Wow. I'm tired. No, beyond tired. Utterly exhausted would be good to say. I can hardly get anything done and our meals have been...well, less than divine. Sorry, family! But I'm like 20 months pregnant now and Cohen is huge so everyone needs to suck it up.

I hope he comes soon. I'm contracting like crazy and just need him o-u-t. I went in for a NST the other day and was only hooked up for 20 minutes. In that 20 minutes I had 4-5 contractions and 2 of them were off the charts. I'm 36 now but only 2cm and 70%. Better than nothing I guess! Next week I should be able to get my membranes stripped.

Here is a pic of the nursery Josh worked so hard on. We don't have any Red Sox decor yet but at least it's painted and clean.

I've been beyond tired lately. It's getting a little ridiculous, honestly. That being said I've pretty much completely slacked at cooking this week and after a few days of eating junky stuff, I'm ready to peel my lazy butt off the couch and cook dinner. Or as ready as I can pretend to be.

Saturday-Saturday, in no particular order:

The Pioneer Woman's lasagna with caesar salad (making an extra for the freezer)
The Pioneer Woman's steak bites with baked potatoes, and green beans
BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, broccoli slaw, and baked beans
The Pioneer Woman's pan fried pork chops, broccoli, and salad
Leftovers
Grilled brats, corn, and Lipton pasta side in the cabinet
Beercan chicken, peas, and another Lipton rice side in the cabinet

I don't care if it's Thursday, I have to do a "Not Me!" post. It's just required. And because I'm so not computer savvy and don't have any earthly idea how to add the link to my blog post, know that I got this idea from MckMama.

It was definitely not my child who tried to poke the poor dogs eye out earlier this week. Definitely not Emme.

Emme absolutely, positively did not try to set the house on fire during nap time by melting a plastic tube of cold sore medicine on Josh's nightstand light. Nope, not her.

Nor did she wake up at about 5am today because of the thunder and lightning, proceed to come in the living room and turn on the lights, pull all the blankets and pillows out on the floor, make a bed for herself next to the dogs kennel, take off her pull-up and put on a swim diaper, get all of her Play Dough out and spread teennnnyyy tinnnnyyyy little pieces all over the carpet (all while using her new kids cookbook, of course), and spill a huge cup of water on the kitchen floor. She totally didn't do that. I have such great mommy senses that I always know what my children are doing, even at 5am.

And I'll go ahead and assume Ellie just did not shove half of her snack cup of Rice Chex into Josh's speaker. Sorry, Babe.

Here is the other blog/group I own with 2 other ladies. We originally started on babycenter.com (and are still there) but we keep getting blasted (in a good way!) with new arrivals asking the same questions. Hopefully this will serve some purpose for all the new parents dealing with the reflux, allergy, MSPI, etc. roller coaster. It's a long, sucky one, that's for sure. It's got everything you need to know about medication, dosing, formulas, reflux, MSPI (milk-soy protein intolerance), procedures, oral/feeding aversions, etc. Check it out if you're needing some help!

In other news, Grandpa passed away peacefully about 2:30am Saturday morning in the comfort of his own home. My mom, grandma, and his sister got to be with him in the end. I got a text from my mom about 3:10 and went over there to be with them for a few hours. Left Grandma's about 6am, went to the grocery store, and eventually took a nap. Services are going to be Monday and Wednesday this coming week. Oh, funny story. We were going for a viewing of him last night with the family. The whole way there we were explaining that Papa is up in heaven now totally healed and feeling better again, so we wouldn't see "him" necessarily (try to explain that to a 3 year old!). We get there and she's sitting on Josh's lap, she looks over at my Grandpa laying on this table all done up, looks at Josh utterly confused, and says, "Is THIS heaven, Daddy!?" Lol! It was the cutest thing ever!

I'm in the mood to bake again. Not that I haven't been the past few months, it's just that doing anything other than a quick batch of cookies is pure hell. Really. I feel like I'm standing in the depths of hell smoldering. See, it's hot in Missouri, err...usually. It's been uncharacteristically cool this summer and the next few days the highs are in the 70's! And since the lady at the gas station already told me I looked like I was "going to pop" (read: freaking huge), I'll give up any glimmer of hope I had at keeping my weight gain under 30ish pounds this time. And because I like to do things the right way, what better way to exceed my expectations than making cinnamon rolls!? (I'll let you know how they turn out.)

