posted!

Kansas Bound

Today the kids and I are heading to KS to help take care of my mom. She had unexpected surgery last week because of her ulcers. Apparently there was a "huge" ulcer in her lower intestine that completely blocked off about a foot of her intestine. As you can imagine this caused serious problems for her. She has been in the hospital since last Tuesday and they did surgery on Friday. My dad said she is doing well and sitting up and able to talk a bit but she still has tubes in her throat for something so she doesn't talk much. She is supposed to be released either Friday or Saturday. So the kids and I are headed up for a week or 2 to help take care of her so my brother and dad can go to work without worry. We are headed to Clarksville for a day to crash with one of my friends and then hit the road early Saturday morning. Saturday is her birthday so I really want to get there that day. It is a long trip - it used to take Tyler and I 10 hours but now it will probably take longer plus I am bringing the little dog Lily. It will be nice to see them since our visit in Feb was so short due to our car problems in Idaho but it is a bit bittersweet because these are not the circumstances one wants to go home on.

I will keep you posted on her progress and we will try to have a little fun while we are there :)

Seems like it has been forever since I have updated this....not too much going on though. Pregnancy is going fine....hard to believe that in another week I will be 4 months pregnant. Hopefully the rest of it goes that quickly. This weekend we are going to TN for the Nightstalker Memorial Ride (Donnie's old unit). We are lifetime members even though we are not currently in the unit so we are driving up and bringing the Harley so we can go on the ride with all our friends. I look forward to this every year. There is nothing better than being on a bike and cruising thru the country on a nice day. I haven't been on one in a few years b/c Donnie had been deployed so I am looking forward to this one. Donnie is teaching me how to ride so maybe by the next one I can ride my own bike.

Other than that there really isn't much happening. Tyler is out of school next Friday. He got a letter in the mail from the mayor of Enterprise congratulating him on making the honor roll all year. We are very excited because he has struggled for so long in school and now he seems to be doing really well. I actually was concerned when I got it because I could not understand why the city was sending a letter to Tyler - I figured someone opened something up in his name - thank goodness it was a nice surprise. Vanna just had her end of the year gymnastics program. She was so cute. I will have to post some pics eventually - as you can tell I am not the best at doing that. We are going to sign her up for the summer so she can continue cuz she really likes it. Have a doctor's appointment on Thursday - will post any new news. Hope everyone has a great Memorial weekend.

I had my first appointment today and it went very well. The official due date is December 2 (which means for my kids it should be about a week later if the pattern continues.) I got an ultrasound with 3 pictures of the "peanut" which Vanna thinks is so cool. I will have another one at 20 weeks to find out the sex and then at 28 weeks I even get one of the new 4-D ultrasounds. I don't know if this is standard in the civilian world but those don't exist in the military world so I am completely excited. My doctor even said that at 39 weeks we can discuss scheduling an induction as long as things are going ok, which totally made my day since my babies tend to hang around well past their due dates. I am also glad because we live almost 30 miles from the hospital so I was a bit worried about getting there on time if I happen to go into labor on my own (not likely though). So overall this has been a pretty good day w/ alot of excitement.

Twilight Addict!

I have to admit I have been bitten by the Twilight bug and I am now a complete addict to the series. Tyler was dying to see the movie so when it came out we got it and I really liked it to my surprise. I had heard all the hype when the movie came out but since I had never read any of the books I really did not get it. The only reason I considered seeing it is because the lead actor Rob Pattenson played in the Harry Potter movie and I am a big fan of those so I figured I would get around to see it. So after I saw the movie I read the first book which I had but had not read yet. I finished it in about 5 hours. So I went online to the website and I got the storyline for each of the next 3 books. One thing led to another and the next think I knew I had ordered the remaining books from ebay. Luckily Donnie went to TN this past weekend so I read the remaining 3 books in 2 days - obviously I did not do anything else that weekend, but I could not put them down and the fact that I knew the basis of the storyline made me that much more anxious to see how it all happened. So I am now a self proclaimed Twilight addict and have joined the ranks of all the Edward and Bella fans out there!

Officially Pregnant!

I went to the lab yesterday and now the army considers me officially pregnant. They asked me who I wanted to see as a doctor, which threw me for a loop because in the army world you get an appointment with whatever doctor, nurse or midwife is available (hardly ever seeing the same person twice) and when you go into labor the doctor or midwife on call delivers the baby. So there is really no continuity of care. But because Ft. Rucker is so small they don't even have an OB/GYN clinic on base so everyone is referred to civilian care. So my doctor is a woman in the next town over - about 20 miles and I will see her the entire time and she will deliver the baby as well. I even get a private room (which again is not the norm in the army world). Have to say I am a bit excited about this situation. I won't have a first appointment for a while - I have to wait for my referral in the mail which will take about 2 weeks or so and then I can make my first appointment. So more to come....

