I'm doing much better today. I ended up sleeping on the couch again last night because it was just so much more comfortable. I am going to try the bed tonight. The Man is working overnight in the ER so I won't have to worry about keeping him awake with my tossing and turning...I'll let his patients do that!
I spent most of the afternoon updating Quicken with all of our credit card transactions since...well...basically since I got pregnant. The Man took over paying the bills around that time. I continued to reconcile the bank statements (not promptly, but I did do it), but the credit card statement was just looked over to make sure all the charges were legitimate, the bill was paid, and the statement was filed. Since we do like to keep up on how much we actually spend on certain things, and since I anticipate being quite a bit busier between now and the end of the year, I finally got around to catching up on that chore today. I could only do one month at a time since it hurt my back to sit in the chair at the computer desk (that made me realize why I spend most of my computer time with the laptop on the couch), but they are all caught up now.
We started using Quicken years and years ago (remember back before Windows?). We were forced to upgrade in January of 2000 due to a Y2K date problem. That has served us sufficiently the past 8 years, but it is so old that we can't link with our online bank accounts, credit card, TurboTax, etc. We are now considering upgrading to the newest Home & Business version.
What do you use for financial budgeting & tracking? Just your bank? Quicken? Some other program? Mattress & envelopes (which I'm beginning to think is the safest way to go)? Please tell me about what you use and why it works for you.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Could not sleep...Esther 6:1
I went to bed at about 9:00 last night. I slept well until about 11:30 when I woke up with an intermittent backache. I stayed in bed for a half hour, then I got up and took a hot shower. That seemed to help some, but I still couldn't get to sleep. After tossing and turning for over an hour, I moved to the couch. I've been here for over an hour. I'm a bit more comfortable, but I don't think sleep will come anytime soon, so I thought I might as well update the blog!
The baby seems to be fine. He or she (I'm trying to quit referring to the baby as "It") is still very active. Sometimes the head is down, sometimes up, sometimes the baby is sideways. Hopefully a favorable position will be settled on soon. We have less than a month to go as long as this baby is as prompt as the siblings were! We are still working on names.
On Tuesday there was a surprise party for The Man's assistant. He became a US citizen last week! We had a lot of fun and about 100 people from the valley showed up to congratulate him. It was quite a feat to have a surprise party when nearly the whole town knew about it!
The Man has changed his work schedule so he is off on Wednesdays when we drive up north for M's music lessons. M has his piano lessons in the morning, then we go to the library, eat lunch, and M's violin lesson is in the early afternoon. Once or twice I've ventured on up to the big city to do some shopping either before or after the lessons, but I've decided that it makes for too hectic of a day while I'm pregnant. Now that The Man is going with us (or I can stay at home), I can fit a nap in the schedule. It is a lot easier to nap when I'm not the one driving ;) !
Last week was the first time The Man was able to go to the library up there with us. We were able to get a card because of the reciprocal arrangement they have with neighboring counties. That is pretty cool considering it is in the next state! The library is a lot bigger than our local county library, and I'm excited that they actually have most of the books that I search for.
The kids get quite a bit of their schooling done on the drive up the lessons (one hour from our house to the piano studio) and I'm able to help the younger kids with most of the rest of it during M's 1-hour piano lesson. Anything they don't complete is worked on instead of playing in the park after lunch. That's been incentive enough for them to complete all of their work promptly! They look at their library books during M's violin lesson.
Yesterday was busy with a lot of cooking and cleaning. I tried doing mostly supervising, but sometimes if I want something done a certain way, I just have to do it myself. I think the vacuuming I did is why my back is bothering me this morning.
I'm going to try to go back to bed now. It is only 2 1/2 hours until I'm supposed to get up!
The baby seems to be fine. He or she (I'm trying to quit referring to the baby as "It") is still very active. Sometimes the head is down, sometimes up, sometimes the baby is sideways. Hopefully a favorable position will be settled on soon. We have less than a month to go as long as this baby is as prompt as the siblings were! We are still working on names.
On Tuesday there was a surprise party for The Man's assistant. He became a US citizen last week! We had a lot of fun and about 100 people from the valley showed up to congratulate him. It was quite a feat to have a surprise party when nearly the whole town knew about it!