So I lied, a salesmean just came by and awoke me from my sweet slumber. I'm too lazy to fold the laundry sitting in the basket right next to me and it's too early to work on Meg and Rob's dinner. I get a little bored browsing Babycenter and answering the same old "is this reflux? does my baby have MSPI?" questions in my spare time so I thought I'd finally update the blog. (It's kinda funny that I'm so bad at this whole blog "thing" because people who have known me for a few years will know I'm addicted to my computer.)

There has been a lot going on. Less than two weeks ago we found out my grandpa was diagnosed with the big "C". A few days later we learned that it wasn't just in the adrenal glands and slightly on the liver like though, but literally all over his body. Eesh. He's been home for almost a week (tomorrow) and is slipping faster than you can make a gooey s'more. (My life revolves around eating, ok!?) It's really sad to see but we all love seeing him uncharacteristically sweet and loving. I mean, he's always a nice guy, but he's like me (or I'm like him- whatever); sarcastic and dry. We've all been praying that he'll go Home soon, seeing him suffer is awful. Thankfully after a few bouts of "escaping" they have a 24 hour nurse there to help him with whatever he needs.

I'll spare everyone (all 2 of you) the boring details of Ellie's latest battle but gooooodddd Lord! can it be taxing dealing with her. It started off with a reaction to chicken (yes, chicken) which then turned into a Total Elimination Diet (where she can only eat 5 things for at least two weeks) which turned into an ear infection from all the drainage. Think that was the end of it? No, no, that'd be entirely too easy. Then she decided (ha!) to have a reaction to the medication she was rx'ed. Finally after getting the meds right and her food under control, she's on her way back to semi-normal. Whatever that is for Ellie. And over the weekend she though as if her constant fussing/whining wasn't enough, she learned to throw temper tantrums and fall on the ground over every little thing that doesn't go her way. Ohhh...the joys of toddlers. (Can you believe that she's a toddler now!?) So in between stepping over her and tossing her in the crib to scream to her hearts content (yes, I'm a mean mommy like that), it was a long weekend. But, she's still ubberly cute. And I still want to gobble her little cheeks up! Yummy! Oh, and she started clapping for herself when she takes her medicine. It's the cutest thing! We'll open her Nexium cap (for reflux) and tell her "medicine". She opens right up, takes the meds, and then claps for herself. She also occasionally says (not signs) "all done" at dinner. And she shakes her head no (too often). She also says dog and hi and is thoroughly excited to wake her Big Sister up in the morning.

We had a rough few weeks with Emme also. She was having a really, really rough time with obeying and having a good attitude. Hey, who can blame her, I hate it when people tell me what to do, too. But that's another post...and she's 3. We've really been working on first time obedience and answering when she is called/spoken to. Surprisingly these two things have really helped her not have a red bottom like before. She just adores to help me in the kitchen. It's probably her favorite thing to do and it always reminds me of being a little girl and helping my grandma. She's been a great, great helper with picking things up before Josh gets home and singing a song "clean up, clean up, eh-body share" over and over and over and over and over and over (really). It's cute but after hearing that line 55 times my blood starts to kinda simmer. She's obsessed with all things Princess and has entered the I'm-never-my-real-name phase. She had Parent's as Teachers yesterday and the lady agreed that she seems stuck in a 5 year olds body.

And because I haven't shared meal plans in ages, here is what I have for the next two weeks (Saturday-Friday):

Potato-Bacon Torte with salad (same thing I'm taking Meg and Rob)
Roast (I do mine like a roast beef with gravy, not the classic veggie one)
Tortilla soup w/ spanish rice
Eggs w/ bacon, potatoes, and tomato slices
Multi-grain pasta w/ meatballs and salad (I just use the meatball recipe)
Leftovers x 2
Parmesan and herb tilapia w/ brown rice and fried corn (without sausage)
Chili w/ cornbread
Beer and onion chicken w/ sauteed green beans and homemade bread
Grilled cheese on homemade bread w/ tomato soup
Grilled chicken w/ steamed, mixed veggies and mushroom rice
Salisbury steak w/ mashed potatoes and broccoli

I will post someday soon. Really, I will. Until then, look at these sweet eyes and delicious cheeks!

Oh, while stopping at the gas station for Pepsi and Aleve, a lady (with two children of her own, mind you) informed me that I look like I was "going to pop". From there she proceeded to ask if I was 8.5 or 9 months along. Thanks a lot, lady. I'll enjoy this King Size Snicker's bar even more now.