Baby # 3 is on the way!!

So we just found out that I am pregnant and we are completely excited! It happened really fast - much sooner than I thought as I have only been off the pill since the beginning of March. I took a test on Tuesday and it came out positive so I took another one this morning just to be sure before we told the world. I have not called the DR yet because in the military world you have to take a pregancy test at the lab and then they see you in OB a month or 2 later, but being so newly pregnant I know from experience that my test will come out a "weak positive" and they will make me come back in a few weeks. I checked the due date calculator online and the baby should be here around December 2, but I have a history of late babies so we will see. Poor Donnie - he is the only one in the family with a summer bday - now we have Tyler in October, Vanna in November and me, the new baby and xmas all in december (better start saving our pennies now :). Regardless we are excited and have already started talking about names. Neither of us care what it is since we already have a boy and a girl but if I had my choice I hope it is a boy - they are just easier!

I did not realize it has been so long since I last blogged. We are settled in and doing well. Not too much to report as we have only been here a month. Tyler likes school and is doing really good. Vanna is getting registered for kindergarden next week. I cant believe it. She is now doing homework at the table when Tyler does his homework. She is writing her name, ABC's and numbers. She doesn't have to know them before school but I want her to be ahead of the game. She thinks she is a big girl now. She is in gymnastics and loves it. Tyler is not much of a baseball dude and that is in season now so I think he is going to do karate til football starts in the fall. He is also going to start taking guitar lessons - unfortunately he is being forced (sounds familiar doesn't it) but he will get over it. Vanna actually wants to play the piano and has been asking for a few years now but she has to wait until the fall when school starts. She is also going to be a pee-wee cheerleader for football season. I can't wait.

The weather is great here....of course it is raining today but it is warm. We have been to Pensacola, FL 2x since we have been here to see Donnie's grandma. We also got our fishing licenses since there are 4 lakes on Ft. Rucker. Donnie and I belong to a poker league as well so we have plenty to keep us busy. One of these days I will take some pics and post them.

We Made It!!!

We have finally arrived in Alabama...after 12 days! Our 5 day trip had many unexpected turns along the way, but we made it today and are at a hotel that actually has internet access. First we set off on Jan 29 so we could make it to my mom's by Jan 31 in order to see the superbowl on Sunday. Thursday went fine with the exception of the late start. Friday was smooth as well, although cold as hell in Oregon and Idaho. However around 5pm things took a turn for the worst. We pulled off the highway to get gas and out of nowhere our Chevy 3500 which was towing a 24 foot trailer with everything we own in it began to smoke and smoke bad. We lifted the hood and out poured black smoke everywhere. Looking around we realized we were in the middle of nowhere in Idaho and it was about 7 degrees. A woman stopped and asked if we needed help and of course we did so she called the mechanic of the town and although he was closed, he graciously came to see if he could help us. Before I continue....let me set the scene: the town we broke down in is called Glenn's Ferry, ID. It is one of those towns you see on horror movies where the unsuspecting people break down and all of a sudden they are hunted by cults or crazy townspeople. Everyone in Glenn's Ferry knows everyone and everybody closed at 5pm for the weekend. Well as I am surveying our situation and scoping out the landscape in the event my fears come true, the mechanic arrives. We are able to move the truck and trailer about a block down the road to his garage, which was across the street from the only cafe/motel in town. Turns out the transmission was shot! Great....now what?

Well the stars were in alignment for us because Glenn's Ferry happened to be the best place we could have broken down in. The mechanic contacted his mechanic/towing friends in a city about 30 miles away called Mountain Home and within an hour or so we had a huge tow truck who took the truck and trailer to a mechanic in the bigger city to replace the transmission. Unfortunately that would not be until Monday or Tuesday. As luck would have it in Mt. Home also has an airforce base which was a welcome site from the horror movie town. We tried to get housing but they were booked so we stayed in Glenn's Ferry for the night. We did get a hotel in the city for the remainder of the weekend.