The Man has changed his work schedule so he is off on Wednesdays when we drive up north for M's music lessons. M has his piano lessons in the morning, then we go to the library, eat lunch, and M's violin lesson is in the early afternoon. Once or twice I've ventured on up to the big city to do some shopping either before or after the lessons, but I've decided that it makes for too hectic of a day while I'm pregnant. Now that The Man is going with us (or I can stay at home), I can fit a nap in the schedule. It is a lot easier to nap when I'm not the one driving ;) !
Last week was the first time The Man was able to go to the library up there with us. We were able to get a card because of the reciprocal arrangement they have with neighboring counties. That is pretty cool considering it is in the next state! The library is a lot bigger than our local county library, and I'm excited that they actually have most of the books that I search for.
The kids get quite a bit of their schooling done on the drive up the lessons (one hour from our house to the piano studio) and I'm able to help the younger kids with most of the rest of it during M's 1-hour piano lesson. Anything they don't complete is worked on instead of playing in the park after lunch. That's been incentive enough for them to complete all of their work promptly! They look at their library books during M's violin lesson.
Yesterday was busy with a lot of cooking and cleaning. I tried doing mostly supervising, but sometimes if I want something done a certain way, I just have to do it myself. I think the vacuuming I did is why my back is bothering me this morning.
I'm going to try to go back to bed now. It is only 2 1/2 hours until I'm supposed to get up!
Sunday, September 21, 2008
All pleasant pictures...Isaiah 2:16
Update at bottom!
Two weeks since my last post? No wonder folks are calling to see if I'm ok. We're just fine. Busy. Tired. Fine.
We did our school pictures last Tuesday. We made it to the top of the hill behind the house, down in the dry creek bed, and several places in between. I took just under 300 pictures. About 50 of my favorites (nice, silly, and a few Sacagawea may be embarrassed about in a few years) have been uploaded online (quite a feat, since it took nearly all day on Friday with our dial-up). Click on the link above on the right to send me an email if you would like to see them.
UPDATE: It seems the email with the link is ending up in some junk email folders. Try this: http://tinyurl.com/treeriversmith EXCEPT, take "smith" out of that url and enter our real last name!
Two weeks since my last post? No wonder folks are calling to see if I'm ok. We're just fine. Busy. Tired. Fine.
We did our school pictures last Tuesday. We made it to the top of the hill behind the house, down in the dry creek bed, and several places in between. I took just under 300 pictures. About 50 of my favorites (nice, silly, and a few Sacagawea may be embarrassed about in a few years) have been uploaded online (quite a feat, since it took nearly all day on Friday with our dial-up). Click on the link above on the right to send me an email if you would like to see them.UPDATE: It seems the email with the link is ending up in some junk email folders. Try this: http://tinyurl.com/treeriversmith EXCEPT, take "smith" out of that url and enter our real last name!
Friday, September 05, 2008
Pain...Psalm 48:6
OK, so it is no longer a boring pregnancy! I spent 3 hours in the hospital this morning getting poked, prodded, monitored, and scanned. By noon, baby and I were proclaimed "probably just fine."
Pain. If the pain had occurred at any time other than during pregnancy, or any place other than my abdomen, I would have just tried to ignore it for a few days. When asked to rate my pain on a scale of 1-10, I told the nurse that it wasn't quite the severity, but the unusualness given the fact that I'm pregnant and had no idea what was causing the pain. The Man insisted on getting a wheelchair to take me to the OB department in the hospital, but he allowed me to shuffle out on my own two feet.
My OB said she thinks the pain is caused by the fibroid she found lurking in my uterus during my first ultrasound. Up until now, it hasn't caused any problems. The ultrasound (No! I didn't ask and they didn't tell...we still don't know if it is a boy or a girl!) and blood work didn't indicate any problem with the baby, placenta, or my appendix, and The Man told them not to bother looking for my gall bladder that was removed over 5 years ago :) even though my doctor wanted them to look at that also.
So, there you have it! I'm still in pain, and I've developed an old lady walk as I shuffle around the house. As long as it doesn't get any worse, I'll just deal with it for the next seven weeks since everything else seems to be completely fine and normal.
Pain. If the pain had occurred at any time other than during pregnancy, or any place other than my abdomen, I would have just tried to ignore it for a few days. When asked to rate my pain on a scale of 1-10, I told the nurse that it wasn't quite the severity, but the unusualness given the fact that I'm pregnant and had no idea what was causing the pain. The Man insisted on getting a wheelchair to take me to the OB department in the hospital, but he allowed me to shuffle out on my own two feet.