The next day Donnie was able to talk to the mechanic who was going to work on his truck and he said it could be anywhere between $1500-$4500 to fix the transmission! Now we only paid like $2500 for the truck so now we were debating on whether it was worth it to fix the truck. Plan 1) Fix truck? Plan 2) Get a uhall that will pull the trailer and get on the road and worry about getting the truck later; Plan 3) Buy a new truck and get the hell out of dodge! As the day progressed, plan 3 was looking good so we went to the ford dealership and bought a ford F-350 turbo diesel duely (sp?). We did not even test drive it. Apparently we were the talk of the little town. After signing the papers we drove to the blue truck and unloaded it to the new one, hooked up the trailer and were ready to roll. By the way this type of thing is very uncharacteristic for us - we always take forever to purchase anything. So the next morning we left the frozen tundra of Idaho and headed to my mom's. We got there Monday evening.

A sigh of relief overcame us once we got to my mom's, but the stars apparently got confused once in Salina. That night at Walmart someone stole the pin that holds the trailer to the hitch on the back of the Lincoln and the trailer tipped while we were driving. At least we were on my mom's street and about 4 houses away. Then the tires on that trailer lost some tread so now we had to buy 2 more tires. Still things could have been worse.

Thursday arrived and we left for Clarksville to crash with our friends for a day or so. The trip which normally takes 10 hrs started out great (uh oh...sounds like we have been here before). Just as we got to St. Louis we saw signs that the interstate we needed was closed in both directions - WTH!!! So we followed the detours which took us around St. Louis twice on 2 separate highways and then put us right back on I-70 which was the road we were on to begin with. Of course this happened at 5 o'clock traffic so by this time it was almost 8 and we still had 4 more hrs ahead of us so we stopped at another hotel for the night and did not get to TN until Friday afternoon. We were going to leave on Sunday but decided to stay and extra day and we left this morning. Only a 7 hr drive left and this journey is over....haha. So after a full day of driving we get to Montgomery, AL and take an exit that we think is wrong once we are on it. We turn around, get lost and end up on a toll bridge. The lady did not charge us and told us to turn around and directed us to the right spot, but I did not hear her because my dog was barking so loudly at her I missed the most important direction - TURN AROUND! So Donnie turned around and Shelle went on down the road until I realized I was lost!. Finally getting back in the right direction it turns out that once again we were on the right road to begin with! We pulled into the hotel around 8pm which brings me to right now - facebooking, checking email and blogging. And the 75 degree weather was pretty awesome today!

Tomorrow we have to find a place to stay so hopefully it will only take us a day to find a house. At this point I am not picky - just give me 2 bathrooms and a fenced in yard for the dogs - I am tired of being in hotels living out of suitcases. All in all, even with all the mishaps, things could have been much worse so I am thankful that we all arrived in one piece. At least these will be memories that we can tell for a long time - after all not everyone has broken down on the Oregon Trail in 7 degree weather.

Not even sure if I have pics at this point but eventually I will find my camera cord and see what I can post. I appreciate all the shout outs on facebook. Will keep you posted.....

Facebooking Fool!

At the request of my friends here in WA, I have recently become a member of the facebook community. Now I, being the anti-technology person that I am and assuming this was nothing more than an updated version of myspace, figured that I would do it to appease them and call it a day. Well I have to say I rather enjoy the facebook experience. In the past week I have accumulated lots of friends that I had in high school and it is really pretty cool to be able to keep in touch with people in this manner. And I can't believe how many people in high school married each other!! I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised and have spent more time on facebook than I care to admit.

3 Weeks and Counting!

Just checking in.... the countdown is on. We are leaving 3 weeks from today. Hard to believe it has come up that quickly. We got our official orders yesterday so now we can get the ball rolling with all the paperwork etc. that has to be done for us to clear the post. We are going to try to make it to my parents house in 2-3 days. We already got reservations for hotels so we have stopping points. We are actually leaving a few days earlier than we originally planned - we realized that we would be driving on the 1st which is superbowl sunday and that was just not going to work for us seeing as how we are huge NFL fans. So we backed the trip up a few days and should be able to watch the game in the comfort of mom's house on my brother's 6 foot big screen TV. I can not wait. It has been raining here non-stop since the Xmas snow stopped - I think we are going on about 3 weeks now. Everything is so wet and the yards are flooded. It has been in the 40's though which is better than it was but the wind is blowing something terrible. Vanna told us yesterday that she hates it here because she can't go outside and play. At least that problem is almost solved.

I do have pics from the holidays but honestly I have just been lazy about uploading them. My posts will probably be few and far between for the next month or so due to the move, but I will try to update when I can.