My OB said she thinks the pain is caused by the fibroid she found lurking in my uterus during my first ultrasound. Up until now, it hasn't caused any problems. The ultrasound (No! I didn't ask and they didn't tell...we still don't know if it is a boy or a girl!) and blood work didn't indicate any problem with the baby, placenta, or my appendix, and The Man told them not to bother looking for my gall bladder that was removed over 5 years ago :) even though my doctor wanted them to look at that also.
So, there you have it! I'm still in pain, and I've developed an old lady walk as I shuffle around the house. As long as it doesn't get any worse, I'll just deal with it for the next seven weeks since everything else seems to be completely fine and normal.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Home...Genesis 43:16
He is home! They were able to get through customs, etc. in Dallas quickly (they all had just carry on baggage) so they were able to get on stand-by for an earlier flight to SFO. Since they were 2 hours ahead of schedule, I requested that the folks he was traveling with drop him off at my doctor's office up in the city. They arrived just after I finished my appointment (good visit, another 1/2 lb. weight gain, no lecture). I dawdled in the parking lot because I knew they would be arriving soon. The kids were all surprised!
The Man loaded up his stuff in the back of the pickup and drove us all home. Fortunately, I had prewarned him over the phone that the camper shell no longer had a door attached. It had been slightly damaged long ago when it was off the pickup and a wind storm was unkind to it. It was still functional, but while The Man was gone, I noticed the door was slipping down slightly. Yesterday while going up over our local mountain pass on the way to the big city for M's violin lesson, I glanced in the rearview mirror and was surprised at how clear the view was. Yikes! The door was gone! I pulled off the road as soon as I could and went to investigate. The camper shell door frame was still attached to the shell, but only at the very bottom, and the frame was bent so the door was leaning over to the inside of the truck.
I lowered the tailgate and had M and J crawl up in the bed. With a bit of coaxing, they were able to completely remove the frame and door and lay in down in the truck bed. Whew! I don't know if it can be repaired, but I'm so glad it didn't fly out and damage someone else's vehicle (or worse)!
The Man took several pictures during his trip to Chile. I'll have to have him do a guest blog post so he can explain them all!
The Man loaded up his stuff in the back of the pickup and drove us all home. Fortunately, I had prewarned him over the phone that the camper shell no longer had a door attached. It had been slightly damaged long ago when it was off the pickup and a wind storm was unkind to it. It was still functional, but while The Man was gone, I noticed the door was slipping down slightly. Yesterday while going up over our local mountain pass on the way to the big city for M's violin lesson, I glanced in the rearview mirror and was surprised at how clear the view was. Yikes! The door was gone! I pulled off the road as soon as I could and went to investigate. The camper shell door frame was still attached to the shell, but only at the very bottom, and the frame was bent so the door was leaning over to the inside of the truck.
I lowered the tailgate and had M and J crawl up in the bed. With a bit of coaxing, they were able to completely remove the frame and door and lay in down in the truck bed. Whew! I don't know if it can be repaired, but I'm so glad it didn't fly out and damage someone else's vehicle (or worse)!
The Man took several pictures during his trip to Chile. I'll have to have him do a guest blog post so he can explain them all!
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Return....Genesis 31:3
He's on his way home! We think! One of the sites says his plane never took off, but another says it took off on time. We're being optimistic! We tried calling him this afternoon via the Chilean contact's cell phone about 5 hours before his flight, but he had already been dropped off at the airport.
Busy, busy day scheduled for tomorrow. We're going up to the big city for M's violin lesson (his piano teacher is taking the week off). We'll run some errands while we're up there and we need to be back to our local city by 4:00 for my OB appointment. I think I'll be getting another lecture...not a good one! Back home for supper, then to church for the midweek service, and then home again to tuck the kids in bed. The Man might be home by that time. I hope so!
Busy, busy day scheduled for tomorrow. We're going up to the big city for M's violin lesson (his piano teacher is taking the week off). We'll run some errands while we're up there and we need to be back to our local city by 4:00 for my OB appointment. I think I'll be getting another lecture...not a good one! Back home for supper, then to church for the midweek service, and then home again to tuck the kids in bed. The Man might be home by that time. I hope so!
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